Spruce Ideas, Tips & Guides

As the spring and summer sun arrives, it’s easy to dream of the fun you’ll have in your yard, from the barbecues and the cookouts to the cozy cocktail parties on the patio. But where there’s warmth, one very unpleasant and uninvited guest often swarms: mosquitos. 

In a perfect world, we'd all have a nice healthy-sized budget for adorning our outdoor spaces. But interior home projects and repairs pile up, and our shelter often takes priority over the outdoors.

How you clean your house is as personal as how you decorate it, but there’s one thing everyone can agree on. For a healthy, happy home, regular bathroom cleanings are a true must.

While doing a deep clean or a massive decluttering can be both satisfying and rewarding, most will agree that it’s generally better to tackle your chores on a regular basis. But if you’re trying to create a weekly schedule, where to begin?

Whether you're planting blooms for bouquets or fresh fruits and vegetables to enjoy this summer, one thing is certain: you won't be the only one interested in what's growing. Garden pests will like the look of your new plants just as much as you do.

Recently, I realized our outdoor area leaves much to be desired. We live in a city, which means we’re lucky to have any outdoor space at all, but as far as urban balconies go, it’s pretty bare bones in the character department. 

As much as we love a beautiful garden full of lush greenery, it’s hard to deny that starting a garden and buying plants can start adding up in price.

It's that time of year when we're summer dreaming, especially about our summer gardens. Choosing which starters and seeds to invest in can be a bit overwhelming, no matter how seasoned you are at it.

Once you’ve planted your grass and watched it grow into a beautiful lawn (such a proud moment) the next step is figuring out the best way to maintain your lawn. Watering is a key component of this, which means lawn watering mistakes are also one of the most common headaches.

Renovating your home is a rollercoaster—between deciding where to splurge and where to save, remembering every project that needs doing, and picking a room to start with, there are so many factors to consider.

I'm that person—the one who has no problem giving the silent treatment to the stack of dishes piling up in my sink. Cold, globby textures and grimy water gross me out to no end, so any tool out there that can speed up the process and get it over with is a win in my eyes.

If you’ve ever laid mulch only to watch it wash away mere days later, then you know the deep frustration it causes.

Whether you've just received the keys to your new home, or are redecorating after a few years, a new bedroom paint color is the perfect way to refresh your room.

In the world of cleaning TikTok, it seems like every new hack looks easier and more efficient than the last. This is especially true of the latest trend of mixing together multiple cleaning ingredients to power wash one dedicated space.

Decorating your outdoor space can be just as rewarding as sprucing up the inside of your home, if not better. With plenty of outdoor furniture trends circling around the design world, including indoor-outdoor furniture and warm color palettes, there’s an endless amount of inspiration to pull from.

If you're a plant fanatic, chances are you love adding new houseplants to your home any chance you get. However, with so many choices, styles, and maintenance levels, choosing which plants will thrive in your space isn't always easy. So why not let the stars give you some guidance?

If you put forth the effort to fertilize your lawn, you already have great intentions. However, you can end up doing more harm than good if you aren't armed with the right knowledge and tools.

Recently, we asked our followers on Facebook to tell us their current favorite kitchen paint color. From readers who responded with pictures of their own kitchens to the colors readers could agree on most, plenty of Spruce fans chimed in.

When it comes to buying flowers, I love a frillier bloom. Give me a bouquet of peonies, ranunculus, and fringed tulips over almost anything else and I’m happy.

As springtime approaches, many homeowners start thinking about ways to spruce up their property and enhance kerb appeal.

Can Tyler Cameron really do it all? The reality TV star won all of our hearts in Hannah Brown’s 2019 season of ABC’s «The Bachelorette» and is now making his way to our small screens with his new show on Amazon Prime called «Going Home with Tyler Cameron.

Martha Stewart is the queen of many things: cooking, baking, decorating, aging with style, being best friends with Snoop Dogg, and, of course, gardening. She has written books on gardening and consistently notes that April is a great month for getting to work on your vegetable garden.

Color choice is important, but timing is actually everything when it comes to painting your home’s exterior. If you’re tackling this project as a DIYer, now's the time to get to work.

As much as we adore forecasting upcoming trends here at The Spruce, we love seeing those trends executed in real life even more.

Whether you're on a personal mission to curtail the use of plastic bags or you happen to live in one of the handful of states that have enforced bans on them, chances are you might still have a few floating around your house.

Living in a rental should not prevent you from showcasing your style and personality in your home. To make it your own, you can make plenty of easy upgrades that won't affect the security deposit. Swapping the showerhead, adding peel-and-stick tiles, refreshing the paint, and adding plants and accessories are some of the renter-friendly hacks to update your bathroom while working within the limits of a lease. 

The amount of gardening info at our fingertips these days is as exciting as it is overwhelming, and this is especially true if you’re still in the early years of planting veggies.

Looking for creative ways to up-cycle old candle jars? These days, candles are often outfitted in jars that are every bit as beautiful as the scents themselves, making it hard to pitch the empty jar into the trash after the candle wax has been burned down to the wick. Giving new life to an old candle jar isn’t just sustainable—it’s also a great way to transform a candle that was a sentimental gift (or a luxury splurge) into a forever decor piece. To help get you inspired on how to best put old candle jars back to work, we asked a handful of organizing pros to share their favorite reinventions. From makeup brush holders to coffee spoon crocks, these are the best ways to give your old candle jars new life.

Between all the cleaning solutions, products, and tech out there, it can be confusing to know where to start when it comes to creating a fool-proof cleaning arsenal. And when you’re short on space, it’s important to have less—rather than excess items. After all, the whole point of cleaning is to minimize clutter. 

The internet is full of cleaning «hacks» that promise to change your life, but few of them actually end up being useful enough to incorporate into your cleaning routine. At The Spruce, it's our job to find those unicorns—those game-changers that leave your home sparkling clean using surprising methods.

Nothing makes me feel like I am winning at life more than a tidy home. It gives me this sense of «I am controlling life, it's not controlling me,» (I bet you could already guess that I'm an Enneagram type one).

Keeping your entire home tidy can seem daunting with families, pets, and even just daily messes that pop up. That’s why having an organizing strategy you can replicate for each room is critical.

Like many of us, I’m on a quest to be more environmentally friendly. It’s something that can be tricky with a busy family of four, but the best hacks I’ve found are the ones that seamlessly replace one item with something naturally less wasteful. It’s one reason I’m an official convert to wool dryer balls, after all. 

Fixing up your bathroom is often an overlooked project, although this room is an essential part of our routines. Each fixture in your bathroom works overtime to keep you going strong, from your shower sanctuary to your storage saviors—we're looking at you, under the sink organizer.

Within a five-minute walk in any direction (really, pick one) from my apartment, there is a fire department, police precinct, hospital, an event space, a nighttime lounge, and four schools in my area. Needless to say, my street can get very loud at any given time of the day.

Everyone wants a pristine kitchen counter—it’s the ultimate sign of a sparkly-clean home. But it’s not exactly practical to have a totally empty working surface, either. Not everyone has the cupboard or drawer space to store every single item that’s left out on a kitchen counter—and even if you do, some things are best left out where they’re more accessible. Who wants to sort through kitchen cupboards to find the salt and pepper while cooking?