Home Improvement
Home-office Design Tips to Inspire Your Productivity
The COVID-19 pandemic brought about a drastic shift in the way we work, with remote work becoming the new normal. As we transitioned into the post-COVID era, the home-office concept has emerged as an essential aspect of modern living. A home-office provides one a great opportunity to create a productive and inspiring workspace right within the comfort of one’s home. In this article, we will explore creative ways to design, decorate, and organize home offices to boost productivity.
Creative Ways to Design, Decorate and Organize Your Home-Office
Choosing the Right Location
The first step in setting up an effective home office is selecting the right location. One should opt for a well-lit area with minimal distractions. Considering natural light and ventilation is important to create a refreshing atmosphere that promotes focus. A quiet and dedicated space away from high-traffic areas in the home will help remain productive and undisturbed during work hours.
Ergonomic Furniture and Setup
Investing in ergonomic furniture is advisable to ensure comfort and prevent strain during long hours of work. An adjustable chair and a desk at the right height will promote good posture and reduce discomfort.
Read more: How to Choose Paint Colors for Your Entire House
Try to arrange your computer, keyboard, and mouse in a way that supports your wrists and neck. Prioritizing ergonomics in your home-office design will enhance your productivity and overall well-being.
Personalize Your Space
You can make your home office truly yours by adding personal touches. You may display motivational quotes, artwork, or photographs that inspire you and reflect your personality. You can also opt for nature-inspired wallpaper with serene landscapes or botanical prints to create a calming and visually appealing backdrop.
How to Choose Paint Colors for Your Entire House
Home is the place where souls find peace and satisfaction. Different rooms of a house have different purposes. While interior designing or renovating a home, preserving the distinct architectural character of rooms and spaces should not be ignored. Wall paint can be a means to make the home more homely, cozy, functional, and unique.
Significance of choosing the right paint color for different rooms
While planning the interior design of a specific room, proper color selection has great significance. Color can help create illusions. The perfect wall paint can make a small room look bigger and a large room more intimate.
Color also contributes to light reflection in a room. Light shades can make a room look brighter that has less access to natural sunlight; while darker shades can help avoid glare in a very sunny space.
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The wall colors of interior rooms not only enhance the aesthetics of a house but also represents the taste of the homeowner. Not everybody's choice is similar. Adults and senior persons usually like mild wall colors while children and teenagers may love their walls to be painted in bright colors.
As each color has unique meanings and significance, wall paint can also impact the mood. Therefore, the homeowner can choose different wall paint colors for different rooms.
Useful Tips for Interior Paint Color Selection
Defining the right wall paint color can be confusing. To make a decision about color paints, all it needs is a little confidence and some guidelines from interior designers and color experts. Here are some effective tips to select wall paint colors for a room.
Read More: How to organise your home office
Find Inspiration
When choosing the wall paint color for a specific room or space of the home, it needs to be assured that the resident won't get tired of that color. At the time of selecting wall colors, the occupant can search for the versions of his or her favorite colors that are muted with grey. Several colors can be blended to get the desired hue.
The occupant can take color inspiration from the places and spaces he or she loves and visits frequently. It can be nature-inspired or a mix of shades, etc. Thus, the occupant will be able to match that feeling and find happiness in his or her own room.
Know the Meaning of Colors
Different colors can denote different emotions. Before picking a specific color or mixing several shades of colors for wall paint, one must understand the power of the colors. The color of the bedroom walls can be different from that of the living room or study room.
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How to organise your home office
What's cool about working from home? The home office helps you to designate a workspace and pick a schedule that suits you! However, being productive is always challenging, and the common culprit of demotivation is clutter. So it is essential to organise your home office. An organised home office helps reduce stress, increase productivity, leave you with more spare time, and frees your mind. Here are some effective tips and tricks to organise your home office.
12 ways to organise your home office
If you're working from home and are struggling to get your work done, we've provided ten home office organising suggestions you should test:
Designate work zone
It is easy to get distracted while working from your home. Therefore, you should create a specific work zone to improve your efficiency. Choose a quiet area in your home where you can work for long hours. Making sure that you can close the door in that space. It will allow you to avoid the distractions that can significantly impact your focus and productivity.
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Let the natural light in
Create your workspace in a location where enough natural light can enter. Light can increase your productivity and motivation. If you spend most of the day in the dark, it can make you bored and sick. According to research conducted by Harward, sunlight can reduce headaches and drowsiness to 63 percent and 56 percent. If you're energised and do not have headaches to contend with, you'll be more productive.
Keep a shelf and other organising tools
Organise everything in your office. It is a waste of time, if you need to search your desk, or get up to reach your filing cabinet to find the supplies you frequently use. Although your workspace appears quite tidy initially, it will not remain the same for long. Each time you take out the item you require and put it back on the desk, you'll add more clutter.
Always keep your most valuable tools nearby. You can use a variety of tools for organising your office, such as:
- A shelf or bookcase can be a great way to organise the space of your home-office. Install an item on a shelf in front of or next to your desk to keep your calendar, dictionary and other books that you regularly use.
- Set up a file holder on your desk to keep the files you need for ongoing tasks.
- A mailbox is a place to organise your bills, assignments, letters, and other tasks on your list of things to do.
- A rack to store files for the current projects.
- A trash can, recycling container, and shredder.
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Sweep your desk clean
As you'll spend the most time at your desk, you need to get your desk organised! Begin with a clean blank slate. Remove everything from your desk except your printer, computer and phone.
If the desk you are looking at has accumulated a few years of dust, it's a good occasion to tidy your desk and sweep under it.
Get a locked cabinet
Purchasing a filing cabinet is a fantastic method to create space in your home-office. Purchasing a fireproof storage unit with a lock system ensures that your documents will not be stolen or damaged. A fireproof, locked container is vital for crucial documents such as birth certificates, marriage certificates, passports, and car titles. They can also be kept in the safe deposit box. To make the most of the storage space, you can get an office cabinet with four drawers.
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Declutter and relocate items
The home offices often become messy because the owners aren't willing or make an effort to throw items away or relocate personal things. For instance, your baby’s photo may keep you happy, but it takes up valuable desk space. Remove everything not directly connected to the work you do from your desk.
Spend a few minutes to declutter the things you don't use.
Here are some items you should throw away:
-Pens that are no longer working
-Broken or unused office equipment such as old computers, phones and scanners and printers (you can reuse many of these items)
-Documents that are out of date and no longer required
-Old magazines, newspapers, Internet print-outs: when you've finished reading them or have done with them, you should stop using them
- Photos, greeting cards, awards, plants, coffee mugs, and souvenirs. However, you may still have some of these in your office but in a less remote location.
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Cable Clutter
Do you stumble across the tangled mess of cables and wires whenever you walk into your home-office? The presence of too many cables beneath your feet can make you stumble. It can also pose a fire risk and create a workplace that is much more cluttered than it is.
Here are some tips to minimise the number of cables in your home-office zone,
- Remove electronic devices that you do not use anymore or occasionally use.
- Utilise the most wireless devices possible -- such as your keyboard, mouse and printer.
- Get a USB hub that can connect multiple devices to your computer with only one USB cable.
Move office equipment off your desk
If your desk is covered with monitors, printers and computers, phones, modems, phones and computer storage, where will you work? It's not necessary to have these gadgets over your desk. They are taking up valuable space.
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Here are some suggestions to get rid of some technology from your workspace:
-Place your desktop computer's CPU beneath the desk or on the floor.
-Huge monitor can take nearly half the size of your desk. You can replace it with a slick monitor.
-Back up everything online. This online backup can save you if your hard drive fails or your laptop computer is stolen or damaged. However, it will allow you to remove the extra storage device off your desk.
Digital calendar and to-do lists
How do you track your appointments, meetings or other commitments? Do you use a notepad Day Timer that's brimming with notes? Have you migrated your calendar to digital, but you still use notepads to keep track of deadlines and important dates?
Choose a system you're sure to keep. You can eliminate paper and save all your important reminders onto the back of your iPhone or other personal devices. The documents include deadlines, meetings, appointments, to-do lists and appointments. Connect your calendar on your device to your computer so that you're always aware of where you're supposed to be.
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Organise Your PC
The filing cabinets and desk aren't the only things in your office that require clearing. Computers can also benefit from a thorough cleaning. If you continue to load documents and programs on your hard drive, eventually, it'll become too cluttered that it's impossible to locate what you require or find yourself running out of space.
Here are a few suggestions to organise your computer:
-Set up your filing system. Make the folders in a manner that is logical to you.
-Throw away old documents.
-Back up your files to ensure you don't lose any needed data, and back up all of your important data via an external drive or internet storage services.
-Sort your email. Your inbox for email can be similar to your desk when you don't have an organised plan. Create folders to organise your messages according to subject, sender, or dates.
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Utilise vertical space
Utilising vertical space gives you additional space to keep your home-office zone especially desk area tidy and organised. This system is particularly true when you have smaller desk space or no drawers at the desk. The space over your desk could be the ideal spot to put your essential things. The vertical or floating shelves can also give the space an impression of art.
Invest in the comfort
Few people consider comfort when selecting tables, chairs, and work desks to use in their office at home. You can’t stay productive when you're suffering from neck or eye strain while working. A poor ergonomics system can affect your productivity over the long term. As you will spend most of your time working from your home office, be cautious about comfort. While organising your home-office, purchase comfortable furniture.
Bottom Line
The pandemic has taught the whole world about the efficiency of the work-from-home trend. However, not all people can enjoy the facility of a remote office as their workspaces may not be very inspiring. A well-organised home office can make you more creative and productive. So far, we have discussed useful methods to organise your home office. Hope it helps!
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Top 10 Bathroom Plants to grow in humid environment of shower
Who doesn’t want cleaner and better air in the bathroom? Plants can help with that. Bathroom plants have huge benefits; purify the air, bring greenery and nature into one of our more sterile rooms, eliminate bacteria and absorb extra moisture. Besides, house plants can help increase your vitality and give you a feeling of extra energy improving your mental health and giving you the perfection of a higher quality of life. Check here the 10 best houseplants that can live in a bathroom without windows
Top 10 Houseplants to Place in Bathroom, Shower
In this case, you need to make your choices narrower and should select the plants that are able to cope with both high humidity and low light levels. Some plants that might be a good choice for a windowless bathroom are as follow:
Snake plant
Snake plant or Mother-in-law's tongue which is formerly Sansevieria trifasciata is a popular houseplant with yellow-striped leaves and tiny pale green scented flowers.
English Name: Snake Plant
Scientific name: Dracaena trifasciata
Bengali Name: Not available
Special Benefit:
The snake plant has many health benefits but the special is that it can release oxygen and add moisture to the air and can help lessen the impact of airborne allergens like dust and dander. Thus, it helps to improve poor indoor air quality which has been linked to many health-related issues like allergies and asthma.
Features:
-Filter indoor air, even at night.
-Remove toxic pollutants.
-Mental health booster.
-Low maintenance and easy to care for.
-Effective against allergies.
-Survive in high humidity and in low light.
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Boston fern
They're great for big, bushy greenery but need room to grow. So, you need a larger bathroom.
English Name: Boston Fern or Sword Fern
Bengali Name: Not Available
Scientific name: Nephrolepis exaltata
Special Benefit:
Boston fern with its mass of lush green foliage is thought to be one of the best air purifying houseplants. It helps to rid the home of harmful toxins and improves humidity as well by helping to restore moisture to the air naturally.
Features:
-Warm and wet environments are suitable for Boston Fern.
-Bostoniensis' has gracefully arching fronds.
-The plants have thin runners called stolons which will root to form a new plant when they touch the ground.
-You can use small Boston ferns as accents in the planting of annual foliage plants.
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Majesty or Parlour palm
Majesty palm is an easy-care plant. It adds good looks to indoor and outdoor spaces.
English Name: Parlour Palm
Bengali Name: Not Available
Scientific Name: Ravenea rivularis
Special Benefits:
Its special benefit is that it will make your house look beautiful and it requires a very small amount of maintenance. Helps to keep your bathroom green and fresh.
Features:
-Majesty Palms Like it Wet
-They Don't Mind Shade
-They Like Humidity
- Can Reach 80 Feet
-Majesty Palm is a Slow Grower.
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Spider plant
English Name: Spider Plant
Bengali Name: Available
Scientific Name: Chlorophytum comosum
Special Benefits:
-It is a very popular houseplant.
-They are suitable for bathrooms as they love moisture.
-It cleans indoor air.
-Studies have shown that this plant absorbs chemicals including formaldehyde, xylene, benzene, and carbon monoxide in homes or offices and thus keeps the air clean and fresh. Its thick and fleshy roots can tolerate inconsistent watering.
Features
-The spider plant is a great and common houseplant.
-It produces small white flowers.
-Helps clean indoor air.
-It is well suited to hanging containers.
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Pothos
Another name for golden pothos, money plant, or devil's ivy is a hardy indoor foliage plant.
English Name: Money Plant
Scientific Name: Epipremnum aureum
Bengali Name: Unknown
Special Benefits:
The main speciality of this plant is that it is easy to grow and actually thrives in low light and neglect. It helps to purify the air of formaldehyde, benzene and carbon monoxide and helps eliminate odours as well. Besides, it can also help alleviate eye irritation after long days of staring at screens.
Features:
-It is an evergreen plant. Its leaves are thick, waxy, green and heart-shaped
-It is like a hanging plant.
-It can climb on wild or cultivated plants grown outdoors and can reach enormous heights using tall trees as support.
-It can absorb water easily, which makes them ideal for a bathroom.
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Peace Lily
Also known as white sails, or spathe flower, is a very popular indoor house plant.
English Name: Peace Lily
Scientific Name: Spathiphyllum wallisii
Bengali Name: Not specified
Special Benefits:
It filters the indoor air increasing the levels of humidity and ultimately helping you breathe better. Besides, it aids in good sleep absorbing airborne mould spores that are common allergens. Most importantly, these plants bring calmness by alleviating feelings of stress in the mind and body.
Features:
-Peace lilies are athletic, easy-to-grow plants with glossy, dark green oval leaves. -The special thing is that the leaves of this plant rise directly from the soil.
-These plants produce lightly fragrant white flowers that resemble calla lilies.
- It has long-lasting, pure white flowers that will turn a pale green as they age.
You can keep it easily in your shower as it loves moisture and prefers to be kept in low-light locations.
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Aloe Vera
Aloe vera, a medicinal plant is a shrubby, succulent and pea- green colour plant that grows mainly in the dry regions of Africa, Asia, Europe and America.
English Name: Aloe Vera
Scientific Name: Aloe barbadensis miller.
Bengali Name: Unknown
Special Benefits:
Aloe vera gel is used to treat sunburn. Besides, it also provides other health benefits as it has antioxidant properties. Research has shown that aloe vera may benefit your skin, dental, oral, and digestive health. It can control blood sugar also.
Features:
Aloe Vera has triangular, fleshy leaves. It also has yellow tubular flowers and fruits that contain numerous seeds. Each leaf consists of three layers. In the inner layer, you will find a gel that contains 99% water and the rest is made of glucomannans, amino acids, lipids, sterols and vitamins.
It is suitable for bathroom shelves as it doesn't need much water.
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Orchid
Orchids are tropical plants that will cope with humidity.
English Name: Orchid
Scientific Name: Orchidaceae
Bengali Name: Unknown
Special Benefits:
-An ornamental beauty.
-Orchids can purify the Air.
-They may help us reduce stress.
-Orchids can produce a lovely scent.
-Orchid plants could aid with sleep.
Features:
It has three petals. Its three sepals can also easily be mistaken as petals. Its waxy tube-like structure is known as a column. The column is the male and female organs of the plants. Orchids also have a single lip naming labellum.
You can keep it in your larger, airier bathroom where the air can dry out.
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Inch plant
The inch plant known as Tradescantia zebrina is a great bathroom plant for adding colour with its purple leaves.
English Name: Inchplant
Scientific Name:Tradescantia zebrina
Bengali Name: Unknown
Special Benefits:
It has significant pharmacological activities such as anticancer, antioxidant, antibacterial, antitrypanosomal, antiarrhythmic and larvicidal activity against Anopheles benarrochi.
Features:
Tradescantia zebrina has attractive zebra-patterned leaves. The upper surface shows purple new growth and green older growth parallel to the central axis. It has two broad silver-coloured stripes on the outer edges whereas the lower leaf surface presents a deep uniform magenta.
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Chinese Evergreen
This is a great plant for the bathroom because of its hardiness. It even survives when you forget to water it. You can choose it easily if you like to travel a lot or you are a person who is forgetful. Most importantly, it is very adaptive. You can keep it low or indirect light and in bright spots also. Although it loves humidity, it doesn’t like quick temperature changes.
English Name: Chinese Evergreen
Scientific Name: Aglaonema
Bengali Name: Not specified
Special Benefits
This plant helps to improve the air quality of your indoor spaces by filtering indoor air pollutants and toxins. Besides, this leafy indoor plant emits Oxygen and increases productivity both in living and working spaces. It enriches health also.
Features:
It has shiny dark green, waxy, and lance-shaped leaves. The leaves have wavy margins on short stems. It can thrive in low light and low humidity.
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How to Live Minimalist Life: Benefits, Drawbacks of Minimalism
The minimalist way of life emphasises having as few possessions as possible. Finding beauty in things that are not tangible and focusing more on experiences than on material goods are all aspects of the minimalist lifestyle. If you aren't preoccupied with accumulating possessions, you'll have more mental bandwidth to devote to the things that really count. But, is it worth it? Let’s find out the pros and cons of minimalism.
Advantages of Minimalistic Life
Customization Ability
Minimalism can encompass a wide variety of lifestyle choices—it’s not all or nothing. You could choose to have a no-spend month to get things started. You could also go minimal in your digital life by not upgrading your phone or laptop until absolutely necessary or purging your social media accounts of people who aren’t actually your “friends.”
What Really Matters
It assists you in refocusing your attention on the things that are really important to you. It goes without saying that the effort you put in to zero in on your ideals is crucial and important work in your life. Finding out what it is that will really make you happy may be challenging, but it is something that is well worth the effort.
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Less Worry
You should feel less worried as a result of doing it. If you take your attention away from material things, you may relieve some of the stress that comes from feeling. For instance, in the minimalistic way of living, you don't need to keep up with everyone else by owning the latest iPhone, or any other gadgets.
Money Saving
When you follow the concept of minimalism, you won’t need additional things, appliances, gadgets, or gears at home. If you create a habit of being picky about the things that you acquire, you will purchase only the must-have things.
It will reduce the amount of money and other resources that you spend on purchasing things. In the long run, it will result in cost savings for you.
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Time-Saving
Minimalism will help you save time. If you have fewer possessions, you will spend a little less time cleaning, less time placing stuff away, and less time out shopping for more, better possessions. On the contrary you can utilise the time to enhance your skill and knowledge which can be a greater resource for you in future.
Cons of Minimalist Life
Overpowering
It is possible for it to be overpowering. It may be difficult to ascertain which type of minimalist thought resonates most with you. It is necessary for you to consider, and conduct an in-depth analysis of, the aspects of your life that are most important to you in light of the adaptability of this way of life.
Difficulty
Altering one's behaviour as well as lifestyle is not a simple task. To have the intention of leading a simple lifestyle is something quite different from living it in real life. In the minimalist life, you may have to let go of many habits and activities – like shopping, storing goods, etc. – that used to give you pleasure. It takes bravery and dedication to act in order to make any type of change, and minimalism is no exception.
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Not Always Practical
It is not always possible to do so. There are times when you just have to go out and purchase things. For instance, you could decide to go on a vacation, for which you'll require tents and other equipment. You can’t get rid of those gears as you may need those next year.
We have many gadgets and gears that we don’t use all the time. After you've gone through your things and gotten rid of things you don't need or want, you can find yourself in a situation where you need an item that you've given away that you practically never used. For example, while cooking a meal, you may need an utensil which you have frequently used in the kitchen and have already donated.
How to Apply the Concept of Minimalism to Live A Happy Life
If you're prepared to give it a go but aren't sure where to start, the following advice may help you start living a simpler life and continue doing so over the long run.
Find Out What to Donate and Toss
Even while there is more to minimalism than getting rid of all of your possessions, the practice often begins with getting rid of some of your things. Keep a record of the things you use often so you can decide what should be kept and what should be thrown away.
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While you are in your living area over the following several weeks, make a note of everything you reach for, including the clothing and accessories you wear, the cookware and dishes you use, and anything else you grab while you are there.
Give Up Unnecessary Things
Of course, there are certain things, like a winter coat, that you use just at certain times of the year, and there are other things, like a suitcase, that you may use once in a while. Because they serve a certain function, in most cases it is acceptable to keep these objects.
Nevertheless, every one of us has items in our houses that we preserve "just in case," despite the fact that they are of no use and have no value. This may be an old key that fits a lock that nobody knows, some medication that has passed its expiration date, odd wires, and chargers, or old receipts and correspondence.
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Follow the 20/20 Rule in Your Life
The 20/20 rule is one of the finest pieces of advice for living a minimalist lifestyle. When you are deciding what to retain and what to get rid of in order to declutter your home, the 20/20 rule might be of assistance. It is usually OK to get rid of an item if it can be replaced for less than twenty dollars and if it would take you less than twenty minutes to get a new one from the store.
Apply the 20/20 rule while you're clearing out your clutter to determine whether or not you should keep some items, such as a hair-styling product, home cleaner, knickknack, cooking utensil, tool, or book that's taking up space but isn't used very often.
Instead of Buying, Borrow
Even if you have less material belongings than other people, there will come a moment when you will recognize that you need something that you do not own. The question now is, what should a minimalist do? Instead of purchasing the item, see if you can get it on loan from someone.
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Have you heard about a good book from a friend? Make a request to borrow it from a friend or to borrow it from the library. Are you going to go camping this weekend? Try to find someone to lend you the necessary equipment rather than going to the outdoor gear store that's closest to you. You are getting the point.
Explore Digital Minimalism
When most people think of what it means to be a minimalist, they see themselves learning how to live with less material possessions and spending time clearing up clutter in their homes. However, in today's environment, one of the most important aspects of maintaining a minimalist lifestyle is reducing the number of digital assets you hold.
This covers your cable and internet service, as well as any TV streaming services, app subscriptions, fitness streaming programs, computer files, and email messages. The practice of digital minimalism is trimming down the number of online accounts and subscriptions to just those that are absolutely necessary or that provide the greatest value. This may help you save money and reduce the amount of mental clutter.
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Conclusion
Before embarking on a significant transformation in one's life, such as switching to a new way of life, it is essential to weigh the pros and cons of the minimalist lifestyle. There is a possibility that you may face difficulties along the road, but in the end, you may discover that the advantages of practising minimalism are well worth the work.
Because of the diversity of human nature, there is no one optimal way to practise minimalism. Conduct an honest assessment of your circumstances and give some thought to the measures you may take to simplify your life.
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Stretching Small Space: Tips to create more room within a small apartment
Have you always yearned for extra space in your apartment or flat? You are not the only person who is struggling with a lack of space; most people find ways to stretch their compact homes. Follow our tips and tricks to stretch small spaces without moving any walls. Here’s the ultimate guide to creating more room within a small apartment.
12 Tips to create more room within a small apartment
Open display unit
If you want to nest a room within a larger room, you can create an open display unit that can work as your bookshelves. Besides books, you can keep your other necessary things like photographs. Style your shelves in a great way so that they provide an added layer of privacy between your two mini rooms.
Add a platform
Installing a platform can introduce a room within your room. With a platform, you can build a yoga space, a coffee perch in your bedroom, or a diner along your kitchen counter. A countertop in the kitchen extends into a breakfast bar outside. It extends your kitchen into a dining zone.
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Glass wall
If you want to divide your room without blocking sunlight, a glass wall can be just a trick. Besides, you can recreate a sense of visual richness and lightness between both your mini rooms with a glass wall. The grid glass wall does a good job of carving out two different living spaces.
Two rooms can serve different purposes. For example, the room in the foreground can be used for hosting guests, while in the second room you can reserve a cozy space for coffee and contemplation.
You can also install a glass screen in your home featuring interplay of glass panels and apertures, channeling an open, airy aesthetic.
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Sliding door or folding door
A sleek and elegant sliding door can add extra space to your home. For instance, if your living room has a larger area it can be partitioned by a patterned sliding door. So, first, define the entrance of your mini room with a sliding door.
If you are looking for doors of a different kind, folding doors can be the best option for you to create a room within a room. What is more? The glass-pane folding door gives a sharp definition to the mini room and the area outside. These dividers are also offering a shield of privacy.
Design, pattern, and color
Choose a multi-purpose design that offers functionality if you have a small footprint. Smart and well-thought-out design can make a room large and serve as a dining nook, a bar, or a living room. Pattern and color contribute a lot to zone a living area within an open plan space.
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Besides, they help to create an excellent and charismatic living room. In the case of limited space, you can keep your color palette tight and focused. Focus on your cue from your favourite wallpaper. Pick colors from your chosen pattern to create a considered and cohesive scheme.
Storage and seating
To create both seating and hidden storage, window seat ideas can be the space-wise way. They can add a pattern, color, and even joinery. Think wisely before setting the window. You need to keep the window space free to get enough light and air.
However, you furnish your small apartment living room with not more than 2 windows to create more space in your small room.
Simple Flooring
Simple and unfussy flooring can blend into the background. Use plain, neutral carpet so that it works well. It is the best idea for a small apartment living room. If you want to open up the floor space, use a rug. The use of rugs will create visible zones that can make even a small apartment living room feel more purposefully designed.
Space saving furniture
Use furniture that serves to multitask. In small spaces like kitchens, storage is one of the biggest issues where you need to put so many necessary things. So, be smart with your furniture pieces and choose items that maximize their footprint.
Slide containers under the bed can hold out-of-season clothes and other items. Besides, use armless chairs and sofas for small apartment living rooms. You can also consider a corner unit sofa to create a more open space.
Moreover, you can rearrange the furniture occasionally. The right arrangement of furniture can make a difference in a space.
Tall mirror
Believe it or not, decorating with mirrors can make a room look larger. So, make sure you hang a large mirror on a wall opposite a window. You can also use mirrors very near one to reflect the outdoors, broadening the feel of your room. Besides natural light, mirrors help to reflect artificial light.
Lighting
The right lighting is another great idea to make an open, airy space. You can get the advantage of natural lighting by making your window treatments with light fabric. Focus on color as well as weight also.
If you don’t have much natural lighting, you can arrange artificial lighting. Depending on the features of your home and room, you can use artificial light. Those can make a room brighter during the day and night. Don’t forget to place it strategically throughout the space to make sure every corner is illuminated.
Go Upward
We always focus on the space that is at our eye level but forget that there is a huge empty wall space stretching up to the ceiling. Make this space for extra storage, especially in the kitchen pantry, closets, or linen closets. Install shelves above doorways and thresholds to create extra storage. You can put books, boxes, or baskets on these shelves.
Choose Only Things You Love
Don't fill your lovely home with unnecessary things. Just keep things that you really love. However, keep in mind your necessity also. So, make sure you keep your necessary things although you don't love them. The things you don't need or you don't love, sell them or donate them.
Home Shifting Checklist: Important things to do while moving to new house
Shifting home and moving to a new house is definitely exciting. But the to-do list before and after shifting can be exhaustive, troublesome, and stressful. To shift to a new house, you have to pack your things and prepare the new house as well. You need to concentrate even on every minor fault and get them fixed. Here are the 10 best essential things you should do in your new home before and after shifting in.
10 essential things to do while shifting home
Meet all dues
Before shifting to your new home, first make sure you have paid all your outstanding dues related to your old house. Besides the utility bills, pay for the services of people who served you during your stay at your old place. This could be domestic help, electricians, plumbers, cleaners, gardeners, etc.
Inform these people who assist you to make your day-to-day life easy about your decision of shifting. You should do it so that none of them can complain after your departure as far as their payments are concerned.
Read Creative Ways to Decorate Your Home for Eid
Professionally cleaned
When you are totally ready to shift to a new home first you need to focus on the cleanliness of the home. The left home of previous dwellers remains very dirty unless it is a newly built place. Some people may leave the home cleaned for you but if not you need to clean the home before shifting to it.
It is not actually easy to clean a left home. So, you can hire a professional cleaner who can easily help to clean everything like the roof, Floor space, walls, cabinets, plumbing fixtures, counters, washrooms, kitchen, balconies, and so on. Don’t forget to use detergent and safe cleaning items at the time of cleaning activities.
Painting Walls
As soon as you have cleaned the extra dust from your new home, your next step is to focus on painting the walls. If they are already painted, it is good; but if not, you need to paint them as it is easier to get a vacant home painted rather than a filled home.
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Talk to the homeowner about painting or if you yourself are the owner call professional painters to paint your home. Painting the home before shifting will give you a new look and it is also a great way to get the house cleaned.
You can also use wallpapers. Nowadays, different wallpapers are available on the market. You can choose different wallpapers for different rooms of your new room considering the specific choice, personality, age and interest of you, children, partner and other family members.
Pest Free
Cleaning and painting are done but don’t forget about pests. Of course, you don’t like to share your new den with them. So, if there are a few days left before you move in, take some time out and get a pest control spray. It is easy to remove bugs from a free home. You cannot do it easily once your stuff arrives.
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Most importantly, you should do it before shifting to save your pets and children from being exposed to raspy chemicals.
Address Change
You don't miss any letters, parcels, and bills, it's probably best to change your address with the post office two or three weeks before the shift. It takes a long time for the change to be processed and instituted.
Besides, you can make a nice relationship with the new renters/owners of your old place so that you can ask if they wouldn't mind holding any stragglers that the mail carrier delivers after the move.
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Get Introduced with New Neighbors
Once you shift to your new place, everything is new to you and you may not get any help if you face any difficult situation. Remember neighbours are best friends to you as most of your relatives and friends are not to you. You always find your neighbours close to you. So, it is necessary to introduce yourself to your neighbour and make a good relationship with them.
Plan for children and pets
Children and pets feel helpless in the new home as the place is totally unknown to them. So, it is better to make your new home friendly for them. Take all necessary steps for their safety, security, and comfort. Make your children and pet busy with interesting things for the day when you will be busy arranging your new home.
You can take help from your family and friends to take care of your kids and pets on the shifting day and the days when you are busy arranging a new home.
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Getting new electrical boards
The house you are going to move into may need many renovations. You need to change the switchboards or buttons if they are dirty, broken, or discoloured. It is better to replace all the switch plates with new ones. You should do it to avoid any unwanted accidents. What’s more, the new fixtures will add a fresh look to your new home.
Equipment cleaned
Cooling and heating systems are the most essential things in the home. Without them, your life will be difficult. So, make sure you clean and serviced all the heating or cooling systems before shifting. Moreover, it is fundamental to get the air-conditioners and the kitchen chimney serviced and cleaned to improve their functionality.
Outdoor locks
Think about safety first. It is wise to get a new set of locks installed for the main entrance of your new home. You are not sure that the previous owners, brokers, or maintenance people do not have had the key to that door. It is an issue of the safety of your family and property. Therefore, it is important to get the locks changed immediately after you move into the new house.
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Windows
Windows are one of the most important parts of the house as you will get natural light, and air through them. So. Before shifting to the new house, make sure that all windows have glasses, temporary shades and the system to hang curtains. Make sure this is done in all important rooms to ensure safety and privacy.
Bottom Line
So far we have discussed a to-do list for shifting in your new home. You may need to change your home for different reasons and necessities. Not to mention, shifting home is a great hassle. Just by following some proper steps, you can make your new home safe, secured, cozy and comfortable.
Read 10 Tips for Home Shifting without Movers & Packers
Creative Ways to Decorate Your Home for Eid
Eid is a very special occasion for Muslims around the globe. The natural tradition of Eid is going to relatives' homes and exchanging blessings. As friends and relatives visit our home during this festival, we can try some home decorations to make the house look clean, nice and sober. Continue scrolling to get some creative and effective ways to decorate your home for eid.
Cost-effective Home Decor Ideas to Embellish Your House in Eid
Eid banner
Eid is one of the most religious festivals to enjoy with family. It has the ability to get together with everyone. An eid banner can make your eid more lovely to welcome friends, relatives, and near and dear ones.
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Decoration of doors
With what do you enter a house? Of course the front door. The front door is the first and last impression you get of that house. Generally, friends and relatives visit your house, especially on the occasion of eid. So you can amaze them with the creative decoration of your front door.
Diverse ways are available to jazz up a door but the best and easiest way to decorate your front door is with wreaths. If you have enough opportunity, you can also decor all the doors of your homes. If you have the ability and you don’t have enough time, you can buy them from the store.
However, if you are creative, you can make one yourself! You will find a floral ready-made wreath in the market. Just bring them and decorate with some cutout moons, stars, and a little sign saying, Eid Mubarak. All is done!
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Gorgeous wall
Wish to decorate your home on Eid but forget about wall decoration. Is it possible? You need to touch upon every nook and corner of the house for eid decoration. Remember, walls are the most important to be taken into account.
If you don’t have enough time and opportunity just hang a few Eid garlands on the main walls of the house. To offer a new look to different rooms and corners of your house, splash them with new colours. However, make sure you hang a pretty garland that says “Eid Mubarak'' to make it interesting.
New Curtains
As a Bengali, you cannot forget about curtains no matter how decorative the walls are! It can’t be ignored that during Eid celebrations curtains bring out a unique festive look. Generally, we put away a few selective drapes only to be used on special occasions.
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If you have already saved some for the festival, then great! But if your existing ones look torn down and old then you need to think about buying some new ones. You can also use sarees like Jamdaani to make great blinders for windows. However, a new one would be better.
Floor Decoration
The floor spaces of your house can also be decorated before the holy Eid festival. You can decorate and beautify the floor of different rooms with gorgeous carpets. Using the soft, smooth, and traditional carpets adorned with embellished accessories, you can attract everyone’s attention and also gather a lot of compliments.
You will find plenty in the market to choose from. Make sure you choose carpets considering the respective room’s size, and design. Furthermore, the colours of walls, curtains and other furniture of the room should also complement the carpet as you are decorating for Eid.
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Colourful Balloons
When you think of celebration and decoration, the first thing you consider is balloons. Honestly, a festival is incomplete without balloons. They make the kids happy and they are a wonderful way to add something extra to the decorations.
You can use plain, glittery or with inscriptions balloons- they are all pretty. Balloons are the best things to give Eidi to the children. You can put some money and treats inside the balloon and hand them over to the kids because Eidi is the best part for them.
Majestic Lighting
Can anyone imagine a festival without lighting? No way! A festival is really incomplete without the bright and stylish light décor. It can be a great idea to decorate your lovely home with fabulous lighting elements.
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You can use lanterns which are the most traditional lighting pieces and introduce amazing beauty to the place. They are one of the most modish forms of lighting with the ability to illuminate magic in a darkened room.
However, if you don’t have time for shopping or planning under a tight budget, make DIY lanterns. Just make a paper lantern yourself at home. Using the strings of light bulbs is another best way of lighting.
Beautiful Candles
Decorative candles are another best source of lighting and beauty. You can decorate candles with jewels, calligraphy, or stickers to make them look festive. You can take a bunch of colourful candles and decorate your front door with lighting candles. Besides, You can take small candles to float them in a bowl of water. This will create a great table centrepiece. Everyone will love this and this will amazingly give a festive look to your home.
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Sweet Fragrance
Festivals mean sweet fragrances. You can grow the festive look of your house with a sweet fragrance. It will not only refresh the minds of everyone but also lift up the spirits of the host as well as the guests.
You can keep fresh flowers on the table, in the ignored corners, kitchen, next to the door. This will give a heavenly touch to your home. Furthermore, you can place sweet smelling candles at different places of your house.
Eid Special Dining Table
Who can deny that a huge part of Eid is the food? Make sure you welcome your guests with delicious treats, savoury or sweet cuisines. Don’t forget to engage your friends and family with a feast which is one of the most pleasing things to look forward to on Eid.
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Remember presentation is very important in the case of food and so make sure you beautifully set up the table to prepare everyone’s palette before a hearty meal. Of course, you will prepare mouth-watering food but you can make it even more interesting by decorating the table.
You can decorate your dining table in many ways. In the centre, you can put a cake stand wrapped in flowers and topped with a tall candle. Besides, folding napkins in the shape of a star or a crescent moon can give a gorgeous look to your table.
Tips to Keep Home Cool in Summer Without AC
The hot summer days can create several heat-related health conditions like heat stroke, heat exhaustion, heat cramps, sunburn, and heat rash. Among these, the most serious ones are heatstroke and heat exhaustion. So, it is necessary to keep your house cool during summer days. Is it possible to control the temperature of the home without AC? If you want to avoid the high cost of air conditioning, follow our tricks to keep your home cool in summer through some cost-effective eco-friendly ways.
15 Effective and natural ways to keep your house cool without AC
Shut the blinds
Naturally, through windows about 25 percent of summer heat can come. Research has shown that up to 30 percent of unwanted heat comes from your windows, and utilizing shades, curtains, and the like can save a minimum of 7 percent on bills and can minimize indoor temperatures by up to 20 degrees.
So, if you want to cool down your room without AC, make sure to block the heat with shades or blinds during the sunniest hours of the day. Moreover, by closing the blinds you essentially prevent your home from becoming a miniature greenhouse, which is especially the case with south- and west-facing windows.
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Adjust your ceiling fans seasonally
You need to set your ceiling fan to rotate counter-clockwise in the summer season. You do it so that the fan blades should rotate counter-clockwise to push the air straight down. This will definitely increase the fan speed on really hot days and will create a wind-chill breeze effect that will make you and your guests feel cooler.
Strip in the cool
Another category of insulation is weatherstripping. Although it’s thought of as a winter measure, it is equally helpful in summer. It is helpful to keep cool air from escaping through doors and windows. You can easily do it as it is very inexpensive and doesn’t take much time to install. You just need half an hour to strip the area around a door.
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Bake and wash at night
Generally, large appliances like ovens, ranges, dishwashers, clothes washers and dryers give off significant amounts of heat. So, make sure you save their operation for evening hours when cooler temperatures will offset their output.
Hack a fan
Hacking a fan is an amazing idea to create a faux ocean breeze. Just fill a mixing bowl with ice or an ice pack, and put the bowl in front of a fan. Turn the fan on and get a chilly, misty breeze.
Make your air conditioner
What would it be if you could create your own air conditioner? Yes, you can do it by using a fan, 3/8 copper coil, a water pump, ice, a cooler box, and a plastic pipe. You make this air conditioner and you can watch videos available on youtube.
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Turn on your bathroom fans
Nowadays about every flat or apartment has bathroom fans and exhaust in the kitchen. If you turn on your bathroom fans along with the exhaust fan in your kitchen, they can easily drag the hot air that rises and push it out of your home. Exhausts pull the hot air that rises after you cook and bathroom fans take a steamy shower out of your house or apartment.
Install a shade
If you can install a shade above your windows, it will work to shield your home from the sun’s rays. Of course, it will ensure the amount of heat your home absorbs is reduced.
Hack your windows
Hacking windows is another great way to minimize heat. You can do it by opening the top section of your windows on the downwind side of your house. Besides, you need to open the bottom section on the upwind side. This system will create a cooling pressure. Moreover, you can make things even cooler by facing a box fan out the window.
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Open windows at night
Make sure you open windows and interior doors at night. At night, the sun is not there, and naturally, you can enjoy the cool night breeze. So, you should always open the windows and interior doors in your home at night to create a cross breeze that will fill your room with cool air. During the daytime, your rooms become hot because of your kitchen. However, you need to open the door or window related to the kitchen to get rid of the hot air.
Set fan right way
Fans help keep air moving around. So set your fans in windows or hallways so you can create a cross breeze that will draw in cooler air from the outside.
Sleep Low
Naturally, the air at your feet is less hot than at the ceiling. So, you can disassemble your bed and put the mattress on the floor. Of course, you will experience something different. Besides, on hotter days, you can also sleep on the floor. By lying on the floor of tiles you can beat the heat. Then your sleeping will be more comfortable.
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Let the night air in
The night air is more natural and cool. So, if it’s raining, you can open the windows to let the cool air come in but make sure the rain doesn’t come in. Thus, you can make your room colder during the rainy season.
Upgrade All light bulbs to LED
Undoubtedly all electronic equipment emerges in heat light bulbs also. When these lights are on, it is difficult to keep a room cool during the day. But LED lights stay cool. Moreover, they are more energy-saving, so you’ll save on your utility bills.
If you don’t want to change your light bulbs right now, you can keep your lights off and use the natural daylight around your home. But you can turn the lights on at night. This will also help to reduce the amount of energy you need.
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Use blackout curtains
Blackout curtains naturally block sunlight. Research has shown that neutral-colored curtains with white plastic backings can reduce heat gain by up to 33 percent.
Bug-free Home: How to get rid of insects indoors
Who can resist the existence of creepy crawlies and bugs in home? They not only create unsanitary conditions, but also give annoying experiences. Fly, the mosquito, bees, wasps, scorpions and other insects can cause painful stings. Furthermore, fleas, mosquitoes, and ticks can carry diseases that they can transport to the body of pets or humans. Are you confused about how to keep insects away from the indoor areas of your home? Just keep scrolling!
Effective Ways to Keep Insects, Bugs Out of Your Home
Seal Your Doors
A properly sealed door can help keep out unwanted pests. It is efficient just like a locked door that can keep burglars out. You will be surprised to see that there are a number of unsealed gaps in your doors, each of which makes an easy entrance path for bugs. You can install an aluminum threshold under the door to prevent insects from crawling under your door.
Besides, you can combine this with a door sweep for better protection. Moreover, do not forget to add weatherstripping or door-seal kits to the perimeter of the frame to keep insects from entering along the sides or top of the door.
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Maintain Your Yard
Yard maintenance can prevent bug invasions, especially in the case of mosquitoes and fleas. Mosquitoes breed easily in the stagnant clean water. Storage of pooled water in your yard can enhance the mosquito population. So, you need to replace the water of your swimming pool regularly.
When you are watering plants into your yard, let the water get naturally absorbed into the soil. After rain let the stagnant water pass through the drainage system.
Besides, you must pay attention to the drainage system of your yard, which is related to the slope of the earth. Make sure your yard’s regular drainage channels are properly maintained. Try to keep the drainage channels free from leaves, grass clippings, and debris so they are able to operate effectively. This will reduce the number of bugs that are trying to enter your home.
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Finally, you need to remove any piles of leaves or debris from your yard because these areas are the perfect hiding spot for insects to hide and reproduce.
Repair Cracks
If you can fill in your cracks, you can stop fewer bugs from sliding through. There are the microscopic sizes of many bugs and they can enter the home through cracks or holes that are nearly invisible to the homeowner. So, make sure you seal cracks on your home's exterior. Don’t forget to pay special attention to the roofline, where bees and wasps frequently build nests.
Set out sticky traps
You can use old-fashioned sticky traps. You can trap every different type of pest that comes through, especially spiders and scorpions by using these sticky traps. Sticky traps are inexpensive. They are available in different shapes and sizes and are perfect for placing in areas where chemical insecticides can do damage to plants.
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Add Screens
A little hole can allow pests to crawl through so make sure there are no holes in your screen. Many people like natural ventilation from doors and windows to bring fresh air into the home, especially in the summer season. But it is a matter of sorrow that summer is the worst time of the year for mosquitoes, fleas, and other pests to invade your home.
If you wish to enjoy the fresh air without the annoyance of insects, install screens on windows and doors. However, you need to make sure that you seal all tiny holes to prevent insect entry.
Cover Large Openings
If there is a hole in your roof, it allows all the bugs — and bigger intruders into your home. You can fill larger openings and keep bugs out by using very fine wire mesh, often called hardwire cloth. However, you need to check to see if yours are operating properly and repair or replace the dampers as necessary.
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Store Trash Properly
Make sure you have a secure lid for your compost bin. The trash cans in a home are an epicure smorgasbord of cockroaches and other pests. So, if you want to prevent bugs from feasting on your trash, proper storage and handling are essential. Besides, it is important to clean and sanitize regularly all interior and exterior trash receptacles and recycling bins.
Keep Foundations Clear
Remember that your home's foundations are the closest part of the house to the ground and they are also one of the most common entry spots for bugs. So, you can reduce the likelihood of infestation by keeping foundations clear and protected.
Try to avoid chemical insecticides or termiticides and instead use natural solutions and non-toxic substances like boric acid or diatomaceous which will not harm pets or family members.
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Clean Up the Kitchen
At night your kitchen becomes a safe living place for bugs. So, besides sealing the holes of your home, you need to deep-clean your kitchen every day. First make sure that there’s no food particles left out in the kitchen which can attract the insects and bugs.
Moreover, don’t forget to cover all of your foodstuffs with lockable containers. Following these steps, you can go a long way in keeping a bug-free kitchen.
Dry Up Damp Areas
Make sure you always dry up the damping areas of your home because bugs are seeking food and water as well. Some home-invading pests like silverfish, springtails, and house centipedes hang out in damp places. So, fix any leaky faucets, drains, or pipes whenever you find them.
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Besides, don’t forget to test that your air conditioner, washing machine, and dryer are all working properly. In the case of damp areas run a dehumidifier and check the attic to make sure it’s dry.
Kill the Bugs You See
You can prevent the indoor bug invasion from becoming serious problems by taking early actions. So, make sure you kill any bugs you see first.
Dust Cleaning
Sometimes, tiny, microscopic bugs and insects have invaded your home escaping your attention. To prevent such incidents you need to make sure that you vacuum your floors at least once a week. It will help your home get rid of the insects. You need to clean all the corners of your home to eliminate their attraction to your home.
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