Clean Hidden Areas of Your Home, Avoid Allergy Causing Mold and Mildew

From Denny: This is a fun segment from author Julie Edelman of "The Accidental Housewife." She addresses many hidden and often overlooked areas of the home that require attention to kill off mold and mildew before allergies are created or aggravated. Besides, mold and mildew is hazardous to our health if it gets out of control.

Her suggestions:

Shower curtain: Julie suggests cutting off the long hems so it does not sit on the shower area but rather hangs free and drips, avoiding mildew issues. Spraying with a bottle of Listerine helps on a daily basis. What she suggested and I do at home is take down the curtain and throw it into the washing machine with bleach. It does a great job.

Kids' tub toys: Since many bathrooms hold moisture during the day it's a good idea to wash these tub toys carefully before each use. Make sure these get a good soaking in white vinegar to sanitize them. Even take a toothbrush to those small nooks and crannies to root out mold and mildew.

Washing machine: Did you know your washing machine was a moisture magnet, growing mold and mildew? Sweet. I usually do a bleach wash of at least kitchen towels every week and that takes care of the issue that potentially could build up in the machine. Julie suggests a new product out by Tide just to clean the machine. She also advises to clean the rims of the washing machine with the sanitizer white vinegar.

Bath towels: Mold and mildew in Louisiana is a big deal with our humidity. We even wash our bath towels every day because hanging them up for the next day just doesn't work out well since they don't completely dry and can easily mildew. Julie suggest washing them with the shower curtain so the towels act as an abrasive. I would only do that if the shower curtain had soap scum, not if it had mold and mildew as that could penetrate your towels and discolor even if killed by the bleach.

Refrigerator: Have you noticed she targets any appliance or area of the house with possible lingering moisture? Check out the drip pans underneath your refrigerator and clean with vinegar as roaches and other bugs like this area to hide and multiply.

Make sure you also dust well your refrigerator coils, especially if you have pets like I do. All that possible bacteria can make a house smell if allowed to build up. It also is a good idea to clean well if you have pets as fur builds up, clogging the efficiency of your refrigerator to work well, costing you more money.

Vacuum cleaner brushes: Bet you didn't think about cleaning that one. The brushes can get a build up of dust mites which is far from appetizing for the allergy crowd. They are easily cleaned with white vinegar as a simple inexpensive sanitizer.

Sport, tennis shoes: To get the moisture out of these, just stuff with newspaper or dust with baking soda. Washing them from time to time is also a great idea to hold down the bacteria.

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Updating Your Home: Decorating Dilemmas Solved

From Denny: I always find these practical ideas to be useful. Who wants to get stuck in one line of thinking, get rigid and end up so out of touch there is little hope of reconnecting with the rest of the world? :) An easy fix is to periodically get a tune-up for your perspective on the world. It's a real tonic to your creativity for art, food or writing!

The most fun way is to take everything out of a room you feel just does not inspire you to work or sleep or whatever purpose you want it to have and think of it from another angle. Read that as my husband has grown used to finding the furniture moved around and a room painted when he comes home from work. He has learned to become more emotionally flexible as a result of my re-thinking a room's personality or purpose.

Now, when the seasons change he looks at me and asks which color scheme we are changing into this time and volunteers to go get everything. Read that as I make it easy by just adjusting accessories for a new feel. Light and pales for the heat of the summer, reds and warm tones for the winter and you get the idea. I've streamlined it over the years so as to make it easy to adjust the room in a few minutes.

I even rearrange the furniture in the main living area for summer vs. winter. In summer you want a more open plan for lots of coolness, removing the rugs, excess pillows, chair covers. In winter, you want to arrange for a cozier plan to encourage warm air to remain, bring back the rugs, add more pillows, a few comforters - if you have pets, make those washable as my cats are blanket hogs. The product Fabreeze is wonderful because it kills bacteria on pillows and other items you don't want to wash every week. You no longer have to stress if someone puts their feet on decorator pillows! :)

These two short videos give you some great ideas if you feel stumped as to what to do for one of your rooms. Readers sent in their decorating dilemma to be solved:

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Transforming your bleak basement into a livable space, ah, at last! And the designer shows you how if you are a DIY kind of person:

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Getting Rid of That Clutter Around the Home

From Denny: Woman's Day Magazine Elizabeth Mayhew reminds us that the New Year is a great time to tackle some household clutter (like I've been doing the past two weeks so you can imagine this video clip caught my eye). She offers up some useful tips to avoid getting overwhelmed. I'm the original information junkie multimedia like it's an extreme sport! Periodically I comb through everything to prioritize, purge if it's no longer relevant or digitize it if I have the time.

This woman is talking my language: start first with a closet, not the room, as the closet's tend to be the places where we stash something until we find the time to deal with it. I've always found starting with a closet is actually less overwhelming as it is a smaller space than a room. Heck, if you are a terrible procrastinator, start with only one drawer. One small space de-cluttered is a win in my book! :)

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