WallMarker, an arrow shaped piece of chalk, makes picture hanging easier. How? The adhesive side sticks to the back of the frame. You then press the picture against the wall where it will be hung, and wall-ah! You have a chalk mark pointing to where you will hammer in the nail or hook.

WallMarkers are reusable and come in a pack of two, a blue for light walls and a yellow for darker walls. The price is right at just $2.99 plus a small amount of shipping and handling. Order them here, I did!

“In the United States, 12 million barrels of oil and 14 million trees go to producing plastic and paper bags each year.”

Time to vent! I refuse to throw away plastic bags and I just won’t use paper grocery bags. Now I have bags of bags of bags, especially during this shopping season. The collection is getting out of control but there is an answer! No, I am not going to break down and throw them in the trash. (Speaking of break down, it takes plastic bags as much as 1,000 years to break down in landfill and 450 in water.) I plan on taking my bags to a local recycling bin (as seen in many Medina, OH parking lots) or to the local Giant Eagle grocery store which also has a bag-recycling bin. I will also stash a folded-up fabric shopping bag in my purse. Maybe this will relieve me from the funny looks I get when I reuse or refuse a bag at the store! 

Furthermore, I will now give preference to retailers that sell reusable shopping bags, like Giant Eagle. When I am not at a green store, I tend to apologize to clerks about my proactiveness, but why should I? I think I am hip and ahead of the crowd, kind of like the city of San Francisco who recently banned plastic grocery bags. You can read more about that in this past post by Sharon.

My friend’s think I’m crazy, but I know I am just more educated and aware about the issue. Now you are too.

More facts on plastic bags and their unfriendly impact on the earth:

• Plastic bags don’t biodegrade because their components do not biodegrade (especially oil). They actually break down into smaller toxic bits which become consumable contaminants for animals, even humans.
• Other than oil, plastic bags contain metals like chromium and copper. Exposure leads to diseases.
• Oil is expensive! Can avoiding plastic bags lower gas prices? Yes, if more people change their ways! 12 million barrels of oil, remember?
• My fave environmentally friendly, earth-loving, life-changing website ever - IdealBite – is chock full of facts like the one at the beginning of this article. 

When decorating or selling your home, address all five senses.

SIGHT is the primary sense when it comes to interior design. Curb appeal draws the buyer into the home. Sight is constant and obvious when it comes to showing your home. It is easy for a homeowner to overlook things that they live with everyday, but a stager will see your home and its contents objectively through the eyes of a buyer. 

SMELL The most impactful ones are actually negative smells that deter a sale. Animal, garbage, smoke, basement, and food smells should be eliminated. Don’t simply try to mask them, because that raises a red flag and a buyer will wonder what is being covered up. Positive smells are natural like fresh flowers or fruit. 

TOUCH may be the most overlooked of the senses, but keep in mind what a buyer will touch.  They will open doors and cabinets. They will check light switches. They will turn on water. A stager will check all these things first to let you know what needs fixed.

SOUND is important. A buyer looking for a peaceful retreat will not be at ease with a home on a noisy street. Playing soft classical music is a positive way to entice buyers, show off built in home audio systems, or cover minor sounds. It is also important to eliminate the sounds that people associate with maintenance.

TASTE can be seen in a staged home or a magazine advertisement. We’re not talking about decorating with good taste, but the sense of taste. We stage items that appeal to the tastebuds and a lifestyle any buyer would enjoy.

One way to get a nasty grease stain out of your upholstery is to spray and scrub. Another way to get rid of a grease stain in your light-colored fabric is to use something you probably already have in your cupboard… cornmeal. All you have to do is cover the spot with cornmeal and let it soak for about half an hour. To clean up the cornmeal just vacuum up the grains. One more pro to this “how to remove grease stains” trick is that it avoids using harmful chemicals, and we love anything that is natural and earth friendly.

A huge inventory of homes are on the market.  Interest rates are creeping up so fewer buyers are looking.  Crain’s Cleveland Business headline, “A perfect storm has led to declines in sales and values.”

The best weapon to combat this home sales slump?  Staging.  Staging increases the home’s value, gets more traffic from MLS pictures on the web, and will beat the competition in appearance and move-in readiness.

Bottom line:  when the competition is tough, serious sellers call stagers to get the home sold.  In the Crain’s article a homeowner whose home has been on the market for a year said “he’s tired of waiting for a buyer, so he’s toying with hiring a home stager – a specialist in preening homes for sale . . .”  My response to him:  There’s nothing to lose and everything to gain by hiring a stager; go for it.”

Who doesn’t love HGTV for DIY? We’ve got a direct link to HGTV’s advice on:

- 10 ways to increase the value of your home anytime

- 10 ways to get the most money for your home when you sell

- advice on finding and buying the home of your dreams

- making your kitchen ready for homebuyers

- beautiful curb appeal

- and much, much more,

Find HGTV’s real estate tips and tricks here.

You don’t always have to move to get a more accessible shower, nor do you have to get rid of your old bathtub.  Aging baby boomers and those losing mobility will be glad to know that for as little as $800 and in less than 4 hours, they can have their old tub transformed into a shower. Access Designs Inc. of Charlottesville, Virginia has developed a system called TubCut which removes an 18 – 36 inch passage from the wall of the bath. It is then finished it so that it appears like it was always that way.  The chunk of tub can also be reinstalled later down the road, just in case potential buyers are looking for a bathtub, and they’ll never be able to tell the difference.

All tensed up because you don’t know whether to leave your windows uncovered or put up window treatments? What’s stressing you out? Is it that you don’t want to create holes in your rental or home for sale? Well we have a solution to your problem…Levolor’s twist to fit tension rods are more attractive than typical tension rods and don’t leave holes.

Sharon says she would be a sofa.  “I spend a lot of time on my sofa watching true crime on TV, old movies for design ideas, and just laying there looking at my family room wondering what I could do to make it look better.”

What would you be? Tell us!