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How To Keep Your Home Pristine While Still Enjoying Living There

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Family homes as a rule can roughly be divided into two categories. You have those that are absolutely pristine with not a spot of dirt to be seen and with everything in precise order, and then you have those that look as though they’ve actually been lived in – with children’s toys scattered around the floor, mud trampled across the carpet, and a faintly ‘doggy’ smell still hanging in the air.

Of course neither of these scenarios are exactly perfect. While it may be nice to have a pristine home that looks like it belongs in a catalogue, that’s not really going to be very fun for the children who live there who will likely be forbidden from really enjoying themselves in their rooms in anyway, and who will probably be too scared to so much as sneeze on the carpet. Likewise, having a house that looks like a tip isn’t ideal either – it will not only send the wrong message when you have guests, but it could also be unhygienic and potentially lead to an accident if you aren’t careful.

So how do you walk that fine balance? How do you find the ‘middle way’ that will allow you to keep your home looking the way you want it without boarding on psychotic? Read on for a little advice.

Design Your Home Smartly


The first thing to bear in mind, is that designing your home well can greatly reduce the amount of work that you might have to do. If you design your property in such a way that it is less likely to become untidy easily, then you will be able to do what you like in the home and let your children do likewise, without worrying too much about your property getting ruined in the process.

For example, putting rugs down in the living room can help you to protect your carpet and these are easy to put in the wash when they do need a clean. Likewise, if you give your children a play room to keep their things in, then they’ll be able to play in there to their hearts’ content without it affecting the rest of the house. Limiting the number of items in your home likewise will mean there is less to get dirty and broken, and will help your home to look minimal and organised. Patterned carpets are great at hiding stains and dirt – so just think ahead like this and give yourself a helping hand with your décor choices.

Bring In the Big Guns


Sometimes though, your home is still going to get untidy and unclean and it’s at this point that you need to know how to give your home a proper reset. If you’re constantly vacuuming and dusting, then you’ll find that you gradually lose the battle against your kids no matter how vigilant you are.

Instead of stressing then, opt to use a professional carpet cleaning company a few times a year, and maybe to use the services of a professional cleaner occasionally. That way you can relax a little about the mess getting made, because you’ll know that it will all get ‘reset’ in a matter of months anyway.

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Today’s featured writer, Malcolm Hall, runs a maid service in Toronto. An avid blogger, he likes to write about the various ways which can help you keep your home clean and tidy.

Riding Out The Storm – The Vital Things To Keep In Your Storm Or Tornado Shelter

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If you live in an area where storms or tornadoes are a regular threat, and have created a storm shelter within your home, then you may think you’ve got everything covered. However, you need to make sure you have everything you need in your shelter to keep yourself and your family safe and well, as well as to allow you the best chance of leaving the shelter safely and beginning to deal with the aftermath of extreme weather.

Here are a few things you definitely need to make sure you have inside your storm shelter in advance, so you can get in there with minimal fuss when a storm strikes:

A Battery Powered Phone Charger – Plus Batteries

It’s bad enough losing battery on your phone at the best of times, but when you are in the middle of an emergency it is even more of a concern. Battery powered chargers are available for almost all modern phone models, and if you keep one of these and a supply of the correct sized batteries in your tornado shelter, you’ll be able to keep your phone on even when power fails. Your phone will, while signal is available, let you keep in touch with family and friends to check they’re safe, as well as access the internet to get any updates on what is going on outside. It can also help you stave off boredom by giving you something to play with if you’re down there for a long time!

Food for Your Family and Pets

Keep basic foods that will keep you going in your shelter, because you may have to spend hours or even days in there and will need a source of nourishment. Choose things that keep for a long time so you don’t need to replace them, and make sure you have things like a can opener and some forks in your shelter too. While you’re not going to be eating like you’re at a sophisticated dinner party, not being to be able to get into your food is going to be a big problem. Keep some pet food on hand too if you have animals. Bottled water is of course another essential, and keep a bowl so you can also give some of this to your pets.

Documents

Unless you have everything stored online (not on the hard drive of any given device), keep copies of all of your insurance documents in your storm shelter. This will give you the things you may need to start the process of sorting out any storm damage issues after the storm has passed easily to hand, and means that you’ll still have copies of important documents even if your house is flooded or damaged really badly and your originals are destroyed. If you have your documents stored online (something many insurers now offer), you can access them via your phone. However, you may want to keep copies of other important things like your passport and birth certificate in your shelter just in case.

By ensuring you equip your shelter with the things you need and make sure you replace anything that gets used, you will always have a safe, well prepared shelter with the minimum amount of maintenance.

Attached Images:
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  •  License: Creative Commons image source
  •  License: Creative Commons image source
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Today’s guest post is courtesy Eidur Johanson. He is a handyman by profession and has worked on many storm damaged houses. He has learnt a few tricks of overcoming such disasters and has discussed them in this article.

How To Get Through The Most Difficult Times In Your Life

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No one ever said that life would be easy. In fact if you look around, you’ll tend to find that most people suggest quite the opposite. Life is tough, a constant struggle in many ways, and you often won’t know what’s just around the corner.

In a way this can actually be seen as a good thing. The trials that we go through in everyday life only serve to make us stronger, while the dark periods make the happy moments seem that much more special and amazing. If we never faced and adversity, we’d be weak and easily hurt and life and wouldn’t be the complex tapestry of emotions and moments that it is.

Still, waxing philosophical about how the strife in life is actually beautiful isn’t going to make it any easier on us when we’re facing those tough challenges. The secret is just to know how to deal with these times, so that you can weather the storm and wait it out until things get better.

Because they will.

Until then…

Talk to Friends:       Friends play a number of important roles in our lives, but among the most important is being there to help us through our more difficult times. Your friends will often be able to help you physically and practically with any challenges you may come across – whether that means helping you move house by offering their lifting skills, or whether it means driving you tow work in the morning if your car isn’t available.

At the same time though your friends are also there to listen if you are struggling with something less concrete. Friends make the best listeners, and if you just need an ear then being able to talk through your issues can often make them seem a lot smaller and more manageable.

Talk to Strangers:

Don’t talk to just any stranger – that will likely only scare them. What you can do though, is talk to particular strangers whose job it is to listen or who have volunteered to do so. This might mean calling the Samaritans, or seeing a therapist. Don’t be proud – having a non-judgemental ear to listen can make all the difference.

Talk to God:

          While a therapist will listen and help you to cope, they won’t necessarily be able to answer every problem and some issues will still need to go to a higher authority. If you are religious, then spending some time alone in a church to talk to God, or just praying quietly at home can help to strengthen your resolve.

Come Up With a Plan:

All these suggestions however involve ‘weathering the storm’. While these methods are all very useful and can help a great deal though, they’re not particularly proactive. Instead then, why not try taking matters into your own hands by coming up with a concrete plan that you can put into action. It doesn’t even matter if this plan doesn’t work in fact – just the fact that you have one will help you to feel more in control and a lot more capable as a result.

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Today’s featured writer, Andy Depp, works as a counselor for a Christian church in London. He’s a very religious person and prays to god every evening at his local church.

Love Organic Gardening? So Do These A-List Celebrities!

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If you have a passion for growing your own organic produce at home, you may be interested to know you are in good company. A number of big name celebrities from around the world are also big fans of organic gardening and keep their own fruit and vegetable gardens. From Hollywood royalty to actual royalty, here are some of gardening’s most famous fans:

Julia Roberts’ Educational Organic Garden in Malibu

Oscar winner Julia Roberts started her organic garden not only as a way to help her family eat healthily, but also to teach her children about science and the origins of their food. She grows an assortment of vegetables, including organic kale and tomatoes in her organic garden at her Malibu home, however as this is one of only three of the star’s residences; we imagine she has some help to take care of her plants when she’s away or on location working on one of her movies!

Lucy Lawless’ Organic Paradise Down Under

Most famous for her role as Xena: Warrior Princess, actress and all round action woman Lucy Lawless is also becoming increasingly well known for her passion for the environment. She is an ambassador for Greenpeace, and insists on green rules, like the banning of Styrofoam cups and disposable plates on set when she is shooting. At her expansive 17,000 square foot residence in her native New Zealand, Lucy farms a variety of organic produce and has implemented plenty of green technology, like solar panels, so she can enjoy the celebrity lifestyle without harming the environment.

Nicole Kidman’s Hobby Garden

While she recently told Vogue magazine it was “just a hobby” and not the start of a new venture, Oscar winning A-list actress Nicole Kidman has recently joined her mother and sister in becoming an organic gardener. She started a food garden at her huge ranch in Tennessee, where she lives with her husband and two kids. Her whole family muck in with gardening tasks like planting and harvesting vegetables, deck cleaning and weeding, and enjoy the fresh organic produce that results from their hard work.

Prince Charles’ Lifelong Love of Gardening

Prince Charles was famous for his love of plants (and his rumoured habit of talking to them) long before it was cool to be into organic farming, and has been featured in books on organic gardening as one of the hobby’s biggest ambassadors. He has organic vegetable patches and fruit orchards at his royal properties, and even has his own brand of organic jams and other products. He uses completely organic methods for everything he grows to ensure his plants are completely natural, nourishing his plants with natural compost (perhaps produced by his horses) and even gathering rain water to use to water his plants instead of using tap water.

While you may not have the space and the money these famous names do to create the organic garden of your dreams, it is interesting to know that even the stars think it is important to know where your food comes from and eat well!

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Today’s feature writer, Daniel Morgan, is a home improvement expert at As Good As New. Daniel is a frequent blogger. Through his blogs, he likes to share tips on economical ways of home renovation with his readers.

Rhino Deck: Making Your Outdoor Space Come Alive

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The right landscaping can add a beautiful look and a lush, tranquil feel to your deck space. It can also provide valuable functions like shade and privacy. What’s more, outdoor gardens can provide herbs, fruits and vegetables.

Figuring out what landscaping will work best for your deck space can be a challenge. Rhino Deck offers the following ideas and advice for turning a bare bones outdoor structure into a garden oasis.

First, consider the function your landscaping will serve. Do you want to provide shade? Privacy? Are you looking to cover up gaps or spaces? Or do you just want to accent your space with colorful foliage and flowers?

If you’re looking to provide shade, building or remodeling your deck space around or near an existing tree with a large canopy is one option. Adding tall trees around an existing deck is another. You can also consider installing lattice panels in the sunniest spots, and training vines to climb to create a living wall. Rhino Deck offers durable, beautiful composite lattice panels ideal for just such a purpose.

Vine-covered lattice structures are also excellent for providing privacy. You can also create privacy by artfully placing potted plants in the deck’s interior to cover spaces between rails. For some extra fun and function, choose fruiting vines like tomatoes or peppers, or bushy herbs like lavender or rosemary to create your own vegetable or herb garden. For lower or platform decks, tall shrubs or a combination of trees and shrubs of varying heights can be planted around the perimeter to act as a natural screen.

If you’re simply looking to enhance your deck view with a beautiful garden space, the options are really only limited by your budget, your space and your imagination. Linear gardens work really well around decks, but a free-form garden with sprawling native plants or lush and dense tropical warm-weather plants can look just as lovely, and give you the feeling of being in a secluded natural setting.

Once you’ve decided what function you want your landscaping to serve, you must figure out what types of plants you’ll need to accomplish your goals. To do so, first study the sunlight and rainwater patterns of your deck space. Plants that need drier roots will need to be planted away from deck edges where water collects. Plants that require partial shade will thrive in your deck’s shadier spots, but wilt in full sun.

After you’ve determined what types of plants will be most successful in your space, you can begin choosing specific plants that meet your color, size and style preferences. Then you can map out where each plant will be placed. All that follows is to prep the area, plant your garden and watch your yard come to life.

If you need help designing or implementing a deck landscaping plan, contact a landscape architect or a local nursery for a consultation. For help building or remodeling a deck that perfectly complements and integrates with your landscaping, visit the Rhino Deck website. Rhino Deck offers the best composite decking materials. The company also provides a list of qualified builders and installers in your area.

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