organize — Home and Garden Diva

Top Tips That Will Make Your Kitchen Easier To Work In

How many times has someone said to you ‘the trick is to wash up your dishes right after you’ve eaten?’. It sounds like good advice sure, but what these smug friends don’t seem to take into account is that it’s not always quite that simple. For instance, it might be that you often watch TV while you eat and that you want to watch the rest of the program before you do the washing up. Alternatively it might be that once you’ve sat down, you suddenly feel too tired to get up and do the washing up after your long day of work and cooking.

Finally though, it might just be that you don’t enjoy washing up because your kitchen is too crowded to make it easy. If you have a small or badly designed kitchen, then what’s already a tough and unpleasant job can become unbearable. Here we will look at some of the ways you can make your kitchen more conducive to work, including washing up.

Work Zones

No matter the work you are doing in the kitchen you will find you need work zones. Work zones are areas that you can stand to work and ideally you should be able to reach more than one surface as well as some kind of appliance. In other words a good work zone might enable you to reach two or three bare surfaces and the hob. This way you can chop vegetables, stir a broth and drop things into a bowl all at once. When you first come up with your kitchen design you should try to think about where the work zones are going to be and how you can include more if possible. Using a kitchen island is one great way to add reachable surfaces at multiple points around the kitchen.

Organize Your Small Appliances

Blenders, toasty makers and coffee machines are all great things to add to your kitchen that can help you to get more from it and provide better for guests. However they also have a downside which is to clutter your surfaces and make it harder to keep things clean. Keep them organized by providing storage for them, and make sure that there aren’t too many wires draped across your surfaces.

Have a Good Draining Rack

For washing up specifically a good draining rack is important and you should make sure that this provides enough space to keep all of your items on easily without it becoming overcrowded. A bowl in your sink can also help with the washing up.

Make Everything Accessible

While you should try to keep things out of the way and off the surfaces you should also ensure that you can quickly access anything you need to from the appliances to crockery and utensils. If you have to root around for ages to find a knife or climb up onto a step ladder to get the tinned beans then you’ll find that more often than not you end up just making ready meals instead…

Attached Images:

License: Creative Commons image source
License: Creative Commons image source

Gary Mint ia an interior designer. His area of interest is the kitchen. He loves to come up with new ideas for kitchen remodelling and is a firm believer in the concept of a spacious kitchen. His other interests include cycling and swimming.

Conquering The Clutter In Kids’ Rooms

by Trish

A room that is dedicated for your kids should be the most adaptable space in the house. It should work as a playroom that can accommodate a wide variety of toys. An art studio, where the kids can let loose of their inner Picasso or Van Gogh. In the next instant, a clubhouse where your young ones can meet and interact with their friends. And, of course, a space to rest, somewhere to dress and, probably, provide a modest nook for reading and studying.

When a single room has to fulfill all the aforesaid functions, efficient storage and organization are necessary. However, keeping a kid’s room organized doesn’t necessarily mean it should appear like an adult’s room or a boring bedroom. You can make it both fun and organized by taking these tips to heart.

Consider child-friendly storage

To keep the organization inside a children’s room, the storage solutions available should meet your children’s needs and style. Hence, avoid using adult organizing systems, such as sticky dresser drawers that can be cumbersome for small hands to manage or closet hanging rods that are too high up and out of reach.

To make stuff more accessible for young children, invest in open shelves whose surfaces are easy to clean. Or, opt to remove the doors of existing closets to prevent pinching fingers. Try to lower clothing rods and use child-sized hangers to hold children’s clothing. As for the toys, corral them in floor-level open containers or bins.

Organize from down up

To complement the short stature of kids, the best way to organize the things inside their room is to start the process from the bottom and work your way to the top. That is, keep frequently used toys and belongings on the lower shelves, drawers or on the floor. Less-frequently used objects, on the other hand, should be designated to higher levels of the storage systems.

Don’t forget to add labels

To make your life easier when it’s time to clean and sort your kids’ stuff, put labels everywhere: on boxes, bookcases, shelf edges, bins and inside and outside of drawers. You can make the labels more appealing by printing out images of shirts, toys, socks, blocks, etc. These pictures will also make it easier for young kids to determine where they should put things after use. For older children, you can help enhance their reading skills by using labels with large-type words.

Establish a clean-up routine

Depending on your children’s ages, they could help you with the process of organizing and decluttering. So if you have older kids, teach them a clean-up routine that they can easily follow through. For instance, a few minutes in the morning should be spared for tending to their beds, such as straightening the comforters or returning the pillows in place. And before they dress up for bed, there should be an evening routine where they pickup their toys and place those items in their corresponding storage solutions. If you have younger children, however, you will have to clean the space yourself. So squeeze this into your schedule to avoid their stuff from accumulating.

This home organization advice was contributed by Ericka in behalf of www.heritagecleaning.co.uk. Ericka has been writing articles about a wide variety of topics for some years now. However, she is particularly interested in writing insightful posts related to home improvement and gardening.

4 Crucial Things To Organize Before You Throw The Garden Party Of The Year

by Trish

One of the most exciting things you can ever do is throw a garden party for all your friends. It gives you the chance to invite people you don’t get to spend quality time with. Everyone can come together and have a huge celebration. The garden is the obvious place to have it because you don’t want your home destroyed, but at the same time you are never more than 10 meters away from the comfort of your castle. Have a party somewhere else and it doesn’t feel the same. It might be great, but it just won’t feel the same.

The only thing you need to remember is that it has to be well-planned. You can’t just expect everyone to come around and stand about in your garden. If you want it to be amazing there’s some things you need to do and they might need to be done well in advance. You don’t want to run around at the last minute when you should be getting ready to burst open a cold bottle of beer. Grab your pen and paper so you can write these down and get on them straight away. Just don’t be surprised if you’re asked to host a lot more parties in the future.

Book a tent

This one is the most important out of the lot. You definitely can’t expect all your guests to stand outside when it’s raining. Who knows when there will be a downpour at this time of year? If you have a tent erected somewhere in the garden it means you have somewhere to sit if the worst happens. It’s also a good idea to keep the food undercover. If your garden is big it saves you running backwards and forwards to the kitchen all the time. Once you book one they will come and put it up for you before your party starts.

Hire a big barbeque

This is going to depend on how many people will be at the party. If there’s only a few people you might get away with using a small barbecue you have lying around, but if there’s lots of people you don’t want them to go hungry. That’s why you should have a big barbecue and there will always be plenty of food sizzling away. If you wanted to be really fancy you could even hire someone to come out and cook everything for you. Find out the costs and see if it fits into your budget.

Have lots of lighting

People need to see what they’re doing. It’s nice to look someone in the eye when you’re talking to them instead of staring into the pitch black. You have many options to choose from. If there’s lots of trees lying around in your garden you can hang lights from them. There’s also the solar powered LED ones that you can stick into the ground. Just make sure they’ve been set-up for a few days so you know they are working, plus it gives them a chance to absorb some sunlight. Apparently solar powered lights need this. Who knew?

Make sure everything is safe

The final thing you have to do is to make sure everything is safe. There’s also inviting people and buying alcohol, but I’m sure you can manage that. How can you make sure everything is safe? Well start by clearing the garden so people don’t trip up on anything. If you have a swimming pool you should have a rope around it. The last thing you need is someone falling into the water and no-one seeing what happened. Make sure all electrical cables are tucked away and covered. Make sure you do these four things then you can worry about the entertainment.

Attached Images:

License: Creative Commons image source
License: Creative Commons image source
License: Creative Commons image source

David Hall is a home improvement expert and knows how to organize parties properly. If you too are planning to throw a party then do visit www.portablesheltersonline.com for more information.

How to Make Moving Home Less Stressful

by Trish

Moving home is one of the most stressful experiences life has to offer, along with getting married and the loss of a loved one. As with everything, there are certain things you can do to make the experience go a lot smoother and reduce some of the stress. Try following these simple steps to help make sure your move goes to plan!

Have Back-Up Plans

You may have the perfect vision planned out for the day of your move, but life has its own plans, which will almost certainly throw a spanner in the works and veer something off course. If you’re lucky, your day will go exactly as planned, but it’s almost certain that at least one thing will go wrong – so be prepared and have a contingency plan for every step of the journey!

Hire Professional Movers

It’s tempting to try to skimp on costs and recruit friends and family to help you make the move, but with such a momentous and stressful task, it’s much easier to hire a professional removal company. Professional movers have moving home down to an art: they can supply you with everything you need to get packed up and ready to go, and then they’ll do all the heavy lifting and deal with the transportation of your stuff. If you really can’t afford to hire professionals, then you should definitely make sure you over-recruit on the friends and family front! There are sure to be things you’ve overlooked, or things that take longer than planned, so it can’t hurt to have extra people on hand to help – they probably won’t end up being “extra” after all!

Allow Plenty of Time to Pack

Packing is probably the part people dread the most about moving home. Just how exactly do you box up your entire life? Allow yourself plenty of time to get everything done when you know for sure that the move will be going ahead.

Organise Your Packing

By allowing yourself plenty of time to pack, you’ll have the leisure of organising your boxes properly, making the transition into your new home much smoother. Before you even get started with packing, you should declutter your entire home and get rid of anything you won’t need in your new house. Anything you haven’t used for months, or even years, can be donated to charity or sold beforehand – that way you’ll have that much less to pack! You should also pack by room and category so you know where to find things as you get settled into your new place.

Keep Essentials Close

The things you use regularly – at least once every day – should be kept nearby. Either keep these things with you when you travel yourself, or pack them last so they’re the first thing to emerge when you unpack. Having toiletries and kitchen utensils you use every day close to hand will mean your regular day-to-day activities such as washing and cooking won’t get thrown off track by the move. And don’t forget to pack the toilet paper last of all!

Attached Images:

License: Creative Commons image source
License: Creative Commons image source
License: Creative Commons image source
License: Creative Commons image source

Matthew Sanders, the author of this article is a very perceptive man. He is working with MetroMovers, a removal company in Sydney. They are known to provide the best service that too at affordable prices.

Five Feng Shui Techniques That Will Help The Energy Flow In Your Home

by Trish

The art of feng shui is a way of decorating as to bring positive feelings and joy into a home. When you fung shui your home a person can find health and prosperity. Feng shui can be used in a variety of environments from office building to homes. The following feng shui home techniques will help you to enjoy your home more.

There are five ways that you can fung shui your home.

Clear Clutter: The first step is to clear the clutter, this means removing everything from the house that is not wanted. This can be done by organizing and then discarding the unwanted items. This is one of the most important steps and is a must.
Change Colors: The second step is to change the colors; this can be done by applying a coat of paint. Color is important when it comes to fung shui your home. There are five elements of color Fire, Earth, Metal, Water and Wood. The colors of fire can be seen in Red, Orange, Purple, Pink, and Strong Yellow. The colors of Earth are seen with Light Yellow and Beige and other Earth or Sand colors. Metal is the third color in the feng shui home technique with the colors of Gray and White. Fourth feng shui home technique color is water which is found in Blue and Black. The final color in fung shui is Wood featured in the colors Brown and Green.
Organize the Room: The third step is to organize the bedroom to allow for positive airflow by ensuring that your feet do not face the door when lying on the bed. The bedroom must also have an equal number of items beside the bed.
Close the Lid: The bathroom is the fourth way can be accomplished by closing the lid on the toilet and the door closed is a way to keep the good luck from going down the drain.
Clawfoot Bathtubs: The fifth way to fung shui your home is in the bathroom by adding clawfoot bathtubs. The clawfoot bathtubs which feature round corners can add a balanced flow.

A person can find that using these feng shui home techniques will help fung shui your home. A happier, healthier and more prosperous home can be achieved when using these tips. The addition of clawfoot bathtubs to your home will help with the flow of energy in the bathroom.

Lila is home decor specialist and blogger. For more information about improving your home please visit simplybathtubs.com

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