Your twenties can be a challenging time when it comes to your finances—you’re young, you’re free, and you’re just starting out in your career, but you’re also likely in debt and still learning about how to successfully plan your spending and saving for next month, let alone ten years down the road (and everything in between).
Even if we can’t muster a wholesale change of perspective about maintaining our homes, most of us could use a spoonful of sugar when it comes to the challenge of keeping up with our cleaning tasks. Here are some easy ways to take a little bit of the sting out of it each time you reach for those housework gloves. Nothing makes you forget that you’re doing something you don’t want to do like occupying your mind with something else.
Balance is a tricky beast when it comes to interior design. Some people love perfectly symmetrical spaces, and others are utterly bored by them. Wherever you fall, you’ve got to admit that a balanced space — in terms of color, visual weight, pattern and layout — is perfectly pleasing to the eye. But knowing how to get there takes trial and error. For some examples, I’ve rounded up a few spaces that with a tweak or two, could be perfectly in balance.
It’s hard to believe that it’s already been six years since Macklemore and Ryan Lewis captured the zeitgeist of mainstream tag-popping and bin-scouring with their runaway hit song, Thrift Shop. But while hippies and hipsters come and go, the joy of thrift shopping and treasure hunting is forever—so I rounded up some of my favorite tips for National Thrift Shopping Day, culled from my decade of prior experience as the editor of budget living magazine Shoestring.
In my own life, it’s all the little choices I make each day—from how much sleep I get to how I’ve handled stress to personal interactions—that shape the feeling I have about my day when I turn out the lights each night.
A truly unique property is on the market just outside of Eugene, Oregon. A little bit Shire, a little bit Bedrock, the home is an otherworldly, one of a kind spot. The property, built in 1988, sits on just under an acre of land and consists of eight rooms with concrete art, skylights, and up-cycled wood. It needs a lot of work, but for the right buyer, could be a lot of fun— especially since it’s priced under $200,000.
There are a handful of things for your home you should not skimp on if you can help it. For furnishings you put through the wringer on a daily basis (like your sofa, dresser or mattress), buy the best quality you can afford. But for smaller accents (which are great for changing up the look of your home when you’re in need of a refresh) I personally think it’s okay to skimp.
Clutter, probably more than cleanliness, affects our sense of well-being at home. And in a place where we should feel relaxed, refreshed, and most like ourselves, it’s imperative to shed anything that makes us feel otherwise. Here are our top tips for sorting through and shedding the clutter energy-zappers that drag us down. Cheers to a clutter-less fresh start! Decluttering begets decluttering.
“Work” can look like many different things, and a typical 9-to-5 commuter job is only one of them. You might be a freelancer, or a graveyard-shift-er, or a part-time-er, or somebody who spends their days taking care of their family. All that matters is that you’re happy with where you’re at. When your life is in perfect balance, work is fun and motivating. Work takes just the right amount of time in your day (or week or year or life).
If you’re one of the 40 million people that suffer from prolonged anxiety (or one of the millions more that have trouble getting to sleep), the answer to sweet, sweet slumber might just be hiding right in this blanket. Gravity is a weighted blanket that’s meant to provide soothing deep pressure across your whole body to help relax you to sleep. And good news: It might actually work.
Why should humans be the only species with control over a dog’s domain? Trulia announced this week that they’ve developed sales and rental “pawperty” listings that divulge the details that pets really care about when finding a furever home.
There’s a temptation not get too attached to your rental. Just keep things casual for now, you think, because who knows where you’ll be in one, three, five years? Why invest in something if you don’t know it will last? Because this is where you are right now and you deserve to enjoy your life right now; that’s why.
Buying a home when you’re self-employed is notoriously tricky. After all, an up-and-down income cycle is—understandably—less appealing to mortgage companies than a dependable paycheck. That said, it’s far from impossible. Freelancers and small business owners alike can absolutely be approved to buy the home of their dreams. It just takes a little extra prep work. If you’re thinking about entering the real estate market while still being your own boss, listen up.
This weekend, we’re focusing on one of those seemingly minor details that actually makes a huge impact in your home. You might not be able to put a finger on it, but it means the difference between a space that feels distinctly dingy versus one that totally sparkles. All during October, we’re tackling your home’s “scariest” tasks — the dirtiest, foulest, most dreaded jobs on your to-do list.
Back in July, Target announced that they’re introducing a new home line this fall called Project 62. This week, the retailer released the look book for the new brand, and we are seriously swooning over its mid-century vibes. We’re giving you a closer look at your new favorite temptation at the bullseye, below. Project 62 takes its name from the year 1962—when modernist design took over homes across the country (it also happens to be the year Target was born in Minnesota).
We all know someone with an objectively amazing apartment. It’s light and airy, remarkably spacious for its size, in a great location, and somehow costs less than your dark, cramped, inconvenient shoebox. Though you may think your friend is just incredible lucky at real estate, here’s the hard truth: Chances are, they just did a better job during the apartment search than you did.
Buying a home is a momentous time in one’s life and, accordingly, congratulatory pats on the back abound — as does unsolicited advice. Everyone has insight about everything from how to pick the perfect house for you to saving money on home repairs. However, there’s not nearly as much fanfare when it comes time to sell your house.
Here’s a (slightly lesser known) phrase about people in glass houses: They get a Mediterranean climate. This unique house within a greenhouse on the west coast of Sweden promises just that. Despite winter temperatures that are regularly below freezing, this home near the city of Gothenberg is quite mild, thanks to the greenhouse surrounding it. The three bedroom home was built in 2015, and, thanks to the greenhouse insulation, solar panels, and technology, is quite energy efficient.
It’s a vicious cycle, this whole “being an adult and keeping a tidy home” thing. One day your home is spotless—like maybe the night before friends or family visit—and worthy of a shelter magazine, then the next, it feels like life has taken hold of your space again. So… things are messy. And you’re busy. And you feel a little overwhelmed, so you don’t tackle anything at all. Which is fine—you should take a break when you need it.
If you’re like me, your Instagram feed is 99% interiors and pets (a couple of my friends managed to make the cut, too). So I was pretty excited when some adorable Insta-puppers popped up in my inbox, each with their own room makeover to celebrate HomeGoods’ expanded selection of pet products. Meet them and take a look at their rooms below: The rooms were designed with each of the pup’s personalities in mind.
If you’re looking to leave on a jet plane, now might be a good time to book a ticket. Southwest is having a sale and prices for one way trips start at just $42. If you want to get away between October 31 and December 19 (excluding Thanksgiving), and from January 3 to February 14, that’s when most of the sale fares are available. The best prices are for flights on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, mostly.
If you love the convenience of a disposable wipe but have a twinge of green guilt every time you toss one in the trash, we’ve got some great news. There’s a new product on the market that will tackle messes without messing up the planet. Ode to Clean is the first product from biotech company Solugen, which figured out a way to make hydrogen peroxide (a safe and effective cleaner) without the dangerous, petroleum-based processes of the past.
Growing up, my dad was a firm believer of that if you were paying for a hotel room, you were entitled to take a few towels for the road. Turns out, dad laws aren’t real laws and stealing towels from a hotel room is not only frowned upon, it is technically illegal. So what is fair game? Hotels actually want you to take toiletries—they’re not going to re-use them and it’s a good way to spread the brand around. Everything else, though, is strictly off limits.
If you’re looking to skip town in November, JetBlue just made getting away a lot cheaper. The airline has one way flights for as little as $20 during their flash sale today. The flights that’ll set you back just one Jackson are regional trips, like Oakland to Long Beach and Boston to New York. But there are a dozen or so other fares ranging from $30 to $50 that will get you farther afield (New York to Savannah for $30, Boston to Orlando for $50).
A nine acre working ranch in Arizona is currently on the market for 5 million dollars. The property is perfect for enjoying the expansive Arizona landscape, sunning by the pool, and physically fighting off alien creatures. According to the current owners, John and Joyce Edmonds, the ranch is a hot bed of paranormal and alien activity.
Have you ever been a few hours into a Netflix binge and wondered why you can’t just be professionally lazy? TUI, an airline and vacation agency in Sweden, is currently on the hunt for four “professional slackers.” If hired as a professional lazy person you will have to do a few things. Slackers will be required to wear beachwear, sit in a chair with their toes in the sand, read a book, nap and ignore passers by.
After a year-long process of courting cities and states for tax cuts and various other perks, Amazon is choosing two locations for its sought-after second headquarters, “The Wall Street Journal” reported Monday evening. The supposed winning metros would be Long Island City, Queens, and Crystal City, Virginia.
Big news from Amazon today: The online retail giant has announced that it has narrowed its second headquarters search to twenty cities. The company received 238 proposals from cities across the US, Canada and Mexico when it revealed in September that they were looking to open a second campus to equal their Seattle headquarters.
It’s fair to say that Amazon had a great 2017: Announcing HQ2, winning at Black Friday, and—who could forget?—its nearly $14 billion Whole Foods order. How do you follow up a year like that? Well, one analyst thinks that Bezos could be looking to target the bullseye. Loup Ventures analyst Gene Munster thinks that Amazon has the Minneapolis retailer in its sights.
If you’re just now recovering from your candy hangover, here’s some sobering news: Amazon is already pushing holiday shopping on us. The retail giant launched their Black Friday hub this morning, complete with 50 days of deals (which you can shop right here). From Amazon: Customers can find deals on everything from toys and electronics to holiday entertaining essentials and wardrobe must haves – all in one convenient location.
If you’re new to the hosting game, especially if you’re hosting your first Thanksgiving or another holiday dinner or party, it can be a little scary. You want to have fun, but you also want to make sure everything goes right. And you’re probably worried about following proper etiquette—which can be hard to do when it feels like it’s always changing.
If you want to do some good and bring a little holiday magic into your life and the lives of others, you can play St. Nick for a family in need through Operation Santa. You can “adopt” a letter to Kris Kringle that was sent to the USPS and help make the holidays happier with a few easy steps. Operation Santa started in 1912 when the postmaster at the time allowed postal employees to open and read the letters addressed to Santa.
If you feel like everyone you know is a renter and the concept of homeownership seems like something you only hear about friends of friends of friends doing, perhaps it has to do with your location. RentCafe recently wrote a report on the increase of renters in major US cities, focusing on those where renters now outnumbered home owners. Looking at census data, they were able to see some surprising renter versus owner patterns across the U.S. between 2006-2016.
This has been a big week for us! Apartment Therapy — a site that has so much to say about color — went black-and-white. Along with many sites around the web, we’ve donated our color this week to raise awareness for National Painting Week (May 19–29), a week dedicated to the power of color and transformation where Sherwin-Williams will celebrate by donating to communities in need and completing projects during the month of May and all year long.
Despite what political pundits may lead you to believe, America is way more colorful than just a bunch of red and blue states. We took a look at data we’ve learned from Color Search — the ultimate tool powered by Sherwin-Williams® for using Apartment Therapy House Tours to find the perfect palette inspired — to see what colors every U.S. region really identifies with.
It’s probably not a surprise that color changes the look of a room. But perhaps even more importantly, it can change the feel of a room. In this post, find a series of GIFS that take this lovely white-walled room from one of our tours and adds different wall colors into the mix. You’ll be able to see the visual effects of adding cool, warm, dark and more hues on the overall look and feel of the space.
We don’t want to brag (much), but Color Search — the Sherwin-Williams® powered tool that helps you turn House Tour color schemes into your own paint palettes — is one of our favorite AT creations. We love making our HUGE archive of House Tour images even more useful to readers — and what’s more useful than turning someone’s real-life inspiration into your own real-life results?
I’ve dreamed of owning my own home for as long as I can remember. Looking at real estate listings is a hobby for me, and house-hunting shows make me blissfully happy. In reality, though? Buying a home just didn’t seem possible as a single woman in my 30s with a fluctuating income. But then again, I like a challenge. And I’ve always admired this quote from Alice in Wonderland: “Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.
Staying fit and finding that ever-elusive work/life balance shouldn’t cost an arm and a leg, so one real estate website set out to find the best outdoorsy cities in America that are still affordable for active citizens. Realtor.com recently released this top five list of active places where the average American can still actually afford to live and be close to natural wonders and outdoor living attractions but without going above the median home price.
Muscular son of Scotland and star of the only rom-com that matters, Gerard Butler, has put his home on the market. The 3,150 square foot, two bedroom, two bathroom duplex is asking $5.995 million and is jam-packed with over the top features. The Phantom of the Opera star’s home was featured in Architectural Digest, where he described the design as “something elegant and gorgeous and at the same time rather masculine and raw.
Many buyers, especially first-timers, are enthralled by the prospect of buying a short sale — and it’s not hard to see why. Bottom basement sale prices make these transactions seem like a no-brainer. Unfortunately, most of the time, these too-good-to-be-true deals also come with a huge catch. Before you commit to buying a short sale, read this first. We’ve outlined a few red flags that you should be aware of prior to taking the plunge.
Name: Christina Location: Mid City Arts District — Santa Monica, California My home is a light-filled and well-proportioned 550 square foot loft-style condominium in the Mid-City (Arts District) area of Santa Monica, California. I’ve lived here for three years and love it. I chose this area because it’s a short walk or bike ride to all the action but far enough away that I’m not in the thick of it all.
What better way to get inspiration for your small space then looking at other small spaces done well? Here are 15 NYC apartments from our house tours that are small on space, but big on style. TOP ROW 1. Oliver & Sherrie’s Mini Bronx Loft, 525 square feet 2. Evan’s Modern & Cozy Manhattan Studio, 295 square feet 3. James’ Beautifully Handcrafted Apartment in Clinton Hill, 540 square feet 4. Joey and Antoni’s Brooklyn Charmer, 600 square feet 5.
The corners of our homes often go overlooked and underutilized, but, especially if you’re short on space, stake a claim on this space with some corner shelves. It’s an idea you can truly use anywhere in your home to gain storage or to put some of your collections or art on display. Here are a trove of inspiration photos from different rooms around the home showing off how serviceable and attractive corner shelves can be.
Kendall Jenner recently bought a Hollywood Hills home formerly owned by Emily Blunt and John Krasinski, and the famous model has been doing some decorating. Jenner updated her app this week with the details, sharing that almost all of the pieces in her new living room are from Restoration Hardware, with one exception—the $52,000 Boa sofa, designed by the Campana brothers. We are definitely fans of a funky sofa, but wondered: just how many other sofas could $52,000 buy? We did the math.
