Homeowner

7 Clever Hacks for your Home Organization

It's time to hack your home organization. Here are some GENIUS home organization hacks that you have to try!

1. Drawer Organization

At just about $1.50 each, craft board from your local big box home store could be the answer to your drawer dilemmas. Just cut to size and paint and you'll have a custom drawer organizer. Source: KevinAndAmanda.com. We also love the idea we found on Pinterest.com to use a silverware organizer in the bathroom to organize toothbrushes and pastes - what a great way to keep things neat and tidy while also keeping germs at bay.

2. Topsy Turvey Genius

From Martha Stewart herself, we expected nothing less than the best - and this ideas is. Simply hang your shelves upside down, so that the brackets create dividers! Source: MarthaStewart.com

3. Shedding Your Disorganization

How about using PVC pipes to organize your tools in the shed? You'll always know where to put it back and organized tools always take up less room, so less chances for stmbling around while rummaging for what you need. Source: Ashbee Design.

 4. Clever Compartmentalizing

Here's an innovative use for an over the door shoe organizer - a caddy for all your cleaning products (for child-free homes). Source: FashionableHome.com

5. The pillow "case"

Once again, Martha Stewart bring us a genius idea for storing sheet sets, simply store the entire set within one of the pillow cases! Source: MarthaStewart.com

6. We're Turning Organizing on Its Side

We're flipping the direction of a shelf to make an awesome organizing solution. This time for wrapping paper. Source: community.familyhandyman.com OR you could use a garment bag! Source: The Chic Home.

​7. Reverse Towel Bar Organizer

The internet is full of ideas for using tension rods under sink cabinets to hang cleaning products. The internet is also full of stories about how that trick doesn't really work. Instead, take an over the cabinet door dish towel bar and hang it backwards, so you can hang a towel or your most often used cleaning bottles on the inside of the door.

by Mark Munsch

Tips for Selling in the Summer

According to realtor.com, summertime ranks a quiet third when it comes to the best and most popular times to sell (Number 1 and 2 being spring and fall). However, there are some perks to the season of which you can take advantage - foliage is in full bloom, light pours through your home highlighting its features, and many people are simply smitten with the sunshine and are eager to call your place their new home. So while selling in the summertime can be a challenge, here are some tips for putting your home's best (square) foot forward!

As always, a great way to prepare your home for sale is to take care of some maintenance tasks and to otherwise polish the property. Warm weather preparations are no different, just with a little extra focus on harnessing the natural benefits of the season - sunlight, fresh-air, beautiful scenery, more natural curb appeal, and more! By paying close attention to tasks that help highlight the freshness in your house, you’ll be taking extra steps to impress potential buyers.

A good way to make sure you get to all the tasks your particular house requires, is by creating your own custom checklist ahead of time. A great approach is to walk around your home with a note pad, and jot down each task you'd like to do in each room (you can organize your plan of attack later).

Here are 10 great ideas you might want to include on your list:

1. Clean Ceiling Fans: Spritz some furniture spray into a pillowcase and slip it over each fan blade and slide any dust away without a mess. It’s as simple as that. Then, when you turn on the fan, make sure it’s turning in the proper direction (look for a tiny sliding switch that changes the direction). Make sure yours are set so that, when you stand underneath, you can feel the fresh, cooler air blowing down into the living space.
2. Launder or Vacuum Curtains: This is not only refreshing, but it will help to eliminate the dust, dander, pollen and other allergens that may have accumulated on the fabric over the long winter—which could exacerbate spring allergies for anyone in the home.
3. Dust: Dust, dust, dust. Clean all the surfaces in the home. Sunlight is great, but we all know how nicely it highlights the presence of dust.
4. Freshen Up: Pick up a few packets of unsweetened lemonade powder and empty a packet into your dishwasher soap dispenser. Run the EMPTY dishwasher through a full cycle and you’ll love the result—a clean, lemony scent! While you’re at it, quarter up a few lemons, squeeze the juice into your ice-water, tea, or onto your fish then throw the quarters (peels and all) into the disposal. Run cold water and grind away. The smell is great and, the citric acid kills smells and maybe even a few germs.
5. Vacuum Furniture: Clean the surface of pet hair, dust and other dirt, and don't forget to lift the cushions and vacuum crevasses too.
6. Clean Pillows: We often change our pillowcases, but how often do we launder our actual pillows? Follow tag instructions to help eliminate mold, bacteria, and smells and stains too. Clean fabrics do wonders for improving the overall freshness of the smell in the home.
7. Clear the Cobwebs: A dust buster or small vacuum is great for paying attention to all the corners and crevasses of your house and sucking away dust bunnies and cobwebs.
8. Clean the Windows: This not only makes your windows look nicer, but helps to let in more light.
9. Open windows: Leave those windows open to air out the house. It smells great and also helps to let stagnant air and indoor allergens escape. Just remember to close them when you are radon testing!
10. Bring the Outdoors In: Especially if it's too warm to open windows, bring the outdoors in by introducing fresh flowers into the space. Try placing arrangements in some places you wouldn't normally consider like the bathroom and bedrooms. Take a cue from the pros. Look in any magazine or professionally-staged home and you will find bright flowers or fresh fruit used to enhance a space. Save money by making simple arrangements with beautiful floral fillers like baby's breath, leather leaf, fern, statice or other filler flowers!

by usinspect