When you feel like you are on overdrive, what with running after the kids, making a living, and all the other demands of modern life, very often keeping the house tidy and well decorated falls by the wayside. Much as we would all prefer to live an ordered existence, we are only human, and for many of us, when we get those five minutes when no one is nagging us for anything, instead of attacking the overstuffed shelves of the bookcase or cleaning out the fridge, all we want to do is fall asleep or chill out.

First of all, don’t beat yourself up about it. We’re only human, after all. Second of all, it’s time to think of some ways to keep the house looking good, while “cutting corners.” Don’t be ashamed of doing things the “easy” way. Believe me, your amazingly clean and tidy friend down the road has probably been doing that for years. She’s not going to tell you that she has a household help – but she probably does!

And that is our first suggestion – if you can’t keep up with the cleaning, hire help. And if you can’t afford to – cut corners and improvise. Here are some top improvisation tips:

– If you don’t have time to wash the dishes, don’t be ashamed to treat yourself to disposables if you have to. It might cost money and not be too friendly to the ozone layer, but the odd evening when you don’t need to wash up and can relax instead won’t do you any harm.

– The carpet is stained and dirty, but you can’t afford to buy a new one or get a professional cleaner. You’ve tried various shampoos, but you just can’t remove the stains anymore. So what do you? Invest in some area rugs. A strategically placed floral rug or neat little oval rug won’t tell any stories and will definitely save the look in any room. They are not as expensive as re-carpeting a room or installing tile flooring or wood flooring and are far more easily changed when they start to wear out.

– Your sofas are looking stained and torn, and no amount of professional cleaning or reupholstering will help. There is no point in buying new ones because you know that you can’t stop the kids from jumping on them (that’s how they got wrecked in the first place), so what do you do? Sofa covers are a great solution. These will make your sofas look like new, and if you buy washable ones all you will need to do is stick them in the washing machine and voila! Your sofa will look great! You can even buy several and change the design of your sofa whenever you want.

– The walls look stained, but you don’t have time or money to repaint them. All the mess that this entails will drive you crazy. So make some homemade wall hangings and cover the stains! In the kitchen, you could hang some pots and pans, Victorian style, while in the living room you could put up some pressed flower collages or some of your children’s artistic creations.

Improvisation and creativity are the name of the game …

Author Bio: Sacha is an expert contributing article author composing on the subject of household decorating. She loves utilizing carpet types as well as types of flooring for floors to bring a new dash of style into your space.

Category: Home Management
Keywords: carpet flooring,carpet types,,types of flooring