Well, you've just spent an incredibly long week at work, shut inside your cubicle working on the quarterly report. You've had little time outside - basically the time it takes you to go from your house to the car to the office and back. By the end of the week you ate your lunch from the vending machine in the lounge rather than take the time to run out to visit your favorite hot dog vendor, just to get the work done. Now that you've finished and are ready for a much-needed and well-deserved weekend, you head home with nothing but relaxation on your mind.
Stepping into your apartment, you are greeted with a hungry cat (did you feed Speckles this week????), a basket of dirty laundry (the elves didn't pick it up?) and a dead houseplant. Not very inspiring.
Spruce It Up!
What to do? You've neither the desire nor cash to head out to the mountains for the weekend (packing, unpacking and then more laundry), but can't see spending a dreary two days with these uninspiring surroundings. It's easier than you think (and less expensive) to liven things up for yourself. Since you probably plan to eat this weekend and to do so must go to at least one store to get said food, take a look at what your friendly supermarket has to offer in respect to plants and flowers. Go ahead and buy yourself a bouquet. Get a big one that you can separate into smaller arrangements to spread throughout your home. Try again with the houseplants...pick out a few hardy looking ones and bring them back with you. Pick up a new watering can - just having something new to use can inspire you to actually use it. It's a lot more satisfying to water the plants with a groovy little watering can than with your coffee pot.
Once you've returned home with your new plants or flowers, open up! Even if it's hot or cold outside, it's a good idea to freshen up the place with some outside air. You may only be able to keep the windows open for a little while, but it will do you and your place a world of good. (Of course this wouldn't apply if you're currently in the midst of a dust storm, blizzard, hurricane, or plague of frogs...I would assume that if any of these things were happening you would not be looking to bring quite THAT much nature into your surroundings...)
If you've the benefit of a balcony, patio, or even a communal outdoor area where you live, take advantage of it. Get out there with a lawn chair and soak up some rays. You might discover that you have one or two interesting neighbors that are worth getting to know. One of them might even have some pointers for your houseplants. You could invite them over for a drink on those cool summer nights by your toasty chimenea; or you could plan a clean-up and planting day followed by a BBQ or a glass of wine or cup of coffee. You'll reap the benefits in more ways than one.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Furnished Home Improvement Facilities
So you have bought a house and furnished it with a lot of care. You hope to enjoy your days in this abode or maybe sell it for a much higher value subsequently. However, no amount of decoration will be useful for your house if you do not take pains to maintain it. Maintenance is a prime necessity for any house as not only can a poorly maintained house pose health hazards, but also get devalued in the real estate market. Maintenance can make your house look new all the time. Thus, it is crucial that you spend some time on this task and ensure peace of mind. This article can help you organize your maintenance work by giving you handy tips on the process.
It is needless to say that you should have a well thought out plan before you jump into the home maintenance sphere. A plan keeps you focused and also breaks up your work so that you do not get overwhelmed by the tasks. This plan should be geared towards your family's schedule and lifestyle. You have to decide on the best time to look into this aspect. Since, this might involve some time devotion on your part; you may want to schedule the work on weekends when you are relatively free. However, the plan cannot be too rigid as it will inevitably fail if you do not allow some flexibility of timings.
An important aspect of home maintenance is to really look around the house to check for areas that need special attention. Are your beautiful Amish handcrafted furniture pieces in need of retouching? Are some of your appliances not working properly? Is the lighting of your house uncomfortably dim? Make note of all the issues you notice. Even the ventilation, wires and other electric devices need to be checked for problems. Taking care of each of the furniture items, cleaning the bathrooms, kitchen and the rest of the rooms and maintaining the wall color of the house can take a lot of hard work and persistence on the home owner's part. Do you need to get the legs of your dining table repaired? It is important to check that none of the furniture or appliances in the house present any hazard to people. So look carefully and keep noting down everything.
Though the record of to-dos may overwhelm you at first, you have to be persistent. The only way to take care of all the issues is to start with the first one. So get that wiring fixed. Start cleaning your bathrooms and closets. Polish all the wooden furniture pieces. Clean your yard and check that the dish washer has no junk. Take the broken appliances to the professionals or replace them. Wash all the bed covers, pillow covers, sofa slips, curtains, drapes and any other decorative fabric. Make sure the bulbs are changed if the light is too dim and do get any wobbly dining room furniture fixed.
Once you are at it, you will find everything getting handled perfectly and before you know, your house will be a safe and lovely home again!
It is needless to say that you should have a well thought out plan before you jump into the home maintenance sphere. A plan keeps you focused and also breaks up your work so that you do not get overwhelmed by the tasks. This plan should be geared towards your family's schedule and lifestyle. You have to decide on the best time to look into this aspect. Since, this might involve some time devotion on your part; you may want to schedule the work on weekends when you are relatively free. However, the plan cannot be too rigid as it will inevitably fail if you do not allow some flexibility of timings.
An important aspect of home maintenance is to really look around the house to check for areas that need special attention. Are your beautiful Amish handcrafted furniture pieces in need of retouching? Are some of your appliances not working properly? Is the lighting of your house uncomfortably dim? Make note of all the issues you notice. Even the ventilation, wires and other electric devices need to be checked for problems. Taking care of each of the furniture items, cleaning the bathrooms, kitchen and the rest of the rooms and maintaining the wall color of the house can take a lot of hard work and persistence on the home owner's part. Do you need to get the legs of your dining table repaired? It is important to check that none of the furniture or appliances in the house present any hazard to people. So look carefully and keep noting down everything.
Though the record of to-dos may overwhelm you at first, you have to be persistent. The only way to take care of all the issues is to start with the first one. So get that wiring fixed. Start cleaning your bathrooms and closets. Polish all the wooden furniture pieces. Clean your yard and check that the dish washer has no junk. Take the broken appliances to the professionals or replace them. Wash all the bed covers, pillow covers, sofa slips, curtains, drapes and any other decorative fabric. Make sure the bulbs are changed if the light is too dim and do get any wobbly dining room furniture fixed.
Once you are at it, you will find everything getting handled perfectly and before you know, your house will be a safe and lovely home again!
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