How many times have you had to say, "Would you please keep it down in there?"
In this day and age, noise is everywhere in your home. With spacious floor plans, more electronic equipment and the high demand for surfaces of wood and tile, sounds reverberate more than ever.
PEACE AND QUIET - A realistic solution for home noise pollution is the ProCore The Quiet Door from JELD-WEN, shown here in the Santa Fe style. CNS Photo courtesy of JELD-WEN.
SCENTED SWEEPING - The new AirWick Fresh Sweep broom freshens the air as you sweep. CNS Photo courtesy of Quickie Manufacturing.
CUTE CANS - Add a little charm and whimsy to your kids' bedrooms or bathrooms with these animal cans from The Container Store. CNS Photo courtesy of The Container Store.
Solutions include upgrading insulation, adding wall density and hanging acoustical panels. Effective, yes. Expensive, definitely.
Yet for just a few hundred dollars, homeowners can replace existing hollow doors with JELD-WEN's ProCore the Quiet Door. According to company experts, when it comes to shutting out sound, interior doors are the homeowners first, and best, defense.
"Many homeowners complain about noise, but have the same flush hollow-core doors that originally came with their house," said Kevin Pine, JELD-WEN product marketing manager.
"These doors do next to nothing when it comes to shutting out sound. Worse yet, the lightweight feel and the basic look of these doors can be an assault on senses beyond just sound considerations."
The Quiet Door is a molded fiber interior door that is up to 50 percent quieter than hollow doors. It also delivers the heft of a wood door and is available in a wide variety of stylish designs.
Another tip for noisy rooms is to make sure at least 25 percent is covered by sound-absorbing materials such as carpet or furniture.
For more information, call 800-877-9482 or visit www.jeld-wen.com.
CLEAN SWEEP
Household cleaning tasks can be, well, chores.
So how about combining two tasks in one?
The AirWick FreshSweep broom combines a high performance broom with an AirWick air freshener so you freshen as you clean.
The new broom, scheduled to be in retail outlets early this summer, is the first effort between Quickie and Reckitt-Benckiser, two leaders in the household cleaning products industry.
"Fresh and clean has an associated scent," said Vince Cella, chief marketing officer, Quickie Manufacturing Corporation. "The AirWick FreshSweep brings true innovation to the broom category, with a clear, understandable and detectable benefit to the consumer."
The broom offers deep angled fibers to clean corners fast along with flagged ends to trap small dust and dirt particles. The design is powder blue, functional and durable.
It comes with one AirWick freshener already installed in the scent compartment. All you have to do is twist it open to spread the scent as you sweep. You can also adjust the scent department to meet your desired needs.
The broom has a suggested retail price of $11. The AirWick Stick-Ups can be purchased separately as needed for scent refills.
"Rarely does a consumer cleaning innovation come along that is a simple, perfect fit for millions of consumers. This is one of those products," Cella said.
For more information, visit www.quickie.com and www.reckitt.com.
CLASSY TRASH
No need to have an ugly trash can taking away from your home decor.
The Container Store offers more than 120 styles of trash cans from sleek and shiny to environmentally friendly to quirky bins that pop with color.
The Animal Swing-Lid Can adds a fun, whimsical touch to bedrooms and bathrooms. The critters are so cute your kids will enjoy cleaning up. The 12.7-quart cans also may be used as storage bins for kids' toys.
The collection is available in a tiger, panda, pig or frog and retails for $10.
For more information, visit www.containerstore.com.
© Copley News Service