All Entries in the "HOW TOs" Category
How to Manage Efficient Monthly Storage
Storage is always a problem in the house and there are always some items that don’t seem to fit anywhere. It might be a good idea to pick a storage project for every weekend, or to make all the projects at the end of the month.
Start with creating your home office. You could create a mail station that offers every family member a bin, box or slot. Also add a calendar to the wall that is easily seen by everybody and encourage the members of the family to take notes of the important events right on the calendar.
The desk drawers could also be reorganized, and it is a great idea to use dividers to achieve smaller bins. You shouldn’t have many items in the bins, and these could be labeled with post-its. Make sure that there is nothing in the drawer that you can’t use. Throw away all those utensils that can’t be used anymore.
Something similar should be done in the kitchen as well. Take a look at all of the pantry items and evaluate them. Throw away the expired items and give away those items that you haven’t used for a long time. Then put the items back on the shelves and label them.
How to Make Your House a Pet Friendly Haven?
In spite of the fact that you might have had a pet for a couple of days or for several years, it is still possible to make some improvements around your home to make the life of your furry or feathered friends even more comfortable and pleasant.
These improvements mean more than simply building a dog house. Nonetheless you shouldn’t be thinking that you will have to spend a lot of money to make them.
There are a lot of ideas of this kind, including building a dog gate.
This is one of the handiest items to use when a dog is around.
Through this method you can make sure that he won’t be under foot during a party and he won’t get to the dining table.
Naturally you don’t have to think about something resembling a chain-link fence, but consider a gate made of wood, that is also a nice decorative element for your home.
You might have a grown up dog, but you can be sure that every dog enjoys the privacy of a crate.
Of course the majority of the rooms aren’t suitable to store in them an ugly metal crate, so think about a decorative piece of furniture that has several uses.
How To Create A Smarter But Safer Home?
In case you want to live a sustainable and green life, you can easily follow simple instructions to transform your house into safe and clean oasis. Try to keep the pollen out of your home and brush off outerwear.
Choose a special brush to clean animal’s fur and feet. Try to not hang out your laundry on outdoor clothes line. Mats are always an important part of our home decor, especially if we want to live in a safe home.
Add mats on both sides of the door. It is well known that up to 80 percent of the dirt gets inside along with allergens, lawn chemicals and bacteria. Mats made with absorbed materials are perfect catcher of the dirt and prevent it from going inside of your home.
Establishing a no-shoes-indoor policy is also an option that will keep the basket of slippers at the door for family or guests.
In the kitchen there are also changes that might improve your home safeties. Purchase special water filters and try to filter your drinking water.
How To Decide On The Perfect Bedroom Colors For Your Home?
In recent years the common trend in bedrooms has been to simplify and minimize.
This is great because frankly most rooms look their best when they are simple and minimized however this does not mean you need to sacrifice color!
We have some color combinations for you to consider freshening the look of your bedroom and making you feel like you have redecorated!
A very popular color combination right now is greens and browns. Designers are reporting that this color combination is actually nurturing to our souls.
If you choose to go the route of greens and browns consider choosing a more fresh green instead of deep green because of the color impact on your psychological state.
Another popular color combination right now and, rightly so, is the botanical and nautical color combination of blues and greens. When looking for the shades of blues and greens if you choose to go this route, look for colors that look to blend with the water and sky.
Blue is a soothing color and green is known to nurture the soul so if this is your color palette you have made a very healthy psychological choice.
How To Make Old Pillows From Aunt Sally Trendy And Usable Instead Of Old And Antique?
So your Aunt Sally has just given you a few decorative pillows.
But there is one problem – they were decorative in the 1960s and still smell like the 1960s.
Do not throw these decorative pillows away! Think about how much you would spend at Pier 1 for decorative pillows that are almost exactly what you want but not quite.
Here is your chance to completely re-design your Aunt Sally’s decorative pillows and make them suitable for this century.
Let’s say you want decorative pillows for your living room love seat and the bed in the guest room. Go to a fabric store with colors in mind. For example if your living room is browns and beiges you could look for a mint or light green pattern.
If your guest room is colorful and where all the hand-me-downs ended up you could really have a lot of fun picking out fabric for the decorative pillows in your guest bedroom.
If you need to give the pillows a good washing before you start recovering them you have a few options. You can take them to a dry cleaner or the cheap way would be to throw them in the bathtub, rinse them off and throw them in the dryer.
How To Correctly And Appropriately Use Stencils To Re-Design Rooms In Your Home?
Stenciling on walls has become quite the trend lately.
People are stenciling in dining rooms, living rooms, hallways, bathrooms, bedrooms and home offices.
Stenciling is usually done in the form of words such as “dream” “live” “love” and “laugh” although oftentimes people are stenciling complete phrases like the serenity prayer, The Irish Blessing, among many others.
People are also opting to stencil designs in their homes. The benefit to stenciling a design is it can literally change the look of the entire room without paint, wallpaper or new furniture. Stenciling is very inexpensive as well.
You can stencil yourself or you can have someone stencil for you. To save money you may want to take it upon yourself however personally I do not want to be responsible for stenciling a word across the wall in my dining room.
Things to keep in mind when you are deciding where you want to put a stencil are, is this somewhere you think you will want this stencil for some time? For example, if you put stencils next to a structure in your home that is immobile you will most likely be happy with its placement.
How To Make Your Home Smell Good?
Everyone wants their home to smell good.
By having a good smelling home you want a cozy and inviting home that smells like vanilla, lavender, freshly baked pies, maybe fresh linens.
You do not want a home that smells like bacon or pets. So how do you make your house smell good for your own peace of mind and the comfort of your guests?
I have pets and that is my main concern having a house that smells like animals. I have been obsessed with a clean home for years and have been told by numerous guests, friends and family members that they cannot get over how good my house smells especially since I do have pets.
The first secret is vacuuming every day. Make sure you have a good quality vacuum and make sure you are attentive to keeping the filter or vacuum bag clean of debris. Vacuuming a 900-square foot house takes 15 mins so you should be able to fit in 15-30 minutes depending on the size of your home.
Stay attentive to your trash cans. If you are preparing dinner and use meat products such as chicken packaging take this outdoors to your trash can outside, do not keep this in your home. Also clean your trash cans with Lysol once a week.
How To Completely Change The Look Of Your House With Just A Small Bit Of Paint?
Due to the recession and current economic status many of us that would regularly remodel our bedroom, living room, or kitchen or even entire home are not doing so this year.
In fact many of us choose to remodel once a season because we get sick of the way things are looking and we want a change as the seasons change. Well there is a way to completely change the look of your house without spending more than $25.
Repaint your baseboards! Look at your current baseboards. Walk around your house and look at all of your current baseboards. I don’t know about you but mine are white and boring. The room I am sitting in has beige walls and white baseboards. If I changed the baseboards to an olive green or maybe a burnt red it would change the entire way this room not only looks but also feels.
If you are a novice with the paint brush the trick is to putting tape between the baseboard and the wall and the baseboard and the carpet. You will need two sizes of paint brush; one small and one medium to large. You can run the medium to large paintbrush along the center of the baseboards and use the small one to touch it up near the wall and carpet.
How To Use Flowers Around Your Home To Give It A Whole New Look?
Flowers aren’t used enough in people’s homes. Sure, they’re expensive but they can also be affordable from a second-hand or fabrics store. Look around your house and see how many, if any, flowers you have.
Most people don’t have any. Now look at the spaces you have available for flowers; the back of the toilet, top of the stove, kitchen table or breakfast nook, guest room bed stand, home office printer cabinet.
The average person cannot afford to buy fresh flowers every week however you should consider checking out your local farmers market. On weekends my farmers market has beautiful season-appropriate flowers from spring until fall. Usually you can get a bundle for a couple dollars.
If buying fresh flowers weekly is not an option consider going to a second hand store or fabric store and looking at their artificial flower arrangements. Yes there are some tacky artificial flower arrangements out there but there are also very pretty and very organic looking arrangements as well.
I found a precious bundle of what looks like prairie flowers at a little boutique in a strip mall. I put them into a glass vase at home and they’re on my kitchen table.
How To Make Your Home A Safer Place To Be?
While we concentrate on the aesthetics of our home decoration; the paint matching the accent pillows matching the paintings.
However how often do we think to stop and make sure our lovely decorated home is a safe place for us and our loved ones as well?
Do you have a swimming pool? If so is there a privacy pool fence around it? Some states regulate homeowners’ associations and mandate there are privacy fences around any swimming pools, however some states or cities do not mandate this.
Secure your swimming pool so that neighborhood children are not able to slip into it as well as neighborhood pets.
Do you have a trampoline? Do you have a swing set? Do you have a garden? These are hidden safety issues just waiting to arise. Make sure your trampoline is secured and neighborhood children cannot get to it. Also consider putting a net around your trampoline.
If you have a swing set it is extremely important to make sure it is in top-notch condition at all times. If there are cracks in the foundation of the swing set or if it is getting too old consider taking it down for safety purposes.
