Make The Most Of Blank Walls 

Look around your home and see how much blank space you have on your walls. You’ll probably realize it’s more than you think. You can use these walls to maximize your home’s functionality and make the most of the hidden storage or decluttering tips to become more organized and boost your household’s appearance. Installing shelving or putting up mirrors can maximize your use and even make your home look bigger. 

Brighten Your Home 

Some homes don’t face the right way to get the most out of the sun, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still find solutions that will brighten your house. One of the easiest ways to achieve this is by hiring a windows installation service to replace your dull existing windows with a new set that captures more natural light. Besides this, rearranging furniture allows light to spread through the home to make it feel brighter throughout the day. 

Smart Devices to Track Energy Usage 

Even if you prefer a traditional home, you can still benefit from smart devices to track energy usage and help you be more conscious about your household. You can use data from smart devices to see how much energy certain appliances consume and consider ways to change this. Furthermore, some smart devices can automatically turn your lights on and off at specific times and you may even be able to control them remotely, which can be ideal if you’re out of the house.

Transform That Spare Room 

It’s often tricky to know what to do with a spare room. Do you turn it into the guest bedroom? A home gym? Or a home office? Whatever you do, you need to do something, because it’s no good being a room where you dump everything that doesn’t have a home. Transforming your spare room will encourage you to declutter and make it functional. If you’re unsure what to do with it, a hybrid bedroom and office could be a useful solution. 

Invest In Multifunctional Furniture 

Multifunctional furniture is great for small spaces but you can also use it in a larger area if you prefer to keep things organized. This approach means you won’t clutter your floors or drawers with things that are impossible to find when you need them the most and they can also add a touch of style to your interior. Considering they double as a functional upgrade, you get the best of both worlds.

Working 

Everyone deserves a home that makes life easier for them, whether they use their house to work, relax, or do a little of both. These tips can help you make your home the perfect place to be, reduce household stress, and give you something to look forward to when you come home from work. 

The post 5 Household Upgrades That Help Your Home Work For You appeared first on InstantELLA.

Use a Multipurpose Spray

Are you looking forward to saving time? Bring a multipurpose spray bottle to your home. However, the liquid will be prepared in your kitchen. All you need is a half cup of vinegar and a half cup of water. On the other hand, if you’re repulsed by the smell of vinegar, you can infuse essential oils into the blend. Most people use lemon as it has a lucrative smell. The most amazing thing about this spray is that it can be used on almost any surface in your home, such as your countertops, the interior shutters in your windows, and kitchen cabinets. Leaving you with a cleaner home without using any strong chemicals. 

Use Olive Oil

It is not only good for your health but has plenty of other benefits too. Many experts acknowledge it as furniture polish because it is the perfect antioxidant. The use of olive oil will surely simplify your life and allow you to live sustainably. Use a cotton cloth and drench it in olive oil. Once the cloth has absorbed enough quantity, you must squeeze it. Don’t forget to add lemon juice, as it will cut the strong smell of olive oil. Use the blend to polish your furniture, and once done, let every piece of furniture out in the naked sun.

Fight Mould with Vinegar and Tea tree Oil

No wonder mold is a major problem in major households right now. However, one spray infused with vinegar, and tea tree oil is enough to fight this problem. All you have to do is prepare the home spray and rub it on the affected parts. Once done, allow the liquid to rest on the surface for 30 minutes. On the contrary, if you’re not an avid DIYer, it is recommended to consult professional home cleaners. Make sure to learn about their net reputation before hiring.

Use Bicarbonate Soda

Bicarbonate soda works in 3 ways broadly: it emanates a sweet smell, fizzes if wet, and will penetrate grease without much effort. Bicarbonate soda is a major necessity in households because it assists in bathroom cleaning to a great extent. On the other hand, it helps remove grease from the infected areas of the bathroom. Secondly, if you wish to see the sanitary parts of the bathroom shine, bicarbonate soda will enable you to breathe life into this goal. Once the bicarbonate soda is used, it will help in giving out a fresh look at the surface.

Use the Castile Soap

Most experts swear by this biodegradable and non-toxic soap. It is usually used as dish soap, for laundry detergent, and the floor cleaner. Recently, experts have also recommended it for use as a shampoo. To create it, you need to wash up the liquid, mix some part of the castile soap with a little amount of water.

For best results, it is recommended that you use a quarter cup of vinegar and don’t forget to put hot water in it. Squeeze the castile soap so that the mixture can benefit from it the most. 

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How tidy people keep their homes clean

Luckily, there are tons of natural remedies for cleaning jobs around the home. If you’re not sure if you have the necessary supplies, or how to make natural cleaning remedies, then you’re in the right place.

Baking Soda and Water

20 natural cleaning hacks to replace harmful chemicals

Baking soda is an amazing ingredient to clean so many things. Mix it with water to create a paste to clean the bottom of your oven. Spread it over the mess in the oven, leave for a few hours, and wipe it down when you get back to it. You can also use this to get those tough to clean dishes and spots on the table or counter. If you notice bugs or other pests gathering around the sink, you may need something tougher. In that case, you might want to investigate maryland terminix locations and invest in pest control measures to ensure your home remains pest free.

Citrus and Vinegar

Cleaning Solutions: Restoring Different Types Of Floors From Rug Pad Marks

Vinegar and lemon and oranges are great natural cleaners. Fill a mason jar with some lemon or orange peels and pour white vinegar over it. Let it soak for a couple days and then pull the citrus peels out. You’re left with a natural cleaner that you can put into a spray bottle and use to clean windows, mop floors, or disinfect surfaces like counters and tabletops.

Natural Laundry Stain Remover

Ask the Strategist: Are There Any Good Dry-cleaning Alternatives?

Getting sick of the yellow stains in the armpits of your white/light colored t-shirts? Try using white distilled vinegar. It is gentle on fabrics than traditional chemical stain removers and keeps it bright, soft, and fresh smelling.

Natural Air Freshener

Simple home remedies to get rid of ants in the house and outside

Rather than picking up another aerosol can of Febreeze or whatever you use, try taking it natural. Simmer a small pot of water with natural ingredients in it to freshen the air. Let it simmer for 15-30 minutes.

Here are some great ingredient combinations to use for this:

• Lemon slices, rosemary, and vanilla
• Slice of lime and chopped ginger root
• Lime slices and thyme
• Orange slices, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves

Natural Mold Remover

21 quick and safe DIY cleaning hacks

You’ll find that vinegar is a common theme among natural cleaning remedies. It also helps with mold removal. Spray vinegar onto the mold spots, leave for a few hours, and come back and scrub it away with a brush. You can even add a few drops of essential oil to tone down the smell of the vinegar.

If that doesn’t work for you, or if you want to make sure to get all the mold on and under the surface, you might want to try an EPA-approved mold removal service. Pure Maintenance is one such company that can provide this service.

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Many people are either renting their apartment or home nowadays, meaning they might not necessarily own they space they live in.

This can sometimes make it feel like their rental isn’t exactly their forever home, and therefore it can be hard to make it feel comfortable and homey.

But just because you aren’t going to be there forever doesn’t mean you can’t add your own personal touch to where you live and really make it feel like your home while you are there.

Here are the top five ways to make a rental feel like you own the place and leave your mark, without actually leaving any trace at all (because we all want our deposits back at the end of our stay!)

1. Put things on the wall

Creative Examples of Nature Wall Stickers

It might seem like a hassle to put anything up on the walls in the home or apartment you are renting and just one more thing you have to take down when you move, but putting up art or pictures of you and your family is a great way to make it feel like home.

You can get creative and put up a gallery wall or classic by putting up a couple of beautiful paintings in all the rooms.

But it will pleasantly surprise you the difference between a blank wall and a wall with something on it.

2. Add shelves

Your Living Room Walls Deserve A Makeover! Tips On How To Get It Right.

Shelves are a great way to customize a space and make it looked lived-in in a good way in your rental home.

You can customize it even more by re-arranging what you have on the shelf with cute knick-knacks and some more nice pictures or paintings.

Shelves also make for great extra storage, especially if your rental apartment or home lacks for storage space.

Just make sure you ask your rental manager to make sure you can put holes into the wall or if your shelving units need to be unattached.

3. Add some light

Whether it’s a light fixture or some nice looking lamps, adding light to any of the rooms in your living space not only brightens it but adding light adds warmth and comfort as well.

The nice thing is that if you replace any of the light fixtures while you are living there you can keep the originals and just replace them when you need to move out.

4. Add some life

Things like plants and flowers are a great way to make space more personal and homey, plus fresh flowers can make it smell great as well.

If you want to save some money and are worried you don’t have enough of a green thumb, you can also have the look of plants and flowers but without the responsibility by buying fake ones.

5. Create interest with rugs

Tips for Decorating with Rugs

Rugs are a great way to cover some not-so-nice-looking floors as well as make a rental home or apartment more inviting.

You can find some beautiful rugs that can become a focal point for each of your rooms.

The great thing as well is when you decide to move you can just roll them up and take them to your next place.

The post Top 5 Ways to Make a Rental Feel like Your Forever Home appeared first on InstantELLA.

For folks like us, workspace becomes critical to our productivity. Both my husband and are very ordered and organized. We cannot work in clutter and need our space to be creative. More importantly our space has to bear our personality whether it be artsy, elegant yet minimalistic like me or hardcore, reflective and precise like him.

Keeping all of this in mind. We decided we needed to re-decorate the office. The clincher was to do it on a low budget, making use of what was already in the house as much as possible.  And that’s where creativity, resourcefulness and confidence comes in. Here are a few ideas we put into reality and which we hope will inspire you when you decide to re-decorate and re-organize your workspace. Remember to get all your electrical grounding checked if doing any proper DIY to prevent house fires and stop electrical faults happening. 

Utility is key!

Get rid of the clutter. Make sure you only have what you absolutely need taking up space in your home office. Utility means functionality to me, and that’s where I think a lot of us make trade-offs, having to sacrifice creativity and art to functionality. But I didn’t and here’s how:

• • Desk: For us, this meant having just one desk instead of 2. The way to get around seating issues is to find a desk that allows for leg space on at least 2 sides if not all the way around. (aha! Now you get it.)
  • Calendars: The world may have gone digital, but I still use the traditional calendar. It’s convenient and taking up wall space is always better than taking up desk space when you already have a small desk to begin with. It’s also artsy. What do I mean? Have you ever tried taking a Video Gamer’s calendar (in our case it was Halo that blended perfectly well with the rest of the office theme) and hanging it to look like a poster? Try it. High chance you’ll love it!

• Coasters: I get through my day with at least 3 caffeine breaks so instead of having dull boring coasters, I picked up a set of 4 Star Wars’ coasters at Target (on clearance) with a black and white Storm Trooper theme to match the black and white casing of my husband’s gaming PC in the office. Needless to say the coaster is theme appropriate, does it’s job and when it’s not, it still makes for an interesting piece of art!

Space & Color

Ours is a small workspace. I discovered however, that if you invest in white furniture and add some mirrors to the mix, it can do wonders. That’s why we chose an unused 3.5 ft X 2 ft vanity mirror to add a sense of space and depth to the room.

If you have to have color, stick to 1 or 2 only and play around with shades of the same color rather than use a third. For us this was red and blue and the theme runs through the posters and wall art in the office.

Be sure to pick up pieces from reputable places such as Weaver Furniture Barn. No matter what ideas you have floating around in your head you don’t want subpar pieces in your office. It should be a cozy space that fosters productivity, so when selecting pieces it is important to bear this in mind.

The biggest value add to the office however, has been this sturdy white storage cube organizer we recently purchased online at Walmart. It is not only useful, acting as a bookshelf, curio display shelf and storage (for all the ugly stuff in the office people don’t want you to see. Lol) but lends modernity to the room. Ours may look like one piece but is actually 2 single cubes (bought separately) and mounted on the lower 3- piece cube. I went a step further and added a white magazine/file holder (which had I lying around the house) to the ensemble which may not even be noticeable because it blends in so well. Here’s another tip: everything is art. Be attentive to odds and ends around the house , which if paired well with other items can turn into a beautiful utility and would definitely save you a trip to the store.

Lighting, like mirrors can add beauty and space to a room. A workspace definitely needs this. But ceiling lights can be harsh sometimes, kill the aesthetics of the room and be very unnerving for people trying to work. A soft light on the other hand can be relaxing, help your focus and give you that much needed break to meet deadlines. We added medium voltage contemporary, light-weight lamps to the room. I also put together a decorative light bowl, using a spare glass bowl, LED lights and some old potpourri fill ups I no longer need. If you don’t have potpourri, you can use candles, decorative stones or shells. Run with your imagination here

Reflect your personality

This is undoubtedly the most important part of decorating your home office. It’s your office and must reflect your personality. As a child, like most boys, my husband collected many action figures from Star Trek, Spawn, Pokemon, GI Joe, etc. So it was no surprise that when I came across a ton of them in the basement and began to organize his collection, he suggested we use a few to mount in the office. If action figures was his thing, the light bowls were mine and what goes better with light than greenery, so I added a few (fake) indoor table plants. It makes the room more aesthetics. And who doesn’t have stickers and cutouts, too interesting to get rid of, but also too small to do anything meaningful with? I just took a few interesting high quality curated stickers a client had given my husband to sample, mounted them on white paper (kind of like a collage) and framed them in a small desk frame. My husband loves it and says it motivates him to ‘do more’ and ‘keep it simple’ at work because that’s exactly what the stickers say.

My husband and I are proud of our new home office and the short time we took to get it done. It’s our space and one of the prettiest rooms in the house, decorated on a low-cost budget. Breathing new life into old space isn’t difficult to do and if we can do it, so could you!

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