Today’s homeowners may enjoy the best of both worlds: the practicality of central heat and the drawing power of a cozy fire on a cold winter’s night. However, a fireplace demands that you design the room around it. Do you have a fireplace that just doesn’t fit the room? Before you seal it up, consider what might be wrong: The fireplace mantel needs renovating or updating? The mantel piece design conflicts with the room’s motif? A small fireplace is situated on a large wall with few supporting architectural features? You have the insert, but not the mantel?

There are many ways to dress up a lonely fireplace, or even install one with a ventless insert and mantel. Besides using an existing fireplace for heat, you should never ignore its potential to breathe architectural character into a room.

Embellishing the Fireplace Mantel Design You Have

Many fireplace mantelpieces are just right the way they are, whether elaborately carved or sporting clean, classic lines. These details will help you take what you have and make yours even better.

Extend the Mantel. A half mantel includes the mantel shelf, framework, and surrounds of the fireplace. A full mantel (also called an overmantel) includes a panel that extends above the mantel shelf, sometimes to the ceiling. The full mantel can be achieved with wood paneling and encased in molding or mimicked by arranging thin strips of molding.

Add Built-in Features to Either Side. Open shelving on the sides of a fireplace mantel can effectively simulate a full mantel. Many moldings are available to enhance these shelves to fit the room.

Wall Features. Wall paneling on either side of the fireplace with chair rail molding adds class to a room and visually supports a fireplace in a large wall.

Redesigning the Fireplace Mantel and Surrounds

Do you have a boring, outdated fireplace or mantel? Here are a few ways to transform it.

Period fireplaces. It’s possible to buy a vintage salvaged fireplace, mantel and surrounds in nearly any period. This is a great option for those restoring older homes whose current “updated” fireplaces are completely out of step with the period of the home. It’s also an easy way to bring home the spectacular craftsmanship and millwork of yesteryear.

Reproductions or replacements. There are so many reasons to replace or add to what you have. Your mantel shelf may be too shallow, or nonexistent. You may have only a lonely insert. You may hate the old style brick surrounds. A simple change of fireplace mantel shelves and surrounds can answer these problems and work wonders for the entire room. The choices are numerous: Hardwood mantelpieces can be simple or carved. The color of wood enriches the palette, and offers the flexibility of painting or staining. Wood fireplace mantelpieces must meet fire safety codes, and sometimes need a fire-safe material for the surrounds, like tile, stone, or metal. Stone fireplace mantels can be elegant or rustic, using materials like limestone, travertine, slate, and marble.

Stone can also be used for the surrounds. Faux stone (also called cast stone) offers the realistic look of carved stone at a more reasonable price. Metal fireplace mantels come in vintage reproductions or sleek modern styles, with choices like copper, bronze, steel, pewter, and cast iron. With hand rubbed and verdigris finishes, metal can be a warm, enriching material choice.

Surrounds choices. Replacing the fireplace surrounds may be just right to freshen up your fireplace. Tile and stone offer many choices, and are more easily replaced than an entire mantel. Other choices include hammered metal or cast iron, in pre-fabricated pieces.

With the above ideas, you may be rethinking fireplace mantel designs in your home, not only for your living room, but for the dining room, master bedroom, home office, family room – once you see how a fireplace can bring life to a room it’s easy to get carried away… so go ahead, start planning!

And unlike installing hardwood floors, painting a room requires no special skills. With a bit of time and patience, you can transform your room in one weekend. But don’t rush out and buy the first color you see on a paint chip. Colors can change depending oil the light; a paint chip that looked yellow in the store might look green on your living room walls.

Buy a quart of paint in your preferred color, and paint test squares on every wall in the room. At different times of the day, wander around the room and look at the test squares. If the color isn’t what you wanted, head to tile hardware store for another quart of paint in a different color. It might seem like a hassle, but buying a single quart of paint in a color you like is much cheaper than buying four gallons of paint in a color you hate.

Once you’ve found a color you like, you’ll need to figure out how much paint to buy. Multiply the width of your room by the length, then multiply that number by the height of the ceiling. Just say you have a 10 by 10 feet room, with a ceiling height of 8 feet. You will need enough paint to cover 10x10x8 =800 square feet. One gallon of paint covers 350 to 400 square feet, so you will need approximately two gallons. If you’d rather let a computer handle the calculations for you, you can find several paint calculators online.

Few homeowners want their walls to look like Swiss cheese. If nails and screws from hanging pictures have left their marks on your walls, you’ll need to fill the holes. First, take all furniture and hanging artwork out of the room. If any drywall nails are popping out of the wall, hammer them back in. Using a putty knife, fill the holes in tile wall with point compound. Once dry, sand the entire wall smooth with 120-grit sandpaper; primer and paint adhere to rough surfaces better than smooth.

Be sure to wear a face mask, as the fine dust can irritate your lungs. Next, vacuum the walls or wipe them down with a microfiber cloth to remove dust. Using a paint brush, apply a thin coat of primer to the patched spots. Once the primer has dried, sand tile patched spots again to smooth out the brush strokes. Paint belongs on a wall, not a floor.

The next step in painting a room is to lay drop cloths over the floor; avoid plastic drop sheets, since the slippery surface could be a safety hazard. Remove all light and outlet plates, and tape over the electrical outlets and light switches with painter’s tape. A paint roller is the perfect tool for applying paint to a large expanse of wall. But try painting a comer with that roller, and you’ll end up with a mess.

To paint every nook and cranny of a room, you’ll need to cut in using a paint brush. Dip an angled brush into your paint until only the bottom half of the bristles are submerged – this is all the paint you’ll need. Tap the excess paint on the side of tile bucket, and then carefully paint a wide band of color around all the areas the roller can’t reach – the trim, ceiling, baseboards, and comers. Start painting about an inch away from the edge of the trim.

Many first-time painters cover baseboards and trim with green painter’s tape to prevent any smudges from shaky hands. But painter’s tape can cause problems greater than a drop of blue paint on white trim. Paint can seep under the edge of the tape, leaving behind a discolored baseboard. And if left on for too long, painter’s tape can pull paint off the wall.

You can avoid these problems by cutting in freehand; if your hand slips and you get paint on the trim or ceiling, simply wipe it immediately with a damp cloth. Once you’ve finished cutting in a section of the wall, you’ll need to start rolling. You should always maintain a wet edge when painting. If you let your cut-in edge dry before rolling over it, you could end up with dark spots on your wall or – worse still – the second coat could pull the first coat of paint off the wall. Before you start painting, make sure your roller is free of lint – rub it, wash it, or defuzz it with a lint brush.

Dip your roller into the paint tray and roll the excess paint off on the tray’s grate. Don’t put too much paint on the roller, or it will drip and splatter all over you and the wall. Roll the paint onto the wall in a V shape to distribute the paint evenly, then go over your V in long, even strokes, applying an even pressure to the roller. Make sure you overlap the cut-in edges along the ceiling and trim to cover any visible brush strokes.

Never stop painting mid-wall; if you need to stop for the day, finish at the comer of a wall to avoid dark lines and paint pulls. Most paint jobs require two coats. Let the first coat dry completely before starting on the second. Follow the recommended drying times. On the paint can: if you are painting in humid weather, you might want to add an extra hour or two of drying time. If you want to paint your baseboards and trim, follow the cutting-in technique you used on your walls.

Use a small, angled sash brush to cut in along the edge where the trim meets the wall. If you are using a semi-gloss or a high-gloss paint on the trim, lightly sand the dried surface between coats. Once the paint on the wall is dry, take the tape off the electrical outlets and light switches. Lift the tarps off the floor, and move your furniture back into the room, taking care not to scratch your now pristine walls.

Store any leftover paint in re-sealable plastic containers; if your kids or pets scratch the walls, you can use the leftover paint for touch-ups. The last step is the easiest – sit back and admire your work.

Painting a room can be laborious and tedious, but the result – a stylish room that is the envy of all your neighbors – is well worth the effort.

Removal of Flooded Water in the Basement

In most cases, the best way to remove water that has gotten into your home’s basement is to use a wet vacuum, sump pump, or wet shop vacuum to suck the water up and out of the basement. If you have flooding problems one or more times a year, it is probably best for you to purchase one of these items and keep it in storage in the garage until you need it. It is also possible to rent larger versions of these tools from a tool rental shop.

Removal of Flooded Water with a Portable Sump Pump. Sump pumps require an outlet for the water they remove. Portable sump pumps generally have a hose attached to them that allows the water to drain away from the area where it has been removed. Most likely, you’ll need a long hose and access to a window from which the water can exit. In most cases, you are not going to be able to allow the water to drain down an existing drain in the basement since it may be flooded.

Removal of Flooded Water with a Wet Vacuum. The majority of wet vacuums are not designed to remove large quantities of water. Therefore, it you opt for a wet vacuum as your water-removal tool, you are going to need a strong back and lots of energy. Wet vacuums typically hold between 5 and 10 gallons of water, requiring constant emptying in the event that a large amount of water has flooded a particular area.

Removal of Flooded Water with a Shop Vacuum. Shop vacuums are designed to hold large amounts of water. However, while this might seem like a good idea at first, you need to realize that you still have to empty the water out each time the shop vacuum becomes full. The work required to do so will be more tiring and tedious than with a simple wet vacuum.

Strategies for Removing the Water in a Flooded Basement

You have two basic solutions for water removal. You can start at the highest point where the least amount of water exists. This strategy removes the water from an area that has the least amount of water. Once the water is removed from this section, it should be able to stay dry. You simply work your way down to the deepest area of flooding, opening up more area to dry as you go.

The second strategy is to start at the deepest area of the flooding. Eventually, as long as the water has stopped coming into your house, the water recedes from the highest end, opening up an area so that it can dry. If the water has already stopped flowing into your basement, this strategy lowers the level of the water at the deepest end, possibly disrupting further damage to your home and possessions in that particular area.

Airing the Room Out

It is important to open any windows once the raining stops to allow moisture in the air to escape. As moisture escapes from the air, the room will dry more quickly. You can also turn on the heat in the room to assist in drying it out. The heat forces the moisture into the air as it dries the floor, walls, etc. The water evaporates and enters the air.

Before you turn on your heat, you need to make sure that the flooding has not damaged the equipment. A dehumidifier can be used to draw moisture out of the air. Dehumidifiers extract moisture slowly, so you shouldn’t rely solely on using this method to dry out the room. This type of device needs to be emptied manually, so be prepared to keep an eye on it.

Fans can also be used to help circulate the air and dry the room out completely. The fans should be placed so that they blow the air out of the room. This strategy is helpful in preventing mold and mildew from rowing. Once the room is dry, you should take the time to clean it thoroughly. Use a strong cleaner and clean all surfaces thoroughly, even those that were not involved in the actual flooding. If the damage is severe, you might need to hire a professional cleaning service.

The flooding of a basement occurs more frequently than most people would like. It is an ugly sight, but if you are prepared, you can have everything back to normal within days. Use the above tips to get started!

Transforming each room of your home one at a time gives you time to work, and allows you to work within virtually any budget. Transforming your own home into a home spa is not as expensive, or as time consuming, as you might think. By starting small and working consistently, you can create the best spa in town — right under your own roof.

Master Bedroom

The master bedroom in your home should be an oasis of relaxation, and a place to let the stress of the day melt away. With a few simple changes to your bedroom environment, you can enjoy all the amenities of the typical spa, without the high cost of a spa visit. You can start your transformation with your bed. If your mattress is old and uncomfortable, it is no doubt impacting your ability to enjoy a good night’s sleep and a relaxing nighttime environment. Consider buying a new mattress complete with comfort items like a pillow topper or memory foam insert.

This can help you sleep through the night, reducing your stress level and even improving your health. Taking the time to create a relaxing library can also enhance the spa-like environment of your master bedroom. Stock your bedroom bookshelves with books about meditation, yoga, massage, biofeedback and other relaxation techniques. Enjoy a few pages from those books as you fall asleep each night, and implement the best ideas you glean from those pages.

If you have a sitting area in your master bedroom, consider creating a “pamper station” where you can not only apply your makeup and condition your skin but relax away the stress of the day as well. Stock your pamper station with an assortment of lotions from your latest spa visit, and take some “me time” each day to pamper yourself with those great items.

Master Bath

If you want to turn your master bathroom into a relaxing oasis in the middle of your stressful life, the master bath is the perfect place to start. Consider replacing that old worn out bathtub with a whirlpool spa or Jacuzzi. These relaxing bathtubs are staples of the spa industry, and when you install one in your master bathroom you can enjoy their relaxing waters every single day. And best of all, installing a Jacuzzi or whirl pool in your master bathroom can cost less than a single treatment at a professional spa.

Kitchenette

Your top floor kitchenette can be an integral part of your home spa experience. The kitchenette gives you a place to prepare healthy meals, but it can also play a role in your new and more relaxing lifestyle. One of the best ways to recreate the spa experience at home is by creating a healthy smoothie station in your own private kitchen.

One of the reasons why spas are so effective is that the clients of the spa eat healthy meals and enjoy ail overall healthier lifestyle during their stay. You can recreate those healthy meals with a bowl of fruit and a blender; right in the comfort of your own home. Stock your home spa kitchenette with an assortment of attractive glasses, just like at the spa, and you will be ready to go. And since you probably already have a blender, your cash outlay will be minimal.

Family Area

Taking the time to relax as a family is vital to your well-being, and to managing your stress. When you visit your local spa, you spend a lot of time hanging out and relaxing. Whether you are just lounging around on the couch or listening to your favorite tunes, you let the soothing environment of the spa wash around you. You can recreate that soothing environment in your own family area, with just a few simple items, many of which you already have.

Break out your old boom box or CD player, place an assortment of soothing CDs on the table and let the relaxation wash over your body. Arrange your couches, chairs and other furniture to give you the best view of the surrounding countryside, then enjoy a relaxing afternoon nap in your new home spa.

Living Room

Chances are your living room is the center of your family life, but it can also be the center of your relaxing home spa environment. You can start by hiding your television — often an appliance that is anything but relaxing, in an attractive entertainment center or cabinet.

Keep the TV out of sight when it is not being watched, and relax with a good book instead. You can also enhance your home spa environment by replacing your traditional light switches with dimmer switches. They only cost a few dollars each, but they are perfect for creating a relaxing environment in any home. While you are at it, why not install dimmer switches in other rooms as, well. If you have always wanted a tropical aquarium, transforming your living room into a relaxing spa provides the perfect excuse.

Watching fish has been shown to reduce blood pressure and enhance mood, and what could be more relaxing than watching a tank full of fish swim lazily around in your living room. You can take care of the tank yourself, or you can hire a service to bring the aquarium, set it up, stock it and maintain it.

Guest Living Room

Your formal guest living room can be the center of your home spa environment. This room is the perfect location for many spa amenities, including a relaxation station where you can keep lotions, soaps, shampoos and other special items. Your guests are sure to enjoy the extra pampering, and you can enjoy those wonderful items when your guest room is empty.

You can add to the relaxation of your home spa with the right lighting accents, including an assortment of overhead lighting with dimmer switches, pole lights and track lighting. The right lighting can make all the difference in the world, whether you are working with a formal spa or your own home. Adding plants to your formal guest living room is another way to complete the home spa environment. Plants provide a relaxing and beautiful environment, as well as adding valuable oxygen to the air.

Use potted plants, especially tropical varieties like palm trees, to recreate your spa experience in your own home. You can help your guests relax and enjoy their visit with an assortment of relaxing music. Place a CD rack in the room, along with an assortment of relaxing music, to give your guests something wonderful to listen to. Accent the room with a bookshelf containing magazines and books that will help your guests and you relax and unwind at the end of a busy day.

Indoor Kitchen

Transform your indoor kitchen into a home spa environment by setting up a healthy cooking station where you can recreate your favorite spa recipes. The next time you visit your favorite spa, ask the spa owners for an assortment of recipes you can recreate in your own home. You can also clip recipes from your favorite magazines and newspapers, and use them to create your own custom cookbook for your new home spa.

Outdoor Kitchen

Your outdoor kitchen is a vital part of your home, and it should play a vital role in your home spa environment as well. The outdoor kitchen is where you do your heavy cooking, and it can be the place where you create the healthiest meals for yourself and your family. You can enjoy those relaxing meals in a table you set up in the kitchen itself, or you can bring those healthy foods into your sitting room to enjoy with family members and friends.

Taking the time to build storage cabinets into your outdoor kitchen area can do a lot to reduce your overall stress and make cooking and meal preparation a lot easier. You can also set up a bakers rack for your cooking utensils and appliances, bringing a bit of beauty, as well as important utility, to your kitchen and your home spa environment.

Garden and Pool

Your garden and pool provide a naturally relaxing environment, and they can play a major role in your home spa experience. If you have not already done so, use your garden to create an oasis of beauty in the middle of your home environment. Plant an assortment of colorful flowers, each with a different blooming schedule. Staggering your plantings and blooming cycles will ensure that you always have some relaxing and beautiful flowers to look at.

Placing an assortment of potted plants around the garden can further enhance the spa experience and bring the beauty of nature into your home spa environment. Consider adding an outdoor whirl pool tub or Jacuzzi to your pool area for extra relaxation. When you sink into the warm waters of your whirlpool tub, you can relax away the cares of the day and recreate the spa experience for less than the cost of a single week at your favorite resort. You can further enhance the beauty of your Jacuzzi or whirlpool by enclosing it in an attractive gazebo, which can double as a changing station for your pool visitors and your family.

You can also enhance the beauty and relaxation of the pool itself with an assortment of tropical plants, just like you would find at your local spa. If you are not lucky enough to live in a tropical area, you can enjoy the next best thing by using silk replicas of palm trees and other tropical plants, while using live plants that grow better in your home environment. You can also enhance your pool area and more faithfully recreate the spa experience at home with inexpensive but very attractive touches like torches and candles.

Now before you spend thousands of dollars at a far off resort, consider taking some of that money to begin your own home transformation. Unlike repeated spa treatments, which cost more and more every year, the money you spend to transform your home into an oasis of relaxation will repay you day after day.

Clearing the Room

When painting walls with a roller you may think that there’s little danger of paint ending up on any other surface than the walls. However, regardless of how careful you are, tiny splatter spots can still occur, especially if you use an inferior quality roller. Therefore, it’s important to protect anything you don’t want spoiled by paint. That means moving what you can out of the room including light shades and curtains or blinds.

If you can’t remove a light shade then cover it with a plastic bag or a piece of protective sheeting. Move heavy items of furniture to the center of the room and cover with old sheets. Also use old sheets or plastic sheeting to cover the floor. You don’t need to cover the entire floor, just the section you’re working on (and then once finished, move the protecting covering to the next section to be painted).

Painting over Wallpapers

Ideally, you should first remove wallpaper, but if the current state of the wallpaper isn’t too bad, you can get away with painting over it. Sometimes it’s actually preferable to paint over wallpaper as opposed to removing it; for example, if removing the wall paper could result in damage to the walls. In addition, if previous owners have papered the walls a number of times, then to remove all the layers could be an extremely labor-intensive job!

If you do decide to paint over wallpaper, then remove all loose pieces and paste down any loose edges. If you want to apply an undercoat, use an oil based one and apply it with a short nap roller to create the smoothest surface possible. If the wall has a few “dents” where you removed pieces of wallpaper, fill these with drywall mud. Once dry, sand the filled areas until smooth and then apply the oil based undercoat. When it comes to paint, using an oil based paint will give the best results. Apply two coats following the process detailed below under the heading “Painting the Walls”.

Painting Plastered Walls

If you’re painting plastered walls, first check for cracks. If you find cracks, fill them with drywall mud and then, once dry, sand down to create a smooth finish. If the cracks are large, you may need to apply the drywall mud in stages, allowing each application of mud to dry before applying the next. Once the wall is ready for painting, remove all dust with a damp cloth. You may need to apply an undercoat first, especially if you’re painting the walls a lighter color than their existing color. Once the undercoat is dry, apply two coats of your chosen color of paint following the process below.

Painting the Walls

Regardless of whether you’re painting over wallpaper or painting plastered walls, the process is the same: Use an angled brush to cut in the paint along tile wall edges and any other edges (e.g. baseboard edges, window frames, switch plates, outlet covers).

You need a fairly steady hand for this job. If you don’t feel confident about your ability, then use tape to protect these edges. Once the paint is dry, you can remove the tape. This will of course add time to the overall task, but if you don’t have a steady hand and forgo using this tape method, you could spend a lot of time having to remove unwanted paint from a number of areas in the room.

Once you’ve completed this part of the painting task, use a roller to apply paint to the rest of the wall areas. Make sure the roller is fully covered in paint (first having poured the paint into a roller paint tray) but not dripping. After you’ve painted the entire wall run the roller, unloaded, along the four edges of the wall using one continuous stroke for each edge: this will help to blend tile paint in with the cut in brush paint strokes.

And then, once the paint’s dry and you’ve turned the room back to how it was before you started, you can stand back and admire your newly painted room, which you’ve completed at a fraction of the price a professional would have charged, in a fraction of the time it would’ve taken him or even you to do it!

First, invest in a good doormat to stop the dirt from entering your home. This is not as crazy as it sounds as a study done at Exeter University has shown that houses without doormats contain much higher levels of toxins than those where a doormat is used. Then follow the good work by making your own cleaning products using fresh herbs and the contents of your kitchen cabinet.

They are just as effective as the ones you can buy, but add fewer toxins to your home, save you money, smell nicer and keep your hands in much better shape – even if you do forget your gloves. Making your own cleaners is easy and takes about as much time as making a cup of tea. Just collect a few empty jars and bottles, find some sticky labels and a pen and follow the instructions:

To make disinfectant, boil a liter of water, and then pour it over about 2 tablespoons each of chopped fresh thyme, rosemary and sage. Leave to sit until cool then strain into a bottle. Label the bottle and use this neat solution to wipe down work surfaces, kitchen cupboards and high chairs.

To make an anti-bacterial all-purpose cleaner, mix 100ml of your herbal disinfectant into 100ml of plain washing liquid. Do this carefully, or you will end up with a foam bath in your kitchen. Add a good splash to a bucket of water and use as floor cleaner or to wash out your kitchen cupboards. This mix also makes a good bathroom cleaner, as long as you don’t have a problem with lime scale.

To make an effective window cleaner, mix 50-100mI of vinegar (not the malt version or your house will smell like a chip shop!) into 500ml of herbal disinfectant solution. Use this in the last rinse for your windows and they should polish up streak free. To make your own bathroom cleaner, half fill a dry glass jar with baking powder, and then add half the quantity of dried herbs. Use lavender, chamomile or lemon balm for scent and rosemary and sage for their disinfectant properties, and shake it well to mix. Use it by sprinkling it into the sink, bath or toilet and then rubbing with a damp cloth.

If the grouting around your bath or kitchen sink has seen better days, make your own anti-fungal solution by steeping 1 tablespoon each of chopped chamomile, peppermint, rosemary and thyme in boiling water. Mix baking soda into a paste with this solution and apply to the grouting with a toothbrush. Leave for a while to soak in, and then rub with the brush or a damp cloth.

Some stains are too difficult for a liquid cleaner to deal with and a tougher scrub is needed. Table salt is useful here. It will not scratch expensive non-stick cookware, but gets rid of any number of baked on food and stains. Add chopped rosemary for a stronger scrub and its extra disinfectant properties. Baking soda, mixed to a paste with lemon juice or vinegar, will make short work of lime scale. Leave the paste on the lime scale for a few minutes, and then rub it off.

Lf you’re trying to restore a neglected basin or bath to its former glory, add chopped rosemary for extra scrubbing power. To make your own furniture polish, mix equal proportions of lemon oil and white vinegar. Liquid soap and herb oil also make a useful mix for nice shine and a lovely smell. In both cases, a little goes a long way, so mix only small quantities.

We’ve all lugged home bottles of fabric conditioner, trying to keep our clothes soft and sweet smelling. But a strong infusion of lavender, rose, bergamot or lemon balm, added to the final rinse, does as job just as good.

Making your own herbal cleaners, disinfectants and scrubs, instead of bringing halt a chemical factory into your home, does not only save money or the planet. The wholesome scents of fresh herbs improve our living space and lift our spirits. And somehow, it also seems to make cleaning much less of a chore.

You can’t mop the floor until you can find it. You can’t dust the table until you clear off the mail and other accumulations from throughout the week. You can’t do the dishes until you put away the clean ones and clear off the counters. Often, the work before the work is so overwhelming the job just gets postponed until the point where you either call a professional housecleaner or the health department.

Take your pick. The good news is with a bit of planning and as little as five minutes each day, almost anyone can keep up on the tiny things that build throughout the week so that when cleaning day does come, you can breeze through the job quicker and without as much drudge work beforehand.

Don’t have time you say? Five minutes is all it takes. Just five minutes. Set your alarm five minutes earlier. Read your horoscope once you get to the office. Forgo that second (or third, or fourth) cup of coffee. Spend just five minutes a day and you will be amazed at how much neater your house stays during the week and how much easier your heavy cleaning becomes.

A Place for Everything and Everything in its Place

As corny as it sounds, having a place for everything and returning items to that place will make a difference in how tidy your home appears. And let’s face it, appearance is everything. Getting in the simple habit of returning items to their rightful place when you’re finished with them will save you hours on cleaning day walking around, picking things up and puffing them away.

Start as soon as you get up in the morning. Find a designated place in the bathroom for the toothpaste and use it, every day. Do the same with your brushes, combs, hairspray and makeup. A drawer or cabinet under the sink is better than a pile on top of the counter, making it easier to wipe the sink d own on cleaning day.

It doesn’t take any longer to put the toothpaste in the drawer as opposed to laying it on the counter, as long as you put it away when you already have it in your hand. On your way out, pick towels and dirty laundry up off the floor, storing them in a hamper or basket. You have to walk past the pile anyway. You might as well make the most of your steps. No extra cleaning, you’re just focusing your movements toward specific items.

Now you’re got a tidy bathroom and you haven’t even dipped into your five minutes yet. In the kitchen, put clean dishes away immediately. Rinse dirty dishes as soon as you’re finished with them and store in the dishwasher or better yet, give them a little squirt of liquid soap and finish the job. It is surprising how little time it takes to wash your dishes as you use them compared to stacking them up for the entire day.

A conscious effort in the kitchen after breakfast could cost you about a minute and a half. On your way out the door, watch for any stragglers that are left lying around. Check pillows from the sofa, the remote control on the table and the kids’ toys on the floor. Grab what you can while walking through the room and put items in their proper place. Time spent: 2 minutes total.

Handle Things Only Once

Long a strategy for office workers and those responsible for large amounts of filing, the act of handling objects as few times as possible is a proven technique for being more effective and saving time. Go through the mail as soon as you bring it in the house. Sift through the advertisements, throwing away any you know you won’t be using and filing the valuable ones in a pre-designated container or basket.

Open utility bills and statements from creditors, giving balances the once-over to check for any obvious errors. After reviewing them, file immediately in a safe location where you can find them once bill-paying day arrives. And no, the dining room table should not be your safe location! Open correspondence immediately and file in a separate spot to make it easier to respond to.

Keeping your correspondence separate from your bills is a psychological strategy which will help you remember to reply to that nice letter you received from your friend instead of blocking it out because it is stored with the less-than-pleasant electric bill. Finally, place magazines and catalogs where they will be read within the next 24 hours. Now your dining room table remains free from clutter, the bills and magazines are already sorted, and that hour-long chore on Saturday is virtually gone. Time spent: 1 minute.

Take Out the Trash

Akin to handling things only once, taking the trash out daily will greatly reduce the amount of trips you make to the garbage can on cleaning day. When opening the mail, throw the envelopes away. After putting the groceries away throw any unnecessary receipts and coupons in the trash instead of piling them in a comer of the kitchen.

When you use the last of something from the cupboard or fridge, throw the empty container away instead of stacking it on the counter or worse yet, putting it back empty. Yes this strategy requires more frequent trips to the garbage can during the week, but the time spent in this activity is less than 30 seconds a day, as compared to ten or fifteen minutes on cleaning day. Remember, the stacking and sorting and piling add up exponentially during the week, making the time spent on cleaning day neatly four times as long as the cumulative time spent during the week. Time spent: 30 seconds.

Taming of the Shoe

Shoes, and the flippant storage of them, are one of the biggest nuisances to the person trying to maintain a clean house. We come home from work and kick our shoes off. We run inside from working in the yard and slide out of dirty sneakers. In the morning we can‘t find our shoes in the bedroom so we wear our slippers into the living room, searching for the heels we kicked off the night before.

The most successful strategy for taming the shoe is to have a specific location, just inside the most commonly used door, where shoes can be stored. A storage trunk, toy box or cedar chest, depending on your décor, works wonders for keeping errant shoes under control. When the shoes come off just open the lid and toss them in. Everyone knows where their shoes are and the floor remains clear. Check daily for loose shoes and remind everyone in the household where shoes are to be stored: either their bedrooms or the trunk. Time spent: 30 seconds

A Clean Sweep

Two of the most dreaded chores on cleaning day is vacuuming and mopping the floors. One of the reasons these are so frustrating is because our floors are one of our most valuable home improvements and the amount of dirt and clutter we pick up just serves as a reminder of the wear and tear going on.

However if you vacuum regularly during the week and sweep the hard surface floors with a broom three or four times in between cleaning days, the accumulated mess is reduced, saving you time on the weekends and extending the life of your carpets and floors as well. Even larger rooms can be given the once-over with the vacuum in a minute or so, so use your remaining minute a day concentrating on the floors of your home.

Keep Moving

Remember Sir Isaac Newton? He reminds us that an object in motion tends to stay in motion while an object at rest tends to stay at rest. Take advantage of the motion you already have to keep moving in the direction of a cleaner house. It doesn’t cost you any time to keep moving and puffing things away. In fact, it actually takes longer if you stop, because the force required to get moving again is greater than the force necessary to remain on the job.

Spend just five minutes each day moving toward a cleaner house and enjoy greater free time as a result – it may not be as easy as it sounds at first, but the end results are worth it!

First, clear all of the drains on your property and on the street. These metal grates are magnets for rotting leaves and piles of garbage. All of that garbage clogs the drains and prevents water from escaping down to the sewer system. If the water cannot properly drain, it will pool around the street, your yard, and your home’s basement.

Inspect the drains once a week and remove all of the garbage stuck to the grate. It may not be a glamorous job, but it may prevent a flood in your front yard. There is one rule that governs floods – water will always run downhill. Since a basement is the lowest part of a home, it is often the first casualty of flooding.

Proper home maintenance can improve the odds of your basement staying dry during the next storm. First, inspect your home’s foundation for cracks; even the smallest fracture in the cement can be the source of a leak. Call in a professional to seal all cracks and ensure that your basement foundation is properly waterproofed. Next, pull out your level and place it on the ground outside your home.

The ground by your house should never be level; it should slope away from the foundation walls. If the ground is level, or if it slopes toward your home, water will be directed into your basement every time it rains. A professional landscaper can grade your property to ensure that the ground slopes away from your home. And always make sure that your gutters and down spouts are clear of debris.

If your home is in an area prone to flooding, it may be wise to have your own sandbags on hand. They are easy to make; simply pour sand into a bag, stopping when the bag is half-full. You can also use old pillowcases or garbage bags and garden soil as an alternative. Since sandbags are heavy to move during an emergency, keep them close to your house; garages and basements are perfect locations.

You should also store plastic sheeting with the sandbags. During a flood, you can cover the sandbags with the sheeting for added protection from the rising water. When your home is under the flood waters, it is too late to learn where the electricity shut-offs are located. Plan for a flood before one ever happens; this way, you will know what to do in an emergency. Make sure everyone in your family knows where the gas and electricity shut-offs are located, and teach everyone how to use them.

Call your insurance company and double-check that your policy is up-to-date. Take an inventory of all of your furniture and valuables, and decide what you will do with them when your home is under a flood warning. Will you move all of your furniture to an upper floor? Would you rather keep your jewelry in a waterproof safe in your home, or in a safety deposit box at a bank? Are all of your important documents stored in one place? Can you access them quickly in case you need to evacuate? No one wants to think about disasters, especially when the ground is dry and the skies are clear. But if you want to protect your furniture, your personal possessions, and your home, you need to be prepared for a flood.

Water is a destructive force that can damage homes beyond repair. While you may not do much about any kinds of natural disasters that occur every year (like the recent tornadoes and floods), at least by following the advice above, you will be ready to face a flooding and storm with more confidence and skill.

You can transform a room in a short amount of time by giving it a peaceful beach theme and may not have to make even one trip to your favorite home décor shop to do it. Whether it is a family room, guest bed room or perhaps even a bath room, you can “beach it up” with a few simple touches.

First, create a blank canvas by removing any clutter. Take out anything sitting around on tables, dressers or counters that do not fit the beach or ocean theme. Even if they may fit in, remove them for now and work them back in as you decorate each empty space. If you are thinking that your wall color or flooring does not look like sand and water, don’t worry! Beaches are a blend of colors and neutrals.

As long as you don’t have any wall color too dark or loud (like bright pink for example) and your carpet or flooring is fairly neutral, you can pull this off! Gather things that remind you of the beach. There are no strict rules here – you may add beach chairs that are stored in your garage, photos from vacations or even a big clam pot! You should also try to round up some empty glass jars and vases to help display your shells, rocks. How you spread the décor items throughout the room will depend on how much you have to work with.

If you only have a few things that are obviously from the beach, you can spread them around the room and complement them with more common items that will still fit in such as baskets, plants, wooden boxes, candles and candlesticks. Think of soft colored throw pillows or a couch blanket that might add a nice beach shade. You may end up borrowing a bit from some other spots in the house!  Continue until you feel like you have achieved the results you wanted.

After you take a step back and look at the results, you may be amazed at what you could accomplish with some simple stuff you brought back from the beach and had lying somewhere without much use!

That’s a pretty bad thing to experience! A lot of times, home owners discover that the problem actually lies in inadequate drainage. The gutters are not carrying the massive amount of rain water far enough away from the house.

In that situation, it is imperative that you fix the problem of poor drainage outside before you put new flooring down – you just have to. Go to your friendly neighborhood hardware store to buy the supplies you would need. If the original owners of the house had used all aluminum guttering with aluminum downspouts and aluminum extenders to direct the water away from the house, the redirect sections may have been flattened from years of being mowed over. Surface drainage is not the answer in that case, so you should look at installing an underground system. To begin with, you can step away from the traditional aluminum and investigate the new flexible vinyl products – they are much more resistant and will therefore last longer, while also being cheaper.

The extenders come with preset rivet location making it simple to attach the vinyl extender to existing aluminum elbows. A mechanical hand riveter will work wonders on a job like this. Once you have the materials you need, you can begin work to improve your drainage.

You can begin by attaching the new extensions to the existing elbows, if they fit. If you are concerned that the rivet holes provided in the extension pieces would not be enough, you can easily drill additional pilot holes to allow rivets all the way around, so no worries there. You can then dig the trenches, starting them about three feet away from the foundation of the house, extending in the direction you wanted the water to flow.

By starting your trench three feet away from the foundation, you avoid disturbing the vapor barrier, which helps to protect the foundation itself from water damage. It is always a good idea to contact your local utility service before digging in your yard, to ensure that you are not digging where your water lines or electric lines are buried. You should dig the trenches to a depth of no less than nine inches, accounting for the diameter of the flexible hose (usually about three inches).

This will give at least six inches of soil cover for the buried hose. While digging, it is essential to maintain a consistent grade with the trench. Remember, water flows downhill, so the hose must lie at an angle that tilts away from the house. A good rule of thumb is to maintain a slope away from the house that is no less than one inch per one foot of grade for a distance that is no less than eight feet.

For example, with a 25 inches buried hose, that would mean 24 inches down at the far end from the start of the hose. It’s easier when your yard has a natural slope – it meant that you will not have to dig that deep, but it’s no big deal if it doesn’t, either.

Afterwards, you can lay the flexible hose in the trench and test your work by running a hose at the top of the gutter hole. This will help you check the slope of the hose and identify any problem areas. When you’re finished with that, back fill the trench, making sure that the surface of the re-filled trench is slightly higher than the surrounding ground. The soil will naturally compact itself, so additional soil elevation will prevent dimples or holes from appearing. You should also tamp the soil, once the trench is filled to prevent runoff and erosion.

The final step would typically be application of grass seed to the bare soil. You can take advantage of your digging by installing some of the cover plants you always intended to grow. Their presence immediately helped to disguise the green downspout extensions and to beautify a portion of your property, which is great if you were planning on improving anyway. Consider sprinkling some grass seed on the sections farthest from the house, where flowers, grasses, and shrubs are not planted.

Indeed, the whole process is pretty hard work if you do it yourself – digging the trenches and installing the plants within the same weekend can be very exhausting, but the results and benefits are well worth the efforts. In a few years, as the water is kept at bay and everything is alright, you’ll be looking back and remembering it as one of the better moments of your life.