Neat Features

One of the things I love is how creative people are.  A while back I wrote about wall decals that you could use to cover cracks in your walls by using decals of leaves and birds to make your wall cracks into a piece of art.  (Okay, so maybe I use the term “art” loosely!)  And just when you think things can’t get any more original, you see that someone has developed 8-bit NES goodness for their walls.

Blik is a company that offers wall decals of all kind of old school gaming.  Two of my favorites are Space Invaders and Super Mario Brothers.

Now I’m not sure that this would exactly work in my house.  It might, however, be just the sort of thing I’d do in my kids room.  It might even be something for a dorm room.  But at the end of the day, it just comes down to being a very cool neat feature.

Image credit: Blik (seriously you need to check them out.) Do you have a Neat Feature of your own? Consider submitting it, and we may post it.

We’ve all seen movies where someone hides a treasure map in a book that’s pages have been cut out.  Or a movie where a floor has a trap door that holds a stash of jewelry.  These work (in theory) because we can’t find them.  There is only one book out of a hundred that holds the money.  Or only one floor board out of an entire house that contains the deed to the mortgage.

The idea is that it will take countless hours looking for those things, so we don’t bother – it’s just too difficult.

Enter the Secret Stash Project by Yi-Ting Cheng.

The Secret Stash Project is all about hiding things in plain sight.  Are you leaving your desk for a few minutes and want to leave your iPod behind?  Stick it under a glass of milk.  Do you need a place to leave your computer over night so that someone doesn’t walk off with it?  Put it in the side panel of your desk.  Have a $20 bill that you want to leave for a friend?  Attach it to a map marker.

Now I’m not sure this will stop anyone who is determined, or someone who can watch you all the time.  But I bet it works against the casual thief.

And hey, even if it doesn’t do anything, it’s still more fun than throwing your headphones into a drawer!

Do you have a Neat Feature of your own? Consider submitting it, and we may post it.

I have a five year old daughter at home.  And that means one thing: a mess.  There is stuff everywhere.  It’s as if she’s genetically designed to leave a wake of destruction behind her.  Clothes on the steps.  Crayons under the table.  Barbie’s on top of the TV (the sacrilege!)  It goes on and on.

At first we thought this would be a never ending battle.  It might even be the equivalent of Star Trek’s Kobayashi Maru (an unwinnable test.)  But then we bought a house.  Realizing a house was just a larger place for a mess to develop, we decided our very first DIY project would be to get her room organized and painted.

It was our (apparently foolish) belief that our daughter would want to play more in her room, and therefore bring less of the mess to the rest of the house.

While I think that was a good strategy, it hasn’t completely solved the problem.  And on some days, it hasn’t even made a dent.  The challenge we have is that our house is 101 years old, which means limited storage and play-space in that room.

That’s when I came across this house.

While it has many normal features for a house, there’s one feature that really stands out.  One of the bedrooms has a built-in playroom/fort/cave!

The moment I saw this, I realized it would be perfect for anyone with a young kid.  You could easily turn it into a fort, spaceship, castle, Barbie-ville, or whatever your kid is into.  Plus, this is something I always wanted as a kid.  I forever was planning (or building) tree forts.  I never dreamed I could have one in my own room.  It’s just too cool.

Do you have a Neat Feature of your own? Consider submitting it, and we may post it.

It’s hard to believe but 2010 is approaching a close.  And with all end of the year activities it’s time to start thinking about Fall and Winter (at least in the northern hemisphere!)  Yes.  That sounds depressing to me as well.

Fortunately there are a few things you can do to help with the transition.  And while none of these are exactly “fun” they all help keep our homes maintained and our lives a little better.

1. Seal Air Gaps – Heating prices have been high for a long time now.  Perhaps they will never go lower.  Which means we need to get serious about sealing up all those loose air gaps around our windows, under our doors and along the floors.  A tube of $5 caulk goes a long way to reducing your energy bill.  Plus, doesn’t it feel good to make your house a bit more efficient?

2. Check House Exterior – If you’re in the hot, warm parts of the country, or experiencing a hot summer like we did here in Cincinnati, then you probably haven’t walked around your house recently.  Now that September is (theoretically) bringing cooler air, maybe it’s time to see what the foundation looks like.  Are there new cracks on the sidewalk?  Any shingles need replacing before winter?  Now’s the time to take that exterior house tour!

3. Fall Cleaning? – It used to be you needed to do “spring cleaning” because it was a good time to empty your house of all the dirty air, grime, and dust that built up over a few months of closed windows and burning fires.  But these days most of us run our AC units just as much as our heat.  That means it’s a good time to clean up your house.

Part of what we do around here at Neat Features is help you understand all the fun and neat parts of your own home.  But let’s face it – if your home is falling apart you’re not very likely to notice them!  So go pick a week this month and work on these three tasks.  And then sit back.  Relax.  And enjoy your home’s own neat features!

photo provided by flickr user dan4th

For those of us who travel regularly, this is a nice slideshow on how to pack clothes more efficiently.  I never believed rolling your clothes made THAT much of a difference…  But apparently you can fit 10 days of clothes into one carry-on.

I’m not sure what this has to do with being a Neat Feature; I was just blown away by it.

Do you have a Neat Feature of your own? Consider submitting it, and we may post it.  Image provided by flickr user uggboy.

One of the things I love about Neat Features is that for something to be a Neat Feature it doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg.  It can actually be just a handful of dollars.  Take, for instance a few DIY projects that involve your walls.

1.  Cleverly Hiding Power Cords

2.  Covering Cracks with Details

Both of those projects only cost a few dollars and can make a world of difference in how people see your house.  Sure I wouldn’t exactly suggest those methods if you’re trying to sell your house, but if you live in an apartment?  Or if you don’t have time or money to do a full repair?  Then they become great solutions.

Neat Features aren’t’ any particular product.  It’s a mindset.

So what in your house do you consider a neat feature?

Do you have a Neat Feature of your own? Consider submitting it, and we may post it.

If you own a home, you have cracks in your walls.  Cracks are a part of life.  No matter how well we take care of our homes, we can’t prevent  the foundation from settling and cracks developing.  In an ideal world we would be able to patch up these cracks.

But what if you can’t?  With unemployment being so high, what if you don’t have the money to fix the cracks in your walls?  Or what if your mother in law is on her way over, and the last thing you want to hear is about needing to repair your walls?

Then these TakeBreak Wall Decals may be your solution.

By using stickers, you can turn your unsightly cracks into work of art.  Well that’s the idea anyway.  Does it work?  You’ll have to be the judge of that for yourself!

Do you have a Neat Feature of your own? Consider submitting it, and we may post it.

Today’s Neat Features post seems to come just in the nick of time for me.  Just last week I came across two large boxes of 3.5 floppy discs.  (Because back in my day when we were walking up hill both ways to school, we took our homework on floppy discs, and we liked it that way!)  Since I found those floppy discs, I’ve been wondering what I should do with them.  Sure I can’t use them anymore.  I’m not even sure I have a working floppy drive.  But it still seems like a shame to throw them away (yes I realize they are useless).

Fortunately some clever people over at Instructables may have solved my problem.  They’ve created a tutorial on how to reuse old floppies and turn them into pencil holders.

One of the things we talk about here on Neat Features is that Neat Features can be very complex or very simple.  It’s not the size or expense that matters.  It’s whether something has personality and attitude.  Does it make you want to live there.  Those are the three characteristics that make up a neat feature.

And you don’t get much smaller than floppy discs.

Do you have a Neat Feature of your own? Consider submitting it, and we may post it. Image courtesy Liefehacker Tip Testers photo pool by user vokabre

It’s hard to believe sometimes. But our lifestyles are radically different then they were even five years ago. Just a mere five years ago most people had only a single computer in their home. Maybe, if they had saved up, they had a laptop instead of a desktop. Now, it’s not uncommon for people to have several laptops, a media server, a desktop computer for video games, a few iPod’s along with a couple of smart phones.

To further add to this change, Apple has spawned an entirely new type of computing device: the iPad.

While this has been great for our lifestyles and leisure, it’s been a challenge to power all of these devices. If you look at an old house it’s not uncommon to find only one or two electrical sockets in any given room. Why? Because 50 years ago (and certainly a hundred years ago) you only had to worry about a few electrical devices. Maybe a few lights or a TV and phone. But these days, all of our entertainment devices need plugged in.

That’s where the U-socket comes in to play. If you like gadgets, or have someone in your family who does, you know that there’s always a constant search for wall plugs. No matter how many USB ports your computer has, it’s either not enough or inconveniently located.

So what if instead of walking to a bed room or office to charge your iPhone you walk over to a wall socket and plug it in just like you would any other device.

Do you have a Neat Feature of your own? Consider submitting it, and we may post it.

A while back we showed you a room with a pretty elaborate jungle paint job. Perfect for the 7 and under crowd. But what about older kids. (Or the older kid inside all of us?) I don’t know about you, but as cool as the jungle was, I’m not sure I really want to go with the “Welcome to the Jungle” feel.

Well here’s an office that was painted in argyle.

Neat Features don’t have to be expensive, they don’t have to be complex, and you don’t always need an engineering degree to lay them out. Sometimes you just need some paint and tape.

Do you have a Neat Feature of your own? Consider submitting it, and we may post it.