The Shaker of Salt

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The kitchen is the heart of the home and for good reason: it’s where you prepare your food, sit for a drink and notoriously, it’s the place where people gather at parties. Needless to say, everyone runs theirs differently. Some have strict cleaning regimes during meal preparation, some dash spaghetti up the walls and worry about clearing up the mess later, others order in take out and pop in and out of the fridge every now and then for a nice bottle of wine. Regardless of how and how often you use your kitchen, there are a few things that every homeowner can do to ensure that things keep running as smoothly and problem-free as possible. Here are a few to consider.

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Your kitchen sink should always be clear and ready to be used. You never know when you will need cool running water and you don’t want to run to the sink looking to cool a burn or rinse a cut only to find the basin full of cups, plates, bowls and cutlery. If you do have to leave your washing up until later, leave it on the sideboard next to the sink rather than actually in it. The main complaint about kitchen sinks besides the washing that goes hand in hand with it? Blockages. We’ve all been there, desperately trying to unclog the drain of a sink before the rising water overflows. But in most cases, you can completely avoid this. Avoid letting food go into your basin at all costs. It may be tempting to allow running water from the faucet to clear plates of the last few scraps but these are just likely to clog your pipes over time. So remember, scrape all non-liquids into the bin! You should also avoid pouring cool grease down the drain, as this can cool and solidify in your pipelines. Instead, wash it away with hot, soapy water as this will allow it to travel further before solidifying. If you do find that you have problems, call in professional help sooner rather than later. Qualified plumbers will be able to unblock drains, carry out Sewer Line Repair and perform spot repairs before things develop into a more serious situation.

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Carry Out Maintenance on Your Appliances

Most appliances come with a guarantee or warranty, so if you notice that something is wrong you can receive free repairs or a replacement product. However, after this time, people will generally turn a blind eye to minor problems. But these will only develop, leaving you with a bill for larger repairs or a replacement at your own expense. So call in specialist help as soon as you notice problems. This will ensure that your refrigerator keeps your food cool, your freezer keeps everything frozen, your toaster toasts and your kettle boils. It will also save you from forking it larger sums of cash later on!

These quick fixes are a combination of prevention and cure that will keep your kitchen running smoothly and your life a little more stress free.

Japanese food is some of the healthiest in the world. While some of it is designed to be more comforting than healthy, on the whole, it is high in vegetables and seafood and low in fat. Japan has one of the highest life expectancies in the world, and that’s partly because of their good diet. Eating Japanese dishes can help you stay healthy, and it’s often super cheap too. Sushi might be a bit out of your skill range for now, but there are plenty of other dishes to try that are much easier. If you want to try your hand at some Japanese cuisine, have a go at the following recipes.

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Miso Soup

Miso soup is a hugely popular dish which makes both a great starter and a delicious main meal too. Miso is made by fermenting soybeans to create a thick paste. It might not sound that appetizing, but it’s a key ingredient in Japanese cooking. There are a few things you can put in miso soup, but tofu is one of the classic ingredients. Start by simmering some nori (seaweed) for a few minutes, while adding a little hot water to 3 tablespoons of miso. Add your miso to your water and nori, give it a stir, and then put in cubed tofu, and some chopped green onion and chard. Cook it for just another 5 minutes, and it’s ready to eat.

Gyudon

This simple dish features beef and onions cooked in sake and soy sauce, usually served with steamed rice. Start by thinly slicing onion and green onion and chopping beef loin into small pieces. Use dashi soup (made from water, kombu and bonito fish flakes) and mirin, a type of rice wine, along with sake and some sugar to get your ingredients going on a medium heat. Soften the onion in the liquid, then add the meat and simmer until cooked. Serve with steamed rice for a simple but delicious meal.

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Salmon Teriyaki

Teriyaki has to be one of the most popular Japanese flavors. It goes well with a lot of things, but salmon teriyaki is a particular favorite. If you want to make your own teriyaki sauce, it contains sake, mirin and soy sauce. But you can also just buy it if you’re feeling a little lazy. Heat some oil, season your salmon with salt, and cook it skin-side down until the skin is crisp. Then turn it over and cook for a further two minutes or so. Remove your fish, pour off the fat, then add your sauce and reduce it. Put the salmon back in and baste with the sauce until the fish is cooked through.

Drinks to Pair with Your Meal

Don’t forget something suitably Japanese to drink with your meal. If you want something alcoholic, some sites review Kikori Japanese whiskey so you can find out if it’s for you. Or you could stick with a traditional sake. Non-alcoholic drinks are available too, from matcha tea to Ramune, a popular lemonade drink.

The simplicity of many Japanese recipes means they’re often very easy to make. If you want to try making Japanese cuisine, you can get started in no time.

Fall is just around the corner. Along with cozy sweaters and all things pumpkin spice, there is also some much cooler weather coming along with it. Which is why it is essential to get any outstanding home repairs done before the weather cools down. Otherwise, you can spend a lot of extra money with things that can go wrong in fall and winter, like flooding, leaks, or draughts. So here is your essential fall home checklist to look at. Are there any things that you need to urgently take a look at?

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• Check The Exterior
  • If there are any cracks or holes in the wall at the moment, then you probably won’t have noticed too much. However, once it starts to get cooler, you will really notice the difference if there are any holes or cracks. They can let water and air in, as well as cause problems if the temperatures start to freeze. So have a look at the exterior of your property and check for any damage.
• Check Your Roof
  • Like with the walls and exterior of the home, any damage to the roof will become increasingly obvious and damaging once the temperature of where you live drops. It can lead to leaks, mold on walls, as well as damage to anything that is in the attic. Roofs are tricky, though, as it is isn’t something that you can always just do yourself. So you could always visit Dennis and Sons Roofing, for example, to see how much a roof repair could be costing you. Don’t climb onto your own roof if it isn’t safe to do so!
• Check Your Heating System
  • Hopefully, you won’t have been using your heating for a number of weeks and months over spring and summer. While this is helpful and saves you money, it means you won’t have been able to check on it all or see any signs of wear and tear. Run your heating to check it gets to the right temperature. Check all radiators and bleed those that aren’t heating well. Watch for leaks and check for cracked pipes. Better to deal with it now, then when you really need the home to be warm.
• Check Fireplaces and Wood Burners
  • If you have a fireplace, then like your heating, it won’t have been used recently. Is it still safe and in working order? Is the chimney blocked or clear to use? Again, it is best to check this kind of thing before you need it all to work. The same goes for log or wood burners; is yours still working well?
• Organize Your Yard

It won’t be long before the summer chairs need to be stacked way and the leaves will be falling off the trees. So it is a good idea to get your garden or yard in order before things get even messier. Putting summer garden furniture away can be a good idea, as well as any kid’s garden toys that you won’t be using for a while. Weeding is good too; then you should be good for a while over fall.

If you are looking to buy a new home or even the first home of your dreams, then it is something that you have to be actively doing. With around four other people on average wanting the same property, you have to be on top of your house hunting game. So here are some tips from property experts that I have scoured to find online. Hopefully, they will help you to find the home of your dreams quickly and easily.

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Work The Realtor

To make a sale go through quickly, you want to choose a realtor that is going to work for you. Not only that, but you need to think about have the realtor on your side. Get to know them a little, grab them a coffee if you’re getting one for yourself on the way over. You want to stand out above the other people that they work with so that they will be happy to arrange viewings of homes that take your fancy. You should also do this so that you can get questions out of them about the people selling the property. Why are they moving? How long has the home been on the market? Then you can get a good deal accordingly.

Build Your Own Home

If you’re in a position to not have to rush into a new home, then you know that you’ll get your dream home if you are the ones that are building it. You can be included in the design process, as well as the decorating, so you can truly get a home that is perfect for your family and situation. Prices will depend on what you want, so you could visit Tollberg Homes or a similar site, to get an idea about how it all works. If you’re planning on being in the same area for a long time, then building is certainly a good option to go down.

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Take Photos

Of course, there are photos and videos of the properties you’re looking at available from the agent. But these are staged with good lighting and tidy rooms. It is a good idea to take some photographs of your own when you visit, so you have something to look back on that will remind you, rather than just what you can see online. Then you’ll be making well-informed decisions about any property that you see.

See the House At Different Times of Day

Seeing a house on a perfectly clear and sunny day isn’t going to have the same effect as seeing it on gray and miserable rainy day. The same goes for seeing it in the middle of the day and during rush hour, as well as in the day and in the night. So if you’re quite keen on a property, make sure that you see the home at different times of day. Drive by late in the evening, as well as during busier times. You want to know what traffic will be like in the area, as well as parked cars on the street.

Our homes are our castles. They are the places where we entertain friends, relax after a hard day at work and escape to when the stresses and strains of life can become too much. Our homes are the places where we feel most comfortable, and they allow us to express our personality in our decor choices and room configuration. In the twenty-first century, we want our homes to be modern and accommodate our new lifestyles that are often dominated by continual technological advances. When we come to carry out home improvements, we want to be able to future proof our homes and guard against maintenance issues. We don’t want to be replacing and repairing our efforts and would like to hunt for a long lasting solution to our home makeover dilemmas. Take a look at these ideas to help inspire you when future proofing your home.

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The Simple Things

Get hold of some eco-friendly and energy saving lightbulbs and replace all of the older generation bulbs in your home. By doing this, you save money on your electricity bills, while at the same time doing your bit to help the environment using less energy to omit the same amount of light. Energy saving bulbs also last longer meaning you need to replace them less often.

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Take Care Of Your Roof

Perhaps one of the weirdest oxymorons you’ll stumble across this year is the fact that some of the most ancient roofing methods can be the most long lasting. Thatch roof tops that adorn quaint cottages can last upwards of fifty years. However, this is not the ideal look for homes of the modern age. Instead, it pays to look into architectural shingles to give your roof a sophisticated look as well as ensure that it won’t need replacing again for decades. By spending a little more of your hard earned cash now, you are saving hundreds, maybe even thousands of dollars in the future. On top of this, you get a more energy efficient and insulated home.

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Become Smart

The connectivity of every electrical and wireless device in your home is becoming more apparent. By making your home smarter, you may find yourself at the forefront of home automation. There is nothing better than driving home after a particularly stressful day at work in the pouring rain, only to be able to use your smartphone to put the heating on ten minutes before you are due to walk through the door. You could even use your tablet or smartphone to control your thermostat, lighting, smart television and home alarm. By making your home smarter, you are giving yourself more technological control over how your property functions.

Future proofing your home doesn’t have to be an expensive business. By investing into the upkeep of your home, you’ll be saving money in the future. It pays to look into different technologies to make your home more energy efficient and more eco-friendly to make your home future proof.

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Home energy solutions can often drive you insane. Just when you feel like you’ve got everything working well, another issue can crop up, or you’ll find that things aren’t actually working as they should be. It can make you feel like you need to bring a breath of fresh air into your home and nail those energy issues once and for all. But how do you go about it? If you’re keen to save energy around the home, you’re going to need to work with a few ideas. From simple hacks to suggested replacements, here’s how you ensure that your home is as energy efficient as you need it to be.

Block Off Drafts

When you want to be able to either save money on your energy bills or ensure that the energy you’re using is as efficient as it can be, drafts will be your worse enemy. So, you’re going to need to ensure that you can block them off and stop them from sucking up all of your energy. To do this, you could get a cute draft blocker to place at the bottom of some of your doors. Or, if this isn’t enough, you may want to look into replacing your doors, or even windows, if persistent drafts seem to be a problem.

Use Soft Furnishings

You should also look to use soft furnishings to your advantage. It may sound silly, but they can actually really help to reduce your energy loss. Firstly, you should use thick curtains to dress your windows. This will keep as much heat as possible in your home. Likewise, if you don’t have carpets and you have hard flooring, you should aim to lay down rugs if you can. As with the windows, these will help to keep them heat from escaping.

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Check Your Heating System

Next, you should aim to check over your heating system. Sometimes, the reason for your energy inefficiency if because of a fault with your heating. So make sure you contact an HVAC specialist such as https://stuartproair.com that will be skilled enough to find any faults. It’s important for you to be able to identify if there are issues with the system itself if you’re going to be able to work with efficient energy solutions.

Investing In Double Glazing

If you have identified that you may need to replace windows or doors as part of the draft proofing process, you should think about investing in double glazing. If you live in an older home, or you’ve not had new windows in quite a while, the single glazed glass could be the reason behind your energy loss. But with double glazing, you’re a lot more likely to keep the heat in and enjoy an energy efficient home.

Upgrade Your Insulation

Then, you should think about the insulation upgrades that could keep a bit more heat in your home. If you haven’t already, take a look at the types of insulation available, as seen here https://energy.gov/energysaver/types-insulation to see which would be right for you home. Whether you chose to insulate the walls, attic, or basement, you may find that your home is much more efficient, and your energy bills are reduced too.

Oh, home sweet home. Who doesn’t love the feeling of sitting comfortably on the sofa, feet up on the table and enjoying the evening with a nice book? Could there be anything more relaxing in the universe? Unfortunately, things might feel a little different if there’s a nasty smell that tickles your nose. You’ve gotten rid of the garbage, and you’ve vacuumed the house, so what could it be? There are many reasons for a sensation of olfactive discomfort in your home, and they don’t always mean that you’ve been lazy with the cleaning.  Sometimes old homes smell a little, and once you’ve identified the problem, you can easily sort it out.

Cleaning the old carpet

Carpets can accumulate a lot of dirt

If you’ve got a carpeted room in your home, you need to be aware that with time, carpets can retain dust and other particles of dead skin and dead insects that fell on it. Sometimes, it doesn’t matter how often you vacuum your carpet; you need to use powerful deodorising powders that are specifically designed for the carpeted surface to get rid of the inbuilt smell. The powder often acts within a few minutes and help to liberate the accumulated particles of dirt than you couldn’t reach with the hoover only. The difference will be immediate!

Are you alone in the house?

However clean you think your home might be, have you considered the thought that you might not be the only inhabitant in it? No, we don’t mean that your house is sublet to another family. But you might have unwanted guests in the walls, under the roof and inside the rest of the structure. You need to be aware of the signs of pest infestation, such as droppings for instance, or stains in the food cupboard. However these may not be easy to notice, so if you have any doubt click here for pest advising and pest control services. While getting rid of your pest issue might bring new chemical smells in your home, be assured that these need less than 24 hours to disappear and leave you with a fresh home.

Old furniture is not always cool

Old furniture can bring a touch of vintage in a home. But sometimes the touch of vintage comes with a musty smell too. A simple way to get rid of old smells is to place a bowl of baking soda by the piece of furniture you’d like to treat. Leave it a week or two, depending on the smell, until the baking powder is done absorbing it. You’ll be left with a fresh-smelling piece of furniture! For strong smells, you can wipe your piece of furniture with a solution made of water and vinegar, using a 1:1 ratio for mixing. But be careful with painted surfaces, though.

There are always plenty of reasons for an old smell in your home, so don’t panic. It doesn’t always mean that there’s something horrible happening, such as your foundations rotting away! For instance, families who have a pet have probably experienced the wet dog days. When you have a pet, deep cleaning is the only way to remove pet smells! Thankfully, for pets like for old furniture, the vinegar-water solution works wonders! For anything else, you need to check your carpet – which is a common catalyst of smells – and if nothing can be found, a pest control expert can help you to check for pest presence and its removal. But there’s no smell that a little bit of smart cleaning can’t remove!

An overcrowded house is a real pain. With limited storage and too many people running about it can start to feel like you’re living in a cave. The obvious answer is to buy a new house, but with prices rising all of the time, you might not want to spend that much money. You might also be reluctant to move out of your home because you’ve become attached to it. Just because you’re running low on space, that doesn’t mean you’ve fallen out of love with your house. So, what do you do? Why not think about extending? Adding an extension to the house will give you all of the space you’re lacking but an outbuilding might be better instead. If you’ve got children that are getting older, giving them their own space separate from the house could do wonders for your relationship. If that doesn’t suit you, why not turn it into an outdoor entertaining space complete with inside kitchen and bbq for some great summer parties. Whatever you decide to do with it, building an outbuilding in the backyard adds value to the house and gives you the extra utility that you need. Here are a few tips to help you build your new backyard extension.

Material

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What you build your outbuilding from completely depends on what you’re going to use it for. If somebody is going to be living in there, it needs to be warm enough during winter. That means you should build a proper brick building with insulation in. However, there are plenty of uses that don’t need such an expensive building. Any kind of outdoor entertaining area is going to get most of its use during the summer months. There’s no need to spend as much money on an outbuilding that’s suitable for sleeping in. So, if you’re building an outside bar/bbq area, you can get away with building a wooden structure. It will be far cheaper and it will look great.

Location

Choosing where to put your new addition is key. Once it’s built, there’s no going back. If you get it wrong, you could ruin the whole garden. When you’re looking for places to put it, you should be looking for areas of the garden that aren’t that great. If you’re building a residence for somebody to live in, choosing an area of the garden that doesn’t get much sun. It’s wasted space that you aren’t going to be relaxing in. But that rule doesn’t work for an entertainment space. You need as much sun as you can get, so take note of how much light each area in the garden gets and choose accordingly. You should also remember to consider the shadow that your building is going to cast. If it is going to cast shade over your flowerbeds or your patio furniture then you may need to reconsider. It’s likely that you’ll need to do a lot of rearranging in the garden to find the perfect space so be prepared to put a little money into redoing the garden at the same time.

Size

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Bigger isn’t always better when it comes to outbuildings. Obviously, you’re going to want a good amount of space but don’t forget, you’re sacrificing a portion of your garden so balance is vital. Try to be conservative with your space and use clever storage to maximise what you do have. Using furniture with storage inside is a brilliant way to double up on functionality. If you’re building a residence, try to use as much space as possible for the bedroom and living areas and be frugal with the space in your bathroom. Entertaining areas can be much smaller. You’ll be using them mainly as storage and cooking areas during the summer so there’s no need to build enough space for everybody to sit inside.

Utilities

Deciding what kinds of utilities to put into your outbuilding is important because it can massively affect the cost. A residence is clearly going to need running water and electricity in it if somebody is to live there full time. Hooking it up with electricity and water is going to affect the location of the outbuilding as well because you could run into difficulty if you’re too far away from the main house. When it comes to putting hot water in, you should go for a tankless water heater from somewhere like Academy Air. They take up far less space than a traditional water heater and they’re more economical because they only heat what you need. An entertainment area would benefit from having electricity and hot water, but if you want to reduce costs, it isn’t absolutely necessary. Instead of using a fridge to cool drinks, you can just put a big ice bucket in instead, and you can always take any washing up back into the house. By choosing not to put electricity and hot water in, you’ll make it far cheaper and you won’t have to bother with the hassle of digging up the garden.

Planning Permission

Before you start thinking about any of this stuff, you need to make sure that you can actually build the thing in the first place. Depending on the building and the state that you live in, the zoning codes vary a lot. In general, if you’re building a fairly small wooden building without electricity and running water, you might be able to get away with doing it without permission. But as you get more ambitious, things will start to get a bit trickier. Usually, the height of a building and how close it is to the main house affect whether you need permission or not. Once you start putting running water and electricity in, you’re pretty much guaranteed to need permission. Before you get the ball rolling, speak to your local authorities and see what you can and can’t do.

Before you dive into buying a new house, why not look into the possibility of extending your house with a new outbuilding?

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Moving to a new country is one of the most exciting and daunting decisions that you can make in your life. Once the initial thrill of having made the decision has worn off, you then realise how many different things you need to get sorted before you make your big move. And if you are moving with your entire family, there are even more things that you need to start ticking off your to-do list. Well, this guide is here to give you a helping hand and take you through some of the top considerations that you need to make. Of course, every country is different and will have varying procedures that you need to follow but this will help to give you a good overview.

You Can Never Do Too Much Research

There is no such thing a being over researched before you make your move abroad. And with so much information now readily available online, it makes sense that you take all the advice that you can get. Just some of the topics that you will need to know more about include lifestyle, language, education, healthcare, taxes, and culture to name but a few. If you can get in touch with people who have lived there first-hand, you will be in a much stronger position as you will be able to ask them specific questions. Often, travel guides can give you too much of a rosy picture of a destination and you ideally want to know about the bad as well as the good. After all, you don’t want to get any nasty shocks when you get there!

Visit Before Moving

If possible, you should look into making a preliminary trip to the country before you actually move there so you can find out more first-hand. Even if you just stay for a limited amount of time, you will get a better idea of your new city and neighbourhood. Of course, visiting a place is a lot different to actually living there but you will still get some interesting information. If you can make some connections while you are out there, this is even better. A further advantage is that you will get a better idea of what you need to bring from home as people have a tendency to try and pack too much.

Work Out Income and Cost of Living

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The cost of living in your new country will be different to home, so you can work out what your income is in comparison to what you are likely to be spending. How will your lifestyle compare to what you have at home? Don’t forget to take into account things like moving, visas, rent, transportation, food, utilities and taxes. If you can make a rough list calculating your monthly budget, you will feel much more comfortable about your expenses situation.

Weigh Up Different Education Options

Making sure your kids get a good standard of education will of course be one of your primary concerns. Teaching and assessment systems tend to vary widely from country to country, so it is worth looking at the curriculum in more detail. If you are moving to a place with a new language, you need to make the decision of which one your kids will be educated in. Of course, the advantage of sending them to a school that teaches in the new language is that they will pick it up much quicker, but things are likely to be difficult over the first weeks and months. International schools have the advantage that you know what sort of curriculum will be taught, but they also tend to be more expensive.

Look Into Housing Options

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Getting the right home can make all the difference in helping you to settle in as soon as possible. Of course, the type of accommodation that is common varies from country to country. Moving to a highly urban place like Singapore means that hdb rental properties are common while if you are relocating to a more rural setting, houses tend to the be norm. House hunting can be complicated, which is why many people choose to enlist the help of an estate agent. But once again, the internet has provided a range of website so you are able to do plenty of research on what is available. It is usually a good idea to rent before you buy, as this gives you the maximum flexibility before you get settled in.

Prepare the Whole Family

So far, we have largely talked about the practical aspects of moving to a new country and not the emotional side of things. How your kids take the news really depends on how old they are – once they are older and settled in a certain location, things can be a lot more challenging. Ultimately, it is worth sitting down on a regular basis to speak with them openly about what the move will mean. Also, give them the opportunity to discuss their feelings on a regular basis. Try to remind them about why you are making the move in the first place and all the positive things that are associated with it.

Look at Online Expat Forums

We have already talked about how useful a tool the internet can be when making the move to another country, but one of the best ways you can use it is by joining an expat forum or club. If you have been unable to speak to anyone directly about moving to the new area, here is the perfect place which you can do this. You can read through what people have already posted and put up some of your own questions so you can get as much information as possible before making the big move.

Find Ways to Integrate into the Community

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Once you arrive in your new community, you will want to integrate yourself as quickly as you can. So, to start off with, you can look up the different community activities and clubs that you can join when you arrive. It is a good idea to try out a few different things before you settle on a couple that are right for you. Remember, the more that you put yourself out there during your first few weeks of moving, the more likely it will be that you start to develop long-lasting connections. As well as finding different activities for you to take part in, you should also look at the options that are available for your kids as well.

Remember that it Takes Time to Adjust

It is rare that anyone who moves to a new country will feel instantly at home there. Instead, you need to give yourself time to settle in and get used to your new way of life. If you continually compare your life to what you used to have, you will find that it is much more difficult to find satisfaction. Keeping an open mind is the best way that you will adjust to your new surroundings in the quickest way possible. Again, it is all about getting yourself out there and actually experiencing what is around you rather than shutting yourself up in your home (though this may be the most tempting and easiest option).

Language Skills

If English isn’t the first language spoken in your new country, it will do you a world of good to learn the new language as quickly as possible. Children tend to be more adept at picking up new languages than adults, so it is well worth surrounding yourself with it as much as possible whether this is through movies and TV shows, phone apps and CDs. Even just knowing the basics can help you get by and avoid awkward situations as much as possible. There are some things that you will only be able to learn by actually speaking to locals, so if you can start to make friends that don’t speak any English, you will be forced to communicate in their language. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes as this is always going to be the best way to learn.

Moving your entire family to a  can be overwhelming, but hopefully this guide has given you some of the basics of what you can expect and how best you can prepare yourself. You should try to do as much prior research as you can, but remember that there are some things that you will only be able to learn once you have made the big move. Most people will start having doubts once they get there, but the only way that you can overcome them is by throwing yourself into your new situation as best you can. As well as the practical side of moving, you also need to consider the emotional side, not only for yourself, but also for your whole family. Do these things, and you will give yourself the best chance of settling in quickly.

 

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Improving your home’s air quality can help to make it a cosier place for you and a more inviting place for guests. There are lots of ways to freshen up the air inside your home. Here are a few ways to ventilate and refresh your home.

Open those windows

Opening your windows is the easiest way to ventilate your home. In the heat of summer, you can help to remove stuffy air by placing a tower fan in front of the window facing into the room. Beware of opening your windows in some situations – if you live by a busy road you could be letting in dust and pollutants. Opening windows not facing the road and using an extractor fan for these rooms could be a better option.

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Purify the air with plants

Plants provide a fresh source of oxygen that can help improve air quality. Certain specific plants such as spider plants, peace lilies and Boston fern are particularly good at purifying and dehumidifying the air. In fact, such plants can be perfect for soaking up the condensation of a steamy bathroom or the foody fumes from a kitchen.

Update your HVAC

If you haven’t got a HVAC unit, it could be worth getting one installed in your home. These units provides heating and air conditioning, whilst also keeping your home ventilated. Hire a contractor to install one or update your current one if it’s not working well. Such units should be regularly cleaned out to avoid unhealthy mold build-ups that could not only damage air quality but be a danger to your health.

Experiment with scents – but don’t go overboard

Fresh scents from candles and incense sticks and electronic air fresheners can help to keep a clean aroma and mask nasty odour. However, it is possible to go overboard with these and make your home smell sickly sweet. Stay subtle when it comes to these fragrances.

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Try salt crystal lamps

Salt crystal lamps aren’t just great for providing ambient lighting in the evening, they’re also efficient air purifiers. They can help remove moisture from the air as well as pollutants and allergy spores. Beeswax candles have a similar effect.

Deodorise your carpet

Carpets can pick up all manner of strange smells from spillages and things been dragged into the house. You can keep your carpets smelling fresh by buying deodorising powders for your carpet. Sprinkle this powder down on the carpets, leave it for a few minutes and then hoover it up – the scent will have then sunk in, plus you’ll be able to hoover up more dust and dirt.

Get rid of garbage smells

Food waste can start to create some nasty smells. Even once you’ve removed the garbage, the bin may still stink. Washing your garbage disposal unit with a solution of lemon and vinegar can help to eliminate these nasty odours. Lemon and vinegar can also make a great natural cleaning fluid for many other parts of your home.