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Carpet Cleaning in Walla Walla, College Place, Waitsburg, Dayton & Milton-Freewater

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Getting Ready for Your First Open House

Your real estate agent may prepare the fact sheets, post advertisements, and run the open house, but if you don’t do your part, it won’t be a success. It’s up to sellers to get their homes ready for the open house. If you’re preparing to host your first open house, this is what you need to do to make it a success.

Make Your House Sparkle

The most important thing to do before an open house is make your home impeccably clean. A pre-open house cleaning should go beyond your normal cleaning to scrub, polish, and dust every corner of the house. If you don’t have the time or energy for a deep cleaning, a one-time cleaning service is an affordable solution. Since damaged walls and floors make a clean house look unkempt, this is also the time to repaint walls and repair or replace damaged flooring.

 

Step Up Your Curb Appeal

Some of your open house attendees will be people who noticed the event while passing by. But if your home doesn’t look inviting from the outside, they aren’t likely to step in for a closer look. Follow the DIY Network’s tips for adding curb appeal on even the smallest of budgets, like repainting the front door and trim, installing a new mailbox and house numbers, replacing exterior light fixtures, and adding container plants. Of course, you should also make sure your lawn looks its best by keeping it manicured and repairing bare patches in advance.

 

Pare Down Belongings

No matter how well-organized it is, if you have too much stuff, your house is going to look cramped and cluttered. Furnishing your home with just the basics, on the other hand, gives buyers the impression that there’s plenty of space for their stuff. It also makes for better pictures and easier navigation while prospective buyers tour the home. Declutter and pack before the open house rather than waiting until moving day. Address not only small clutter but also excess furniture. If you don’t want to get rid of it, rent a storage facility until you can move everything to the new house.

 

Make Major Repairs

Don’t make your agent explain to prospective buyers how you plan to have the sagging gutters or the overworked HVAC system replaced before selling. If your house needs significant repairs before it’s sold, handle them before hosting an open house.

 

Make Minor Repairs

Some issues are minor but give the impression that your home hasn’t been cared for. You should fix minor issues that can turn off buyers. While you may think something as insignificant as a missing light bulb wouldn’t dissuade buyers, it could be enough to sway the decision when it’s a choice between two comparable homes.

 

Stage a Scene

Now that you’ve made your home into a blank slate, it’s time for the final details of home staging. A few well-placed throw pillows, place settings on the dining table, plush bathroom linens, and eye-catching decorations can turn a basic house into a dream home. Remember that staging isn’t about decorating to your tastes. Rather, the goal is to highlight your home’s best features and inspire prospective buyers to imagine living there. For tips on how to stage your home, see these staging suggestions from Elle Decor.

 

When it comes to preparing for an open house, cleaning and tidying isn’t enough. If you want your open house to be worth your while, your house needs to look its very best for the event. Follow these tips and ask your agent for advice on the best way to stage for your local market.

 

Suzie Wilson is an interior designer with more than 20 years experience. What started as a hobby (and often, a favor to friends) turned into a passion for creating soothing spaces in homes of every size and style. While her goal always includes making homes look beautiful, her true focus is on fashioning them into serene, stress-free environments that inspire tranquility in all who enter. The Ultimate Guide to Prepping Your Home for an Open House is filled with tips, tricks and other advice based on Suzie’s years of experience in interior home design that will set you up for success.

 

 

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How to Improve the Air Quality in Your Home and Keep Your Kids Healthy

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How to Improve the Air Quality in Your Home and Keep Your Kids Healthy

 

 

We all know how important a healthy environment is for children. However, one factor that often goes unnoticed in a home is air quality. Since air quality is hard to sense, it can be difficult to recognize problems. And even when you know there’s a problem, it’s hard to know how to fix it. Here’s some information to help you understand the impact of air quality in your home, as well as how to reduce pollutants and learn to spot the signs of pulmonary diseases in children.

Factors That Impact Air Quality

It’s no secret that the outside world contains all kinds of pollutants. Although it may feel like you’re keeping your family safe from those pollutants, the air quality in your home could actually be up to 10 times worse than outdoor pollution. The primary reason is that potential pollutants can build up easier in contained areas than in open spaces. Since you often can’t see or smell pollutants, the air quality in your home can get poor before anyone realizes it.

Chemicals are one the most common causes of poor air quality. Every home has some level of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which are released from a variety of household materials, such as wood preservatives, solvents and paints, cleaning products, and aerosol fragrances. You can cut down on harmful effects from VOCs by storing such products outside of the house and making sure you’re in a well-ventilated area when you do use them. Also, many cleaning products and new furniture items contain zero to low VOCs, so being pickier when you choose these products can help protect your family. Controlling the moisture and temperature in your home — particularly in climates with high humidity and fluctuating temperatures — is another way to improve the air quality in your home.

Reducing Allergens

Along with VOCs, humidity, and extreme temperatures, allergens are also a common cause of poor air quality. One of the first things you should do to reduce allergens in your home is to purchase an air purifier, which also goes a long way in helping kids who suffer from asthma. There are several high-quality purifiers to choose from, so do your research, read reviews, and pick one that you think will meet your needs. A few of the best selling air purifiers on the market today are the IQAir HealthPro Plus, Alen BreatheSmart-Pure, and Rabbit Air MinusA2. The right air purifier for you will depend on whether you’re targeting particular allergens, your budget, how much space you have, and whether you’re concerned with the purifier’s sound.

In addition to purifying the air, you can take several additional steps to reduce allergens from in your home. For instance, utilizing the air conditioner spreads fewer allergens into the air than ceiling fans, wall fans, or the breeze from an open window. Also, cleaning rugs, carpet, bedding, and drapes regularly will help remove irritants. A natural way to purify the air is to add indoor plants, which are natural air filters, to the inside of your home.

Watching Out for Pulmonary Diseases

Pulmonary diseases affect the airways and other structures of the lungs. Long-term exposure to air pollutants and allergens for a child impacted by a pulmonary disease can result in infection, difficulty breathing, and a decrease in lung function. Since children have lungs that are still growing, indoor air pollutants and allergens have a larger impact on their respiratory functions.  Some pulmonary diseases children face are asthma, bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cold, cough, and pneumonia. Some of these cannot be prevented, but they can be mitigated and sometimes avoided by keeping children away from pollutants and irritants.

We may want to protect our children from harm and wish we could place them in a bubble to prevent illness and injury. However, the reality is that there’s a certain amount of exposure they will have to things that can harm them. While our children are susceptible to indoor and outdoor pollutants, irritants, and allergens, those risks can be mitigated with air purification, regular cleaning of the home, and minimizing the spread of pollutants.

courtesy of our very own guest columnist  Alice Robertson

Photo Credit: Unsplash

Spring Cleaning For Better Health submitted by Alice Robertson.  (Alice, thanks so much for your input!)

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Cleaning Helps Your Physical Health

 

Windows are closed for much of winter, making rooms stuffy. Fresh air is not just pleasant; it’s also better for your health. Built up dirt and dust can increase allergies, unhealthy bacteria and dust mites. A deep cleaning eliminates germs, bacteria, and viruses left over from your family’s winter ailments, allowing you to breathe easier.

If you’re in need of some physical activity, try organizing your closets, basement, garage, and other storage areas. While you must be careful not to lift anything you can’t handle, this kind of housekeeping can give you a good workout and will motivate you to begin an exercise program as the weather improves.

One surprising way that spring cleaning is good for your body? It helps you eat healthier! A study at the University of Minnesota showed that people in clean, organized rooms tended to pick healthier foods to snack on. And messy homes were more likely to increase junk food snacking, according to this post.  Who knew cleaning was good for your diet, too?

 

Cleaner is Better for Mental and Emotional Health

 

Dirt, mess, and disorganization can actually lead to stress. According to this post at Psychologytoday.com clutter overloads our brains with more stimuli than we can handle, causing our senses to work harder than normal. That makes it difficult to relax and focus. So if you want less stress in your life, declutter your home.

An organized home can also boost your productivity. Do you waste time seeking out “missing” paperwork, keys, and other items, or trying to find a working pen? Those tasks eat away at your time but keeping an organized area puts you back in control of your day.

Finally, cleaning is often its own reward. How many times have you felt satisfied and accomplished after tidying your home? That boost to your self-esteem may be a good reason to bring out the vacuum. Learn more psychological benefits of spring cleaning from this post at Stylecaster.

 

Efficient Cleaning 101

 

It’s time to get cleaning but how should you start? Removing dirt and clutter after the winter season can be a lot of work but you can make a more efficient job of it.

First, it’s time to sort out the junk. Go through your closets and throw out all the clothes that you never wear. Take a critical look at stored items including ancient check stubs or your high schooler’s first-grade artwork. Figure out what you actually need to keep and throw the rest away. Anything in good condition can be donated or sold at a yard sale.

In the kitchen, go through your pantry and refrigerator. Toss out anything that is out of date or unrecognizable. If you’re unsure how old something is, it’s probably too old to eat.

Next, you’ll need to have the right cleaning tools in place. For dusting and vacuuming hard-to-reach places, use a duster and vacuum hose with extension. Try a microfiber cloth to wipe up dust on molding and vents.

When it’s time to start cleaning, Woman’s Day Magazine recommends doing each chore one at a time. For example, you dust your entire home in one shot, going from top to bottom and left to right. This saves you time getting out various tools as you’ll use them all at once.

Last but not least, change out any old air filters so you can keep air fresh and free of dust.

Spring cleaning is a great way to boost your mood, improve your health and air out your home, preparing you for a great season.

Crime scene clean up

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Recently we were called in to do a crime scene clean up.  Fortunately there aren’t very many events like this in Walla Walla.  This was an apartment complex where a stabbing had occurred.  I asked and they told me that the victim lived through it.  There was so much blood, it was a little hard to believe.  It took special tools and cleaning solutions and a lot of time and energy but we removed all the blood and applied disinfectant to make sure it was sanitary.  You may not have any cleaning issues that even come close to the complexity of this job, but you can be assured if we can take care of this stuff, we can take care of you and your cleaning needs.