Keep your home germ-free with these tips for cleaning your home1. Underside of Rugs
To remove dust and dirt that's gone deep down into the rug, simply flip it over and vacuum the underside.

2. Blinds
The material they're made of - metal, wood, or fabric - determines how you dust them. For metal blinds, wipe with a sock lightly dampened with water or multi-purpose cleaner. For wood blinds follow the same procedure using only a little tap water. Do not overwet the wood and be sure to buff dry right away. For fabric blinds, go over the blinds with a dry microfiber cloth.

3. Credit Cards
These everyday essentials get handled by lots of people, and germs can lurk in the crevices around the numbers. Give debit and credit cards a quick cleaning with an alcohol wipe and let them air dry before placing them back in your wallet.

Related: How To Speed Clean Your Bathroom In Just Minutes

4. Kitchen Trash Can
Clean your can or the plastic liner in your utility room sink, the shower, or outside. (Be sure to

Having stylish, functional furniture may be more important in the living room than it is in any home space! That's because we spend oodles of time here! It's where we watch TV, where we meet with friends and family when they head over for holidays or a routine weekend get-together. Thus, I've rounded up some of the trendiest and sturdiest of one living room staple: the coffee table! Of course, this piece of furniture is indispensable. It's where we prop up our feet after a long day at work, and where our guests set their drinks while engaging in casual conversation. If you nail nothing else when it comes to home furniture, nab an in-style, good-quality coffee table!

Here are 6 trendy coffee tables for your living room:

1.) Normann Copenhagen Tablo Table
Simple White Table









I love this coffee table by Normann Copenhagen. Its simple design allows for you to be creative in other areas of your home decor -- and it would fit in any living space!
Get it at Normann Copenhagen, $550.00

2.) Hay Tray Table

This tray would easily double as a modern and sleek coffee table!














The

Read food labels and avoid unhealthy ingredientsWhen we go grocery shopping, most of us think we're making healthy choices. But are we really? Joining Away We Grow host Diane Mizota is supermarket guru Phil Lempert, who will help to decode labels and reveal the top ingredients to avoid.

Related: Not so fast! Three tips for reading food labels

We all probably know that we should avoid salt, sugar, and fat. But Lempert notes that these three ingredients may have different names on a label. "So when you look at a label, you really have to be more detective-oriented to know what that sugar really is, what that sodium really is," he says.

Related: 8 alarmingly unhealthy snacks for kids


The key to decoding labels is to read the ingredients and then look at the nutritional facts panel. "In the case of sodium, just remember that baking soda or baking powder or anything that has the word sodium in it, that's salt," says Lempert. He adds, "Sugars can be high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, honey, dextrose, all these things."

If you

Mom can help with brushing teeth.

"Brush your teeth. Brush your hair. We only have 20 minutes to get out of here. Did you remember to go potty? Go potty! We've got to go in 15 minutes. Please, hurry up! You have to brush the back of your hair, too. Hurry up! We have to leave the house in 10 minutes! Five minutes! HURRY!"

I can't even begin to count the number of times I have called out that exact set of instructions in an ever more frantic voice as I tried to get my three kids all dressed, brushed and out the door on time. My friends tease me when I am late, which is too often. But I've been getting better, and today my family was 10 minutes early for our homeschool group activity. My friends were impressed. Here are some tips to help you get your kids in and out of the bathroom in 15 minutes or less so you can be on time, too.

Wake up early

A sleepy kid is a slow kid. Mine have actually fallen asleep on the toilet while I was trying to prod them along. If you have someplace to be, get your kids up at least

Courtesy of Thayer Allison GowdySarah-Jane Bedwell, SELF

Ordering in for dinner tonight? You might want to pick up the phone to place your order before you click "Place Order" on that website. A recent study conducted by Ryan McDevitt, a professor from the Simon School of Business at the University of Rochester, found that customers who ordered pizzas on the internet made much more calorie laden choices--sometimes quadrupling their bacon and piling on toppings sky-high--compared to those that ordered on the phone or in person.

But ordering online doesn't have to send your healthy diet out to cyberspace never to be seen again. In fact, according to the folks at GrubHub.com, a nationwide online ordering platform, this may be the year of healthier takeout. Their research found that what are considered to be "healthy orders" have spiked nationwide by approximately 10 percent in the first three weeks of 2013, with no current signs of a downturn.

See more: The Flat-Abs-Fast Secret

Perhaps this is because

Sarah-Jane Bedwell, SELF magazine

Loaded with heart-healthy fats, vitamins and fiber, avocados are quite the tasty way to dish up your daily dose of superfoods. We know they're great on their own--say, served straight up with a dash of sea salt and a spoon--but when you feel like mixing it up, try these creative ways to enjoy avocados. Seriously #NomNom.

Grill it. I mean, look at that picture--how delicious does that look? To make, simply peel, core, add a splash of olive oil and lemon juice, and grill on medium heat for three minute on each side. How easy was that?

Make pesto. Replacing the traditional oil and nuts with avocado adds a unique nutritional burst of flavor in this unique pesto recipe that's chock-full of fresh basil, a bit of parmesan and garlic. Enjoy it over pasta, on whole-grain crackers or drizzled over shrimp.

See more: 20 Superfoods for Weight Loss

Add to your smoothie. Your smoothie is about to get a serious texture boost without an epic amount of extra

Use this cleaning checklist to kill all the germs in your cooking zone.By Arricca Elin SanSone

Think your kitchen is squeaky clean? Not so fast. "Moisture and food particles make it the perfect environment for growing germs that can make you sick," says Kelly A. Reynolds, PhD, an environmental microbiologist at the University of Arizona's Zuckerman College of Public Health in Tucson. "If you're not killing them, you can go from 10 microbes to millions within 24 hours." And the more germs there are, the more likely you are to get sick from one. Here's where they're hiding and what you can do about it. Photo by Thinkstock.

Related: 9 Innovative Products Every Kitchen Should Have.

Your Coffee Maker
Coffee might not be the only thing brewing in there. The NSF found yeast and mold growing in about half the coffee pot reservoirs they surveyed. "These organisms can cause allergic responses in some people," says Dr. Donofrio-and make your coffee taste bad too, says Dr. Reynolds.

What to do: Once a month, fill the reservoir with vinegar and let it stand

6 ways to help an older sibling cope with jealousyAdding a new family member is a big transition for everyone. If it's your first, you have to get used to being responsible for someone other than just yourself 24/7. Even though I was a nanny for many years before becoming a mother, I still had a pretty significant adjustment period when we brought our daughter Zinashi home.

Then when we added baby Elvie to our family, we had to adjust again, but also help Zinashi adjust to having another little person vying for our time and attention. While we'd done our best to teach her to wait and to be considerate of the needs of others before Elvie came, there was nothing that we could do that would truly prepare her. We laid some foundations, and Zinashi was truly overjoyed to become a big sister, everyday life sometimes presents big opportunities for little jealousies to creep in. It's normal for an older sibling to feel a little displaced when a new baby enters the family, and we recognize that. Just a little added effort on our part has made