Category Archive

great-ideas

Create a bed alcove with vertical blinds

Please allow us to all to bask in this concept from French site ducotedechezvous.com. It’s so simple I can’t believe I didn’t think of it first: bed alcove + vertical blinds = brilliant studio apartment space-division hack. Since living in Los Angeles a decade ago, I’ve had this grudge against vertical blinds (UG! The way they clack-clack-clack when a breeze comes through the window!), but this makes me reconsider. How else could vertical blinds be used to divide smalls spaces?

Protect yourself with a kitty cat keychain… with claws

This $6 keychain from Wicked Clothes is fierce! REALLY fierce. Slip your fingers through the holes and the kitty cat becomes a close-proximity defense tool.

Never lose an iPhone charging brick again

So many new electronics charge via USB cable — remotes! Phones! Gadgets! Combine all your charging stations into one simple place with this hardware upgrade.

Grab a Back Jack for floor-sitting

During our stay at Sacred Groves for the Offbeat Empire staff retreat last week, I discovered the chair meant for me. The Back Jack.

Use drawers as shelves

This is the EASIEST way to build shelves I’ve ever seen. Step 1: Find drawers. Step 2: Nail drawers to wall. Step 3: Profit.

Store LOADS of tights neatly

I love colored tights, but rarely wear them as they’re sort of stuffed in with my underwear and difficult to keep straight. Enter What I Wore’s great idea on storing tights using normal hangers.

Guard against lockouts: stick a lockpicker’s card in your wallet

Stash one of these babies in your wallet, and never get locked out again.

I mean, provided you have any idea how to use lockpicking tools. No? Me neither. Luckily Adafruit has our back with a video on getting started with the lockpick card.

Hang a pull-down wire basket for extra storage in a small bedroom

Got a tiny space? This little AirBNB room on a New Jersey ferry has the right idea: A pulley-based system for holding and releasing a wire basket hanging over the bed. It really improves the storage area in the room, since there’s no room for a side table in this suite.