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Our homes are made up of lots of working parts — bedrooms, redecorated kitchens, upgraded baths, ogle-worthy renos, ticks and tricks for cleaning and organizing, and real home tours all live here to represent the spaces of your Offbeat Home.

Housekeeping realization: put your toiletries in baskets to keep your bathroom organized

My housemate Darby and I — we’re very similar — seem to be constantly figuring out really simple things, like what people use baskets for. Sometimes we feel like our brains just don’t work, especially when it comes to putting things away. If that makes sense to you, this is the thread in which to share the incredibly dumb things you’re incredibly proud of having figured out.

Tricks and treats: Make Star Wars Ouija boards and apple cinnamon vodka

Let’s get in the Halloween spirit with a look at two awesome photos from the Offbeat Home Flickr group… Make yourself some apple cinnamon vodka, and call up the Star Wars spirits!

Hack Halloween: Add dread to a space with gauzy cheesecloth shapes

Do you need a convincingly decrepit room on a budget? Do you want to pull off a haunting Halloween look on the cheap and easy? You’ll love today’s halloween hack: cheesecloth.

How to build an easy to clean fire pit — and then make Italian style s’mores on it

This firepit doesn’t involve cement and it’s very easy to build. And it’s neat because you can clean it in a matter of two minutes! Bonus: a new recipe for s’mores.

Is it time for a landline?

Like many other twentysomethings, I haven’t had a landline phone since I moved out of my parents’ house. My husband and I both use our cell phones as our primary phones, and never even considered needing a phone line for the house. It seemed like an unnecessary monthly expense.

But now that we’re getting ready to expand our family, I’m starting to wonder if a landline makes some sense. Unlike cell phones, a plain old telephone system usually works in power outages, won’t run out of battery, and may be more reliable in emergency situations.

Have you ever been thankful to have a landline for your family, or had a situation where you wish you had one?

How I watched my apartment burn — OR! — What do you grab in a fire?

Tiffany was working on her couch one day last month when a fire rudely interrupted her work day — and gutted her apartment. She had to make the quick decision of what to grab and where to go — and pick up the aftermath.

Enjoy the change of seasons with pretty ideas for simple fall decor

Do you do anything differently at home in the fall? Are you all about collecting pretty leaves, or do you have a set of be-glittered, fantastical leaf-themed decor that comes out of storage? What’s your home look like this season?

Jack-o-lanterns last longer with one additional item from the drugstore

Halloween rocks, but it can be hard to find time to do anything around the house when you have limited time and money. This month, I’m posting several Halloween Hacks each week — really simple ideas to stretch your Halloween dollars and make the season spookier for all. If you have additional ideas, pop ’em in the comments!