Fill up a sandwich bag with distilled vinegar and wrap if around your shower head. Then use some string to tie the bag around the neck of the shower head so that it is closed tight. Let the bag remain overnight and your shower will be looking good as new!
As a traditional family holiday, Easter is usually a time for big family gatherings, lavish festive meals and fun group activities in the beautiful weather outside. And if everyone is coming to your home this year, Easter means one more thing – spring cleaning. On one of the sunny weekends ahead, gather up your strength and plan your time well. With a good strategy, cleaning and organizing for Easter is easy and doesn’t require an entire army of professional cleaners.
Winter isn’t really a wonderful time for washing windows and deep cleaning of carpets, and towards its end our homes are far from looking their best. Dust and dirt have found their way to every corner of your house and removing them unfortunately isn’t as easy as we would want it to be. But where to start? The preparations for Easter seem so many that finding the right organizational system is really important. One of the essential steps is obviously deep cleaning, but before starting with it, try to go through every room, de-clutter and pick out the things you don’t need any more – old clothing, torn and de-colourised bedding, piles of old newspapers and magazines, broken toys, and so on. Decide on what could be recycled or reused, and what’s for the garbage. Check the attic, every closet and every cabinet, and get rid of all the clutter – it can make spring cleaning even more challenging.
Next, you can proceed with the clean-up. Start with the kitchen and pay some special attention to the oven and the refrigerator, because you will be probably doing a lot of cooking around Easter. Greasy grime is settled on the kitchen cabinets – remove the build-up with a wood cleaner or a soapy water and a soft cloth. Then go to the living room and start with the book shelves, cupboards and cabinets. Wash the windows well both on the inside and on the outside, using either a household cleaning product, or a mixture of water and lemon juice. Instead of wiping with a regular rag, rub the windows with an old newspaper – it’s great for really dirty and smudgy windows. Professionals like Sparkling Carpet Cleaners Battersea advice to wash the curtains, vacuum clean upholsteries or if they have stains, clean up with a mixture of water and white vinegar. Mop all the the floors, even the wood ones, using soapy water and cleaning the baseboards with a dampen cloth.
Move on to the bedrooms – they are usually the easiest to clean up. Wash all the bed linen and coverings, dust off, polish the furniture. Use the vacuum on the mattress and follow up with a good disinfecting spray to kill all the bacteria and odours. Put the pillows and blankets in the washing machine. Don’t forget the bathrooms – clean them after a hot shower, the steam makes dirt come off easily. Mix water and baking soda for the tiles, but if you run into serious stains, choose a good bathroom cleaning product. Change the towels and wash the shower curtains – they should be changed or washed regularly. Clean the washing machine, as well – run it with hot water, then rub it with baking soda and white vinegar, leaving them for an hour. Run it again and after it finishes, wipe it dry. This should remove not only the dirt from it, but also any unpleasant smells.
After cleaning your home and throwing all the garbage, organize and tidy the yard and the garden. Prepare for the Egg hunt by removing weeds, dead or dry plants, as well as any leafs that are left from the autumn. Mown the lawn, refresh the shed with a new coat of paint, and plant early spring flowers to have a colourful and beautiful Easter. You can try pansy, bloodroot, wild “harmony” iris, yellow Trillium, Grape Hyacinth, daffodil, and others. Right before Easter, set the festive mood by decorating your home with cute Easter candles, egg and Easter bunny décor and a lot of fresh flowers.
When you are decorating your space, it is easy to get focused only on what you like, but lose sight of what actually works for your home. If you live in an urban environment, it’s very likely that space is the one thing your apartment lacks. Luckily, there are tricks that will make your home look roomier.
When it comes to using colors to make your living space look bigger, the rule is simple: the lighter, the better. Dark and bright colors generally tend to absorb more light, thus making a room look smaller. Go for a traditional white, an elegant off-white or beige, a neutral light gray, or a soothing pastel. In smaller homes, it is smart to avoid accent walls although they may work: painting everything in one color visually blends the corners and different planes, and opens up the room.
As we’ve said, it’s all about making your space visually open. Light is the best way to do that. Don’t close up your windows with heavy curtains or shades. Carefully pick out your lighting. It’s important to illuminate any dark or shady corners. Your preferred lighting should be bright and warm. Avoid huge, extravagant fixtures – they will probably be too overpowering for your room. Choose smaller pendant lights or wall lamps.
The quickest way to suffocate your space is to have too much stuff. Sure, you want your little nest to be cozy and comfortable, but try to rein yourself in. That doesn’t mean you need to throw away half your belongings, natch! In a small home, organization is key! Built-in shelves and closets are ideal for this purpose. Custom built furniture will help you use what you’ve got in an optimal way. To get all those trinkets and bits and pieces out of eyesight, build drawers or get cute decorative boxes. That way, all of that stuff will be packed away, but still within your hand’s reach.
Make sure you use any seemingly useless nooks and crannies to build extra storage space. You are probably thinking you don’t have any, but you do. The space under the stairs often goes unused, but is actually perfect for storage units. Make sure your closets and cupboards reach the ceiling. Don’t waste the space under your bed. When choosing a couch, buy one with storage space underneath.
A great illusion which will make your home look roomier than it actually is would be to use mirrors. Instead of cluttering your walls with paintings, which would only close up your space, use mirrors. Glass, in general, is a great choice for furniture as well – especially for tables. Not to mention that interesting frames can make gorgeous room decorations.
Doors, walls, whatever can go, should go! Open floor plans have been extremely popular over the last few years for this exact reason. Getting rid of unnecessary walls and doors is an essential step to making your home look open and spacious. If, for some reason, you absolutely need doors, opt for glass pane ones, since they do not eat up the space and look great.
Using a pattern in a small space might sound counterintuitive, but is actually not a bad idea at all. Don’t cut up the space with too many pieces and a lot of different patterns. Stripes are an optimal choice to give the illusion of width. Use the same pattern on a few choice pieces to add some flare to your home design.
As you can see, just because your home is on the small side, that doesn’t mean it has to feel cramped or claustrophobic. With just a bit of effort and imagination, you can turn your tiny abode into a comfortable, modern looking apartment.
SOURCE: http://www.upack.com/moving-resources/packing-tips.asp
Country & Victorian Times 