Housekeeping

Moving blankets protect your furniture from scratches, dents, and any other damage during the moving process. Whether you recently rented a moving blanket or invested in one, it’s useful to know how to care for it.

That old retaining wall may have been beautiful when they first made it. In fact, it was probably necessary to protect your yard from erosion or dangerous slopes. However, if you need more room in your yard and you have this big retaining wall in the way, what can you do?

It’s no secret that drinking reverse osmosis water can have many health benefits. The higher quality water contains fewer contaminants and tastes better than regular water. The reverse osmosis filtration system is commonly sought out by many others because of these health benefits. Surprisingly, though, this filtration system isn’t expensive, as one would think.

A portable generator can come in handy in countless ways. However, connecting a portable generator to your house without a transfer switch can present its challenges. A transfer switch can divide an electrical load between sources and is often used for backup generators in the event of power outages.

If you have kids, you have probably had Kool-Aid spills in your carpet more than once. Or adults doing Jell-O shots. Were you able to get the stain all the way out or did you give up and toss an area rug on that spot? Some stains are just really difficult to get rid of. Especially red Kool-Aid. But it is possible if you do it correctly.

Cheesecake is a near-universally loved desert. It can be sweet and unctuous and surprisingly filling as well. Breaking out some cheesecake makes for a great after-dinner treat whether you are hosting or enjoying a quiet night in.

When it comes to comfort, no other mattress beats memory foam mattresses. This is due to the ability to adapt to your body size and shape. However, memory foam mattresses can also get dirty, and if you’re looking to clean them, one question will cross your mind; can a memory foam mattress be steam-cleaned?

Sausage makes for a delicious treat any time, day or night. Have some sausage links or patties with breakfast or a big fat brat with dinner. There really is no time of day or year where a sausage doesn’t work perfectly.

Dish soap is one of the best household remedies for many problems, and that includes dirty hardwood floors. It’s the best way to clean hardwood floors without damaging them, especially if you use natural or mild dish soap. First, sweep or vacuum your hardwood floors to remove dust and debris before you mop them.

When you first decide to make a DIY shower installation happen, you’ll see a lot of talk about adhering tile to a shower pan, or finding the right thinset for a particular shower pan brand. You might also start hearing people discuss picking up the right shower base. These terms seem pretty similar, but is there a difference between a shower pan and a shower base?

Have you ever gone into the crawl space under your house and smelled the mildew and musk? This scent indicates that there’s a lot of moisture, which is a universal issue in crawl spaces. But this moisture leads to mold which causes lots of damage, so you need to know how to get rid of mold on floor joists in a crawl space.

Gorilla Glue is one of the most useful substances known to man when it comes to fixing things, including things like loose furniture. Unfortunately, it also has a really sticky, gooey consistency that magically seems to get into every nook and cranny imaginable. Most people out there have wondered if there’s a way to remove excess Gorilla Glue from surfaces. Thankfully, there is.

Tupperware containers are kitchen staples for every household. They make it easier for us to tow our lunch and store leftovers and keep them fresh. However, just like every reusable utensil in the kitchen, they needed to be cleaned every after use. This leaves everyone with one important question: is Tupperware dishwasher safe?

Painting your concrete basement can present you with multiple puzzles to solve. After you’ve decided to paint your basement, you are probably wondering which type of paint to use.

Leather couches are beautiful additions to living rooms and give a classic touch to the aesthetic. If proper maintenance isn’t carried out routinely, leather can wear and tear quite quickly. This material is often prone to large holes and cracks when it’s not regularly conditioned. 

If there’s one pet peeve most DIY enthusiasts can’t stand, it’s having to clean up piles of dust from every corner of their room after a project. It’s a pain, and it’s something that engineers have been working tirelessly to curb. At one point, they found a solution. They call it ZipWall, and it’s a zip-up dust barrier that prevents dust from escaping from a work zone. It’s also pricey, so what alternatives do you have?

The garbage disposal is a component of your kitchen that deserves a whole lot of praise; it helps keep the kitchen neat and tidy. On top of that, you’re also reducing the amount of waste that you have to take outside, which is a plus. The only real downside to garbage disposals is that they tend to have issues from time to time. When they do, they spew out all kinds of nastiness that can leave your kitchen smelling truly awful.

No matter what you use your basement for, an unpleasant septic smell makes you want to stay as far away as possible. Whether your basement is for storage, a workshop, or a bonus room, it becomes virtually useless if it smells like sewage.

Guacamole is a party favorite that has become a staple in some diets. It makes use of fresh vegetables to create the perfect snacking dip. You can break it out for a quick snack or make it the centerpiece of any get-together. But how long does guacamole last?

In the age of cellphones and the Internet, we’ve become unaccustomed to the idea of a knock at the door. From the other side, is it weird to just go up and knock on someone’s door anymore? Is it Illegal? Are you trespassing?

Summers seem to be getting hotter every year. It’s hard to imagine sitting in a mobile home that is baking in the sun all summer, unless you are sitting in a mobile home baking in the sun all summer. Air conditioning is essential for summer comfort in your mobile home just about anywhere in the USA.

Brass is one of the most popular metals for home decor, especially if you are fond of the “old world” style. It’s coppery, yet a little more gold. Unfortunately, brass also happens to be one of the more high-maintenance metals, so it’s important to know how to keep brass from tarnishing.

By the nature of their design, tarps keep the elements away, but they get grimy in the process. No one wants a mud-encrusted tarp sitting on their garage shelf. But how easy are they to clean? Can you put them in the washing machine?

We rely on them every day, and many of us return to these magic dispensers of one cup of java goodness many times a day. These are our beloved Keurig coffee machines, a staple of our  kitchen decor, but what happens when they stop working, malfunction, or simply stop feeding us that dark liquid gold? We freak out! No, (okay, maybe for a brief moment of panic) we calmly assess the situation and take action.

Rugs make for a great complimentary design feature in a home. They come in a ton of different color and fabric options, allowing for mixing and matching to create the perfect design aesthetic. Braided rugs are often handmade, providing that one-of-a-kind look to a room.

If there’s one thing plumbers hate, it’s sediment. Sediment in your water line will cause your boiler to act out, increase the chances of clogging, and even change the flavor of your water. Most people assume they can’t actually do anything about sediment buildup but this isn’t very true. It’s possible to lean your sediment out of your water line and reduce the impact it has on plumbing.

Getting a new dishwasher can be exciting until it gets there, and you have to hook it up. You have no idea how to do that so what are you supposed to do now? Call Lowe;s and have them hook it up. But how much do they charge?

Out of all of the different furniture materials to choose from, microsuede has a soft feel and elegant appearance. They look stylish in any home and are incredibly easy to maintain. Because the fibers in the fabric are tightly woven, it can be hard to stain a microsuede couch. 

Having an automatic garage door does not mean much if the opener will not work. For some reason, the Sears Craftsman garage door opener remotes just stop working after a while. This means you have to buy a new remote. Or does it?

Some people swear by Water Heaters as a cheaper alternative to Boilers for radiant floor heating. Like most topics in home improvement – both options have their merits.

Skylights are a great way to add natural light and a feeling of airiness to any room of your house. They can also help with your home’s utilities, decreasing heating and lighting costs. When you decide to install this gorgeous product, you may wonder how long you can expect it to last.

Getting dents in your carpet may seem unavoidable if you have heavy furniture. However, your carpet isn’t doomed to have dents forever, especially if you take preventative steps. Luckily, we have several easy tips for how to protect your carpet from heavy furniture.

Nothing is more entertaining to the kids as making crazy animals and other shapes out of colored dough. Play-Doh can keep your kids busy for hours. But it can also keep you busy trying to get the bright colored mess out of the carpet later. Maybe the kids should only play with Play-Doh in a room without carpet next time. But now you have a mess to clean up.

Bissell has been a leading manufacturer of home cleaning appliances for more than 140 years, and it’s been said that this company even supplied England’s Queen Victoria with sweepers in the 1890s. Since that time, their products have improved substantially, and one can find their sweepers, washers, vacuum cleaners, and bare-floor vacuums being used by not only homeowners but business owners as well.

Porches are a great addition to any home, especially if you love seeing life outside your home without the elements hitting you. Many people enjoy having indoor furniture on their porches, but the truth is that this can cause problems with your furniture if the rain keeps blowing on your porch.

If you already have a sprinkler system in place, it is definitely time that you think about hooking up the sprinkler timer into the system itself. The timer has many benefits over the long run that will make it more than worth the time.

If you’re working on a home improvement task, chances are you’ll need a handful of tools to get the job done. With so many different tools available, it’s not easy to know which one you’ll need. 

If you have light bulbs installed on a high ceiling, you probably already know how challenging it can be to change out the light bulbs when it comes time for a replacement. Questions often abound. Should you balance on a stack of chairs? Create a tower using multiple ladders? How about using something sticky on the end of a long pole?

Brand-new fiberglass tubs are built with a protective material that is smooth and glossy in nature. This is known as the “gel coat” and is meant to offer resistance to scratches and other surface damage. But over time, it can wear down, leaving the surface rough and allowing soap scum and dirt to build up.

If you do a lot of cooking, then you’ve probably come across Pampered Chef cookware before. This cookware is ideal for those who take cooking seriously, as this cookware is built to last, versatile, easy to clean, stain-resistant, and usually offered for an affordable price.

Depending on how old your house is, your furnace may have an inducer motor. This is a handy dandy piece of equipment that keeps harmful chemicals, like carbon monoxide, out of your home.

Instant Pot’s multi-cookers have grown more and more popular over the years. More homeowners have started turning to them as they have sought faster, more versatile, and more convenient cooking appliances. Does that convenience extend to maintenance though? Can you count on your dishwasher to handle your Instant Pot or do you have to hand wash it?

No matter where you live, your house needs to have solid insulation in order to keep you (and your family) comfortable. A lack of insulation will make cold intolerable, increase your air conditioning bills, and even cause humidity to potentially harm your furniture and items.

Recently, I was watching Fuller House and marveled at how many Tanner-Fuller family members fit into what appeared to be a three-bedroom home in San Francisco. It got me thinking. I’ve heard of dozens of my friends living together in communes or as roommates, but I was not entirely sure how legal some of those living arrangements are. I mean, how many people can normally live in a place before it’s too much?

Ah, a fresh batch of laundry. Is there anything better, more satisfying than getting clean clothing after a messy project like priming fiberglass or building a fence? We think not. And while laundry is a must-have for DIYers, there are certain moments where your supplies are going to limit how much laundry you’re able to do. This is especially true with using a septic tank.

It’s movie night, and you cannot wait to cozy up with your family and watch a flick together. You hear the microwave running and smell the delicious familiar smell of buttered popcorn, with a few faint background “pops.” All of a sudden, there’s a putrid odor, and your entire family is yelling and running into the backyard.

Nobody wants to think about microscopic arachnids surrounding them at home. However, that’s the reality for many people, as dust mites are in most homes. So, what attracts dust mites?

The comforter on your bed is essential, and it brings warmth to the bed and ties together the room. This is why when you find a comforter that you love, it can be hard to let it go. But what happens when you find a comforter that is a bit too big for your bed? Should you buy a whole new mattress or try to find a new comforter?

When you’re excited about tackling a home project, it can be very tempting to jump in and get it done quickly. However, if you skip vital prep work, you might end up with shoddy work and wasted time.

When something goes wrong with one of your appliances, it can be challenging to know whether you should fix it or purchase a new one. Especially with an item such as a dishwasher, there are always new models coming out. These new models that come out each year are often more energy-efficient and help you save money in the long run. Despite this, there is no single answer that can tell you whether or not you should fix or replace your dishwasher. 

If you have some old rice in your home, you may wonder if it has gone bad. There is no simple yes or no answer to this broad question, as different types of rice have different expiration dates. White rice is the most popular type of rice and can last many years if properly stored.

With their delectably sweet interior, papayas are great in an assortment of recipes including salads, smoothies, jams, and even milkshakes. This delicious fruit offers a number of health benefits when incorporated into your daily diet. Although papayas taste best when they are fresh, you can also store and savor them at a later time. Since they tend to be less common than other tropical fruits, you may be wondering how to store papaya. Well, we’re here to help!

When it comes to your home’s heating situation, there are very few things as annoying (or potentially dangerous) as a gas furnace with a bad flame sensor. Your furnace’s flame sensor is the tool that is in charge of shutting off the gas when a flame isn’t detected while your furnace is supposed to be firing. Without a functioning sensor, you run the risk of having a gas leak that leads to an explosion.

Wood stained cabinets are beautiful and popular in many kitchens. However, they can be damaged by many things such as harsh chemicals, water damage, and just common use. Also, it could be that they were not stained correctly in the first place. For example, using the wrong finish, improper preparation, or using a colored finish over the stain can all be culprits.

In general, you should always finish a bottle of wine within one week of drinking it, as wine rarely stays fresh for more than six days after it’s been opened. Red wine lasts an average of three to six days from the moment it’s opened until it starts to break down and lose its essential flavors. 

Bananas are one of the best and most popular fruits to freeze. This yellow fruit is usually cheap and sold in bunches. Bananas are also a fruit that should not be put in the refrigerator, as this allows bananas to ripen naturally and quickly.

Basil is a popular herb used in kitchens around the world, known for its intense flavor and sweet smell. Although originally found in tropical Africa and Southeast Asia, this member of the mint family has given birth to several varieties that we use worldwide. Sweet basil, or Genovese basil, is more commonly used in our kitchens today. Basil is easy to grow in your home or garden, but beware of any basil leaves turning black.

Chandeliers are a worthy addition to dining halls, atriums, entrances, and other places around the house with high ceilings. They brighten the room and considerably raise the aesthetic appeal.

Appliances such as washers and dryers are a modern necessity, but that doesn’t mean that they’re always easy to use. Dryers are prone to operational errors or unexplainable behavior just like any other appliance. So, why is your dryer blowing cold air, and should you be worried about it?

Dirty burner caps don’t just make your stove look bad, but they can throw off the vibe in your kitchen. It’s hard to keep burner caps clean when you cook several days a week. However, it’s best to clean them as much as possible before stains form and it becomes harder to remove them. Many homeowners struggle with how to clean gas stove burner caps.