creme.haus
cosy & creamy 93sqft bto in the northeast | cream and oak with hint of pastels
The Creme Haus’s Guide to Choosing Taobao or In-Stores 💁♀️
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Hello! Today’s post is a little different — we thought we’d share some tips on decision-making when it comes to shopping. We’ve always found ourselves torn when deciding whether to get something from Taobao or just buy it in-stores — especially for furniture and home items (I mean, who can resist a good deal, right? 😎) But before we hit “checkout,” there are always a few questions we ask ourselves — so if you’ve ever been on the fence like us, we hope this little guide helps make things clearer~! 
Check out this little flowchart we made on whether to Taobao or not! 😌 We like to run through these questions in our mind before we decide on where to purchase our items! A little caveat though, there are scenarios where the item in mind do not fall into these flowchart and may need a little more thinking before purchase! 
Here's one example of a furniture piece that we decided to get from taobao! Using the flowchart - we knew that we needed the TV console to last 3 to 5 years at least! But when it comes to actual usage and maintenance it was on the lower end - hence we safely went ahead with Taobao for our TV console. 
We looked closely at various stores and reviews before we decided on this TV console. Super pleased when it came as it had rounded corners that fit nicely with the curves in our house! Another win would be the open backing in the middle section which allows us to hide wires easily! 
One of our favourite taobao purchases - would be our dining chairs! This is one of scenarios where the item does not fall nicely into the flowchart. Let us explain; for us, dining chairs should last a good 3 to 5 years, they are used frequently but do not require a high amount of maintenance. Base off the flowchart, we skipped to the next question which was understanding the cost differences. Dining chairs that look similar to this cost at least $100 and above per piece in SG. But this chair was about $40 per piece with shipping. We saved quite abit considering we had to get 6 pieces. 😭😭 
Other items that we bought from Taobao were mirrors! Similar to the TV console - we wanted the mirrors to last 3 to 5 years, but as it required low maintenance we chose to purchase from Taobao instead. 
There are also a few items from Taobao in the bedroom! The vanity chair and standing mirror are both from Taobao as they were both items that despite require durability, were of lower maintenance. 
Although most of our lights are from Sol Luminaire, we decided to get our bedside hanging lamp from Taobao instead. The main reason why we avoided Taobao for the main lighting was because of the lack of warranty and on-site support. We heard many horror stories of Taobao lighting causing electrical fires that we decided to err on the safe side. This hanging lamp was the only exception as it fit really nicely with the boba lights in our master bedroom. 🥰 
We hope you guys enjoyed this little sharing! You may wonder where is JB in all of this; but as a couple without a car - it does not make sense for us to travel regularly to JB to window shop, research and purchase. We have had a couple of benefits purchasing in Singapore so far and we really stand by our decision! 🤭 Thank you if you have read till here! Here's a little picture of Milky as a reward. 😬
28 June
