DIY Kid Friendly Home Solutions

Keeping your home in order can be especially difficult once children enter the picture. Whether you have babies or school-aged children, it translates into needing more storage, and needing to stay more organized. Keeping track of all your kids’ things is essential if you are to keep up with their lives and yours.

Start by assessing your everyday problems. Do they come home from school and immediately destroy your house with school work, coats, shoes, socks, back packs and hats? Finding ways to easily organize your kids’ things can help you to keep your house straight, cut down on frustrations and avoid losing things that you need as they’re running out the door in the morning.

Building lockers for the kids’ things can be extremely helpful. You can encourage them to use them by making them easy to access. Put them right inside the front door or mudroom, where ever they normally enter the house. Think of clever ways to make it work. For example, you can put a bench seat there for them to sit and remove their shoes. Shoe cubbies are great for drying out wet shoes and keeping them in a good place for morning.

Coat hooks, or hanging bars are essential for keeping your home decluttered. Once they throw those coats on the chair, it becomes a logical place for them to throw everything else. Encourage them to hang their coats on the hook or hanger as soon as they enter the house.

You will need another hook or large cubby for backpacks. You may decide to put another shelf there for important things like extra pens and pencils, other school supplies, their lunch money, lunch boxes, or other items that you don’t want them to forget in the morning. This little step will reduce clutter on your countertops, coffee table, end tables, and other flat surfaces in the home. Plus, it will make school mornings easier to manage and everything will have a place.

In the summer, you can use the cubbies to keep pool toys, towels, sunscreen, sports equipment, and other summer fun items organized. You are sure to find a plethora of uses for your cubby locker system.

If you have a baby in the home, having a locker system can help you keep all of those necessities organized. Extra diapers, wipes, blankets, changing pads, and clothes can be kept right by the door. Baskets can help you to disguise these items so that they don’t make the room look tacky. Diaper bags can be kept by the door so that you can grab them at a moment’s notice.

Make sure that everything coming into your house has a place. Wastebaskets, camera chargers, key hooks, and a coat closet with plenty of clothes hangers or coat hangers can help you stay organized. Make a point of having a place for everything and your life and the lives of your children will surely run more smoothly.

About the Author: Joe Granville is on the staff of Only Hangers, a leading online resource for wood hangers, coat hangers and all types of clothes hangers which is recognized for the excellent quality and value of its wood hanger and coat hanger offerings. For more information, please visit http://www.onlyhangers.com.

How to Revamp Your Closet

Now is the perfect time of year to give your closet a facelift. The winter clothes are coming out of storage, the holidays are in full swing, and we need to make room for the new things that will be coming into the house. Follow these simple steps to get your closet in order and keep things organized this year.

The first thing to do is to get your winter clothes out and get them organized. Some things you may pull out and realize that you really don’t care for them anymore. They may be out of style, misshapen from being in storage, they don’t fit anymore, or you’re simply just not interested in the garment. Don’t waste closet space on things like this.

Only hang what you really love and see what that looks like in your closet. Do you need some more staples? Some long-sleeved t-shirts, undershirts, layering sweaters and jeans are just some of the basics that you’ll need to keep or replace. The rest of those winter clothes that you’re not sure about can go. Donate them to a charitable organization or ask friends and family if they would like to take some. Have a yard sale to make money for Christmas.

Now do the same thing with the summer clothes that you took out. Go through and get rid of what you didn’t wear or didn’t enjoy wearing last summer. Don’t waste the storage space by keeping more than you need. Clear out all that you can, including shoes, worn out flip-flops, extra tote bags, and old purses. People tend to keep things that are still good, even if they don’t need them. Get rid of as much as possible and your closet will thank you.

Get a good storage system going. A rolling garment rack makes a great place to store clothes that need to stay hung. Large, shallow containers that seal are great for storing clothes under your bed. You can use risers or bed feet that raise your bed up so that you have more storage room underneath.

Now that you’ve thinned the herd, get ready to create a scheme that will help you stay organized. Categorize your winter clothing so that it is easy to find what you need and easy to hang clean clothes when they come out of the laundry. In the winter, it is generally best to hang shirts from warmest to lightest so that you can easily grab what you’ll need.

Hang pants together on pants hangers. A wood hanger is best for hanging heavy canvas pants or jeans while a suit hanger is best for hanging suit pants. Use an actual coat hanger for your coats so that the shoulders don’t get misshapen while they’re hanging. Your hangers should meet the needs of the wardrobe. Clothes hangers come in a lot of different styles, so compare your wardrobe to the ones available on the market to get the best fit.

About the Author: Joe Granville is on the staff of Only Hangers, a leading online resource for wood hangers, coat hangers and all types of clothes hangers which is recognized for the excellent quality and value of its wood hanger and coat hanger offerings. For more information, please visit http://www.onlyhangers.com.

10 Easy Home Improvements

1. Painting is the easiest way to give your home a facelift. It is relatively easy, inexpensive and can make a huge difference in the way a room looks. It will look fresh and clean when you are done. You can also add crown moulding or paint trim a contrasting color to make the new color pop.

2. After you paint, replace light switches, outlets and plates. You will be surprised how much better a room looks when you get rid of those old and dingy switches. Many people skip this step and it just takes attention away from the clean feeling of a freshly painted room.

3. Replace old lighting to make the room look even better. Not only are newer fixtures more energy efficient, but they are also safer. If you are sensitive to bright lights, remember to select light fixtures that point upwards toward the ceiling, or that are encompassed in a frosted globe. Interesting lighting and fixtures can dramatically change the feeling of a room.

4. New shower curtain and bath mats in the bathroom can go a long way. Solid white makes a bathroom look super clean and bright. It even gives the illusion of space. You may want to paint the walls a contrasting, darker color to make the white really shine.

5. Tile a small room. It doesn’t take much time or money to replace a small bathroom floor. If you are new to tiling, do a practice run on a board in your garage or outside. See if you are happy with the results before you commit to the whole bathroom.

6. Replacing your front door can add value and beauty to the entrance of your home. It can also be better insulated than your old door and save you money on your power bills. Since the front door is the first thing that people see when they come to your house, a really nice one can have a big impact on how people view your home.

7. Replace blinds with shades or curtains to update the room. You can sew your own to create a unique atmosphere and save money. Drapes can be purchased with thermal backing to keep heat out.

8. Upgrade faucets in your bathrooms and kitchen. It makes your house look great. If you are having surprise company, quickly wipe down counters and your faucets will take attention away from other messes.

9. Clean house! Decluttering and getting rid of junk is the simplest way to make your house look bigger, nicer and more inviting.

10. Organize closets to finish off the home. Toss out old clothes hangers and invest in some high-end hangers. Use a special coat hanger for heavy coats to help them keep their shape and not end up on the floor. The wood hanger will make your closet appear orderly and streamlined. You’ll be surprised how much of a difference nice clothes hangers can make!

About the Author: Joe Granville is on the staff of Only Hangers, a leading online resource for wood hangers, coat hangers and all types of clothes hangers which is recognized for the excellent quality and value of its wood hanger and coat hanger offerings. For more information, please visit http://www.onlyhangers.com.

Optical Illusions to Create Space

Whether you’re remodeling for fun, to create more usable space, or to prepare your home for selling, you can always benefit from adding some roomy touches. If you don’t have the money to add on rooms or do a major remodel, you can still create the feeling and the look of extra space by following these guidelines.

1) Use colors that open up a room.

Color is the easiest thing to change in a room. Designers use the concept of creating space with color all the time. Small rooms are cramped and uncomfortable. The right colors give a room the feeling of spaciousness. To understand how it works, think of dark colors closing in on you, creating darkness and oppression. Light colors make it hard to distinguish exactly how far away they are. Using light colors that mimic natural light will make this effect even more prevalent. Light blues, gentle corals, and hints of lavender are good choices. To make a wall seem even further away, paint trim and crown moulding white. Decorate with white picture frames, throw pillows and rugs.

2) Utilize natural light.

Replace drapes with light, airy sheer curtains. You want natural light to fill the room, creating the feeling of being outside. If you have blinds, open them up. If you are replacing windows, go for ones without the grates. This gives the room an uninterrupted view of the outside. If there isn’t enough natural light in a room, consider adding in some recessed lighting. You can add lights to the room that have a pink hue, simulating the warm light that is normally produced by the sun. The more feelings of outside you can incorporate the better.

3) Use appropriate furniture.

Furniture can quickly fill a room and seem oppressive. Choose furniture that is light in color, or that is almost the same color as your wall. Choose items that are as short as possible. If you have a tall armoire or bookshelf, add some light around it. You can install small lights on the bookshelves or small spotlights from the ceiling to help down-play the oppressive effect. Use glass tables and cabinet doors whenever possible to keep from cutting off the eye at the front of the furniture piece. Tables and couches that sit on legs allow the eye to keep moving when it meets the furniture. Skirts on couches and tablecloths make a room seem smaller.

4) Position your furniture well.

A general rule of thumb is to put furniture on your longest walls. Don’t put couches and chairs diagonally in corners or in the middle of the room. The shortest walls in the room should be as empty as possible. Also, if you have a choice, put furniture near a window. This will help keep the area open and airy, despite the big piece of furniture.

5) Don’t neglect closets and corners.

Closets should be pained a lighter color than the rest of the room. Corners should be kept empty if at all possible. Install extra lighting to keep these areas from seeming dark and cramped. Spruce up your coat closet with some white wood hangers. Coat hangers that all match and stay spaced out on the bar keep your coat closet looking orderly and uniform.

Follow these rules and you can add the illusion of square footage to any room, without spending a lot of money.

About the Author: Joe Granville is on the staff of Only Hangers, a leading online resource for wood hangers, coat hangers and all types of clothes hangers which is recognized for the excellent quality and value of its wood hanger and coat hanger offerings. For more information, please visit http://www.onlyhangers.com.

Green Home Improvement

Tackling home improvement projects can be a great learning experience, profitable, and fun. You can also help the environment, air quality in your home, and cut down on energy costs by making some environmentally friendly choices. Incorporate as many green options as you can when beautifying your home. Here we will discuss ways that you can make your home more energy efficient.

Let’s take the master bedroom, for example. Do you have crown moulding? If you didn’t install the crown moulding yourself, you may want to take a peek behind there. Some drywallers have been known to install drywall flush with the floor instead of lifting the piece up to the ceiling. They can only get away with this if they know that crown moulding is going up to cover the laziness. You could have as much as a two inch gap between the ceiling and drywall, making your heating and cooling bills through the roof, literally.

Painting a room is the fastest way to give it a facelift. Regular paint produces dangerous chemicals called volatile organic compounds, or VOCs. VOCs are chemically similar to smog. They linger in the air of rooms painted with ordinary paint for months. A more environmentally friendly option would be to use a “low VOC” or no “VOC paint”. Be aware that when you add a color to the low or no VOC paint, that you are adding more VOCs to it. Some paints are colored with a dye powder, like “Freshaire” brand paint, and stay truly VOC free after colorization.

Replacing old windows with energy efficient ones can save a lot on energy bills. You can caulk around the window to ensure that it is properly sealed. You may have to remove the window facings to do this. Energy efficient windows insulate as well as reflect radiant heat from the sun.

Also, check behind your light switches and electrical outlets. Contractors and builders are only required to meet minimum standards for air draft control around outlets and switches. It may seem insignificant, but this could be equivalent to leaving an exterior door cracked open three inches all the time. Turn off the power, remove the covers, and replace them with insulated ones.

Replace incandescent light bulbs with fluorescent or LED bulbs. This will cut down on energy usage and radiant heat. Install a ceiling fan if you don’t have one already. They use minimal energy and can make you feel 3 degrees cooler in your bedroom.

When you are done, accessorize and decorate your new master bedroom. Get rid of plastic and wire hangers, replacing them with wood hangers. A more environmentally friendly option would be to choose bamboo hangers. You can buy furniture made from renewable resources, like bamboo, or from reclaimed and recycled products.

You could be eligible for a tax credit of up to $1,500, or 30% of your purchase price for energy efficient home improvements. The stimulus covers things like good energy rated air conditioning units, hot water heaters, energy efficient window and insulation. Families in a low income bracket can also get money for weatherizing their homes. This money can be applied to energy efficient heating and cooling systems, air filters, energy efficient windows and insulation, up to $5,000.

About the Author: Joe Granville is on the staff of Only Hangers, a leading online resource for wood hangers, coat hangers and all types of clothes hangers which is recognized for the excellent quality and value of its wood hanger and coat hanger offerings. For more information, please visit http://www.onlyhangers.com.

Coat Closet Woes

When you organize your home, don’t overlook the coat closet. The coat closet is an important central area that should not be ignored. If you think about it, your family’s day can be impacted by the state of your coat closet every day.

We use our coat closets to keep the entrances to our homes inviting and clear. With kids coming in and out with backpacks, sports equipment, shoes, coats, gloves and so forth, we really need to have the coat closet prepared. Besides holding the kids’ things, we also stow our brief cases, laptops, purses, jackets and tote bags in the coat closet. So, you see, it gets a lot of traffic. The average family member probably visits and uses the coat closet about twice a day.

Getting the coat closet organized can keep your home in working order. There’s nothing worse than starting out every day behind schedule, searching for important items, and not being able to find the things that we need to get our day moving. Additionally, if everyone comes home and throws their things down in the entryway, then it can quickly become a heap of junk that is impossible to keep under control.

Make a list of everything that your coat closet needs to hold. Start with the bulkiest items and work your way down to gloves and mittens. Coats, of course, are usually number one on the list. You will need to make sure that you have room to keep your coats from being crammed together. Coats need to have space between them so that they can dry after being exposed to snow, rain or even just humidity. A good rule of thumb here is to not keep every coat that you own in the coat closet. Keep the coats that you wear every day in the coat closet just so you can find them easily when you need them. This will help keep space clear for all of those other daily items that you need handy.

The next big thing to organize is back packs, brief cases and laptop bags. Most people can just install heavy duty hooks up the sides of each closet wall. But, if you have room, you can put in shelves that are deep enough and tall enough to hold your bags. If you do use shelves, then you probably still have room for hooks where you can hang your purse, totes and other smaller items that need a place to go.

For really small items, consider an over-the-door organizer. One with moveable baskets is great for dividing up items by type or by who owns them. The lowest basket can be for the youngest family member and the highest for the oldest or tallest family member. Baskets make great ventilated storage for hats, scarves and mittens. They’ll be easy to grab and go if they’re not all crammed in a box or thrown in a pile.

Keep baskets and bins for each family member’s personal small items. Use sturdy wood hangers to keep coats from ending up on the floor or misshapen at the shoulders. Get your coat closet organized and your family mornings will be much more pleasant!

About the Author: Joe Granville is on the staff of Only Hangers, a leading online resource for wood hangers, coat hangers and all types of clothes hangers which is recognized for the excellent quality and value of its wood hanger and coat hanger offerings. For more information, please visit http://www.onlyhangers.com.

Foyer Organization

When you walk into a fancy hotel or home, you get your first impression from the foyer. This entrance area of many homes is often ignored and can become cluttered, messy and neglected. There are some things that you use daily that are just more easily kept near the front door. The problem is that these things are not necessarily attractive and they don’t necessarily have anywhere specific to go.

Look at your foyer and figure out what your biggest problem is. It could be coats, umbrellas, school work, mail, pocket contents, cell phone chargers and more. Coats often become a problem because you want to shed them as soon as you come in the door. If you don’t have a coat closet nearby, then the problem can compound very quickly.

To solve the coat problem, you can install a hanging bar from the wall. You may be able to make an attractive hanging area out of a dowel rod and two brackets. You can paint, stain or decorate this bar however you would like. Use decorative or wood hangers to keep the area from looking junky or unattractive. Another option would be to utilize coat hooks. Make sure that you buy them large enough to hold your coats. If you have nicer wool coats or suit coats, they should always be hung on wood hangers or cedar hangers shaped to fit their design, or you risk damage to the garment.

Another common problem for the foyer area is mail. You come in the house with mail, paperwork, flyers from the door or school work. A vast majority of these paper products can be trashed almost immediately. The problem is that we sift through the stack, pick out what’s most important or interesting, and then toss the stack on a table near the door. You can solve this clutter problem by using bins for sorting mail, putting a small trash can near the desk or even keeping your shredder right there by the front door. Conceal it in a cabinet so that it is not an unsightly addition to your foyer. You can come in, throw important mail in one bin, things that you might need to look at later in another, shred personal information and throw away opened envelopes and junk mail all within seconds of walking in the door.

We like to empty our pockets when we come in the door. We need to keep cell phones, wallets, keys and purses near the door so that we know where they are the next time we leave the house. Make sure that you have specific hooks for purses, a charging station to keep cell phones, PDA’s and MP3 players charged, and a piggy bank for all that change. When you’re ready to go, everything you need will be neatly organized instead of crammed in with all of your other junk.

Whether you use hooks, wood hangers, a cabinet containing your shredder or charging stations, every little step you take helps to keep your foyer organized. When it all has a place to go, your life will quickly run more smoothly and your home will become more inviting.

About the Author: Joe Granville is on the staff of Only Hangers, a leading online resource for wood hangers, coat hangers and all types of clothes hangers which is recognized for the excellent quality and value of its wood hanger and coat hanger offerings. For more information, please visit http://www.onlyhangers.com.

Home Improvement Projects to Build Equity

Doing projects yourself can be an enjoyable learning experience. You can personalize, save money, learn a skill and be proud of what you have accomplished. Many times, we do home improvement projects out of necessity and sometimes we do them just for fun. But, sometimes you can make improvements that build equity by increasing the value of your home.

Putting in the time and effort that it takes to do a project right is something that you have to want to do. Projects often start out fun and exciting, but end up grueling. With the right attitude, you can keep it light and fun. Be willing to work hard and expect that a few things will go wrong. Remember that overcoming obstacles builds character and strength!

One of the biggest ways to increase the value of your home is to update the kitchens and bathrooms. Faucets and fixtures make a big difference. Investing an extra $100 in a fancy faucet can turn a room from mundane to extravagant. Faucets are pretty easy to install yourself, just make sure that you have no leaks when you are done. Tile is another addition that is not too expensive to do yourself. A framed mirror, fresh coat of paint and a cabinet refinishing can go a long way. Look into selling your old appliances and replacing them with high end, energy efficient ones.

Flooring can add value if you add tile or hardwood. Carpet won’t necessarily add a lot of value, but new carpet will definitely help a house to sell if you’re looking for that. Using wood, tile, granite, and other sturdy materials around the home help to raise house value. Stone and other natural materials not only look nice, but they give the house a more durable quality that buyers pay more for.

Another project you can do yourself is crown moulding and chair rail. Chair rails are a lot like base boards that go around the center of the wall. They set off a room and make it look more luxurious than just blank walls. Miter the corners and cut forty five degree angles at the seams. For a professional look, angle the seams so that they are not visible from the entrance to the room. Replace damaged baseboards and quarter round for a clean finish.

Landscaping is one of the most important improvements you can make. Buyers pay significantly more for homes that are beautifully maintained. Take care of your landscaping and a small investment could turn out to gain you real profits.

If you are selling your home, make sure that the lights all work with matching bulbs. Keep the lawn mowed and watered. Take down your own art and photos. Get rid of extras that are lying around. Make your closets look more spacious by organizing them and using high end products like wood hangers or cedar accessories. With a little diligence and care, your home’s value can be increased more than you might have imagined.

About the Author: Joe Granville is on the staff of Only Hangers, a leading online resource for wood hangers, coat hangers and all types of clothes hangers which is recognized for the excellent quality and value of its wood hanger and coat hanger offerings. For more information, please visit http://www.onlyhangers.com.