Hope Leitner, Realtor®, CRS

  Information is brought to you by Hope Leitner Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties How to Extend the Life of Your Carpet Whether you adore your new carpet or can’t afford to replace it every few years, below are a handful of ways to extend the life of your carpet—even if you have kids and pets. 1. Lay down a rug in high traffic spots.   It may seem weird to lay a rug over your carpet, but in places that see a ton of foot traffic—like by the bed, couch or doorways—adding an extra layer of protection in the form of a rug or mat can seriously prolong your carpet’s life. 2. Vacuum frequently.  Make sure you vacuum once a week to pull up damaging dirt and dander that can wear down your carpet overtime. 3.  Take off your shoes.  By enforcing a “no shoes inside” policy in your home, you will reduce the amount of dirt that gets tracked in. Add a shoe rack by the front door to help make it easy. 4. Act fast with spills . If you get a splash or spi...

  Hope Leitner Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties How to Organize Your Attic An attic can be an ideal storage space, but if it’s not organized, it can turn into a total mess. If you’ve lived in your house for several years, chances are your attic has gotten cluttered and could use some organizing. Get Help If the job is too big for you to handle yourself, ask family or friends to help. Talk about what you want to keep and what you want to get rid of and discuss ways to organize the space. You’ll need to make more decisions as you go through the cleaning process, but setting guidelines at the beginning will help you avoid misunderstandings and arguments. Decide What Stays and What Goes As you go through items, sort things you want to keep into piles. You can put clothing in one area, sports equipment in another, photo albums in another, etc. You can further separate items by person, season, or any other category that makes sense. Attics tend to accumulate a lot of...

Hope Leitner Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties 3 Ways to Clean Your Sponges Sponges are a kitchen staple, but a clean sponge can spread grime all over your eating space. How often should you clean your sponge, and how should you do this? Don’t just trash a sponge when it begins looking spotty. Instead, clean them weekly, and toss them out monthly or sooner, depending on frequency of use. Our friends at Good Housekeeping offer the following solutions: Soak ’em.  Mix a third-quarter cup of bleach in one gallon of water. Soak the sponge for five minutes, then rinse. How effective is this? In testing, the bleach solution kills 99.9 percent of the three bacteria strains from the test sponges, which is the benchmark based on the EPA’s requirement for sanitization of non-food-contact surfaces. Brine ’em . Not a fan of bleach? Vinegar is nearly as effective, killing 99.6 percent of bacteria. Simply soak your sponge in full-strength vinegar for five minutes, then rinse w...