• Home
  • Blog
  • Archive
  • Links
  • About
  • Guest Blogger
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy

Home and Garden Diva

  • Home and family
  • Health and Fitness
    • Beauty
  • Home Improvement
  • Entertainment
  • House and Home
You are here: Home / Archives for clean

Learning to Let Go – How to Transition to a More Minimalist Decor

by The Diva




We all know the benefits of a minimalist décor and almost every home improvement site you read about it seems is currently pushing the idea very heavily. Minimalist interiors are fashionable and modern, they’re easy to look after and keep clean, they’re efficient and they’re inexpensive. Meanwhile it’s easy to move home when you have less in it to move, and the items you do have suddenly take on more importance and drawing more eyes.

But there’s one problem – and that’s that you probably like your stuff, and suddenly having to get rid of it all can feel a bit painful and heartless. Here then I’m going to talk you into deciding to take the plunge and make the split, and at the same time show you how you can lessen the pain of separation….

Ornaments: Here’s step one – take everything on your surfaces that is either a: candle holder, placemat, vase, photo frame, tissue box, fruit bowl or non-essential lamp and put it in a box on your wardrobe overnight. Now spend some time in your room and see how it feels – nice and clean feeling isn’t it? Knowing this, you should now put back just a few – two decoration per half a surface maximum – and make sure to cut down your things by at least half.

Collections: The urge to collect is something that leads to a lot of clutter but it can be overcome. First of all note that if you thin out your collections and display just the pride of your collections that you will immediately make that one item seem that much more important and special. If you have a collection of blue and white china then for instance this can just look cluttered and dusty on a shelf whereas just one single nice blue and white bowl that you’re incredibly proud of can make a real statement and stand out. Likewise rather than having a collection of hundreds of DVDs you don’t really care that much about, how about having just a select few that create a picture of who you are and the kind of things you enjoy?

Boxes: You may think that having boxes full of junk on your wardrobes or in the loft won’t affect your décor – but you’d be wrong. Even though you can’t see this stuff, just having it there is enough to prevent you putting other things away, while having boxes on wardrobes and under beds means there’s less clear space in your visual field which we still register as clutter. If you have a box of old things that you haven’t been in for the last year then you should simply take it down, remove anything valuable or sentimental and throw it out. The point here is that if you haven’t used it in that long, you probably won’t use it again anytime soon either. And if you do find you suddenly need whatever it is? Then you can probably buy a new one.

Stop Buying: Of course to limit your clutter you also need to stop adding to it. One easy way to do this is with a ‘one in, one out’ rule, which simply means that for every new item you buy and display, you have to remove one old one to make space. This forces you to think more carefully about purchases and means you can’t amass too much.

Hi, I am Anne Warren and I write home improvement articles. I am passionate about home decor and share my experiences through guest posting. I choose Central Heating Boilers to get all info on central heating types, providers of home heating solutions.

Filed Under: A clean home, Home Improvement Tagged With: clean, clear, clutter, Home Improvement, minimalist decor

Keeping a leather couch clean

by The Diva

I’m trying to figure out how to clean my leather couches. I’ve had them for about six years – maybe longer and well .. when we first got them I used to clean them regularly with the cleaning fluid that came with them, but of course I ran out of that stuff and never replaced it and slowly slacked off in my cleaning of the leather surfaces.

I think that was a big mistake. Not only does that couch look kind of beat up and aged (to some degree) but I think there’s a stain in one area so now I need to try to remove a leather stain. That’s what I get for slacking off! If I get the couch clean and looking good again I’m going to clean it regularly again so that it never looks like this again.

Do you have a leather couch? Do you try to clean it regularly too?

Filed Under: A clean home, Furniture, Home and family, Home Improvement, Items to Try Tagged With: clean, cleaning, cleaning fluid, couch cleaner, leather couch, leather stain, regular cleaning, stain, stain remover

Tingly fresh skin

by The Diva

I’m having a night in – it seems. My husband is out of town tonight. Well – he should be home any minute, but who knows.

To keep myself occupied, and to take care of my skin I decided to give myself an at home facial. I gave myself a facial massage, and then I followed it up with a facial mask for 15 minutes.

Ah – that feels good. My skin is tingly and fresh. Oh and squeaky clean. Then, to top things off I followed my facial up with a good moisturizer. Now as I wait for my husband to get home I’m reading about wrinkle creams and treatments. If you want you can learn more by reading this site too.

Now if my husband ever gets here we can watch Glee! I hope he’s not too tired when he gets home.

Filed Under: Beauty, Health and Fitness, Home and family, Items to Try, Skin Care Tagged With: clean, face, facial, facial mask, frsh, good moisturizer, home, husband, moisturizer, tingly, treatment, waiting, wrinkle creams

Kitchen cupboards and fridge need a good cleaning

by The Diva

Sometime in the near future- probably this month, my kitchen is going to get a thorough cleaning out.

By this I mean, not only scrubbing the floors, the oven and counters, but I plan on emptying out the fridge and all of the cupboards.

Unless you have a bare fridge, I think most of us can say that we all have a jar or two or ten that has been sitting in the back of the fridge or in the fridge door for God only knows how long. Did you know that most items such as jams, mayonnaise and relishes are only good for three or four months once they’re opened? If you’re like us and you don’t us them up that fast they could be in the fridge a heck of a lot longer than that, right? Not good.

So between the fridge and all the stuff I find in the back of our cupboards I’m sure there will be a lot of stuff thrown out. I know there are things in my cupboards that I haven’t used in years. That includes foods like muffin mixes and small appliances.

Once I do get around to clearing out my cupboards I might take a serious look at my pots and pans. I have Lagostina pots and I love them, but they’re getting old or at least some of the ones that I use most often are getting a little worn out. Maybe I could add one or two new pieces of enamel cookware to my collection? I know I’ll have more room for them once the cupboards get cleared out.

Whens the last time you totally cleaned out your fridge and or cupboards? Big job, isn’t it?

Filed Under: A clean home, Home and family, Home Improvement, Items to Try, Kitchen Tagged With: back of fridge, clean, clean out, counters, empty, floors, fridge, jars, Kitchen, kitchen cupboards, old, old food, oven, scrub, thorough, unused

Time to use the steam cleaner in the bathroom

by The Diva

In early January I bought a general purpose steam cleaner. It’s a Shark model. I’ve only had a chance to use it once so far and the results weren’t quite as good as I was expecting.

One my first attempt using the steam cleaner I went after the backsplash tiles in the kitchen, the stove and the fridge. The cleaner worked great on the stove and the fridge. It really got the grime out of the corners and crevices on both appliances.

The backsplash tiles in the kitchen were another matter. I used the scrubbing attachment on the steamer to try to clean the grout area between the tiles and while the grout did look cleaner where I worked at it they didn’t look anywhere near as clean as I’d hoped.

I guess I was hoping that using the steamer once on the tiles would remove years of grime that had built up on the grout. I guess I’m going to have to get some kind of grout cleaner to clean the grout between the backsplash tiles and then I can use the Shark Steamer to maintain the clean look.

One my next attempt to use the Shark steamer I’m going to tackle the bathroom. The grout in the bathroom isn’t that bad, but it could use a good cleaning. What I really want to clean in there is the silicone seal between the tub and the shower wall tiles. It looks like it has mildew in some areas and the steamer should at least help kill the mildew … and hopefully remove it too.

Actually almost all of our upstairs bathroom is tile of some kind or another. The tub/shower area is tiles up to the ceiling and then the walls have tile that goes from the ground up to about 4.5 feet in height. (our Kitchen is like that too .. I guess the former home owners really liked tile?). The bathroom floor has those tiny square floor tiles and yes, the grout between those tiles could use a very good cleaning too.

Hopefully I’ll find the time this weekend to get the steam cleaner out and try it out in the bathroom. It’s a shame that I’ve only used it once since I bought it.

Do you have a general purpose steamer that you use to clean the bathroom, tiles, appliance and perhaps even the floor? If so, what kind do you have and are you happy with it’s performance?

Filed Under: A clean home, Appliances, Bath and Shower, Home and family, Home Improvement, Items to Try, Kitchen Tagged With: bathroom, clean, cleaner, dirty grout, floor tiles, fridge, grout, grout cleaner, Kitchen, mildew, results, Shark steam cleaner, steam, stove, tiles

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2

Connect with Us

  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Categories

Sites to Visits

pool leak detection – colin irons is the leader in pool repair and replacement

Recent Posts

  • How to Use and Maintain a Moroccan Rug
  • Bathroom Remodeling Requires A Plan Before Taking Any Actions
  • How To Update Your Kitchen Without Spending A Fortune?
  • Four Awesome Ways To Get Rid Of Stretch Marks
  • Boutique Real Estate: How Stephen Finfer and Others Are Revolutionizing the L.A. Housing Market
  • Improve Your Home With Window Furniture
  • The Male Guide To Jewellery

Recent Comments

  • The start of another Staycation — Home and Garden Diva on I can’t believe I have Arthritis in my knee
  • Making Sure Your Garden Is Safe This Summer — You are in My World Now on Keeping Your Pool Area Safe, Comfortable And Fun For All The Family!
  • Nicola Jackson on Turn Your House Into A Home By Making It As Comfortable As Possible To Live In
  • will on Turn Your House Into A Home By Making It As Comfortable As Possible To Live In
  • The Diva on Eight Tips For Home Office Design
  • The Diva on I think we need to do more renovations
  • Home and Garden Blogger on I think we need to do more renovations

Subscribe

Subscribe to our RSS Feed - FREE!
Subscribe by Email. It's FREE!
Follow me on Twitter!

Traffic Stats

0fdbcc8c9b8460df11a3387ae0a92e72-332

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Tags

basement bed bedroom clean cleaning clutter dog exercise family fitness flowers friends Furniture garden Health help home house husband ideas Kitchen laptop Lighting money Music neighborhood neighbors party plants room Shopping sick skin spring summer tips tired Toronto Travel tv Vacation walking warm winter work

Pages

  • About
  • Archive
  • Become a Guest Blogger For Home and Garden Diva
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Links
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 · Lifestyle Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in