Go Green For Cheap
Looking to become more environmentally conscious and savvy? Or trying to decrease the environmental impact your house contributes to the Earth?
Below are a list of improvements you can make to easily and cheaply Go Green!
- Insulate Switches and Outlets – It is a little-known fact that light switches and outlets are very drafty. This causes air from the inside to seep outside – it’s very wasteful. You can easily get your hands on some pre-cut insulating foam gaskets to ensure the prevention of energy.
- Grow a Veggie Garden – By starting your own garden, you are able to save money on groceries and eat healthier at the same time! Veggies with high-yield rates include tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, and peppers.
- Prevent Drafts with Drapes – Drapes are a great way to prevent cold drafts as well as the loss of heat through windows. You can actually get drapes with insulating thermal material to most effectively keep cold out and heat in during the winter while keeping heat out and cool in throughout the summertime.
- Weatherstripping – There are many ways you can lose the effectiveness of your heating/cooling system through cracks throughout your home. A huge problem can be the cracks under doors and around windows. You can prevent losing energy by installing weatherstripping to those leaky doors and windows. This stops the air flow and improves overall efficiency.
- Collect Rain Water – If you think about it, it costs about $150 each month to irrigate a lawn during the summer. But, you have a free water source that comes directly to your home: rainfall. By using rain barrels to gather rainwater that falls off your roof, you can save on your water bills and help prevent the waste of fresh, drinkable water.
Beautify Your Yard: A Guide To Making Your Own Compost
Feeling like you need to spruce up your garden this coming spring? One thing you can do to completely revitalize your yard vegetation is cultivate your own compost!
Composting is the controlled decomposition of organic waste. For gardening purposes, compost adds a much needed boost of vitamins and nutrients to your yard or garden. In just a few easy steps, you can create a natural additive to your garden to ensure optimal growth. Best of all, the practice is environmentally friendly, adding one more incentive to start utilizing the practice.
This spring, try composting instead of spending loads of cash on chemical-filled fertilizers. Here are a few tips and tricks to get you started…
And now for the composting!
You’ll need a large container, or something simple like a trashcan to gather all the recyclable scraps you’ll be making your compost out of. The bin acts as an incubator to accelerate decomposition. The decomposition breaks down organic matter to release nutrients, vitamins, and minerals that are essential for plant growth. Some of these minerals and nutrients include nitrogen, phosphorous, calcium, and potassium among others.
You can add yard trimmings and leaves to your compost as well. This vegetation will also decompose and break down and help cultivate and enrich your compost. It is also a great way to use yard trimmings in a productive, organic way instead of just leaving it out on the curb.
Use all the organic waste produced from what you eat and when you cook. Your kitchen’s food scraps will create a great deal of your compost soil, as you add it daily after cooking and preparing meals and snacks.
According to Professor Rot of Home Composting, the average household throws away about 474 pounds of food per year. Food scraps unfortunately make up about thirty percent of this country’s total waste stream, leaving a lot of room for improvement when recycling or composting. You can add vegetable stems, fruit cores, coffee grounds, old grains, eggshells, or rotting fruits and vegetables. You could also add the leftover water used to cook rice and pasta. Do not add meats, oils, or dairy to your compost, as it will imbalance the nutrient-rich structure of the other organic material. Meats and dairy can also attract maggots and rodents, ruining your compost.
And then you wait. Composting is not a complicated, labor-intensive process. You can add organic waste from time to time and let the process move forward on its own. However, you could also accelerate the process by adding water, and turning the soil on a biweekly basis. The latter method will have your compost ready in one-two months.
Composting can be a fun and environmentally friendly way of managing and discarding your yard and kitchen wastes. So, don’t let your waste go to waste, and try composting instead!
If you liked this post and would like to read more on “DIY” tips and tricks, follow me on twitter @TerryFebrey. Thanks for reading !
DIY Projects that Add Value to Your Home
It doesn’t take too much to add some extra value to your home.
Many expect to accrue an assortment of costs when remodeling their home. These costs may include consulting with designers, handymen, and contractors on top of spending on materials needed.
While this can be true, there are a few “do it yourself” projects that can really increase the value of a home without having to spend on additional labor. By minimizing your costs and spending less, you enjoy more of the financial benefits of this sometimes tumultuous process.
Here are a few tips you can use to remodel your home without breaking your bank.
Front Yard Makeover
Transforming your front yard is equivalent to giving your home a face-lift. Look into changing your walkway structure, or beautifying your yard with an intricate garden full of ornamental plants. This project is a great way to get your creative juices flowing, before delving into the more difficult interior projects.
Attic Insulation
A large percentage of your home’s heat may be escaping through your attic. Adding new insulation is not only a great way to retain heat, and increase energy-efficiency, it also directly adds value into your home. Daniel Goldstein of Marketwatch emphasizes that adding fiberglass insulation into an attic can add a value greater than the cost of its installation into your home’s total value. Not bad, right?
Steel Entry-Door Replacement
John Riha of Houselogic believes that adding a steel entry-door adds major curb appeal to your home. By replacing your front door, you can transform the look and feel of your home’s entryway for a relatively low cost. According to a remodeling report that Riha cites: “a new steel front entry door has a national median cost of $2,000 installed, and can recover 75% of that cost at resale.”
Carpet and Floor Replacements
Flooring replacement can become quite expensive. If replacing your floors is out of your budget range, look into replacing your carpeting first. Worn, torn, and old carpeting can be a real turn off for anyone evaluating the value of your home. Replace old carpeting with newer, fresher carpets that are stain and dust free. Although it is possible to do on your own, the process of replacing carpeting can get increasingly difficult. In this case, you may want to contract professional help if you’re not confident in your carpet-installation abilities.
Freshen your Ceilings
If your ceiling has wet marks, signs of moisture damage, or just unsightly popcorn textures, they may decrease the value of your home. Fix moisture problems by finding the root of the issue, patching up leaks, removing damaged drywall, and replacing with new ceiling drywall/panels, priming, and finally painting over. If you have an unattractive popcorn ceiling, DIY Network suggests buying texture softening solution to spread on the surface, and simply scrape the popcorn away. Once finished, paint over. Voila!
Improve Lighting
Adding an appropriate amount of lighting to a home is vital when the time comes for a home appraisal. Lighting adds a positive, bright vibe to your home that is psychologically influential to an appraiser’s decision. Not only that, it is a relatively cheap and easy way to remodel your home. Vertical blinds are also a great way of adding more natural lighting to your home. Natural light creates a sense of spaciousness that is otherwise not available in dark rooms and homes. Look into adding both artificial lighting as well as increasing natural lighting in your home wherever possible!
If you liked this post and would like to read more on DIY tips and projects, check out my twitter @TerryFebrey for more info. Thanks for reading !
Color Schemes
Spruce Up Your Home: DIY
The trend of DIY has skyrocketed, from doing your own home renovation to decoupaging jars to making homemade chocolate gifts. DIY is huge. However, it definitely can be intimidating taking on a project on your own. Sometimes it’s best to wade into something new one small step at a time.
Here are a few DIY ideas to help decorate your home, allowing you to join the DIY movement without going native… yet!
DIY Placemats: Is it just me or are placemats either super expensive or just plain ugly? Why now make your own then and have them look exactly how you want! All you need is some heavy “home decorating” fabric with a pattern or image of your choosing, some iron-on vinyl topping (found at most fabric stores) and some pinking shears. Cut the size of your placemats for the fabric and the vinyl, iron the vinyl on both sides of the fabric (one of the from, one on the back), and trip the edges with some nice pinking shears to five your new mats a nice finish. Now you have beautiful placemats that are functional and fancy! photo: aliexpress.com
DIY Studded Furniture: If you’re looking to add some pizazz to an old wooden chair, table or bench or you don’t want to spend money on ornate furniture? Head to the hardware store or a fabric store and get some upholstery tacks! They come in many different sizes and finishes and are very easy to add to a number of wooden pieces. Just push or tap them in along an edge for a nice, shiny detail. This will add a bit of life to an otherwise bland piece of furniture. photo: matthewizzo.com
DIY Striped Refrigerator: This is a simple, easy way to completely change the look and feel of your kitchen. You can do this multiple ways: with washi tape, spray paint, or metallic duct tape. Regardless of the method you with you use, you’ll want to use a pencil or washable marker to map out where your material will go. Either way, it’s going to make you love your kitchen even more than you already do. photo: theeverygirl.com
