functional home

The #1 Shortcut To a More Organized Home

A More Organized Home: is this your New Year's resolution? The experts' take on how to get one all boils down to one word. Read here to learn what it is.

Organized Home. Hah. How many of us have grand plans (especially around January 1) of Getting Organized This Year? E.g., This is the year I’ll FINALLY get organized! This is the year I’ll FINALLY have a Clean Home! Which, for me, inevitably leads to: This is the year I’ll FINALLY have a More Organized Home!

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Your Home Reno Cleaning and Decluttering Checklist

There's no time like planning home renovations to do a thorough decluttering. This checklist will help you overcome the get-started inertia.

Room-by-Room Guide to Decluttering Before a Home Refresh: Do you have any major home upgrades planned over the summer months? If so, have you started to work on getting your home ready for them? We like to think that the people we’re paying to work on our home (unless we’re talking DIY home projects) are

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6 Practical Tips to Keep Your Home Clutter-Free as a Dog Owner

Maintaining a clutter-free home as a dog owner is easy if you follow these simple and practical tips to keep dog clutter at bay.

As parents, we all know how easily clutter can creep into your home and take over before you notice it. If you have both kids AND pets, take that problem and multiply it, and you’ve got a real mess on your hands – UNLESS you proactively work to minimize the chaos before it takes over.

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Keep Your Family Safe This Summer with a Well-Maintained Pool

Maintaining a safe pool for your family requires work, diligence - and sometimes the help of pool repair services.

Common Pool Problems That Require Professional Pool Repair: There’s nothing quite like cooling off at your own family pool, if you’re fortunate enough to own one. But maintaining a pool is actually a lot of work. If you have a pool, and your kids are old enough, you’ve hopefully already put them to work, whether

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Trusted Plumbing Solutions for Everyday Problems

From finding the right plumber for emergencies to preventative maintenance, these tips will help keep your home's plumbing functional.

Every homeowner eventually encounters plumbing issues, from the mildly annoying drip of a leaky faucet to the utter chaos of a burst pipe. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the average household’s leaks can account for nearly 10,000 gallons of water wasted every year. Knowing how to address common plumbing problems can save time,

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Ten Bedroom Organization Hacks for the Whole Family

Having an organized bedroom isn't magic; it just takes a little effort. These ten bedroom organization hacks will help your whole family get there.

Bedrooms are the most used rooms in your home, and they can be used for all sorts of things. Sleeping isn’t the only thing you or anyone in your family does in there. If we only slept in our bedrooms, they would probably stay fairly tidy. But the reality is that bedrooms can quickly turn

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Minimalist Family Homes: Incorporating Minimalism With a Family

Yes, it's possible to live a minimalist lifestyle with a family - and a minimalist family home can actually make your life easier! Here's how.

Raise your hand if day-to-day life often seems overwhelming. Raising kids in the 21st century is not for the faint of heart. Wouldn’t it be great if there were an easy button to make things simpler? If you can relate to this, maybe this summer is the time to try minimalism with a family. A great

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Weekend Kids’ Closet Makeover With DIY Shelving (Easy Weekend Project)

Wondering what to do with a small closet in your kids' room? Adding DIY custom closet shelving is an easy weekend DIY kids' closet makeover.

Give Your Kids’ Closet A Makeover This Weekend With DIY Shelving: Looking for kids’ closet makeover ideas? Wondering what to do with a small closet? The best DIY closet makeover ideas don’t have to be expensive, take forever, or require the pros. This DIY kids’ closet makeover is a low-budget weekend project that’s easier than you’d think, and is great

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Why To Jump-Start Home Projects in the Off-Season

The off-season months of fall, spring, and even winter are ideal times to jump start home projects. Here, some ideas to get you started.

The weather is finally turning cooler in our neck of the woods! I’ve been reacquainting myself with my slow cookers and my cooler-weather attire. And dreaming of what we can do on the house between now and next spring. If you’re like most homeowners, you probably have several running lists of home projects: There’s the

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4 Tips for Keeping Your Home Bug-Free

Does your home have a problem with insects? Keeping your home bug-free can be tricky, but these quick and easy tips will help get you there, faster.

Ways to Make Your Home Bug-Free This Summer: Are you enjoying your summer so far? We sure are. Alas, so are all the creepy-crawlies with whom we share our planet, from the dangerous ones like ticks, to those like ants, centipedes, crickets, and cockroaches that are just downright annoying. RELATED POST: How To Protect Your

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Help – Something’s Eating My House! Protecting Your Family’s Home From Insects

Want to avoid that "Help - something's eating my house!" feeling? Know what to look for - and how to prevent problems from termites and carpenter bees.

Every night before bed, when Kimmie counts her blessings, the first five things she expresses gratitude for are “food, water, clothing, shelter, and books” (!). Things that many of us sometimes take for granted. It’s hard to take them for granted, though, when insects start to devour the home that shelters your family! I’m hoping

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How to Organize Important Documents: Organizing Important Papers Made Easy

Wish you knew how to organize important documents more effectively? I've discovered the ultimate secret weapon in the ongoing battle against paper clutter and lost papers.

Think about it. How many hours of your life have you spent hunting for a missing piece of paperwork? Your Social Security Card. Your kids’ birth certificates. The contact info for that guy who unclogged your drain a few years back. The warranty and purchase information for an appliance on the fritz. Time and time

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Ten Things to Purge From Your Garage NOW

10 things to purge from your garage NOW

Spring is nearly here, as my children keep reminding me. Time for some spring cleaning. Or making good on those New Year’s resolutions to clear out the clutter. Either way, here are ten things to purge from your garage NOW. If you don’t have a “garage,” substitute “attic” or “basement” or “junk closet” – wherever you stuff things

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Mindful Decluttering: 5 Tips on Decluttering Your Home

Is decluttering on your new year's list? These five mindful downsizing tips will help you get all areas of your life back under control, once and for all.

How’d you do on your New Year’s resolutions last year? My New Year’s goal for last year is still an ongoing effort, but remembering to use the Calm Mommy voice when I want my kids to cooperate is becoming more second-nature. My goals for this year center around being more mindful each day, saving myself

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Less Is More: Three Ways We’re Cutting Back and Living Better This Holiday Season

Even though the first week of December was rainy and dreary in our neck of the woods, the girls and I have had a super start to our month. Part of the credit goes to the fact that I’ve made some very conscious decisions to simplify our lives, both for the holiday season and beyond.

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