It's the modern dilemma - how does one tighten the purse strings, possibly enough to one day buy into a near-impossible housing market, whilst still leading a life worthy of Instagram? Sisters Sally Obermeder and Maha Koraiem run lifestyle website swiish.com which is all about living luxe for less. They shared some of their secrets:
Fashion
Maha: "I do a little trick in my closet where I turn all of the coathangers so they're facing the opposite way to what I would normally do, and every time I wear an item of clothing, I turn the hanger around. At the end of the season I can then see what I didn't wear. And that's how I know the particular styles or items that either I didn't feel them or they didn't suit me and therefore I'm not gonna repeat those mistakes again. Then I know what I wear and what I love and then they're the pieces going into the next season that I buy. I'm not just adopting whatever I see, I'm adopting things that I know I'm going to wear."
Homewares
Sally: "When people flip through magazines, they love how coffee tables look yet in real life most of us have not much on the coffee table and just use it to put a mug on. But you would be surprised if you get a beautiful tray, put a couple of books on it and a candle, and suddenly it's like something out of Vogue Living but the investment was so small. It's just a tray and books and candles that you've probably got."
Kids
Sally: "When it comes to kids toys, I think it's a good idea to not have everything out at once, because I think they end up getting quite bored and then they want new stuff. But if you have a box that you keep moving around so there's a current box and one in the garage and you rotate them, that way it's a bit more interesting. Or if you've got friends with kids of the same age and they've got different toys or board games I think it's a good thing to do a swap. Because there's nothing more exciting than toys that belong to someone else."
Maha: "An idea I really love is if there's a particular book that kids love is once they've read it, take out a couple of illustrative pages and then frame them into a print and have them in their room. Even just a frame from Kmart. And you can mix that up over the course of the year and have different prints."
Sally and Maha are running a style masterclass at Canberra Centre on Saturday April 22 at 11am. Tickets are $24.50 from canberracentre.com.au/whats-on/events.