Five Ways to Cut Down on Clutter 12/05/10

by Crystal on April 7, 2010

You’ve heard the saying before: “A place for everything and everything in its place.”
Now, as you can clearly see from my house, I’m not a perfect homemaker. I have three young children and I’m not always as self-disciplined as I’d like to be. However, I do make a concerted effort to keep my home clutter-free and organized.
Here are five things which help me:

1) Ongoing Garage Sale Boxes

I have a designated spot in our home for garage sale boxes. In our current home, this is under the stairs. As I find things we no longer need or use, I start filling up a box. When one box is full, I fill up another. And so on.
Instead of moving an item around from one room to the next when we aren’t using it anymore, I pitch it in the garage sale boxes and it’s out of our way. This method makes preparing for a garage sale quite simple since I already have a huge head start on collecting stuff to sell.

2) Annual Clutter Elimination

Once or twice a year, I go through my home from top to bottom and am ruthless about eliminating clutter. Every nook and cranny is cleaned out and every item is evaluated. By doing this on a regular basis, no area of our home ever becomes unmanageable. Rooms or closets might be messy or unkempt at times, but they never get so overwhelming that I can’t deal with them.

3) The No-Pile Rule

Except for my husband’s dresser and our laundry basket, we try to strictly adhere to a no-pile rule. I’ve found that a small pile quickly grows–without any effort. So if you don’t start a pile in the first place, you can avoid a lot of disorganization.

4) In the Door, In Its Place

Instead of piles of paper around from place to place until you have time to deal with them, take care of them immediately. When the mail or other papers come into our home, I go through it right then and there and throw out everything that we don’t have to keep.
Bills go on my husband’s dresser, magazines go in my top dresser drawer to await the next doctor’s appointment, freebies go in the household product stockpile closet, coupons go in my coupon box, and junk mail goes in the trash. Within just a few minutes, the mail is completely dealt with

5) Avoid Clutter-Collecting Furniture

I’m a minimalist, if there ever was one, and I’ve found my utilitarian nature helps avoid heaps of clutter. How? Because we don’t have furniture which tends to be clutter hot-spots for others. This might come as a shock, but even though I have a home business, I don’t have a computer desk. I have a top dresser drawer that I keep a few business-related items in and we have a small filing cabinet–and that’s it.
I’ve found that when there’s no place to collect piles, you are much less apt to make them.
What about you? What are some ways you cut down on clutter in your home?

How to Cut Home Heating Costs this Winter

Courtesy of ARAcontent

Some savvy homeowners are having their cake and eating it too when it comes to energy-efficient home heating. Imagine cutting your heating bills, while boosting your home's comfort. Sound too good to be true? Not for the thousands of homeowners who are using radiant floor heating, one of the oldest and most efficient means of heating a home.

The technology, dating back to the ancient Romans, uses warm water to heat the floor, instead of a furnace to heat the air. Modern radiant systems pump warm water through an in-floor network of PEX tubing (crosslinked polyethylene), which, in essence, turns a home's entire floor into a massive whole-room radiator.

Many families actually feel warmer at a lower thermostat setting with radiant floor heating than at a higher temperature required with conventional forced-air heating systems. Studies conducted by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) indicate that people with radiant heating systems can be comfortable at temperatures 6 to 8 degrees lower than with forced-air systems. The lower thermostat setting means using less energy and saving more money.

Feel warmer at a lower temperature
Picture a beautiful sunny day. It's 65 degrees outdoors, and you are standing under a large tree. You may feel a bit chilly if there's a breeze; but as soon as you step into the sunlight, you're comfortable again. The air temperature is roughly the same in both sun and shade, but you feel OK because the sun's radiant heat waves warm you directly.

The same concept applies to a home with radiant floor heating. As the invisible waves of thermal radiation rise from the floor, they warm you and all the surrounding furnishings, which radiate that captured heat.

Contrast that with what happens in a conventional forced-air heating system, the kind found in most American homes. Hot air blows out of the registers and rises to the top of the room where it quickly sheds heat and then drops back down as it cools.

In a radiant home, all that warmth stays at the floor level where the people and, most importantly, their feet live. And if your feet are warm and comfortable, chances are, so are you.

"Because radiant heating warms people and objects directly—as opposed to the surrounding air—residents are more comfortable, while often using less energy," explains Mark Hudoba, senior product manager, Residential Heating and Cooling, at Uponor North America, a manufacturer of PEX-based radiant heating systems. "Radiant systems tend to yield consistent temperatures throughout the space. In homes heated with forced air, the temperatures can vary by more than 15 degrees between floor and ceiling."

Moreover, because the distribution of heat is more evenly circulated, there is less need to "overheat" a home in order to compensate for spaces that seem too cool because of drafts or poor insulation.

New and existing homes
A radiant heating system can be installed during new-home construction or added to an existing home. Even if you choose not to opt for radiant heat throughout your new home, the builder can still install the PEX tubing in the basement floor or—if you don't have a basement—in the home's concrete slab. Radiant technology is also perfect for heating a single bathroom or a kitchen.

Other benefits of radiant heating include:

• Healthy atmosphere: Since a radiant system needs no fans or blowers to move its heat, family members with allergies are not subjected to the circulation of dust, mold, bacteria, viruses and pet dander throughout the home.
• Quiet operation: No fans and blowers also means no noise.
• Interior design options: Radiant heating allows you to place furniture wherever you want with no concern about blocking air vents.
• Fuel flexibility: Radiant floor heating systems can accommodate a variety of energy sources: from the conventional (gas-, oil- or wood-fired boilers) to the cutting-edge (solar thermal systems and geothermal systems)—or even a combination of both.

Ask anyone who's had the pleasure: Once you've experienced the joys of radiant heating, you'll never want to go back to a conventional system. For more information, visit www.uponor-usa.com.

Letter to my Realtor.. She is awesome!! 12/05/10

 Hello everyone!  I recently purchase a house and am loving it very much.  I wanted to share with you the lady that made it possible.  The following is the letter I sent her.  If anyone is looking for a Realtor then get in touch with this lady, she is really awesome and helpful.

November 2^nd 2010

Letter of Recommendation for Mary Bolton,

In April 2009 my husband and I began looking into buying a home. We had an idea of what we were looking for but still needed some advice and answers to our questions. We looked at many, many, many houses as we worked with another agent.  The problem was they seemed to be intent in their own financial needs and wants. 

Example: Selling the agents own home and her own daughter’s home, plus advising us to use her own brother as the loan officer.  

After many months with them we finally decided to take a break from the housing search, since they were absolutely no help what so ever.  Instead we started to work on our credit issues and build a good down payment. 

Then the beginning of 2010 we started to test the waters, see if we could find an agent that could help us in our search.  We wanted an agent that had the knowledge, experience and motivation to help us on house hunt. One day driving thru the neighborhood in Provo, we saw a for sale sign.  We contacted the agent listed, and to our wonderful surprise we found Mary.

Of course we were skeptical at first thinking she was going to be just like the others we have met.  But she quickly gained our trust.  We gave her the specifications on what we wanted in a home, and she came back with plenty of options.  All of Mary’s dealings with us were organized, thorough, and personable. She even gave us an objective viewpoint on each house we toured, thereby helping us with our decisions. She surpassed all the needs in a realtor and more. Mary knew the legalities of buying and selling properties, and furthermore we were consistently impressed by her willingness to research questions we didn’t know the answers to. She was always expedient in returning our calls/texts, searching for properties, and setting up tours. All this AND she got the bid accepted for a short sale quicker than promised.

When it came time to finalize the paperwork and head to the title company, Mary was on top of all closing requirements.  I would be delighted to answer any specific questions regarding Mary’s performance. I may be reached at 801 xxx xxx.

Once again, we highly recommend Mary to anyone looking for a motivated, effective and reliable real estate agent.

Sincerely,

Charly Mitchell

Mary Boulter

Century 21 At The Rockies

801-735-9585

801-756-9559 Office

801-756-9652 Fax

Mary@BoulterGroup.com