Unlocking Home Resale Profits: Top Renovations for Maximum ROI

Collaborative post. Has the idea of selling your home been at the back of your mind for a while now? Still thinking about how you can get the pounds rolling in? Many homeowners find themselves in this balancing act, trying to decide which upgrades will really pay off when it’s time to sell. Let’s explore some clever home improvement choices that can deliver a solid return on investment, ensuring you spruce up your home’s value without draining your savings.

Via Pexels

How To Clean A Paddling Pool And Keep It Clean

When the temperatures soar, there’s nothing that little ones love more than splashing around in a great paddling pool (see some of our favourites here). But as much fun as this can be, many a parent will tell you that keeping a paddling pool clean is a tall order.

Paddling pools can, unfortunately, harbour harmful germs if not kept clean enough, so it’s important to know how to keep them at their best. Not to mention, a paddling pool just looks so much more inviting when it’s fresh and clean! 

Keep your paddling pool cleaner with these tips

Here are some tips for how to clean a paddling pool:

How to descale a kettle or a coffee machine

If you live in a hard water area like I do, you will be used to a build up of limescale. This could be on shower screens, taps and, of course, kitchen items such as kettles and coffee makers. When it builds up on a kettle or coffee machine, it can be particularly annoying: nothing ruins a hot drink than dregs of limescale in the bottom!

It's easy to descale your kettle without scrubbing

There is a solution to this: regularly descaling your appliances. However, it can be hard to know where to begin. Here are some different techniques for descaling a kettle or a coffee machine:

6 Cheap packed lunch ideas for kids

Coming up with interesting and nutritious packed lunch ideas for children’s packed lunches can be a challenge, especially when you are working on a budget. It’s difficult not to get stuck in a rut and children get bored of food items just as us adults do.

Alternative packed lunch ideas

Easy ways to create shopping lists for your family meals

Do you often find that you get to the supermarket to do the 'big shop' and find that you just can’t remember what you intended to buy or what you have at home? Or perhaps you do an online shop regularly, only to find that half of the items you needed you forgot to order? If this is the case, you need some ideas for shopping list planning and you have come to the right place!

Here are several different ways that you can plan your shopping so that you’ll have the right ingredients every time:

Use these tips to be more organised, save money and reduce waste

5 clever children’s book storage ideas

Fostering a love of reading in your children is a beautiful thing and as parents we want to encourage a love of books. But let’s face it, sometimes it can be difficult to store all of those beautiful and interesting books!

If this is you, then I’ve got some great ideas for storing your children’s reading collection in a way that works with your home and keeps your children’s interests and love of reading alive.

Books can double up as decoration in your home

How To Remove Sticky Labels and Their Residue

Sticky labels, and the residue they often leave behind, can be extremely annoying. Whether you’re trying to remove an unsightly sticky label from a new household item, need to take a label off of a gift before wrapping it or just need to carefully remove a sticker your child has stuck to the wall, it can be annoying if sticky residue is left behind.

However, there are various household products that can be used to remove sticky labels. Next time you need to do so, why not try one of the below options?

How To Organise A Kids’ Craft Station

It’s wonderful to see our children being creative, but it can be overwhelming to see that creativity scattered all over your living room, dining room table or playroom…delete as applicable! So what should you do if you don’t want to stifle your child’s creativity, yet want to contain the mess that goes with it? Create and organise a craft station, of course!

Is your child a budding artist? Use these tips to keep their craft supplies in order

How To Declutter Your Wardrobe

Many of us are guilty of having wardrobes that are stuffed to the brim with clothes, many of which we hardly, or maybe never, wear. Yes, there are of course special occasion clothes which only come out every now and again, but if you have every day clothes in your wardrobe that you are no longer wearing, it may be time to declutter your clothing.

Apart from the benefits in terms of tidiness, it’s much less stressful to decide what you want to wear (not to mention easier to keep on top of the laundry!) when you have a streamlined wardrobe with everything organised neatly. However, decluttering your wardrobe can be a daunting task, and so, here are a few tips to help you along the way to wonderful wardrobe organisation.

With the changing seasons, now is the perfect time for a clothes clear out. Here's how to make it easy...

How to remove common stains from your family sofa

Family life can be messy, especially if there are young children or pets involved. You may feel like your days of having lovely things in your home are over, at least until the children are older, but this doesn’t always have to be the case. Several common stains can be removed from furniture with a few tips, tricks and home remedies. 

Rescue your stained furniture with these useful cleaning tips

Packing Tips For Family Holidays

Part of the excitement of going on holiday is the lead up to it, and all of the preparation that goes with it. There’s nothing quite like that build up to a holiday, but if you’ve got children, the build up can often be doubled, or even trebled! Preparing for a family holiday is a lot of work, but with these essential packing tips for family holidays, you’ll be able to pack pronto!

Be prepared for emergencies with these family packing trips

The Secret To Getting Started On Decluttering Your Home

Do you feel overwhelmed by the state of your house? Whether it's tidy, but crowded or a total mess the answer to making things easier is decluttering. Quite simply the less you have the more spacious your home feels and the easier it is to keep tidy. Getting started on decluttering can feel even more overwhelming, where do you start? Don't stand in your living room looking around at all the chaos. The secret is to get more focused. If you take small steps towards decluttering your home, and keep on top of it regularly, it shouldn’t feel so overwhelming.

If you are feeling overwhelmed decluttering can help, but it's also hard to get started

The Kit You Need To Have On Hand For Christmas and Birthdays

When you become a parent a little organisation goes a long way. Gone are the days where you can quickly pop out to the shops to get something and children aren't known for their patience. Picture the scene: it's your child's birthday and after ripping the paper off their presents they want to play with one of them now! First you have to get it out of the box which might require scissors or even a screwdriver and then you discover it needs batteries so you have to find those, and then you definitely will need a screwdriver to get those installed. It might just take a few minutes, but for an excited child on their birthday it can feel like hours. Whether it's Christmas Eve or the day before their birthday, make sure that once the last present is wrapped that you have everything to hand in one place to make present opening goes to plan. 

A little preparation helps Birthdays and Christmas go more smoothly

Age-appropriate tidying and cleaning tasks for under 10s

I am a big fan of teaching your children to help out with the housework from an early age. Teaching your children to clean from an early age has benefits for everyone in the household: from helping children to learn the value of work through to lightening the load of those that normally carry out the housework. But you may be wondering what exactly your children can help out with, and what household chores are age-appropriate for under 10s.

What age should you get your children involved in household chores

What To Buy When Moving Out Of Home For The First Time

Moving out of the family home for the first time? Whether you’re moving into student accommodation, or perhaps buying a home of your very own, there are certain items that you’ll need to get you started.

On top of the likes of a laptop and your clothes, there are things that you may not have thought about when moving out of the family home for the first time. Of course, if you’re buying or renting an unfurnished home, you’ll need to think about all of your furniture too, but if you’re renting student accommodation or a furnished home, here’s a list of all of those little things that you may not have thought of to give you a home away from your family home.

Make sure you have what you need when you move out of home