Category — Cleaning, Organizing

STEPS 1 TO 6

Front Porch Ideas for a Great First Impression

(A complete list of sources is included below.)

1. Grunge Is Passé - Replace those grungy, old or dated chair covers with new outdoor pillows and seat cushions made from durable, UV resistant outdoor fabric.
2. Set the Table - Pick a summer bouquet of flowers, pop them in a vase or antique pitcher, and place them in the center of your outdoor table.
3. Make Your Presence Known - Large, easy-to-read house numbers, placed in an easy-to-see location makes finding you, well…easy. Choose house numbers that complement or are in keeping with the style of your house and outdoor decor.
4. Romancing the Porch - Hang gauzy outdoor curtains to inject a little romance. Outdoor curtains mounted on opposite sides will elegantly frame your porch.
5. Roll Out the Red Carpet - Arrange your porch furniture on a new outdoor carpet or place a new welcome mat at the front door. (The color is up to you.)
6. Front Porch First Aid - Revive your front porch and your entrance door with a fresh coat of paint.

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Welcome back and thank you for tuning in to the continuing saga of finding a place for everything and putting everything in its place. When last I left you, a discussion on home organization ideas and storage solutions was just beginning to unfold. In Spring Clean Up - Kill the Clutter, we covered ideas for ridding your home of unwanted clutter. Now let’s look at what you have left over (your keep pile) and cover some ideas on how to organize those items you’ve deemed as essential. And instead of just shoving everything to the back of a closet, under the stairs, or beneath the living room carpet, we’ll also look at some creative storage solutions. [Read more →]

Yup, it’s spring - that time of year when many of us feel compelled to throw open the windows, let in some extra light and a large dose of fresh air to clean the cobwebs from our heads as well as our houses.

Does anyone actually like spring cleaning? It certainly seems to be one of those deeply ingrained, yearly rituals that we automatically perform whether we like it or not. No matter how we feel about doing house cleaning, there really is no better time than spring to clean out the clutter, introduce some new tactics for home organization and implement new storage solutions.

You can’t effectively spring clean if there’s too much clutter in the way, so this post is geared towards helping you sort through the clutter before the cleaning can begin. [Read more →]

If you’ve been living in your house for more than a year and every time you go to get a glass from the kitchen cupboard you find yourself standing in front of the wrong cupboard, chances are your kitchen organization is just not in sync with the way you would naturally use it.

There are logical places for items in the kitchen - cutlery in the top drawer, pots and pans near the stove. It’s all for the sake of improved efficiency.

To improve the efficiency and ease of use of your kitchen, review these organizing tips and ideas: [Read more →]

Can you believe it?!  It’s taken forever to get to this point, but the new roman shade for my kitchen window is finally done. 

Without any further adieu, here it is:

The placement of the shade, right at the top of the cupboards, truly gives the illusion of a larger window. 

Am I the only one who thinks it looks waaaay better than the ‘before’ shot shown below?

Next Up:  The other kitchen window.

Small House = Small Living Room

More than just a living room, this area in my home also serves as the entry point from the front door, the access point to the second floor, and a throughway to the den/library.  That means a lot of traffic and very little uninterrupted wall space.

Like the homes of many DIY home decorators/renovators, my humble abode is a (continual) work in progress - it is by no means perfect.  Through my endeavors to make this small living room work for me, I have discovered and incorporated some small space living ideas and solutions that I thought would be worth sharing with you. [Read more →]

Remember that window over my kitchen sink?

The plan was to make a new Roman Shade, specially sized to cover the full width of the space between the upper cabinets on either side of the window above the kitchen sink.  Then, I was going to mount the new fabric window shade at the top of the wall, thus giving the illusion of a larger kitchen window.  The plan has not changed - the process of choosing the perfect fabric, however, has definitely slowed me down.

What I’m looking for is something fresh and bright to liven up the kitchen area.  I’d like something modern and funky, but the fabric I choose also needs to work with the character of this old house.  At this point fabric type, such as linen or cotton, is secondary.

So far I’ve been able to narrow it down to two color families: [Read more →]