If you are serious about the upkeep of your home, then you will probably own all the necessary equipment including a vacuum cleaner, floor buffer, grout cleaner, carpet shampooer, and others. But, I think if you really want to make sure you are prepared for every situation then you should own two carpet shampoo machines. You need to have a regular upright carpet shampooer, but you also need to have a smaller portable carpet cleaner. There are several reasons for the redundancy.

First, spills happen at almost any time. You do not always have the time and flexibility to get out a large upright carpet cleaner when you see a stain setting in. In the past, you might just blot it up as best you can and leave the major cleaning to the next time you shampoo your carpets. However, if you have a portable carpet shampoo machine, then you could clean the entire stain right away. The small portable machines are easy to get in and out and can be started up quickly. They are perfect for addressing stains right after they happen. Instead of making your way to the basement or garage where you might store your large cleaning equipment, you can just open a closet or a cabinet to retrieve your little carpet cleaner.

Another reason to have the second shampooer is that the portable machine can reach into hard to reach areas and rooms with small square footage. Bigger machines are hard to maneuver around furniture or into alcoves and corners. With the addition of a portable machine, you can easily reach the corners of every room and around the legs or bottoms of large furniture pieces that are too heavy to move when you clean the carpets. If you have a small closet or bathroom in your home that is carpeted, it might not be practical at all to try to fit the upright machine into that space. The smaller machine will work well in those situations.

If there is one surface that people think they clean in their home often, but actually gets neglected quite a bit, it is your carpet. People think because they run a vacuum over their carpeted areas once a week that they are really staying on top of things. In fact, in order to keep your carpet as clean as possible with vacuuming, you should be vacuuming three times per week. Even then, it is necessary sometimes to clean your carpets with carpet shampoo. You use the carpet shampoo in combination with a carpet shampoo machine.

photo credit: JasonChamberlain

Carpet shampooers are available for rent at local grocery stores or hardware stores like Lowes and Home Depot if you do not own one. The idea behind carpet shampooing is that you need to work a foamy liquid down into your carpets in order to attract the dirt and dust that works itself down deep and that cannot be vacuumed away. Often, these are stains that adhere to the carpet fibers and cannot be removed with just the suction of a vacuum cleaner. The carpet shampoo machines shoot hot soapy water onto your carpet and then a system of brushes scrubs the carpet as you pass the machine by. Then, powerful suction will get rid of the dirt and the water. Of course, the carpets will still be slightly damp so it is important to let them dry for about six to eight hours.

Even if you are good about cleaning your grout regularly or if you hire a professional grout cleaning service; if your grout is not sealed properly, it could eventually get damaged and need repair. Something that most homeowners are not aware of is that grout sealing is typically the responsibility of the homeowner and not the professionals who install it. You need to let the grout set for up to thirty days before it is appropriate to seal it, so most tile and grout experts are long gone by then. If you get around to sealing your grout then there are two types to choose from.

The first type of grout sealant is a topical sealant. These sealers coat the surface of the grout and work by repelling water and stains. This type of grout sealer is extremely easy to apply, but it wears off quickly. The second type is a penetrating sealer. These types of grout sealers chemically attach themselves to the grout. They typically last for up to five years and they are most appropriate for wet environments where topical sealers might be washed away.

Something to remember when applying grout sealer is that you always want to start with a clean surface. It is a terrible mistake to seal dirt, mold, mildew, or grime into the grout because then you will never be able to get your grout clean. The only solution at that point is to remove the grout and start from scratch, which can be a very expensive.

If your bathroom is looking old and like it needs a facelift, then you might be able to solve that problem with something as simple as cleaning your bathroom tile grout. Even if you regularly clean your bathroom floor, your grout might be absorbing dirt or growing mildew that cannot be removed with simple mopping. As the color of your grout gets darker and darker, the decorating aesthetic is ruined. If your bathroom is looking old or darker than you remember it, then restoring it to its original beauty might be as easy as fifty dollars and a few hours scrubbing the grout.

The best way to clean grout is to pour whatever cleaner you have decided on down on the grout and let it sit for anywhere from five to fifteen minutes. The worse the staining and discoloration, the longer you will want your cleaner to sit. The next thing to remember is to use a firm bristled brush, not a soft bristled brush. The soft bristles will just bend out of the way rather than penetrating down in the grout and getting the dirt out. Finally, remember to use circular scrubbing motions rather than scrubbing back and forth along the line of the grout. If you use back and forth strokes, you will be pushing the dirt back into the grout with each backstroke. Circular movements will ensure that the dirt is swept clear of the clean grout.

I found this quick little video produced by Better.tv which is the online multi-media web site for Better Homes and Gardens magazine.  Stephen Saint-Onge was tasked with updating a dab and fairly dark breakfast room.  It’s pretty amazing how much brighter a room will look and feel simply by switching the color scheme.  In this case, the walls of the room went from a dark red with some white accents to nicely balance pale yellow and white colors.  In addition, Mr. Saint-Onge added a touch of texture by adding thin vertical wood panelling to the bottom half of each wall.

You can take a look for yourself.

You might have noticed that Stephen tried out three sets of chairs before finally settling on the right set. I would probably be a little more selective at the start rather than changing me mind after I got the chairs home. In either case, make sure that you understand the store’s return policy before making any purchase. I do agree with Stephen’s choice of a round table as they make very flexible pieces of breakfast nook furniture.

A recreation room or rec room is place in your house where your whole family can relax and spend a lot of bonding time together.  My ideal is a finished basement or some other area of your house that you can dedicate full time to serve this purpose.  It is very common to find a pool table or ping pong table as well as a large screen TV and a couple of comfortable chairs.  Less often home owners also add a bar area to their rec room.  A bar is a great way to keep food and drinks isolated to a small section of the room.  This way there are fewer opportunities to spill drinks and leave crumps over the entire space.  Unfortunately, a bar plus a pool table, tv, and seating can take up a lot of room so a rec room this complete is fairly rare.

I have a couple of kids.  To describe them as the most destructive forces in the universe is fairly accurate.  This means that my wife and I have been really careful about getting our home furnishings for the best price possible so this way we’re not constantly worrying about our kids ruining expensive furniture by jumping on it or whatever.  Just because we don’t want to spend a lot of money, doesn’t mean that we’re willing to put with cheap, shoddy furniture that will only last a year or two.  My goal is for things to last 5 to 10 years.

If you’re patient and very selective you can find excellent values out there.  The typical places to look for new and used items are Ebay, Craigslist, and local news paper classifieds.  However, I like to extend my search to shoppers’ clubs like Sam’s Club, Costco, and BJ’s.  For the shopping clubs the best approach is probably to browse the store like once a week or so.  These kinds of store will frequently offer great sale prices on products that they carry for one week only.  Once that product sells out, it won’t be back again for months or even ever.

There are also several deal finding web sites on the internet.  Slickdeals.net and falwallet.com are my favorites.  If you register an account with either site you can set things up to send you an email whenever a deal featuring a keyword comes along.  For example, I have my account on Slickdeals.net to send me an emai whenever someone posts a deal with the word “grill” in it.  I need to replace my barbeque grill.  Unfortunately, I needed to replace it at the peak demand.  As the demand falls away, I’m sure there will be a ton of deals start popping up.  Once again, the key to success here is being patient.

Tarps, or more verbosely, tarpaulins, have a great number uses in a wide range of industries. For example, it is quite common to cover equipment or projects when not actively being worked on in the construction industry. There are several reasons why blue tarps made of polymer material are appropriate for this application.

Blue poly tarps are available in a huge range of sizes. They can be as small as 1 yard by 2 yards or as big as 33 yards square. If the off-the-shelf standard sizes don’t meet any specific requirements that you might have, made to order tarps can be purchased for a small premium and small to medium length turnaround time. Some advanced planning might necessary to compensate for any delays. The blue polymer material is essentially completely waterproof and is formulated so that it remains very flexible even in bitterly cold working environments. This advantage is often referred to as Arctic Flexibility.

Many items on a construction site may need to be covered. Idle equipment may need to be covered to protect it from weather like rain, snow, and sleet. The benefits that covered machinery receives from a tarp can also be extended to building materials like lumber, bricks and many others that do not tolerate being wet. Even scaffolding and construction tools can be afforded protection from the elements under the cover of a tarp.

Building supplies and equipment are not the only worries at a construction or project site. Often a project will take more than one day to complete. Any unfinished work may need to be covered until work resumes. Typical multi-day projects that may require a tarp are ventilation installation and repair, roofing, window installation and mortar curing. I would be surprised if you have never seen newly laid concrete covered with a blue poly tarp.