There is only so much you can change in your environment to maximize recording. While I agree with Torsten that you get out of a recording what you put in, not many people can rearrange their life (or house!) to accommodate recording.

With that said, I go to a blog called the Recording Revolution that is targeted to home recordists. Graham has a free blog he posts regularly on. He does have other products you can purchase that go deep but the free and frequent blogs are very, very useful.

Here are a couple of blogs that talk to your questions:

Stop Worrying About Room Acoustics

Bad Recording Environment? No Problem