Designer Thought for the Day

I was recently asked to be a regular contributer to Latter-Day Woman Magazine as a decorator columnist. So, I sent out a request for anyone who has a decorating dilemma from my friends list and within hours was sent my first "Q & A" response. As I receive questions I will choose the one I feel will fit in with the Decorating workshop article I will be writing. I do know that I will answer everyone's questions. It might not make it into my magazine article, but I will answer everyone's questions.

Thought for the Day:We dress ourselves every day, and dive into our closets and put together what we think will look the best on our bodies so that we feel good about ourselves. Even when you aren't trying and just throw on some jeans and t-shirt, there is still a little thought that goes into it. If the clothes start to look dated, we shift through our growing mounds of out of season clothing and send what we don't want to relatives, have a yardsale, or if all else fails and you just don't have time or the desire to donate them to Good Will, or Deseret Industries, the clothing might even be tossed in the trash. My point is that when our clothing gets old, and we don't feel good in them anymore, we do something about it.The same could be said about the rooms we live in as well. We use them everyday, and they receive even more abuse then the clothes we wear on our backs. If you don't like the surroundings you live in everyday, then just like your old dated clothes, look around and see if something needs to updated, moved around, or tossed out.If you have dated furniture or even window treatments, and suffer from allergies, you might want to look no further then your own living room. House dust mites fall into the category of things we'd rather not think about. They are as ugly as they are small. And they are very small. Ranging in size from a hundredth to a thousandth of an inch, they're too small to see without magnification.Like spiders, dust mites are eight-legged arachnids. The good news is they don't bite. The bad news is they do eat the dried, dead skin that sloughs from our bodies every day. It's a rich source of food, as we shed about a fifth of an ounce of skin a day. It makes up about 80% of the dust you see in an indoor sunbeam.As many as 19,000 dust mites can be found in a ball of dust the weight of a 1 gram paper clip, although the typical dust ball contains only 100 to 500 mites. Contrary to popular belief, dust mites don't live in your heating/air ducts. But they love living in your mattress and in your pillow, where your body provides them not only food but also the moisture and warmth they crave.While, I am not suggesting you throw out Grandma's vintage sofa, you might just re-upholster it, especially if it has good bones. Window treatments are another matter. If you have Grandma's window treaments, and it can't be cleaned and it has some mileage on it, I would suggest throwing them out. There are some wonderful products available on the market in hard coverings and soft coverings. Some soft treatments can even be made with material that has a microbial treatment which helps eliminates and prevents dust mites from breeding or living on the material. The fabric is especially made for those who suffer from allergies.If you have been looking for an excuse to go furniture shopping or need a good reason to give your husband on why you really want new window treatments, then just cite the facts I have listed on dust mites, and it might give you that little push you have been waiting for.