DIY

How to Declutter Your Home Like an Interior Designer

February 28, 2021

If you’ve ever seen a home staged to sell, you know that interior design home decluttering goes beyond most people’s vision for tidying their space. Over the years you’re bound to pick up items you think you need and then never even look at again.

Not only do these items take up space, but they can also lower your mood and productivity. Getting rid of things you no longer use can be daunting, but a few tips from the pros can make the process a lot more efficient.

How to Get Started

Starting is the hardest part of decluttering. If you struggle to decide which items to throw away, first determine whether you really need them.

That doesn’t mean you should get rid of anything that doesn’t have a practical use. Souvenirs from past holidays have sentimental value, so if they make you happy, they’re still useful. Similarly, if you look at an item and it brings up bad memories, throw it away. You don’t need it anymore.

Before starting, plan a decluttering route around your house. The key is to be as organized with the as possible. You also to keep things manageable and motivate yourself. Many people choose to work from the farthest corner of the room back to the door, but other methods may work for you.

Take Your Time

You don’t have to declutter your whole house in one go. In fact, sometimes it’s better if you don’t. If you dread clearing out the clutter, taking your time can make the process less daunting.

Try tackling one room each day, and when you are done, treat yourself. Giving yourself that incentive over several days may draw out the process, but it will keep you motivated.

Meanwhile, if you burn out after decluttering a few rooms in a day, you are less likely to finish the job. Understand how you work before you start interior design home decluttering. You’re probably not staging your home, so make the process work for you.

Keeping it Clear

Nothing beats the feelings of a decluttered home, so try to keep it that way. Consider investing in baskets and boxes you can use to put things away so that the clutter doesn’t build up again.

Give every item its own place. If you know where to put something once you’re done using it, it’s less likely to end up back in the middle of the floor.

To keep your house clear throughout the whole year, every time you bring something new into your home, throw away or donate something you haven’t used in a while. This can be a challenge, as once you’ve decluttered, you won’t have as many excess possessions. But by keeping a consistent flow of items into and out of your home, you’ll keep your home from overflowing with stuff you don’t need.

Everyone has their own method of decluttering. If you don’t love the task, you may benefit from more efficient methods. Using these tips for interior designer home decluttering can get the job done fast, so you have more time to do what you love.

Wallpapering Tips for Beginners

February 1, 2021

No one starts off applying wallpaper perfectly. It involves a more complicated technique than painting with brushes and rollers, and any mistakes become permanent. If you paint a wall wrong, you can always paint over the problem. It’s harder to hide air bubbles in wallpaper.

While wallpapering is tricky at first, you can do it yourself. Following these wallpaper tips, you can get that professional look without hiring a professional.

Prepping the Room

Before you start applying the wallpaper, decide where each of your wallpaper strips will go. Using a measuring tape, work your way around the room and draw a line to mark where each strip ends.

Measuring and marking the wall will also help you determine how much wallpaper you need to buy. Multiplying how many strips you need by the height of your room will give you an approximate amount. It’s better have some left over than to not have enough, so buy around 15 to 20 percent more than your calculations say.

Finally, remove all fixtures like light switch covers and heating vents and fill any gaps you have with non-shrinking joint compound. You want the wall to have as few imperfections as possible when you start wallpapering.

Prime the Walls

Prime your walls using a wall sizing product. This product will make the walls smooth and slippery. This might sound like the opposite of what you need when sticking on wallpaper, but it helps you move the wallpaper around. You’ll rarely apply it straight the first time, so having the freedom to adjust means a lower chance of imperfection in the finished product.

This movability is particularly important when applying wallpaper to drywall. Without proper priming, you can’t get the wallpaper off if you decide to redecorate later.

Applying the Paste

Always apply the paste to the paper, not to the wall. Don’t be tempted to paint the walls with paste and stick on the wallpaper. It might seem more efficient at first, but you’ll create more work for yourself when it dries and ruins your priming.

Find a flat surface—preferably a worktable—and apply the paste using a paint roller. This technique gives you a more even spread than a paintbrush and speeds up the process. Check your wallpaper to find out which type of paste to buy.

You then want to book the paper. After you’ve applied the paste, fold the paper back on itself to soften it.

Where to Start

If you have chosen a wallpaper with a repeating pattern, it is likely that wherever it ends, the patterns won’t match. There is no perfect way to resolve this, so your best option is to start and end in the least conspicuous spot.

If you know that you plan to put a cupboard or another large piece of furniture in a particular spot, start there. Still, consider that you may want to rearrange your furniture at some point. To keep your options open, you may want to start around or above a door.

If wallpapering your home makes you nervous, don’t worry. With these wallpaper tips, you can avoid beginners’ mistakes and make anyone think you knew what you were doing from the start.

Daily and Weekly Kitchen Cleaning Checklist

November 10, 2020

There’s no denying that the kitchen is the heart of the home. It’s where we prepare hearty meals, making it easily one of the most used rooms in the house. Then again, it also happens to be one of the dirtiest areas of the home. Studies show that there are many contaminated parts of the kitchen, including sponges, towels, sinks, and refrigerators.

Given this information, your approach to keeping the kitchen clean needs to be strategic. In our post on ‘House Cleaning Tips’, we previously noted how it’s best to work in blocks, and while it still rings true, it’s also recommended to work in accordance with a schedule.

To help you out, here is a breakdown of tasks you can rely on to keep your kitchen spotless every day and every week.

Daily

Clear the clutter

It’s a fact universally acknowledged that no matter what you do, the clutter in the kitchen just keeps piling up. Make it a point to clear the counters of clutter and put back anything that is not in its proper place.

Wash dirty dishes

If at all possible, you should wash dirty dishes as they happen so you won’t be bombarded with a huge pile at the end of the day. If you’re using a dishwasher, it’s best to use a quality detergent, as that can save you some time and allow you to skip pre-washing.

Disinfecting the sink

Your sink is the place where you prepare most of your food, so it’s only right that you prioritize cleaning it. The best way to keep your sink clean is to naturally disinfect it every day. To naturally get rid of stains, grime, and bad smells, HomeServe recommends pouring boiling water, white vinegar, or baking soda down the drain. If you want to go the chemical route, you may also opt for bio-enzyme or ready-made drain cleaners. These will be more effective if there is a blockage causing the water to drain slowly.

Empty trash and recycle bins

Of course, you need to empty the trash and recycle bins at the end of every day. To make things easier, keep extra trash bags next to the bin so replacing the bag is quick and easy. You will also know when you are low and won’t have to overfill the last bag.

Weekly

Clean the coffee maker

According to an NSF International report in the New York Times, the coffee machine is the fifth item in kitchens and bathrooms in terms of the number of germs, less than the pet bowl but more than the bathroom faucet handle. You don’t want your beloved java maker to be plagued with bacteria, so even if it’s tedious, make sure that you hand wash all detachable components with hot water, dishwashing liquid, and a clean sponge every week.

Clean the microwave

As one of the most used appliances in the kitchen, it’s not surprising that the microwave is packed with all sorts of gunk every week. Consider cleaning it with white vinegar and water to get rid of the grime easily.

Sanitize sponges

A study published in Scientific Reports notes that while cleaning sponges don’t help get rid of bacteria, it does wonders killing germs in between replacements. Clean the sponge weekly by mixing bleach with water, soaking the sponge for five minutes, and then rinsing it. Don’t forget to replace your sponges every month too.

Sort out leftovers

The FDA Food Code notes that all perishable foods that are opened or prepared should be thrown out after 7 days. You’ll be surprised at just how much uneaten food is stuck in your fridge if you allow it to go unchecked for too long. Every week, ensure that old leftovers are thrown out, as well as any food that is past its “best by” date. The best way to do this is to label your food on the date it goes into the fridge. Much more accurate than the smell test.

Mop the floors

Since your kitchen is a high-traffic area, it should be wet mopped at least once a week. To make the process a tad bit easier, start at the far corner of the room and work backward towards the exit so you aren’t forced to walk on newly mopped surfaces.

Wash dish towels

Studies show that multipurpose towels used for wiping utensils, drying hands, holding hot utensils, and cleaning surfaces contained more pathogens than single-use towels. It would then benefit you and the rest of your household to wash them weekly, so as not to spread bacteria further.

How to Choose Different Room Flooring

November 2, 2020

It’s easy to spend more time choosing the color of your walls than different room flooring. But don’t ignore the importance of the right type of flooring.

Style, color, and material matter on your walls, but your floor is much more likely to be the victim of spills and stains. You want to choose flooring that works for your lifestyle and holds up in high traffic areas.

Choosing Colors

A room’s flooring can bring a room to life. When choosing different room flooring, the colors can trick your mind into thinking the space is larger or smaller than it is. It can also affect the room’s mood and how you feel when you spend time in it.

If you have a room that feels too large, try using darker colors and warmer tones. These colors can make the room seem smaller and cozier. Conversely, lighter tones can make a smaller space feel more open.

If you’re looking to impact a room’s mood rather than its size, start with colors here, too. Different colors make people feel different things.

Whites and beiges feel open and clean, while yellow feels bright and optimistic. Browns create a rustic atmosphere. Blues make people feel calm, and red brings energy into the room.

Matching and Coordinating

If you don’t know the difference between matching and coordinating, you may want to when considering your room’s flooring.

Matching your flooring means keeping the same type throughout your home. However, coordinating means using complimenting colours and styles that work with the aesthetic of each room. Don’t be afraid to experiment.

The Right Flooring for the Right Room

Choosing your flooring shouldn’t only be about color and style. You also need to think about the practicalities. Consider how you’ll use the room, and even who will use it.

Your children might love the idea of carpet in their bedrooms, but a hard surface that’s easy to clean may work better. The same goes for the kitchen where you have a high chance of spillage. A floor that you can easily mop rather than scrub functions better in these spaces.

If you’re stuck on whether to go for style or practicality, think about how much traffic each room sees. Rooms everyone in your home uses daily would benefit from harder surfaces like tile cork or slate. Consider carpet for rooms you use less often, so you don’t have to worry about cleaning them.

Transitioning Between Floors

When deciding on different room flooring, consider when and how to transition between the different types from room to room. You can ruin your home’s aesthetic with an awkward change in flooring.

You usually see floor transitions between different rooms. But you can get more creative than that. You can have one kind of floor surrounding another, like tiles surrounded by hardwood. Try switching your flooring around a corner, too.

If you’re choosing different room flooring for each room of your home, remember that the rooms may not be level with each other. In these cases, use a transition strip to even them out. This will make the transition look better, but also makes you less likely to trip.

House Cleaning Tips: Four Ways to Get it Done Fast

October 12, 2020

Most people hate cleaning and want to get through it as fast as they can. In an ideal world, you would keep up with cleaning your home every day. Still, even if you enjoy cleaning, sometimes you don’t have the time.

Whether you love breaking out the dusters or not, use these house cleaning tips to make tidying your home a breeze.

Before You Start

Before you even start cleaning, clear away all the clutter. While this may seem like a tedious task to, it will save you time when you get into the soap and scrubbing. It means you won’t have stop in the middle of cleaning to move clutter out of the way.

Move from room to room and decide what should stay and what needs to go. Throwing away trash and putting miscellaneous items in their places will also leave you with less to clean as you go.

Plan your route around your home before you dive into cleaning it. Knowing which room you’re cleaning next will keep you focused on the task at hand. A plan creates an efficient system so you won’t be wondering what to do next. This plan doesn’t need to be complicated—you can make it as simple as working from the top left of a wall to the bottom right.

Work in Blocks

One of the best house cleaning tips you can learn is to not focus on finishing all cleaning tasks in one room at a time. This process might sound counterintuitive to some, as moving all over the house seems like it would take longer. But by working on one task at a time, you can clean more efficiently.

If you decide to clean the kitchen or the bathroom in one go, you could find yourself stuck in there all day. Instead, work your way around your home doing the same task in each room.

Wipe down all the surfaces in each room first. Then move on to another task like mopping the floor. This process is called task cleaning and it helps keep you motivated rather than continuously switching tasks in the same room.

Tools of the Trade

As declutter the house, try to take stock of everything you might need to clean. Then when you start, gather all the tools you’ll need and take them with you as you move from room to room. Keeping your tools on hand will keep you organized, which can only increase efficiency.

Remember to keep your tools clean as you go. There’s no point to wiping down a surface with a cloth that’s covered in grime from a previous room.

Get Everyone Involved

This house cleaning tip might be easier said than done but try making cleaning a team effort. The more people involved, the quicker the job gets done.

Organize a group and schedule a time for everyone to clean. When you’re done, make sure there’s a treat you can all enjoy. Order a pizza or find a movie everyone loves. Finding something that makes cleaning worth it gives everyone incentive to complete the task.