Category: Home

Creative play time is essential for children of any age. Allowing time and space for your children to create helps them grow and learn on their own while having fun. Creating will stimulate them and help them to learn problem solving methods on their own.

It is sometimes hard, in today’s world of technology especially, to get your kids to sit down and work on a creative project without getting bored. It is helpful to have a separate space in your home where they can focus on their project without distractions and be encouraged to continue. If you want to incorporate more creative time into your children’s days, here are some ideas you can use to create a space for your kids to grow in.

Make an open space

Have some open space for your kids to move around in. Maybe your child wants to build a giant tower or a replica of him or herself. Allowing them the space to do these kinds of things will allow them to use their imagination more and create whatever they deem possible.

If you can’t have an entire room, create a separate space in a room on your home. Use a room divider to block the creativity space from other parts of the room, like to block the TV if your space in the living room. Clear extra floor space in a big foyer using a spiral staircase kit. Any structured space will make a huge difference for your kids.

Keep them away from all screens

Avoiding any and all technology in your creativity space will greatly help your kids. Everyone needs a break from screen time, and having less technology in your children’s creativity space will encourage them to use their imagination and create something with their hands.

Have a desk for them to work on

Especially for younger kids, creativity time often involves crafts and drawing. Have a hard surface for your kids to work on. This can be as simple as clearing off the dining room table or building a desk in your children’s bedrooms.

Try to keep the desk clear and organized after each time your kids use it. Give them designated areas to put away supplies and encourage them to clean up. You may also have to reorganize and restock supplies, so you kids can keep creating.

Give them the props they need

Whatever your children’s passions are, feed them. If your children like to draw, have plenty of coloring supplies, like paper, crayons and colored pencils. If your children are young and you are still unsure of what will most interest them, have a few different options set up so they can pick and choose what suits them best.

Display their creations proudly

To encourage future creative time, display whatever your children create proudly in the creativity space. Support your children’s creative passions and help them find value in what they are creating. This is good advice to follow no matter what your children do in life, as long as they are ethically following their dreams, you should be behind them with support and encouragement.

 

Author Bio:

Tina Hamilton is a journalist, blogger and social media guru. You can usually find her online or walking along one of Southern California’s beaches with her dog, Joey. You can find her on Twitter.

 

 

With new advancement in technology, working from home has become a more popular option for everyone. Many jobs can be done with only a computer and an Internet connection, so the need to go into a physical office building is no longer there.

Many people also prefer to work from home for a number of other reasons, such as less commute time, more time with family, can work in your pajamas, etc. However, working from home can pose some issues for many people. A home office can house many distractions and inconveniences that a traditional office doesn’t have. You can avoid and prevent many of these issues with a properly constructed home office. Here are a few ways that you can create a better home office in your home simply and inexpensively.

Clear some space

Many home offices get crammed into the small, unused storage spaces of our homes. Although this might seem like a good use of the space, making yourself work in a small space will only distract and limit you.

Try to find an open space for you to spread out and not feel restricted. A great way to add extra space in your home is to replace a traditional staircase with Salter Spiral Stairs to create more open floor space. Find the place in your home that allows you to expand as much as you need to and begin your home office set up.

Find the appropriate seating option

One of the biggest complaints that people have during their work hours is back pain from sitting for long periods of time, no matter where their office is. When you work from home, it may be tempting to lie in bed or sit on your comfortable couch while you work. Although this may sound idea, it can make you more tired, less productive, and actually lead to more back pain.

Avoid this issue by investing in a good office chair. Having a chair that properly supports your back while keeping you upright and alert will greatly reduce your back pain and increase your productivity daily. Add in regular stretching and movement to keep you focused and pain free.

Keep the area well lit

Another crucial element to keep you alert and focused in your home office is having enough light to work in. Finding a great desk lamp is a must, but you can also keep your home office brighter by using more natural light. Set up your desk underneath a window and keep sheer curtains over windows surrounding your desk. This will brighten the whole room and keep you awake without needing that second cup of coffee.

Separate the area from the rest of your home

When you work in a home office, it can be very difficult to separate your home life from your job. If you have to work around all the distractions of your personal life, you will never be able to focus on your work tasks.

Try to separate your home office from the rest of your home. Face your desk away from other parts of the room or home and keep all personal tasks and lists in a separate location. This can be really difficult for a lot of people, but once you find the way to keep everything in its designated place, you will be a lot better off in work and home life.

 

Author Bio:

Tina Hamilton is a journalist, blogger and social media guru. You can usually find her online or walking along one of Southern California’s beaches with her dog, Joey. You can find her on Twitter.

 

 

At first it does sound rather lazy – don’t climb those stairs, take the lift instead. Why lug the groceries or the suitcases – just ‘lift’ them up to the beach house. And to be sure in a number of cases, a cargo lift for a home or weekend dwelling may seem like overkill – what’s wrong with climbing a few stairs anyway. Why undergo the expense and the inconvenience of a major structural alteration to your living space?

Who needs a cargo lift?

Obviously only you as a home owner can decide whether you actually need a device such as this, or whether you only want it. However there are some reasons why a Legacy cargo lift can make a lot of sense:

ü  For seniors, a cargo lift is not only convenient and useful; it may actually be a requirement that is medically indicated. Reduced mobility, arthritis, rheumatism and similar age related diseases could curtail activities. For seniors, an easy to operate lift could be indicated. Simply lugging a bag of groceries up or down the stairs can be a strain for an older person. Even the chances of falling on the stairs are far higher than they would be with the help of a lift

ü  People with disabilities would also need something like a cargo lift to help access an upper floor independently and without assistance. They can do so whether they are in a wheelchair, on crutches or other type of walking aid.

ü  Cargo lifts are popular with people who own holiday properties in the hills or on beaches. These dwellings typically tend to be multi level, cottage type structures – utterly charming but not particularly well designed for frequent lugging of large bags up and down the stairs.  So people who frequently take long holidays to their weekend retreats, may want to consider a cargo lift.

ü  For some dwellings an internal elevator may not be possible – quite simply there may not be any space and the shape and dimensions of the structure may not allow for it. A stair lift may be a good alternative here; however this will only transport a person and not luggage or cargo. In situations like this an external cargo lift may be the only option

What structural alterations are required for installation?

One of the first reasons a property owner would hesitate to have a device like this installed is the fact that some considerable structural alterations would be required for installation. In many cases, a cargo lift may be able to be installed with minimum structural alterations. However you would have to have your property assessed to determine whether it is possible to install in your dwelling.

If you decide to get your property assessed for the purpose of installing a Legacy lift, be sure to get a complete estimate, including all installation costs, guarantees and after-sales service. Also ask plenty of questions about the suitability of the lift for seniors, the speed of operation, the size of the controls, ease of operation and whether remote control is available or not.

About the author:

Sarika Periwal is an interior design and home improvement enthusiast. She has consulted on various design projects and written for numerous publications, both online and offline. Check out Legacy Lifts to make your holiday home more comfortable.

A great number of the advertisements in the magazines and the commercials on the TV encourage us with a tedious sameness to buy a particular cleaning product that will perform miracles with your place of living. No matter if you trust them or you stick to the detergents that have proven themselves to be efficient and eco – friendly, all of a sudden you find your house full of bottles, containing more or less powerful cleaning ingredients, each one of which is thought to fight different kinds of dirt, dust and germs.

When you start performing some cleaning procedures, finding a particular detergent turns out to be more time – consuming than the cleaning process itself. Why don’t you gather them together and make some more room at your home, not to mention that the proper organisation will save you a lot of time.

 

 

• Clean the closet up. It is a common practice to throw all the items you won’t need in the foreseeable future, in the closet. Why don’t you take your time and clean it up? You will be amazed how much free space you will get. You can place the cleaning supplies there.
• Buy a bottle organizer – the most inexpensive and at the same time sensible solution to organising your stuff. Those organizers can be bought at any supermarket. Hang them onto the closet door and put every bottle in an individual pocket. This will enable you to get some more room for the brooms, mops and the vacuum cleaner.
• The door is a decent place for storing the brooms and mops as well. You just have to get a couple of hooks and install them on the door. Another advantage of hanging the brooms is preventing any possible damages such as bending the straws and mops heads mildewing.
• Placing the cleaning supplies under the sink is not always a good idea especially if you have kids who can easily reach the bottles that contain dangerous to their health substances. Yet installing the so called roll out trays under the sink is a good alternative in case you don’t have to worry about safety.
• Getting a special cabinet that can fit all your cleaning stuff is a really appealing option. It saves both – time and space. You know exactly where the desired cleaning detergent is, not to mention that you can put some more bulky items in there and even install hangers on the door where you can put the rags and the paper towels.
• An advice from Greenwich cleaning services team- put the small – sized cleaning supplies such as sponges, gloves, brushes in a separate decorative box so you don’t lose them.
• Divide the cleaning supplies into categories – dusting, polishing, waxing. Seeing them properly organised will inspire you to grab the one you need, get a sponge from the decorative box and do some cleaning.
• The stairwell can also serve as a place where some supplies can be put. All you are supposed to do is to install a narrow shelving.
• The best option for carrying the cleaning supplies from room to room while you perform the house chores is to store them in a shower caddy. You can easily handle it and put it back on the wall once you are done cleaning.

You can see more creative DIY ideas by visiting this webpage.

Designing for children, male or female comes with its own set of challenges. First of all, their interests keep fluctuating on a weekly basis. Your little tyke will come home one day with a joker costume and say that’s what he loves more than anything in the whole wide world, and just a few days later he will have switched his loyalty to football, you need therefore to take this and the fact that he will grow up physically really quickly into consideration when designing his room.

Don’t despair though, we have a checklist of things you can do in order to ensure that your son’s room isn’t ever rendered obsolete either by change in interests or physical growth.

Ideas for the perfect boy’s room:

1) A multifunctional bed:

One thing to remember is that the furniture in your boy’s room must grow with him. Forget about race car beds or dinosaur sheets, instead think of a more practical option. How about a bed with built in storage, that is easily accessible. Think cubby holes with slide out drawers, deep enough to hold his books, toys and sheets. Remember to keep your son’s growth spurt in mind when choosing the bed. Choose the larger one, rather than a smaller one. He’ll thank you for it when he’s that tall.

 

2) Multifaceted study-cum-entertainment table:

A study table is going to be one of the most utilised pieces of furniture in your son’s room. So why not make it his entertainment centre to. It’s really quite simple, why not build in a retractable mechanism that can accommodate his desktop/LCD screen and gaming console as well. It’s simply about maximising the available space in the room.

 

3) Stack them up tall:

An amazing way of both maximising space and a quick decor solution is devising a vertical, stackable storage system featuring colourful deep trays. These are excellent at holding virtually anything from toys, to clothes and books. Leaning them up against a wall and mixing and matching with their vivid colours is truly a stroke of genius.

 

4) Colour me up:

Just because it is a boy’s room there is no need for it to be a monochromatic landscape. Indulge the inner Picasso in your boy, and get him to choose the colour scheme he has in mind. Inform him though, that darker colours are preferably avoided and explain to him that they will make his room much hotter.

 

5) Self expression 101:

Your son is bound to have a plethora of interests and will look towards his room to express himself creatively. Why not then designate a space where he can do just that? At the intersection of two walls you may want to mount a softboard (for his posters, notes and artwork) and a whiteboard, where he can jot down whatever he has on his mind. Another innovative way to help him express himself is covering an entire wall in cork and letting him pin up his posters, notes, greeting cards and knick-knacks on the wall itself!

 

6) Involve your little man in the decision making process:

The main resident of the space, needs to have a say in the decor of the room, quite frankly because he is the one who is going to be residing there. It is fundamentally his room and your son should be the one calling the shots, when it comes to its decor. With your inputs and suggestions no doubt. The most important thing here though is the fact that he feels like he is in control, as this is also a way of teaching him to be a responsible person.

 

Quick Checklist:

• Enough storage space
• Involve your son in the decision making process
• Multifaceted furniture

 

Remembering these simple tips and following this checklist will ensure that your son’s room will truly be a space he can be ‘himself’ in and will be future-ready, for his teens and growth spurts.

 

Kate Beckett, is a structural designer who specialises in designing innovative spaces for children. She loves to write about the latest trends in the children’s decor space.

 

Remodeling an old place is a completely different task when compared with constructing a new place. When you are constructing a new place, it means that you have the liability to construct a place just like you want, without any hassle. On the other hand, when you are talking about remodeling services, you have to construct a new model of an existing place. For that, you might have to demolish an existing construction for a new one, or can change the interior décor of a place for the same result. If you are planning to change the wall color or a particular portion of a house, then it will also fall under the renovating category.

Following the basic steps

Whenever you are planning to remodel a house, then the first and foremost question is to deal with the interior décor. However, before calling in an architect, you must try to sketch or draw the dream house on a single piece of paper, to get a clear idea about the changes, you want to make. In case you are planning to expand a single room or want to add a new one, then always focus on the ways in which, the extra space can be used. Moreover, you should also consider the change in the traffic patterns after you are planning to expand a particular place of your house. With a new pattern, you will surely change the old look of your place. Always try to focus on the ways, which can easily change the overall constructional context of your old home. Oversized addition can easily crowd your place, therefore; proper measures must be taken for the same.

Get to learn from others

If you are a novice in home remodeling field, then you can try to take the first measure to learn from other people. In case you have a friendly relationship with a house owner, who has recently gone through a change in the field of home renovation purposes, then half of your work is done. You might come across a large range of online chronicles, which can also help you through the best and successful paths to plan your home improvement services. You can also take a look at the message boards, along with other services like reply forms and chat rooms, in order to come with the best result.

Thinking ahead of time

If you have a plan to sell your home within a short notice period, then remodeling your place is nothing but waste of time and money, both. Therefore, you should think ahead of your present time and get in touch with the special services, which can help save money. If your place is in really bad shape, then you should try dealing with the minimal changes, which can increase the value of your home in front of the prospective buyers. Moreover, you can remodel or change the surrounding of your place for the best results available.

Taking a note of your budget plan

When the main area of concern is related with house remodeling services, then get ready to spend a large amount of money. However, if you want, you can focus on making a budget plan previously, which can help you to save some unseen or other emergency cash requirements in the middle of your work. However, making a budget plan beforehand is a must if you want to avoid any pressure on your monthly or yearly billing services. You can also focus on ADT Home Security Availability for security purposes.

Choosing the right team

In case you browse through the site, you might come across various team and companies, claiming to offer you with the best house remodeling services. Always make it a point to check the credibility of the companies, before jumping into a further conclusion.

Author Bio: Mark Tennyson can deal with the prospective manners, which will help you in your house remodeling project. Moreover, if you are looking for some special security measures, then he can help you with best possible ADT Home Security Availability within lucrative ranges.

If you have lived in your home for a number of years you may have become a little tired with the way it looks. That house that you were in love with five years ago might not have the same wow factor now, after living in it and getting to know every wall and every nook and cranny.

Often people refresh their homes with a new coat of paint or some new furniture, but there are other ways to bring about a renaissance in your property. And the answer is lighting! The way a room is lit makes a huge difference to how it’s perceived, and there are numerous lighting options available to you, including the following 5:

1) Chandeliers

Chandeliers add to a room immediately as they can be spectacular features in their own right. They are a great way to bathe a room in light, or a corridor or landing that might not have been adequately lit before. A chandelier is an excellent choice for a dining room, and glass or crystal chandeliers reflect even more light out, creating a magical effect that will dazzle your guests.

2) Outdoor lighting

It is not just your interior that can benefit from the addition of some new lighting; your garden and the exterior of your home can be transformed into a spectacular sight with the right illumination. Bulkhead ship lights are a much more attractive option to regular security lights, and positioned correctly they can introduce a kind of lighting punctuation, spaced around the outside of your home. Uplighting is another effective way of making a property more impressive at night, so a great choice if you regularly entertain with evening parties.

3) Fairy lights

Fairy lights are cheap but the scene they create can be utterly enchanting. If you wrap a few lengths around bushes in your garden, banisters in your house or even picture frames, you will add some wonder to your home without having to fork out large amounts of cash.

4) Coloured lighting

If you would like to add a splash of colour to your home, forget the paintbrush and consider coloured lighting. There are LED systems that glow gently in one colour or constantly change, thereby constantly altering the way your room looks. This is a very popular way to enhance a home at the moment, so there are numerous coloured lighting products to choose from.

5) Dimmer switches

This may seem like an obvious suggestion, but the installation of a dimmer switch really can have a huge impact on how a room looks. Often you need spaces in your home to be fairly brightly lit at some times, but when you want to relax and take it easy, that lighting could be too much. A dimmer allows you to easily reduce the brightness of your lighting to your desired level, without having to buy wall lights, lamps or other products to provide a lesser amount of light.

Wooden floors can look fantastic and be a real feature in a home, adding aesthetic appeal and even value to a property, if laid and finished properly.

If you have wooden floor boards in your home but you haven’t made the most of them, then you really should. Either you can secure the services of a wood flooring professional such as Flooring By Design, to provide you with everything you need, or you can finish your floors yourself. But in order to do that you will need a few pieces of vital equipment, such as the following:

A Drum Sander

If you aim to finish your own wooden flooring the most substantial piece of equipment you need is a drum sander. This machine does the most significant amount of sanding, taking your floor from a rough surface to a relatively smooth one.

A drum sander is easy enough to use once you know what you are doing, but before you tackle your precious floor it’s wise to practise on some scrap wood, or a part of the floor that will be less visible.

A Vibrating Sander

Once you have thoroughly drum sanded your floor, it is time to pick up the vibrating sander. This is the next stage in achieving a gorgeous wooden surface and this sander is needed to smooth any rough marks left by the larger drum sander.

It is wise to use gradually finer gritted sandpaper in this machine, in order to get the smoothest finish possible. A vibrating sander usually comes with a dust bag to collect debris made while sanding, though you should still expect a considerable amount of dust in your room, so it is important to open windows and remove furniture and other furnishings from the area you’re working in.

An Edge Sander

The edge sander is a smaller sander still, but a vital one if you want to get a fantastic finish on your wooden floor. As the name suggests, the edge sander will allow you to reach edges that are inaccessible with the larger drum and vibrating sanders. Most edge sanders are shaped similar to irons, with a pointed end that allows you to reach corners of rooms, and small areas around pipes and fittings.

With these three sanding machines you should be able to really make the most of your wooden floors, so why not see what you have under your carpet!

Fire has been both friend and foe to humanity since its discovery. Without it we wouldn’t have been able to evolve as we have, to become the developed people we are. But still it is a real danger in various environments, not least the home. Sadly house fires still kill, and it is because of this that we should make every effort to make our homes fire safe. But how exactly can we do that?

Choose effective alarms

Having an effective smoke alarm is an absolute must for every home. If you don’t have one currently then the first thing you should do after reading this is to invest in one. And this really is an investment, in your safety and the safety off your family.

There are smoke alarms available at various prices and with differing features. Make sure you choose an approved alarm and fit one in your kitchen others spread through your home – depending on its size.

Check smoke alarms

If you have smoke alarms then check them to make sure they are still working. Some alarms have batteries that will last for a few months; others that will last up to 10 years. But to be safe, you should check your alarms weekly, for peace of mind and fire safety.

Buy fire extinguishers

If a fire does start in your home it is safest to have some means of fighting it. This is why it is a good idea to buy fire extinguishers. Of course you shouldn’t try to tackle a large blaze, but if a small fire starts, for instance in the kitchen, a handy fire extinguisher could be the quickest and best way to deal with it. Remember that for different kinds of fire there are different fire extinguishers that are suitable for the job. Take a look at the extinguishers at UK Safety Store to find out more.

Have an escape plan

If you are faced with a fire in your home it is important to have an escape plan. Everyone should know at least two safe routes out of your home, so plan out how you would evacuate your property in case of fires in different parts of it. This is particularly important if you live in an apartment located above the ground floor. So make an escape plan and make sure everyone in your home knows it.