A lot of people ignore their bedrooms, because they figure “I’m never in there anyway”. But actually you spend probably 1/3rd of your entire life in that room! Sure, you are asleep most of that time 🙂 But if the room is full of dust and mold, you are inhaling all of that for 1/3rd of your life. That can really affect your health.
Remove things that you don’t need like old clothes, accessories, and other stuffs that can only be an eye sore. If you cannot decide what to remove, check those clothes that you have not used for the past 3 months. Most likely, you will use those for months or years to come.
Have an organizer for your jewelries, hair accessories, underwear, socks, and other small things that you use everyday. You can have either a small drawer or a hanging organizer that you can hang behind the door of your cabinet. You can also have a closet organizer where you can put all your clothes, jewelries and accessories all in. Drawers with multiple chambers are great organizers of small accessories and jewelries. You can also have slide out rack, turntable rack, or pullout laundry hamper setup in your closet.
Make sure to keep it a habit putting your things back to its proper places. In this way, you won’t have a hard time looking for them when you need them and you won’t lose anything. Keep everything in place.
When buying bedsheet, comforter and pillow case, it’s best to have a theme. Don’t buy them individually, but as a set.
Color your walls with light and cool colorslike baby blue, apple green, baby pink, peach, etc. This will make your room look bigger. It is important to have that effect so you can relax more. It is also important that the color of your room blendswith everything in it. This will also create the mood that you want your room to have.
Add a touch of green. It would be nice to put a real plant inside your room for so many benefits. If you’re eyes are tired, it’s good if you have something green in your room where you can look at as this will soothe them. Also, plants can remove too much carbon dioxide in your room and provide oxygen. I also recommend to have eucalyptus plant to drive those insects out of your room.
Clean your room regularly. It would be best to have a schedule set everyweek to do this.
Do not buy things for your room that are really not that important. Sometimes, all you have to do is re-organize the way you place things in your room.
Add a personal touch. If you have an artwork, awards, medals, or anything that you can be proud of, you can have them as an additional display. It will be your own personal art gallery. Just place them as organized and artistic as possible.
Maximize your space. If you have limited space in your bedroom, try to maximize every angle and every space. Check out the different types of beds like wallbed, pull-out, double-decker, rollup or sofabed available in the market.
Easy care is one of the primary reasons people choose cotton bedding. Removing stains from sheets, blankets, pillowcase and other bedding is easy thanks to the fabrics inherent qualities.
Blood is one stain that most people struggle to remove. In many instances, usable cotton bedding is discarded and considered ruined once blood has leaked on to it. Additional money is then spent on replacing the seemingly ruined items.
In other cases, much money is spent taking cotton bedding to the dry cleaners as a stain removal solution. In both cases, the result is spending extra money on new bedding that may be unnecessary.
Blood can easily be removed from most washable cotton bedding by using very ordinary household cleaning products. As soon as a stain is noticed the sheets should be laundered in cold water. If the stain has dried, pretreat the area with hydrogen peroxide. It should bubble up and loosen the stain before you wash it as usual. Another, even more common solution is regular shampoo. Any shampoo will usually do the trick, be it your favorite brand or a less expensive store brand.
For optimal stain removal, it’™s best to remove the stain as soon as possible, preferably upon occurrence. Albeit, this is not always feasible. But, it is helpful to try to remove blood from cotton bedding before it dries and is ‘set’ to ensure complete elimination. In any case, using shampoo will usually eliminate hours-old stains in minutes. For stains more than 24 hours old, you may have to first soak the bedding in a large bucket, or even the bathtub. Then, you can get about the task of fighting that stain which in most cases can take upwards to 5 to 10 minutes, depending on the density of the bedding, or upwards to a day or so if you have to soak the stain.
To remove blood stains from your washable cotton bedding find a good location to begin your stain removal efforts. Keep in mind as bedding is bulky when wet, you want to be near or in the bathroom or by a large sink to avoid water leaking on floors and/or carpet.
Douse the stain with a capful of shampoo, making sure that some shampoo touches every part of the stain.
Rub the soiled portions of the bedding until the shampoo is completely absorbed, then wet with cold or warm water. Once bubbles appear, briskly scrub the bedding. Rinse the stain and evaluate your efforts. Is the stain completely gone? Is their a slight ring showing the shape of the stain? Is the stain still visible? If any portion of the blood is still visible, including a light ring, then follow this step two or three more times. By the third time, fresh stains should be totally removed. However, if the stain has been allowed to sit in the bedding for 48 hours or so even if it is still visible after you attempted to remove by traditional machine washing than you will likely need to pour shampoo on the stain and soak the bedding for several hours. Overnight soaking is also possible, if you desire to do so. Once you have soaked the stain for the allotted time, then you can wash the bedding.
Cotton bedding that has been treated for blood stains by shampoo and rinsed can be washed according to your usual preferred methods and/or the manufacturers instructions. If you prefer bleaching your white cotton bedding, you can do so at this stage be it liquid bleach for whites or non-chlorine bleach for colored bedding. Since the shampoo has been rinsed out of the bedding, it will not impair your detergent or bleachs cleaning ability.
Always check for stains before drying as the heat from a dryer will set the stain permenantly. If you are uncertain if the stain is removed from the damp bedding, hang outside in the sun to dry. The sun will not only help to bleach out any remaining stains, but it will dry the cloth in a way that will not further set the stain.
Would you crawl into bed with a bunch of bugs? No? Well you do. Every single night. They are called dust mites, and they are everywhere. They thrive on dead skin, your dead skin. Yum. Yum. If you aren’t completely disgusted by now, check out our article on Dust Mites, to find out why they contribute to allergy problems.
In addition to these dust mites, their feces, and all that dead skin they are waiting to munch on, your bed also collects dust, lint, hairs, and other assorted debris that is floating around our homes.
Regular cleaning of your mattress, and the bed linen keeps these potential allergens in check. It also will increase the life span of your sleeping habitat.
The mattress should be flipped over a couple times per year. It is a great idea to co-ordinate it with changing your clocks to and from day light savings time, or on Independence Day and New Years Eve, if you don’t have much of a life outside your home.
The first time flip it over side for side, and the next time flip it over end for end (A note left between the mattress can remind you which way it is suppose to be flipped). This equalizes the wear of the mattress, and minimizes peaks and valleys. It is also a good plan on “flipping day” to vacuum the entire mattress and box spring. If you use a plastic mattress cover, wipe it down after vacuuming with a disinfectant.
Plastic covers are a must for young children who might have a periodic bed wetting accident. If you don’t have a cover when one of these accidents happens, check out the tip in our data base on cleaning urine from a mattress.
Futons
Although thought to be owned only by starving college students, there are those of us who have grown to love our futons. Like mattresses there are dozens of different firmness levels, and methods of construction depending on the manufacturer.
Typically there is a foam core, wrapped with cotton, in a heavy cotton fabric envelope. When cleaning, you should avoid getting a futon too wet, as it takes forever, or possibly longer, to dry completely. A moist futon is a bad thing, as warm, moist, dark areas tend to grown things (like fungus and mildew) that we don’t normally want to sleep with. Stains should be removed with as little water as possible, and usually blotting with a damp rag will remove most surface stains.
Futons should be rolled up every couple of months, and allowed to stay rolled up tight for an entire day, if possible. Turning them frequently will also lengthen their useful life significantly.
Sweet dreams
Would you crawl into bed with a bunch of bugs? No? Well you do. Every single night. They are called dust mites, and they are everywhere. They thrive on dead skin, your dead skin. Yum. Yum. If you aren’t completely disgusted by now, check out our article on Dust Mites, to find out why they contribute to allergy problems.
In addition to these dust mites, their feces, and all that dead skin they are waiting to munch on, your bed also collects dust, lint, hairs, and other assorted debris that is floating around our homes.
Regular cleaning of your bed mattress, and the bed sheets keeps these potential allergens in check. It also will increase the life span of your sleeping habitat.
The bed mattress should be flipped over a couple times per year. It is a great idea to co-ordinate it with changing your clocks to and from day light savings time, or on Independence Day and New Years Eve, if you don’t have much of a life outside your home.
The first time flip it over side for side, and the next time flip it over end for end (A note left between the mattress can remind you which way it is suppose to be flipped). This equalizes the wear of the mattress, and minimizes peaks and valleys. It is also a good plan on “flipping day” to vacuum the entire bed mattress and box spring. If you use a plastic mattress cover, wipe it down after vacuuming with a disinfectant.
Plastic covers are a must for young children who might have a periodic bed wetting accident. If you don’t have a cover when one of these accidents happens, check out the tip in our data base on cleaning urine from a mattress.
Futon mattresses
Although thought to be owned only by starving college students, there are those of us who have grown to love our futons. Like mattresses there are dozens of different firmness levels, and methods of construction depending on the manufacturer.
Typically there is a foam core, wrapped with cotton, in a heavy cotton fabric envelope. When cleaning, you should avoid getting a futon too wet, as it takes forever, or possibly longer, to dry completely. A moist futon is a bad thing, as warm, moist, dark areas tend to grown things (like fungus and mildew) that we don’t normally want to sleep with. Stains should be removed with as little water as possible, and usually blotting with a damp rag will remove most surface stains.
Futons should be rolled up every couple of months, and allowed to stay rolled up tight for an entire day, if possible. Turning them frequently will also lengthen their useful life significantly.
Blood is primarily a protein, which once dried is tough to get out, especially on something that you can’t toss in a washing machine or allow to soak for a few hours. Be sure to check the helpful hints for the Do’s and Don’ts of stain removal and Six Sure Ways to Set Stains.
Tools & Chemicals:
Dish washing or fine fabric detergent, white terry towels, white vinegar, warm water, measuring cup, and Hydrogen Peroxide.
Technique:
*
Work on removing the stain as soon as you notice it. The longer the stain is left on the mattress the greater the chances are of the stain setting.
*
In every case remove all excess wet or dry material before attempting to clean. Blot wet materials using a white terry towel (check helpful hints for a detailed description of blotting). First try reliquifying dried blood by applying Hydrogen Peroxide, when it begins to bubble blot up. If this does not remove the stain, try the following:
*
Seek out a local janitorial supply store and purchase an enzyme based cleaner. (these are most frequently used in some carpet spotting cleaners for food stains, feces, etc)
Start this process early in the morning, or when you will be out of town for a night, as the mattress will get wet, and it MUST be dried before replacing bed sheets.
Mix the enzyme according to the manufacturers directions in warm water, dampen an old or dark bath towel in the solution. Wring it out so it is not overly wet and place it over the stain. Allow this to sit on the stain for at least half an hour, if not longer. Remove this towel, and blot the surface of the mattress to absorb as much moisture as possible. You may need to repeat this process a few times, and you may also need to provide some agitation (a soft scrub brush) to loosen the stain.
Even with all this work there will likely be a variation in the appearance of the mattress once it has dried, but the dark stain should be lightened considerably. You should permit the mattress to dry as long as possible before using again. Even a fan or placing in the sunshine (sun will also help lighten the stain) is great! Do NOT use a hair dryer or space heater as they will set the stain forever.
If a brownish spot remains when dry, mix 1 part white vinegar and two parts water. Apply a small amount and blot. Repeat only once.
If all else fails, you can always flip over the mattress!
General Info:
Blood stains can be tricky….ask O.J..
Blood is primarily a protein, which once dried is tough to get out, especially on something that you can’t toss in a washing machine or allow to soak for a few hours. Be sure to check the helpful hints for the Do’s and Don’ts of stain removal and Six Sure Ways to Set Stains.
Tools & Chemicals:
Dish washing or fine fabric detergent, white terry towels, white vinegar, warm water, measuring cup, and Hydrogen Peroxide.
Technique:
Work on removing the stain as soon as you notice it. The longer the stain is left on the mattress the greater the chances are of the stain setting.
In every case remove all excess wet or dry material before attempting to clean. Blot wet materials using a white terry towel (check helpful hints for a detailed description of blotting). First try reliquifying dried blood by applying Hydrogen Peroxide, when it begins to bubble blot up. If this does not remove the stain, try the following:
Seek out a local janitorial supply store and purchase an enzyme based cleaner. (these are most frequently used in some carpet spotting cleaners for food stains, feces, etc)
Start this process early in the morning, or when you will be out of town for a night, as the mattress will get wet, and it MUST be dried before replacing bed sheets.
Mix the enzyme according to the manufacturers directions in warm water, dampen an old or dark bath towel in the solution. Wring it out so it is not overly wet and place it over the stain. Allow this to sit on the stain for at least half an hour, if not longer. Remove this towel, and blot the surface of the mattress to absorb as much moisture as possible. You may need to repeat this process a few times, and you may also need to provide some agitation (a soft scrub brush) to loosen the stain.
Even with all this work there will likely be a variation in the appearance of the mattress once it has dried, but the dark stain should be lightened considerably. You should permit the mattress to dry as long as possible before using again. Even a fan or placing in the sunshine (sun will also help lighten the stain) is great! Do NOT use a hair dryer or space heater as they will set the stain forever.
If a brownish spot remains when dry, mix 1 part white vinegar and two parts water. Apply a small amount and blot. Repeat only once.
If all else fails, you can always flip over the mattress!
General Info:Blood stains can be tricky….ask O.J..Blood is primarily a protein, which once dried is tough to get out, especially on something that you can’t toss in a washing machine or allow to soak for a few hours. Be sure to check the helpful hints for the Do’s and Don’ts of stain removal and Six Sure Ways to Set Stains.Tools & Chemicals:Dish washing or fine fabric detergent, white terry towels, white vinegar, warm water, measuring cup, and Hydrogen Peroxide.Technique:*Work on removing the stain as soon as you notice it. The longer the stain is left on the mattress the greater the chances are of the stain setting.*In every case remove all excess wet or dry material before attempting to clean. Blot wet materials using a white terry towel (check helpful hints for a detailed description of blotting). First try reliquifying dried blood by applying Hydrogen Peroxide, when it begins to bubble blot up. If this does not remove the stain, try the following:*Seek out a local janitorial supply store and purchase an enzyme based cleaner. (these are most frequently used in some carpet spotting cleaners for food stains, feces, etc)Start this process early in the morning, or when you will be out of town for a night, as the mattress will get wet, and it MUST be dried before replacing bed sheets.Mix the enzyme according to the manufacturers directions in warm water, dampen an old or dark bath towel in the solution. Wring it out so it is not overly wet and place it over the stain. Allow this to sit on the stain for at least half an hour, if not longer. Remove this towel, and blot the surface of the mattress to absorb as much moisture as possible. You may need to repeat this process a few times, and you may also need to provide some agitation (a soft scrub brush) to loosen the stain.Even with all this work there will likely be a variation in the appearance of the mattress once it has dried, but the dark stain should be lightened considerably. You should permit the mattress to dry as long as possible before using again. Even a fan or placing in the sunshine (sun will also help lighten the stain) is great! Do NOT use a hair dryer or space heater as they will set the stain forever.If a brownish spot remains when dry, mix 1 part white vinegar and two parts water. Apply a small amount and blot. Repeat only once.If all else fails, you can always flip over the mattress!
Soot from candles can be removed by purchasing a “dry” or “soot” sponge from a janitorial supply store. They are pretreated with a chemical to remove smoke and soot and you just wipe. You don’t get the sponge wet, just use it as you get it from the store. If you have soot on your ceiling use the same technique as cleaning the wall.
If your ceiling is textured then it my not be as easy to wipe. For the ceiling you may have to buy a paint which will seal the soot, the same kind of paint you would use to paint over graffiti(can be bought in a spray can) and spray to cover the soot. Then you will have to buy a textured ceiling patch (which is also available in a spray can). Follow the instruction on the can, best of all it is not difficult and your ceiling will look as good as new.
“I have a feather pillow that really needs to be cleaned. How do I go about doing that? I’d love to just get a new pillow but I can’t seem to sleep on anything but this one. Help please!”
For most of these types of pillows we would recommend dry-cleaning. However, I have washed feather pillows before.
Try these techniques :
It is best if you do the job at a Laundromat in one of their double size washers.
Wash on normal or delicate – be sure to use a laundry booster for some extra stain removal power.
When drying be sure to use a few new tennis balls in the dryer to keep the feathers all fluffed up.
The pillow will dry more evenly and will not stick to the outside of the drum and get scorched. You should monitor it closely.
Your pillow will always come with an instructions label. Before deciding to wash or dry clean your pillow, read the instruction label.
Wash vs. Dry Clean
If your instructions advise you to only dry clean your pillow, do not attempt to wash it just to save a trip and few dollars. Take your pillow to the dry cleaners and ask them to do the job.
Machine Wash vs. Hand Wash
If you are going to wash you pillow in the washing machine, try and do so in a separate cycle without any other linen or washing. Pillows should always be washed on delicate cycle. This prevents them from losing their shape.
Pillows have different fillings and therefore, for best results always use a mild soap, if possible avoid laundry powder detergent. Liquid soap is usually the best option to go with. When the wash cycle has finished, go through the rinse cycle at least two to three times to make sure all the soap has been completely washed out. Do the same for the spin feature to take out the maximum amount of water from the pillows.
If you are washing your pillows by hand, fill a tub with warm water, mild liquid soap and a few drops of bleach. Immerse the pillow completely into the water and cover the tub. Leave for about half an hour. Then squeeze the pillow a few times to get all the dirt out. Rinse under running water for at least 15 20 minutes, or till you feel that the soapy feel has disappeared. Place on a flat surface to get rid of excess water.
Drying
Whether you wash your pillows in a washing machine or hand wash them, it is important to make sure you have a completely dry and fluffy pillow.
Pillows require plenty of space in the dryer, so do not put any other articles to dry with them in the dryer. During the dry cycle add some new or clean tennis balls. As the pillows have filling in them, they will require a few cycles to be completely dry.
Once you feel they are dry, give them a few punches to bring back the fluffiness, and leave in an airy and moisture free room for a day or so, as there may still be some moisture deep inside the pillow that you may not be able to feel but is a perfect breeding ground for mould. Once finished, you are ready to use your pillows again.
