House | Queer Household

5+1 Tips for Sewing Curtains from Ikea Fabrics

April 24, 2016 No Comments

You probably agree with me if I say that curtains are an essential part of every room’s decoration. They frame the windows, set the tone for the room and make your decoration come together. Full and carefully designed curtains make your room look finished.

Decorating rooms can be really expensive but curtains are actually great place to cut the costs. Curtains are not ‘used’ the same way as bed linens or upholstery so the fabric doesn’t need to be so on point. Sew the curtains by yourself to save money and get the matched custom drapes for every room. Ikea offers great deals in their fabric department and with simple cotton you can dress windows with a fraction of a cost compared to many other fabric dealers.

House, Living

Life after Konmari – Evaluating the Process

April 8, 2016 No Comments

The Konmari process was worth the effort! We are delighted that we started this decluttering project and the results are beautiful. We have already shared the almost magical positive changes we have experienced in our lives so now it’s a good time to show the changes in our home. I think most people agree that with Konmari method you can get rid of tons of stuff.

You see the effect immediately.

You also get used to the space quite soon and may wonder short after if you even did anything. Comparing pictures is always a great way to remind yourself of the great achievements so that’s why we put together before and after photographs paired with some analysis. We strongly recommend doing the same and hey, it actually is part of the process!

So, here are five points about our post-Konmari life.

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4 Tips for Getting the Decoration Right in the Corners That Just Don’t Work

March 2, 2016 No Comments

Sometimes there’s rooms or corners in the home that don’t seem to come together. They look off, cheap, disturbing, cluttered, ugly or just wrong. You might try several different furniture layouts, changing decoration pieces, work year after year and it-just-doesn’t-work!

Our most frustrating room has been the living room. For starters, the room is a long one with doors on both ends to make it feel even more like a hallway rather than a room on it’s own. Also it works double duty as our work space and living room.

Decluttering and konmari helped a lot to make the room more airy, clean and harmonious, but it still felt bit busy and not in line with rest of the apartment. We knew the reason was not in furniture, as we love most of them and felt they played nicely together. This decorating project started with a photograph we took of the sofa wall in our living room with the intention to figure out what exactly was wrong with it.

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5 Things to Know before Decluttering with Konmari Method

November 6, 2015 9 Comments

Summer has gone and we end our hiatus with the blog. During the last few months we have been doing some serious decluttering and organizing as we discovered the Konmari method. Earlier posts about reorganizing the bathroom (1, 2) and spring cleaning (maybe also wardrobe case studies one and two) have been like a prelude for our declutter challenge. I kid you not when I say we have been reading countless articles about decluttering and organizing and the biggest tip we have gathered is to think what you really need and want to live with and toss away the rest. That’s the main idea behind Marie Kondo, the Japanese organizer. At first it seemed quite rash and severe, but if we are searching for big impact and change, then we need to do something very differently than before.

House, Living

Weekly News – Tea and projects

April 1, 2015 No Comments

The fuel of life

Well, I just got my morning tea in front of me. It’s good. Breakfast blend from Fortnum & Mason. As said, we are quite precise on what kind of tea we like and I just have to say that there is nothing that can beat a good cuppa. Our blog wouldn’t exist without tea and I’m afraid that we wouldn’t even get up in the morning if we didn’t know that in the kitchen there is beautiful and aromatic black tea leaves just waiting for the steaming hot water.

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Reorganizing Small Multipurpose Bathroom – Part 2

March 28, 2015 No Comments

How to organize a small multipurpose bathroom?

Our bathroom is tiny and it is supposed to serve double, no, triple duty as a toilet, bath room and laundry room. The renovation upstairs is over and now we too have our bathroom back. In the end we had to paint things again by ourselves, employees left the ceiling looking blotchy and didn’t come to fix the smaller scratches left behind by taping. We were not delighted by that, but thank goodness we still had some paint left over from the renovation we did when we moved in.

House, Living

Working wardrobe: How to begin?

February 18, 2015 No Comments

How to Start Creating a Capsule Wardrobe

Imagine a day when you have a great feeling about yourself. You slept well, had a lovely cup of tea with a satisfying breakfast. Things are really going your way. Next thing coming is to pick the outfit for the day and in my mind this is the critical moment of many days. It can boost you to even better day or it can set your back at least few steps. What is the key on winning this moment? Wisely created capsule wardrobe of course.

Lately we got to know the term Capsule Wardrobe. It was first used by Susie Faux during the 1970’s. You can read more about Mrs. Faux from her homepage.

In a nutshell capsule wardrobe is meant to be well-organized wardrobe with clothes that play well together without the overwhelming amount of clothes. Important aspects are good materials, right fit, classic pieces and a neutral colour scheme. There’s countless tutorials and tips for creating working capsule, just search with the term.

House, Living

Philosophy of Spring Cleaning + Ideas for Recycling

February 7, 2015 2 Comments

So, spring cleaning, eh? Cleaning is not easy task for us partly because of the depression symptoms, when body or mind is sick, it’s tired. But how many of us loves cleaning anyway? For us the best way to tackle the task is to keep mind on the prize: serene, clean and uncluttered home.

Spring cleaning does include decluttering and organizing maybe even more than actual scrubbing and hoovering. We have made a habit of annually clean the closets and declutter our apartment. We seldom clean our cupboards very thoroughly for winter holidays but when there’s more light and days start to grow longer it’s nice to try and figure out cluttered spaces again. Our small home is just 58 square meters with a small attic closet. That space fills up pretty easily and I think at the moment we aren’t even keeping up with the filling speed.

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Reorganizing Small Bathroom – Part 1

February 3, 2015 No Comments

The Troubles of a Small Multipurpose Bathroom

Small rooms are always bit tricky in decoration and organization wise. Our project at the moment is the small bathroom in our home. First post is about the space we start with and how we ended up with the need of organization update.

Our neighbours from upstairs had a nasty surprise last autumn when a water pipe broke down. That meant big renovation was ahead for them but it also meant some uncomfortable things for us as our bathroom is right under theirs.

Last months have been endless roller coaster from ear breaking drilling to anxiety of not knowing when the workers are going to pop by. The whole progress has been terrible: no-one knows anything or at least isn’t telling, unexpected projects come by and now the renovation is going one and a half month over time.