Tips for Moving to a Smaller House

There comes a time in many people’s lives when they realize that they don’t need tons of space to live happily anymore. Downsizing is a very common process that many people go through to save money and purge their homes of unnecessary junk. If you plan on moving to a smaller home than your current one, you should keep a few things in mind. We’ll give you some tips for moving to a smaller house so that you can make the transition smoothly.

Declutter Every Room

Almost everyone has at least one room that they need to take down a notch—the place where knickknacks go to spend the rest of their days. Resist the urge to add more stuff when you move out. You’ll be in a smaller space, so you’ll need to pare down if you want to fit in your new home. Be firm with yourself as you do this. Don’t hang onto things you don’t need just because you don’t like the idea of throwing them away.

Map Out Your New Storage Areas

One of the best tips for moving to a smaller house is to look for and measure all your new home’s storage areas. These measurements will help you figure out how much space you’ll have to work with when you move in. Failing to do this beforehand could result in a very cluttered and messy home since you won’t know where to put everything. Knowledge of your space is the key to avoiding any mistakes in packing.

Measure Doorways and Furniture

Furniture is one of the worst parts about moving into a smaller home. Fitting your precious furniture into a small space may be an exercise in futility, but the important thing is to know that before you begin. Measuring doorways, stairways, and entryways will allow you to know how much room you have to work with when bringing in the furniture.

Choose Larger Items Early

Make sure you know what larger items you’ll be moving into or buying for your new home. If you can pick these items out as early as possible, you’ll have a better idea of how much room you have left for everything else. This list includes appliances such as:

• Stoves/ranges

• Washing machines

• Dryers

• Refrigerators

• Ovens

Setting these up first will help you map out the rest of the home’s floor plan since these pieces must go in specific places.

Home Office Organization Tips

Working from home undoubtedly has its perks. It is a welcome alternative to a pesky office environment and distractions. However, if you aren’t careful, your home office can rapidly become a hub of disorganization. 

The truth is your home office can boost your productivity level to an all-time high. But, it can also cause a detrimental crawl.  The only difference between these two probable outcomes is organization. 

A research by Herman Miller reveals that a "seemingly insignificant" structure of your work chair can affect your creativity--negatively.  So, how you set up your workspace and maximize the space you have is crucial.  

The good news is, whether your workspace is spacious or as small as a cubicle, you can effectively maximize it to heighten creativity. 

This article will reveal proven hacks to make your workspace exceptionally conducive to birth intricate creative ideas. 

Let’s get down to it…

Organization Tips for Your Home Office

Creating a productive work environment isn't difficult. But maximizing your workspace without the right guide might come with a little hassle.

Here are tips to help you maximize your home office space:

Creative Office Space

One unique advantage of a home office is that you can get creative with the location. You can create a home office anywhere in your house… thanks to DIY room dividers. 

So, you don’t necessarily need a whole room for a home office. Any well-ventilated space will do just fine. 

Remember, the aim is to maximize effectiveness and productivity the best way you can. So don’t set up an office in a place where you’ll have to deal with pesky distractions. 

Standing Desk

Chances are you have heard that "Sitting is the New Smoking." Sorry to disappoint you, the peddlers of this notion got it wrong. 

According to the American journal of public health, the health risks of sitting for long hours pales compared to smoking.

However, there are health risks, including the risk of premature death, associated with sitting for long hours.

 See why a standing desk is necessary?  

A standing desk works like magic. It eases the stress of sitting for hours, so It offers a comfortable alternative when sitting becomes unbearable. 

Now, here's the catch— the standing desk trend has spread rapidly like wildfire. With the sheer number of producers on the market, it’s almost impossible to separate inferior from authentic ones. 

Hence, launch extensive research before you get a standing desk. 

One desk that we can vouch for is flexispot’s full-featured standing desk. With this desk, you can seamlessly switch from sitting to standing by adjusting the height. 

You can also check out other trusted brands. Just ensure the standing desk is versatile enough to serve diverse work purposes. 

Maximize Your Wall space

Small wall space can hold more things than you can imagine. For instance, floor-to-ceiling shelves can conceal files and documents perfectly. So, your under-desk drawers can be used for other everyday office accessories. 

You can make a glass sliding door for your shelf to keep private documents hidden. If you have a corner space, a corner bookshelf isn't a bad idea as well.

Hanging a bulletin board on your wall also creates space for important messages and notes. You can artfully arrange crucial messages all over your bulletin board to help you stay focused. 

The wall can hold a mail filling system. It’s tempting to pile mails on your desk, but it's not wise.  When space is at a premium, you can't afford to have your table flooded with daily emails. With a mail filing system, organizing your mail will be effortless.

For more organization, create different spaces for incoming mails, bills, mail to file, and outgoing mails.

Technology

If you have old, clunky monitors adorning your home office, it’s time to get rid of them, especially if you are low on a workspace.  

Replacing huge computers with sleek and modern ones saves a great deal of space. You'll be surprised at how much space they occupy. Similarly, a telephone might just be a waste of precious resources, i.e., workspace. Using a headset to make calls is a much better option.  

Wireless connections make life easier. You won’t have to deal with wires clogging your spaces or causing a nuisance all day. Wireless connections cut down on avoidable wire connections. 

Monitor Mounts

Wondering how to manage your small desk space? Here’s a cheat: get a monitor mount.

You’ll steal back some of the space your monitor occupies. Moreover, the flexibility provides a higher visibility range from any angle. 

With the proper monitor mount, you can have a field day even while using a standing desk. 

There are several manufacturers of impressive monitor mounts. Flexispot’s full-motion design hits the mark. To be sincere, you'd find a couple of authentic brands on the market as well. 

Clean up your Desktop

A cluttered working desk is like a confusion dispenser. Imagine spending over half of your working hours trying to find crucial documents.

Do you know cluttered or disorganized spaces affect your mental health? That's beside the fact that it affects creativity immensely. 

Need some advice? 

Please clean up your desk and ensure it stays that way. Now it might be difficult to keep it crisp when you have nowhere to keep your documents, pins, and whatnots.

 Here’s why you need an Under-desk drawer.

Under Desk Drawer

The secret to a highly organized desktop is an Under-desk drawer. The rule of thumb is: if it’s not in use, get it out of sight.

Organizing and storing your files and other office equipment in an under-desk drawer saves you a lot of stress. To make it as seamless as possible, you can get a drawer organizer. This helps you categorize your drawers for diverse use. 

Your pens can fit into space without getting all mixed up with pins or something else. Plus, it gives your drawer a spick and span look.

Tag it 

"Where exactly is the printer paper," you ask your tired brain five times a day. That doesn't mean you aren't smart enough to remember. You are probably too worked up trying to figure out where everything is all the time. 

Just label it! You can label your cabinets to make them easy on yourself.  Although your brain registers it after a while, it still helps you maintain sanity in your space. 

If you are worried about labels looking tacky, you can use a color-coding system instead. 

Clip Those Wires!

The sight of many wires littering a desk isn't visually appealing, and your brain doesn't react well to clutter. 

Your laptop, mice, or phone chargers aren't adornments for your desk. So, if your desk doesn't have a slot to hide the messy wires, clip them. You can group them with a binder clip and hide the same to keep your office desk organized.

Plus, it saves you the stress of diving under a desk searching for missing cords or chargers. It's about time you organized the conglomerate of wires in your workspace.

Organize Your Computer Desktop

You probably don’t have a lot to label because most of your documents are on your computer. However, organizing your computer is essential.  

Save all similar documents in a file to make it easy to fish them out when the need arises. 

Another crucial tip to help keep your computer uncluttered is ensuring the homepage is completely free. 

An organized and homy home screen puts you at ease each time you set out to work. 

Additional Tips for Your Home WorkStation 

Natural Lightening

You are probably accustomed to the luminous lightning from artificial bulbs illuminating our workplace. Well, here's interesting news: artificial lightening cuts down your productivity. 

Research shows that exposing your workspace to natural lightening improves your mental clarity.

Full-spectrum lighting also aids your vision remarkably. Believe it or not, your eyes get  super happy under natural illumination. 

So, align your home office strategically to ensure you get a daily dose of daylight illumination while working. 

However, if your office doesn't have a window or any viable access to natural lightening, full-spectrum bulbs can fill the vacuum.

No kidding, this bulb is more expensive than other artificial bulbs, but it's the closest natural lookalike you can get.

Ergonomic Office Chair

A comfortable sitting chair spurs creativity and productivity. So, investing in an ergo chair will help you perform proficiently. 

Slouching or improper positioning of your body can lead to back pain and other harmful health conditions. 

However, the right ergo chairs levels this potential risk. If you work for long hours and intend to boost your productivity, an ergonomic chair is essential.

Personalize Your Space

Your home office primarily built for work, but it also belongs to you. Let the space be an extension of your personality. 

Studies shows that a personalized office space contributes a great deal to an employee’s effectiveness. It also influences how a worker relates with work. 

Well, it’s an opportunity to create a comfortable atmosphere for yourself. Something that makes you calm.

But don’t over do it, because a lousy workspace is counterproductive. Personalize your home office moderately.

Conclusion

Having a home workstation with a tranquil ambience engages your brain positively. The result never comes out wrong. 

The first step to achieving an ideal home workspace is maximizing and organizing it best way you can. 

A cluttered space sends the wrong message to your brain. This makes it near impossible to perform effectively. 

Guest Post - 6 ROOF MAINTENANCE TIPS TO MAKE YOUR ROOF LAST AS LONG AS POSSIBLE

Regularly, the roof comes into contact with atmospheric agents such as wind, fog, hail, heat, and so on, resulting in damage. However, when properly implemented, a few basic steps will significantly improve the roof's efficiency and extend its life. 

Maintenance activities are critical for ensuring successful roof sealing while maintaining the roof's energy efficiency and overall health. You need to perform a series of frequent tests to avoid infiltrations and disruption that may become even more severe if not fixed quickly. And it all starts with visual checks.

Not to forget, finding a problem with your roof before it becomes a significant issue will save you money in the long run. You should perform a regular inspection and repair on your roof at least two times every year. Wait! So, here are some tips to follow:

• Cut the Branches near the Roof

• Check after storms

• Avoid rusting

• Clean the gutters

• Remove moss

• Schedule a roof inspection

We will elaborate more on these tips further, but first, begin with the basics, what's a roof? Is it just a cover or more than that?

Know the Roof: This Is Not Just a Cover

As you well know, when it comes to building roofing, we are dealing with a structure that is anything but simple, which allows you to protect the building and keep the correct temperature inside. However, we are talking about one of the most exposed areas of a property. Therefore, the roof is subject to wear and tear and, over time, can get to the point where simple maintenance is not enough.

We can do our best to keep it in good condition for as long as possible. It can be done through small and quick operations, among which we find, for example, the replacement of damaged tiles. In some cases, however, it is advisable to focus on the complete renovation of the roof. In this way, you can again count on efficient building coverage from every point of view.

Roof Maintenance Tips

Many postpone roof maintenance because they find it cumbersome or dangerous. Don't let the roof go to waste before time runs out but remember these six rules.

#1. Cut the Branches near the Roof

Most people dislike climbing ladders, let alone trying to cut branches off big trees. If there are some trees or twigs near the roof, though, you may have severe issues. Tree branches that are hanging from or even on the roof may be dangerous. They will wear down and ruin the shingles, as well as putting you at risk of fractured limbs crashing onto the roof. During a storm, tree branches are often flexible and can swing several feet.

#2. After Storm Checks

Hail, strong winds, and even a lot of rain will all weaken your roof. If your area has just undergone a big storm, you should check your roof and see if any harm has happened. Check the gutters and window sills from the ground up to see whether they are skewed or out of place.

 It may mean that the roof has been damaged as well. It also indicates if you need to do a more thorough inspection of your roof. 

When inspecting shingles, particularly asphalt shingles, you can see individual damage on the shingle. Many home insurance providers would compensate for storm loss, which is good news. Take pictures and talk to the insurance agent about the options.

#3. Avoid Rusting Of the Sheet Metal Roof

Over time, soot, algae, and other dirt will stick to the tin roof. If the roof is not cleaned, stubborn dirt and loose debris will wear a coating that protects the sheet metal roof. The worn coating no longer protects the roof damper but exposes it to oxidation, and the roof begins to rust. If possible, check the top of the water floor for signs of leaks.

 #4. Gutter Cleaning

Homeowners are now familiar with this task that appears on the spring to-do list. Cleaning your gutters twice or three times a year would maintain your sewer system in proper working order and help extend the existence of your roof.

When leaves accumulate in gutters, moisture may be trapped and wicked upwards onto roof planks and railings. It won't take long to get the hang of it, and once you do, it'll be a breeze; make sure you have somebody down below to keep an eye on you while you work through the gutter structure.

#5. Removing Moss

Moss can appear to be innocuous, but its development may do severe damage to your roof. If you choose to keep your roof in good shape, regular inspections and moss elimination can significantly prolong its life and avoid harm. 

Moss absorbs moisture, and residents are well aware that moisture causes issues. You don't want dampness near your home's structure because it causes structural cracking and compromises credibility. The moss must be removed! To get rid of the moss, use a sustainable eco product and try installing zinc strips if it keeps coming up.

#6. Scheduling a Roof Inspection

There are specific jobs that are better left to the experts, and an annual roof review is one of them. While there are some measures you should do to protect the roof on your own, such as inspect for visible physical damage, sweep your sewer pipes, and keep dirt off your rooftop, there are other facets of a roof that can go wrong with an untrained eye. 

A licensed roof inspector may be qualified in specific roof checks and inspections that can diagnose underlying damage. You may employ an inspector by contacting a reputable local roofing company.

Final Lines

Wind, rain, hail, shocks, accumulation of snow: so many elements that your asphalt shingle roof must endure each year. Also, if you want to enjoy it for many years, it is essential to treat it well.

If you are a handyman and want to do the maintenance yourself, be careful always to wear a safety harness to prevent falls when working on your roof.

Author Bio

For the past 20 years, American High Tech Roof Coating has been owned by Javier Chavez who runs their company throughout the Los Angeles, California Area servicing commercial buildings that require new roofs but opt into silicone cool roofing instead. 

Closet Organizing: What to Invest in and What to Donate

One of the most difficult and dreaded areas to tackle when organizing is your closet. Since most of us already have a surplus of clothing, it can be difficult to know what clothing items we should keep, which ones we should invest in, and which ones we should donate. While every closet clean out will be different, our goal for this guide is to help you on your journey to a more organized wardrobe:

What wardrobe basics should every closet have?

It’s safe to assume that your closet is already filled with the essentials every wardrobe needs, but if you’re on the fence about the basics, here is a brief list:

Durable Undergarments: The category of clothing you probably wear most often is your undergarments, so make sure they’re of high quality. For women, this means owning or investing in long-lasting seamless underwear that is both comfortable and reliable. For men, this means upgrading to durable undershirts that aren’t stained or worn out from everyday wear. While these items aren’t the most glamorous closet additions to invest in, they are a practical necessity that you won’t regret having on hand. 

Quality Socks: When was the last time you went through your sock drawer or even thought about how many socks you own? If it’s been a while, now is the time to ditch any socks that have holes in them and purchase new, quality socks that won’t rip after months of wear and tear. 

Formalwear: Everyone should have some kind of formalwear option in their closet that they feel good about. Whether you need a suit for an upcoming wedding or a dress for a summer baby shower, if you don’t know the rules of formal attire or have a dressier clothing option ready to go in your closet, it’s time to go shopping! 

Outerwear: By outwear, we simply mean having weather appropriate jacket options. Since you’ve probably built up a collection of coats over the years, take some time to examine each jacket that you own. Do you have a rain coat for the wetter months you can rely on? When was the last time you replaced your winter jacket? These are the kinds of questions that will help make organizing your closet space and donating old items easier!

Casual Basics: Finally, make sure that as you purge your closet you keep and leave room for the casual basics you love to wear. From your favorite plain white t-shirt to an old, but still sturdy pair of jeans, the casual basics are what make your wardrobe yours, and they’re what you’ll wear the most. 

How do I know what to donate?

A good rule of thumb to stick to when donating is the six month rule. For every piece of clothing in your closet, ask yourself if it has seen the light of day in the last six months. One caveat to this rule, however, is to consider if you regularly wore an item before the pandemic. In some cases, you might not have donned a certain outfit in the last six months simply because you had no reason to leave your house! If this is the case, keep the item and reassess donating it at the end of the summer when you’ve had more opportunities to wear it. 

Aside from the six month rule, another thing to keep in mind is the sizing of your clothes. If you’ve been holding onto something you hope you’ll fit into one day for over a year, it’s probably time to let that item go. Don’t let clothes that don’t fit hold you back from having an organized and curated closet space! 

How do I organize my closet after donating and curating my closet basics?

Ultimately, how you choose to organize your closet is based on personal preference, and the size of your closet space. If you are organizing for the whole family and not just yourself, be sure to read into closet organization tips for large families. Either way, here are a few organizing options for anyone who is unsure of where to start: 

By Color: One of the most popular closet organizing techniques is to rearrange your clothing by color. You can have fun with it and hang each item in order according to the rainbow, or keep things more practical and put your favorite colors in the most accessible area instead. 

By Item: Seemingly the most convenient way to categorize your clothes is by item. Hang all of your shirts/blouses together, all of your pants side-by-side, and all of your cardigan/blazer options in the same area. This will help keep things efficient when getting dressed in the morning and makes things look very clean visually.

By Season: If you don’t have enough space in your wardrobe to hang all of your seasonal clothes at once, you should be organizing your closet based on the weather. Pack your winter clothes away in stackable storage bins and give your spring/summer options the space they need to shine. 

While organizing your closet and upgrading your clothes is not always a fun task, it can be quite rewarding in the end. Hopefully this process will help you to curate a wardrobe that you are truly proud of, while also decluttering your space!