Design Diva Paige Davis Helps Clean Up Your House!

With the Labor Day Holiday behind us, cooler weather approaching and the kids heading back indoors, it’s time to get the house clean and organized with some “fall cleaning” for a comfortable winter home. Paige Davis of Trading Spaces fame wants to help you get your home in order before the crush of holiday gatherings. Paige provides the following tips and more for battening down the hatches this fall: TIP 1: The average six-room home in the U.S. collects 40 pounds of dust each year. As a peak allergy season, it’s important to keep dust mites at bay during the fall. To do this, always keep a stick vac on each level of your home so you have no excuse not to clean your carpets and hard floors. These lightweight vacuums quickly and easily clean carpets, hardwood floors and tile. The 35 million Americans who suffer from seasonal allergies will thank you. TIP 2: Once the dust is cleared, it’s time to tackle one of the dirtiest surfaces in the home: kitchen countertops. The trend in kitchens today is stone countertops, with engineered quartz being the hot new countertop choice. While it looks similar to granite, it’s stain-, scratch- and heat-resistant. To quickly and effectively keep any stone countertop looking great, keep a canister of countertop wipes under your sink. Having easy access to a disposable wipe that won’t scratch or dull stone surfaces will keep you counters looking like new — and dirt-free — for years to come. TIP 3: As cooler weather moves in we shut the windows and seal against drafts. This can lead to stuffy, smelly rooms. But there’s no need to light candles or burn scented oils in every room of the home to banish bad smells. It’s as easy as keeping a box of open baking soda in areas where odors are often present. You won’t be overpowered by strongly scented air fresheners, but you will enjoy clean-smelling spaces. For sinks and garbage disposals, pour a cup of baking soda down the drain and run hot tap water to remove food odors. More about Paige Davis: Best known as the effervescent star of TLC’s Trading Spaces, Paige Davis is the author of the New York Times best-selling book, Paige by Paige: A Year of Trading Spaces, and a theatre and dance veteran. Paige recently starred on Broadway as Roxie Hart in the musical Chicago and as Babette in the first national tour of Beauty and the Beast. Currently she stars as Charity Hope Valentine in the national touring production of Sweet Charity. https://videos.whiteblox.com/gnb/secure/player.aspx?sid=34974