Sprucing Up Your House for the Holidays
BWS Design • Dec 05, 2016

Now that the holiday season is upon us, many families will be welcoming guests into their homes. If you’re like most people, you probably worry about your home being clean and welcoming enough for holiday guests. But if you put in the needed time to clean and prepare your home for guests before they arrive, you can enjoy them more, knowing they’re comfortable and relaxed. Here are a few tips for sprucing up your home for holiday guests.

The Kitchen

Because the kitchen is where your guests will probably be gathering to socialize and munch on holiday goodies, it’s crucial that this room looks and smells as fresh and clean as possible.

  • To clean sinks, use a soft rag or nylon sponge, along with mild soap or an all-purpose glass cleaner. Don’t use abrasive cleaners, bleach or ammonia on stainless steel because this can compromise the finish.
  • Get rid of any unpleasant kitchen odors, such as those coming from your garbage disposal. One way to freshen a garbage disposal is by chopping up a lemon, including the rind, and then throwing it down your disposal.
  • To sharpen disposal blades, throw in a few small ice cubes. Be sure your kitchen garbage container smells good, so hose it down. Then, once it’s dry, spray it with an air freshener.
  • To clean oven and stove-tops, use water and baking soda to scrub off caked-in goo.

Guest Rooms

  • Adorn beds with decorative quilts or comforters, along with fluffy pillows.
  • Consider installing lightweight sheers or woven blinds that can usher in morning sunlight.
  • Launder bedspreads and shake dirt out of throw rugs.
  • Include interesting magazines and reading material on bed-stands.
  • If possible, set up a TV on the dresser for guests who stay up late.
  • Remove any clutter.

Windows and Window Coverings

  • To clean windows, use a commercial product or a water and vinegar solution. After spraying the windows, wipe them with a clean rubber-bladed squeegee. Work from the top to the bottom, making sure the squeegee is angled toward the base of the window.
  • Clean window screens so that all grime is removed. Rather than taking down your screens and hosing them down, you can simply use a dust-brush attachment from your vacuum cleaner to remove dust. The quickest and most effective method is going side to side and top to bottom.
  • Although cleaning curtains manually entails more work than just tossing them into a washer, hand-washing them reduces the likelihood of shrinkage, and it’s the best option for delicate fabrics.
  • On the other hand, don’t wash heavy fabrics by hand as it’s harder to remove the water.
  • Steam clean curtains made of exceptionally heavy materials.
  • If you don’t have time to dry clean your curtains or drapes, you could still freshen them up by spraying them with fabric refresh spray. After gently shaking the fabric, stand back a few feet and spray the drapes. Then, shake the fabric once more.

Bathrooms

  • Prepare guest bathrooms by making sure there are plenty of clean hand and bath towels, so your guests don’t have to ask for them. You don’t want them to use your old, ratty-looking, everyday towels.
  • Remove all film and soil, using an all-purpose bathroom cleaner. Stubborn deposits can be removed with a soft-scrub cleaning product
  • Launder shower and window curtains.
  • To get rid of deposits on shower floors and eliminate bathtub rings, use abrasive scrubbing pads. It helps to use an old toothbrush to remove stubborn deposits that have built up around faucets and tub fixtures.
  • Using a disinfecting spray to sanitize toilets, spray the seat, toilet rims and bowel exterior. Then, use a fresh cleaning cloth to wipe your toilet clean and dry.

Considerations and Warnings

  • For best results, clean your windows on a cloudy day because direct sunlight can cause the cleaner to dry too rapidly, which can leave streaks on windows.
  • To clean baseboards, use a sponge that’s been dipped into a solution of dish soap and warm water. Vinegar also works well in scrubbing away blemishes.
  • Homemade bathroom cleaners do a better job of keeping your bathrooms shiny and clean without subjecting them to harsh chemicals.
  • Dust all light fixtures and remove cobwebs from ceilings.

One of the main household items that guests notice is window coverings. Regardless of how well you try to clean old drapes and blinds, sometimes you just need to replace your window coverings. Don’t hesitate to call Just Blinds. We have a wide range of high quality window treatments for every room in your home. Please contact us  and learn more about our various products.

Expert Advice by Just Blinds

The Leading Window Treatment Trends of 2024

By Autumn Hooper • 07 Feb, 2024
Each year, styles in window treatments come and go. Trends that were hot last year may carry over to the new interior decor season or may be replaced by something new. In 2024, we are looking at a delightful set of trends in blinds, shades, and curtains that embrace the developing attitudes and popular colors that are already giving the year a unique stylistic personality. At Just Blinds, we are delighted to keep up with the trends, helping homeowners, designers, and property managers to create stunning spaces that align with the latest in window treatment trends. The Hot Trends of 2023 Blinds and Shades Last year in 2023, we saw a great collection of trends, many of which have evolved and strengthened with the new year. 2023 explored the innovations of cell shades and honeycomb shades for the benefits of insulation and light control. Motorization gained a prominant place in both home and office design, and decorators discovered the dynamic possibilities of shades that operate from both the bottom and the top on floor-to-ceiling tracks. Texture saw a real debut with natural colors like wood finishes, linen, dusty rose, and moss green. Though bold patterns also had their day in the sun. The Trending 2024 Window Treatments In 2024, you may recognize a few trends still going strong from the year before, which is good news for those who decorated last year because your style is likely still right on-trend. But we are also seeing new trends developing with elegant enthusiasm. Smart Home Blinds The trend for motorized shades has naturally evolved to favor smart home controls. With a simple voice command, you can take control of all the motorized shades in a room, in your entire home, or set each shade to exactly the height and opacity you desire. Warm Neutrals and Bold Natural Colors Color trends favor a more natural palette. Neutral colors are warmer, even the grays and charcoals have a honey undertone, while natural colors like mossy and forest green are growing stronger in hue paired with a jewelbox of flower petal colors. If you're following the Colors of the Year, you may have also noticed an adoration of ocean blues, and you can match those blues with slightly darker or lighter blinds for beautiful effect. Eco-Friendly and Sustainable Materials Natural materials and textures were popular in 2023, and 2024 takes this trend even further. Blinds made out of recycled materials are now on the rise alongside the growing popularity of blinds made from super-sustainable plants like bamboo, hemp, jute, and grass cloth. These offer natural colors, dynamic textures, and the delight of eco-friendly design. Gauzy Sheer Elegance Sheer curtains and semi-sheer blinds are also in fashion; a classic style that has been floating near the top of popularity for literal centuries. Sheer curtains and blinds maintain privacy while allowing sunlight into the room in a gently diffused glow. They also layer excellently with more robust window treatments. Creative Window Treatment Layering Speaking of layering, we are seeing an enthusiastic embrace of creatively layered styles. Wooden shutters, gauzy curtains, and black-out blinds are among the most popular layers, but decorators are getting creative with how they choose to to layer their window treatments, using both multiple fabrics and structures at the same time. Find the Blinds that Best Suit Your Needs How can you choose fantastic and on-trend blinds that perfectly suit your design needs? Fortunately, the diversity of this year's trends leave room for almost any personal sense of style and the individual needs of each room's windows. Start with the size of your windows and your room's existing color palette. Decide if you want to match, accent, or contrast the colors of the room. Then choose the opacity, privacy, and level of motorized control you desire. This should guide you toward a specific selection that will work well for your room. From there, it's a matter of specific features and your personal sense of style. Reach Out for Expert and On-Trend Advice If you are getting ready to decorate a room and want the perfect window treatments for 2024, we are only a phonecall or a visit away. Give us a call for expert advice in the right blinds or shades for each window in your home. Our on-trend window treatment experts will be glad to help tailor your window treatment design to your personal tastes, the latest trends, and the style of each of your rooms.

Beat the Heat: Best Choices to Keep The Interior of Your Home Cool

20 Jul, 2023
Is your AC bill keeping you down this summer? Is your home too hot? Window treatments can help cool your home, but you need to choose the right ones and use them correctly. Not all window coverings are made equal. Here are some of the best options to help keep your home comfortable and reduce costs this summer: Cellular or honeycomb shades. These are specifically designed to provide a high level of insulation that keeps the heat out of your home. They also don't block the view when completely drawn. As a bonus, you can get them in a wide variety of colors and patterns to match your home and in both top-down and bottom-up configurations. Drapery. Old-fashioned curtains can be surprisingly effective. Choose a medium color and have us add a white plastic backing to reflect heat out of your home. You can also use drapes to block some of the heat without excluding much light, allowing you to enjoy natural light flowing through your drapes. Fabric Roman shades. These are a distinctive option that really dresses up a room, and if you choose the kind with several layers they will definitely help keep the heat out. We have light filtering and blackout options and everything in between. Why Should You Use These Types of Shades or Blinds? The two reasons are to save money and help protect the environment. Good shades keep your home cooler and this means your air conditioning systems don't have to work as hard and use as much energy. In the northern hemisphere, it's most important to have heat-reducing treatments on your southern windows and you can allow more light in through windows that face north. Both cellular and Roman shades can also be motorized and even put on timers to close the shades when you are not there and then let light in when you return. The small amount of energy used by motorized shades is much less than that lost through naked windows. All of these shades can also add to the aesthetics of your room. Cellular shades are great to add a pop of color or a subtle pattern. Both drapery and Roman shades give a soft feel to your windows that then spreads to the rest of your room. What is the Best Choice? The best choice of the three depends on your personal aesthetics. Our designers can help you make the right choice. If you want motorized shades, cellular shades are the lightest and thus use the least energy, and can roll all the way up and down, leaving your windows completely unrestricted. Roman shades are more visible, but can be used to add fabric and color to a room. Many people still love the look of traditional window drapes. Note that you can also combine shades and drapes for the effect you want, both in terms of reducing heat loss and in terms of aesthetics. How Much Can I Actually Save? The amount you save depends on the kind of window covering you use and how much thermal gain your house typically experiences. The larger your windows, in general, the larger the benefit, especially south-facing windows. For example, medium-colored draperies with a white plastic backing can reduce heat gain by as much as 33% for that window. Most window treatments, though, reduce overall heat gain by about 10%. This can significantly reduce your bills, by $100 to $200 a month during the summer. Using the right window treatment can make your home more comfortable in the summer and save money while preserving the environment. For advise on which window treatments to choose for your home and to see our selection of blinds and shades, contact Just Blinds today.
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