Believe it or not, the months of shopping, anxiety and expectation have culminated in a few hours of frantic unwrapping, and now the only present is the bottle of red wine you and your spouse or significant other plan on drinking tonight. With the holiday festivities at an end, it’s time to think … [Read more...]
Plumbing Help: Cleaning Up a Wet and Stinky Basement
December 22, 2010 By 1 Comment
There are few things more disgusting than trying to clean up sewage in your basement. Once the yucky poo water has been transferred out of the basement, the cleanup has only just begun. The sewage comes up from the drain and spreads outward, and anything in its path gets covered in… stuff. Cardboard … [Read more...]
Disaster Preparedness Plan: When Things Go Wrong
December 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment
I am now sitting in a warm home with fresh ideas brimming in my head. It was a long two days, but it is nice to be back in my home again and to not have icicles hanging from my eyelids. As my furnace sat silently in my basement, dormant and apparently dead, it got my mind thinking about the worst home … [Read more...]
Role Reversal: Spring Cleaning in Winter
December 6, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Here in Illinois, we had our first snowfall of the season this past weekend. Mother Nature dropped about six inches on us and followed it with bitterly cold temperatures and arctic winds. Had it been warmer, my wife and I would have been outside with the kids building snowmen and having snowball fights, … [Read more...]
Fall Cleanup: Five Easy Steps to Getting It Done
November 10, 2010 By 1 Comment
With three small children, my house looks like a disaster area most of the time, and it’s up to my wife and me to control the damage as best we can. Action figures find their way into every crack and crevice. Clothes are thrown about and placed in dog water. While we are on a 24-hour patrol to keep … [Read more...]
Three Simple Organization Tips to Make Life Easier
July 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment
You spend your life cleaning, arranging stuff, and designing your space to look great. Your furniture and decor are expensive, and you've planned even the most subtle details of your lighting. You love interior decorating, and you always try to find the time to make your home look and feel great for … [Read more...]
Tips for Organizing Your Kitchen
April 14, 2010 By 1 Comment
Whatever room you want to talk about, there is probably a more efficient and/or attractive way to store your stuff than the way you're doing it now. Today we're talking about that dreaded room, the kitchen (Cue Beethoven's Fifth). So many ways to be disorganized. Food storage, utensil storage, spice … [Read more...]
Houseware Accessories that Make Life Easier
March 31, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Living on a budget, I'm always surprised how the smallest accessories can make a world of difference in my every day life. As you have probably noticed, your everyday home & garden needs are either terrible or a blast. Fun: interior decorating, shopping, lighting, hosting parties, and grilling … [Read more...]
Organizing Tips for the New Year
January 6, 2010 By Leave a Comment
We all have New Year's resolutions with some more ambitious than others. The most popular resolutions include spending time with family and losing weight. The average person sticks to their New Year's resolution for about a month before returning to old habits. I've found that once you target a broad … [Read more...]
