As we were browsing the web for new cleaning ideas, the Home Office Cleaning Checklist from RealSimple screamed “post me!” Below are some of our favorite home office cleaning ideas that you can easily do in one weekend.
Clean your desk. Pick up your desk accessories and dust them. Continue by dusting your desk, including the desk surface, it’s frame and all the legs.
Clean your desk chair. Spot clean any spills or stains and wipe down the entire chair with cleaning solution. Also, vacuum the seat of your chair with a brush attachment.
Sanitize the telephone. Use a disinfecting wipe to sanitize your telephone, the touch pad, and cords.
Clean your keyboard. Purchase a compressed air can to blow out any crumbs or dust that have fallen into your keyboard. Then, dust the keyboard with a microfiber cloth.
Go through your bookshelves. Create a pile of books/magazines that can be donated. Dust all of your books and the bookshelves.
After following these simple steps your office should be clean and stress-free!
Want more weekend cleaning tips? Look through the rest of our Weekend Warrior blog posts!
Unfortunately, many of the coldest winter days are still ahead. February and March bring some of the heaviest snow and the coldest temperatures, particularly for those of us living in harsh climates. If you haven’t taken steps to winterize your home, it is not too late to start.
Winterizing your home prevents damage and reduces your risk of costly repairs. It helps lower energy costs and eliminates safety hazards. Make the freezing days ahead as painless as possible by crossing these last-minute tasks off your to-do list.
- Inspect Your Furnace
The last thing you want to deal with in the middle of winter is a faulty furnace. Change your filter and stock up on a few extras for the months ahead. If you can afford it, hire a furnace repair service to clean and inspect your furnace and duct work.Furnaces can also pose a fire hazard in the winter months. Keep the area around your furnace free from clutter and debris – particularly anything that is flammable.
- Protect Your Pipes
Frozen pipes can be a nightmare. Frozen water can rapidly expand, causing pipes to burst and resulting in serious water damage to your home. Most pipes are safe, as long as your heat is working and the pipes are located inside of the home’s insulation. But make sure any pipes that are exposed to the elements are insulated with electric heat tape or foam insulation. You can hire a professional or take this on as a do-it-yourself project. [click to continue…]
Now the festive season is done and dusted it’s time for a fresh start, and what better place to begin than your home? If 2012 is the year you decide to give your home the look you lust after, read on to discover some great tips. And you needn’t think you’ll have to set aside a whole month’s salary just to tackle one room. Oh no, in fact, this guide is all about how to give your home a vintage-style makeover even if you’re on the tightest of budgets.
Image Source: DesignWagen.com
Feature Walls
So you’re looking to give a particular room a new lease of life. There’s one quick, simple and relatively easy way of going about this, and that’s to decide on a wall and make it a feature of the room.
If it’s your living room, it might be the wall where the fireplace is, for instance. If it’s the kitchen, you might think about highlighting a wall by the eating area. You can even make a feature wall of a downstairs washroom. Basically, the only limitation is your imagination – and the supplies you can get hold of. [click to continue…]
You may think that going green is a buzz phrase people use to feel like they’re doing more for the environment than they really are. But the truth is, going green is now a positive, conscious lifestyle that people adopt to improve not only the environment, but their own lives. Think about that: having a significant impact on the world and on your wallet.
With the current economic landscape, every penny counts and, with the high price imposed upon us for natural resources, those pennies add up fast. So I felt it important to provide some tips that you, the homeowner, can apply right now, without much effort. The following list is a sustainable set of steps you can make into money saving habits.
Save on Energy
- Shut off the lights in your house when not in use. Simple, yes, but more times than not you’re expending electricity and in turn spending money–paying for lights that aren’t helping anyone. Use natural daylight whenever possible.
- Use CFLs (compact fluorescent light bulbs) instead of the regular incandescent light bulbs. Yes, they’ll cost a little more up front, but the 70% savings on electricity makes the difference, and they last substantially longer.
- Make proper use of your thermostat by setting the temperature a few degrees lower than you do normally. Wrap up in a blanket or jump into a comfortable sweater during the winter to save money. In turn, set the thermostat higher during summer months and change your mode of dress to fit the weather.
- Clotheslines use the natural wind to dry clothes instead of your dryer. You not only save money this way—there’s no limit to how much you can dry at once.
- Unplug devices when they’re not in use. You might not realize this, but even when turned off, devices suck up electricity. This one act can save you 5% on your monthly energy bill.
- Purchase a power strip that turns off when devices are not in use or have been fully charged. Try the Smart Strip LCG5 as an example.
- Install outdoor motion sensors lights. It’s always nice to be able to see when you need it, especially when you’re coming home late, but there’s no sense in leaving lights on all the time. Motion sensors give you the best of both worlds—light and savings.
- Install solar-powered outdoor lights. Why not take advantage of Mother Nature altogether? Advancements in technology have produced a greater variety at a lower cost, making solar lights a viable and cost-efficient option. [click to continue…]
A refrigerator can transform from organized to a nightmare overnight. We repinned this photo on Pinterest in our Simply Organized board because, frankly, every home in America would (or should) drool over this organizational dream! We want to hear from you – is this organization overboard, or is this how every refrigerator should look?
Problem: Squeaky floors are caused by wood rubbing against wood or wood rubbing against nails in a floor that has loosened.
Solution: If you can get to your floor from a basement or crawlspace, most homeowners should be able to repair a squeak easily with the following quick fix.
While you are standing under the area that is causing the problem, have someone walk across the floor so you can locate the exact location of the squeak. Coat a shim (a thin piece of material) with wood glue and tap it lightly into the space between joist and floor, making sure that you don’t raise the floor further by pushing it in too far.
That should do the trick! What other tips do you have to silence a squeaky floor?
The idea of starting afresh, cleaning up, organizing, finding new inspiration, these are all the things to love about the start of January. However, January itself, can be a dreary month. It does follow three back-to-back holidays and December after all! After a period of intense excitement, it’s just tough to compete and fill it with anything even remotely as fun or festive. It’s also wintry and cold and can start that dreaded and impending cabin fever. So, to keep yourself sane and on track to find some home improvements, I like to take a look at my “green” living every January and see what I can focus on for the month. This year, I turned to the kitchen. If you’re looking for some extra ways to green up your kitchen or simply to green it up at all, here are a few things to consider.
Image Source: Pinterest.com
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