Stay Home Stories

Over the course of 2021-2022, the Museum of the Home worked in partnership with universities, museums, and others in London and Liverpool on the Stay Home project: rethinking the domestic during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The project aimed to uncover how the Covid-19 pandemic impacted people’s experiences of home. To learn more, you can find short films, podcasts, policy reports, publications and other resources on the Stay Home Stories website.

This national collecting project forms part of the Museum of the Home's extensive Documenting Homes archive.

Stories of home in lockdown

What does home mean to you? How are you using your home? Does your living room now have multiple uses as a workplace, school or gym?

If you have any outdoor space what are you using it for? Are you leaving home to carry out your role as a key worker? Separated from your family or loved ones? Spending considerably more time with your flatmates or family?

Our Home Our Stories, 2021

Drawing from the Stay Home Collection material, Artist Alaa Alsaraji produced an artwork display at the museum, which encouraged people to think about how their lives have changed and to reflect on the future of home life.

"Our Homes Our Stories is a space where you can discover how people's experiences of home has shifted during the coronavirus pandemic and how those experiences can be used to imagine a healthier, more equal understanding of home in the future.

"Alsaraji weaves people's experiences during the coronavirus pandemic into the fabric of the room to build a picture of how the role of homes has changed [and] how the instruction to 'Stay Home' has prompted people to adopt their own rituals of care within lockdowns."

Alaa Alsaraji’s artwork(s) are available in the Museum’s collections. Learn more about Our Home Our Stories on Alaa Alsaraji’s website.