Lifestyle

Some well-placed greenery can not only brighten a space but also purify the air – and they’re also helpful in creating a more relaxing, restful ambiance in any room. We know that spending time in nature is linked to reduced stress levels and tension relief. What’s more, in a 2008 study, Dutch researchers found that hospital patients with indoor plants in their rooms reported lower stress levels than patients without them.

  1. Aloe Vera Plant

The gel of the Aloe plant has several healing properties. Not only does it soothe skin burns and cuts, it can also help monitor the air quality in your home. The plant can help clear the air of pollutants found in chemical cleaning products, and when the amount of harmful chemicals in the air becomes excessive, the plants’ leaves will display brown spots. Aloe Vera Plant grows best with lots of sun.

  1. English Ivy Plant (Hedera Helix)

NASA Scientists listed the English Ivy as the number one best air-filtering houseplant, as it is the most effective plant when it comes to absorbing Formaldehyde. It’s also incredibly easy to grow and adaptable. Try it as a hanging or floor plant, grow in moderate temperature and medium sunlight.

  1. Peace Lily Plant

The beautiful Peace Lily plant is a wonderful low-maintenance flower to keep in the home. Peace Lilies do well in shade and cooler temperatures, and they can reduce the levels of a number of toxins in the air.

  1. Chrysanthemum

The bright flowering plant battles a whole host of chemical including Xylene, Formaldehyde, toluene and Benzene. Keep it in the Lounge (In bright sunlight) so it’s anti-polluting superpowers can be best put to use.

  1. Snake Plant (Sansevieria)

Snake Plants don’t need much light or water to survive, so they’re an easy choice for any corner of your home. The plant absorbs Carbon Dioxide and releases Oxygen during the night, so place one in your bedroom and you’ll breathe better while you sleep. It has also been proven to be extremely effective in treating headaches, eye irritation, and respiratory problems.

  1. Golden Pothos

The Golden Pothos makes the NASA list as well for its ability to clear Formaldehyde from the air. Try adding it to your Kitchen or Lounge as a hanging plant, as the leaves will grow down in cascading vines. They grow easily in cool temperatures with low levels of sunlight. Please be aware that it is considered poisonous and therefore should be kept away from small children and pets.

7.Calathea (Peacock Plants)

Peacock Plants are grown for their foliage alone and it’s easy to see why. The purple, green, pink and red leaves put on quite a show. For the best display, keep the plant moist (Not drenched) and avoid bright light.

  1. Jasmine

As part of the Olive family it normally grows outside, but can live inside just as well. This plant should be more specially placed in the bedroom as it promotes sleep quality by emitting scents that have shown to make for better sleep, as well as increase your levels of alertness.

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Photo source: Wikimedia Commons – Aberdeen Neighbourhood http://bit.ly/2hLjBns

Are you wanting to move but finding it hard to decide what area you are looking to move to? One thing you need to remember is could you live in a quiet town out in the sticks or in the busy centre of a city.

 

It not an easy decision to make. It may be your dream to live out in the country side, in the fresh air and enjoying the slow pace of life but you may end up finding it too slow or too much of a distance for getting from A to B with the long country roads. But then again, your dream may come true exactly as wished and it turns out to be the best decision you ever made.

 

There are a number of things to take into consideration when moving to a different part of a town. It can take time to get to know the area well enough to know whether you would like to live there, and many issues will not apparent from just visiting.

 

At first you will need to choose an area that you can afford to live in, the sort of property you want to live in. City Centres tend to be more expensive than the countryside, the South tends to be more expensive than the North and London is obviously much more expensive than pretty much anywhere else.

 

You will also need to decide what type of property you want, whether it is a new build, house, flat or a bungalow. Also, what is the minimum number of bedrooms you would consider, do you want your own front door, or are you happy with a conversion flat.

 

There is also employment to think about. If you are moving from the city to the countryside, consider that you may want to adapt your work-life balance or spend more time with your kids, all of which might require employment opportunities closer to home. Ensure you leave room for career flexibility. Don’t move to a one-industry town if you are about to leave the industry. Ambitious people may require access to larger centres of employment and job markets.

 

Spend days wandering the area you are interested in. You will probably spend years there – it is worth investing time to make sure you are happy where you end up.

 

Visit the parks, the pubs and shops, see if you can you feel yourself living there. Even if you rent at the beginning, it is better to rent somewhere in a village and find you can’t stand village life, than buying and selling in distress a couple of years later.

 

Once you have chosen a rough area, drill down – life can vary dramatically street-by-street, or village by village. Chat with the estate agents – they usually have good insider information about the local variations.

 

If you do choose to move to the city, one side of a suburb can be very different from another. Council Tax can be dramatically from one side of the street to the other. Transport link, what may take five minutes from one street to a bus stop my take twenty minutes from another.

 

Then you will need to make sure you are moving somewhere child-friendly. Good schools are vital. Visit the Ofsted’s website to find out information about the schools in the wanted area. Also, the local councils will generally tell you the precise catchments area of their schools in recent years.

 

Living where lots of other families already live is a good bet, and will ensure lots of facilities for families.

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Ikigai (生き甲斐, pronounced [ikiɡai]) (ee-kee-guy) is a Japanese concept that means “a reason for being.” It is similar to the French phrase Raison d’être. Everyone, according to Japanese culture, has an ikigai. Finding it requires a deep and often lengthy search of self. Such a search is important to the cultural belief that discovering one’s ikigai brings satisfaction and meaning to life.[1] Examples include work, hobbies and raising children.[2]

Source: Wikipedia

This concept is the new trend when it comes to interior design. Thinking and over-thinking about what is the entire purpose of your home will make you easily pick the concept for the entire design of the house.

You will find inspiration for decorating in the Ikigai style in the following article on Elle Decor:

IS IKIGAI THE NEW HYGGE?

This Japanese concept might be the secret to finding longevity and purpose in life.

There are a lot more visual ideas on Pinterest if the flow really got you!

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Photo source: Quartz http://bit.ly/2lHOBJv

Commuting to work is a usual practice for those living near a big city that have jobs in the city. It seems easy to do at first, but after just a few months it can be a real problem and a big cause of stress.

Lydia Smith, a UK journalist, wrote about her experience a beginner freelance and how commuting daily from London to Manchester affected her emotional and professional life. This is an eloquent example of how commuting impacts the worker.

Our crowded, lengthy commutes are making us more lonely than ever

Recent studies showed common problems that appear at commuters like:

  • reduced job satisfaction. Every extra minute spent going to work equals discontent about the job itself and worsens mental health.
  • obesity or just gaining a few pounds. The hours you spend just sitting in trains or the car are obviously not good for your body. Even more if the job you are travelling to is mostly static.

That ’20 minutes to work’ might not seem much, but going past some time limits can have some long-term effects on you. Think about this when you choose commuting.

And don’t forget that you can actually change something to make yourself feel better: the workplace, or the place you live.

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Photo source: ThisOldHouse http://bit.ly/2gPe4ve

The days are getting shorter and day-by-day we can enjoy lesser sunlight. Winter is coming, as they say, but that does not mean we cannot enjoy every bit of the sun these days.

Create yourself a small comfortable spot near the windows and you will be able to load yourself with vitamin D daily.

We found some interesting ideas in this article on ThisOldHouse.com:

Sitting Pretty With Window Seats

What do you fancy? A bay-window daybed, a sofa bed, or a built-in pillow space with a lot of storage?

Any of these in-the-sunlight options will look great in your home and you will be able to make the most of every minute of daylight. Well, also, starry nights are going to mean more to you than just sleep!

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Photo source: MetroUK http://bit.ly/2gPe4ve

Living outside London is definitely cheaper. Apparently, the further away, the smaller house prices are. Here’s the math:

60 minutes to the city = minus £480,000 off the property price

40 minutes to the city = minus $372,255 off the property price

20 minutes to the city = minus £299,328 off the property price

House prices in commuter towns around London substantially cheaper

So choose how much time you are willing to spend on the road and make your savings budget!

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Photo source: Zero Waste Home http://bit.ly/2hc5rv2

First steps for a environmentally friendly life is waste reduction. The biggest part of household waste is made out of recyclable materials or, worse, of things that are not recyclable and are bad for the environment.

Those who want to be more careful about their impact on the environment can some type of efforts, even starting with their homes.

  1. Reduce use of plastic by choosing re-usable cloth bags.
  2. Switch containers around the house to make sure all of them are re-usable. You can even go a step further and buy glass containers instead of plastic ones. If you do choose those out of plastic, make sure they’re used over and over again.
  3. Avoid individual wrappers that cannot be recycled. There are more efficient ways of wrapping food that you can find in the markets.

More ideas of how to recycle around the home you can find in these articles:

9 Simple Ways To Reduce Waste In Your Home

100Tips -Zero Waste Home

We also found a nice initiative for a grocery store to reduce use of waste. Look at what they proposed to their customers.

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In this everyday expanding world, the need for space is simply intensifying. More compact and smaller are key characteristics of future houses.

And, if it is ‘movable’ too, then it is probably perfect.

There are a lot of tiny houses that can be in the top for their design and unique use of space. Here are some examples of small houses that blend in perfectly by being unintrusive in the space they were built (or moved to).

However, one special project drew our attention: Elsa, the 323 square feet house with a greenhouse included. The ‘entire’ house was developed and designed by Olive Nest Tiny Homes. It might be small, but it has one of the most spacious interior design we encountered.

Elsa can be moved around and it fits in all of the settings one might think of. The porch and the mini-greenhouse are dreams came true for gardeners and traditionalists.

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Photo source: Flickr http://bit.ly/2h96zzD

London is in top 5 most expensive cities for investors looking to put their money in office buildings. Recent study shows that the average price for 1 sqm in an office building in London is around 1 717 GBP, while Hong Kong tops the world chart with an offer of 6446 GBP for 1 sqm.

Prime office space in cities such as Hong Kong and London becoming too expensive

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Except if you are one one the lucky few that manage selling really fast their house, we can guarantee you one thing: the process is stressful. It goes for the sellers and for the buyers, as well!

The entire process was the subject of a study and it seems that both parts implied feel the stress. But there is also some dissatisfaction with the real estate agents…

Most buyers and sellers in England and Wales find the process stressful

Making things easy for the sellers is difficult. The buyers can, however, be helped. In their case, the Government promises to try to ease up the process.

Home buying to be made cheaper, faster and less stressful in England

If things are going smoother for those searching for a home, there is still one most stressful thing: the decision itself. Making up your mind and coming at peace with what you choose is crucial before buying.

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