Trying to choose colors for the inside and outside of your home can be awfully tricky. Finding which shades mix in order to decorate your rooms can seem dizzying. With a little confidence and some knowledge, you’ll be able to find colors that you’ll love for a long time to come. Here’s some tips to help you find the right mix for your home’s color scheme. 

Look For Inspiration

Whether you’re in your friend’s living room and see a color combo that you really love, or are looking in a magazine and see something unique, make note of it for your own uses.  

Find Colors That You Can Live With

While bright green and orange may look cool together, can you really live with these hues in a room? Discover what colors make you feel a certain way. If the room is meant to make you feel calm and collected, you’ll want to find colors that are soothing to you and your soul. If the room is meant to be more energizing, you’ll want to pick a more vibrant, energetic color. Keep in mind that the color in a room affects the mood of the room. 

Get Plenty Of Samples

From sample color swatches to small cans of paint samples, there’s plenty of resources at your local hardware store to get you started on finding the perfect colors for a room. Be sure to hold the swatches up in different lighting and see how they look in the space by going around the room from wall to wall. This will help you to see how the color will look once it’s actually painted on the walls in different lighting.

Find Matches

The next question that you’ll have once you get your paint up is what kind of colors will go well in this room. It’s good to have a few ideas in mind. If you already own a sofa, for example, start by working with that color. If the sofa is brown, for example, you may not want brown walls as well. Work with what you have first. If you’re buying new furniture and accessories, you may want to work with what you’re hoping to put in the room. The task of choosing colors for the interior of your home involves thinking about both design and function.           

Nature Has Some Answers For You

If you really love the beach, think of the colors that are present there. There’s tan colored sand along with blue skies, blue water, and touches of green from seagrass, trees, and other plants. Nature’s color palette is quite extensive and the good news is that all of the landscapes match! It you look around in nature, you can get a great idea for the beginnings of a fantastic color scheme for any room in your home.

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There's a cheap office supply product available almost anywhere that can improve your home organization, save you money, and help prevent food-borne illnesses: ordinary stickers.

By stocking up on a variety of blank stickers, you can boost your efficiency around the house, save time, and reduce confusion.

Here are a few examples of how this basic strategy can prevent problems and simplify your life:

• Leftover food: How many times have you looked at a container or package of leftover food in the refrigerator and wondered if it's still reasonably fresh and safe to eat? If you label it with the date, you'll never have to risk getting sick from food that's been sitting around in the fridge for weeks (or longer). "When in doubt, throw it out" is a good policy for dealing with perishable food items, but you also don't want to get in the habit of throwing out perfectly good food. Everyone has slightly different standards for how long food should be kept, but when leftovers are not labeled, your only option is to guess how long it's been there -- and that method isn't too accurate! As a side note, there are several government agencies, such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture, that can advise you on recommended refrigeration storage times (and safe temperatures) for different types of food. Generally, it's three or four days, but it can be more or less, depending on how perishable it is, whether the package has been opened, and if it's cooked or raw. Frozen food has a much longer shelf life (usually one or two months in the freezer), but if you don't label it, you may have no idea what it is ("mystery meat?") or how long it's been in storage! Clearly labeling refrigerated and frozen food will give you peace of mind, help prevent you from throwing away food prematurely (saving you money), and reduce your chances of getting food-borne illnesses.
• Old keys: Did you ever stumble upon an old key and wonder which door, suitcase, file cabinet, or car it's meant for? You can always try it out on different locks, luggage, or vehicles, but it could easily be from a previous residence, an item you no longer own, or a vehicle you traded in years ago. A much more efficient method would be to place the key in a small envelope or zip-lock bag and label it with identifying information. Labeling the tag on the keychain is another option.
• House paint: Paint cans that have been around for years can often be difficult to identify, especially if the original product label is obscured by paint spills. By adding a descriptive label displaying the date, the room it was used on, and the color, it will be much easier to organize and find the paint you need when you want touch up your walls or baseboards.

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When you’re looking to sell your home for a great price, there are a few things that you can do to give the sale an edge. All of the ideas you’ll find below are inexpensive yet effective for sprucing your home up fast.

Hide And Brighten What You Can

Do you have an old, lumpy sofa, an old, unsightly lamp, or a scratch on the wall? You can easily cover these things up without making any major changes. Use a slip cover, some touch-up paint, or even new bedding to help brighten any room or furnishing. You could even consider adding new window treatments or additional lighting to assist in giving your home a refreshed look. As a rule of thumb: If it looks old and you can’t remember when you last replaced the item, you should probably replace it.    

Use Paint Strategically

With the right paint, you can accentuate or downplay the features of a room including fireplaces and windows. Portions of the room that would otherwise be lost can be highlighted with the right use of color. 

Make The Room Seem Larger

Do you have low ceilings or small rooms? You can make the room seem larger just by making use of vertical lines or using the higher spaces in the rooms of your home. Easily mount shelves on your walls in order to store things to give the room the illusion of having more space.

Deep Clean

Your home can look like a new place when you take the time to deep clean the area. Don’t miss out on any part of any room. Use a little elbow grease and pay attention to neglected areas like the pantry, laundry room, and refrigerator. Get rid of any odors in the home. Potential buyers will definitely notice if things don’t smell right upon entering the house. You can use natural cleaners made of baking soda, vinegar, and lemon juice in order to freshen up everything from rugs to toilets. This stage of the makeover process may take you some time, but it’s definitely worth it. 

Don’t Forget The Little Touches

Adding in little things before an open house can also make a big difference. Put some fresh flowers on the table. Light some candles. Fluff the pillows. Take the time to remove unnecessary items from the counters and tables as well. The less cluttered the home looks, the better. Buyers like open spaces, but they also like to be able to see themselves in the space and you can help them to do just that.              

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 The bad news about selling your home is that there are dozens of mistakes you might make that could result in a lost sale, unnecessary price reductions, and delays in finding a buyer.

The good news is that the vast majority of seller mistakes are completely avoidable -- especially when you have an experienced real estate agent guiding you through the process and providing you with ongoing advice and marketing assistance.

Pricing and Perception

Setting too high of a price for your home is a common mistake -- one that's often difficult to recover from. Since "the clock is ticking" from the moment your home officially goes on the market, it's important to make the most of those first few weeks.

House hunters are often strongly attracted to homes that are advertised as being "just on the market." Those words can be very compelling because they imply newness, a limited opportunity, and scarcity. As the advertising industry has known for generations, consumers are drawn to products and services that are new, fresh, and in demand. However, just like yesterday's news or day-old bread, the longer a house is on the market, the less appealing it becomes.

According to a Zillow study, homes for sale priced around or slightly below market value are almost 50 percent more likely to sell within 60 days than those priced 12 percent or more above market value.

Working with a knowledgeable real estate professional can help make sure you don't lose that initial out-of-the-gate momentum by pricing yourself out of the market. They'll base their recommendations on a number of factors, including a comparative analysis of recently sold homes in your neighborhood .

Here's a house-selling mistake that most people probably don't know about: You might be losing potential buyers because you've chosen an "odd selling price." The National Association of Realtors points out that listings may sometimes be excluded from Internet search results if the asking price is just a few thousand dollars above a typical pricing range. "Buyers search real estate websites for price ranges, such as 'homes between $250,000- $300,000.' If you set an odd price to make your listing stand out, say $302,499, you may miss some of your best potential customers."

If you realize after a few weeks that you've incorrectly priced your house, it not only becomes necessary to lower the price, but you also have to contend with a lower perceived value among prospective buyers.

Buyer Psychology

A few other words and phrases that tend to whet the appetites of prospects searching for their next home include "move-in condition," "landscaped," and "updated." Many people also like the sound of granite countertops, maple hardwood floors, and gourmet kitchens.

While it pays to know a little about pricing, home staging, and buyer psychology, getting advice and guidance from a seasoned real estate agent is usually your best bet for producing the fastest and most satisfying results in selling your house.

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