Home Decor Style Blog

You can change your life just by getting your home organized. Let’s take a look at five areas of your life that will improve if you just organize your home.

1. Improved relationships

This one is probably the biggest one. Think about all of the fights that you have with your spouse or significant other about your home organization issues. Maybe it is that the mail gets thrown on the kitchen counter every day. Maybe it is that you can never find the car keys when it is time to leave. Think about all of the fights that you have with your kids about schoolwork being left in the entryway or on the kitchen table. Organizing your home and getting your spouse and kids on board can have a significant impact in the quality of your relationships with them. I have found that less yelling and more quality time with my daughter is the biggest benefit of home organization for me.

2. Better health

Chronic stress over a long period of time can lead to significant health issues. Some ways that your body shows stress is: headaches, neck and shoulder tension, backaches, and upset stomach (source: webmd.com). Take an inventory. How many of these health issues do you have in your life on a repeated basis? It could be that they are linked to the state of disorganization in your home. Think about all of the home organization challenges that you have right now. Does just thinking about them have you tensing up? Think about how much better you will feel just by taking some time to organize your home.

3. More free time

This one goes hand-in-hand with number 5 (more money). Think about the time that you waste every day in looking for “stuff” in your home. That missing sock, those jeans your daughter loves that you can’t seem to find anywhere, not to mention the car keys that get lost more times than you care to remember. Have you ever stopped to really take an inventory of the sheer amount of time that you spend looking for things? Use home organization to help you get that time back. Then you can spend it doing things that you actually want to be doing.

4. More space in your home

Because part of every home organization project is getting rid of stuff, having more space in your home is a natural result. If you’re tripping over the stuff that you have in your home right now because it doesn’t have a place to live in your space, getting your home organized will “create” space in your home that you never knew even existed. Just getting rid of the things you don’t want or need anymore can create a wonderful new energy in your home and in your life.

5. More money

If you own your own business, this may be the biggest benefit of home organization for you. How much do you make in an hour? For the sake of illustration, let’s say that you make $30 per hour. How much time do you spend in a day looking for your keys, your checkbook, the shoes to match that outfit, etc? Again, for the purpose of illustration, let’s say you spend 30 minutes per day. So you not organizing your home is costing you $15 per day, $105 per week, $420 per month, and $5,040 per year. Pretty significant, isn’t it? So a little home organization could potentially save you over $5,000 every year.

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Are you ready to improve your relationships, have better health, have more free time, free up space in your home and increase the amount of money in your life? Get started today by getting free home organization help from a professional organizer at http://www.YourHomeIsOrganized.com

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Chandeliers are ubiquitous in that they can be found in practically all homes - at least in the ones that are elegant - in the United States and elsewhere.

Having had its roots in the Medieval period, the earliest known chandeliers took the shape of crosses with spikes on which candles could be securely placed. During that time, the presence of chandeliers could only be found in places of assembly. How times have changed.

Now the chandeliers are more intricate in design and they’ve found their way into private abodes, specifically in dining rooms. But what makes the chandelier so popular? They are popular because no other furnishing can command as much attention.

How To Choose The Right Chandelier

If you’re thinking of buying a chandelier, the criteria for choosing the best one is actually NOT based on your personal taste, but rather in (a) the size of your table and (b) on how much illumination your dining room needs.

The common feature across all light bulbs is that they all have multiple bulbs that give off a great deal of illumination. But how much illumination does your dining room need? Measure the size of your room. Multiply the length of the room by the width, then you multiply the result with by 1.5. So if the size of your room is 12 feet by 15 feet, the formula would look this way: 12 x 15 x 1.5. If you do the math, you will find that you need a total of 270 watts. The chandelier that will provide enough illumination is the one with 6-40 watt bulbs. To provide the best lighting, you can complement the chandelier with other light fixtures, wall sconces or buffet lamps.

A chandelier’s diameter should be equal to around ½ of the width of your dining table. It should be hung from 27 to 30 inches above. But of course, the number of light bulbs shouldn’t be your only consideration in buying a chandelier. You should also consider the chandelier’s design, its size and, of course, your budget.

Installing Your Chandelier

So, now you’ve bought a chandelier. What you have to do now is to install your chandelier. Take good care in installing your chandelier since they are elaborately designed.

• Check the weight. You certainly don’t want your newly-bought chandelier to fall off as soon as you’ve installed it. If your chandelier is heavier than your current lighting, you might need to replace the ceiling’s junction box.
• This is practically common sense, but you need to disconnect the power connecting to your chandelier when you are in the process of installing it.
• Take out the old lighting and take note of how your previous lighting was installed. Replace the old lighting with your new chandelier.
• Make sure you have a mounting strap in place from your ceiling. Attach your chandelier’s hardware to the mounting strap. Screw the mounting strap to the junction box.
• Connect the wires of your chandelier to that of your ceiling.

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CHANDELIERS: Barnes and Wagner is synonymous with the finest quality lamps and home decoration. From table lamps to floor lamps to chandeliers, and from wall mirrors and other home decoration, there is always a selection for all tastes, budgets and persuasions. Visit the Barnes and Wagner online store to find your dream lamp or decoration.

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Nowadays it appears that the numbers of people who like to live in a single room seem to be growing up. As it could save much more money, e.g., lower heating bills, save energy for cleaning, and everything is so convenient. However, there is also disadvantage for this life style, i.e., it has limited area that you need to maximize utilities for each area in one room. Therefore, we could see that this life style is so popular; many people change their behavior to spend their lives in a loft or warehouse. It provides the dweller to have everything in such a limited area at the same time of getting convenient and easy life.

What should we start to have this life style?

Specifying what your needed area is

At the beginning, you should determine which kind of a single room will satisfy your needs. Should it be just decorated as a widely open room or separated into portions? If your answer is the latter, you could start by planning and accomplishing it step by step. You should maximize utilities of what furniture you have. For instance, you could divide your room into section with a large piece of furniture, a tall book-case to separate each area instead of fixing it by permanent wall. Or you may use the hanging curtain for this purpose.

For the kitchen, you may use a clutter desk to separate to be the cooking area and at the same time to conceal the sink which maybe full of the dirty dishes to be invisible.

On the other hand, we may use the screens to make it flexible and easy to set up. Or you may also use it in the kitchen for cooking area. It sometimes is applied to make the pathway to the hall, dining room or set for a dressing room. Besides, the screen could also be applied to your bed area instead of curtains or blinds.

Another interesting and mostly applicable separator is to make different step of the floor for different area. You may construct a platform for your bed or eating area. Or just use the color of the rug at floor to divide it.

Setting the right area to the right place

It is certain that only the partitioning area is not enough to finish your task. You also have to define thoroughly which exactly area should be located. For example, the dressing area should be certainly far away from the cooking area as possible. Due to fabric could easily get smelled. On the other hand, the eating area and cooking area should be set as near as possible. In addition, the height, size and feature of eating table should be chosen to match with the setting area. The table should not too big if it leaves only small corner. Or it should not too small until you feel that the pathway is too wide. In the narrow pathway that is left, the rounded table should solve the problem.

Therefore, well-planned setting would play many roles for a lively single room which we would discuss in further details.

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Catherine Tyler is the professional freelance writer of http://www.homedecorateideas.com, where you can find Home Decorate Ideas, design tips including advice and resources for choosing the perfect style for your home.

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