From the Floors Up

How To Stage Your Home So It’s Ready To Go On The Market, But Not Stay There For Long

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Part 1 – First Impressions

Ready to sell but not exactly ready? Grab a cup of coffee and read this three part guide to staging your home. Check of everything on this to-do list and watch your home go off the market fast!

  • First impressions are everything. Before concerning yourself with the interior ensure the exterior is appealing. Otherwise, people might not even bother to see what’s inside. The trick to a quick exterior improvement is to do things that have the most impact. No one wants to reinvent the front yard, but a few changes will do the trick. Try planting fresh flowers if the season allows for it. Spruce up the grass with a couple of pieces of sod. Add new mulch or a sprinkling of new rocks to worn areas. If you have the funds consider doing any necessary work to the garage door. It frequently accounts for much of the outside visual space seen be a potential buyer.
  • Make a statement when people make an entrance. Beautifying the front door area of your home is a smart and easy fix. Yes, curb appeal will get them out of the car, but you want to build a sense of anticipation when they are waiting for you to open the door. Set out a new welcome mat, hang a wreath, and sweep away dust and cobwebs. If there’s space, add a chair or two, as well as potted plants and flowers. If the door itself has seen better days repaint it or replace it. Don’t forget clean up any glass as well. Nothing says ho-hum like old, dingy glass in a door or entry-way window.
  • Go crazy with cleaning or hire a maid service. There is a big difference between the quick cleanup job we do on the weekends and an actual deep cleaning of the entire home. Pay attention to things like grout, baseboards, doors, etc. Get out the strong cleaning supplies and put in some solid Cinderella time.
  • Create visual space by removing unnecessary furniture. If you can’t store it, try reconfiguring the layout. Experiment and move things around until you find an arrangement that consumes the least usable space.

Next read Part 2 – Simplify

Organizing and Cleaning Your Shower

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14420915_SYou just completed a beautiful remodel of your bathroom. You have heated floors, subway tile, plate glass shower doors, toothbrush holders, towel storage and lots of cabinet space. But your shower floor is littered with shampoo bottles, shaving supplies and body wash. It’s time for a bit of shower organization. And just for good measure we’ll also talk about how to keep your plate glass looking clean and sparkling.

If you were really thinking ahead you would have had shower shelves or niches built into your shower walls. If you’ve already completed your remodel or you have inherited a shower without such features, fear not.

You can use caddies to store everything from shampoo and conditioner bottles to shaving supplies to toothbrushes and bath toys. Look for deep pockets and baskets to keep knickknacks from slipping out of the caddies and getting underfoot. A wire mesh or large drainage holes are required for proper drainage. A number of racks will hold bottles upside-down like ketchup so you can easily get that last squirt of shampoo or conditioner.

There is even a shaving pedestal that can be mounted two feet off the floor of the shower to help women shave their legs. Other products combine mirrors with storage racks for razors and shaving cream. Mounted soft soap and shampoo dispensers put those products at your fingertips, and covered bar soap dishes can keep the bars from melting. Brilliant!

To keep those glass shower doors sparkling clean plan on mixing one cup of white vinegar and one cup of dishwasher soap together. Use a scrubby and wipe down the glass. Rinse with water. This should do the trick but if there are a few stubborn spots use a good glass cleaner.

Now not only do you have a beautifully organized and functional shower but a clean one as well!

Life’s Little Messes

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25714482_SCheese puffs on the rug, dirty paw prints on the wood floors, juice spilled on the sofa… life’s little messes can happen throughout the house, and they do on a daily basis.  Having the right flooring and upholstery can help make sure life’s little messes can be easily cleaned up.  The perfect house that is never dirty or the perfect sofa that never has popcorn between the cushions might exist somewhere, but for the majority of us, it isn’t a reality. Homes and rooms are meant to be lived in and enjoyed. So eat your cheese puffs and let the dog into the house.

When shopping for carpet or area rugs, look for materials that are stain-resistant. Ask about stain fighting properties when purchasing your carpet and rugs. Wool is a natural stain-resistant material because of the natural oils in the wool yarn. Other types of carpet and rugs may be engineered or treated to fight stains.  To hide stains and dirt, look for rugs with deeper colors and complicated patterns.

For new upholstered furniture purchases, ask about stain fighting properties in the different upholstery options.  Some retailers offer a stain protection plan that will protect your investment with professional treatment of stains. Using outdoor upholstery indoors is a smart idea if you have kids or pets. Outdoor fabrics are designed to withstand moisture and dirt more than delicate fabrics.

Messes happen. This is a fact of life. Choosing the right flooring and upholstery means the little messes are no big deal.

When Toys Take Over the Room

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Have you ever felt like your home has been the victim of an invasion by toys? Stepping on a small toy part hidden in the carpet or something with wheels on a wood floor in the middle of the night is the stuff of comedy sketches. These painful reminders to pick up the toys often happen to mom or dad rather than the kids. Corralling toys can save your home from the invasion of the toys.

 

Piles of toys in the living room or family room, bathroom, and kids’ bedrooms can make you feel like you are outnumbered. Toys seem to accumulate when we are not looking. Like everything in our homes that tends to accumulate from condiments in the fridge to toys, you need to de-clutter on a regular basis. The standard of keep, trash and give away can be applied to toys too.

 

Some parents give ultimatums that if the toys aren’t picked up in a certain amount of time they will be bagged up and given to charity or thrown away. These ultimatums need to be followed through on to really work. Just once might be enough. No matter if you have gotten to the ultimatum point or not, good storage is a must to keep the toys from taking over.

 

Bins, baskets, boxes… anything and everything that will get toys up off the floor will work. Having storage readily available and easy to access may just make storing toys less of a battle.

Nooks and Crannies

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Finding extra storage in our homes is something we all struggle with.  We do like our stuff, so much so that there are television shows about storage locker auctions and hoarding. Decluttering is something we could all probably do. And the New Year is a great time to go through our homes and try to organize and declutter our spaces. Taking it room by room, closet by closet and shelf by shelf can make the task seem less daunting.  Even our kitchen cabinets need to be sorted through and decluttered at least once a year.

Once you’ve cleaned out your space, finding storage for what you have left can still be a challenge.  Cabinets and bookshelves are the go to places to store the objects of our lives.  Baskets and bins on the floor are other popular options.  Built-in cabinets and shelves are a more permanent option for additional storage in living and bedrooms. All of these storage options can provide you with standard storage in most rooms of your home.

Additional storage spaces can be created if you think outside the box, or shelf as it were.  Think about wall mounted inset medicine cabinets that keep products off the counter and floor. These cabinets use the gaps between the wall studs as additional storage space in the bathroom. This idea can work in other areas of the home too.  Nooks and crannies can be created out of the space under the stairs or in walls in a family or playroom.

Think creatively and you just might find a bit more extra storage in your home.

From the Floors Up

From the Floors Up blog was created with the goal of providing a destination for consumers, designers and those interested in the flooring, design, and kitchen and bath industries. Here you’ll find, current, accurate and informative information that is always just a click away!

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