Processing Ideas, Tips & Guides

Keeping up with a family’s worth of laundry is a chore no matter what the season, but when kids head back to school and everyone’s calendar fills up with work, class, and nonstop activities, it becomes a mountain of mess.

Olympic gold medalist Shawn Johnson East and her husband, former NFL football player Andrew East, lead very busy lives: they’re both retired athletes raising three small children while juggling speaking engagements and, in Johnson East’s case, even being an Olympic correspondent. 

Chrysanthemums are one of the most popular flowers in the world, and they come in multiple colors. To enjoy most of them, follow these tips to boost their flowering. Each trick will help you ensure that these fall garden stars are in the best shape possible.

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Tomato plants fruit from June until the first frosts, thriving in the warm, light conditions of summer. However, the ripening process slows down as the days become shorter, so fruit that develops from September may not ripen before the first frosts arrive.

Including carbohydrates or carbs in meals can be confusing. What foods contain carbs? Which carbs are good for me? Which ones should I avoid?

Moving into your first home or rental can be an extremely daunting task, especially if you have no prior knowledge of the ins and outs of the lease signing process. 

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Moving out on your own for the first time is a mixture of emotions: excitement about having your own space—whether shared with roommates or not—and naturally, a bit of apprehension.

As the fall season quickly approaches, many of us may feel a shift in how we want to approach our living spaces. With summer ending, fall can often push us to get things in shape and want a refresh—particularly around organization. 

Whether we’re sourcing fresh blueberries from the farmers market, a pick-your-own farm, or the supermarket, it’s tough to accurately estimate exactly how many fresh berries to invest in for our favorite healthy blueberry recipes…and the handfuls of snacks we’ll snag during the drive home, to refuel midafternoon, or to power us up while we’re cooking those aforementioned recipes.

How to Propagate Ginkgo Trees from Stem Cuttings

If you want a plant that enjoys the holiday season as much as you do and lives over 100 years, then the Christmas cactus is your go-to!

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The value of having compost available for use in the home garden is immeasurable, and the convenience of creating that compost on-site for instant availability adds to the reward. Of course, learning how to successfully compost and creating a process that works for your home and lifestyle can certainly be a challenge. For those with plenty of available material for the composting process, along with enough space, the popular three-bin system allows for maximum efficiency in creating nutrient-rich compost. Constructing or purchasing a three-bin system establishes a time-tested design and organized approach that accelerates composting quickly and consistently, while allowing for three various stages of decomposition in close proximity.

How the GardenAdvice Plant Swap Service Works

There are plenty of performance interior paints and coatings for walls, trim, and furniture that are purportedly durable against scuffs and cracks, and that boast waterproof, water-resistant, or water-repellent properties. While these qualities render them suitable for spaces and surfaces that come into contact with water and cleaning agents—such as a kitchen, bath, or tabletop—they aren’t necessarily durable for painting the exterior, or any exterior component, of your home.

The biggest and most expensive purchase most people make in their lives is buying a house. Families and individuals plan for years, sign off on decades long mortgages, and empty their savings account to acquire their own home. But the homeowner headache does not end when you sign your name on a piece of paper (or hundreds and hundreds of pieces of paper, let’s be honest with ourselves); a purchased home does not always mean a livable home. 

How do you begin the process of designing or refining your own gardens, especially when there are so many things that you need to take into consideration? In this class, award-winning UK garden designer Annie Guilfoyle will guide you through the elements that make for a successful design and show you how to develop a garden that really suits your taste and lifestyle. This webinar will focus on how to use sketching and observation as tools to develop your technique. The process of designing your space should be fun, according to Annie, so she’ll share insights for how to develop your style using the influences of things you really like, such as textiles, art, and architecture. There will be plenty of suggestions on how to start your design process and gather inspiration—and, of course, we will touch on those oh-so-important plants.  

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Embarking on a home renovation can stir up a flurry of emotions. The process is exciting, daunting, fulfilling, and exhausting. Even one renovation hiccup can turn into a significant misstep down the road, inevitably costing you time and money.

If items tend to sit in a corner of your home collecting dust for weeks or months at a time, it’s time to clear the clutter—for good.

All you need is a full fallen leaf for a brand-new jade plant! The process is easy and especially great if you don’t want to buy but still want a beautiful Crassula ovata. So, here’s how to propagate it from individual leaves to birth a lush new jade plant for your collection!

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Lavender is a beautiful and aromatic perennial plant. It’s pleasant scent easily attracts butterflies, bees, and other beneficial pollinators. This greatly boosts wildlife if you decide to grow it in your garden. Moreover, you can even grow it in a container or pot indoors if you live in a flat or don’t have enough yard space. That’s a great way to guarantee your home smells wonderful!

Also called the inch plant, Tradescantia is a fast-growing creeper with pretty purple, pink, green, and silver foliage, depending more on the variety.

Header image: The tiny floating duckweed plant is uniquely suited to meet the nutritional needs of astronauts. Dr. Jared J. Stewart, CC BY-ND

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If your refrigerator has a built-in ice maker, you probably use it frequently. Whether your freshly made ice keeps your water frosty during the day or serves as an after-dinner drink spruce up, the machine can stay busy and needs to be cleaned accordingly. Although modern fridges typically warn you when the water filter needs to be changed, they don’t tell you when the ice maker needs a good scrubbing—so cleaning out the ice maker is often a neglected household chore.

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Homemade tonics do wonders for plant health. While there are many methods for caring for orchids, some gardeners use kitchen hacks like garlic water. This leverages garlic’s antibacterial and antifungal properties to promote healthy growth and blooms.

If you're into thrift shopping, you may have noticed that, unfortunately, many items come with a musty «thrift store smell» that can be seemingly difficult to erase. However, it turns out that deodorizing your finds is easier than you may have thought.

Ed Gohlich

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Purchasing your first home or apartment is a daunting process for many, but doing your research ahead of time will ensure that you embark on this journey with as much knowledge as possible. Reading up on homebuying dos and don'ts before getting started will make your experience much more enjoyable.