Last year, the quarantine opened up a period of online shopping adventures that resulted to decor hauls and little tidbits to make our home life more visually appealing. This is especially true with the migration of campus life to remote learning, and office shenanigans to work-from-home setups. Suddenly, we all had to make little adjustments at home to accommodate our changing needs.

On top of this is the general need for home improvement most of us got after spending entire weeks and months seeing nothing but the four walls of our abodes. It seems that everyone felt inclined to change up their environment, one way or another, through home renovations or new decor additions.

Home Buddies PH is the culmination of this local phenomenon, as it encourages members to post corners of their homes they’re most proud of, reveal organizational, cleaning, or other hacks, share links to products featured in their most recent “budol” shopping sessions, and provide inspiration for each other on their next home projects.

Members who are looking to renovate have also opened the discussion online on how best they should go about it, soliciting advice from designers, architects, engineers, and fellow home enthusiasts in the comments. Basically, it has turned into the go-to Facebook group for all things home improvement.

The group has over 600K members now—and it was only created in September 2020 at the peak of quarantine! The creator, Frances of Nobi Home, opened the group after growing her page on Instagram that details her own journey in decorating and filling up her solo home. Nobi Home has 15K followers as of writing, a small portion compared to the community that Frances has grown on Facebook.

Photo via IG: nobi.home

With such a huge online community that’s so engaged and supportive of one another, it’s no surprise that posts can get easily lost on the page with so many people sharing their own stories. So for navigation purposes, the page has dedicated hashtags for different topics such as #teamkahoy for those who prefer wood decor, #diy for handy hacks, #budolisreal for those who want to share their latest purchases, and so much more.

Every Monday, Home Buddies also hosts the #MondayMarket as the only time sellers are allowed to make their pitches in the group. The group adds a thread where members can both buy and sell home-related items to the rest of the community as a way to support small businesses as well.

The group has quickly become a cultural icon during quarantine, with both middle-aged parents and young students taking part in discussions, sharing their own spaces, or merely scrolling through for inspiration on what next to “add to cart.” It’s a testament to just how serious and dedicated Filipinos have grown to giving their personal living spaces a little bit of T.L.C. amid lockdown. It’s also interesting to think of it as one of the only things we feel we have control over these days—hence the passion and enthusiasm.

As the world crumbles around us, Home Buddies PH reminds us that we still have a little bit of control over our immediate surroundings. No matter what happens out there, at least we have living quarters that inspire us, and more importantly, make us feel happy—despite everything else.