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By Pang-Chieh Ho If you were to ask me about the items I have the most of in my home, I would say it’s books and bags. The books are easier to organize (when I say “organize,” I mean “leave on a shelf”), while the bags have been more resistant to my coordination efforts. So this week I’m asking experts about the best ways to organize bags, especially if you have limited space.  But before we get into that, we have a birthday to celebrate! Drumroll, please … SMARTER IS A YEAR OLD! Illustration: Chris Griggs/Consumer Reports In celebration of...

The Idyllic Country Family Home Of The Design Files’ Partnerships Manager, Alice Ziebell! Homes by Lucy Feagins, Editor Dampier Lantern from The Society Inc. Table and chairs handed down from Alice’s aunty and uncle. Stokke Trip Trapp high chair. Vase inherited from Marlon’s nanna and poppa via Bendigo Pottery. Woodturned salt pot from the Korumburra Men’s Shed. Paintings on the wall were a wedding present from Ellen Taylor featuring all the things growing in the garden. Photography – Amelia Stanwix for The Design Files. Editorial styling – Annie Portelli Marlon and Alice Ziebell, Otis and the chickens! Photography – Amelia Stanwix for The...

Buildings, like many other things, wear down over time, so it's no surprise that cities and countrysides are home to abandoned lighthouses and misused warehouses. But a rising architectural approach called adaptive reuse offers a way to give a second life to these structures. It can offer a lot of useful solutions for the surrounding area, like low-income or student housing, community centers, or mixed-use venues. And since the industry is picking up so much steam, we at Bored Panda decided to expand one of our existing series and make a new list of some of the most surprising repurposed...

As soon as February shows up I’m over winter. I’m not really sure why. When it’s Christmas and New Year’s, winter seems romantic and full of pumpkin pie and carols. And then? All the decking the halls and merriment and stockings hung by the fire go away…. …and it’s just cold. Cold with overcast skies and winter days. Even the hot chocolate doesn’t taste as good. So to cheer myself up and make winter seem a little brighter and lighter, I treated myself to a little bedroom refresh with not ONE but TWO easy budget decorating ideas you can recreate...

Sure, everybody dreams of a kitchen that makes your food solely by itself. Well, maybe with the help of some innovative, high-tech kitchen gadgets, but definitely without your own manual labor. Knowing this, kitchen appliance makers sure do try their best to make our kitchens more autonomic and to make the drudgery of cooking less time-consuming. And some of the new gadgets they come up with are just awesome! Take, for instance, the frother - how did we ever survive without frothing our powdered shakes or morning lattes before it? Or, think about the omnipotent air fryer - this baby...