Kitchen rugs suitable for kitchen in your home.

Kitchen area. How to choose a kitchen rug? If you do not use wall to wall carpets in your house you can afford yourself any rugs in the kitchen. When you choose carpets according to rooms you can change them from time to time depending on how dirty they are or in case if it is remodeling of the whole kitchen. In case if you have wall to wall carpets including kitchen, you can put some thin rugs to protect carpet from spots and spills. Even if you are very careful at kitchen, have no pets or babies, still believe me, in about 4 years your carpet will look dirty, it even deep carpet cleaning will not help to make is as new. Just think to what it will lead. You will have to change carpets in all the house or to change carpet only in the kitchen and if it’s colour will be different from the others it will not look so beautiful as before.

 Kitchen rugs. Do you need new rugs in the kitchen? Why not to avoid your previous mistakes and buy rugs exactly suitable for kitchen like washable ones. Do you want to live scaring every time you spill something on it or when cooking? It will be much more easier to buy washable rug, that can be washed by yourself or by nearest carpet cleaning company.

Kitchen rug colours. Colour of kitchen rugs is both important for it’s usability and beauty. It is logical that lite colours will always show dirt and dark colours will hide. But what is kitchen furniture is ready and you have to find the most suitable colour for it. We must think not only of easy cleaning but beautiful decor. Do not forget about your floors colour and pattern. Colour is simple cause there is a really big choice of carpets everywhere. Pattern is more difficult. If your floor has a pattern, then you rug must be without it. This is one of the most important tips of home decorating.

Shapes of kitchen home rugs. It is up to you what shape to choose, oval, rectangle or round. But as you understand rectangle and oval rugs will look better in rectangle kitchens,  and round rugs in square ones. You can buy two small rectangle rugs, it will be more easier to get them out and clean.  But their view will differ depending on kitchen sizes and furniture in it.

Does not matter what colour or shape is your rug, it may have fruits: apples, cherries, or pumpkin on it, or it can be red, black or white, but remember that any carpet for kitchen must be washable,  fire- resistant and anti- slip. Kitchen must be a safe place, especially if you have children.

Different bathtub types for bathrooms.

Bathtub types. There are a lot of bathtub types but today I want to write about the most popular and most used ones: Corner bathtubs, recessed bathtubs, freestanding bathtubs and drop-in bathtubs. What does it mean? This means that different bathtubs are installed different. Depending on your bathroom some style of installing may not be  suitable for you, but usually it is not a problem at all.  Bathroom is not only a room for hygiene, it a place to relax and to warm yourself during cold winter days. If you rent a house or a flat there is no much choice to use the bathtub type you like but if it is your own house why not to buy once but the best one? It is a good investment in your house.

Corner bathtubs. Corner bathtubs usually have two unfinished sides and two or one finished depending on bathtub shape. There can be triangular shape, box shape and most common rectangle shape with is most suitable for most types of bathrooms with standard sizes.

Recessed bathtubs. As well as corner bathtubs recessed ones are suitable for small sized bathrooms, when the space is very important. As compare to price – it is one of the most affordable types of bathtubs and widely available in markets as compare to other ones.

Drop – in bathtubs. This type of tub can be both set into the floor or into a platform. There is a big choice of shapes for this type of bathtub so you have a chance to make your bathroom look really different from others, though such a bathtub needs some more spare place and suitable floor for installing.

Freestanding bathtubs. This type of bathtub does not need a corner, to be installed in, it is independent and stand on four legs. Freestanding bathtubs need  both space and money. They are not cheap at all, and you bathroom must be big enough. Advantage of this tub is that you have more choice when designing and decorating your bathroom, you do not need a wall for it and you can decorate the wall. To my mind it is one of the most beautiful types of bathtubs, and what do you think?

Does not matter what type of bathtub you buy, the most important thing is it’s quality. Modern materials for bathtubs ( and also sinks and toilets by the way ) allow to keep them clean longer and need less maintenance and repair as compare to old ones. In my next article I will tell you about different bathtub shapes, sizes and materials and whirlpool tubs.

Lawn care tips, some moments to remember for lawn owners.

Lawn care tips. How to take care of your lawn and to keep it perfect in all seasons? There are a lot of articles about garden and lawn care in our Home and Garden Blog, so in this article i just want to mention the most important moments that can be useful for you as a lawn owner.

 1. Do not remove lawn clippings after mowing. Yes, I must confess, lawn looks a bit messy and especially for that some models of lawn mowers have a bags. But the thing is that it is a good source of nutrients for soil and for your lawn. So it maybe really helpful for organic growth of grass.

2. Choose right plants and grass types. If it is your first lawn, and your first experience it is better to call for a professional lawn care services or at least ask your neighbours what type of grass they use and where they buy seeds. It is important, cause in every region due to weather conditions this or that type of grass can grow slowly or do not grow at all.

3. Fertilizing rules. If you want to fertilize the lawn yourself, buy only ready for use organic  lawn fertilizers, follow guidelines and spread it all over the garden in the right time and right season. Be careful when using fertilizer, it must cover only the area that you need to be fertilized, not driveway or sidewalk.

4. Lawn treatment. If your lawn looks bad do not try to treat it yourself, at least if you do it for the first time. What was the reason that caused this or that problem and bad view of your lawn? Sometimes only lawn specialist can tell the reason immediately and start treatment. Think that even you yourself can harm the lawn with wrong treatment.

5. Seeds. Do follow the instructions and guidelines when you are seeding. It must be in the right season and though usually it is autumn the best time for seeding depending on the type of grass it may change.

6. String trimmer. Use string trimmer carefully if you have shrubs and trees in the garden. What is more important for you? Ideal lawn or healthy trees? Maybe it is better to use less trouble methods of lawn care.

 7. Watering the lawn. Actually watering tips are easy. But not on practice. As treatment to any plants there should not be over watering or under watering. Depending on weather conditions watering must be on time.

8. Do mowing as it is recommended by professionals. Do not move too slow or too fast. Both can lead to problems with weeds, insects and water loss. Do follow instructions of mower that you use.

Following this 8 steps will help you to get better results. Following instructions when using lawn mower or lawn fertilizer will help you to get the results easier.

Lawn fertilizer and lawn treatment for better results in the garden.

Lawn treatment. Is it enough just to care about the lawn in your garden and enjoy nice view? Unfortunately, once you decide to have a beautiful green lawn around your house, you have to learn some new words like lawn treatment and lawn fertilizer. If you are not sure you can do all this yourself it is better to call for lawn care services than to risk and fear that you will lose your lawn at all.

Fertilizer. If you still say that you can do it yourself, remember, that choosing the right fertilizer is half work. It is not recommended to use high nitrogen fertilizers.Well balanced potassium and phosphorus will give better results. More and more people prefer to use organic fertilizer. It is more healthy those for turf, grass and nature in general.

Weed control. When choosing products for weed control, do not forget to use Eco- friendly supplies, that are not harmful for environment and pets. Remember, that the best weed control is liquid one, and you must apply it only on weeds, but not all over the garden. What you must know? Your weed control product must be OK for lawns, must have guidelines and if you can not prepare it yourself you must buy ready for use ones.

Do remember that in any treatment we have to think about nature first of all. We try to use Eco- friendly detergents to keep our house clean and we must do the same about our garden. Yes, all of us want the lawn to be the best, but when it comes to nature, there’s one more reason why we must do it ourselves. When you buy any lawn care products you are sure that you buy only green ones, that will not harm any plants in the garden and dogs and cats that usually spend their time playing there. If you decide to call for a lawn care company, do not forget to ask what products they use and how they affect nature. As for me I prefer to have weeds in my garden that to be scared to walk on my lawn without shoes. Chemicals sometimes may be useful in making lawn looking nicer but they never give us health.

What is better for cosy home: Carpet or rugs?

Carpets or rugs? What is better for your home? When we buy any furniture and decorating house first of all we think about comfort and maintenance. So when it comes to flooring in your house what to choose? What is the best for the floors?

Advantages of carpets. You can buy carpets for the whole house and it will look nice and comfortable. Big choice of carpets from the cheapest Berber carpeting up to the most expensive and luxury ones allows to find the most suitable carpet by colour and texture  for any house. If you can not find which colour or texture will suit your furniture, walls and so on, you can just buy some beige coloured carpet and be sure it looks nice and suits everything and every room, even kitchen and hall. Another advantage of carpets is that it gives some look of warmness and cosiness in the house. It is not only a look, there is a percentage of true: in winter house really stays warmer with carpets in all the rooms.

Disadvantages of carpets. The biggest disadvantage of so called wall to wall carpets is maintenance. Of course there are a lot of carpet cleaning companies who clean carpets well, but when it comes to do it yourself methods, you understand that it would be much easier to take rugs to the garden and just wash them there yourself. Another disadvantage is that if you buy one coloured rug for all the rooms, then when you change it in lets say living room then, you have to change all the carpets in the house or accept different colours in different rooms. Finding the same colour in 5 or 10 years maybe almost impossible.

Advantages of rugs. Main advantage of rugs is that they are easy portable. Are you renting a house? Or going to move soon? or move from time to time? There is no meaning then to buy carpets. Another situation is with rugs. You can easily roll them and move as much as you want. When you want to change decoration of one room you can buy new rugs also, it is not so expensive as to change the carpets. One more very important moment: our health. It is healthy to clean rugs and floors regularly, especially if you have baby or pets at home. Even some dust can lead to allergy and health problems. When you have carpets you can not wash floors. Carpets stock dust behind the furniture and in the corners. Vacuum cleaning is not enough and if you are not sure that you can clean carpets well, it is better to put some small rug in the middle of the room and weekly wash floors with detergents to be sure it is clean.

Disadvantages of rugs. Not everybody like rugs cause they slide and move and you need to put something heavy on it. Another bad side of rugs is that it can not hide bad colour of floors. There was situation in my house when tiles flooring of it was made by owner in blue colour. I did not want my house to be blue, and at the same time i had no opportunity to change colour of floors. So i had to buy carpets in all the rooms.

My opinion. If I have to choose ones again flooring for my house I will definitely choose rugs. Maintenance of rugs is easy and i can change them any time i want. Rugs are cheap. On another side i like my carpeting for its cosiness and comfort. In cold winter days I do not need slippers – every part in the house is covered by carpets. Really, difficult to decide. Think twice before you buy.

Advantages of home decorator, professional advices and ideas.

Home decorator. Mostly people are divided in to those who likes to decorate their house themselves and those who prefers to pay once and get everything beautiful and in some style. Well, it is you to decide what to do, but sometimes we just trust ourselves, go shopping and come back with absolutely useless things, accessories and even furniture that will be taken from the house in a year. In another situation people just go to different shops when they have time and buy what they can afford. The thing is that is this case it is really difficult to make your house comfortable and cosy. Yes, you may like all the things but they may not suit to each other, and your house looks like another one shop, mostly like second hand one. What to do?

Professional home decorating advices. Well, if you can afford it yourself, calling for a professional can be the best idea. Some people from birth have such a sense of feeling what is beautiful and what is not, but some of us not. This is not bad. I am sure are are doing your job perfectly or your studies at school are excellent. This is just not your work! Each of us do something better than the others. I think that calling for help is not a shame, and on another hand it is also not a good idea to save money on it. It can be a very good investment for years. You will be proud of your house, your guests will feel cosy themselves, and you will not worry where to put that yellow 1 meter vase that you bought on your way to dentist. Isn’t is?

Home decor is not only about furniture and accessories for house. It’s colours match, it’s style, and many other important things that home decorators know, but you may be not. Especially if you are interested in giving some special style to different rooms. Children rooms, living room in oriental style with a very expensive oriental carpet, or may be you want your house to look like a castle. Who knows what you like? Only you. Tell your decorator what exactly you are expecting, and believe me, you will get something breathtaking and incredibly stylish. Even choosing the right colours for a usual small apartment that you are currently renting can make your place of living cosy and warm.

Cleaning carpets with steam machines.

Steam cleaning. Steam cleaning is considered to be the most effective one not only when we clean carpets but also upholstery and other parts of our house. In this article i will tell you why it is so important to use steam carpet cleaning.

Every year, every carpet needs maintenance. Exactly deep cleaning. What is deep cleaning? Cleaning carpets with vacuum cleaner every week is not enough to keep it fresh and safe for our health. At least one a year you have to clean carpet by professional carpet cleaning machines. There are a lot of for sale, for rent or you can just to call for a carpet cleaning specialist or a company who does this job professionally.

Why steam? How does it work? Steam cleaners wash carpets with water under high pressure. But this is not all. High temperatures are used during cleaning. This help not only to remove dust and soil, but also removes allergens, mites and microbes.  Of course there are a lot of chemicals that help to keep clean carpets, but this is the second advantage of steam cleaning: nature friendly.

Green carpet cleaning. For better results, usually different carpet cleaning solutions are used for carpet cleaning equipment. But advantage of steam cleaning is that you can use machines without any detergent! This is a way of green, Eco- friendly carpet cleaning, that is ideal for those who have babies and pets at home, or allergy on chemicals.

Quickly and easy. Why we usually do not advice to have deep cleaning at home yourself? The problem is that carpets dry very slowly, especially in winter season. This makes carpet smell and even can spoil it. What can we do? And how steam cleaning can help us? As the water is given and vacuumed under high pressure minimum amount of water stays in the carpet. This helps carpets to dry quickly. That is why, you can try it yourself! I would never advice to use shampoo cleaning without professionals, but if you are thinking of renting equipment rather than calling for a company that can do it for you, steam cleaning is the best choice for you. Even if your first experience will not be that perfect, this will not harm the carpet as the other methods, and you second time will be easier, and more successful!

Types of heating systems for your house.

Heating systems. There are different types of heating systems for houses. Depending on how big the house is and in what region you live you can choose different heating system, or maybe you have already bought a house and want to know more about the heating system it uses? I have already told you about advantages and disadvantages of split air- conditions. But air- condition is not the best idea to heat the house in cold regions. Let’s check better systems for better homes. Even the best heating systems can have their advantages and disadvantages. First of off let’s see how they work and they are used.

Forced air heating systems.

 This system is the most common one. To make it work natural gas, propane, oil or electricity can be used. Advantages of forced air system are: cheap, air can be humidified, dehumidified, filtered. Disadvantages are: takes spaces, needs ductwork, make noise, needs regular maintenance and filtration.

Radiant heating systems.

Radiant system give the most comfortable and natural heating. Usually used for floor heating. Though it’s panels can be used in ceilings. Water is heated by a boiler that works as well as forced air systems with gas, propane, electricity or oil. If instead of boiler heating stove is used, wood or coal is fine. The most important advantage of this system is comfort. The house is heated well in all the rooms where radiator is. It can help saving money also – you can just close radiators at the rooms that are not used and close the doors. But. Though it helps saving money installation cost is pretty high. Another disadvantage is slow heating cycle. Does not need much maintenance but if something happens to it’s pipes will be difficult to reach them and to repair.

Hot water baseboard  heating systems.

This type of heating is similar to radiant one. Boiler heats water and sends to baseboard units along the walls. As well as radiant heating system this one is also saves money on energy, does not make much noise, you can also change temperature in your house. Bad sides of hot water baseboard system are: it’s units should remain unobstructed and temperature increase is slow.

Steam radiant heating systems.

There are 1 pipe and 2 pipe systems with iron radiators. You can find these systems in old houses and now this system is almost forgotten. Still it has it’s advantages like quickly warming the house, comfortable, you can replay old units with new ones. 

All these heating systems are used with boilers. Boilers use electricity, natural gas, oil or propane. Boilers heat water and send them by pipe to the rooms, hall, kitchen and bathrooms. Depending on how big your house is you can buy some small type of boiler, this will save both space and money, but do remember, that it much be big enough to heat the house well, otherwise there is no meaning of buying it.

In other articles I will tell you in details about each of this heating systems and their maintenance and repair.

Eco- friendly ( green ) carpet cleaning solutions.

Eco- friendly carpet cleaning. When we want our house to be clean and fresh it is natural, that we want to use the best carpet cleaning machines, products and cleaners. Sometimes, when carpets are too dirty and old, there is no choice, but calling for carpet cleaning services and we can rely only on products like chem dry, and other new solutions that appear every year on market. But what if you need just to clean some spots or you or your family members have allergy or you just have no time to buy or to order professional carpet cleaning? In this article I will tell you about 2 easy carpet cleaning solutions that are so popular nowadays, both green and very effective and reviews of many people who use them prove that they are really the best home made solutions?

Vinegar. Probably you have already heard about how great the vinegar is. Yes this is right. Apple vinegar, or cider in other words sometimes can be much more effective that some carpet cleaners that are expensive and also are not nature friendly at all. Vinegar is used in many cleaning needs like floor cleaning, window cleaning, fridge cleaning but in this article I will mention solution for carpet cleaning only. How to use vinegar? All you need is to mix 1 glass of water with 1 spoon of vinegar. Do note, that the fresher the spill is, the easier it is to clean it. The second advantage of vinegar is that it removes bad smells. It is very important in cleaning such products like milk and eggs. If you do not remove the spot properly in some day it will start smelling and even if the spot is removed, smell can stay there forever. Do not leave your job for tomorrow. Clean the carpet immediately and you will not need and modern solutions. Keep vinegar in the fridge. Nowadays everybody know how useful the vinegar is for help so many of us use in in the salads and even drink it to lose weight. So? Why not to keep a small bottle of it in the fridge and use in many cases?

Baking soda. Yes, baking soda can be really as effective as vinegar. How to use baking soda for carpet cleaning? If you want to remove a spot on the carpet, just put some powder on the spot and clean it with some white cloth. Another type of using baking soda is to mix it in 1 glass of water and clean the carpet with it. If you want to get rid of bad smell ( for example it can be smell of an old carpet )spread the powder all over the carpet ( keep it dry when spreading ). Then clean the carpet well with powerful vacuum cleaner. This both will clean the carpet well and remove the smell. Also do not forget to open air- condition if you have it and windows wide to get rid of smell quicker.

Baking soda as well as vinegar is always can be found in the kitchen, cause it is used for cooking. So why not to use the products that we have at home? They do  not take much space in the house, they do not contain chemicals, they are not harmful for health of your family members, pets and nature, we should change our style of life to it’s green side. We can not refuse from some modern products that make our life easier but we can do something and why not, let it be carpet cleaning too!

Cooling the house with split air conditions.

Air conditioning systems for house. There are a lot of types of air conditions that can be used at home. But in this article I will tell you only about split systems or in other words, wall air conditioners. This type of air conditioners are ideal for home cause they do not need much space and can be installed on one of the house walls and easy for maintenance and use.

Split air conditions have two units – the one, which on the wall in the house and the other one is outside of the house. It may be a problem to find a place for outside part but you can easily install it to the wall.

Advantages of wall air conditions:

Small sizes. Even the strongest air conditions are just a bit bigger than the other ones. You can use it in all the rooms, including child rooms and rooms for babies. All you need is to choose the power of air condition. This is it’s second advantage. For small rooms you buy small ones and for big rooms you buy the most powerful ones. Another advantage is heating option. When you have air condition, you do not care about how to cool and to heat in all the seasons. If you want to heat or to cool all the rooms you just need to install central air conditioning.

Disadvantages of split air conditions:

Air circulation. Most people do all the same mistake. They install air condition in the middle of the wall, i mean middle towards the room, not to ceiling. Yes, in this way your air condition will cool the area faster and better. But on the other hand you will always feel air circulation and what is more in the hottest days it can make you seek. Especially it is harmful for small babies. If you have a baby or you and your family members are sensitive to air condition there is no need to refuse from nice cool air in the house in the hottest days. All you need is to install air condition close to one of the rooms corners and put your sofa or bed to some other side that is is not touched by air circulation.

The most popular air condition all over the world manufacturer is Mitsubishi. Bad side is that it has much more expensive price  as compare to other models. But believe me, it is the best. If you can afford it yourself, do it. If not, check other cheap models but do read customers reviews first. Cause not all the air conditions are the best. For example, we had an air condition that was too loud. We could not use it at night both it was disturbing us and our neighbours!

Installing air conditions. It is really easy to install air- condition, that is why calling the service is also not expensive at all. You can do it yourself or you can call the service and just give some money for installation. Anyway you have to meet your manufacturer’s service, cause if something happens later, like if it does not cool or heat well, may be you will need to call for professionals. Even the best air condition models need every year cleaning and maintenance. If you do not clean filters at least once a year it can be harmful for your health.

Portable air conditioning units. Those who rent a house, may think that portable air condition is the best solution for them. I speak about portable air conditions that do not have units to be install outside of the house. Do know that they work like a fan. Think, if you really need it, cause it is still different from a split air condition.