Patching Nail Holes and Small Cracks

Some walls can be like a pin cushion with dozens of small nails or thumb tacks. After removal, all these holes must be filled with a suitable compound; don’t rely on the paint to fill these small holes.

The best patching compound for small holes and cracks is light weight spackle.

Use your finger to fill the nail hole with spackle. After application lightly rub the surface to distribute the spackle and blend it with the surrounding surface. The same technique works for small cracks. A light sanding is recommended after the spackle has dried, typically 1 hour.

For larger nail holes or small dents use a putty knife to fill the area. After allowing the spackle to completely dry, lightly sand the area and blend the patch with its surroundings. A second coat can be applied after the first has completely dried.

The first step is to clear everything out of the bedroom. The bed can stay, but you may have to move it or lift it to get at everything underneath.

After the room has had everything moved out you may notice dirt, garbage and old things that can be thrown away. Take the garbage bags into the bedroom and start picking up all the trash. Teenagers aquire lots of it. Once your teen’s bedroom is cleared of all debris vacuum the floors.

After the floors are vacuumed put back the furniture that you may have moved out of the room. Place everything in the room in an organized manner. The dresser and nightstand should be near the bed. A desk might be across the room with a bookshelf. If your teen’s room does not have a bookshelf, add one now. Books may encourage teens to read.

Add a magazine rack to your teen’s bedroom to get things more organized. Teens love reading magazines, and a magazine rack keeps the magazines from becoming cluttered around the floor of the room. Add a shoe organizer to the bedroom door, especially if your teen is a girl with lots of shoes. It is a great way to organize pairs of shoes for each day of the week.

Use the totes for toys, games and gadgets that your teen collects. The small totes can be labeled and stored underneath your teen’s bed. Once the stuff is organized it will be easier to find and will require less clean-up time. The large tote can be used for swapping out winter and summer clothes or for the most used items in your teen’s room.

1. Remove everything from your desk. Place your phone on your left if you’re right handed and on the right if you’re left handed. Display personal items elsewhere.

2. Keep a spiral notebook by the phone for messages and phone notes. Write your voice mail messages in it and delete them from the system. Jot down reference notes before you make a call to reduce phone time.

3. Open your planner or turn on your PDA and place it on your desk. Use it to keep track of to-dos, follow-ups and ideas.

4. Keep office supplies in one drawer only. Buy a dozen of your favorite, inexpensive pens and keep them in a cutlery tray in the drawer. Keep back-up supplies in a plastic storage container with drawers.

5. Sort through your desk files. Keep in your desk drawers only files you use weekly or those that are personal or confidential.

6. Place your computer at a 90 degree angle to your desk. Keep your desk work surface clear of everything except essentials and your current project.

7. Set up a system for active files either in a step file sorter on your desk or in your file drawer. Sort your paperwork into it: Do, Consider, Awaiting Answer, File, Hold, Read and Refer.

8. Take ten minutes at the end of each day to keep your desk organized. Place tomorrow’s top priority project in the center of your desk. You’re ready for anything.

There are three important stops that you must use to treat a stain, hopefully before it has a chance to set in your carpet:

Apply: Wet a clean white (not printed) paper towel with a cleaning solution. Then dampen the carpet with it. Avoid wetting the carpet through to its backing.

Blot:  Absorb the excess liquid from the carpet by pressing straight down with a clean and dry white paper towel.  Do not rub. Place a half-inch think pad of clean and dry white paper towels with a weight on top and leave overnight if necessary.

Scrape: Gently scrape the soiled area with the blunt edge of a spoon. Scrape from the otside edge of the spot toward the center.

Vacuuming  won’t always take care of your carpet cleaning needs. Sometimes, you will need to do a little heavy-duty cleaning to get your carpet looking like new again.

Many different types of carpet cleaners are commercially available, including dry cleaners, spray-on foam cleaners and wet shampoo. Whatever carpet cleaner you use, be sure that it is made exclusively for carpets. Always test a cleaner on a small, inconspicuous area of the carpet first. Avaoid using alkaline soaps, ammonia or cleaning liquids meant for hard surfaces such as wood or tile. These can damage your carpet. Do not us any cleaners that include color brighteners.

When you decide to have your carpet cleaned professionally, choose the carpet cleaner with care. Don’t be afraid to ask your  carpet cleaner for a reference and firm estimate.

Vacuuming is key to keeping your new carpet fresh and beautiful. Dirt and grit will become embedded in the pile where they will affect your carpet’s color and cause matting of the pile.  You want to vacuum heavy-traffic areas as often as possible — every day if possible. Vacuum about three passes for light cleaning; up to seven passes where there is more soil.

For best results, use a vacuum cleaner with a beater bar or rotating brush. Make sure you’ve adjusted the attachment to the proper height for your carpet. For loop pile carpet, avoid attachments with teeth or ridges.

The following are some tips to help you get your home cleaned quickly and a few shortcuts to “fix” some minor problems until you can spend more time on them.

1. Musty Curtains: freshen curtains by tossing them into the dryer on the no-heat of air-fluff setting. The tumbling will loosen dirt and dust and transfer it to the dryer’s filter. Remember to clean the lint screen afterwards.

2. Dusty Blinds: clean dusty blinds by submerging them, fully extended, in a bathtub filled with warm water and one to two cups of powdered dishwashing detergent. Dip them, then wipe with a cloth. Rest them on towels to dry. This is easier and quicker than cleaning them slat-by-slat.

3. Banish build-up in the bathroom: keep soap scum and mineral deposits off shower walls by applying a thin coat of clear furniture wax or car polish to the tiles. The slippery finish will make water bead and roll off quickly, before leaving behind any hard-to-clean residue. Be careful not to get any of the wax on the bottom of your tub to avoid a potential fall.

4. Redecorating repair: small holes in walls where old photos used to hand can be filled with a dab of white toothpaste until you have time to spackle.

 Carpets

When dealing with red wine you need to move fast. To keep red wine stains from setting in carpets or linens, quick blotting or rinsing with cold water is key. On a wet stain, dab the carpet or tablecloth with a dry, white absorbent cloth to remove the excess liquid. If it’s the next morning or the stain has dried, apply a small amount of detergent solution. This should be 1/4 tsp. dishwashing liquid and 1 cup lukewarm water. Apply this to a white cloth and gently blot, working from the edges of the spill to the center to prevent spreading. Let it sit for several minutes. Repeat as needed until the stain is removed. Next you want to rinse with cold water and dab with a clean rag until dry.

  Tablecloth

On a new, wet stain, sprinkle coarse salt to absorb liquid from the fabric. Then blot with cold water or rinse under cold water to remove excess sugars and prevent oxidation.

For an older, dry stain, rub a bit of liquid laundry detergent into the stained area. Launder in the hottest water safe for the fabric with laundry detergent and color-safe bleach.

Repeat as needed until the stain is gone.

   Area rugs are very durable, but spills and stains are bound to happen, especially if there are small children in the house. Below are some general guidelines to help keep your rugs in the best of shape.

General Care
     The first step in caring for you rugs is regular vacuuming.  This not only removes grit, but also prolongs the life of your rug.  Be careful if you have a fringed rug, because a vacuum machine will damage the edges of the fringe.  If the fringe needs cleaning, it is better to use a broom or a brush.  Once or twice a year it also helps to flip the rug over and vacuum its back.  This helps knock out grit that has fallen into the rug’s foundation. Depending on how much traffic your rug sees, it is a good idea to rotate your rug every six months to a year.  This helps ensure even wear of the rug’s pile.
     Over time, grit and dirt will become embedded so deeply in your rug that it will require a professional cleaning.  This will not only remove the deeply embedded dirt, it will also brighten the rug’s overall appearance. It is recommended that a rug be thoroughly, professionally cleaned every 4-5 years. This timeline depends on the amount of traffic that the rug gets.
     If you need to store your rug for any extended period of time, It is suggested that it be cleaned first and then rolled against the nap and wrapped in heavy brown wrapping paper.

One mistake that people often make is to douse their hardwood floors with too much water when cleaning. Make sure the mop you use is only somewhat damp, not soaking wet. Just add a little water to your floors to clean them. Too much will damage your flooring. Before you put a mop on your floors, make sure your hardwood has been thoroughly vacuumed to remove excess dirt.

Cleaning your hardwood floors routinely should prevent many problems down the road. This is because a clean hardwood floor is less vulnerable to deterioration and as well, stains and dirt buildups won’t collect over time and thus become difficult to remove later.

Never use ammonia to clean your hardwood floors. Ammonia is one of those miracle cleaners for many materials, but it will only hurt your hardwood floor. Ammonia can discolor and take away a few years from your floor’s life. So when you do have a cleaning product around that you’d like to use on your floor, check the ingredients and if there is ammonia included, do not use it! Vinegar, on the other hand, can be useful. In that sense, hardwood floors really won’t cost you a lot as you can often fight tough stains with simply water and vinegar.

There are some easy things you can do to help keep your hardwood floors in good shape. One of those things is to buy some area rugs to protect your floor in different spots where there might be high traffic. For example, at the entry way of a door, or the middle of a room, you can place a rug down so that your hardwood floor can be saved from some serious wear and tear. Rugs are also a great way to dress up your home and even though hardwood floors are pretty, they can also look bland if there aren’t a few rugs here and there to jazz things up.