Home Cleaning Wizardry
March 20, 2011
Every homeowner has a task or two that they dread residing in the back of their mind - never tackled but always nagging away. It may be cleaning the carpet, refinishing the back porch, or removing the grime on the cooker, or it may be tackling any other really hard to clean part of the house. It is right to dread these monstrous cleaning tasks, yet there is hope since there are a few incredible home cleaning tools that can rush to the rescue and can make the job easier to tackle – items for example, like carpet cleaners that can really save the day.
Carpets accumulate seemingly unbelievable amounts of grime over the years, and though you may vacuum them innumerable times, you are unlikely to get out the engrained dirt. If you really need to keep your carpets sparkling clean, you have three options: don’t wear shoes inside, get new carpets, or crack out the big guns and bring out a carpet cleaner. Not wearing shoes inside may not solve an existing problem, although it can help prevent future dirt. Getting new carpets is usually not feasible, nor is it necessary. Carpet cleaners, on the other hand, can be rented easily and they will comprehensively clean your carpets, leaving them looking as good as new. They do this by shampooing the fibers, which can remove years of dirt and dust.
In addition to the inside dirt that nags at you to be cleaned, dirt is a natural outdoors. While you may think that dirt belongs outside, there are many places where you don’t want or need to live with a build up of dirt. For example, dirt naturally has a tendency to build up outside on pipes, porches and window frames. This can be incredibly hard and laborious to get out. As you can imagine, scrubbing your entire house will take countless days and will require an inordinate amount of elbow grease. Pressure cleaners are the solution here, as they shoot powerful jets of water that can lift up even the most engrained dirt. Using a pressure washer can leave the outside of your house looking sparkling fresh and new.
These two cleaning tools can help you conquer some your greatest cleaning fears, as they are easy to use and have the power to tackle some truly intense dirt. You can easily pick them up at a rental depot, or you can buy an affordable used version if you don’t want to splurge on a new model. Either way, it is well worth the effort to either rent or buy power cleaning tools such as these so you are not left scrubbing the interior or exterior of your house for hours on end.
Home Improvement Blog Carnival
January 4, 2010
Welcome to the current edition of the Home Improvement Blog Carnival! There’s some great info included in this week’s carnival related to the home that can also help you save time, money, and effort, while keeping your home looking its best. Whether you are looking to enhance your indoor or outdoor space, you are sure to find some useful tips to keep things organized and looking good without breaking the bank. So, if you have made it a new year’s resolution to find ways to improve the beauty and functionality of your home without having to spend a fortune, then the tips included below can help you get started. Happy reading…
To begin, you can get some great advice about front yard landscape design at Landscape Design Ideas. You will find that although you may use your front yard less often than your backyard, it is important to design the landscape well so that your home has nice curb appeal. This will help enhance the resale value when it is time to sell. Simplicity is the key to effective design for front yards to keep things looking clean and easily accessible and you don’t need to spend a fortune to keep your front yard looking good.
Turning to the backyard, most people would love to have a pool of their own but many can’t afford one. One solution is to choose from a variety of inflatable swimming pools that provide the luxury of having a pool in your own backyard without the hefty price tag. Blue Ice Pool discusses the benefits of these types of pools and the enjoyment they can offer.
While we’re enjoying our backyards, let’s consider an affordable and unique way of lighting the outdoor space when the sun goes down. Patio Lights Guide details some exciting and affordable options for patio umbrella lights that can keep the fun going even after dark. There are numerous styles of lighting options to choose from and most are relatively inexpensive.
If you are looking to keep things organized inside your home, and specifically in your closet, then you may want to find out more about buying shoe storage boxes online at Bedroom Décor Tips. This article provides information about the best types of storage to use and where the best places to buy them are. Shoe storage boxes can be used for more than just storing shoes and are a great way to stay organized!
Keeping with the home organization theme (one of my favorite topics!), one of the best ways to stay organized is with large plastic storage boxes if you have a lot of items to store or have larger items that take up a good deal of space. You can find many uses for these versatile boxes at Plastic Storage Boxes Info and will find that there are a number of different types of storage boxes to choose from.
Whether you are looking to improve the exterior or interior of your home, are interested in keeping things organized, or are looking to save money, I hope that these tips have given you some good ideas!
More Quick Cleaning Tips
March 11, 2009
So if you’ve read my previous article about one minute cleaning tips, you’ve already seen how easy it is to take a few spare minutes when they arise and tackle a bunch of overlooked cleaning jobs. Here are even more quick cleaning tips to help you make good use of your spare time and to free up dedicated cleaning time for the harder stuff. It’s amazing what you can get done in just a few minutes when you put your mind to it!
Here are 10 more quick cleaning tips to keep you working efficiently and effortlessly…
- Put a new box of baking soda in the fridge or freezer. With just a few seconds of effort you’ll have everything smelling better in no time! Have a few extra seconds while you’re looking in the fridge? Toss out any food that looks like it has seen better days!
- Toss junk mail and catalogs. Better yet, keep a shredder in a convenient location and run anything with personal info right through the shredder. It only takes a minute to reduce your pile of mail – and avoid identity theft, too!
- Test your smoke alarms. This is often a neglected task and is important to make sure that your smoke detectors are in good working order.
- Fluff pillows on a couch, chair or 2 seater sofa. It’s a 60 second way to give a room a just freshened up look.
- Treat a laundry stain. Pre-treating stains when you know they occur makes it a lot easier to remove them when it’s laundry time.
- Sprinkle baking soda in the bottom of a garbage can. Again, a few seconds of effort keeps your house smelling fresh!
- Clean one drawer. Or at least get rid of obvious junk so it will make the drawer easier to rearrange when you have a few more minutes to spare.
- Go through today’s mail so it doesn’t pile up and become a larger task a few days from now.
- Focus on just one small space and throw something out or put something away where it belongs.
- Have an extra minute while you’re in the car? Clean out cupholders! They seem to collect lots of junk and take just a minute to clean out to keep your car looking as clean and organized as your house.
I hope that these additional quick cleaning tips help you make good use of the spare minutes you find throughout your day and make keeping your house and life in order a little bit of an easier task!
10 Laundry Stain Removal Tips
January 29, 2009
Stains on clothes are just a fact of life. Some laundry stains are easy to remove with just a simple washing in the right temperature water with regular laundry detergent. But some laundry stains require a little ingenuity in order to get rid of them. By following some of these laundry stain removal tips, you can preserve the life of your clothes, without tearing your hair out!
Below are 10 laundry stain removal tips to keep your clothes looking their best. Always spot test fabric before using chemicals to make sure that fabric is not damaged or color is not ruined. Also be sure to check washing instructions on label. Only try these suggestions on washable fabrics. These laundry stain removal tips are not guaranteed to remove all stains, but should be a helpful step in the right direction. [Read more]
Kitchen Decorating Ideas - 7 Quick & Inexpensive Tips
December 11, 2008
Does your kitchen need a bit of a pick-me-up or a couple of updated touches to make you love it again? The kitchen is the center of most households and is the most used room in the house, but it’s unfortunately also usually the most expensive to update. But, don’t fret if you’ve tired of the current look of your kitchen! You can make some dramatic changes to this important room in your home with a few easy and inexpensive kitchen decorating ideas that are easy to implement and also inexpensive, too. As you’ll see, you don’t have to break the bank in order to have a new-found love affair with the hub of your home!
One of the very best kitchen decorating ideas to consider before even getting started is this – decide what you want to change the most or what you absolutely cannot live with any more and also determine a budget within which you can work. Good planning is the absolute most important step in moving forward with updating your kitchen. You must determine your priorities and be realistic about your budget and plan, plan, plan!
If you’re not ready to take the plunge for a huge kitchen renovation (and most of us are not!), below are a few decorating ideas and home remodeling tips to make the most of what you already have, without having to spend much money or invest much effort in order to reap some solid rewards.
Here are 7 quick and inexpensive kitchen decorating ideas to freshen up the most used room in your house: [Read more]
10 One Minute Cleaning Tips
November 11, 2008
Have you got a minute to spare? Use it to clean! Ugh, you think – why would I want to clean in my spare minute? Well, there are plenty of cleaning tasks that can be done quickly and easily, without even having to dedicate specific time to completing them. Consider using some of these speed cleaning tips while waiting for your kids to get ready before leaving the house, while you are put on hold on the phone, or in between commercials during your favorite television show. By cleaning for just one minute at a time and following these easy cleaning tips, you can get many overlooked and simple cleaning tasks done, without taking any precious time out of your day.
The following quick cleaning tips can all be completed in less than one minute. They require minimal effort yet go a long way towards keeping your living space clean and uh, well, livable. If you’ve got a minute, you can accomplish a lot! [Read more]
Got the Decorating Blahs?
October 6, 2008
Have you got a case of the ‘decorating blahs’? Do you wish you could change things up a bit in your house, to keep things looking fresh and interesting?
Redecorating isn’t something you can just do on a whim, because it’s usually costly and time-consuming. But, I’ve found some quick and easy decorating tips that can give rooms a new look, while spending little or no money and only taking a minimal amount of time and effort to complete. In fact, all of these decorating ideas are so easy to inmplement (and easy on the wallet!) that you can change the look and feel of a room whenever the mood strikes!
As always, please feel free to add any other great decorating ideas you may have. Your comments are always welcome! [Read more]
7 Super Easy Chicken Recipes
October 2, 2008
“Mom, we’re having chicken…again?”, I hear my kids complain all the time. Well, they’re right. Chicken, chicken, chicken - that seems to be all we eat most nights! We certainly seem to eat more than our fair share of chicken! That’s because we try to limit the amount of red meat we eat, the kids don’t like fish, my husband doesn’t like too much pasta, and it’s the quickest way most nights to get out of the kitchen while putting a healthy meal on the table.
The main problem is that chicken starts to get boring after awhile. So I’ve developed a repertoire of the fastest and easiest chicken recipes I can make in just a few minutes, because cooking long, complicated meals is not something I love to do! [Read more]
Ten Quick Tips to Clean “Good Enough”
October 1, 2008
“Good enough” is my mantra for cleaning. When it comes to the dreaded task, I definitely don’t strive for perfection. My idea of a clean house is one that would pass inspection by the department of health, but not one where I would feel comfortable with the prospect of desperate housewife, Bree Van De Kamp, arriving at my front door with a basket of her scrumptious muffins. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I’d welcome the muffins, but I would not be inviting her in for a cup of coffee to go with them!
Let’s face it, routine cleaning is just plain boring! As soon as you’re finished cleaning something, it just immediately begins to get dirty again, and that drives me nuts! Being a goal-oriented person, I don’t like to do things that I know are on their way to having to be done again, even as I’m still completing the task at hand. So, I have made it a point of trying to find as many cleaning shortcuts as possible to clean “good enough” so that I can satisfy the powers that be (my husband, my kids, my mother, and occasionally my daughter’s friends, who seem to be dissatisfied with just about everything in their tween years!), as well as my own good senses, while still maintaining my sanity and a little time for myself. Here’s the kicker – you’d be surprised by how many compliments I actually get from people thinking my house is so clean! [Read more]