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tips and tricks

rental

Most landlords wish for a stable, preferably long-term, relationship with their tenants. However, you cannot expect to have a harmonious and lucrative relation if you don’t offer anything in return. When they come to take a look at the rental, they don’t want to find a place in dire need of repair but a cosy nest they can live in. With that in mind, here are some tips on how to make your rental more appealing to the prospective tenants.

Obtain home insurance

Your rental is your source of income, so naturally, you wish for it and your belongings to be safe and from a tenants’ point of view, it shows that you are professional and thorough. Also, they would be at peace knowing that, in case something unexpected happens, they don’t have to worry about being blamed or expected to pay for items that got destroyed. Naturally, you need to do detailed research into different insurance options since you would want it to cover as much as possible – some even cover up to 12 months of rent if the property isn’t habitable after some disaster. Obtaining a comprehensive insurance policy is a practical move both in terms of security and the impression you will leave on your potential tenants.

rental

Invest in practical furniture

One of the elements that tenants appreciate in any home is functional and comfortable furniture. It often happens that they need to sleep on old sofas so if you have room for a proper bed, that will definitely pique their interest. If you don’t have enough space, you can purchase a pull-out sofa but make sure to test it so you are certain that one can get a good night’s sleep on it. As for the rest of the furniture, it depends on the size of the property and your budget. However, avoid overstuffing the rental because it will seem smaller and cramped. Also, you might be surprised by the popularity of sustainable furniture, so for instance by opting for a set of chairs made from bamboo, you will attract millennials who make up a big portion of current tenants and who are well-known environmentalists. 

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Provide quality appliances 

Perhaps the most decisive elements in the decision-making process of a tenant are quality appliances. Most will not even mind that much if the place is a bit smaller than they searched for initially as long as the appliances they use daily work properly. Provide them with a stove and the fridge for the kitchen so they can prepare and store food and feel more at home and also consider purchasing a washing machine. Since many rentals don’t have it, opting for a quality washing machine will give you an advantage from the tenants’ perspective. In general, if you can afford it, you may invest in energy-efficient appliances which is an excellent solution for decreasing the energy bills in the future.

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Improve the curb appeal 

Although not even a lavish exterior guarantees that the interior is in a good state, it still leaves a strong first impression with tenants. If the lawn is messy, tend to the grass and any bushes and trees and clear out the driveway. Another thing to consider is the front doors – sturdy front doors in combination with windows with functional locks give out the notion of safety and are something which will be highly valued by any tenant. If the current doors are in a state of repair, you need to take care of them immediately since the beauty of the interior will fade if they feel unprotected. Also, if your rental is a house, you can consider adding external motion sensor lights so that any unwanted guests are warded off due to this extra layer of security.

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Liven it up with some colour

Chipped paint is not something that tenants will think of as charming, so fixing such issues is essential for a long-term relationship with tenants. Also, adding a splash of colour can be a good idea to change the atmosphere of the rental. Naturally, you needn’t go too wild because dark purple walls might not be to everybody’s liking. What you can do is paint the rental in some neutral colours to refresh it and make it appear more spacious and brighter and then you can add a few walls in some colour that pops, such as blue or yellow. You can achieve the same effect with furniture, so white walls would go splendidly with a turquoise armchair.

rental

Conclusion

In the world of real estate, safety comes first. Only once you take care of that, you can tend to functionality and aesthetic appeal to attract reliable long-term tenants.

Cluttering is a significant issue in our lives, and we ought to try everything to curb or curtail it, but it doesn’t seem an easy job. Every day, we plan to declutter our home and make it pleasant and aesthetic to look at, but it keeps getting worse. Every time we run an exclusive drive to clean it all up and bring things in order, we face an uphill task. It is not that we do not succeed at all, but the problem continues to recur. Perhaps, it is due to the reason that we need to develop a deep understanding of the issue.

The first step towards resolving the issue is to understand that it is not a problem but a mindset. We tend to think that we are not hoarding any things in our home while we are. Secondly, we delay it to a considerable extent, which only multiplies it. By the time we realize that it is a mess, it is often too late. Having this comprehension will allow us to deal with the issue realistically and practically.

Once we figure out why clutter is accumulating in our home, it’s time to move to the second phase of the solution. It is imperative to understand that whatever we do, we cannot remove it on a prolonged basis. If there is garbage that we are tripping over it, we need to get rid of it. There is no alternative than to call a professional service to do that.

Luckily, every state facilitates and encourages this process. For instance, in Pennsylvania alone, there are some 45 landfills to dispose of municipal waste. If you live in the state’s largest city, you may call junk removal Philadelphia for the cleanup. Let’s now look at the next phase of the process, which is related to keeping it clean daily through various measures.

Taking Complete Control

The first and foremost that everyone experiencing clutter wants is regaining control over their home. As a homeowner, we must know what sort of confusion we are generating and how we can start to manage it. We should remember that we should never opt for a delaying tactic ever. As soon as we produce waste, we should put it in its designated place. There should at least be three boxes for hazardous items, disposables, and reusable, respectively. It is essential to eradicate the habit of tossing the trash away randomly or habitually to make this happen.

Giving or Donating

The second prominent method to dispose of regularly is to learn to give it away or donate it to the needy. The fact is that clutter disposal is persistent because we rarely attach a sense of purpose to it. If we can think about recycling positively, to benefit someone, things will be more comfortable. When we start doing it, stuff like old clothes, cutlery, or interior items may no longer rest in our home. However, doing so requires that we carry out a regular inspection of what’s wearing out and what isn’t. Another way we can do that is to give away old items as soon as we shop for new ones. This approach will help negate the accumulation in the first place.

Getting Rid of Smaller Items

Another smart way to make sure we do not accumulate garbage or unused items is to get rid of all the smaller things. It cannot happen unless we develop a habit of doing so on the spot. For instance, if your work relates to generating a lot of paper trash, you may buy the equipment. Every time you produce it, dispose of immediately using the trash machine. The good part is that this isn’t just beneficial for the decluttering drive, but also to conserve trees. A seemingly small gesture can help play a role in saving the climate.

Adopt an Organized Method

One of the mistakes decluttering aspirants make is they confuse storage with the organization. In doing so, they end up piling up garbage or unwanted items. So, if you have been cluttering, you should start undoing it soon. However, it’s essential to organize items through proper distribution, as detailed earlier. The second important aspect is to maintain a schedule to take the clutter to task spontaneously.

Final Word

Garbage and clutter accumulation is a massive and worrying issue, and it should be dealt with accordingly. The key is to dispose of, distribute the items as and when they emerge, so it never piles up and multiplies. Remaining organized and adhering to a maintenance schedule is the secret to a clean, charming home. However, if you are experiencing a massive clutter already, don’t delay calling a professional service. That’s the only way to deal with the problem immediately.

Candles can be used as a sensitive home décor items, and they acquire some care and maintenance if you want them to last longer. But, generally, we don’t bother much about candle decor.  Instead, we usually neglect them, and replace them when it’s needed. This should not be the way to treat your candles. They can help you bring a Zen bliss into your home, so you need to consider them as an important part of home decoration. Here are given few tips worth following if you want to add some life to your decorative candles.

Wick Trimming

At some point debris will collect at the top of the wick. This will cause poor and flickering flame, and in some cases even a bad smell.  To prevent this, trim the top of the wick up to 6 millimeters. That will give you a nice and odour free flame.
Candles in Your Home

Avoid Draught

Scientifically, candle flames appear because of the presence of air. If there is not enough air, the flame will either become uneven or it will convert into smoke.  To avoid such problems, consider to find a location with a proper air flow or ventilation. Candles, when lit correctly, will provide lovely ambiance for your home. Also, avoid placing them in the corners because the air flow there is often inappropriate for burning of the wick.

A candle melting

Consider Temperature & Light

You all know the fact that wax (from which candle was made of) is sensitive to temperature and heat of light. With the increase of temperature or increase of light, the candle starts to melt, causing a bad structure. So, try to keep your candles in a slightly cold and calm place. Select a spot where you think the temperature is low enough so it will not affect the candles. Storing your candles at such places will not only protect them from melting, but will also save the color and fragrance of your candles for a long time.

Candle decor

Use Tapers

A whiff of fresh air diverts the flame and makes it appear wobbly and unstable. To make your candlelight in a vertical position only, use candle tapers. The tappers not only prevent the flames from getting moved by air, but will also help to protect the surrounding from catching on fire. You can buy dusk candle cradles or similar candle holders to support the tappers without compromising the overall beauty and charm.
Decorative candles

Use Candle Snuffer

Most often, candles are placed higher from the ground, so they can provide better lightning. When this is the case it’s not so easy to light them or to put them out. This is where you can use candle snuffer to ease this task, to reach those high places and it’s even good to use them to avoid smoke or wax splatter. Different types of decorative snuffers are available online, so you can check out the offer before you decide what to buy for your re-birthed home.
Candle decor

So, it’s time to go out and search for the candle that will suit your home style. Maybe you like your decor to be inspired by shabby chic trends.  Mix and match and always keep in mind all of the given advice about candle decor.

Enjoy Lightning Your Home!

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and it is time to get into the mood. A simple way to get the fire of love started is to decorate our everyday living space so that it reminds us of love and shows our appreciation, affection and feelings for our beloved. Your home décor can be as elaborate or as simple as you wish, but here are a few of our favourite DIY ideas for the love season.

Make L.O.V.E. pieces

Any craft store will probably have big size letters made of wood or cardboard, so you can get your L, O, V, and E and decorate them. You can cover them in glue and immerse them in red glitter to get some sparkly elegance. You can for example paint them red and draw white and pink little hearts on them, or simply paste heart shaped stickers on them. A creative way to decorate the letters is to wrap them in yarn in different colours; they will look great in any combination.

Make a Valentine’s Day shelf

Dedicating a shelf or a central place like the mantel to Valentine’s decorations will make it the focal point of our home and show the importance we give to love. We can decorate this shelf with a vase with red flowers, Valentine’s cards, sweets and candies in red and white colours, a favourite picture of you and your partner together, and anything else that comes to your mind when you think of love. Add a nice little garland with red chord and paper hearts and there you go.

Make a floral centerpiece

Nothing expresses love like flowers and you simply can’t go wrong by sticking to this tradition. Get a of at least the double of the amount you would usually buy. Decorate your vase by wrapping it in nice wrapping paper with heart prints. Then cut out little strips of paper like the ones you find in fortune cookies and write love messages for your loved one to read, roll them up and attach them to the flower stems using some thread or yarn.

Turn your wall art into love art

Most people have at least some wall art hanging on their walls all year round and with time we simply stop paying attention to it. For Valentine’s Day and the time around this holiday, we can change this by simply temporarily pasting something over the original art using tack or transparent duct tape, or removing the art from their picture frames and replacing it with love themed cards or art prints. There are many art prints to be found online or we can draw and paint something ourselves. If nothing else, cut out big red paper hearts and place them over all wall art pieces.

Love bomb your home

You can always get red and pink paper and cut little hearts out, put some thread through them and make little hanging hearts. Only, our idea is to make hundreds of them and hang them all around the house, on your lamps and light fixtures, on your mirrors, door knobs, chairs, along the sides of the dining table, on counters and windows, everywhere. You can make heart garlands and add love notes and balloons to them if you wish. Pretend it’s someone’s birthday and make a big banner made of hearts or even a splendid surprise with a farm-fresh flower arrangement.

Heart themed home

The predominant symbol is of course the heart, and the colours are red, pink and white. Add a scented candle, some chocolates and let love flow in!

One of the perks of living in a house is that you can have your own retreat just in the back. Now, if your retreat currently looks more like Tarzan’s habitat, it’s about time for a makeover and making it Lord John Clayton worthy. By taking small steps, such as mowing the lawn and adding useful sundries you will achieve the garden décor you’ve wanted. If you are still “in the dark” concerning ways of sprucing up your garden, we will try to shed light on the topic.

Remove the clutter

It’s quite commonplace for people to store some things they don’t currently need in the backyard, so don’t blame yourself. Roll up your sleeves and get to work. All the things you don’t need, sell if you can or throw them away. For the rest of the stuff, you can build a small garden log cabin where you’ll store them. After doing that, you may move on to mowing the lawn. The end results should be a clean blank space, where you’ll be able to let your creativity run loose.

garden shed

Set the path

Adding the pathway to your garden will inspire walks and exploration. This venture doesn’t have to be neither expensive nor complicated. With your own two hands and some aged brick, flagstone or pieces of tiles you are halfway done. Aligning them in the direction and shape you want is the second step to take. Let your imagination set the limits. After all, you want an Alice in Wonderland path, not bank driveway. Think about how it will blend with the rest of the garden. If your focus is wood, then why not make a wooden boardwalk?

Planting time 

Adding plants on the bare soil is not just putting them on the ground. Depending on the sorts of flowers, trees and bushes, you’ll need to bring in soil and compost to help them grow easier. After the soil preparation, you’ll need to plant the largest plants first (trees and large shrubs), then featured sections plants (flower gardens) and finally, filler plants to tie it all together. When choosing the plants, make sure the climate for their growth is appropriate.

Garden Path

Think focal points

Every garden needs some parts which will stand out. Those are called focal points. Depending on the funds you’re willing to invest, focal points can be groups of similar plants, furniture, an attractive courtyard gate or fountains and lakes. For the first option, use hedges, clerodendrum or similar trees. If you have more space, you can design different sitting and resting areas with furniture you can even make by yourself. Last, but not the least, lakes and fountains are the finishing touches which will make your garden a true oasis.

Updating home’s exterior

As everything needs to blend nicely, you’ll have to maximize the garden décor by improving the appearance of house’s walls and windows. A brand new exterior wall cladding will beautify your dreamy courtyard, fit into the picture you are trying to present, from nature loving sandstone to mountain feel grey marble. Painting the window frames white will give you the vintage appeal, while some shade of wood, will enhance the nature moment. Window boxes filled with colourful plants will tie the look together.

Backyard Barrel - Garden

There is nothing left for you to do, than to choose the look you fancy and start sprucing up your garden.

Many people today are facing the challenge of having a small living space. This is one of the most common disadvantages of living in urban areas. Instead of making it a problem, it would be best to accept it as a fact, and take advantage of what you have until you find something better. Small apartments usually have small bedrooms – which are big enough for a bed, and not for anything else. The key to happy living is to use all the tricks you can in order to turn your small-sized bedroom into a nice and functional one, and yet save space for other things.

Source: Flickr

Use what you have

If your small bedroom does not have enough space for a nightstand, you should use what you have at hands. For example, if you have a deep window sill, move your bed next to it and it can serve as a nightstand. If you have a wall-mounted shelf beside the bed, you can add another one, which would be deep enough so that you can use it as a computer desk while you are sitting on the bed. If you have a desk next to your bed, it is perfectly fine to give it a double duty – to serve as a nightstand as well. A lamp is simply a must at your bedside, so instead of taking up space on a nightstand, you can simply hang one on the wall – this way, you will get direct light from above your head, which is great for reading. Mind you that it should be high enough so that you do not hit your head while sitting up.

Source: Flickr

Additional storage

In a small bedroom, the walls are your best friends. A general rule for small bedrooms is to hang everything you can on the walls. If you have a narrow bedroom, you can put a simple shelf beside or above the bed to make up for a nightstand, and you will get extra space for something else. If you lack space for keeping a bike, you can simply hang it above the bed – the only thing you have to do is to clean its tires every time you mount it on the wall. If you lack storage space, you can find high beds which have enough storage space underneath the mattress – a space which you can use for winter/summer clothes, sheets and blankets, and the like. Do not be afraid to even add cabinets above the bed – they are simply made for small bedrooms.

And finally, the key to a happy home and normal living is not the size of your living space. Rather, it should be the joy of waking up next to the person you really care about and enjoying every moment with them. Even though you cannot magically make the space bigger than it is, you can create optical illusion – by painting the walls white, and using light-coloured sheets (which will additionally make you feel calm and you will be able to take a good rest in it) and hanging mirrors to visually enlarge your small bedroom.

Tired of walking into the same old home every day? Not having time or resources to hire a professional to redecorate your home from basement to the rooftop? Here are some of the tips you may want to try to refresh your home and make it sweet again.

RESHUFFLE

Sometimes, the best solutions are the easiest ones. The first thing that will take you literally 10-15 minutes is to reshuffle the furniture. Don’t think your furniture is pinned to the floor. You can easily move it around and see if the new layout would work. If your TV is, however, fixed to the wall and is at the centre of the entire room, then try to switch places of the couch and the chairs. Or, just move them under a certain angle. Try moving the lamp in a different place, or move the tea table a little to the left. You can also rearrange all your paintings, or drill new holes in different places just to give the space a new dimension. It may take you a day or two to get used to the new layout, but you are sure going to feel better than ever when you enter the room.

decoration

LESS IS MORE

The truth is that the key to simplicity is to have as few things as possible. The space should not be crammed and you will feel a lot better if you didn’t have to pay attention to not breaking that decoration you’ve never even liked in the first place. So –  put all the objects you don’t really like and ditch them into a box. Give them to charity, or recycle – read the following few lines.

EXCHANGE

Ask your friends and family if they have some old furniture back in the garage and offer your old furniture in exchange for theirs. It is recommended to exchange, for instance, book shelves, or tables. To spice things up, organise a neighbourhood exchange – gather all items people are willing to give up, put names into a bowl, and see who gets what! It’s fun and risky – but every new item can revive your headroom. And don’t worry if the things look a bit shabby – rustic look is in, and you can always say that it was an antiquity!

FLYING COLOURS

If you, however, have enough time – such as to wait for the paint to dry – then roll up your sleeves and take the first object in your room into your hands, get some sandpaper, and get cracking! Mind you: white matches everything. So, if your kitchen is blue, nothing will look as fresh as new white chairs. Or, if you are not sure what to paint, try painting all your doors. Let your new green door be the entrance to your new home. If you, however, don’t want to change your designer’s furniture, then the simplest way is to paint only one wall. It will do wonders.

And finally, whatever you did, remember that, sometimes, even a detail – like a new carpet – can restore liveliness of your home.