Get our Whole-House Cleaning Schedule The Simpliest New Cleaning Habits (Start Today!) Resolution 2: Clear Your Home of Dangerous Toxins Indoor air quality scientists say that the air you breathe inside your home can be more polluted than outdoors, especially if affected by cleaning products, air fresheners, potpourri, and perfumes. Commit to using homemade cleaners to keep your home dirt-free and safe. To banish household odors, create natural room scents, carpet powders, reed diffusers, and plug-in refills....

1. Rhubarb-Bacon Jam Rhubarb jam uses up extra stalks of this fresh summer veggie (yes, it’s a veggie!), but many jam recipes have tons of extra sugar. But instead of using scoops of sugar, this recipe gets sweeter with a squeeze of maple syrup. Smokey bacon and tart red onion keep this healthy rhubarb recipe from becoming overly sweet, making it great for savory spreads. 2. Paleo Pork and Rhubarb Skillet Fresh rhubarb goes savory in this delicious Paleo dinner recipe....

The results speak for themselves: Prall’s garden in New Kensington, Pennsylvania, literally stops traffic each year. Of course, finding your own style and favorite plants are key, but Prall’s advice will help you blend everything together into a one-of-a-kind front yard. 1. Vary Colors and Textures Many gardeners tend to focus on including flowers and bright colors in their gardens, but Prall says you can make a more significant impact if you use a variety....

Try the following tool storage ideas so you can confidently tackle DIY projects with all of your equipment at your fingertips. 1. Set Up Slatwall or Pegboard Because garages tend to be short on floor space, installing shelves is a smart option that also works well for small spaces. Track shelving, drawers, and tall cabinets make the most out of vertical space. However, there’s another type of garage storage system to consider, especially if you like your tools in plain sight....

1. ‘Francee’ Hosta Hostas thrive in shady areas of the garden, making them a great filler plant under trees. ‘Francee’ is a medium-sized variety that can tolerate more sun than other hostas, but it still would appreciate afternoon shade. It has dark green leaves with a thin white edge. In summer, light purple flowers on long stalks will appear. This variety is hardy in Zones 3 to 9. 2. ‘Mighty Chestnut’ Daylily This bold, beautiful daylily variety has bright orange, ruffled petals with a burgundy center and yellow throat....

While it can be tempting to head to your local home store and stock up on dozens of matching bins and baskets, there’s no need to splurge on expensive items. Think about ways you can repurpose items you already have: A basket you received fruit in from a neighbor, leftover Mason jars from your short-lived canning hobby, or that one-of-a-kind crate you found while antiquing but never found a use for....

1. You wait until summer to check on your AC. Don’t wait until your air conditioner breaks down at the height of summer to start thinking about upkeep. A little preparation before temperatures soar can go a long way in preventing AC problems throughout the warm season. “Do as much as you can to prepare your AC now so that you can avoid costly repairs in the coming months due to lack of proper maintenance,” suggests Mark Dawson, chief operating officer at One Hour Heating & Air Conditioning....

Nutrition for Teens: The Key Nutrients More than any other age group, teens need a lot of energy. Energy comes from calories. So how many calories should a teenager eat, anyway? On a daily basis, teenage boys need about 2,500 to 3,000 calories; teenage girls need about 2,200 calories. “In fact, early adolescence is the most critical time for calorie intake in a person’s life,” says Holley Grainger, M.S., R.D., of Cleverful Living with Holley Grainger....

But this change in how we view and interact with our interior spaces could last long after the current health crisis passes. “It’s unclear whether people will be spending more time at home on the other side of the pandemic, but it is clear that the collective stress has made an impact,” says designer and real estate developer Amalia Graziani of Noor Property Group. Here are a few ways that design experts predict interior design will change after coronavirus....

1. Outdoor Kitchens Cooking has become an increasingly popular outdoor activity. In fact, a 2021 design trends report by the National Kitchen and Bath Association (NKBA) found that 60% of homeowners are looking to add outdoor kitchens. But there are multiple types of outdoor kitchens available. A satellite kitchen provides additional cooking elements, like grills and pizza ovens, to supplement the main interior kitchen. Satellite kitchens are often situated just outside the door of an indoor kitchen for convenience....

7 Tips for How to Mail Cookies Wondering if you can mail cookies by USPS, UPS, FedEx, or other such services? Sure! But you risk them arriving a bit dried out or as a pile of broken pieces unless you… Choose sturdy cookies. Avoid any cookie recipes that are fragile (macarons), flaky (lacy Florentines), cream-filled (sandwich cookies), or delicate (butter wafers) when shipping cookies through the post. The best cookies to mail are those that are at lower risk for breaking or smushing during transit....

Though it’s tough to decide which ones are the best of the best, these are our top picks for best-blooming hydrangea varieties that reliably look spectacular year after year without much care. Buy It: Blushing Bride Hydrangea ($30, Nature Hills) Buy It: Gatsby Star Oakleaf Hydrangea ($36, The Home Depot) Buy It: Incrediball Smooth Hydrangea ($29, The Home Depot) Buy It: Limelight Hardy Hydrangea ($35, The Home Depot) Buy It: Little Honey Oakleaf Hydrangea (from $16, Greenwood Nursery) Buy It: Little Quick Fire Hydrangea ($28, The Home Depot)

1. Add Texture Starting with her first-floor interior design studio, Paloma Contreras and her husband, Fabian, took their cues from the airy home’s big windows and tall ceilings and went all in with white walls. Paloma specs the “pretty and crisp, yet warm” shade as Benjamin Moore’s White Dove. Soft pleats give a large pendant a traditional bent, but the midcentury Eero Saarinen table evens the style scales. Subtle doses of pattern, like nailhead trim, marble, and gray leopard-print carpet, add a sense of texture....

An internship opportunity with D’Luxe, a Miami luxury magazine startup, gave Adria a chance to spend a summer covering restaurant openings and events. The internship led to her first job as an editor for Recommend, an industry publication for travel advisors. Following a stint in advertising as a copywriter and social media manager, it wasn’t long before Adria was writing about Miami’s newest restaurants and cocktail bars for the luxury-focused website Just Luxe, where she had the opportunity to get an up-close glimpse into different cultures....

** As a substitute for a baking stone, use an inverted baking sheet placed on an oven rack. For easy pizza assembly, invert another baking sheet on the counter and cover the underside with parchment paper (for baking). Mist the paper with cooking/baking spray, then prepare the pizza on the paper. Transfer the pizza and the parchment paper to the heated baking sheet. Parchment Tip: Closely watch pizzas that are layered on parchment paper while baking....

⅓ cup granulated sugar 2 tablespoon margarine or butter ½ cup ground almonds

A successful siding job mainly requires careful layout and observance of a few simple guidelines as you work. Our how-tos provide you with all this information—and more—so you can successfully install siding on your home. We’ll help you pick up a few key habits and then introduce a variety of siding options, including wood, vinyl, and panel. Before Installing, Plan Layouts Lay out the job when applying horizontal siding to avoid odd slivers of material above doors and above or below windows....

1 medium mango Olive oil ¾ cup butter, softened