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Resolution: Put Your House on a Diet

Article by HouseLogic Published: January 11, 2011

Follow these six tips to get your home trim and clutter-free in the new year.

Every January, millions of people pledge to lose weight by hitting the gym or going on a diet. But like our bodies, our homes also accumulate excess baggage. So this New Year, why not put your house on a diet? Here are six tips to help your home lose its “love handles” of old clothes, obsolete gadgets, furniture and more. Now you and your house can both meet your weight-loss goals this year.

Do the 27-fling boogie

You might not be able to think of 27 things in your house you no longer use, but if you get a box and don’t stop until you find them, you’ll clear up space and have something to donate to a local charity. FlyLady, who learned this tip from Suze Orman, adds this advice: “As soon as you finish filling the box, take it to the car. You are less tempted to rescue the items.” You can also do this again for a 54-Fling Boogie, and send 27 more items directly to the trash.

The biggest losers

If your home is on the obese side of the spectrum, it calls for extreme measures. A Bagster acts just like a dumpster but with the portability of a large shopping bag. Just fill the container with all of the items you’re ready to let go of, schedule a pickup, and before you know it, you’ll have shaved some serious weight off your home.

Oprah’s diet plan

If you’ve been loath to help your home lose that extra baggage because you don’t know what to do with the items, Oprah has the answer. She gives a comprehensive, state-by-state list of where to get rid of anything from furniture to that old pair of golf clubs. Plus, you get to help a local charity.

Lose that post-child weight

Did your kids skip town but leave their clutter? When children go to college or move out, their old stuff can add some serious heft to your home. It’s best to get them to come clean it out themselves—they know what items are significant, and which ones aren’t. But if they moved across the country, and home visits are too precious to waste cleaning, you can do the deed virtually. Just take photos of their items, upload them into a shareable album, and have them choose what gets sent to them and what gets pitched.

Don’t let the mailman ruin your diet

A few days of piled-up mail can easily put a few extra pounds on your kitchen table. Household advisor FlyLady says to combat the daily onslaught, deal with the paperwork the moment it comes into the house with a garbage can and calendar at your side. Then always put the bills in the same place, and set one or two days a month to tackle them.

Book yourself a healthier weight

It’s hard to let go of books you’ve read, but bookshelves can only hold so many. Put them to a new use—as shelves! This simple DIY project actually uses your old books as a storage solution. With this, you’ll clear out your place and–just like with your own diet–you’ll probably impress your friends.

If you’ve lost the extra weight and still have a messy house on your hands, consider some of our top organization tips: 7 Storage Solutions You Didn’t Know You Had, Pegboard Storage Solutions: Hole-y Sheet!, and Low-Cost Kitchen Storage: Cheap Stress Reduction.

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Top-10 List of New Year’s Resolutions for Your Home

HouseLogic’s Top-10 List of New Year’s Resolutions for Your Home

Article by HouseLogic By: John Riha Published: December 30, 2011

When the new year arrives, promises and resolutions abound. Here’s the top-10 list of what the resolute home owner should accomplish this year.

This time, it’s going to be different. A brand new year, brimming with possibilities, and you’ve resolved to move through your house like a whirling tornado of can-do, fixing, painting, and organizing. This year, nothing will stop you.

Welcome to your home improvement New Year’s Resolutions.

Based on the most-common top-ten resolutions gathered by Time magazine, USA.gov, and other sources, we’ve put together an inspiring list of home management goals.

1. Lose weight (cut energy use)

Your house is a glutton, gobbling energy like a starved elephant. Gain control by trimming energy use.

A good place to start is your HVAC ductwork. Ducts are notorious energy-wasters, leaking your heating and cooling air through holes and loose connections.

Sealing and insulating your ductwork can improve the efficiency of your heating and cooling system by as much as 20%, saving you $200 per year or more, according to Energy Star. You’ll make your home more comfortable, and a more-efficient system helps extend the life of your furnace, air conditioner, or heat pump.

Because ducts are usually hidden inside walls, ceilings, attics, and crawl spaces, sealing and insulating them may be a difficult and time-consuming DIY job. If you can’t reach all your ducts, concentrate on those that are accessible.

Use duct sealant — called mastic — or metal-backed tape to seal the seams, holes, and connections. Don’t use the confusingly named “duct tape,” which won’t provide a permanent solution. Be sure to seal connections at vents and floor registers — these are likely places for leaks to occur.

After sealing your ducts, wrap them in fiberglass insulation. Most hardware stores and home improvement centers have insulation wrap products made for ducts.

A professional heating and cooling contractor will charge $1,000 to $4,000 for the work, including materials, depending on the size of your home and accessibility to your ducts.

Insulating your ductwork may qualify for a rebate from your state or local municipality. Check the Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency.

2. Quit smoking (purify indoor air)

The EPA lists indoor air quality as one of the top environmental health hazards. That’s because indoor air is full of potential contaminants, such as dust, mold spores, pollen, and viruses. The problem is at its worst during winter, when windows and doors are shut tight.

You can help eliminate harmful lung irritants in your home with these maintenance and improvement tips:

  • Maintain your HVAC system and change furnace filters regularly. Use the highest-quality filters you can afford ($10-$20) and change every month during peak heating and cooling seasons.
  • Keep indoor air pristine by using low-VOC paints when you remodel your rooms.
  • Use localized ventilation in kitchens and bathrooms to remove cooking fumes, smoke, and excess humidity. Make sure ventilation systems exhaust air to the outside of your home, rather than your attic crawl space or between ceiling joists.
  • In fireplaces and wood stoves, burn real firewood rather than pressed wood products that may contain formaldehyde.
  • Use a portable air cleaner to help cleanse the air in single rooms. Portable air cleaner types include mechanical air filters, electrostatic precipitators, ion generators, and ultraviolet lamps.

Note that each type of air cleaner is designed to remove specific pollutants; no portable air cleaner removes all pollutants. Be wary of air cleaners that generate ozone — a known lung irritant.

3. Get out of debt (budget for improvements) 

Creating a yearly budget for home improvement and maintenance helps prevent overspending, and encourages you to put aside money for major replacements — such as new roofing or a kitchen appliance — that come up every few years.

Protect your home finances by knowing how much you’ll probably spend each year. Data from the U.S. Census Bureau says that average annual maintenance and home improvement expenditures are about $3,300 per household. Leading lending institutions agree; HSH Associates and LendingTree.com place average costs of yearly maintenance and upkeep at 1% to 3% of your home’s initial price.

That means the owner of a $250,000 home should budget between $2,500 to $7,500 each year for upkeep and replacements. Have extra at the end of the year? Save it for more costly upkeep and replacement items down the road — you’ll probably need it then.

4. Learn something new (educate yourself on home finances)

Want a little education that goes a long way toward your financial health? Learning how to improve your insurance score can help you keep your home insurance premiums from getting out of hand. Here are a couple of easy lessons:

  • Letting credit card debt build up is a black mark on your credit history — and an indicator that you’re likely to file an insurance claim. The more claims, the higher risk you appear to be to insurance agencies, which lowers your insurance score. Low scores mean higher rates for home insurance.
  • Keep payments on loans up-to-date. Don’t miss payment deadlines; if you do, notify your lender that your payment is forthcoming. Delinquent payments signal insurers that you can’t manage your money — resulting in a lower insurance score.

Need some Home Owner 101? Any time is a good time to bone up on basic home maintenance skills.

5. Get organized (de-clutter) 

No excuses — that clutter has got to go! Start by creating more storage space so you can stash stuff easily.

At wit’s end for new storage space? You’ve probably got storage solutions you didn’t know you had. Put up a high shelf between the walls of a narrow hallway, and tuck storage in out-of-the-way nooks, such as under-stairs spaces and between wall studs.

If your small home is pinched for space, don’t despair: There’s still room for storage. Shoe organizers ($20) do more than hold shoes — use them to store keys, notepads, and cell phones. At about $300 per drawer, have a cabinetmaker install drawers in the toe kicks of your kitchen cabinets for napkins, cookie sheets, and appliance manuals.

More: Resolution: Put Your House on a Diet

6. Volunteer (support your community)

In a world that often seems topsy-turvy, a little altruism helps restore balance. You can volunteer your time and energy to help others, and at the same time help promote safety and preserve the value of your neighborhood.

  • A neighborhood watch program fosters a sense of community and helps stop crime. Set up a meeting with neighbors to discuss concerns and priorities. Gather facts to present at the meeting: What kinds of crimes happen nearby? Are there patterns? Ask a local police representative to come to your first meeting to answer questions.
  • Start a community garden. Bring together neighbors for bonding, eating healthier, and saving on groceries. A 4-by-16-foot raised bed garden plot provides $200-$600 worth of food annually. As the organizer, you can expect to spend 20-30 per month for six months getting your community garden going.

7. Drink less (curb home water use) 

Our houses are thirsty. The average household uses about 400 gallons of water each day, or almost $700 per year in water and sewer costs. Making a few simple changes, such as installing EPA-certified WaterSense products, could trim up to $200 from your annual water bill. Add to that energy savings from reduced costs to heat water, and your yearly savings could reach $300 or more per year.

  • Low-flow showerheads include technology that reduces the amount of flow yet keeps pressure up, resulting in shower streams that are powerful and satisfying. They cost from $10 to $150, and installation is an easy DIY job that takes only minutes.
  • Replacing your pre-1994, water-guzzling toilet with a low-flow toilet prevents $90 worth of water costs from being flushed away. HE (high-efficiency) toilets use compressed air and electric water pumps to flush with less than 1 gallon of water; older models required up to 8 gallons.

8. Spend more time with family (share home improvement projects)

Spending quality time with your family takes quality planning — but it’s worth the effort. Rally your family around these fun-to-do projects to make every minute count:

  • Plant a tree. Pile the clan into the family wagon and shop for a tree that’ll become a new member of your family. Have your kids name it and help care for it. You might have to dig the hole, but everyone can take turns adding mulch and watering it. A bonus: planted where its shade will protect your house from summer sun, a $50-$100 tree cuts your yearly energy bill by $100 to $250.
  • Make a home emergency preparedness kit. Make a scavenger hunt of gathering up all the necessary supplies, such as flashlights, toilet paper, and duct tape, and assemble your kit during an evening together. It’s a good, non-scary way to teach small children about what to do if there’s an emergency.

9. Get fit (exercise your DIY skills)

Looking to trim a little of the old spare tire? Routine home maintenance and repair is a double win — you’ll burn calories while keeping your house in tip-top shape. Try these essential fix-ups and improvements from CalorieLab:

  • Building a fence: 340 calories per hour
  • Caulking windows and doors: 280 calories per hour
  • Cleaning rain gutters: 272 calories per hour
  • Installing ceramic tile: 238 calories per hour
  • Interior painting: 136 calories per hour
  • Chopping firewood: 340 calories per hour
  • Mowing the lawn: 306 calories per hour
  • Planting shrubs: 238 calories per hour
  • General gardening: 204 calories per hour

10. Be less stressed (use maintenance-free materials)

If you want less to worry about, install low-maintenance materials and products designed for durability and long, trouble-free service.

  • Fiber-cement siding lasts for 50 years or more. It’s weather-proof, and resists dents, fire, insects, and rot. It’s exceptionally stable, even with changes in humidity, so that paint jobs last longer than on wood and wood-fiber siding products.
  • LED bulbs last a phenomenal 20,000 to 50,000 hours between changes, or about 18 to 46 years when used for 3 hours each day. Although the initial cost is high (about $40 per bulb), LED bulbs pay for themselves in energy savings in about 10 years.
  • Classic ceramic tile comes in many colors and textures, but at its heart it’s incredibly tough, stain-resistant, and impervious to moisture. You can count on ceramic tile’s good looks to last for decades on floors and walls without needing repair or replacement.
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Holiday Cleaning: Tips for a Guest-Ready Home

Article by HouseLogic Published: December 14, 2011 By: Courtney Craig

How deep do you go when cleaning for holiday guests? There are some who take it to the extreme — but you can have a clean home without going overboard.

If you think wiping down countertops and fluffing a few pillows in advance of the guest onslaught will land you on Santa’s “nice” list this holiday season, check that list twice. The extreme cleaners (telephone buttons! vacuum brushes! remote controls!) featured in this New York Times article may make you feel like a slacker.

But you can bring your home to sparkling guest-readiness without going overboard. A few tips from the “Times” will keep your home merry, bright, and clean:

  • Scrub your entryway. Wipe down your front door, give the doormat a good shake, and make sure dust and dirt haven’t collected on floors and furniture legs. These are the first things guests will see when they arrive, so keeping them clean will guarantee a good first impression.
  • Focus on the kitchen. People tend to gather around the food during the holidays, so make sure your kitchen looks and smells nice. Don’t forget to dust the light fixtures and flush sink drains with boiling water.
  • Whatever you do, don’t neglect the loo. Don’t just wipe surfaces; break out the stiff-bristled brush and scouring powder to really scrub things clean.
  • Sniff out bad smells. If you clean your home and something still doesn’t smell quite right, brew some coffee. The aroma will cover it up.

HouseLogic also has a few cost-conscious cleaning tips to get your home holiday ready:

  • Give your garbage disposal some love, considering how much it will “consume” this season. To cut down on odors, chop up a whole lemon — rind and all — and let the disposal gobble it up. Throw in ice cubes to sharpen the blades.
  • How about one soap for everything? If you’ve got a bottle of castile soap ($10 for a 16-oz. bottle), you’re ready for anything. It can be laundry detergent, mopping solution, and shampoo, just to name a few.
  • Make sure you can see the guests coming. Keep windows clean and streak-free on the cheap with an easy mixture of vinegar and water in a spray bottle. Wipe down windows with a reusable microfiber cloth.
  • With all your holiday cooking, stovetops and ovens are bound to get dirty. Baking soda and water make a simple scouring solution that can scrub off that baked-on gunk.
  • To save money, make your own bathroom cleaning products. For example, to unclog a drain for pennies, pour half a cup of baking soda followed by half a cup of vinegar down the drain. Cover the drain for at least 30 minutes, then flush it with boiling water.

What are your tips for keeping your home guest-ready during the holiday season?

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 Condo Rules and Regulations, HOAs, and Your Holiday Displays

Article by HouseLogic By: Marcia Jedd

Check your condo rules before you put up that menorah or Santa decoration, or you might find yourself taking your holiday decorations down a lot sooner than you planned.

If you’re one of the 62 million Americans living in condo and homeowners associations(HOAs), you don’t get to take a holiday break from condo rules. Humbug, you say? Well…

“A hallmark of a shared ownership community is that you give up some of your rights for the good of the community. If there are restrictions involving holiday decorations, including lights and signage, you’re generally bound by them,” says Ryan Poliakoff, co-author of New Neighborhoods: The Consumer’s Guide to Condominium, Co-Op and HOA Living. After all, one person’s beautiful display is another’s junk.

I want to flout condo rules and put up holiday decorations despite an HOA rule banning them. What’s going to happen to me?

  • Option 1: Nothing may happen if the HOA rules aren’t enforced.

  • Option 2: You might get a letter asking you to take down your decor.

  • Option 3: You might get fined for breaking condo rules.

Constructive ways to balance your need to deck the halls with condo rules that ban decorations:

Talk to your neighbors. If it’s your first holiday in your new home, check your association’s rules and regulations to find out what’s really allowed. Chat with the neighbors, too. Condos that ban lights and signage most of the year may be lenient about decorations during the holiday season. “But do understand these rules and regulations are enforceable by boards of corporations that are created contractually,” Poliakoff says.

Take your holiday case to the board.Call the president and ask if you can speak at the next meeting. Show up with a short written proposal to modify the HOA rules to allow specific kinds of decorations, like lights on balconies or door wreaths.

“Don’t criticize or start calling anyone names. Suggest to your board they amend their rules to allow for holiday decorations within limits,” Poliakoff says. Offer to write an email or letter outlining a holiday decorating exception that runs during a set period like Dec. 15 to Jan. 1.

Check state laws on condo rules. Got no satisfaction from your trip to the condo board? You might be able to appeal to a higher authority. Some states have a large body of home owners association laws that may override HOA rules in certain instances, while other states have few home owners association laws.

“There are laws in some states that do allow the display of items such as religious items or wreaths,” Poliakoff says.

If you can argue state law, sharing a copy of the law with the condo rule-makers may get them to change their minds about holiday decorations. If it doesn’t, you can consult a lawyer to find out about how much it will cost to sue your condo board to force it to follow state laws.

Bottom line: Living in a shared association is about give and take. And you’re always free to decorate your home’s interior as you like.

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5 Holiday Hosting Disasters and How to Avoid Them

Article From HouseLogic.com 

Take a look at the most common things that can go wrong when you have guests and learn how to prevent them.

Imagine you’re preparing to host your annual holiday party, and you’re past the point of no return. The veggies and meats have been bought. Guests are already braving busy airports and crowded highways to get to your home — and then your oven won’t turn on. Your home-cooked meal has quickly turned into a microwave dinner.

That’s just one of many hosting nightmares that can end your holiday party before it even begins. Thankfully, some of the most damaging mishaps easily can be avoided. We collected five of the most prevalent issues and give you preventative tips to keep your holiday party on track.

 

Problem: The Oven Doesn’t Heat

For any holiday occasion, the oven is the most important appliance in your house. If it fails to work, the centerpiece of your meal could go from roasted beef, ham, duck, or Tofurky to Peking Duck from the local Chinese takeout joint.

How to avoid:

  • There are any number of reasons a stove can break, but one common cause of disaster is easy to prevent. Don’t self-clean your oven until AFTER the holidays. You risk blowing a fuse or a thermostat, and tracking down an oven technician around the holidays can be tough.

Problem: The Kitchen Sink Clogs

The day after Thanksgiving is the busiest of the year for plumbers. The prime cause of this clog-a-thon is the mistreatment of drains when cooking holiday feasts. We hope your Thanksgiving went well, and that you avoid clog-a-thons for the rest of the holidays.

How to avoid:

  • Fats and cooking oils can solidify in your pipes, so never dispose of them in your kitchen sink.
  • If you have a garbage disposal, make sure it’s running before anything goes in it, and never feed it any stringy, fibrous, or starchy foods like poultry skins or potato peels.
  • To fix, don’t rely on chemical drain-clearing products that can harm your pipes. Use a snake instead, available for $15 at your local hardware store. Best to keep one on hand.

Problem: The Heat Goes Out

As the party’s host, you’re supposed to hang guests’ coats — not apologize to them for having to keep them on. A lack of heat can stop a holiday party dead in its tracks.

How to avoid:

  • The key to avoiding freezing your party to a standstill is regular maintenance of your HVAC. Every 90 days, a new one-inch pleated furnace filter should be installed. If you haven’t done it in a while, now’s a good time to replace it.
  • Also inspect insulation on refrigerant lines that are leading into your house. Replace them if they’re missing or damaged.

Related: HVAC Maintenance Checklist

Problem: The Toilet Stops Up

Toilets have a way of clogging up at the worst times, such as during parties and when you have overnight guests. This is especially true if you have a low-flow toilet from the early 1990s.

How to avoid:

  • Don’t flush anything other than sewage and toilet paper down the toilet. And there’s nothing wrong with putting up a polite note to remind your guests to do the same.

Problem: The Fridge Doesn’t Cool

Without a properly functioning refrigerator, your meat could get contaminated, your dairy-based treats could go sour, and you may not be able to save your yummy leftovers. To avoid discovering a warm fridge after it’s too late, take these simple precautions.

How to avoid:

  • Get a thermometer for your refrigerator to make sure each shelf stays below 40 degrees and you can be aware of any temperature changes.
  • Also make sure the condenser coils located on the back of the unit or beneath it are free to breathe. Coils blocked from circulating air by cereal boxes atop the fridge, or dirtied by dust or pet hair can prevent a fridge from keeping cool.
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4 Dazzling Home Holiday Light Shows: They Cost HOW Much?!

Article From HouseLogic.com Published: December 29, 2010

HouseLogic calculates the electricity costs of four very ambitious home Christmas light displays—using conventional lights and then electricity-saving LEDs.

For many home owners, decorating for the holidays is a chance to share holiday joy with their neighbors, friends, and anyone else who drives by—or flies over in an airplane. But it also can be quite a costly undertaking. Safety concerns notwithstanding, holiday lights are notorious power leeches that take a toll on your electric bill.

To demonstrate, HouseLogic used the average price per kWh in each home’s region to roughly calculate the dollar damage sustained by some of the more extravagant Christmas light displays (assuming each bulb was the average 5 watt C7 bulb). And just for fun, we did rough estimates of energy bill savings if all the lights were LEDs. While LEDs are more expensive than traditional bulbs to purchase, they use up to 90% less energy and last a lot longer.

Noel, times a million

In Delaware, 1,000,000 twinkling lights signal the start of the holiday season. You read that right–one million! The Faucher family has been slowing traffic to a crawl with their home Christmas display for about 25 years with this ambitious and breathtaking endeavor.

  • Estimated cost: $686/hour; keeping them lit for 4 hours a night over 30 days (about a month) adds up to $82,320.
  • Estimated cost using only LEDs: $89/hour; $10,680/month
  • Possible electric bill savings: $597/hour; $71,640/month.

A wired wonderland

This home located on Balboa Island in the middle of Newport Harbor, Calif., draws thousands of viewers from all over every year—including visitors who travel by boat! An electronically bedazzled feast for the eyes, the Zimmerman house uses 25,000 lights (digitally synchronized to Christmas songs), to bring its glowing treasures to life–including blinking candy canes, bells, snowflakes, and a 25-foot tree.

  • Estimated cost (lights only): $19/hour; keeping them lit for 4 hours a night over 30 days adds up to $2,280/month.
  • Estimated cost using only LEDs: $2.50/hour; $300/month.
  • Possible electric bill savings: $16.50/hour; $1,980/month.

Next stop: Santa’s Toy Shop

For nearly 40 years, Dick Norton and his family in Burbank, Calif., have pulled out all the stops to create this winter wonderland, complete with a combination of digital displays and analog props, including a North Pole Express train that emits steam, an animated merry-go-round, Santa’s Toy Shop, and 10,000 lights. The display is a thing of wonder to be sure, but paying for the juice to run the elaborate attraction — even with the inclusion of a few LEDs — probably isn’t as wonderful.

  • Estimated cost (lights only): $7.50/hour; keeping them lit for 4 hours a night over 30 days adds up to $900/month.
  • Estimated cost using only LEDs: $1/hour; $120/month.
  • Possible electric bill savings: $6.50/hour; $780/month.

40,000 and counting

The Lagerstrom family’s obsession with Christmas lights started back in 2002 with 4,000 lights. This year they plan 45,000. And the Lagerstroms, from Canada’s British Columbia, don’t plan to stop there, with an ultimate goal of 250,000 lights. They also are in the process of switching to LEDs, which will lower their costs as we estimate here.

  • Estimated cost (this year, if all incandescent): $17/hour; 4 hours a night for 30 days comes out to $2,040.
  • Estimated cost using all LEDs: $2/hour or $240 for the month.
  • Possible electric bill savings: $15/hour or $1,800 for the month.

Green alternatives

The Holdman family display in Pleasant Grove, Utah, uses about 150,000 lights and is 100% wind powered. But if you expect to see a giant wind turbine in their front yard, look again. The Holdmans use renewable energy credits (RECs), which put power back on the grid from a wind energy facility.

Another green solution is Christmas light timers. Having an automatic shut-off time can prolong the lifespan of your lights, and ensure that you don’t over-expend energy.

Solar Christmas lights are another way to go. They rely on a solar panel to absorb sunlight during the day. When the sun goes down, the lights automatically come on.

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