Shopping for a Good Cause at Homesense

I’m sure you’re probably all familiar with the shopping Mecca that is TK Maxx (or TJ Maxx, if you’re in the States…), but did you know they also have a dedicated home chain called Homesense?

Now, as it happens, I actually DID know this – when you follow enough home interiors accounts on Instagram, you can’t fail to notice that a lot of the items featured are Homesense bargains – but, until recently, I’d never actually shopped there: the shame!

Last week, though, I was invited along to the Edinburgh store (which is right next to a giant TK Maxx, at the Fort Kinnaird retail park) to take a look at some new arrivals in store, and, well, you know me – it’s not like I need a whole lot of encouragement to go shopping, is it?

The main purpose of my trip was to check out the new range of handmade baskets and other items, all of which are made by remote communities in Western Uganda:

TK Maxx and Homesense have been working with communities in Uganda since 2008, and this particular initiative aims to help families increase their incomes, so they can afford to send their children to school. To put that in context, the income from just two basket sales is enough to pay for one child to go to school for a term, and since 2008, it’s helped more than 10,000 children do exactly that, so you really are shopping for a good cause.

The items are available in store now, and the collection includes bowls, baskets, horn dishes and glassware, all in these amazing, vibrant colours, which are a nice way to offset the grey skies of autumn.

Once we’d thoroughly inspected the Ugandan display, Terry and I had a good look around the rest of the store, which, as you’ll know if you were following my Instagram Stories last week, is an absolutely giant one, with two levels of homeware, AND access to the equally huge TK Maxx next door.

Like TK Maxx, Homesense is a real Aladdin’s cave of homewear treasures, which includes well-known brands, plus unique and one-off items, all at prices up to 60% less. There are cushions:

Like, a LOT OF cushions…

There is furniture:

(I really loved this little turquoise chair. I’m still trying to work out where I could put it…)

There is storage…

… and toys…

(This was actually the pet section, or I’d totally have brought that little guy home with me. For “the baby,” you understand. Ahem.)

There’s… a really quite staggering amount of random treasures that you didn’t actually know you needed until you laid eyes on them:

(Terry spent a very long time examining these globes. He already has a small globe, which lives on his desk – when we can actually SEE his desk for all of the mounds of paperwork on it – but he’s now convinced we might “need” another one for the nursery. Again, for “the baby”…)

Finally, there was this amazing sputnik-style lamp:

I really wanted this for the living room, but Terry vetoed it on account of how we, “Don’t have a copper theme in there.” I was quick to point out that we don’t NOT have a copper theme in there, and could very easily START one, but he would not be swayed. Or not yet, anyway. I’m already planning a return visit before Christmas (TK Maxx is an awesome place to pick up Christmas gifts, because there’s always something you’d never have thought of, isn’t there?), so we’ll see what happens then…

[This post was sponsored by Homesense]