How to Prepare Your Home for Overnight Visitors

Your home is your comfort zone; a place where you can unwind at the end of a long day, but is your home ready to accept overnight visitors? Follow these easy steps and be prepared for them.

Perform a thorough cleaning of the entire house. Vacuum every inch of carpet and rugs and sweep and mop all the other floor coverings. Use disinfectant to clean all counter tops and bathrooms. Change the air filter in the hallway return. Make sure each room of the house is as clean as it can possibly be. Adjust the thermostat temperature to the most comfortable setting for the current season. If you have pets, find out whether your guest has any pet allergies so that you'll know whether or not to keep them separated.

Wash and fold your best towels and leave enough stacked in the bathroom for each day that your visitor will be there. Prepare a basket with soap, shampoo, mouthwash, toothpaste, and shaving supplies, in case they forget a few things. Buy plenty of snacks and drinks and have them chilled well in advance. Rent a few movies as back-up entertainment and leave them near the television. If your visitor has given you any special gifts in the past, find them, dust them off, and leave them out on display to show how much you appreciate the gift.

Create a guest account on your computer and be sure to leave the computer logged into that account so that your visitor may check their email and use the Internet without having access to your personal files and information. It is a good idea to create a restore point on computers running Windows operating system and back up any important files to external storage devices. Lock all filing cabinets and search the house for documents like bank statements or personal mail and put all of it away. Now is a good time to shred any old documents that you no longer need.

When your guest arrives, give them a short tour of the house and show them to their room. Keep the house quiet and give them plenty of time to unpack and relax. Offer them refreshments and tell them where to find you when they are ready. If you will be eating out, prepare a list of restaurants in advance and allow your guest to choose their favorite type of food. Enjoy your time together without worrying about the condition of your home and without the stress of making last-minute decisions.


Related articles
Protecting Your Family from Home Invaders
How to Clean Your Home a Little Each Day

How to Extract Harmful Fumes from Industrial Applications and Produce Clean Air

Many industrial machines, (ex. laser welding machines) produce dangerous fumes which, if not properly filtered, could cause serious health risks or even death for the employees who operate them. These machines and also smaller applications, like soldering stations should be interfaced with air extraction and filtration machines.

Contact a manufacturer of air extraction and filtration machines. Many air filtration company web sites offer tools to help you choose the correct machine and filter combination needed to filter the type of fumes or vapors present in your application. There are a number of harmful pollutants that may be filtered using the correct machine and filter combination including dust, gases, laser emissions, vapors, odors, etc. Invest enough time to make the correct decision as to which machine and filters will best work in your application.

Install the recommended machine, strictly adhering to the manufacturer's specifications, and be sure to use the correct filters. Keep several copies of the installation and maintenance instructions that were provided with the machine. If you have questions, do not hesitate to call the manufacturer. Improper installation could result in serious injury or death. Keep a supply of replacement filters in stock in order to avoid unnecessary down time or the temptation to operate without filtering the air.

Clean the air filtration machine regularly and replace the filters on schedule so that it continues to operate efficiently. Some air filtration machines include a warning system to alert the user when a filter is too saturated and needs replacement.

Air extraction and filtration machines, replacement filters, and parts

Related articles
How to be Environmentally Friendly in the Workplace
How to Clean up the Earth and Make Less Work for Our Children

How to Clean up the Earth and Make Less Work for Our Children

How can we start right now and make the Earth a nicer place to live so that our children don't inherit a huge mess?  Start by looking at the things you throw away. Are you disposing of your waste properly? Is any of it recyclable? If you are buying products that are harmful to the environment or do not decompose, are there safer products that you could use instead? Start or join a neighborhood clean up project or participate in the "adopt a highway" program if it exists in your area. If just one person makes a conscious decision to do better and think "green", the positive impact on the environment will be staggering. When lots of people get involved, others will notice.

Encourage as many people as you can to help you in your mission. Have a positive discussion with your kids about conservation and teach them good habits by setting a good example yourself. Remind adults that littering is wrong. If you catch a litterbug red-handed, don't ignore them. Report them to the authorities! Memorize their license plate and call your local police department. Some law enforcement websites even have pages devoted to reporting litterbugs.

Write or email your Senators and Congressmen and share ideas about conservation. Donate money to watchdog groups who fight to protect the Earth! Better yet, donate your time and energy to help their cause. It's up to all of us to protect the Earth's precious environment now, so that our children and every generation after them don't have to clean up our mess. Remember, some damage cannot be undone. Let's change our lifestyles before it's too late.

Related articles
How to be Environmentally Friendly in the Workplace
How to Teach Others Good Social Behavior

How to Reduce the Amount of Dust in Your Home

A dusty home is an unhealthy place to live and very uncomfortable for those with dust allergies. Follow these easy tips to remove much of this dust from your home.

The first step in reducing the amount of dust in your home is to understand what causes this problem. Dust forms due to a number of things, including pet dander, dirt particles entering from outside the home, the decomposition of upholstered furniture and clothing, insects and their waste, dead human skin cells that have been shed, and many others. Through routine cleaning practices and some preventative measures, all of these problems may be controlled to an extent.

Let's begin with the central air conditioning system if your home is equipped with one. It makes no sense to clean and dust while there is a large machine recirculating dust and spewing it all over the house. Make an appointment to have the ducts cleaned and in the meantime replace the air filter with a high quality filter that is rated for maximum filtration of dust and allergens. Regardless of the directions specified on the filter, replace it every month. Leaving an air filter in place for several months at a time in a home with a high level of dust will cause unnecessary stress on the central air system and result in costly repairs.

Now do a thorough cleaning of your entire home using furniture polish and clean cloths where applicable. Don't forget to dust ceiling fans, blinds, drawers, and cabinets. Clean every surface in the home where dust could settle. Be sure to wash all bedding materials and if possible wash your curtains. Mop all hardwood and laminate floors and vacuum all carpeted areas using a vacuum with a Hepa filter. Clean your shower and bathtubs. At least once a month, move furniture, including dressers, beds, refrigerator, clothes washer, and clothes dryer and clean behind and underneath them. As this is a time consuming and often strenuous process, it may be necessary to alternate one area of furniture a month and then another the next month. Cleaning behind these pieces of furniture just a few times a year is better than never cleaning behind them at all.

Verify that each entrance of your home is equipped with a mat for guests to wipe their feet on. If you own a pet, be sure to bathe and brush them frequently. Check for cracks and crevices in your home where air may be flowing from the outside and repair them. If your home is equipped with attic stairs, verify that the door is sealing properly when closed. Products are available now that may be installed on an attic entrance that seals the door when shut.


If the dust problem persists, invest in an air purifying machine. The ionic air purifying machines do not require replacement filters and help capture a large amount of dust from the air. Consider removing large area rugs and upholstered furniture from your home. Switching carpeted areas to hardwood or laminate flooring will also greatly reduce the level of dust in a home. Be sure to keep closets and drawers which contain clothes shut at all times when not in use.  Following these simple tips will reduce much of the dust in a home and will simplify the cleaning process in the future.

Related articles
How to Clean Your Home a Little Each Day
How to Prepare Your Home for Overnight Visitors

How to Clean Your Home a Little Each Day

In one week or less, a home can transform from a perfectly clean living space to a completely horrific nightmare of clutter. It's difficult to explain what causes this phenomenon, but I do have several solutions for how to recover from it.

In most homes, it is natural for clutter to accumulate in a short period of time. This does not mean that the inhabitants are filthy people or that they do not care to keep a clean home. Clutter is evidence that people; busy people at that, are living in the home. The following steps should assist in maintaining a clean home within a budgeted amount of time.

Share the responsibility! If two or more people live in the same home, then EACH ONE should be responsible for cleaning it unless one of them is under the age of three. Each person should take responsibility for their own belongings and also for their messes. This is simple. If only one person in the home wears a size 13 shoe and there are two of them lying in the living room floor, it is that person's responsibility to relocate the shoes to a closet or appropriate storage space. If food that is packaged in a wrapper is opened and consumed, the wrapper should be deposited in the garbage can and not on the coffee table or on the floor.

Use the "Back and Forth" method of spot cleaning. This really works! Start at one end of the home and identify all of the things that do not belong. Pick up a few; not too many, and walk to the other end of the home. Upon passing the spot where each item belongs, deposit it neatly and continue on to the other side. Repeat this process, starting from the opposite end. With a radio positioned at a halfway point, music may be heard throughout the journey. Several things are accomplished using this method. The home slowly becomes organized. The person cleaning gets some valuable exercise and entertainment by singing and possibly dancing as they go. The entire house does not have to be cleaned each time this method is performed, but it is a useful means of managing clutter in high-traffic areas.

Once clutter has been cleared, it is a good idea to perform deeper cleaning. Scrub or mop floors, dust furniture, and vacuum carpets and rugs. As with the "Back and Forth" method of cleaning, deep cleaning does not have to be done all at once. Pick one day to clean the kitchen. Clean the bathrooms another day. Only do as much as time or energy allows.  By using these steps to keep a home in a manageable state, there will be less stress involved when a surprise visitor drops in unannounced.

Related articles
How to Prepare Your Home for Overnight Visitors
How to Install an Electric Iron and Ironing Board Holder