HomeInspiring |
- Living with Pets: How to Remove Animal Odours from Your Home
- Update your Lounge for 2013 with New Accessories
- Energy Upgrades Add Value to Your Home
| Living with Pets: How to Remove Animal Odours from Your Home Posted: 04 Jan 2013 04:40 AM PST Having a pet can be one of the most rewarding experiences in the world, but they also take a lot of responsibility. Plus, if you are a proud homeowner, it can be difficult to get used to the mess that dogs and cats can make. They are also known for producing unpleasant smells, which are often a challenge to get rid of.
So to help, I’ve put together some suggestions on how you can remove animal odours from your house or flat. • Wash upholstery Something you can do regularly to reduce the strength of the scent in the air is wash your upholstery. So if you’ve got rugs and curtains, and you can remove your sofa cover, I would put these in the washing machine every few weeks. This will help to clean the items and give them a more pleasant smell that will then spread through the rest of the house. • Swap carpets for laminate floors A more long-term solution is to take off your carpets and replace them with a laminate floor. Carpet fibres can easily trap bad odours, and it can be difficult to get rid of these even with intense carpet shampooing. But with wooden or laminate floors, you can simply wipe and wash them regularly, and the smell won’t linger. If you’ve had a bad experience with training a puppy or a kitten (and who hasn’t?), you’ll know they can often have accidents and your carpet may sometimes end up being the victim of this. After they have gone to the toilet on your plush carpet, not only will the stain be difficult to remove, but the smell may never fully go away – or, from my experience, your room is left with a stench of bleach, which isn’t pleasant either. So, don’t hesitate in finding a new covering from websites likeUK Flooring Direct if you want to keep your floors looking pristine. • Buy neutralising odour sprays Not all pet owners have huge problems with the smell of their animals but just need a little help making their place smell a bit better; this is where neutralising odour sprays come in handy, as they help reduce the stench our furry friends can often leave. You can typically find these in pet stores, and are a quick fix solution to help you get rid of any unpleasant odours quickly. So if you’ve got friends coming over and you don’t have time to wash your upholstery, spray some of this around your house! • Use household items to help You don’t have to just buy specialised products to do this though, as there are a number of items you can find around the house that will help neutralise the smell. Vinegar is something you can use, and all you need to do is spray some on your dog or cat’s bedding and place some near the litter tray of your feline friends. If your pet has a little accident on the floor, it is worthwhile using some of this when cleaning it up to get rid of the lingering odour. And if you hate the smell of wet dogs, simply put some on your pooch when you rinse him or her after a wash. Baking soda and lemon juice are other good items to have around the house. The former can be sprinkled in litter boxes and bedding; you can also put some on carpets before vacuuming the area. Lemon juice is a pleasant smell itself, so it helps add a nice scent to the room. But don’t forget to place this high up so your pets don’t end up drinking it! |
| Update your Lounge for 2013 with New Accessories Posted: 04 Jan 2013 04:35 AM PST The new year is a great time to make changes in your life – I know that I always start January thinking I’ll join a gym, try a new hobby and fulfil goals. One thing you could do (and this will be a change you can realistically stick to) is redecorate your living room. If you’re keen on giving your home a revamp for 2013, read on to find out how you can do just that.
Get a new sofa I think that sofas can tell visitors a lot about a person and a shabby-looking couch can give off the impression that you don’t take pride in your appearance. While we all have the best intentions to keep couches looking their finest for years on end, this often doesn’t end up being the case, as it is one of the most used pieces of furniture in the house. If your sofa cover has been through the wash a number of times and still doesn’t look its best, it may be time to get a new one. Couches that are particularly popular in 2013 are corner sofas, and if you put one of these in your house, as it has lots of seats for your friends it could imply you’re a friendly, sociable person to anyone who visits – hardly a bad thing, is it? Repaint the walls Nothing makes a room feel like new than a fresh coat of paint, and if you’re thinking of adding a splash of colour to your living room walls next year, think carefully about what shade to go for. You should pick a colour that will be popular in 2013 – and hopefully for many years beyond that. The hue you choose will obviously depend on your decor and the rest of the house, but if you love greys, navy blues, emeralds and deep reds, you’ll be in luck, as these tones are going to be huge next year. These shades will look great in your living room if you have dark-coloured wooden furniture, tall traditional lamps and wooden floors. You could, of course, go in the completely opposite direction and paint your walls a crisp, clean white. This no longer has the clinical undertones that it once did and, instead, can create a fresh look to your room. This is one of my favourite colours to paint the walls, as you can put your personal stamp on the rest of the room with no restrictions – just think of all the decor you can get that will show off your character if you have a blank canvas to work with! Put up wall decorations 2013 also sees a variety of new and interesting wall decorations. You might have favourite pictures and photos hanging on the walls of your living room, but this is the time to think outside the box. This year will see people hanging plates, cushions, strange-looking clocks, fancy pin boards and decorative books on their walls. Short shelves are also popular, with these items being fitted in corners or in other locations where it can be inconvenient to position a large picture. You can place a couple of photo frames and ornaments on these, while you can pin pretty images and notes to yourself on your decorated pin board. Invest in floor lamps If I had to choose just one accessory for the living room, a lamp would be it. I can’t relax in the evenings if the main light is on, and have to switch on small lamps and lanterns around the room, as the soft lighting instantly makes me feel more calm and ready for an evening in. Luckily, these features will continue to remain popular in 2013, but there’s always an opportunity to replace your lamps. I’d love a Moroccan henna lamp in my lounge, as these create a fantastic, relaxed ambience with their low lights and pretty patterns. Other lamps that will be popular next year include tall traditional ones with large shades and lanterns that hang quite low – but be careful with these if you have tall people living in your house, as they might bang their head on the shade (which is often made from metal!). |
| Energy Upgrades Add Value to Your Home Posted: 04 Jan 2013 04:11 AM PST Let’s be honest, when you’re buying a home, you don’t often think about selling it yet. Yet, the statistics show that quite many home owners stay in their homes only up to five years. That means that making big upgrades to your home doesn’t always seem like a too good idea – after all, if you’re likely to leave in couple of years, investments in your home don’t seem likely to pay off in the long run. But maybe, just maybe you could reconsider that thought.
Partly, of course, you could be right. Take two houses, side by side, built the same year, looking very similar, but one house sold at a price higher than the other one. At first glance the cheaper one might look better for the buyer, but at a closer inspection, the one with a higher price tag makes more sense. How? The answer is simple – one is simply more energy efficient. And even if we forget all about being green, it all comes down to money. How much less will you be paying for your energy, how much less will you end up paying for your utility bills, how much more comfortable will your life be with more energy efficient home. And that’s what it’s all about. When selling your home, you simply need to make the buyers well aware of it, the buyers as well as the real estate agents and appraisers. For more information about it you can read the articles you can find at www.johnsoncontrols.com/panoptix. Johnson Controls, by the way, is a company that helps you improve your energy efficiency and their Panoptix solution is a way to track the performance of all of your systems real time. Panoptix gives you the information you need to track the building performance and reduce the energy usage based on the data you get through it. Learn more about it here - Disclosure: This post was requested by an advertiser. |
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