Letter from the editor

ONE of our faster growing digital magazines, alongside our Property360 magazine, is our sister publication Home Improver (http://bit.ly/homeimprover). With a sharp increase of over 55 000 unique views last year, it was clear South Africans were using their lockdown to fix up their homes.

As editor of Home Improver, I received numerous emails last year from our readers relating to things such as:

● How can we painlessly declutter our home?

● How can I turn our dining room into a classroom?

● We live in a small apartment and both my partner and I work from home. Help, what can we do especially when we both have to be on zoom call?

There were also an inordinate number of DIY questions and readers looking for tricks and tips to improve their homes on a budget.

These certainly were a far cry from questions and emails we used to get about simply beautifying the home.

Added to that, our gardening section took off.

Homeowners and tenants wanted to have gardens that were not only beautiful but functional – spaces where children could play in hard lockdown but also gardens that could feed the household.

Even apartment dwellers were finding some green inside or on balconies to connect them to nature, which we were cut off from in levels 5 and 4.

We started viewing our homes differently. Many of us used to leave the house before the sun came up, go to work and only return at night to eat a meal and go to sleep.

With longer periods indoors, we were able to see things that needed fixing and areas we had overlooked.

We started to give our homes some love, realising the spaces in which we live have a direct impact on our mental and physical health.

Here’s to happy days in your homes.

Warm regards