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Keep Your Home Free From Clutter With These Helpful Unpacking TipsThe thrill of purchasing a new home is unparalleled; however, once you close on the sale, the dreaded unpacking process begins. You probably did not realize just how much stuff you had until you had to pack it all up. Worse yet, you need to unpack it when you get to your new home. If you don’t unpack intelligently, your new home could end up disorganized and full of clutter. With this in mind, how can you unpack without leading to a tremendous amount of clutter in your home?

Get Rid Of Items You Do Not Need

As you go through the boxes, ask yourself if you are actually going to need the items as you unpack them. If you do not need them, consider donating them to a local charity. Just because you brought it with you does not mean that you need to keep them. Evaluate the items in your boxes, and discard them when not needed.

Unpack Room By Room

Hopefully, you labeled your boxes as you packed them up, so this is a perfect time to organize your items before you open the boxes. Furthermore, it is faster to carry the boxes to the individual rooms than to carry the individual items to their designated locations one at a time. If you unpack room by room, you can ensure every item has a place (and that every item is in its place).

Take Advantage Of Organizers

While unpacking your boxes is half the battle, the other half is using organizers to keep your belongings in the right spots. There are plenty of organizers you can use to keep your items in the right locations. Examples include bins, boxes, and trays. You can use them to organize your storage spaces, drawers, and closets. You can even use wire organizers that prevent your cords from creating trip hazards. Use every tool available to keep your rooms organized.

Prevent Clutter From Developing In Your Home

There are a lot of homes that develop a significant amount of clutter during the unpacking process, but your home does not have to look this way! When you start to unload those boxes, put these tips to work for you!

Looking for an Eco-friendly Upgrade? Try These Easy Ways to Save Water Around the HomeWith the impact we have on our environment becoming a matter of greater concern, it’s becoming more important for the average citizen to know they’re doing their part. While there are many simple tricks for saving water that will make you feel better about your environmental footprint, here are a few easy upgrades that will make that saving a little more automatic.

Consider a Cistern Device

With outhouses a thing of the past, flushing the toilet has become one of the ways in which household water is being overused the most, but flushing less simply isn’t a viable option. Instead of wasting water in this way, purchase a displacement device and place it in your toilet’s cistern. Without you having to do anything at all, it will instantly reduce the volume of water that is used with each flush.

Learn to Work a Water Meter

It’s ideal to help the environment by saving water, but it’s even better if you can save yourself money at the same time. If you happen to be among those who pay for their water, installing a water meter will enable you to take a closer look at where your water use is going, and can assist you in helping to trim down this expense.

Drain It From the Rain

In the event of an intense downpour, there’s often a lot of water that runs off into the gutter and can’t be absorbed by the grass or the trees. Instead of letting it go to waste, install a water butt to your drainpipe so that you can use the runoff when it’s dry outside to water your plants or even wash your car. There’s no reason that any of the moisture from a good rainfall should have to go to waste.

Invest in Water Efficient Items

From showerheads to washing machines, going energy efficient with your household appliances is becoming quite popular. The next time you have to replace a small appliance or there’s a leak with a household item, consider heading down to the drugstore to look for environmentally friendly options that will instantly reduce your footprint.

With so many options for environmentally friendly items on the market these days, there’s no reason you can’t save water at home with a few easy changes. From making use of the rain that falls to learning to work with a water meter, some simple shifts may make your house the most environmentally friendly one on the block.

Dealing with the Summer Heat? How to Keep Your Home Cool Without Using a Ton of EnergyMany people look forward to the long, relaxed, sunny days of summer, but they also dread opening up their energy bills throughout the summer months. Cooling a home can be costly, and many are searching for convenient ways to lower cooling costs without sacrificing on comfort inside the home on the warmest days of the year. These are just a few of the cost-effective and convenient options that can help homeowners to reduce cooling costs throughout the summer.

Keep The Blinds Closed

A significant amount of heat can enter a home through the windows, and blinds and curtains provide an extra layer of insulation between the window glass and the interior of the home. Some types of blinds and curtains are more effective at blocking heat than others, and homeowners may consider making an upgrade for the best results. For example, wood blinds can block significantly more heat than thin, almost translucent sheers.

Run The Ceiling Fans

Another way to keep cooling costs lower throughout the summer months is to run ceiling fans regularly. Ceiling fans help to circulate the air, and this helps the central cooling system function more efficiently. In addition, ceiling fans also can make those who are in the room feel cooler, and this may mean that homeowners can keep the home’s thermostat set at a slightly higher level than it otherwise would need to be set at for comfort indoors.

Use Heat-Generating Features At Night

There are numerous appliances and types of equipment that may be used indoors throughout the summer that can generate a considerable amount of heat, and running these at night can reduce the need to run the central cooling system as much during warm days. Consider that everything from running the washing machine and dryer to using the dishwasher and oven or range can emit heat in the home, and these serve to counteract the work that the cooling system is doing. When possible, limit the use of these features to cooler nighttime hours.

Keeping the home cool throughout the summer is a top priority for most, and the good news is that there are easy ways to reduce the cost associated with keeping a home cool. These ideas all can be beneficial in a homeowner’s quest to reduce energy costs during the summer.