Guest Post - How To Keep Your Family Safe From Carbon Monoxide Poisoning From Your Heating System

There is no doubt about the warmth and comfort home heating systems provide us whenever winter comes. It’s hard to imagine living a life without the gas furnaces, water heaters, and boilers that keep us from freezing whenever temperatures take a steep dive. It’s even harder to imagine your heater breaking down in the middle of winter because getting heating system repair can get a bit tough in the middle of a blizzard.

Our heating systems, however, are not without risks. Since there is combustion involved in their operation, they produce carbon monoxide, a gas that is deadly to both humans and pets.

One scary thing about carbon monoxide is the fact that it’s odorless, tasteless, and colorless. In other words, it’s tough to detect. You could have a carbon monoxide leak inside your home and not know it.

The consequences of a carbon monoxide leak are unimaginable, and that’s why you have to take all possible measures to protect yourself and your loved ones from carbon monoxide poisoning from your heating system. Here are a few tips to do just that.

Install carbon monoxide detectors

A carbon monoxide detector is the best way to alert a household that there is, indeed, a CO leak at home. CO detectors are affordable, dependable, and widely available. No matter how small the leak, these CO detectors will pick it up and promptly raise the alarm, which should allow anyone at home to get out to safety.

The best CO alarms are those that you can plug into an outlet and has a battery backup.

Since carbon monoxide tends to stay near the ground, plug your CO detectors—which you should have on every floor and bedroom—into outlets closer to the floor.

Keep your vents clear

Your ventilation systems should be clear of debris so in case of a carbon monoxide leak, the CO can make its way outside and dissipate there. Make sure floor vents, dryer vents, and chimneys are free of any obstruction.

Know the symptoms

The better you know the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning, the faster you can act to get your loved ones to safety. Those symptoms include:

• dull headaches

• shortness of breath

• dizziness

• nausea

• confusion

• blurred vision

• physical weakness

Contact your local fire department as well to deal with the CO leak.

Conduct yearly inspection and maintenance

An annual inspection of your heating system by HVAC professionals should help ensure that it’s working perfectly and that there is no danger of a CO leak. If they find small issues that could lead to a carbon monoxide leak, they will immediately deal with it before anything untoward happens in the future.

Michelle West is the Senior Content Editor of Precision Air and Heating, a local AC repair company in sunny Arizona. Michelle enjoys writing about topics that help people all over the country make their homes more efficient and environmentally-friendly.

Guest Post - Ways to Get Organized when Moving with Children

The moving process itself is quite tiring and stressful, let alone when you have to organize the entire move and take care of your children at the same time. Since you can quickly get overwhelmed by your duties during this period, it’s important that you stay calm, collected and organized. Finding the right moving approach and keeping your kids engaged will help you all with the transition while also facilitating your move to a new home.

 

Start as soon as possible

Once you decide to move, you should start planning and getting ready as soon as possible. Moving with children can last for weeks and easily get delayed. Therefore, it’s better to start planning your move even months in advance. The first thing you need to do is organize a family meeting and break the news to the kids. You shouldn’t let them know just before the move, but give them time to process what’s happening. You should also explain why you’re moving because this is a major change that can affect your children. Letting them know as soon as you decide will give them time to get excited about your move and ask you any questions they might have.

Come up with a plan

Having a plan is essential when moving with children. Things can quickly get out of hand and you may become extremely stressed by the amount of duties and your particularly fussy children. A to-do list is always a great way to stay organized and efficient. You can also create a schedule, write down all the supplies you’ll need and even set up some deadlines.

Keep your kids engaged and involved

Letting your children be a part of your move will help them deal with the change more easily. Excluding them completely will not only make your move more difficult, but it will also make them feel as if their opinions didn’t matter. Thus, you should involve them from the very beginning by asking them to help you with packing their belongings, letting them choose the color for their new rooms, etc. This way, you’ll have some additional help during your move and make your children feel important. Making the entire process fun and exciting through packing games and music can keep you all in high spirits and keep your kids engaged.

Find help

Even if you’re an expert at multitasking, you’ll definitely need help during this period, especially if you can’t take a lot of time off work or if you’re a single parent. Having someone help you with the move will relieve a lot of pressure and keep you more organized throughout the entire process. You can ask your friends and family to look after your children or find a temporary day care. Hiring a professional moving company is another great option if you need additional help. However, if you want to do it on your own, you should still consider finding affordable truck rentals so that you can move more efficiently. Using a truck is far more practical, especially if you find a company that offers additional pieces of equipment, such as trolleys, ropes, blankets, etc.

Declutter before packing

Decluttering is one of the most important steps before you tackle packing. You’ll need to sort out your belongings and get rid of the items you don’t need. You should ask your children to go through their toys and set aside the ones they wish to donate. Not only will this make packing easier, but it will also help you bring only the items you love and need to your own home.

Pack efficiently

When you finally start packing, you need to stay organized and efficient. The best approach is to pack room by room while also labeling the boxes and writing down their contents on paper. This will enable you to easily find what you need and unpack your boxes quickly. You can also use colorful stickers and markers for different categories. When packing, don’t forget to pack a box or two of the essentials that you’ll need on your first night at your new home. You should pack items such as personal toiletries, sheets, pajamas, snacks and other items that you’ll need until you settle down.

With an organized and timely approach, you’ll be able to get through this stressful process easily and efficiently. The most important thing is to keep your kids engaged and involved and help them through this transitional period.

Derek Lotts is a Sydney based writer and researcher, a regular contributor at Smooth Decorator  blog. He writes about décor, gardening, recycling, ecology and business. He thinks all of these topics fall under the self-improvement category. He believes in the power of sharing ideas and communicating via the internet to achieve betterment.

You can find Derek on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.
 

A New Way to Celebrate

Linda offers insight and suggestions regarding holiday giving.

As Mother’s Day just past and Father’s Day approaching next month, we celebrate the special women and men who influence our lives. These days can be filled with family, flowers and may center around brunch or dinner. However, for some it can be a difficult time. Maybe some have recently lost their mother or father? Maybe they have lost a child? The question always arises as to how to acknowledge the day appropriately for everyone. If thinking of giving a gift, how to give a meaningful one? As with every holiday, we are constantly bombarded by the media as to what gifts to give. For Mother’s Day the media suggests flowers, chocolate covered strawberries, jewelry, a new kitchen appliance, etc… Flowers, although pretty to look at, do not last long, chocolate covered strawberries are delicious but consumed quickly, jewelry is expensive, and who needs a new baking sheet to sit in your cabinet with four others already there!

Being professional organizers, we see many gifts that are given and not used. New mixing bowls in boxes, jewelry never worn, clothes with tags and candles never burnt to name a few. We cannot stress enough the idea of GIVING EXPERIENCES or DONATING TO A CHARITY as opposed to purchasing "stuff". How about a gift card to a restaurant, concert or sporting event? For all you moms out there, wouldn’t a one-hour reflexology foot rub session be glorious?

As a mother of three adult children, this year I received the best gifts yet. A lovely pop-up card from lovepop.com, with a beautiful sentiment inside. The card is from the heart and as a professional organizer I love that it takes up very little space! I can easily save it as a keepsake and unlike real flowers it doesn’t wilt and therefore no need to be tossed!

My other incredible gift was a donation in my name to in International Rescue Committee, rescue.org. The donation is for a newborn baby kit for new moms in Zimbabwe. The kit comes filled with clothing, baby soap, diapers and other newborn necessities. How awesome that we have the ability to help less fortunate moms on the other side of the world using our fingertips!

So when you are planning your next holiday, instead of “stuff” maybe think out of the box. Experiences and charities will make for less clutter in your life, and make for more meaningful and memorable gifts. From House to Home Organizing, we wish you all a relaxing and peaceful Mother’s & Father's Day weekends.

Profile: The Happiness Project

Linda examines Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project and the book's organizing ideas. 

Gretchen Rubin, a former attorney turned author lives in New York City with her husband and two young daughters. Although not unhappy, one day she decided she wanted to be happier. She wanted to appreciate her life more, not lose her temper and be less insecure and melancholy to name a few. After soul searching  and research, she came up with the “Happiness Project.”

To start, she created her “Twelve Commandments” which are principles she lives by, and her “Secrets of Adulthood,” which are lessons she has learned while becoming an adult. Then she developed  a month by month plan of things to tackle and work on. For example, January was to boost her energy by exercising better, going to sleep earlier, de-cluttering and organize, tackle a nagging task and act more energetic.  February was to quit nagging, don’t expect praise, fight right, no dumping, and give proof of love. Every month consisted of insightful areas for her to work on and to help her take control of her surroundings in order to be happier. You will have to read the book to find out what she tackles in March through December. What stood out to us at House to Home Organizing was the correlation between happiness and reducing clutter.

Toss, restore and organize is the heading of a section in January.  Along with most Americans, she understands household disorder zaps most people’s energy. It can be exhausting to get home from work or your daily activities and start organizing. Gretchen writes that “ one study suggested that eliminating clutter would cut down on the amount of housework in the average home by 40 percent.” After evaluating her apartment she came up with what was the cause of her clutter:

-Nostalgic clutter (we call them keepsakes)

-Bargain clutter/freebie clutter (items found on sale or gifts)

-Conservation clutter (all the items you are saving because they MAY be useful someday)

-Crutch clutter (things that are used but in bad shape like old clothing with holes)

-Aspirational clutter (items that you aspire to use, but somehow never do)

-Buyer’s remorse clutter (bad purchases on items never used, Yes, we all have that in our closets and kitchen)

So Gretchen goes on a purge. With donate bags and trash bags she goes to work starting in her closet. “Once I finished the closet, I went back through it once again. When I finished, I had four bags full of clothes, and I could see huge patches of the back of my closet. I no longer felt drained: instead, I felt exhilarated.” She finds that having fewer clothing choices makes her happier and that too many choices can be discouraging.

One of the common issues we see in people’s homes is that they can’t find an item so they re-buy it over and over. In Gretchen’s case it was her thermometer. Simple solution that we advise is to always put things back where they belong. This way you will always find what you are looking for and will prevent you from over buying. She also enforces the “one minute rule.” She does not postpone any task that could be done in less than one minute. For example, putting away your umbrella, filing papers and putting newspapers in the recycling bin are a few areas she mentions. Along with the one minute rule Gretchen now takes 10 minutes to do the “evening tidy-up. “ “Tidying up at night made our mornings much more serene and pleasant and, in an added benefit, helped prepare me for sleep. Putting things in order is very calming, and doing something physical makes me aware of being tired,” says the author.

July is entitled “Buy Some Happiness.” Gretchen decides to indulge in modest splurges. She invests in strength straining workouts at a gym and hosts a party for her sister who is getting married. Being a writer she invests in some really excellent pens. She donates to charity, and buys some quality file boxes to store family photographs. Gretchen also has a blog. When she posts about modest splurges this is one of the responses.  “I hate to say it but I hired a personal organizer to deal with our basement. There was an ad on the bulletin board in the grocery store. My wife had been after me since we moved to deal with the junk down there, which was three years ago. I have never been so happy to write a check in my life. It wasn’t even that expensive especially because we ended up selling some stuff we had in storage in the basement.” At House to Home Organizing, we understand that hiring a professional organizer may be a splurge. However, people lead very busy lives and when they arrive home they are very often too tired to deal with the clutter. Hiring a professional can take stress and anxiety out of the picture. As we have discussed, reducing clutter can help lead to happiness.

In conclusion, Gretchen’s husband suggests that the happiness project is about her gaining more control over her life. Gretchen does agree. “Having a feeling of autonomy, of being able to choose what happens in your life or how you spend your time is crucial. Getting control of my life was definitely an aspect of my happiness project, and a greater feeling of control gave me a major boost in happiness.” After a year Gretchen realizes she “can change her life without changing her life,”  and ultimately she is really happier.

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