Animal accessories

Round 2 of back-to-school catalogues has hit my letterbox, in case you missed it. Most of the same bargains are still there until the end of January. However, here are a couple more things that caught my eye:

Officeworks has novelty animal-shaped pencil sharpeners for 54c. A cute back-to-school gift, or just something silly to cheer yourself up on your own desk.

Kmart has rad kids' backpacks for $12 in the shape of either monkeys or owls, with googly eyes. I REPEAT, WITH GOOGLY EYES. I wish there was some excuse for me to carry such a backpack and still be respected by peers and employers, but there isn't, so I'll just move on.



And The Reject Shop has novelty animal-shaped paper clips in packs of 20 for $2. (Ignore the 'Gesture' variety.) Choose from crocodile, pig or rabbit, although the rabbit is my favourite because its haunch is incorporated into the curve of the paper clip.

Who's a pretty boy, then?

These novelty bird-shaped solar garden lights crack me up! Who even decides, "Yes, let's make some lights on sticks to illuminate the path to people's front doors in the dark, but we'll make them in the shapes of birds that don't come out after dark and, in the case of this toucan, are very unlikely to be found in a suburban Australian garden at all?"

They are 66cm high, including the sticks. The springs on which they're mounted make me suspect they might bobble hilariously. I presume that at night, the birds glow from within like those animal-shaped night lights you put in kids' bedrooms. Wouldn't it be funny if instead they had menacing glowing eyes or something.

If you'd like to create an inexplicable tropical atmosphere in your garden – perhaps as a fun decoration for summer parties – why not get these lights? The set of four birds (cockatoo, macaw, rosella and, uh, toucan – is $20 from The Reject Shop until 27 January. Hell, at these prices, you could invest in an entire flock.

Storage boxes for under $25

Some real talk, people. You probably have a lot of stuff. Why not invest in some giant plastic boxes to store it properly?

I've stored my towels and bedlinen in wheeled plastic boxes since I moved into a house that had no cupboard storage. I also have more that I use for socks and tights, sleepwear, stuff I'm putting away to see if I do well enough without it to donate it to charity, and stuff for craft projects.

My bed is high enough off the ground that I can store the boxes underneath and wheel them out when needed, but such boxes are also useful to keep if you have to store things in damp or dusty conditions such as roof lofts, garages and sheds – for instance if you're going away and giving up your house.

At the moment, Officeworks, The Reject Shop and Big Dubs are duking it out as to whose boxes are cheapest. It really depends what size you want.

Officeworks has 9L boxes with white lids in colours including yellow, tangerine (pictured), white, green and blue for $5.97. These are 33cm long, 27cm wide and 14cm high, making them a good size to store books, CDs, DVDs and documents. (Storing books in small boxes is important when it comes to moving them, I have discovered over the years.) You could use the various colours to code the contents.

But you'll pay $6 for a 15L clear roller box at The Reject Shop, and $8 for a 30L box. The Reject Shop also has a wider, flatter 38L underbed box for $12, designed to fit under low beds (not everyone has an old-fashioned high bedstead like me).

For a smallish but still quite roomy 55L box, Officeworks is your best bet – they have clear wheeled boxes that are 54cm long, 31cm wide and 39cm high and cost just $5.97. These are the sort where the handles snap closed against the lid – important when the box is full and you're struggling to get the lid on.

If you'd like coloured rather than clear plastic, Officeworks also has stackable periwinkle blue or red 52L boxes (56.5cm long, 40cm wide and 32.5cm high) for $7.97. Compare this to Big Dubs' 48L clear box for $7.47, and The Reject Shop's 60L clear box for $9.

But when you start to get into larger boxes still, Big Dubs becomes better value. They have an 81L clear(ish) box for $15.86 (compare to Officeworks' equivalent for $20), and a 100L box for $20 (compare to Officeworks' $24.98).

But at The Reject Shop, a 90L box is $15, an a whopping 140L box is $25.