For most families, the garage is often a messy, disorganized and unloved storage space. As well as housing your car, it’s a place where you store tools and belongings you don’t need every day. But with a lack of care and attention over time the items in your garage can build up. Making it difficult to navigate and potentially hazardous to your family members. But with these organization and planning tips, your garage could actually become one of the most functional rooms in your home.

Declutter and maximize the space

Decluttering is a popular thing to do inside your home, but can be just as beneficial to your garage too. You probably won’t need to do this if you’ve just moved in. Giving yourself an hour or two on the weekends to declutter can make a significant difference. You need to go through all of the items that are stored inside and determine whether they still have a purpose. Get rid of anything that is broken or past it’s best. Once completed this should open up the space and make it easier to move around. While decluttering also make sure the hardware in your garage is in full working order. If you find that the door or lights are not working, you may need to replace or fix them. This too may give you more additional space. Take a look at this garage door service info to help you consider your options.

Give your garage a new purpose

If you don’t have a lot of items to store and you are able to park your car elsewhere, why not give your garage a new purpose. You could turn it into a home gym, an office or a playroom for your kids. The possibilities are endless and it could even add value to your home if you’re thinking of selling. Think of converting your garage into a space that your whole family can use such as a cinema room or art studio. Why not also take a look online to see how other people have transformed their garage space for further inspiration and ideas. You’re bound to come up with something that puts this neglected space to much better use.

Create zones

If you use your garage to store multiple items, you can make it far more organized by establishing zones. Sort the items in your garage into set piles such as kids toys, gardening tools and sporting equipment. Place these items in color coded or labelled boxes. Now divide up the space in your garage into zones and store your newly organized items in the same place. So all your gardening tools will be located in zone one, kids toys in zone two and so on. This will make it far easier to locate items when you need them and makes it simpler to maintain a tidy garage space.

With these suggestions, you shouldn’t find it too difficult to create an organized garage you can be proud of. So don’t let it continue to be a dumping ground for your family’s things.

Even though bath time can be a fun time, bathrooms can be dangerous places for small children. All that water can create a wet and very slippery environment! Therefore, it’s very important to make a child-friendly bathroom. That doesn’t mean you have to banish your rubber ducks, though! You can still have fun and splash around in a childproof bathroom. Here are five ways to make it a safe space for your kids.

Secure Your Storage

We often store toiletries, chemicals and cleaning products in our bathrooms. Usually, these are harmless, but in the wrong hands, they can be very dangerous. To prevent your kids from getting hold of them, close your cupboard doors securely with child locks.  If you don’t have much cupboard space in your bathroom, simply keep any potentially dangerous products out of reach on high shelves. Or, store them in another room.

Buy A Baby Step

You should encourage your child to brush their teeth independently from a very young age. One problem you will probably encounter is that they are too small to reach the sink. It doesn’t make sense to move your unit down to a convenient height. What does make sense, though, is buying a baby step.

Keep It Easy To Maintain

Bathrooms need a lot of cleaning. This isn’t something you can escape from, but you can make your room super easy to clean. This is especially useful when you have little kids who make lots of mess! One way to minimize dirt and grime is to swap your carpet for wipeable tiles. Non-slip tiles will be extra beneficial in your bathroom, especially if your kids are still only toddlers. For extra safety, add a bathmat to your floor.

Add Some Fun

It’s a family bathroom, so as well as creating a beautiful bathroom, think about adding some elements of fun that your kids will enjoy.  So how to add bursts of fun to your bathroom? Lots of toys! Kids love splashing around, and they’ll enjoy it even more with rubber ducks and other waterproof toys. Add color to your decor to brighten the room up. Think about buying shower curtains, regular curtains and bathmats with bright patterns on, they are easy to find at online discount stores.

Turn Down The Heat

Having around-the-clock hot water can be a godsend. But it can be dangerous for kids if they ever get their hands on any taps. To prevent them from burning themselves, install safety devices that limit the temperature of the water coming out of the taps. Another tip is to keep a thermometer in your bathroom, so you can double check the temperature of your children’s baths.
Follow these steps to a child-friendly bathroom and to create a room your whole family can make the most of!

image via www. interiordesigninspiration. net

The bedroom is supposed to be a place of pure relaxation. It’s supposed to be a place you can get your head down, have a good sleep, and wake up feeling refreshed. You should go to your bedroom when you feel like relaxing; no other room should do! Unfortunately, there are so many people who don’t feel like this when they wake up in the morning. They feel groggy, and not ready to get up for the day ahead. This can be due to a number of different reasons, from what is kept in the room to the color of the room. A lot goes into creating the perfect bedroom! This guide will help you to create the perfect bedroom for sleep and relaxation:

Make Sure the Walls Don’t Stimulate You Too Much

The walls are the largest element of a bedroom. Depending on how you decorate them, they can either stimulate you or relax you. If you have exciting murals on the wall in technicolor, this could be the reason you aren’t sleeping as well as you could. Bright colors can be fun, but you should keep them to other rooms of the house! Even if you just have a bright color on the wall, this can stop you from sleeping as well. Make sure your walls aren’t too stimulating at night time.

Choose a Relaxing Color Scheme
In general, there are some color schemes that will relax you and others that won’t. You may have white walls, but if you have red elements all over your bedroom, you might feel more awake at night time. Cooler colors are the absolute best colors for relaxing and getting a good night’s sleep. Colors like blue and green are perfect. It’s up to you if you want to paint the entire walls, use wallpaper, or simply include accessories in cool colors to create the look you’re after. You can use a color wheel if you’re confused as to which colors look best together.

Keep Electrical Items Out of the Bedroom

Having electrical items in the bedroom really can disrupt sleep. You may have heard this one before, but it’s true! Having TVs, phones, tablets, and other distractions in the bedroom can make your brain associate the room with things other than sleep. Not to mention the light from these objects can disrupt the sleep pattern too. If you use them before bed, your melatonin levels will lower by up to 23%. You’re basically waking yourself up and disrupting your natural sleep pattern! If you struggle to sleep, you could listen to soft, relaxing music. Maybe read a physical book rather than an e-book on a bright screen.

Make Sure Your Bed is Suited to You

If your bed isn’t suited to you, then you can hardly expect to sleep soundly at night. If you sleep with a partner, then you may need to compromise a little. You might want to do a bit of research on the top mattresses for 2016 to start you off. Your mattress shouldn’t be too hard or too soft, as you can create back problems. However, what is soft to one person may feel hard to another, so bear that in mind. You should also make sure you have the right type of pillows and quilts to keep you just the right temperature.

Stay on Top of Bed Maintenance

Make sure you’re staying on top of maintenance when it comes to your bed. Some mattresses need flipping regularly, so make sure you keep to a schedule. Otherwise, you could end up flattening your mattress in all of the wrong places. Not only that, you should actually replace your mattress with a new one every 8 years. Don’t put it off, or you could begin to cause problems for your posture and spine. Even if you think your mattress is fine, you shouldn’t risk it if you’ve had it a long time.

Install Heavy Curtains
Heavy curtains will help you to keep the light from outside out. Every sleep expert is in agreement that you need total darkness to sleep soundly at night. You don’t want any distractions in the form of street lamps or something similar. You could even go for blackout blinds if you prefer.

Add Plants and Other Natural Elements

Having natural elements in the bedroom are thought to help people relax too. You can have plants, and even pictures of plants to help you wind down and relax. Any pictures or canvases that are of natural elements that you find relaxing can be included in your bedroom. Looking at these pictures should make you feel calm and ready to sleep! The art of feng shui recommends you avoid keeping actual life in your bedroom, so it’s up to you if you want a real plant in there or not. Most of the time, having pretty natural pictures should have the same effect. Some people think feng shui is a load of rubbish, but it actually makes a lot of sense when you think about some of the points it makes. For example, it says you shouldn’t have a mirror facing the bed as it bounces energy back to you.

Eliminate Clutter

Having clutter in the bedroom can make you feel uneasy and wide awake. Don’t put off getting rid of that clutter. As soon as you get the opportunity, tidy things up and get rid of the things you don’t need. Maybe put some of it into storage. Having lots of clutter around the bedroom is bad for your health, so don’t let it go on for too long. A minimalistic bedroom is best if you want a good night’s sleep.

Create Symmetry in the Room

Apparently, experts say that symmetry can create a peaceful feeling in the bedroom, allowing us to relax more. By making the effort to buy matching pairs where possible and create a symmetrical look, you could sleeping and relaxing better in no time at all. This isn’t always possible, so just do what you can to the room to make it look nice and even. Lay it out in a way that makes you feel nice and relaxed. Not necessarily the way other people think is best!

Get a Progressive Alarm

Instead of having an alarm clock that abruptly wakes you from your slumber, get a progressive alarm that gently wakes you up. You can buy alarm clocks that will stimulate a sunrise and sunset, helping you to wake up far more naturally than with a loud noise. It’ll be well worth the investment to have one of these on your bedside table. Just make sure you face the alarm enough away from you that if you wake in the night, you won’t spot the time. Looking at the time during the night is enough to kick you out of your sleep for a while. You should be able to drift back off fairly easily without looking at the time.

Use Warm Lighting

Warm lighting can help you to get into a more relaxed space, if you’re doing something that requires light in the bedroom. Maybe you want to settle down and read a book. Any form of blue lighting in the bedroom will keep you awake. Making sure the bulbs you use are warm will help you to get a better quality of sleep.

Use Scent to Relax You

Did you know that scent in the bedroom can relax you too? Scents such as lavender can make you drift off to the land of slumber much sooner. You can use candles and incense if you want to create a relaxing atmosphere, but they shouldn’t be used while you’re trying to sleep. If you want to use something while you sleep, a pillow or room spray is your best bet. Of course you can use other things to help you drift off, but pillow and room spray is one of the most natural solutions.

Lower the Temperature of the Room

The temperature of the bedroom can seriously make a difference to how well you sleep at night. Did you know that your body temperature needs to fall for you to drift off nicely? You can do this by lowering the temperature of the room, maybe crack a window slightly. You can even keep your feet out of the duvet, as some experts recommend. Although this has nothing to do with your bedroom, taking a hot bath before bed can lower your temperature nicely too.
All of these tips when used together will help you to create the perfect bedroom for sleep and relaxation. If you ignore any of them, don’t be surprised if you find it hard to drift off at night time. Use as many as you can as soon as possible and you’ll notice a huge difference in the quality of your sleep. Leave any tips that have worked for you in the comments if you like. Sleep well and I’ll see you soon!

Although our homes can be a wonderful place of respite from the stresses of modern life, there are also numerous gadgets to provide a little digital assistance around the house.

So from hi-tech tablets that can deliver you into the exciting world of online blackjack, to gizmos that can check the dietary content of your dinner, here’s a look at the current range of gadgets that can transform your home in 2016.

Entertainment tech

Most of us will be familiar with the pleasures of unwinding with a good evening in front of Netflix, but the new Apple TV device makes watching a range of television shows and movies all the more fun with its voice-activated remote control.

Of course, many of us like watching TV in bed which is where the current range of tablets can work wonders in liberating us from the sofa. Although they are great for watching media, they are also well-suited for a little online gaming with adult puzzle games such as Monument Valley, and even Betway’s casino site featuring a range of table games that also provides the option to download this online blackjack game to your smartphone for extra convenience in your entertainment activities.

Kitchen aids

But it’s not just games and TV that have been given a 21st century update, as our lives in the kitchen have been made a whole lot easier thanks to iCuisine’s range of kitchen gadgets that all feature sensors to monitor the progress of the preparation of your meal.

If you’re wondering what’s actually in that frozen pizza that’s been lurking in the freezer for the past few months, then the DietSensor device can scan your food so that you get a better idea of how many carbs and nutrients you’re ingesting.

And for those of us who always forget something when we hit the supermarket, then the current range of smart fridges can alert you when you’re running low on a particular item, and some of them even open the door automatically upon your arrival.

Security

The internet of the things has been something of a buzzword amongst tech advocates recently. And our homes look to be more secure than ever thanks to the likes of the LG Smart Security system that can turn your home into Fort Knox at the push of a button. Whereas the EzViz brand have released an easy-to-use range of cameras that can perform a range of tasks from looking after the little ones, to monitoring the shadowy areas around your garden.

So from lightweight devices that allow you to play online blackjack in the bath, to sensors that can reveal the surprising truth of what’s in your lasagne, it seems that the current range of gadgets is granting us unprecedented information and power in our homes.

There are few occasions in a person’s life which are more exciting than moving into a new home. This is cause for celebration, whoever you are! Whether you are moving in with others, it is an exciting time, and you should make the most of it. Yet, there are also a lot of different things to get sorted. Sometimes, it can be hard to keep track of it all. But that doesn’t mean that you need to become stressed. If you take things one step at a time, the entire process can become a joy! Have a look at these top tips for how to settle into your new home.

New Home, New Address

This is one of those jobs which are so little, but seem so big! It is amazing how long we can put something like this off for. But it is simple to change your address. The hardest part is remembering which people and institutions you need to tell. A good place to start is with the financial ones. Tell your bank first, so you can start receiving your statements again. While you’re at it, give the car insurance company a call and tell them, too. Otherwise, it may be invalid if you need to make a claim! After that, it’s only a matter of trying to remember to tell all your friends.

Security & Pest Control

Nobody wants the worst to happen, but unfortunately, it does happen to some. That’s why it’s a good idea to get your new place as secure as possible from the outset. It’s up to you how far to go with it. Some people will want to install a full-blown security system, and that is fine. It all depends on the area you have moved into and your own opinion. You also want to ensure that your new home is free of pests – click here for info.

Setting Up the Essentials

This is a great one to do in those idle moments between unpacking boxes. By essentials here, we mean things like getting your utilities sorted. It’s a good time to look into the particular situation in your new home. You need to find out, for example, what kind of energy the house uses, and who currently provides it. You then want to make sure you shop around – don’t just accept the provider without looking! There is a good chance you will find a better deal elsewhere. Particularly as a lot of energy companies have offers for new customers. All this needn’t be a big task – it’s just a case of looking online as you have a break from unpacking.

The Neighborhood
Last but not least: get to know your neighbors. Today, we are sometimes guilty of not being active within our local communities. For this reason alone, this is an imperative step. All it takes is to knock on a couple of doors and introduce yourself. While you’re at it, why not see if any local clubs or groups look interesting to you? Once you get involved in the local community, you start to feel right at home.