Housekeeping

No matter where you live or what your lifestyle is like, it’s safe to say that you’ll need some outdoor lighting at night. Dusk to dawn lights are one of the more popular categories of outdoor lighting on the market. This category is meant to turn on when motion hits the light, or when the sun sets. If you have them, you’re probably wondering why your lights keep turning on and off.

If you’ve removed, or recently replaced your dishwasher, you may be looking for a solution to plug the hole in your garbage disposal. There is often a drainage line in place that goes from the dishwasher to the garbage disposal.

On-demand running water is a fantastic convenience that many of us could not imagine living without. Unfortunately, sometimes the system can have problems that cause the water to run at unexpected times. The sounds of running water in your walls and the threat of a leak can be very nerve-wracking. Here are some things you can do to identify and fix the issue.

Not too long ago, I had a bed bug infestation in my home. It was devastating, especially since I’m severely allergic to their bites. The first thing I had to do was find a way to kill them after they nested in my clothing and sheets. I knew some clothes wouldn’t hold up to a wash, so I was lost. Like many people in my situation, I wanted to know if a dryer could kill bed bugs as well as a hot wash.

When I was growing up, I didn’t know much about mobile homes aside from the fact that they were supposedly bad with tornados. But then again, not many homes are good with tornado wind speeds. While mobile homes are not exactly lauded for their wind hardiness, there has to be some point that they are built to withstand wind, right? What’s the limit?

Also known as Berry Bugs, chiggers are tiny pests that resemble something between a wood tick and a bed bug. These bugs don’t pose a threat to humans but can deliver a nasty rash that can disrupt your sleep. If you have chiggers in your home, there are simple things you can do to get rid of them. 

Outdoor carpeting can make for a perfect addition to sun porches and small patio spaces. The key to proper carpeting is to ensure that it has been adhered properly. Using an indoor-grade adhesive won’t hold up to exposure to the elements. This is why using an outdoor-grade carpet adhesive is so important.

Everybody’s least favorite part of a home-cooked meal is the cleanup. Doing the dishes can be a huge chore, but that’s where your dishwasher comes in! These miraculous machines can make quick work of big messes.

Revitalizing your home with a fresh coat of paint is a great way to bring new life to your living spaces.  Unfortunately, with this great look often comes lingering undesirable paint fumes. In fact, the fumes from the paint can persist in the space even long after the last coat has finished curing. The smell of paint can be especially difficult for those who are sensitive to chemicals or heavy scents.

Suction cups provide excellent utility. They enable us to hang a variety of items around our home in ways that wouldn’t be possible otherwise.

Fabuloso is that delightful purple cleaning detergent that has been used in countless homes and businesses throughout the country. It’s basically a hallmark of people who love the floral-chemical smell of solvent. Sometimes, Fabuloso alone isn’t enough to get the bathroom clean. So, what happens then? Can you add bleach to improve results?

Choosing the right refrigerator line is important because it affects the whole unit’s performance. Refrigerator lines supply water to the dispenser and ice maker, so it’s important to choose a durable material. So, what is better; copper or plastic refrigerator water lines?

If you’re a frequent party host, parent to a big family, or simply store many cold beverages at home, you probably have an extra refrigerator in your garage. Often referred to as a “beer fridge,” garage fridges are a handy way to store the overflow from your kitchen fridge or bulk items that you’d like to have cold and ready to pop open. Some people even use garage refrigerators to freeze meat throughout the winter or store frozen meals for days when you don’t feel like cooking.

Chandeliers are a worthy addition to dining halls, atriums, entrances, and other places around the house with high ceilings. They brighten the room and considerably raise the aesthetic appeal.

Your home irrigation system consists of a controller which waters your lawn in cycles and sprinklers with adjustable heads. Rain Bird is one of the most trusted and reliable underground sprinkler system brands on the market. More specifically, the Rain Bird 5000 series are rotary sprinkler heads that are ideal for both residential and commercial applications.

Imagine the following scenario:  you are known for conserving water, and for as long as you lived in town, your water bills were $30 or so. Recently, a new family moved in. They have a pool, sprinklers, and everything else watery under the sun. The next month, you notice that your water bill shot up to $900. You look at your neighbors, who don’t make eye contact with you anymore. Could it be them?

If you’ve just purchased a new dishwasher and you’d like to connect it to a garbage disposal for effective drainage, you’ve come to the right place. Both garbage disposals and dishwashers are generally attached to a kitchen sink for water to drain appropriately once the washing cycle is complete.

Everyone loves peanut butter. Nourishing and delicious, it is the perfect sandwich filling, especially with jelly or jam. It’s a versatile ingredient for a number of dishes, ranging from classic cookies to the famous peanut sauces of Indonesia. However, when eating or using peanut butter, an accident may sometimes happen, and some could fall onto your carpet. If this happens, how do you clean it up?

For many years, the tankless water heater has been a popular alternative to conventional tank water heaters in Europe and throughout the world. However, North American consumers have only just recently discovered the benefits involved with tankless water heaters.

Whether you’re preparing to purchase a home or need to know your current home’s worth, you need an appraisal. A professional appraiser looks at a home inside and out and comes up with a value for the property. As part of their job, appraisers look at all aspects of your home, but do appraisers look inside of closets?

If you ask most families, there’s nothing quite like having a home-made frozen pizza straight out of the oven. Of course, prepping said pizza can vary from household to household. Most frozen pizzas will come with some cardboard that’s left at the bottom of the pie to help retain the pizza’s shape during transport. The problem is, most people can’t figure out what to do with said cardboard. Is it oven-safe?

Blinds serve an important function in our home. With them, we have privacy and the ability to control how much light gets into each of our rooms.

Switching from baseboard heat to a forced-air system is a big decision. Many people choose to stay with their baseboard heaters not only because of the cost of changing systems, but the perks it provides. Before you decide to convert heating systems, make sure you research which is best for your family.

A Sealy Posturepedic mattress gives the benefits of fabric, foam, and coil construction, all working together. Almost all mattresses made nowadays are one-sided, meaning that there is no need to flip them.

Whether you’re changing your shower hardware or replacing a cartridge valve, you need to remove the shower handle. If you don’t see any screws, you might be wondering how you’re supposed to take off the handle.

Handrails quickly rank as one of the most critical pieces in home remodeling. Decorative values aside, handrails are essential to building a safe environment for everyone living in the house.

If you need to have wood waterproofed, then chances are you’ve applied Thompson’s Water Seal to it. This waterproofing stain is known for being one of the best in the home improvement world when it comes to keeping your materials looking great. Of course, many of us want to make our projects look even better with a fresh coat of paint. But, is this actually doable?

You spend so little time in the shower per day that you may not put much effort into decorating it. However, it is important to know that shower curtains and liners are not totally interchangeable. Make sure your shower set-up is done properly to avoid water damage to the rest of your bathroom.

Owning a Sentry Safe is essential to safeguard your important and irreplaceable items. Whether it’s your firearm, expensive jewelry, crucial family documents, or any other highly valuable or prized possession, these safes provide people with peace of mind knowing that their belongings are protected. Sentry Safes boast that they can endure a number of adverse conditions such as theft, fire, and flood.

Dusting your home is a chore that never goes away. Some parts of your home likely get dustier than others, and it can be quite difficult to keep up. Many homeowners have asked themselves the question: why is my bedroom so dusty?

For anyone working an in-0ffice job, lunch is always a looming consideration. Some prefer to eat in an employee cafeteria, while others order out. But these habits can become expensive and even unhealthy. These are a couple of reasons why the concept of meal-prepping has grown more popular.

The sound of a carbon monoxide detector going off is startling and it should be. Those sounds usually indicate that something’s wrong and that you need to take action right away. You absolutely must not ignore those warning sounds. Doing so risks seriously jeopardizing the health of everyone in your household.

Duct tape may arguably be the most versatile tool around. There’s a good chance that you will find it in most homes and toolboxes across the world because of said versatility and affordability. Moreover, duct tape can stick in a similar fashion to glue for quality adhesion.

Cleaning paint can be a headache. When acrylic paint dries, it dries hard, into an almost plastic-like form. This can make it hard to restore a brush that has dried or get paint out of something like clothing.

According to the Department of Energy, single family water heaters use around 17% of all household energy. This makes water heaters a huge factor in your household energy efficiency levels and corresponding energy bill ( Source).

A home sump pump is meant to remove water from an area, typically a basement that floods during the rainy season. These are usually located in a basement or where the structure’s foundation is lower than the natural water table.

When cooking, there are a ton of different sheets and papers that get used for various things in the cooking process. You may be familiar with aluminum foil, plastic wrap, wax paper, butcher paper, and parchment paper.

Did you make a mess while super gluing and get some on your glasses? Or, did you try to fix your broken frames and accidentally get some glue on your lenses? If either of these situations is the case, you’ll want to know how to remove the super glue as quickly as possible. There are a number of factors that you should consider first, such as what material the lenses are made of, and if they have any sort of coating or treatment on them (UV protection, for example).

As an avid bargain hunter, I love Costco. I’ve used Costco as a go-to to get my favorite bulk items, and also as a place to find cheap deals on things like shampoo. As most people know, Costco has an appliance center that makes it popular with bargain-hunters. But, is it a really good place to buy appliances?

Who doesn’t like a good plate of pasta or spaghetti? This culinary classic is not only delicious but super easy to prepare. On top of that, it is an inexpensive meal to boot. For those reasons and more, you would be hard-pressed to find a home that hasn’t enjoyed this Italian delight at some point.

One of the great luxuries of the modern home is having a water dispenser in your refrigerator door. It’s wonderful to have filtered water and ice available at the ready, but it’s not-so-wonderful when your dispenser suddenly stops shutting off. A leaky dispenser can drive you crazy and cause a slippery mess in your kitchen!

Cast Iron tubs can be a beautiful addition to any bathroom. Their classic style is one of the main reasons why they’ve been popular for so long. However, not everyone wants to keep their cast iron tub in their bathroom.

There’s nothing like a cozy evening spent by the fire. It’s why so many of us prioritize purchasing homes with fireplaces in them.

There are more than 50 different types of persimmons in the world. The Fuyu and Hachiya persimmons are known as Asian or Japanese persimmons. In Japan, China, and Korea, they are known as kaki fruit, Japan’s national fruit. 

Did you know that the biggest importer of kale was, at one point, Ruby Tuesday’s? It’s true. Kale was once just a garnish for the Ruby Tuesday’s salad bar. Oh, how times have changed. Kale is now a major superfood and people are adding this bitter leaf to just about every dish from soups to wraps. Now that the heat is turned on for kale’s demand, it’s a good time to learn how to make this green last.

Kids are attracted to all sorts of objects, but mostly those that are glittery, shiny, bright, and colorful. So, chances are, you may find yourself trying to figure out how to get highlighter stains out of your carpet at some point in your life. However, there’s no need to worry! We are here to help.

It’s often said that your home is going to be your biggest investment, and for most of us, that’s right. It’s going to be the place where we live, where we thrive, and also will make a huge impact on the life we experience. That’s why most of us are willing to pay extra for a house that’s in prime real estate terrain.

Desitin is one of those creams that are amazing for a wide variety of problems, especially in children and babies. However, due to its ointment-based state, it easily leaks onto clothing. You may have noticed that simply throwing the clothing in the washer doesn’t help. So, how do you remove Desitin that’s stuck on your clothing or someone else’s clothing?

Have you ever had mice activity in your home? If so, you know that their urine can leave an unpleasant odor behind. Mice can set up shop in just a few days, and they leave their droppings wherever they go. Not only can the smell be offensive, but their urine can also pose a health hazard to humans.

If there’s one thing that reading up on DIY manuals has taught me, it’s the importance of choosing the right materials for the job. When it comes to containing water or protecting electric wirings, the importance becomes a main issue. Most people don’t realize it, but using certain materials in your attic can be a major safety hazard. For example, PVC can be an eyebrow-raiser in many situations…

No matter where your dryer is located, venting it is just as important as setting the dryer up itself. A dryer’s vent directs moisture and heat away from the dryer and out of the house. If you install a dryer without a vent, you run the risk of moisture building up, leading to mold, mildew, and water damage.

If you live in a multiple story home, you may have found yourself questioning why your second floor is so much hotter than the first. Unfortunately, a warmer second floor may not be noticeable until the summer months when the heat really starts coming in. And when it happens, you’ll start to feel extremely uncomfortable.

When you put in new wood floorings, you want them to last. Often, this means adding a finishing material to them that will protect the floors from moisture and other types of damage.

Double-sided tape is a tool used around the home for both repair and modification. It’s incredibly versatile and can prove helpful in a wide variety of situations.

When it comes to keeping your home warm, oil remains one of the most reliable options on the market. It doesn’t short out during lightning storms, it is easy to operate, and it also is guaranteed to keep you toasty. However, when you first get a home with an oil tank, there can be a little bit of a learning curve. This is especially true if you aren’t sure what size heating oil tank you have.

Nothing is more entertaining to the kids as making crazy animals and other shapes out of colored dough. Play-Doh can keep your kids busy for hours. But it can also keep you busy trying to get the bright colored mess out of the carpet later. Maybe the kids should only play with Play-Doh in a room without carpet next time. But now you have a mess to clean up.

Throughout the day the pressure in your boiler fluctuates, but always remains at a level that is not too high and not too low. Proper functionality is indicative of a boiler system that is somewhere between 1 and 1.5 bar. Though, the optimal range may differ slightly depending on your particular boiler.

Nothing jolts you awake in the morning like jumping into a cold shower. Along with the frustration of being doused with cold water, you realize that your water heater isn’t working. You may go to troubleshoot and find that the pilot light isn’t on. Then, no matter how hard you try, you just can’t get it to stay lit. What does t his mean? Why won’t the pilot light to your Honeywell water heater light?

There’s nothing quite like being cozy during the winter. Depending on the space you live in, it could be an entire HVAC system or something as small as a space heater. The latter can be quite effective for heating small spaces.

A sprinkler system can be a multi-faceted tool that you can use for not only home protection but for properly watering gardens and landscaping. They are meant to make things easier but there are times where they simply won’t turn off and an adjustment doesn’t work.