For a house to be a home, it should be happy. However, it should also contain certain things to aid this happiness on its way! These range from things that can keep you safe, to things that keep you comfortable. Plus, of course, a few things to bring fun, light, and laughter streaming into the home too!
In this article, we’ll list eight items and things that you should have in your home. Work your way through point by point, and make a mental note as you do. Which do you already have, that you could put your hands on right now if you wanted to? Which did you used to have, but no longer have, or you’re no longer sure where they are? Which have you never had?
Once you’ve read through the article and split up each point into its own category, get to work! Check their condition and location, and write up a list of anything you know you’re missing.
This list ranges from the frivolous to the crucial. We’ll also span across all the major rooms of a room, from the kitchen to the bedroom and elsewhere! Read on to find out more...
1) Wireless speakers
Let’s start with a non-essential item based just around happiness and joy! Why not! Trust us on this one- once you buy a wireless speaker for your home, you won’t be able to remember how you lived before. Wired speakers are great, but the issue with them is that you have to use them into the one room they are plugged in inside. If you want to move them, there is the faff of unplugging them, carrying them, and re-plugging them. However, wireless speakers can go with you anywhere. If you have the extra budget for them, get ones that connect to Bluetooth. This means that you can connect your phone or laptop to them and play music from here. Wireless speakers can be used in so many different scenarios. Put a little classical music on while you’re baking in the kitchen. Use it to provide a soundtrack to your dinner party with friends. Pop it on in the morning in the bedroom while you’re showering and getting ready for work. As we’ve said, you won’t remember what you did before it! You can even get some that you can preload with your favorite music!
2) An effective floor cleaner
Spillages happen in the home all the time. Whether it’s a little slosh of tea onto the rug, or an entire glass of red wine onto the carpet, it happens! What you need to be able to do right after is spring into action. Often when things spill or leak, the best chance you have of removing them is to get to work straight away. Having something in the cupboard that isn’t nearly all empty is what you’re going to need. Remember that you will need different products for different types of floors. What cleans carpet won’t clean real oak, for example. Once the main liquid is removed, use something over the top to remove any residue.
Let’s say you have friends over for dinner, and something spills onto laminate flooring. Wiping it up won’t be too taxing, but the chemical content might leave a bit of a strong smell behind. So, use a floor cleaner spray with a scented fragrance. Check out the product info from Better Life for this floor cleaner, which says it contains scents of grapefruit and peppermint! Far more pleasant to finish your puddings over than bleach!
3) Spare mobile phone
A spare mobile phone might not seem all that necessary, but actually, it could come in really useful one day. Let’s say somebody hurts themselves in or around your home. In your panic to call for help, you can’t find your phone. Or, perhaps it has run out of battery. Having a phone that you can lay your hands on right away could make all the difference. Don’t have lots of data and info stored on it, or it will take too long to load up when you switch it on. Take the time to wipe unnecessary data from it. Be sure also that if you do use the phone, you put it right back on charge again straight afterward. It can also be useful if something happens outside your home, and somebody needs to borrow a phone. Finally, it can be useful if you usually rely on a landline, but this cuts out for some reason or another. Plus, if you suddenly break your mobile phone in any way, you’ll have a spare to use for a couple of days. Just until you get a full-time replacement, mind. After that, make sure it gets stored away again.
4) Full spice rack
Cooks, chefs, baking connoisseurs and amateurs alike will know the following frustration all too well. They’re cooking or baking up a storm, really into it, when they reach for a spice from the spice rack. Maybe it’s cumin for a homemade lemongrass curry. Or, cinnamon for some cinnamon spiced buns. But then, once you begin to shake the pot or reach your spoon in, you realize your huge mistake. It’s empty! You’ve run out and have forgotten to replace it.
What most likely happened is that you ran out when you didn’t need any more last time. So you’ve forgotten that it has all gone. Or maybe you live with someone else, who didn’t tell you and didn’t replace it themselves. Either way, it’s not a good thing to happen. Best case scenario, your recipe misses a piece of its puzzle. Worst case scenario, your whole recipe falls apart, and you end up wasting time and ingredients. Cinnamon rolls without cinnamon are just rolls, after all!
So, keep that spice rack filled up, and keep spares elsewhere in your kitchen just in case also.
5) Philips screwdriver
If there is one household DIY tool that you will find yourself using over and over again, it is a Philips screwdriver. People sometimes think that items like hammers are more important. However, you will usually have something else around to do the same job if you don’t have a hammer. A rolling pin, for example! However, a Philips screwdriver has such a specific head shape that it simply can’t be mimicked by other, replacement items. So, be sure you always have one to hand. It will help you in so many different ways. Whether it’s opening fiddly battery packs to installing flat packed shelves, the list is endless.
6) Fresh flowers
Why should you have fresh flowers in the home at all times? Well, there is a frivolous reason and a genuine health reason. Let’s start with the frivolous reason- because they look good! They brighten up the room. They add a pop of color, or colors. And they can also fill a room with the most incredible scent. However, it has also been proven that flowers and plants inside a home are directly responsible for an improvement in air quality!
7) Candles and matches
20 years ago, a homeowner would always have had a collection of emergency matches and candles in their house. Back then, electricity supply wasn’t as reliable as it is today. Plus, lights could go out, as it was much easier to trip a switch. It didn’t even have to be you that did it, but somebody in a house nearby! However, today, with this happening less and less often, we’ve become kind of complacent. We don’t necessarily keep matches and candles to hand. This is not a good idea, however, as you never know what might happen. One day your oven might break, and in doing so, trip all of the electrics in your home. If this happens at night, or in winter, you’re going to need a pile of candles to light your way while you fix it. Keep them close at hand, and in a place that you can direct others too if you need too.
8) A place to relax
As the years’ pass, your house will evolve in many different ways. Maybe the bathroom will swap places, or you will build a summerhouse in your garden. You may change bedrooms or welcome children into the family. Whichever ways your home evolves, you should always have a place that is just for relaxing. So, this might be a quiet corner of your living room, where you can read a new book without being undisturbed. Or, you may turn that summerhouse into a chill out area or games room in the winter months.
Your home should also be for relaxing, and recharging your batteries. If you are always manically running around, and the only time you rest is at night, your home isn’t doing what it should be doing. Set rules and boundaries to allow the room to fulfill its purpose. So, you may not allow your yappy dog in the room. Also, put a sign on the door announcing that anyone who enters must bring you a cup of tea! Bliss!
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