Category: Views & Ramblings

1. 20 Great Tips to Home Stage Your Property for a Fast Sale

   Posted on 12:00pm Tuesday 20th Nov 2018

   As the nights get darker we all want the luxury of a warm cozy home and with the new year looming many of us start thinking about moving home. We’re all aware that a nicely presented, clean property with extra desirable features won’t stay on the market long.

   But, if you need to sell your property fast, you probably won’t have the time to re-decorate or invest in major building works.
   
   Don’t worry; this doesn’t mean you’ll scupper your chances of securing a buyer for a price you want. There are lots of tricks of the trade you can use to make your home look fantastic and appeal to potential buyers.
   
   Home staging doesn’t have to take up too much time, and the best bit is you can do it yourself. Don’t worry if you’re DIY shy or feel like you don’t have an eye for interiors—you just need to follow these simple tips.
   
   #1 Make a good first impression
   Make sure your home looks picture ready from the minute the listings photographer arrives. Getting the best pictures is essential to securing viewings.

   #2 Clean
   Before you do anything, give your property a deep clean. Areas to focus on include removing mould from bathrooms, grease from kitchens and any signs of dirt or staining.

   

   
   
   #3 Declutter
   A golden rule in property selling is get rid of all your clutter. This includes everything from unwanted junk, bulky furniture, pictures, ornaments, kitchenware and clothes. A good rule of thumb is to remove at least thirty per cent of your stuff.
   
   #4 Depersonalise
   Prospective buyers want to imagine themselves living in your property. This means personal objects all need to go. This includes family photos, holiday trinkets, pictures on the walls and kids’ toys.
   
   #5 Room Purpose
   If you’ve turned your living room into a gym or the bedroom into an office, prospective buyers won’t like this. Return each room to its original purpose.
   
   #6 Furniture placement
   Remove extra chairs, tables or couches that take up too much space. Shift furniture away from the walls and put in locations that will better show off the space and any period features such as fireplaces and wooden floors.
   
   #7 Enhance the lighting
   Create as much extra light as possible. Dark properties are a major put-off. For instance, removing curtains and clean windows inside and out. Also, leave ceiling lights on during viewings, even in the day.
   
   #8 Put up mirrors
   Mirrors are great as they can make any space feel both bigger and brighter. So, they’re perfect in corridors, darker rooms and even the garden.
   
   #9 Paint tired walls
   If you haven’t got time to redecorate an entire room, focus on areas in greatest need only. For instance, paint over walls with stains, or brighten up a drab room with a colourful feature wall.
   
   #10 Visit other homes
   Get inspired. Visit other properties for sale in your area and look at what they have done.

   
   
   #11 Mow the lawn
   Gardens are a massive selling point. So, if you have one, make the most of it. Make sure the lawn is mowed before viewings, flower beds tidied up and any eye-sore clutter is removed.
   
   #12 Accessorize small spaces
   Add lights, neutral decorations or candles to freshen up small spaces.

   
   #13 Add character
   It’s a fine line between neutral and boring. Avoid the latter by adding a splash of colour e.g. a coloured rug in the kitchen or a tasteful picture on the wall.
   
   #14 Highlight storage options
   Everyone wants more space. If you have storage, clear it out and make sure prospective buyers can easily access it during viewings.
   
   #15 Go green
   Don’t attempt to turn your home into Kew Gardens, but a few extra plants will make it look more attractive and feel fresh and clean.

   

   
   #16 Final touches
   It’s not just how your home looks—it’s how it feels. Add soft furnishings like cushions, rugs and blankets.
   
   #17 Dress up the entrance
   Don’t focus so much time on the inside that you forget about the outside. After all, the first thing every buyer will see is the front of your property. Make sure it looks immaculate—no rubbish bags in sight and there's a tidy driveway.
   
   #18 Be inviting
   Leave doors open to each room so prospective buyers feel welcome to look around your property comfortably and freely.

   #19 Make it smell nice
   Bad smells will leave your property languishing on the market. Pet smells, smoke, mould or drains—get rid of it before any buyers visit. Add potpourri to each room and buy essential oil diffusers.

    

   #20 Final touches on the day
   To really impress on viewing days buy fresh flowers, bake bread and put a fresh brew of coffee on the stove. Your prospective buyers will really appreciate the effort.  

   
   By investing a little time into home staging your property, you can secure more viewings. And, this will help sell your home fast by finding you the best buyer.

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2. 5 reasons why a festive break is the best Christmas present

   Posted on 12:00pm Thursday 8th Nov 2018

   Halloween is out of the way and we are into November, which means that we can mention the C word without fear of too much reproach. Seeing your children’s eyes light up at Christmas keeps the magic of the season alive — but away from the tinsel and crackers, it can be a testing time.

   So some of us are opting to spend our Crimbo cash on a sun-kissed break rather than presents and party food — according to a British Airways survey, 45 per cent of Brits would rather head for the horizon than spend big on gifts.

   If you’re tempted to get away from it all, here are five reasons why a festive break is the best Christmas present.

   1.       Expense

   Christmas figures from stats gurus Statista show that the average spend per British household was £821 in 2017.

   And since many of us spend considerably more, perhaps this hard-earned cash would be better invested in a flight to take us on a revitalising winter break?

   With bargains available in a range of destinations in Europe and beyond, no wonder we’re rejigging our festive priorities.

   2.       Choice complexity

   Choosing an appropriate gift for friends and loved ones feels tougher as we get older and research from US clothing brand Trunk Club suggests that this struggle is real.

   Apparently, someone aged 55 or over is twice as likely as someone in their 20s or 30s to consider themselves poor at giving gifts and 26 per cent of all age groups find festive shopping frustrating.

   So perhaps it’s worth abandoning those trips to source socks and soap-on-a-rope in order to stay calm and composed?

   3.       Cheap holidays

   Destinations like Tenerife and Lanzarote are perpetually popular with Brits looking for an affordable winter break to top up their tans and sink some sangria.

   But according to info from travel experts Lonely Planet, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia is the cheapest place to fly to this year for a Christmas adventure.

   With a week-long break coming in at just £923, it’s not much more than the average household Christmas bill, and a reasonably small price to pay for experiencing an exciting culture.

   4.       Disposable gifts

   If you’re worried about waste and the environment at Christmas, cover your eyes — a study by retaildive.com last year revealed that a staggering 5 billion pounds of unwanted Christmas presents end up rotting away in landfill sites.

   

   So if you want to save the planet and avoid wasting your cash, it might be appropriate to cut back or consider a charity donation as an alternative.

   5.       Stress

   Christmas is officially stressful — a survey from discount app Zeek reveals that 15 per cent of us find it worse than moving house and ten per cent report that it’s more nerve-wracking than a child’s first day at school.

   So you’ve got to ask yourself if your time’s not better spent booking airport parking from comparison specialists Looking4.com and stashing your car at the terminal before sashaying to check-in for a chilled-out winter break.

   

   There’s no reason this season should be nerve-shredding — perhaps a change of scenery’s all you need.

   That’s our list! Are you flying abroad this Christmas? Share your thoughts in the comments section.

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3. What's In A Smile?

   Posted on 12:00pm Sunday 28th Oct 2018

   It can’t just be me, can it? When the weather gets cold, the evenings are shorter, and the mornings are dark, it sure can take the spring out of your step. I definitely feel it. You likely do, too. And for some folk, autumn and winter can be absolutely awful. With reduced sunlight, hectic school timetables, and all the additional monetary and social pressures of the festive season, these upcoming months can be darn difficult.

   

   Those who have it really rough may suffer from SAD, that is, Seasonal Affective Disorder. Yeah, it’s a real thing. If you’ve been feeling gloomy, find some peace of mind in the fact that you’re not alone right now. Us humans need all the good stuff you get from sunlight and fresh air – ie. Increased serotonin levels – to boost our moods. Without it, we can feel down in the dumps, tired, lethargic, even depressed.

   Now, there’s plenty of advice out there on the Internet for anyone who’s really struggles with this. I’m no professional. That said, do we actually need to be to help? As part of various communities, including blogging, social networks, actual work, towns, and social groups, we can each do our little bit to help people feel just a tad better.

   What your Nan always said was true all along: a smile can work wonders.

   Of course, we’re not talking fixing huge mental health epidemics here. Rather, offering a glance of appreciation, friendship, warmth, that could turn someone’s day around. It may be momentary, it might last merely seconds, but by offering your smile more often to more people, you could well be the highlight that gets some people through their day. If you’re struggling, someone being kind towards you is often enough.

   

   So many people struggle with a smile, whether it is because they don't feel comfortable expressing themselves like that or feel self conscious of their teeth. You don't even have to go to a dentists anymore as you can get a free dental consultation online. My husband hadn't been to the dentist for years but after ecouraging him to go back, he genuinely now smiles with confidence. I personally had my teeth whitened for our wedding, I didn't want to feel self conscious about my teeth and having the confidence to smile can be infectious.

   It sounds simple, but it’s oh-so hard. After all, we’re all busy people! Reading school letters at swimming lessons, not looking up from your printed memo as you walk through the office, zoning out while you take the Tube across the city. It’s so easy to be wrapped up in what we have to do, meeting demanding deadlines, attending activities and appointments, that we can forget to look up and truly take in what’s going on in the world around us.

   For others, and for yourself, let’s try to be mindful as we go about our day. Make the effort to turn that frown upside down and, who knows, smiling may just becoming a mood-enhancing habit.

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4. 21 Random acts of kindness for kids

   Posted on 10:00am Friday 26th Oct 2018

   No act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted’ Aesop

   A random act of kindness is basically an act of kindness for no particular reason or reward. You can do these for people you do or don't know.

   

   It is a brilliant idea to involve children in random acts of kindness as it teaches them so much about giving and how absolutely wonderful giving is for both the giver and receiver.

   Here are lots of lovely ideas for random acts of kindness. Why not encourage your child to pick ones they would like to have a go at or help them come up with an idea of their own. Maybe this could be a Friday thing, a project for each day of the holidays or just, perhaps, an occasional activity for when the mood takes them:

   • Take flowers from your garden (or the shop!) to a local older person care home
   • Donate your pocket money to a charity
   • Feed the birds
   • Tell someone a joke
   • Say something lovely to your teacher
   • Ask your grown up if you can do some chores for them
   • Leave a book on a park bench with a note inside saying ‘Enjoy this book and once finished pls place it back on this bench’
   • Make your grown up breakfast in bed
   • Put enough money in a vending machine so they next person gets a freebie
   • Put together a little photo album for a relative
   • Smile and say good morning to someone new
   • Litter pick for 15 minutes in your local park
   • Read a story to someone
   • Offer to make everyone tea
   • Start a collection for your local food bank at school or on your street
   • Make a bookmark and leave it in a library book
   • Give someone (you know) a big hug
   • Paint rocks with kind messages and leave them hidden in your local park
   • Make a handmade gift for someone
   • Take some pet food to your local animal shelter
   • Run a second hand stall and donate the money to charity
   • Ask someone new to you if they want to play

   They could also keep a little journal documenting how their acts of kindness went if they wanted too to record their kindness journey.

   If you have any ideas of your own for random acts of kindness kids could do please leave them in the comments below so we can all learn from each other about the joy of giving.

   

   This is an extract from Create Your Own Happy – an interactive book filled with happiness boosting activities for kids age 7-12 written by Becky Goddard-Hill and Penny Alexander (Harper Collins, 2018)

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