Designer’s best
Autumn leaves are starting to show, which means many of our thoughts are turning to fall decor. The Foundary website offers these tips for transitioning decor in your home for an autumnal flair.
Colors and accessories: Choose colors that fit with the fall season. Instead of purchasing new furniture, add colorful essentials such as pillows, vases, and decorative pieces (wreaths) to a room to create an autumn look. Colors to look out for this season include warm oranges (the season’s hottest color is “tangerine tango”) and yellows, deep purples and browns.
Furniture: Rearrange your furniture pieces to change up the room’s original look. Put pieces in different areas of the room or even remove pieces to make a bigger space.
Comfy cozy: With fall, we usually find ourselves indoors rather than outdoors. Keep throws and blankets in your living spaces to create a comfort zone for yourself and guests.
Area rugs: Add fall color and textures to any room by decorating your floors with area or accent rugs. This will not only spruce up a room, but will help avoid cold tile and floors.
Bring the outside in: Place acorns, pine cones and leaves in a bowl and use them as a dining room centerpiece or as decoration on an accent table or shelf.
Swap out summer bedding: Replace thin sheets and linens with thicker and warmer beddings to prepare for cooler weather.
You can find more tips and home products by registering for the Foundary’s website at https://www.thefoundary.com/
Best for storage
Better Homes and Gardens suggests using laundry hampers to pull double duty around your home. For example, use them around your apartment for stashing umbrellas and hats, extra linens or kids’ toys.
Best for cleaning
Tipsandpix.com notes it’s easiest to keep a clean house if you maintain a cleaning schedule. The site recently posted a cleaning chart that’s making the rounds on Pinterest. We’ve excerpted the tips:
Daily
• Morning: Make beds; wipe bathroom counters and sinks, empty dishwasher; do one load of laundry and complete one chosen chore for the day.
• Night: Load dishwasher; wipe kitchen counters; quick-sweep/spot-clean the kitchen floor.
Weekly
• Monday. Vacuum.
• Tuesday. Clean mirrors and windows.
• Wednesday. Scrub toilets and tubs.
• Thursday. Mop floors.
• Friday. Swing day.
• Saturday. Catch-up day.
Swing Day
• Wipe down furniture and cabinets.
• Scrub oven, microwave and fridge.
• Wipe down walls, baseboards and doors
• Spot-clean upholstery and rugs.
Best for Barbie
Are you drowning in a sea of Barbies? Is your child’s room overflowing with toy cars, Lego people, action figures and more? The folks at bargainhoot.com offer a great way to get small toys up off the floor without taking up valuable space in the closet. Place an over-the-door shoe organizer on the back of a door. Place a doll or figure (or two or three) in each pocket. When your kids are finished playing each day, have them place the toys in the pockets as far as they can reach.
You can place any remaining toys in the upper pockets before bedtime, and start the day each morning with a clear floor. You can see the organizer in action here: http://bargainhoot.com
Reader’s best
Wake Forest reader Brenda Batchelor has a tip for saving time and energy when cooking pasta.
1. Bring the cooking water to a boil.
2. Add a good amount of salt and the pasta.
3. Stir the pasta around for 30 seconds or so until all of the pasta is submerged in the boiling salted water. It is not necessary to add oil at this point because it is the stirring around in the water that keeps the pasta from clumping together.
4. Turn the burner off and allow the pasta to sit in the boiling water the exact cooking time suggested on the pasta package.
5. The pasta is always cooked al dente.
6. Drain the pasta and continue with your recipe. If you want the pasta to hold for a little while before you add the sauce or add to a recipe, then add a few drops of olive oil to keep it from sticking together.
“No watching the pot to make sure it does not run over or heating up the kitchen more than is necessary in hot weather.”
Seeking your best tips
We’re seeking a new round of readers’ best home and garden tips for publication in this space. Please send along any tips you’ve found handy for cleaning, organizing, time management, decorating or gardening. If we publish your tip, we’ll enter you in a quarterly drawing for a gift card. Send email to topdrawer@newsobserver.com. Be sure to include your name, street address and city. Put “reader’s best” in the subject line.
Best of the tube
On HGTV:
• Move-in or bust. Jessica has a fixed income, high expectations and a tight budget, but she will only consider homes that are move-in ready. With her options dwindling, how much is Jessica willing to compromise in order to take the leap to homeownership? “My First Place” airs at 2:30 p.m. Monday.• Basement rental: Sean has made some major decisions in the last year. He bought his first home, proposed to his girlfriend Ania, and he started to turn his basement into a rental suite. Now, with the wedding just around the corner, they need their rental income to meet their bills and get their married life started off on good financial footing. See how it unfolds at 1:30 p.m. Thursday on “Income Property.” On DIY
• Yard crashers in Maine. Matt and the Yard Crasher crew head to Blog Cabin in coastal Maine. An overgrown yard gets a rustic makeover anchored by a cobblestone patio with compass design. A curved deck takes in the waterfront view, and a hand-crafted, repurposed wood bench adds a waterfront relaxation area. A hot tub and stone fireplace make the backyard a cool hangout for the newly revamped Blog Cabin 2012.
• “Blog Cabin” airs at 1 p.m. Friday.
Send news and photos to The News & Observer, P.O. Box 191, Raleigh, N.C. 27602; email topdrawer@newsobserver.com
