Sunrise Homes & Renovations, Inc.

Home for the Holidays: Maximizing Your Space for Guests

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As the holiday season approaches, many of us look forward to spending quality time with family and friends. It’s a time for creating cherished memories, sharing delicious meals, and catching up with loved ones. If you’re hosting guests in your home this holiday season, it’s essential to make them feel comfortable and welcome. Here are some tips to help you maximize your space and ensure a warm and inviting atmosphere for your holiday guests.

Declutter and Organize: The first step in preparing your home for holiday guests is to declutter and organize your space. Clear away any unnecessary items to make room for your guests. Focus on common areas like the living room, dining room, and guest bedrooms.

Create a Cozy Guest Space: If you have a spare room or guest bedroom, ensure it’s ready for your guests. Make the bed with fresh linens, add extra pillows and blankets, and clear some closet space for their belongings. A bedside table with a reading lamp and a few magazines or books can make the space even more inviting.

Utilize Sleeper Sofas and Futons: If you don’t have a dedicated guest bedroom, consider investing in a comfortable sleeper sofa or futon for the living room. These multipurpose pieces of furniture can provide a cozy sleeping space for your guests while still serving as seating during the day.

Foldable Furniture: Opt for foldable or collapsible furniture in small spaces. These can be stored away when not in use, providing extra room for guests to move around. Folding chairs and tables can be a lifesaver for large holiday gatherings.

Stock Up on Essentials: Stock up on essential items your guests might need, such as toiletries, extra towels, and blankets. Consider creating a small welcome basket with these items, along with a note welcoming your guests.

Offer Space for Privacy: While you want to create a welcoming environment, it’s also important to respect your guests’ need for privacy. Provide a space where they can retreat if they need some alone time or a quiet place to relax.

Communication: Last but not least, communicate with your guests about their needs and preferences. Knowing if someone has dietary restrictions or specific room requirements will help you better prepare for their stay

By following these tips, you can maximize your space and create a welcoming environment for your holiday guests. The most important thing is to foster a sense of togetherness and ensure that your guests feel valued and cherished during their stay in your home. Wishing you a joyful and memorable holiday season!

A Few Simple Ways To Upgrade The Kitchen Pantry

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A Few Simple Ways To Upgrade The Kitchen PantryDuring the past few months, people have been spending much more time at home than usual. Therefore, many people are looking for ways to upgrade their homes. A common area of focus is the kitchen.

Even though many people are thinking about upgrading cabinets and countertops, the kitchen pantry should also be a target for home improvement. There are a few simple ways that everyone can improve their kitchen pantry. 

Use Vertical Storage

One of the top tips for everyone to follow is to use vertical storage capacity. It is a smart idea for everyone to build in a few extra storage areas by thinking about under-shelf baskets. These baskets can help people instantly create space for various items and ingredients. Furthermore, think about using the insides of cabinet doors to create some extra shelves, walls, or baskets. This can significantly add to the storage space of a pantry.

Think About Specific Needs For The Pantry

When looking at a kitchen pantry, it is a great idea for everyone to think carefully about specific needs they might have. Consider what items need to be stored in the pantry. Then, shop for the right items. For example, many people like to store wine bottles in the pantry. These are awkwardly shaped items that might not fit on typical shelves. Therefore, thinking about a wine rack that will fit in the pantry is a great way to create some extra, specific storage.

Relocate Bulk Items Somewhere Else

Too often, people end up trying to store bulk items in the pantry. While it is true that shopping in bulk is incredibly cost-efficient, bulk items can also take up valuable space in the kitchen pantry in the blink of an eye. Think about finding alternative locations for paper goods, canned items, and other large, non-perishable items. This will instantly open up some more storage space in the pantry.

Upgrade Storage In The Kitchen Pantry

Upgrading the kitchen does not always have to be expensive. There are simple ways that everyone can create extra storage space in their kitchen pantry by simply moving some other items around. Consider adding storage baskets to the kitchen pantry to create some new storage space.

 

Home Maintenance Tips: How to Organize Your Garage

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Home Maintenance Tips How to Organize Your GaragePerhaps you plan to sell your home in the next few months or years. Keeping your garage organized can save time and ensure that you have storage space when you need it most.

Get Your Purge On!

Clear out the garage and separate items into categories: keep, trash, donate and recycle. If you get rid of 50 percent of your stuff, you’re doing great. The more you can get rid of up front, the less you have to organize! And if you haven’t used it in years, why would you need to keep it around?

Create Zones

Map out space with masking tape, starting with where your vehicles go. Mask out where you can put heavy-duty shelves for tools, sports equipment and other stored items. Also, you can maximize storage by building cabinets or shelving from floor to ceiling.

Buying clear bins in various sizes and interlocking shapes helps you stay organized. When you store like items together, it’s much easier to find them, especially if everything is properly labeled.

Think strategically. If your garage doubles as a workshop, include space for a workbench. If you bike every day, hang your wheels on the wall near the garage door. Additionally, remember to include garbage and recycling bins near the door for easy access. 

Organizational Supplies
With the zones mapped, it’s time to get organized. For example, store shovels, rakes and brooms in a large trashcan. Meanwhile, sporting equipment such as bats, balls, skateboards and protective pads can go into larger bins, on shelves or inside lockers. Pegboards provide a versatile way to hang tools you use the most.

A cabinet that locks protects children and pets from hazardous materials like chemicals, paint and cleaning supplies. Meanwhile, constructing long open shelves of wood or metal gives you plenty of support for heavy storage bins, while a rolling cabinet lets you move craft supplies or gardening implements.

Storing Small Stuff

What can you do with screws, nails, hooks, nuts and myriad small items on a limited budget? Repurposed glass containers or mason jars let you see contents clearly while recycling. Use tin cans for screwdrivers and paint brushes. 

Once your garage is neat and clean, you may find yourself spending more time there. You might even have enough room for a home office or craft corner. A well-planned organizational strategy helps you keep it that way. 

If you are interested in listing your current property or buying a new property, be sure to contact your trusted real estate professional.

 

Garage Organization Ideas For Your New Home

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Garage Organization Ideas For Your New HomeNow that you have a beautiful new home with a garage, the fun of organizing can begin. When your garage is well organized, everything is much easier. You can get home projects finished faster, get out the door quicker and better enjoy all your sporting activities.

Here are some tips to organize your new garage. 

Make Use Of The Walls

A lot of homeowners overlook the wall space when organizing the garage. If your garage has exposed studs, this is actually a benefit in terms of storage space. You can easily create shallow shelves in between the studs using 2 x 4 and shelf brackets. Use these shelves to store smaller items that tend to get lost on larger shelves. You can also create an effective space for hanging garden tools. Screw extra large hooks onto the outside edge of one of the 2 x 4s. Hang brooms, rakes and shovels from the hooks.

Utilize The Ceiling

You can also utilize the back area of the ceiling, beyond the area where the garage door stops when it’s raised. Install hanging systems that you can source from a local hardware store. You’ll be able to hang things like bicycles, skis, kayaks and more. Some homeowners even hang small lawnmowers and spreaders during off-season.

Invest In A Workbench

Even if you don’t do carpentry, a garage workbench is a useful part of an organized garage. This is the place where you can do small repairs on household items or add to your garage organizational systems. You’re more likely to repair an item when it’s sitting on your workbench and you have all the needed parts within reach. Install some smaller clear storage drawer units above the workbench to hold screws, nails and nuts and bolts in various sizes.

Hang A Pegboard

A pegboard provides a central place for your garage tools. Hang the pegboard on the wall within reach of your workbench. Outline the spaces on the pegboard for hammers and screwdrivers so they always get put back where they belong.

It’s never fun to have to endlessly search every time you need something from the garage. These garage organization ideas will make your new home and garage even more enjoyable.

Your trusted real estate agent is a great resource for information about organizing and staging your home in a way that will appeal to buyers. If you are interested in putting your home on the market, be sure to set up an appointment as soon as possible.

4 Signs You’re Going To Need A Bigger House

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4 Signs You're Going To Need A Bigger HouseThere comes a time in every young homeowner’s life when they need a bigger house. When you buy a starter home, it’s unlikely that will be your forever home. But how do you know when it’s time to spend the time and effort to upgrade to a larger home?

Here are four signs you’re gonna need a bigger house!

1. You Have To Move Stuff To Get To Other Stuff

In a house where there is enough room for everything, you can move freely and access all your things without having to rearrange furniture. If you find yourself constantly pushing other things aside in order to get to what you want, there isn’t enough space in your home.

2. You’re Always Misplacing Things

The key to organization is having a spot for everything. But if you’re short on space, everything can’t have its own spot. That’s when things get lost or misplaced. If you repeatedly misplace your belongings, you probably need a bigger house.

3. You’ve Got A Growing Family

Do you have a little one on the way? As your family grows, your need for space will increase. It’s hard to imagine that a small baby will take up much space, and they don’t. It’s the baby accessories that take up the space; the high chair, the playpen, the walkers, the crib, the toy chest and more. It’s all fantastically fun, but you are going to need a bigger house.

4. You Just Feel Cramped

You and the other members of your family should each feel like you have space to be alone, spend time on hobbies, and have private conversations. If you just feel cramped all the time or you feel like you don’t have any privacy, it could be because your house is too small.

When you finally realize that the problems aren’t with you, but with the size of your house, it’s very liberating. Now you have the answer to the issues. All you have to do is go out there and find a bigger house to move into.

Call your trusted real estate agent and explain your reasons for moving so they can help you find a new home with more square footage.

 

 

 

Getting Your Garage Ready To Stage

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Getting Your Garage Ready To StageIf you’ve decided to sell your home, you’ve probably paid a lot of attention to the inside of your home. You have likely cleaned and staged your living room, bedrooms and kitchen to perfection. If you were like most other homeowners, you might have forgotten to stage one of the most critical areas of your home — the garage.

Most home buyers want a perfectly organized garage stage. A clean, organized garage is more important than you might think when it comes to selling a home. In fact, the Active Spring Shopper’s Report found that more than 30 percent of home buyers said that the garage is one of most essential rooms in a home. That means that 3 out of 10 buyers would rank a garage higher on their list of priorities than say a beautiful kitchen or bathroom.

If your garage has become a grease-stained dumping ground, that is okay. There are still plenty of things that you can do to get it looking like the showroom of an auto dealer. Get your garage in top shape with these tips.  

Clear The Clutter

Garages tend to be the one place where you can throw everything to keep out of sight. Anything that you don’t have room for probably goes into the garage. As a result, you might have quite a bit of clutter in there. Start by taking everything out. Before putting anything back in the garage, sort it into piles. Make three piles — keep, donate and throw away. Next, sort items accordingly.

Clean Thoroughly

Clean the floor and walls thoroughly. Use a concrete degreaser and a large scrubbing brush. If your floors are still dingy after cleaning, consider painting your concrete with epoxy. Garage floor epoxies are specially designed for concrete and can make your garage floor look brand new. This detail can impress buyers.  

Organize

The last step is to organize the remaining items. Consider installing different types of shelving to expand your garage storage. Metal and wire shelving, storage benches and metal cabinets are all excellent storage ideas for a garage. Consider installing storage racks on the ceiling of your garage to use the space above.  

Your trusted real estate professional will have loads of tips to help you make your home presentable and appealing for buyers. Make sure to utilize this valuable resource.