Home & Garden Blog » Tips & Advice

Selling Your Home? Consider These Home Staging Tips

guest — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:30:39 +0000

Megan Gates is an active blogger who provides written work to the blogosphere pertaining to NYC Real Estate, Hamptons Homes, home improvement and the latest architecture, design, fashion and travel. Follow her on twitter @MEGatesDesign

If a person wants to ensure that their home will soon be sold once it has been released on the market, they need to take part in the art of home staging. If you are unfamiliar with the term, home staging refers to organizing a home in order to show its potential to buyers. Poor staging can ruin the experience, while good staging can bring about a sale. Inspect your home from the bottom to the top, bringing in family members, friends and even neighbors to provide extra eyes and opinions. Once the process is finished, sit down and think about what you need to do.

Get Rid of Clutter and Organize

In order to successfully sell a home, the seller should want potential buyers to see themselves in the space. That means getting rid of many personal touches from the previous owner. Nobody wants to see the owner’s pile of unopened mail, a half-eaten sandwich on the kitchen counter, or scattered toys. This is something that many sellers and homeowners do not think of; yet, a room that appears messy and unclean can only repel buyers.

Rearrange and Rethink Space

In order to help the home sell, it is important to help small rooms appear bigger in their scope. This means removing furniture that is bulky, along with large decorations such as vases and framed paintings. You do not, however, have to buy new furniture or rent something just to make the space appear nice. Instead, you can throw in small extras, such as throw blankets, scented candles and even a mirror or two. Mirrors can help add space to a small room, making it appear more accommodating.

Personality and Color

In order to sell a home quickly, it is important to ensure that the personality of you and other members of the household do not come through too strongly; at least when it comes to the color scheme. While you may adore bright blue colors or neon greens, a new homeowner may not have the same enthusiasm. Go to your local hardware store and pick out a simple, neutral paint to use on the walls. Doing this can change a room to something more widely accepted and mainstream.

Unlike what some people may believe, you are going about it all wrong if you simply pack things away into your closets. People who visit the home will not be able to understand the potential and how much storage space they actually have to work with. If you cannot fathom the idea of throwing some things away, store them in another place. Rent a storage space or ask a friend to care for them for awhile. If you need money, hold a garage sale. With the extra money you can better stage the home or put it towards moving expenses.

Save Money And Space By Using Industrial Trash Bags

brock — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:11:36 +0000

This may not be considered a craft, but I think it’s one of the craftiest ideas I’ve had in a while. With three children, we go through several kitchen-size garbage bags every week. Our city allows for only one trash can before you have to pay for stickers to have them pick up extra bags.

This is a pretty common practice in many cities. The problem is that when you have 10-15 kitchen sized garbage bags in a week, it can start adding up. I didn’t want to simply purchase more bins because then I’d have 6 bins sitting out in front of my house everyday. Talk about ruining the ambiance. I also didn’t want to switch to the large black garbage bags because they don’t fit well into the trash bins and I don’t want to simply have open bags of garbage around the house.

This winter I took my own advice and did some major cleaning. I made it my goal to turn my garage from storage into a usable carport and save me some elbow grease clearing snow off my car. Since much of the items in the garage were auto or repair related, I purchased industrial contractor garbage bags because they are larger and tougher than your standard bags.

When I had finished, there were many bags left over, and I just left them in the garage in case I ever needed them again. A few weeks ago I was about to set out to buy $15 worth of stickers to take care of my garbage for the week when I hit upon an idea: I grabbed some of the industrial bags and filled them with the kitchen bags. I was able to get about 4 kitchen bags into each contractor bag.

I went from needing $15 worth of stickers to only $4. It also helps keep animals and the weather from busting open the rather flimsy kitchen bags. You can buy a bag of about 30-35 contractor bags for $15 at most hardware stores. It probably saves me about $100 a month in stickers and I don’t have to worry about several large bins. Plus, the contractor bags sit snugly in the garage until needed.

What do you do to minimize your waste costs? Share in the comments below!

Simple Tips To Defrost Frozen House Pipes

brock — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 18:36:51 +0000

Frozen pipes are a common problem during the winter months because of the bitterly cold temperatures. Perhaps the heat went out and your house dropped too far in temperature, or an uninsulated crawlspace was exposed to the cold winter chill. Regardless of how it happens, frozen pipes require immediate attention because 1) You need water, and 2) Expanding ice can cause a rupture or leak in pipes.

The first thing you want to do is find where the pipe is frozen. Systematically turn on the faucets in your house. If none of the faucets are working, then the leak is likely near where it enters the home to where it splits off. If only one of the faucets don’t work, then it’s from where it splits to the location of the faucet.

One place it will likely not be is outside the home in the underground piping. Pipes are purposely placed below the frost barrier to keep that from happening. Once you have the general area, feel along the pipe for a spot that is colder than the rest. This is likely where the freeze is located.

The next step is to thaw it out. The best way is to use heat tape that you can pick up at your local hardware store. This tape wraps around the frozen pipes and slowly thaws it. The heat isn’t hot enough to damage the pipe, but it does take time.

The other common way to thaw a pipe is by using a hair dryer or portable heat lamp. Place the instrument about six inches near the pipe and run it along the length of the frozen pipe until it starts to thaw. This is much faster than using the tape, but it puts a little heat stress on the pipe, especially if you leave it focused on one spot for too long.

Once you feel that the pipe is thawed, then go back up stairs and check the faucets. If they work, then you’ve succeeded. If not, then either the pipe isn’t thawed or there is another freeze. It’s important to not forget about the pipe just because it has thawed. Go back downstairs and check for any leaks or ruptures that may have been caused by the ice. As a precaution, go back every few days for a week or so to be on the safe side.

4 Easy Steps To Create A Family Budget

brock — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 19:28:59 +0000

The New Year means resolutions and one of the most common is becoming more financially responsible. Sadly, this often falls to the wayside because people don’t create a plan early on. You can’t make improvements to a home if you can’t afford the basic tools.

The fundamental step of any financial plan is creating a budget. Without a budget, any goal involving financial freedom is almost doomed to fail from the start.

Step 1: Make a List of Revenues

On a calendar, write down the dates of every time you are paid on the days you are paid. On a separate paper, write the total revenues for the month. This lets you know exactly how much money you have coming in each month and when it comes in. Too many people try to take care of everything on one pay check and then it’s a week before payday and the money is gone.

Step 2: Make a List of Expenditures

Tally up your most important bills, such as rent or house payment, car payment, utilities, etc., as well as other less concrete expenses such as food, entertainment, etc. You can guesstimate how much money you spend on items like groceries, but try to be as accurate as possible. Add up how much money you need to spend every month and compare it to the revenue. If your expenses are more than your revenue, then you need to either decrease your expenditures or increase your revenue.

Step 3: Make a Plan

Plan exactly how you need to spend your money for the month. If you want to try and save money, then keep a set amount aside and count it as an expenditure. Using a planner or calendar, write down what bills you are going to pay on what day. Find ways to save money by decreasing some of the expenses that fluctuate. Eliminate eating out or going to the movies every week. You can cut grocery costs by choosing generic over name brand items.

Step 4: Stick to It

Once you have a plan and it works, stick with it. Don’t let peer pressure or your own impulsiveness derail your financial responsibility. If there are projects you want to do at home, then budget for them over time. In six months, you’ll be able to put in a few doors or fix the garbage disposal. It may take several months for your budget to become second nature, but it will happen and you’ll be better off for it.

Hangover Remedies For After New Years Clean Up

brock — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 16:00:38 +0000

It’s New Year’s Day, and you wake up on the floor of your home or apartment with jackhammers in your head and a stomach sour enough to curdle milk. Congratulations, your hard night of New Year’s Eve partying has left you with one doozy of a hangover.

You try to stand as the room gently spins around you. As the furniture flies by, you notice pizza on the floor, a mystery stain on the carpet and too many empty bottles to count. As you sit in a chair relishing the world as it stops turning, you remember that your parents are visiting in 10 hours and you have to clean. What you need is some tried and true hangover remedies to at least make you functional.

Water Water Water

There is nothing as important as hydrating your body. The headache and most of your problems are caused by severe dehydration caused by the alcohol. Head to the fridge and start drinking bottles of water…slowly. Don’t think that chugging bottle after bottle is going to make you get better faster, you’ll just end up getting sick. It will take several hours to feel better, but re-hydration works.

Vitamins and Minerals

Odds are, whatever was in your stomach from the night before is floating to the waste treatment plant via the sewers. You’re hungry and your body is starved for minerals. Even if you don’t want to eat anything, try and force some healthy foods down your gullet. Best food to eat: Pickles and canned fish. Yummy!

Avoid Caffeine At All Costs

While it may seem like a great idea to drink an energy drink to get you body moving, that’s the last thing you should do. Caffeine, like alcohol, will dehydrate you and just make the hangover worse. Instead, take a shower switching between warm and cold water to jar your body and get it moving. You have a lot of cleaning to do.

Hair of the Dog That Bit You

The old wives tale goes that if you want to alleviate the symptoms of a hangover, then drink more. While it may sound counter intuitive, it’s actually true…temporarily. Your body starts processing the new alcohol in your system, and your symptoms ease up. Instead of just taking a shot or two, drink a Bloody Mary. The tomato juice at least has some vitamins and minerals. This isn’t much a cure as a band-aid. You’ll feel better for a while, but the alcohol is still in your system.

Once your folks leave, go straight to bed and sleep it off. If you drink plenty of water and get some rest, then it should pass in a day or so.

4 Ways To Keep Christmas Cheer All Year Round

brock — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 18:08:08 +0000

As much as we like to believe that every town is like Bedford Falls, and that when the chips are down the world will come back to pick you back up, the reality is much different. We don’t live in the kind of world that helps support good self-esteem and positive thoughts.

If you need proof, then just check out the sales figures for Zoloft and other anti-anxiety and anti-depression drugs. We are all stressed out to the max and everyone from our boss to our friends seem determined to bring us down. It’s not until around November or December that it suddenly changes. We become filled with good will towards men as we cheerfully unload the change from our pockets at every bell ringer we see.

Once the New Year’s hangover is done, we go back to the same acerbic, sardonic and sarcastic life from before the holidays. Why not avoid the stress and try to keep that Christmas cheer going throughout the year?

Stay Positive
The key to happy thinking is a positive attitude. Wake up every morning and say positive affirmations to yourself in the mirror. They don’t have to be Stuart Smalley-type affirmations either. You just need to shoot out some positive vibes in the morning and try to keep them throughout the day. If someone knocks you down at work, then start saying affirmations in your head until you regain that positive feeling.

Be Nice to Everyone
We have conditioned ourselves to look down as we walk down the hall and avoid any and all contact with people unless absolutely necessary. Walk down the halls with your head held high and a smile on your face. Tell strangers good morning and fill up the coffee pot in the break room. A positive attitude is contagious, so you may create a trend. There will always be those people that will be mean and sullen regardless, but keep your chin up and don’t let them get you down.

Negative Thoughts Mean Negative Emotions
If a coworker stabs you in the back or is a total jerk to you for no reason, then let it slide off your back. Sitting and stewing about how much you hate a person for what they did does nothing more than bring you down as well. Don’t let their negative mood bring you down too. Ignore them and focus on the positives you have and not the negatives.

Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff
You can’t be a happy-go-lucky person all the time. There will be times when you get down. It’s important to recognize this for what it is…a temporary setback. Too many people try to stay positive and then obsess when they can’t maintain it. If you are stressed out because you can’t stay positive, then you’re missing the point. Instead, ride it out and keep trying to get back into the swing of things. Pretty soon, the negative emotions will be gone and you’ll be back on your year-long Christmas high.

5 Essential Tips For Putting Up A Real Christmas Tree

brock — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 19:17:16 +0000

It’s not unusual for people to put up their Christmas tree soon after Thanksgiving. While many people have chosen the route of the fake tree because of the ease, there are still plenty of diehards who love the smell of pine on Christmas morning.

Anyone putting up a real Christmas tree for the first time will likely make some amateur mistakes, so here is a little guide to help you:

Before buying the tree, measure the length of your floor to the ceiling. You’re going to want to have some space between the top of the tree and the ceiling, I prefer about 6 inches, so this gives you an idea of how big a tree you can get.

You are going to need a tree skirt and tree stand BEFORE you buy the tree. Too many people I know have not done that and ended up at home with a tree and no way to stand it up. Clear away a space where the tree is to go and make sure it’s vacuumed and free of debris. Once the tree is there, it isn’t moving until after Christmas.

Purchase the tree, take it home and try to place it into the base. Wear gloves and well padded clothing because those needles do hurt and can draw blood. Be especially careful around your face and eyes. If the base of the tree is too large to fit into the base, then you’ll need to chop off some of the wood until it fits securely.

Before placing the tree in its place, check to see if the base has a built-in container for water. A steady supply of fresh water will delay the inevitable drying of the tree and keep those needles from getting hard and falling off. If it doesn’t, then you’ll want to put something like a bucket or bin that is large enough to fit under the stand and hold water.

With the tree up, place the tree skirt around the base. The purpose of the skirt is to catch the needles that fall from now until Christmas. Don’t skip out on the tree skirt. Pine needles are incredibly difficult to pick up from the ground even with a vacuum cleaner. They dig into the carpet and usually are only found out when you step on them.

Follow these simple rules and you’ll be a tree expert in no time.

Taking Down Halloween Decorations…The Right Way

brock — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 18:31:28 +0000

You spent the whole night running from one house to the other with your children, or sitting on your porch handing out bags of candy. But now that the big day is over, it’s time to take down the inflatable spider and orange lights.

It may seem like old hat, but there is a “right and wrong” way to take down decorations. You’ll want to do it correctly so that next year you’re not pulling your hair out.

Inflatable Objects

These have become a favorite for Halloween because they are large and relatively inexpensive. Some of them light up, but they all have one thing in common…they’re a pain to put away. You’ll be tempted to simply pick it up and throw it into a corner but, over time, the fabric may mold or rip. Instead, try and fold it up as compact as possible and place it into a container or bag. A plastic container is best, but if it came with a mesh bag, then try and fit it back in. Do not use a plastic garbage bag as it will rip and degrade in a year. Keep the motor nestled on top to keep it from jostling around and ripping the fabric. Store it in a dry place, such as an attic, and avoid storing it in a basement or garage to prevent moisture damage.

Lights

Don’t just throw them in a box. This creates a tangled mess that causes people to just buy new ones the next year. Keep the original boxes and use them to store the lights. If you don’t have the box, wrap them around your arm and then use zip ties to keep them from being tangled. Keep any extra lights and place them in a small container with the lights in case you have a few that burned out over the year.

Other

Gravestones, black cats and other decorations should be boxed up and taped shut. Don’t just throw them in a box; try and keep like things together. This will make it easier the next year. These should also be placed in an attic and not a basement or garage. These are notorious for mold growth when placed around too much moisture. Objects like webbing, etc. that came from a can should just be thrown away. You can try and gather up all the cotton webbing, but it’s a lot of work for little reward.

When you’re done, the spooky graveyard should be gone and replaced with your well manicured lawn. Now, it’s time to take out those plastic turkeys…where did I put those? Doh!

4 Easy Tips for Handling DIY Project Stress

brock — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 17:28:32 +0000

I have talked about everything from how to install a thermostat to how to fix a hole in the wall, but I’ve missed one aspect that all do-it-yourselfers face on every job: Stress. It doesn’t matter if it’s something you’ve done a hundred times or never before, but taking on a task by yourself can be stressful.

If you want to have a happy and enjoyable do-it-yourself experience, you have to master the stress or else it will make you hate the whole experience. Doing projects yourself is supposed to be a cost-saving and FUN endeavor, and with the following tips, you can be sure to have just that.

Have A Plan

Before you remove the first bolt or turn the first screw, sit down and make out a plan for what you are going to do. Even if you don’t know what the problem is, set up a checklist of what you are going to check first, second and so on. This keeps your mind task-oriented.

Step Back Every Know And Then

If you’re stumped on how to do something, no matter how much you stare at it, then step back and a take a look from a different angle. Sitting and staring at it will only make you more frustrated. Believe me, I know. Instead, stand up and try a different view, or get a second pair of eyes to help you out. A friend or loved one may see something that you overlooked.

Be Comfortable

I once spent three hours in a crawlspace surrounded by cobwebs, and who know what else, trying to fix a leaky pipe before it flat out burst. I was being pelted with dripping water and sitting in mud. I was not a happy camper. While it isn’t always possible to be 100 percent comfortable, do your best to make the space as lumbar supportive as possible. You’d be surprised how much a thin blanket laid on the ground or propping a pillow under your neck for support can make things better.

When In Doubt, Walk Away

This is, perhaps, the most important rule of all when it comes to dealing with stress. If things get too frustrating or stressful, stop what you’re doing and take a break. Being angry and stressed is not a good way to fix something, because you’ll by too forceful and make mistakes. Walk away for 15 minutes and have a sandwich or watch some television.

There is no reason why stress should be a problem when it comes to home projects. Follow these rules and you’ll have a moment of zen in no time.

A Guide for Choosing and Buying the Right Tools

brock — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 19:43:32 +0000

The hardest thing I ever learned in all my years of being a do-it-yourselfer wasn’t really home improvement related. Sure, there have been a few learning experiences, but the most challenging thing I’ve had to deal with is choosing the right tools.

When I went to the hardware store, I was inundated with different brands, sizes, strengths, prices and even colors. It didn’t matter if I was looking for a new hammer, chainsaw or drywall trowel; the options were always mind-boggling. It’s taken years of trial and error to finally devise a method where I can usually pick the right tool the first time around.

Define Your Needs

If you just plan on trimming the hedges, you don’t need a logging chainsaw. Examine the work you want to do and decide exactly how big a tool you are going to need. You don’t need to spend $45 on a metal trowel if you’re only going to be patching a few quarter size holes in the wall.

Define Your Scope

Is this a job you’ll be doing a lot of in the near future? Is this a tool you’ll be using for other jobs around the home? If this is a one-time job, and once you’re done the tool is heading to the garage, then you don’t need to buy the expensive, extra-super-special one. If you are going to be using it again and again, you’ll want to invest in something sturdier. Take, for example, a cheap off-brand chainsaw versus a more well-built expensive model. If you bought a wood furnace and are going to be spending your weekends in the fall chopping down trees, you’ll want the better one. If you only plan on using it to cut off the occasional wayward branch, go for the cheaper one. Initially, the quality won’t be much different. It’s what happens over long-term use that counts. Cheaper chainsaws will have chain jams and breaks, as well as heating issues, because they’ll lack some of the options the more expensive chainsaws have.

Shop Around

Visit mom and pop hardware stores, as well as the big box stores, and compare prices and models. If you can wait a few days, then don’t be afraid to surf the web at credible websites (like Smarter.com), and pick an implement. Online sites often have deals that brick and mortar stores don’t. When you’ve found the one you want, take the plunge. Remember, if it turns out to not be what you want, then you can always return it.