Six Tips to Liven Up Your Laundry Room

Six Tips to Liven Up Your Laundry Room

With the average American family doing more than 400 loads of laundry each year, it’s no wonder the laundry room has become one of the most popular remodeling projects in the house. Often out of sight and out of mind, most laundry rooms are designed like closets rather than efficient utility rooms. According to decorator Jenny Komenda, with just a few inexpensive changes you can brighten your clothes and your mood by transforming your laundry room into a bright, functional place.

Check out these tips on how to create more efficient and enjoyable laundry rooms:

• Dealing with a dark, cave-like laundry room can be a chore. By taking off the doors on a few of your upper cabinets, you’ll open up the space and create a place to store baskets. Assign baskets for every member of the house and sorting will be a breeze.

• Painting the insides of your cabinets a fun color is a simple way to brighten your day every time you reach for your detergent. Another easy way to improve your space is to attach cork panels on the inside of the cabinet doors and create a space to pin useful information, such as stain removal tips.

• Don’t like the cabinets, floors and countertops in your laundry room? Every surface can be painted or resurfaced. Update your laundry room with paint and a concrete overlay for less than $30. Say goodbye to the outdated linoleum, brick pavers and old, dark cabinets.

• A rolling laundry butler with a hanging bar, a rolling basket and a drying rack can be your best friend. It’s the perfect choice for smaller laundry rooms that haven’t been updated in a few decades.

• Don’t neglect your laundry room walls. Hanging interesting art and mirrors will elevate your room and make it feel less utilitarian and a little homier. Suddenly those 400 loads of laundry most of us will do this year may be enjoyable.
• A folding station makes all the difference. Use a slab of stone or a simple piece of painted medium-density fiberboard (MDF) on top of washer or dryer units to create a folding station that also prevents socks from slipping in between the appliances.

Is Your Babysitter Driving? Follow These Tips to Keep Your Kids Safe in the Car

Is Your Babysitter Driving? Follow These Tips to Keep Your Kids Safe in the Car

For some parents, just leaving the kids with a babysitter or nanny can be a nerve-racking experience. When the babysitter is also responsible for chauffeuring the kids around town, it can be even more distressing. Here are several steps parents can take to ensure their children’s safety while they’re in the care – and cars – of others:

1. Ensure the caretaker has a valid driver’s license and a solid driving record. Be on the lookout for reckless driving citations; cell phone tickets, excessive speeding and driving while intoxicated. Furthermore, don’t discount even smaller traffic violations. No red flag is too small when the safety of your children is at stake.

2. Check the babysitter’s references. There’s a peace of mind that comes with knowing other parents in your community have relied on the babysitter to drive their children around.

3. Decide what car the babysitter will drive. It’s ideal to lend your own vehicle so you’ll be able to make sure that it is in good condition and has all of the features needed to keep your little ones safe. If that’s not an option, have a trusted mechanic check out the nanny’s car.

4. Install child safety seats. The car that your sitter will use should have appropriate child safety seats that are properly installed for each child who needs them.

5. Have the sitter take a defensive driving class. Some nanny agencies require this already. However, if you’re not going through an agency, or your sitter hasn’t taken a class, your insurance agent can help you track one down. You can also find a class through your local DMV.

6. Use technology to keep tabs. Parents can install a diagnostic tracker that monitors the car’s speed, location and performance. Apps and other technology can also be installed to restrict the driver’s smartphone usage while driving.

Rethink the Way You Pay

Rethink the Way You Pay

Today’s consumers are finding new ways to get the goods and services they want for their lifestyles. Using savvy, money-saving tactics, these shoppers are getting more for less by eliminating services they don’t need and are using comparative shopping. These new power consumers challenging the trend of “more is more” are confidently declaring “half is more” when it comes to paying for what they want. Here are some tips to help adopt better spending habits while searching for the perfect deal:

Cut Insurance Costs: No longer subjected to old, cookie-cutter insurance policies, more versatile options exist today allowing you to name exactly what you need. The insurance industry is a prime example where you can carefully determine your exact needs and compare prices to find the best provider. Many online tools exist that provide side-by-side pricing of various insurers.

Switch to a No-Contract Wireless Phone Plan: Today’s consumers want lower cost wireless phone services but don’t want the long-term contract commitments that come with many postpaid wireless service providers. Many are making the shift away from traditional postpaid contracts and instead are utilizing reliable, no-contract wireless service providers which offer prepaid plans. Making such adjustments can save you up to half on your wireless phone bill while maintaining unlimited and nationwide service.

Test Before You Buy: Have you ever bought a new product, such as cosmetics or skin care items, only to realize you don’t like it? That’s money wasted. Today, there are new online services that send you test size samples of products before you buy, ultimately saving you money by trying the products first.

Save on Gas: Take advantage of your local grocery store’s gas rewards program. Many stores offer discounts on gas if you buy from their service station or participating gas stations in the area. It’s as simple as signing up for the program and then earning points or money toward gas while you shop for other everyday needs.

Scale Back on Entertainment Spending: An evolution has occurred in the movie and music industry that can save you a considerable amount of money. Instead of purchasing individual DVDs, Blu-rays or CDs, consider taking advantage of digital services, such as Netflix or Hulu, that provide access to thousands of movies at a relatively low monthly rate. In addition, downloading music to your phone, instead of streaming, won’t use up your data allotment.

Shop Discount Websites: Subscribing to discounted apparel and home decor website lists can keep you from overpaying at retail stores. From throw pillows to watches, sites like Gilt, Hautelook and Fab.com provide some of the trendiest designer items for less. Some sites also have timed sales for specific items. Taking 15 minutes to browse can equate to hundreds in savings.

Get Your Home Ready for Fall With These 10 Maintenance Tips

Get Your Home Ready for Fall With These 10 Maintenance Tips

With summer wrapping up, now is the perfect time to prepare your home for the fall. These 10 simple tips will help you make quick fixes around the house to ensure your home is ready for the cooler season. Preparing both inside and outside will make your home feel clean and organized for the fall.

Inspect your roof
Check your roof for any damage that may have been caused by summer storms. Replace shingles to avoid leaking or further damage.

Wash all rugs and carpets
Give your home a clean feel by washing the carpeting and rugs.

Check your smoke detectors
Replace the batteries in your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and test to make sure they work properly.

Clean out the refrigerator and freezer
Go through the refrigerator and freezer to get rid of any expired food. Also, clean the shelves and reorganize the food.

Check your home’s insulation
Inspect the insulation and replace any wet or damaged pieces.

Test your garage door
Ensure that your garage door opener reverses when it hits an obstruction or when its sensor beam is interrupted.

Clean out the dryer vent
Clean the clothes dryer exhaust duct and space under the dryer. Remove all lint, dust and other debris.

Check electrical outlets
Check your electrical outlets for potential fire hazards such as frayed wires or loose-fitting plugs.

Inspect the walls
Touch up the paint on the walls in your home for a fresh, clean look. By touching up the paint occasionally you can avoid having to repaint entire walls at once.

Test your sump pump
To avoid flooding in your home, test your sump pump to make sure it is draining properly.

By following these simple tips, you will be well on your way to having your house ready for the fall!

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Macon Family Shares Story of Distracted Driving Accident

For a Macon family, a text message sent resulted in the loss of a loved one.

“It was in 2010. Our families had gathered together in Longview, Texas for my mom’s 80th birthday party. At the end of the party, Colton, my son came up to me and said, ‘Can I go ride back to the house,’ where my mon lived, ‘with Uncle Jay?’ and I said sure,” says Jerry Dingmore.

Uncle Jay’s wife, Betty, also rode with them. Dingmore followed just a few minutes behind.

“As they were coming over on the highway, a girl was texting and driving, and she looked up to see a car in front of her was stopped,” explains Dingmore. “She veered and hit them head on, both going probably sixty miles an hour.”

Dingmore says when he drove up to the accident, he got out of his car and looked for his nine-year-old son Colton.

“There was a sea of emergency vehicles all over the place.”

Colton and his aunt survived the wreck with minor injuries, but his Uncle Jay died on the scene.

Dingmore says, “I kept thinking, how am I going to tell my son at nine years old, this man that he idolized, worshiped everything he pretty much did, that he’s never going to see him again?”

But as Dingmore sat in the hospital with his son, he learned Colton already knew the whole story.

“He said, ‘I watched him die,’ and I said ‘Really?’ He said, ‘Yeah, right in front of me dad.’ He said ‘He yelled when the car came He struggled breathing, and I watch him die,'” explains Dingmore.

Later, when the family learned that the other driver had been texting, Dingmore says his emotions shifted to anger.

“It was about a text. It wasn’t that she had a medical emergency like she passed out or something. It was a text that was so avoidable,” he says.

It wasn’t just the Dingmores’ lives that changed that day. The other driver was charged with criminally negligent homicide, which is a felony. Dingmore says the family asked the judge to lower that to give the young driver a second chance.

“She’s still going to have to face a lot in life. She has some legal things as a result of that that she’s going to have to deal with and face. She’ll have to live the rest of her life knowing that she killed somebody, took a kid’s idol away. She took a husband of a wife of 50-something years away,” says Dingmore.

Over 3,000 other Americans died that same year in distracted driving accidents, according to a study from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

“You can be a great person and have great intentions, great standards, great morals, and all this, but do something so stupid as respond to a text while you’re driving a missile, pretty much, in that car and hurt your life. Colton will never be able to have the influence of that man in his life again over something so incredibly needless,” says Dingmore.

He says his son did walk away from the accident with an important lesson.

“It’s just not worth it. There is no text you’re ever going to get that’s worth it.”

Katelyn Heck

 

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