Active Stocks
Thu Mar 28 2024 15:59:33
  1. Tata Steel share price
  2. 155.90 2.00%
  1. ICICI Bank share price
  2. 1,095.75 1.08%
  1. HDFC Bank share price
  2. 1,448.20 0.52%
  1. ITC share price
  2. 428.55 0.13%
  1. Power Grid Corporation Of India share price
  2. 277.05 2.21%
Business News/ Mint-lounge / More for less: Save time, money and effort
BackBack

More for less: Save time, money and effort

More for less: Save time, money and effort

Premium

And unless one decorates one’s house for oneself alone, best leave it bare, for other people are all wall-eyed. — D.H. Lawrence

10 ways to make the most of your outdoors

A lawn is the worst use of your yard: too much care and cost (for mowing, fertilizing and reseeding) and none of the benefits—shade, soil protection, flowers or fruit— that a shrub or tree provides.

Click here to read more on 10 ways to make the most of your outdoors

Lose the glass for sheer class

Glass curtain walls for office buildings are often self-defeating because they let in more light and heat than is required or comfortable, providing business to window-blind manufacturers, while inflating air-conditioning costs.

Click here to read more on Lose the glass for sheer class

3 bricks to build by

• When building, minimize the variety of materials and products you use to push costs down. The more common and ordinary the materials are, the better it is.

Focus, instead, on new ways to feature or assemble them. It is far better to have a great building with ordinary materials than an ordinary building with great materials.

• Plant more trees on the building site. They help create distance between buildings, even those that are next to each other. It also makes the place look larger than it is.

Click here to read more on 3 bricks to build by

In the ‘lime’light

• Yes, low-VOC (volatile organic compound) paint is expensive, but a water-based rather than oil-based paint will also make a significant dent in indoor pollution.

Better still, choose lime plaster or limewash (lime paani), which you can leave exposed, unlike plaster of paris. Limewash lets the wall breathe and develops a lovely patina over time. If you must have colour, some mineral pigments work very well with alkaline lime (such as the red iron oxide that was used in traditional floors).

Click here to read more on In the ‘lime’light

Contributors: Himanshu Burte, Minhazz Majumdar, Benita Sen and Manidipa Mandal.

Write to us at businessoflife@livemint.com

Unlock a world of Benefits! From insightful newsletters to real-time stock tracking, breaking news and a personalized newsfeed – it's all here, just a click away! Login Now!

Catch all the Business News, Market News, Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.
More Less
Published: 05 Feb 2009, 01:21 AM IST
Next Story footLogo
Recommended For You
Switch to the Mint app for fast and personalized news - Get App