Category Archives: Tips

How to: spring clean out your wardrobe

Now that spring has arrived, the annual urge for a wardrobe reset is officially in full swing. We bet you’ve already noticed the pile of mismatched shoes or those half-hung coats, right? Well, those are the unmistakable signs telling you it’s about time for a spring clean.

But let’s be honest, tackling a wardrobe clear-out can be a little overwhelming – we find ourselves asking where to start, what supplies to buy, and most importantly, what to cull. But no worries, here at Homemaker The Valley we’ve got you covered! We’ve compiled the best steps to make the whole process easier. Simply follow our guide below and your wardrobe will be in top shape before you know it.

Step 1: Categorise First things first, it’s time to empty your wardrobe and categorise. This means you need to set aside a good chunk of time dedicated to spring cleaning your wardrobe. Take everything out and lay it on your bed or a clean surface. Then, sort your clothes into categories – think tops, bottoms, dresses, outerwear, and accessories. This is going to help you assess the quantity of each category and will make the next step a whole lot easier.

Step 2: Declutter Decluttering might just be the most difficult step, but it’s also the most crucial. It’s time to decide what you want to keep and what you want to donate, sell, or discard. If you get stuck, here are some questions to guide you: Does it fit? Have you worn it in the past year? Is it damaged? Does it match your current style?

Step 3: Donate and Sell Time for more categories! Separate the items you no longer want into two piles – one will be donated and the other will be sold. Clothes in good condition can be donated or given to friends and family. High-quality or barely used items can be sold through a consignment store, online platform, or even a garage sale.

Step 4: Clean and Organise Now that you’ve narrowed down your wardrobe, let’s clean the space. This is when all your hard work starts to pay off – the end is in sight! Be sure to dust the shelves, wipe down surfaces, and vacuum the floor (simple, but super effective!).

Step 5: Storage Solutions Your wardrobe should look like an empty canvas, which means it’s time to consider some storage solutions. Look at the space holistically and compare its size to the amount of clothes you need to fit in. If you’re looking to optimise the space, then a trip to Aspley Homemaker City is a must. Howards Storage World has a wide range of clothes hangers, drawer dividers, and hanging rails that are ideal for wardrobe organisation.

Tip: if you have limited closet space, consider rotating your wardrobe seasonally. Store out-of-season clothing in vacuum storage bags from Howards Storage World to free up some space.

All that’s left to do now is pop everything back into place and there you have it, the ultimate guide to spring cleaning your wardrobe! Remember, if you make an effort to keep your wardrobe neat and tidy, then the spring clean will get easier and easier every year.

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5 Living Room Styling Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

When it comes to styling your living room, there are some tips and tricks to implement and mistakes you want to avoid to ensure it looks the way you’d like it to look, while ticking the boxes in terms of functionality and liveability. After all, your living room shouldn’t just be nice to look at; it’s also a space you’ll want to entertain guests, where you can relax and put your feet up, spend precious time with your family and binge-watch your favourite shows.

Creating a comfortable, stylish, and multifunctional living space doesn’t have to be a daunting or expensive task. There are so many simple style tweaks you can make to enhance your living room to not only maximise space, but also make it feel incredibly inviting to absolutely everyone who visits. If you’re looking for some new living room ideas to make it feel more spacious, more functional or more stylish (or a combination of all three), then read on. We share our living room styling mistakes to avoid, styling tips to embrace, and the retailers at Aspley Homemaker City, where you can stock up on everything to bring your living room styling dreams to life.

Living Room Styling Mistake #1: Your living room is cluttered

When it comes to living room styling, storage is key! It can hide a multitude of sins, and makes it tidying up much easier – the more you can put behind closed doors, inside ottomans, underneath a table or on floating shelves, the better. Eureka Furniture has a great selection of coffee tables with ample storage space, so you can store anything from linens to your favourite magazines away, without compromising on style. They also have wall shelves in different shapes and sizes you can add to the wall of your living room to create your own vertical shelving.

Living Room Styling Mistake #2: Your TV is in the Wrong Place

The best way to free up space in your living room is to mount your TV on a wall. When you mount it, you want to make sure that it’s not blocking any precious window light or reflecting any window light. No one wants glare disrupting their TV viewing experience now do they? If you’re not able to mount your TV, you can also place it on top of a sleek entertainment unit that not only has storage options, but also enhances the look and feel of your other living room furniture. Freedom has a massive range of entertainment units available in shades of natural timber that’ll easily elevate your living room without taking up too much space.

Living Room Mistake #3: Your Room is Too Dark

Lightening up the colour palette can make all the difference when it comes to creating a sense of space in your living room. If you’ve got a smaller living room, a styling tip for making it feel bigger is to paint your walls an off-white and keep furniture light-coloured or tonal. If the space feels too clinical for your tastes, you can inject colour and warmth into your space through furniture and decor items. Nick Scali has so many lounge and sofa options available in a variety of colours, so whether you love a dark brown leather look or a pastel palette, you’ll be able to find the perfect centrepiece to enhance your living room styling vision. You can add light or creative cushion colour combinations for added interest, changing up as the seasons and trends change.

Living Room Mistake #4: Your Sofa is Too Big or Too Small

Many people fill their living rooms with furniture that is too large or chunky for the space, especially when it comes to sofas. This, of course, will make your living room look a lot smaller. So when it comes to choosing living room furniture, try to choose sofas that leave 18 inches (or 46 centimetres) of space on either side and don’t occupy the entire length of the wall. If you only have space for a two-seater, trick your brain into thinking you have more space by investing in an ottoman, so you can extend the couch when you need to, and place it elsewhere when you don’t. Provincial Home Living have ottomans to suit every style of sofa, whether you love a colourful velvet fabric or prefer a tonal linen piece.

Living Room Mistake #5: You’re Missing Mirrors

There aren’t many living room styling pieces that can make your space look bigger than it is, whilst also enhancing its overall aesthetic. One home décor piece that can is a sleek mirror. There are so many different mirror styles to choose from that it’s now easier than ever to find one that truly shows off your creative flair, whilst also making your living space feel comfortable and inviting. Of course, you also need to find a minor that balances your space, otherwise it may overpower it. If you’re wanting an oversized mirror for your living room, opt for a small frame as a larger frame can make your living room feel even smaller than it is. If you’re wanting a smaller mirror to place on a wall, find one that can be placed at the average person’s eye level (roughly 154 centimetres from the floor to the centre of the mirror) and leave enough space around the frame for the piece to breathe. We recommend popping into Bed Bath N’ Table and checking out their range of mirrors to see which size would suit your living room best.

Avoid these Living Room Styling Mistakes at Aspley Homemaker City

It can sometimes be tough styling living room furniture when you have so many competing interests on your wishlist; your living room is one of the busiest rooms in your home, so how do you make it feel comfortable, stylish and functional in a way that works with you rather than against you? Well, that’s where we come in! From large furniture items to home decor and storage solutions, Aspley Homemaker City has all you need to bring your living room styling ideas to life.

Summer Trends

Evoke your senses this Summer with our latest on trend inspired tips. Dive into a sea of lush greenery and commune with nature as you revitalise your space. From Scandi style to accents of gold, we have everything you need with over 30 stores, to cleverly accentuate and create your perfect oasis this season.

All products seen are available at our retailers in-store at Aspley Homemaker City.

Flick through and find your inspiration now, or collect your copy when you’re in-centre next.

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How to create the perfect outdoor space

Create an outdoor space that will make your home the number one go to for family and friends gatherings.

Identify the purpose of the space

Go outside and envision your ideal outdoor space for you and your friends and family.

Ask yourself questions including, Will we be eating and drinking a lot outside? Are pets going to be roaming the area? Does this have to be a kid-friendly space? Is this space protected from rain? How many people will need to fit comfortably in the space?

Decide on the main upgrades to the space

Once the purpose of your outdoor space is identified it is easy to understand what you will need to enhance the atmosphere of the area. A must for a social outdoor space is of course a Barbeque – how can a family/friends outdoor get together be complete without one? It can’t! You can get your perfect barbeque from Barbeques Galore.

Furniture is an important element of an outdoor space, it can make or break the comfort of being outside. The Furniture Shack in Aspley has a sale on right now on a whole range of their outdoor furniture. Out On The Patio can also assist in finding the best outdoor furniture for your friends and family to enjoy.

Of course you will need to make sure you have a trendy place for afternoon drinks! Rice Furniture in Aspley has bar tables and bar stools that will make your home the number one preference to go to. Also, if you are looking for other brands, our Furniture Stores in Nunawading is hosting the Good Guys Nunawading and the Adairs Nunawading, and it would be awesome for you that will spend some time in this city.

If you are looking for a more casual atmosphere, perhaps a comfortable place for children to hang out at, The Furniture Shack and Out On The Patio have the perfect outdoor tables to go with your lounge.

Live Music Every Sunday!

Don’t miss the live music performed at Rice Café every Sunday from 11am – 2pm. It’s the perfect way to spend your Sunday sessions – eating a delicious recovery brunch, sipping on a colourful milkshake and listening to live music.

Create a stylish home office

Declutter

Clear your workspace from piles of random papers and folders, books you are not using and other clutter that has made its way into your office. If you have not or will not use the item in 3 months, put it away.

Get organised

There will no doubt be folders or books you will need at hand. Use magazine file holders or stylish boxes to neatly store them. Open rattan baskets available from PillowTalk also look great.

Light it up

Add a table lamp to your workspace. It will lift the mood and with the great range of lamps available from Andrews Light Up, you’ll be sure to find one that can become a feature.

Extra seating

If you have space why not add an occasional chair and create a reading nook. Perfect for off-screen work, you can position the chair to maximise natural light. Why not talk it up a notch and invest in a Lazy-Boy from Recline Furniture.

Add more colour

Using an accent colour against a neutral palette can make the room ‘pop’. Denim blues and lush greens are the colours forecast for the year ahead.

Style it

Your bookshelf has so much styling potential. Work it right. While there are no hard and fast styling rules, some great tips are to stack books horizontally and vertically, add a collection of objects, layer objects and incorporate some artwork.

A breath of fresh air: Our favourite indoor plants

If you are looking for that single, secret ingredient that has the ability to make just about any room look better, it’s a plant. The humble house plant is well and truly back on trend, and for good reason. A splash of healthy greenery instantly lifts a space to make a room feel fresh and welcoming.

If you feel like one of your rooms is lacking a little something, try adding one of our favourite plants for the home and if you feel that you don’t want the responsibility of care for it opt for a fake plant from Pillow Talk or Rice Furniture in Aspley!

Devils Ivy

Also known as golden pothos, fights nasty toxins like xylene, benzene, formaldehyde and trichloroethylene. Just be sure to keep this plant out of reach of your cat or dog as it’s toxic to pets.

Boston Fern

Ferns can typically be quite tricky to care for but the Boston fern is the most tolerant of the bunch. They prefer moist soil, indirect sunlight and humid conditions, so they’re an ideal plant for the bathroom. Not only do they provide a lush green display, they filter out the irritating chemicals, Xylene and formaldehyde.

Chinese Evergreen

This easy-to-care-for plant can survive in most conditions, even with low light and little water. It helps filter out a variety of air pollutants and begins to remove more toxins as time and exposure continues.

Weeping Fig

Often referred to as Ficus (like most plants in the fig family), Weeping fig’s love the light and don’t like being moved so it’s best to find a nice sunny spot in your home for it to stay and only re-pot when necessary.

Peace Lily

This popular indoor plant survives with very little sunlight and only needs watering about once a week, depending on the weather. Peace lilies cleanse your home of pollutants like acetone – a carcinogen commonly found in nail polish and paint. Keep this one away from your fury friends also.

Flamingo Lily

Native to the tropics, this exotic flowering plant prefers a warm and shady environment and daily misting helps to prolong its flowers. They are known to be effective in removing formaldehyde, xylene, toluene, and ammonia from the air.

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