You can also make longer-burning fire starters by following a few simple steps. You’ll just need to gather cardboard egg cartons and candle wax in addition to the dryer lint. It’s an easy project that takes just 15 minutes. Of course, you can buy compost at any garden supply center, but why spend the money? It’s is very easy (and less expensive) to make your own from dryer lint and many other household materials....

Picture this: Cozy hardwood caresses your bare feet as you brush your teeth at your bamboo sink or step into your teak soaking tub. Whether it’s on the floor, the countertops, or even in the shower, wood provides a seamless transition from the bathroom into other areas of your home. And when used responsibly, wood is an eco-friendly option for almost every style—from minimalist to traditional. Wood Flooring Hardwood floors are on the must-have lists of many homeowners, and they are an increasingly popular option in the bathroom....

Methodology: All colors are from Valspar, a major paint manufacturer whose products are found at Lowe’s Home Improvement. Field color–the largest expanse of color–is always the first one listed. If the house looks identical in every picture, except for colors, it is. This is intentional. The reason: so that you can scroll down the screen and easily contrast colors without extraneous features influencing you. Colors: This exterior paint scheme is light and cheerful, mostly due to the Irish Paddock field color and the high contrast of the Du Jour trim....

Paint manufacturers nearly always recommend that you brush, roll, or spray one or two coats of paint primer since this is in service of producing a better color coat. Paint contractors charging by the hour might recommend a primer. Yet paint contractors charging by the job might lean toward no primer, especially if they include the materials in the cost. Do-it-yourself painters typically want to skip priming before painting, if at all possible....

Cassandra Aarssen came up with the Clutterbug concept about six years ago, and it has taken the world by storm. So what’s different about her method? “I didn’t even know that it was something at all until somebody else pointed it out to me,” Aarssen says. “Most people, when you think of organization, it looks a lot like the Home Edit. It is really detailed filing cabinets, everything put in little jars, and I could not maintain that....

This one uses a Lunaform pot with a red banana plant (Ensete ventricosum ‘Maurelii’) paired with upright fuchsias (‘Gartenmeister Bonstedt’), red nemesia (‘Serengeti’), a ‘Margarita’ and ‘Sweet Caroline Sweetheart Light Green’ sweet potato vine. This container garden design was a cooperative effort between Kerry Michaels and floral designer, Liz Micheels, of Artful Blooms in Newton, Mass. With help and advice from Bill Cullina, Director of Horticulture/Plant Curator for Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens....

The scientific name of the plant is Toxicodendron radicans. Knowing the old rhyme of “Leaves of three, let it be” may be the easiest way to tell if it might be poison ivy, but you need more information to be positive. These photos will allow you to identify the plant, both with and without leaves and at various stages of maturity. While the leaves are the most toxic part of the plant, contact with any part (even when the plant is bare of foliage) can be toxic to you....

Best planted in early spring, purple pitcher plants will grow slowly—some varietals can take as many as five years to reach maturity and flower. The “pitchers” referenced in the common name for this plant are actually modified leaves. A rosette of these leaves radiates out from the base of the flower stalk, and the pitchers themselves can grow to be up to 8 inches long. While decorative to the human eye, the pitcher shape also serves a practical purpose—their container-like structure holds water, where the prey of this carnivorous plant is eventually drowned....

Like most other light fixtures, recessed light fixtures are powered by standard 120-volt household circuits and controlled by wall switches. Usually, recessed light fixtures are fitted with small flood-lamp bulbs, but these can be of incandescent bulbs, CFL (compact fluorescent lamps) or LED (light-emitting diode) bulbs. Increasingly popular are a specialty type of recessed fixture that accepts only LED bulbs. These fixtures are smaller than older types, making them easier to install and more flexible in creating different lighting effects....

Below are some of our favorite picks from the Reading Rooms category on Havenly, which includes bookshelves, chairs, pillows, rugs, throws, and more. Happy decorating, and get ready to crush that TBR stack!

With five kids ranging from ages 7 to 15, it can be a challenge to find board games that everyone in my family can play. Recently, my younger kids and I tested out Richard Scarry’s Busytown, Eye Found It!, a board game in the theme of “Busytown,” the famous series by children’s author and illustrator Richard Scarry. Enlisting the help of some preschool-aged pals, we played multiple times to share a true sense of each game, its positive and negative attributes, and the type of person who might like (or dislike) it the most....

When purchasing grout, you have a choice between sanded vs. unsanded grout. Both types of grout have a number of overlapping uses. But your tile project will look better if you can delineate the differences between the two and choose the better one for your job. Sanded vs. Unsanded Grout Basics Unsanded grout, sometimes called non-sanded grout, is best for very thin grout lines ranging from 1/8-inch down to 1/16-inch....

Best planted in early spring (and started indoors in cooler climates), scabiosa blooms will grow at a moderate pace, reaching maturity in 90 to 100 days. The end result is a bounty of button-like flowers atop wiry stems that flutter in the breeze. Beyond looking beautiful and unique, scabiosa flowers also attract useful pollinators to the garden, such as bees and butterflies. With just a bit of care, they’ll bloom all throughout the summer and into early fall, enlivening your garden with ease....

Laundry Detergent Ingredients and the Environment The biggest problem ingredients for the environment in laundry detergents are phosphates and some surfactants, mainly nonylphenol ethoxylates or NPE. The use of chemicals derived from petroleum are also of concern. Surfactants, which help soil to float away from garments, form a micelle that surrounds the piece of dirt and carries it away. They are considered toxic to fish and aquatic species. The largest detergent manufacturer in the United States, Proctor and Gamble (Tide, Gain) stopped using these nonylphenol ethoxylate surfactants several years ago and some states have banned phosphates in laundry detergent for many years....

In years past, dig points were a matter of educated guesswork. Now, with sewer video cameras and locating equipment, it is a simple matter of calling a sewer video inspection professional and locating the block. What Is a Sewer Video Inspection? This is a process where you call in a plumbing company or a specialist to run a video line through your waste pipes. The video might extend down your branch lines (the pipes that lead from bathtubs and faucets to the house’s sewer line) or down the house’s sewer line (the larger pipe that leads from the house to the municipal sewer line on the street)....

Vegetables that grow in shade are predominately leafy vegetables and root crops, so they make the best choices. Vegetables that produce fruits, like tomatoes, cucumbers, and eggplant, need all the sun they can get. If you are going to try growing vegetables in shade, remember that they still need plenty of water––and water and shade are perfect conditions for snails and slugs. You’ll need to be especially diligent in scouting for these slimy creatures or they will wipe out your harvest....

There’s no right or wrong answer to this question—and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. It’s a personal decision that all apartment dwellers are entitled to make, and your answer should depend on what you want at the time you’re looking to rent. If you need help deciding whether to live with a roommate, consider the common reasons why people choose one route over the other. Reasons to Have a Roommate There are many good reasons to have a roommate....

The silver birch is a cool climate tree that is known for its pleasing aesthetic. It is spread throughout Europe and Asia in almost every temperate region. The silver birch especially favors being interspersed in conifer and the margins of old-growth forests. The tree is a pioneer species like empress trees, meaning it grows where other trees and plants will not and before other trees will. Pioneer plants’ ability to grow in various soil, moisture, and environmental conditions mean they transition well in a garden setting....

If these are indeed the most iconic type of window you can buy, why is this so? Does your house need either type of window? And what is the difference between these two windows that sound much alike? What Are Single-Hung and Double-Hung Windows? Single-hung windows and double-hung windows are two different types of windows. Though different, they will look identical from a distance. Both single-hung windows and double-hung windows are vertical-sliding windows with an upper and a lower sash....

SkyGenius is a Colorado-based company founded in 2013, selling mostly budget binoculars and corn lights. We tested their corn light in the garage at our Colorado home. See if this light bulb delivered on its promise to replace powerful high-intensity discharge (HID) and high-pressure sodium (HPS) lightbulbs. Performance: Intense bright light best for large spaces and outdoors Corn lights are a relatively new lighting technology that promises a long-lasting, energy-efficient alternative to HID and HPS for serious overhead illumination....