Cheaper, Better, Faster (21 page)

Furniture—moving

When moving heavy furniture across the room, protect an uncarpeted floor by first placing a soft-sole slipper, thick sock, or the bottom half of an empty milk carton under each leg of the furniture. The piece will slide across the floor easily without scratching or damaging the floor.

Furniture—reupholster

If you have a lovely old couch you don't want to part with, consider having it redone at an upholstery school for a fraction of a professional upholsterer's price. There is a fee, plus you'll be expected to purchase fabric through the school. Plan on students taking a little longer to complete the job—their work is done under the supervision of teachers. Research “Upholstery Schools” online, or call the industrial arts divisions of your area high schools and colleges.

Furniture
—sofa cushions don't slide

To keep your sofa cushions from slipping and sliding, place a bath mat or square of foam rubber under each cushion.

Fuse box

If your switches are mislabeled in your electrical circuit box, or they were labeled in pencil that has become too faint to read, plug in a small radio to an outlet in a room. Turn up the volume so you can hear the music in the room while you are standing at the circuit box. Flip all the circuit breakers until the music stops. Remember that circuit then repeat for each of the outlets in that room. Label the circuit breaker accordingly, then repeat the procedure for all the rooms in your house.

Garage sale advanced pricing

Price all items you put aside for a future garage sale before you store them away. Doing the pricing ahead of time will make preparing for the actual sale a breeze.

Garage sale ambience

Take time to create the right sale ambience. Play upbeat music; you want to make an inviting atmosphere. Make sure your best and biggest items can be easily seen by folks who drive by to do a quick curbside survey.

Garage
sale coffee

People will stay longer and be in a better mood if you serve coffee, and—who knows—you might even sell the coffeepot.

Garage sale displays

Create an inviting display. Your knickknacks should not look cluttered. Put them against a dark background and arrange the tables so the sale goods can be easily viewed without customers' movements becoming restricted. Hang clothing items to make them visible.

Garage sale
for early birds

Avoid negotiating with early birds. If a buyer is hot for an item at 6 a.m., chances are you'll get your asking price before the day is over. Be nice but firm. Offer to take their phone number. If the item hasn't sold by day's end, do not hesitate to call.

Garage sale
giveaways

When advertising your garage sale, mention you'll have “giveaways.” This conveys a spirit of generosity on the part of the seller.

Garage sale guidelines

Be ready to begin your sale an hour before the advertised start time. Keep the doors of your home locked while you are having your sale. You'll
get the best prices if your merchandise is clean and well displayed. Have batteries available so shoppers can confirm that items such as toys and radios work.

Garage sale permit

Check with your city hall to see if you need a permit to hold a garage sale. The last thing you'll need is the police showing up to shut you down just when things are picking up.

Garage sale pricing

For fairly new items in good condition, charge a quarter of what you originally paid for them.

Garage sale profit margin

Decide on the price of each item and then mark it up 20 percent. This allows room to negotiate with a customer, and you'll find most yard-salers love to bargain.

Garage sale
seasonal merchandise

Seasonal merchandise sells best. If it's spring, haul out that old lawn mower, gardening tools, and so on. People buy what they can use now, not what they're going to have to store in their own garages.

Heating and cooling—air conditioner, location

If you have an option, install window air conditioners in north- or east-facing windows. South- and west-facing windows receive more sun and will make the unit work harder.

Heating and cooling
—air conditioner, proper size

Make sure your window air conditioner is the proper size. An oversize unit will use more energy than necessary and will not dehumidify properly. If you're in the market for a window air-conditioning unit, choose the size you need to cool only one room. Window units aren't designed to cool more than one room.

Heating and cooling—air conditioner, relief

To keep your air conditioner from having to work harder than it should in the summer, cook outdoors or prepare cold meals to avoid heating your kitchen. Place heat-producing appliances such as lamps and TVs away from the thermostat. Change or clean the air-conditioning filter once a month during the peak season. Don't forget to clean the filters on window units. They're behind the front panel. Clean them with soap and water.

Heating and cooling—air conditioner settings

Set your thermostat on the highest comfortable setting. Raising the temperature just 2 degrees will reduce cooling costs by 5 percent.

Heating and cooling—air-conditioning and the cook

You can reduce your air-conditioning use by preparing oven-cooked meals in the cool of the day. When it's time to eat, simply reheat the entrée in the microwave or toaster oven.

Heating and cooling—air-conditioning, blockage

If you have central air-conditioning, make sure your registers for supply and return air are not blocked by furniture or drapes.

Heating and cooling—air leak test

Here's how to check for air leaks. Shut the doors and windows in your home. Move a lighted candle around the perimeters of the doors or windows. If the flame flickers, you have an air leak. Plug it with caulk and weather stripping.

Heating and cooling—blinds behind drapes

Hang blinds behind drapes to help keep the room warmer in winter, cooler in summer.

Heating and cooling—buy heating oil and firewood in
summer

Buy heating oil off-season. Start checking prices in the spring.
Typically you should be able to take advantage of the lowest prices from July to September. The same applies to firewood.

Heating and cooling—fabric wall hangings

A quilt or decorative rug will insulate interior walls, keep your room cozier, and allow you to turn down the thermostat a few degrees in the winter without a noticeable difference.

Heating and cooling—insulation, free or low-cost

Take advantage of your community's free or low-cost programs for insulating your home. Check with your utility companies or community action center to see what might be available to you. You may be pleasantly surprised.

Heating and cooling—light exterior
colors are best

Light colors on the outside of a house reflect the sun's rays, reducing the temperature inside. If your cooling bills are higher than your heating bills, consider white or light-colored roof shingles when you replace your roof.

Heating and cooling—programmable thermostat

A programmable timer thermostat is really worth its weight in gold. Reasonably priced, it will pay for itself in no time at all in reduced heating and cooling bills.

Heating and cooling—window
coverings

During the winter daylight hours, open all drapes and window coverings on the side of your home that is receiving the most sunlight (all day on the side facing south). When the sun goes down, be sure to close all window coverings to retain the natural heat.

Home office
—funky envelope

Need to mail something but you don't have an envelope that's large enough? You can use a small paper bag. If it
is larger than 6 by 9 inches, you will need to add additional postage. The maximum size allowable is 6
⅛
by 11
½
inches. The top can be folded down to meet length requirements and stapled or taped.

Home office—out of glue

Clear nail polish makes a good emergency glue for small items like stamps, recipe clippings, and so on.

Home office—
packaging material

When mailing something breakable to family or friends, use intact rolls of toilet tissue as filler to cushion the item. It's lightweight and inexpensive filler—and something the recipient can use. If you remove the center cardboard tubes, the rolls become more compressible.

Home office—pencil sharpener

In a pinch you can sharpen a pencil on a piece of sandpaper, if you work at it for a few minutes.

Home office—recycling with style

For just a few bucks you can order a rubber stamp that reads something like: “Personally Recycled by (your name).” Now you can collect paper that has been printed on one side only, like computer run, flyers, and junk mail. Just cut it to size, stamp it, and you have your own personalized notes and stationery.

Jar lids—stuck

To loosen a stuck jar lid, hold the jar upside down and pour warm vinegar around the neck at the joint between the glass and the top.

Jar lids—tight

When you can't remove a tight lid from a jar, this handy hint may do the trick: Take a heavy-duty rubber band, put it around the lid, and twist. Because the rubber band gives you something to grip, the lid should come off easily.

Kitchen—funnel

Cut off the bottom of a clean plastic quart or liter soda bottle and use the top as a funnel.

Kitchen—glass, chipped

Keep a fingernail sanding block (available from a beauty supply store or drugstore cosmetic counter) on hand. Use it to sand, polish, and smooth out chipped corners and edges of glassware and glass baking dishes. With just a few minutes of gentle sanding and polishing with the block, the jagged dangerous edge or corner will be smoothed out and the glass piece will be restored to usefulness.

Kitchen—glasses, stuck together

To separate two stacked glasses stuck together, put cold water into the inside glass. Place both glasses in warm water up to the rim of the outer glass. Remove the glasses from the water, then gently pull them apart.

Kitchen—plastic wrap,
clingier

Plastic wrap will cling better if you moisten with a bit of water the rim of the bowl or pan you are covering.

Kitchen—plastic wrap, end finder

When you can't find the end of the plastic wrap, put a piece of clear tape, sticky side out, around your index finger. Run your taped finger around the roll until the wrap lifts up.

Kitchen—plastic wrap, in the
freezer

Store plastic wrap in the freezer. The cool air will keep it from clinging to itself and makes it a lot easier to work with.

Kitchen—ring hook

Install a small hook near your kitchen sink to hold rings, watches, or other jewelry you remove when washing, cleaning, or cooking.

Kitchen—scale

Here's how to make sure your kitchen measuring scale is accurate: Place 9 pennies on the scale. They should weigh 1 ounce.

Kitchen—splatter guard

Lay a washable rolling window shade in the space behind your range top. When you cook, pull the shade up and attach to a mounted cup hook to protect the wall from splatters.

Kitchen—trash can liners

Store the roll of tall kitchen bags in the bottom of your kitchen trash receptacle. Now no one has a reason not to put a new bag in when the full one is removed.

Kitchen—vegetable bin liners

Place paper towels in the bottom of vegetable bins to absorb water.

Kitchen—wooden bowls and
cutting boards

Freshen wooden bowls and cutting boards. Sprinkle the surface with salt and rub with half a lemon.

Lighting—
dimmers

Add dimmers to switches on overhead lights. Soft light uses less electricity and creates a more appealing environment in a room.

Lighting—on or off?

When leaving the room for under half an hour, you should leave the compact fluorescents on, and when leaving for under 5 minutes, leave incandescent lights on.

Lighting—three-way bulbs

Use three-way bulbs. They are more efficient, provided you use the lower wattage whenever possible.

Lighting—timers

Install timers or motion detectors rather than leaving lights on all night. This will ensure that you use lights only when necessary and will greatly reduce your electric bill.

Linens—bed coverlet

Cutwork and lace bed coverlets can be expensive. Use a lace tablecloth instead. A 70- by 90-inch oblong cloth will fit a full-size bed.

Linens—herbal fragrance

For a subtly sweet-smelling table setting, put cinnamon, raspberry, orange, or lemon herbal tea bags in the drawers where you store your table linens.

Linens—napkins, no creases

To store cloth napkins without creases, wrap and store them around a cardboard tube.

Linens—napkins, sturdy for kids

Washcloths in lieu of paper napkins are a tidy and environmentally friendly alternative for messy young eaters.

Linens—pillowcases

Pillowcases are very expensive, so you might want to consider making your own set. When buying new sheets, pick up a fitted sheet and two flat sheets, making sure the second flat is queen-size, regardless of the size of the bed you will be outfitting. Out of the queen-size flat sheet, you will be able to make three sets of pillowcases. By analyzing a commercially made pillowcase, it is easy to measure, create a pattern, and see how it is put together.