When your house doesn’t sell overnight, it’s easy to hang the blame on your estate agent. But there are loads of things you could be doing to give it a boost. Given our usual enthusiasm for on-demand, tech-driven startups, we shared a few tips with Tepilo’s Sarah Beeny to see if we could come up with the ultimate how-to guide.
Author Archive for Jon Wilks
The rise of the professional organisers
Here at The Box Room, we’re all for helping out the time-poor. Heck, Boxman – the good folk behind your very own virtual spare room – went into business almost entirely to slash the hours wasted driving to a self-storage outpost. So we were intrigued to hear about professional organisers, a relatively new breed of lifehacker that take your time (or lack of it) very seriously indeed.
8 signs you need to declutter (and how to take immediate action)
Feature image credit: AnneBrannen.com We’re gearing up for #MinimalMonth here at Boxman – a time to be taking stock of what you’ve got, what you don’t actually need, and what might be better stored away for a later date. The idea that life could be better with less is one that we’re seeing a lot of in the news at the moment (big thumbs up to James Wallman and his Stuffocation book!), and it’s one that we feel quite close to here at the Box Room. So we put together a few ideas to get things going – a few signs to look out for that you might be suffering from ‘stuffocation’ yourself.
Alternative living: the highs and lows of life on London’s canal boats
With house prices showing no sign of dropping, life on London’s canal boats seems more appealing than ever. We went down to the waterfront to find out how it works.
Press release: Brits wasting £802bn worth of critical space in homes
With no end in sight for the housing crisis and increasing pressure on Brits to downsize to more affordable homes, research from Boxman today shows how wasted space is actually costing households across the UK huge sums of money. Indeed, with the typical British home measuring 96.8 meters[i] and costing £177,299[ii], Boxman today reveals that the cost of the average home (per square meter) amounts to a whopping £1,832. With Brits having an average of 16.58 square meters[iii] of non-utilised space in their homes, British households are collectively throwing away £802 billion[iv] annually. Having investigated the ways Brits typically use space in their homes, Boxman can now reveal the extent to which Britain’s lack of industriousness at home takes its toll, with 90% of respondents claiming that their living standards have been seriously reduced due to living in an overcrowded and cluttered home. But with many British households having enough…
Comic Con London: the Box Room live blog
When we were children, Halloween and Bonfire Night marked the beginning of the countdown to Christmas. Now that we’re adults (childish adults, admittedly), the season starts with the twinkling lights of Comic Con London, a collector’s paradise and outlandish parade of fun and fantasy. From cosplay to gadgetry, from sci-fi novelists to movie stars (give us a wave, Daniel Radcliffe!), it’s set to be an ever-so-slightly geeky gathering of joyful proportions. We can’t wait!
How to organise your winter clothing
The air’s turning cold, the days are getting shorter, and the Christmas ads are already under way, all of which can mean only one thing: autumn has slipped quietly past and winter’s already taking hold. And while it’s a massive relief that we don’t have to hear the words ‘bikini body’ for at least another eight months, we do have to think about putting our summer clothes away and making space for all the padded jackets and oversized winter clothing. In this quick guide, we’ve put together some winter wardrobe organisation hints and tips to help you make the most of your space and cut the clothing clutter. Say goodbye to summer Sorry for the depressing title, but facts are facts. Unless you’re hopping off to Thailand for two weeks of winter sun – in which case our sympathy is seriously limited – you’re not going to need those linen…
Packing your university essentials? Here’s what you won’t need…
There are tons of articles on the web listing things you’ll need to take with you to university. Here at The Box Room, however, we’re more interested in helping you make more of the space you’ll be living in. Whether you’re going to uni from your parents’ house, or from your own place as a mature student, there are plenty of things you’ll want to take but could probably do without. So here are the things we think you can put into storage while you’re away, safe in the knowledge that they’ll be waiting for you when you get back. It’s not goodbye – it’s see you later.
Great storage ideas
Here’s an experiment for you to try: gather together a handful of your friends and ask them how they’d make better use of the space they live in. Chances are that at least one of them is a smart alec and replies, ‘Simple – buy less stuff!’ That’s the easy way out, of course. The truth is that hardly any of us have the self-restraint to ‘buy less stuff’, and the majority of us quite like the accumulated debris that our life tends to bring. There’s also the possibility that those of us who are somehow able to sever all emotional links with their bits and bobs will one day feel the need to reminisce – to wallow in nostalgia for an afternoon. That’s when having your stuff easily at hand becomes invaluable.
10 space-saving solutions for your studio
There’s nothing like a bit of constraint to get the creative juices flowing. In fact, many of the technological world’s greatest innovations have relied heavily on constrained creativity – from the Sony Walkman right through to Vine and Twitter. As far as creative use of limited living space goes, the challenge can mean hours of fun, whether you’re working through the conundrums on your own or with a group of friends. It’s the kind of thing you can put aside a cosy weekend alone for, or turn into a bit of a house party with a purpose – if one thing’s certain, it’s that everyone invited will have an opinion. With that in mind, we’ve put together a little space-saving inspiration. Not every idea will suit your situation, but it’s interesting to look at how different people have approached similar problems the world over. Oh, and before we begin, we…