I found this article on how you can optimize the bathroom in a house to make it less cluttered and more like a spa....

If you’ve ever been to a spa, you’ll understand the role an orderly environment plays in creating the ultimate relaxing retreat. Creating order in your bathroom will help you replicate that spa experience and give you a soothing place where you can take care of your body and get away from it all. An organized bathroom will ensure you start your day off right because you will be without the added stress of digging through mounds of make-up in a drawer or searching inside a dark cupboard for a bar of soap.

Here are some tips on how to create a sense of harmony in your bathroom:

• A neat bathroom looks more spacious than a cluttered one. Keep only essential items visible and put everything else away.
• Keep aromatherapy candles and a lighter nearby so ambience can be added at a moment’s notice.
• Paint the bathroom in pale, soft colours like pastels, neutrals, and whites for a harmonious feel. Cool colours give the feeling of serenity that is found in spas.

Using these tips to organize your bathroom will give you the comfort, relaxation, luxury, and warmth you seek so you can start your day off right and have a place to escape to after a stressful day.

..... to get more tips read the rest of the article here.

If you're thinking of renovating your bathroom, enter for your chance to win "Canada's WISEST Bathroom". The Grand Prize Pack includes three water effiecient features: a dual flush toilet, and water conserving faucet and showerhead. Or if you need a local Professional Organizer to give you some personalized advice on how to declutter your lavatory, find them on casaGURU.

Dissecting The Dual-Flush Toilet

Water conservation is trickling to the tips of tongues when talking about environmental issues these days.

Did you “kn-l’eau” that Canada is the second largest consumer of water per capita in the world, runner up only to the US? On average, Canucks apparently use more than 300 litres of water per person, per day... that’s almost quadruple the amount of the average Swede! If you’re curious about your water consumption, try the American Standard Water Calculator or this one from the CSGNetwork.

Of that amount of water usage, your home toilet accounts for approximately 30 per cent of indoor water use. One way to combat that is dual flush toilets. If you’ve traveled to Europe, chances are you’ve seen these and even possibly been confused about how to flush the first time. Basically a dual-flush toilet allows you to either choose a full flush or a half flush, depending on how much needs to go down the drain.

Now these conserving (though initially confusing) commodes are becoming more prominant in Canada. Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) did research regarding dual flush toilets and discovered that with them significant water savings were achieved. It was found that flush volumes in households were reduced 68 per cent and the dual flush toilets saved an average of 26 per cent more water than single-flush 6-litre toilets that replaced non-efficient toilets.

So now that you know the facts it’s up to you to see how you can help quench Canada’s water consumption problem. casaGURU is making a contribution with American Standard by hosting a contest to win “Canada’s WISEST Bathroom.” One lucky homeowners will win the Grand Prize Package, which includes an American Standard FloWise™ Dual Flush Toilet, FloWise™Showerhead, and an American Standard Faucet. Ten other lucky winners will receive American Standard FloWise™ Showerheads. Also be sure to check out Emer’s Guide to Energy Saving Programs that outlines grants and rebates that can help homeowners make their homes more green.

Do your part in order to make worrying about water just water under the bridge!

Win a Luxury Loo

casaGURU and American Standard are teaming up to help homeowners win “Canada’s WISEST Bathroom.” This dream package will provide one lucky homeowner with the commode-ities to create a luxurious and water efficient bathroom.

The Grand Prize Package includes an American Standard FloWise™ Dual Flush Toilet, FloWise™ Showerhead, and an American Standard Faucet. Ten other lucky winners will receive American Standard FloWise™ Showerheads.

You can increase your chances of winning by entering once a day up until the deadline date of September 11th, by recommending the site to all your friends and family, and by following us on Twitter, becoming a fan on Facebook and bookmarking casaGURU on Google.

casaGURU has teamed up with Habitat for Humanity for the casaGURU Cares campaign. When you sign up for your free casaGURU.com membership, a donation will be made to the Habitat for Humanity chapter nearest you.

Now that we've been running casaGURU cares for a little while, we felt it was time to make sure people knew just how H4H works.

Habitat for Humanity works through volunteer labour, efficient management and tax-deductible donations of money and materials used to build and rehabilitate houses. The houses are then sold to families at no profit and financed with affordable, no-interest mortgages and these families must participate in the building of their home and others. The homeowners' monthly mortgage payments go into a revolving fund, which is used to build more houses.

Just like you learnt the rain cycle through flow charts in high school science, here’s an easy to follow one for the H4H process:

1. Eligible homeowners are identified and then prepared for home ownership.
2. Future homeowners are assisted in the building of their new home with donated funds, material and labour.
3. The home is purchased with a down payment of 500 hours of sweat equity*.
4. The interest-free mortgage is amortized to ensure that payments are always 25 per cent of the homeowner’s income.
5. The mortgage payments are reinvested back into the home ownership program.

This cycle shows how H4H attempts to break the cycle of poverty.

There are three criterias to qualify for a Habitat home:

A. Need for affordable housing

B. Ability to repay a Habitat mortgage

C. Willingness to partner with Habitat

We already talked about high school science, so how about a little history lesson?

H4H was founded in 1976 in Americus, Georgia. The seed of the movement was “partnership housing” so those in need of shelter worked alongside volunteers from all walks of life to build simple, decent housing. This movement spread north of the border and into Canada in 1985 when the first Canadian chapter was founded in Winkler, Manitoba. Canada now has 70 affiliates in 10 provinces and 2 territories.

Here are some interesting facts about H4H:

• H4H International spans 93 countries, has built more than 225,000 homes and is currently building a new home every 21 minutes.
• H4H Canada consists of more than 35,000 volunteers
• The average cost per square foot of Habitat houses in Canada is about $50 (this cost reflects building materials and services only and labour is volunteered).
• Because all mortgage payments are reinvested into building more affordable homes, donations (both manual and financial) truly are gifts that keep on giving.
• Volunteers do not need to have prior construction skills. However, most volunteers will have them once they’re finished their experience as they works alongside experienced trades people on the sites.
• H4H is a hand up, not a hand out. Families who participate don’t sit around waiting for their house to be built, they participate directly in its construction. In fact, each family is required to put in 500 hours of sweat equity in their house and other H4H houses.
• Because H4H is a registered charitable organization, you can receive an official tax receipts for donations of cash and gift-in-kind building materials.

What's another great way to help Habitat for Humanity? casaGURU Cares! When you sign up for your free online account, casaGURU.com will make a donation to the Habitat for Humanity affiliate closest to you. So what're you waiting for? Sign up now!

*Sweat equity is the contribution of time and effort to a project. In this case, the physical building of a home.

casaGURU and casaGURU Cares are gathering steam as they raise homeowner awareness via traditional media and social media sites.

There have been lots of exciting things happening at casaGURU lately, both online and on TV.

Our President, Carl Mascarenhas, was interviewed by Julie Matthews on Global Edmonton’s Trouble Shooting segment. There he was able to illustrate how casaGURU helps homeowners find reputable professionals using the example of Home Style Construction. And the camera keeps on rolling as Carl will be heading to Ottawa to film a segment with CTV. So, everyone in the Ottawa area should keep their eyes out for that! (We’ll try and give you a heads up as to details of the air time when it's ironed out.)

We’ve also added a great new way to keep up to date with what’s happening with casaGURU Cares by creating a Twitter page dedicated to Habitat for Humanity. Feel free to follow us and shoot us a Tweet about how you’re helping. BuildDirect has already found about our philanthropic program via Twitter. Read what they had to say about it. You can also become a fan of us on Facebook! There we make sure we keep you informed on what's happening at casaGURU, new features, contests, articles, etc.

Stay tuned as there's much more just around the bend.