When my son was young, I would marvel at his room for he kept it clean and organized, despite his fancy for puzzles. Many of his toys like the remote-controlled helicopter, puzzles, building blocks, or the pull-along Snoopy are in perfect working condition even now. Given that his interests are evolving from complex origami to reading, his room is far from picture perfect. And I’m perfectly okay with it so long you clean up once in a while. How to organize the closet: The cleaning routine is the same as we saw for the master bedroom: EMPTY – DUST – SORT – PURGE – KEEP. The purge bag was relatively small today as I regularly check and donate clothes and shoes that don’t fit anymore. Moreover, his clothes inventory is really small. Some kids just outgrow clothes too soon, so I buy once in 4-6 months than stock that wont fit…
Ready for Day 1 of the 30-minute Diwali cleaning challenge? Today, we start with the master bedroom closet. Closets can be a pleasure to watch the day they are cleaned and a nightmare on days when they resemble a dump yard. Depending on how many clothes you have, how big your closet is and when was the last time you cleaned, this activity can either take 30 minutes or longer. If you can’t get to it all today, attend to the messiest part today; the rest will be a breeze. What you’ll need: Cleaning materials: A small cleaning bucket to carry around the cleaning stuff. A microfiber mitt or an old vest. Some cleaning solution like Colin or just plain water. Shelf liners. Vacuum cleaner if it is a sliding wardrobe. One huge plastic bag to give away items in good condition. One huge plastic bag to trash items of…
Cacophony of color and voices. Overwhelmed. Women dressed in their elegant best. Where it feels like an over-sized FabIndia showroom. Where new-age khadi and linen fabrics overshadow kanjivaram and banarasi sarees. That pretty much sums up my first day experience at Vastrabharana: the handloom exhibition organized by Crafts Council of Karnataka. It is an annual exhibition that happens in the last week/first week of September/October. One for which women save in the months leading upto it so that they can splurge to their heart’s content.And I’m not kidding. The queue at the cash/credit card counter was longer than the entry line to Chinnaswamy stadium to see you know what. What does this exhibition have? Fabrics: ajrakh, hand-block printed, kanjivaram, pochampally, ikat, kalamkari, linen, andhra khadi, kantha, banarasi, chikankari, tussar, raw silk, chanderi, maheshwari etc Saris Blouse material Stoles in silk and cotton Silver and other handmade jewellery How is this…
The pleasant aroma of basil wafts through the living room as I pick a handful of fresh leaves from the garden and put it in a jug of water; it’s intoxicating in a nice way. Visitors to the house are often greeted with a glass of fragrant basil water that lifts the mood instantly; kind of a sudden jerk to the senses. I brought home five saplings of basil in April that have grown into a mini jungle now. The basil you see in the picture above is after heavy pruning over the past week. Herbs are easy to grow. The herbs in this post are growing on the ground, but I have all of them on the kitchen windowsill as well in small pots. Thanks to their medicinal properties, they require little care and have a natural protection against pests unlike other plants. I have four herbs growing in…
We visited Hampi for two days last weekend (the long weekend of Ganesh Chaturthi). Unlike most places, the planning bit to Hampi was challenging since we decided not to drive and take the train instead. I found very little information online on how to travel to and from the hotel, and how much it would realistically cost. Almost everyone we knew had only driven before or stayed at a guesthouse, we were confused over what to do. One of the key parts of any of our trips is the hotel. If we visit any place, let’s say for two days, one day is just for lounging in the hotel doing nothing but indulging. So, it goes without saying that the hotel must be good. Since the trip to Hampi was planned just a week before many of the hotels were either sold out or quite expensive. This post is mainly…
There is something to learn from every hotel. Some of the well-designed hotels offer you a crash course in design. All you need is to look around with open eyes and an open mind. There are a few things I always observe and make a mental note of, if I like: the layout of the bathrooms the closet design, if anything different art I’m listing the four design aspects that appealed to me at Hyatt Hampi: Double the handle as a towel hanger: by placing the handle horizontally, it doubles up as a hand towel hanger. This eliminates the need to buy a towel rod and drill holes on the tiles. A tile/granite partition instead of glass partition. The layout is not clear in the picture below. The commode and shower/wash area are segregated using a stone partition. There is also a glass partition. But, if properly structure, one can do…
Gardening is like therapy to me. Tending to the grass, weeding, pruning plants and checking on the health of vegetable saplings on the terrace is akin to meditation. But, one that is interrupted by the unsightly white insects aka aphids or mealybugs on the back of the leaves. Here are three tried and tested natural ways to get rid of aphids. Of late, with the onset of monsoon, pests and aphids infestation is what I’m grappling with most of the time. Aphids and mealy bugs first appear on hibiscus and soon spread to the other plants. But, what I discovered yesterday terrified me. The papaya had a stunted growth for a few weeks. I accidentally checked the underneath of leaves. No green patch of the leaves was to be seen; it was snow white fully covered with mealybugs. I forgot to take pictures. Plants infested with pests so far: HibiscusFrangipaniIxoraPapayaScale…
Wondering if I missed a digit in the headline? Should it have been 10 cleaning habits or 11? No, you read it right. This one habit I came across in a list a few days ago has transformed my life for the better, and it’s only right that I share it with you all. I subscribed to Elle Decor’s feed on Facebook and often find their cleaning/organizing lists useful. One such list was titled 11 daily habits to keep a house clean and tidy. The title piqued my interest. Now, I am not a cleaning fanatic and you are less likely to find my house super organized any time of the day. No, there are no clothes lying on the floor, unmade beds, unclean toilets, clothes waiting to be folded, untrimmed grass in the garden, trash waiting to be taken out, or dirty vessels in the sink – none of…
I have taken off a few days from work. This break has been good, rejuvenating, and most importantly, given me the time to work on several home projects that I had put off for years. So every day, I have been working on a home improvement project; it’s refreshing, and raring to go back to work. The project I worked on today was to restore a Ganesha wood statue. We bought this Ganesha statue at an exhibition in Safina Plaza in 2004 on Ganesh Chaturthi day; it wasn’t planned. We LOVE the statue and would never to part away with it. The issue is within months of buying we noticed cracks and soon realized it was infested with termites. Over the years, I have tried several remedies to get rid off the termites but to no avail. The longest termite-free period has been over the past 1 year and I…
Monsoon ~ romantic. Petrichor ~ the distinctive, fresh, earthy scent announcing the oncoming rain is romantic. The first deluge of the season after the sweltering heat and the pleasant evening breeze is more welcoming than any other, especially after the summer this year in Bangalore. This year, Bangalore has received sporadic cloudbursts. One such arrived on the evening of July 28th, 2016. The morning after, it felt good to step out, to breathe in a whiff of fresh air (literally), enjoy the clear skies for a change, and look around and feel the greenery after the layer of dust was washed away by the rain the previous night. It felt good to be alive in the city one has grown to increasingly dread for its traffic, pollution, and uncharacteristically changing weather. On 29th July, as romantic as it sounds, a nightmare was unfolding in many parts of the city as…