Preventative maintenance tips for your rental property

Collaborative post

Collaborative post

Walking into the 2024 Real Simple Home, you are immediately greeted with stand-out hardwood floors, beautiful decor, and the stunning original accents of the home—and this is all in just the entryway and first room. 

Mums are a popular fall flower—they come in beautiful fall-inspired hues from rusted orange to sunset red. They also start to bloom in fall, when all the summer flowers disappear.

Want to make hummingbirds see red? Plant a firebush in your garden. Also called scarlet bush, it is not only among the easiest of plants to grow, but it also stays in bloom throughout the growing season with clusters of tubular red buds and flowers. Because the Southern growing season overlaps the spring and fall migration times of the ruby-throated hummingbird, and red is by far their favorite color, these blossoms will summon them to your garden.

Whether you travel often, are convinced that you don't have a green thumb, or simply do not want to worry about maintaining live plants day after day, you may wish to incorporate some faux green friends into your home. Today, there are so many incredible, realistic-looking fake plants on the market, making it easy to enjoy a natural feel in your space without having to worry about a watering schedule.

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. 

Painting a room can be shockingly stressful—there are so many details to consider. From brand to color to finish, multiple decisions need to be made before you even get started.

Pruning Lavender

Let's be honest: staying on top of cleaning and organizing every room in your home can get overwhelming—and before you know it, piles of junk on countertops and crammed-full kitchen cabinets can feel unmanageable.

Happy Monday GPODers!

Whether you call them woodchucks, whistle pigs, ground pigs, or groundhogs, these large ground squirrels can be a real nuisance in your yard and garden. “Groundhogs eat whatever is available and most nutritious,” says Sheldon Owen, PhD, wildlife extension specialist at West Virginia University. “They consume large quantities of herbaceous vegetation, especially fruits and vegetables. But they’ll also eat clover, bark, and landscape plants.”