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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.

A retro-striped wall, starting succulents, and bubbling brewing wine in this week’s reader photos

Good Monday, Homies! Here’s a quick trip through the Offbeat Home Flickr pool to get us all up and at ’em for the week. And in Clicky Links? We explore improving a major metropolitan, homelessness-by-choice, and catching small game in a survival situation.

A Tokyo apartment building with removable units straight outta The Fifth Element

Apartment hunters, meet the Nakagin Capsule highrise apartment building in Tokyo.

The 140-unit apartment building, built in 1972, has fallen into disrepair and faces demolition. It’s a tragic building: its innovative modular design has led to its neglect.

Put a tentacle on it: 7 octopodes you need in your home

This week I’ve seen octopodes making a surge in popularity online, which is totally fine with me, cause I’ve been a long-time fan of cephalopods. I think every house could benefit from the grace and creepiness of an octopus.

How to make temporary art

One thing really makes a place look lived-in, and that’s hanging art on the wall. It takes a commitment to put a nail into plaster to hang a picture, and seeing art you’ve committed to hanging immediately makes you feel in control of your space.

While you’re waiting for art you love to come along, you can liven up a room with your own art — or your family’s! Round up the necessities, and I’ll meet you in the driveway for a seriously easy step-by-step guide to making art for your home you’ll be proud of.

Make your own citrus enzyme cleaner

Let me start out by saying I AM NOT A PATIENT PERSON. Just ask anyone in my family. No wait, don't. Just trust me on this one.

So when I read about making this enzyme cleaner that takes 3 MONTHS to "mature"…I just knew I could never stand the waiting! So I ALMOST passed on this idea….until I read a way how to speed the process up from 3 months to TWO WEEKS!

I thought about it long and hard….and after some DEEP soul searching…I decided I COULD do 2 weeks.

A month after making my batch of cleaner, I hadn't even gotten around to trying it — so I decided the bathroom would be my first "test subject".

Defend your home with designer objects from American Design Club

This month American Design Club opened a show based on this simple prompt: You’ve just heard something in the other room. What would you want to grab to defend yourself? Perhaps a Molotov Cocktail Lamp? Or perhaps a Bat Rack?

How to make bank with yard sales

My husband and I are getting ready to move into a smaller space with our son — right now we’re renting a house, but are going back to an apartment soon. This is all part of a bigger plan to downsize our living space and therefore our possessions, and it’s one that we’re really excited about.

This was our first garage sale, and we were NOT prepared for the singular anxiety and crazy-making that comes hosting a yard sale. Luckily, we pulled it off, and here’s how.

Mama’s garden shed/girlie clubhouse in the backyard

After organizing the shed in my backyard, I took all of my girly fabric scraps, a can of spray paint, and half a can of latex interior white and made this plain old shed my girly getaway.

All I did was rearrange tools and paint the place, but you’ll be surprised at the difference that made!