NEW IN CANADA | Film lovers who think the movie selection on Netflix sucks and the content from on-demand providers like iTunes, Shaw and Blockbuster skews way too whitebread American are going to love that Mubi is now “officially” available in Canada. Read more
THE FIX | There are many beautiful species of moth in the world (like the Io moth pictured here), but the villainous casemaking clothes moth is not one of them (CLICK HERE if you want to have a look).
As someone who has battled clothes moths, and hopefully won my holey war, let me predict this: if you leave your windows open a lot in the summer and have lovely 100 percent natural fibre garments (regular wool or cashmere; silk; fine cotton—whatever) evil brown casemaking clothes moths will find them, they will lay eggs, and their damn little label-savvy larvae will feast on your Hugo Boss, Mackage and Missoni.
Here’s how I retaliated when moths went to war with me. Read more
BUY RIGHT | It was cleanup month around here so I tackled the buildup of shopping bags that had threatened to devour my closet. I don’t know how it happened, but over the past two years I’d managed to accumulate around 50 reusable polyester and nonwoven polypropylene “billboard shoppers” (so called because they often display a company logo) in every size imaginable. These shoppers are awkward and bulky even when folded and gang-bagged, and they easily turn into an unwieldy space-stealing mess when stashed in the back of a car or cupboard.
To add insult to injury, nonwoven polypropylene bags are no better for the environment than those disposable plastic bags they’ve come to replace. Read more
DESIGN WISE | Those of us living in condos and townhomes are forever on the lookout for ways to save on space. One way to do this where books are concerned is to store them horizontally in a vertical bookcase that climbs up the wall rather than in one with a more conventional shape that gobbles up a larger floor area.
Vertical spine book towers can hold lots of books in a vertical stack. Here are four of our favourite models. Read more
THE FIX | Stink happens. If you have one of those pricey front-load washing machines and do not micromanage its maintenance, the chances are great that the tub will develop a foul odour and your freshly washed clothes will eventually take on the sickly sweet smell of pond scum. Read more
CONSUMER BE AWARE | With company coming over the holidays, I did what I do every year and gave myself an early Christmas present by hiring a cleaning service to power scrub my house. In the past, I’ve used Molly Maid, but this year I waited too late to book them and wound up looking for an alternative on the Internet, which is how I discovered The Maids. Read more
DO IT YOURSELF | Clear glass vases are the classic and obvious choice for displaying flowers and branches, which is why most of us have probably collected a few extra ones over the years. Many of these are no doubt tucked away in the dark reaches of rarely opened cupboards. Why not bring these dusty specimens back into the light and turn them into something different and original by painting their insides with coloured enamel.
This technique has been a design trick for years on sheet glass (to create lustrous walls) or as ornamental glass insets in furniture. Read more
PROBLEM SOLVED | I don’t make New Year’s resolutions unless they’re the Babylonian variety (CLICK HERE for our story on this). That said, this year on J 01 I did make a plan to put an end to the chaos of cords, surge-protected power bars and mutant dust bunnies that reigns under my desk. I wanted this task completed by J 31, and I’m happy to report I’ve put the issue to bed and it’s only mid-January. Read more
DARE TO REPAIR | As interesting as it looks and as cool as they make it sound, Pottery Barn’s Sheffield heirloom mixed-pattern silver-plated flatware (pictured here) feels like a waste of money to me. But then, buying any new silver-plated flatware doesn’t seem like a good investment unless it’s from a rarified manufacturer like Christofle or one of the few ornate patterns that for whatever fickle reason retains its collectability. Read more
OUT WITH THE OLD | As a murder mystery aficionado, I generally identify with the forces of law and order. Lately, however, I’ve felt a certain sympathy for murderers with awkward corpses to dispose of.
In the bad old days, getting rid of unwanted items was so much easier, cheaper and less guilt-ridden. Recently I found myself with a number of awkward corpses of my own to dispose of: dead trees I had felled before the winter winds did the job less carefully. Read more