Last year, us UK consumers bought a whopping 400 million litres of paint to slap on our walls, and it’s a fair bet that much of that was in the imaginative hue of Magnolia. But according to 70% of estate agents, there’s no such thing as too much beige; paint the interior of your home with anything more daring and you could be wiping up to £3000 off the value of your home.

Apparently Magnolia is the cat’s pyjamas in this arena thanks to its warmth and light-reflecting properties which denote a sense a space and cleanliness, generally making people feel more optimistic. Okey dokey…

Oddly though, have you ever noticed that the flowers on your average Magnolia tree are nothing like the colour of Magnolia paint…?

Despite the efforts of both the RICS and The Tories, from 1st June 2007, all homes put up for sale will need a Home Information Pack to have been prepared before marketing of the property begins. But cunningly, if you put your house on the market before this date, you won’t need a pack at all, saving you the £350 it costs to get one put together. If you fail to sell your property before 2008 however, you'll need to get HIP!

The packs essentially ensure that sellers have got all their paperwork in order up front; it includes an index of contents, a statement summarising the sale terms, title evidence, search results and leasehold documents. The biggest change, though, is the Energy Performance Certificate, which is a bit like one of those stickers you get on the front of washing machines, telling you how energy efficient your new home is.

Go to homeinformationpacks.gov.uk for more info.

Now simplifyDIY can’t tell you where you put your Title Deeds ‘for safe keeping’, but we can tell you how you might make your home more energy efficient…

Fancy winning one of our rather handy mini tape measure keyrings, plus a few to hand out to your friends?

Thought so… just e-mail us at winstuff@simplifydiy.com with the tools we’re describing in the equations below, and three lucky readers will win big (well, small…they’re mini tape measures after all)!

Struggling? Click here for clues

Your bathroom is a place to seek a little P&Q*, so the last thing you expect is your toilet to burst into flames. But 180,000 Japanese toilets are to be replaced by their manufacturer after three of them did attempt a spot of spontaneous combustion.

These high-tech bits of kit incorporate an electric bidet featuring a pulsating massage spray, power dryer and tornado flush (!), and are apparently all the rage in Japan. Evidently a singed bottom is not, however, that popular.

* Peace & Quiet

That’s the Waste Electrical, Electronic Equipment Directive.

Seems recycling, the environment and all things green are top of the pops at the moment, but as our political parties tussle over who’s the greenest, we’ll still be the last major European country to comply with the WEEE directive.

The Japanese, on the other hand, worked out a long time ago that they wouldn’t have the space to keep landfilling all their household appliances and gadgetry, so they introduced a law whereby the cost of recycling these things is included in the retail price, and all the appliances carry a mark to say so. Like it!

Now 80% of their domestic electronics are recycled, while the rest of us allow discarded computers alone to constitute a whopping 5% of our total waste!

Y’know all that sleek, practical stuff you can buy from MUJI shops on the high street? Well, they’ve just done the same with the modular housing they’ve added to their product portfolio in Japan.

For a very reasonable 16 million Yen (about £75,000), the flat-pack gaff is a two storey, open-plan space, with dimensions to perfectly accommodate that MUJI furniture too.

OK, it’s not Grand Designs, but…