Rearrange Your Furniture To Live Greener

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Cooler weather during the winter months can have an adverse effect on your energy bill. Before you reach to crank up the thermostat there are a various techniques you employ to keep yourself warmer during the winter without relying on your heater.

By being conscious of the drafty areas of your house and where your heaters are located, you can strategize your way into a lower heating bill this fall and winter. This article from apartmentguide.com will walk you through some of the more unusual steps you can take to lower your energy bill and decrease your enviornmental footprint. Keep reading to learn more:

Do the Electric Slide

No, we’re not talking about the world-famous dance move. We’re talking about the energy you can save by keeping the heat generated by electric appliances inside your home. Much of the heat that is produced by computers, televisions, stereos and lamps can be lost to the outside if these appliances are placed next to a window or an exterior wall. So make the best use of that extra heat by hanging your LCD TV on an interior wall away from a window and make sure to move your computer, stereo and lamps away from exterior walls to conserve energy.

Last Draft

You may think it’s a good idea to place chairs, sofas and loveseats next to windows and doors to take advantage of the view, but this plan can backfire during the winter, as guests sitting next to a window will likely feel a cold draft. This means that you may turn the thermostat up higher than necessary to overcompensate for those cold spots, when the rest of the apartment is heated to a comfortable temperature. So arrange seating away from windows and doors during the winter to stay warmer while avoiding turning the thermostat up.

Clear Up Ducts and Vents

Be mindful of where you place a couch, bed, chair or other large furniture and make sure it’s not over a heating vent. The furniture will absorb some of the heat while slowing the flow of heat to the room or blocking it completely, making the heater work harder to compensate for the lost heat, a mistake you’ll pay for on your power bill. Even a misplaced rug can cause the heater to run sluggishly. The same applies for return air ducts, which are often located high up on a wall. Make sure not to cover up the return air duct with a bookcase or a painting.

Shut Up

While the health and well-being benefits of natural light and solar heat can’t be disputed, it’s actually better to keep blinds drawn and curtains shut on cold, dreary winter days. Doing so will help keep some of the heat inside your apartment, meaning you’ll have to run the heater less.

Double Duty Décor

You’d be surprised which household items have insulation value, however minimal. Hanging a large quilt or tapestry on your wall can help save energy, especially if it is on an exterior wall. Tall bookcases filled with books or magazines, if placed against an outside wall, can keep heat inside your home while preventing the cold from creeping in. Even large picture frames can slow the transmission of heat through exterior walls, so beef up your décor sense during the winter and you’ll see dramatic energy savings.

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How To De-Clutter Your Closet For Fall (Or Anytime)

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Throughout the year our closets find ways to fill up. We find new clothes and shoes that we have to have, we have older pieces that we can’t seem to let go and we use our closets as a catch-all for things we can’t seem to fit anywhere else. After awhile all these items pile up and create a mess that it’s impossible to sift through.

No matter how full your closet has gotten over the last few months, cleaning it out doesn’t have to be a nightmare. This article from storagefront.com walks us through some simple tips to clean out the items you don’t want and to keep everything else organized. Keep reading to learn some of these simple tricks:

Before you do anything: set aside seasonal pieces

A few years ago, I committed to purge my closet of half of my clothes. It was May. Naturally, it was much easier for me to part with coats, boots, sweaters, and scarves than with typical summer wear. I was immensely proud of myself – for about four months.

There are certain articles of clothing and pairs of shoes that are definitely seasonal, even if you enjoy the occasional light cardigan in the summer. Before you can consider selling, donating, or gifting your unwanted apparel, set aside anything that weather wouldn’t want you wearing for the next several months.

Where can you put seasonal items when you don’t have a basement or garage? One option is to box them up and set them somewhere in the closet, all while making sure your method is tidy. Another possibility is to store them in a climate-controlled storage unit. A 5x5 space is often compared to a walk-in closet, and you can easily search for nearby, affordable units. Whatever you decide to do, keep the clothes safely tucked away for a few months until you can revisit them with better judgment.

Recruit a buddy
How many times have you decided to get organized, only to find yourself suddenly labeling everything as having sentimental value? After you’ve safely stored your out-of-season clothes, bring a friend over while you clean out your closet.

Even if you and your friend don’t wear the exact same size, chances are that she could fit into plenty of your tops and maybe even some shoes. Whip up your friend’s favorite lunch, pop in a movie, and make an afternoon of your project.

The trick here is to get your friend on board with your goals. Let her know how many things you’re looking to get rid of or what standard you’ll be using to decide each item’s fate. She can help you out by keeping you accountable to your goals. What’s in it for her? She gets to keep anything she likes from your “sell/donate/gift” piles.

Use the “six month” box
Peter Walsh of Extreme Clutter suggests a nifty hanger trick to help you realize which of your clothes do nothing more than collect dust. My “six month” box follows a similar premise, but provides an immediate pay-off of a more spacious closet. Consider which one you like better – or come up with an experiment of your own!

This box (or, more ideally, plastic storage bin) is different from your out-of-season box. It’s the designated spot for clothes that you’re on the fence about. While your friend helps you decide which clothes you don’t want to keep, you’ll run into pieces that you just don’t want to part with. You may be telling yourself that you’ll fit back into that skinny pair of jeans someday, or that you’ll love that top once you sew the button back on. Whatever your hesitation may be, set the item aside in your six month box.

What follows is simple. Say that you’re getting ready one day and you can’t find that floral ¾-sleeve top that you’re suddenly in the mood to wear. Go grab it from your six month box. After you’ve worn it and washed it, put the top back in your closet as normal. Follow this process for six months; if something comes out of the box, it can stay out of the box. At the end of six months, you’ll see which clothes you didn’t think about, chose not to wear, or simply forgot about when out of sight.

In my experience, I’ve never felt remorse for anything left in that box after several months. Periodically I’ll grab something from it, see something else I like, but never come back to actually wear it. When I come back to that box after six months, I’m always more than ready and willing to part with what’s in it.

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Making Your Furniture Work In A New Space

(Image Courtesy of Christopher Barson)

Moving from home to home can be a challenge. Boxing up all your possessions and moving them from one place of residence to another is a hassle-no one wants to pack up everything just to unpack it all again somewhere else. And moving your furniture can create obstacles all its own. As if being big, bulky and hard to move weren't enough, it can be a headache trying to make your furniture work in a new room. Often times, many frustrated movers choose to scrap many pieces of their old furniture and start from the beginning. Though this option may be appealing, it can be a costly decision to make.

It is important to remember when moving that every space is different and just because your old furniture worked in your former residence, doesn't mean that it will work in your new one. There’s no need to worry, though, this article from apartmenttherapy.com offers some practical solutions to solve your furniture woes. Read on for a few tips to make your old couch fit in your new space.

1. Alter It.

Furniture that looks and feels wrong in a space can often be made to look and feel right, or at least a lot closer to it. Painting and re-upholstery are just the tip of the iceberg here; consider carpentry and creative solutions to change the actual size, structure and use of your pieces.

A too-small dining table can have a new, lower base added and become a grand coffee table. The top of an old table can be put on new legs or vice versa. Bookcases can have doors added or doors removed, or be placed on their side to become sideboards. Even upholstered items can be changed; consider removing the back of a too-structured sofa to create a chaise, or removing the arms of a chair so that it will fit in a smaller space.

2. Mix It Up.

Often we see our furniture in room sets, simply because that's how we've always used it. The sofa belongs in the living room, that armoire in the bedroom, those chairs in the hallway. Removing your blinders and mixing it up can go a long way to making your things look at home, but in a fresh way.

So maybe your chest of drawers doesn't fit in the new bedroom — could it work in the dining room to store plates and accessories? How about the old TV cabinet — maybe it could be a linen closet in the upstairs hall. Use some still-beautiful-but-superfluous dining chairs as bedside tables in the spare bedroom, or mount the old full-length mirror horizontally in the front hall.

3. Upgrade the Important Stuff.

Sure, you might be attached to your old furniture, but those sore-thumb pieces are always going to bother you, especially if they're big, conspicuous items. Sometimes it's best to say goodbye to a few key pieces and replace as necessary.

If you upgrade where it counts — say, a new sofa or dining table, some lighting — you'll probably find that other items bother you less, and might even start to look at home next to their new neighbors. The key is to overhaul slowly, one piece at a time; that way you won't go overboard and can monitor the evolution of your new home.

Do you move often? Have you struggled with the old-into-new issue? How have you made old furniture work in a new way?

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7 Gadgets That Belong In Your Kitchen

(Image courtesy of renters.apartments.com)

Love it or hate it, cooking is an instrumental part of daily life around the home and in an apartment. Whether making dinner for yourself or preparing lunch for a get-together, your kitchen utensils can make or break your cooking abilities and your dining options.

A lot of us keep our kitchen utensils to a bare minimum: pots and pans, some glasses and plates, a decent set of silverware, and some butcher knives. Sometimes, though, just having the bare minimum number of utensils and gadgets can limit your cooking options. So, if you're looking to update your kitchen's gadgets and tools, this blog post is for you! Keep reading to check out renters.apartments.com's article about the best gadgets and tools to have in your kitchen:

Zesters/Graters

A good zester and grater is essential for anyone who wants to make their favorite from scratch recipes, or top things off with some freshly grated cheese. Recipes that call for lemon or lime zest usually ask for a few teaspoons or tablespoons at the most, and finding “zest” in a grocery store can be difficult and overpriced. Shredded cheese is easy enough to find, but you might not want all your cheese shredded or you may want a bit of freshly grated parmesan on top of your favorite Italian dish or salad. Graters can also grate chocolate that makes a perfect topper from your homemade pie, specialty drink, or even an ice cream sundae.

Garlic Press

Fresh garlic shows up in almost as many recipes as regular salt. It’s delicious and good for you, but it can be hard to handle. If you have a garlic press, it’s much easier. Trying to mice garlic with a knife can be cumbersome, and you can wind up with larger chunks of garlic in your recipes. With a garlic press you tuck your garlic clove inside and press. Out comes minced garlic you can scoop into your recipe and the rinse the garlic press clean.

Salad Spinner

With a busy life, having a good salad with your meal can seem like a chore. This leads many people to buy prebagged salads and pay about twice as much or more than putting their ingredients in a salad spinner in order to get the same or better salads.

Manual Chopper

You might have a larger electric food processor, but when you just want to chop a few nuts or even crush crackers taking out a big appliance can be cumbersome. Using a knife and cutting board often won’t give you the finely chopped texture you may want. With a manual chopper your food is contained in a small bowl while you chop.

Apple Corer

Apples are one of the most celebrated health foods, but it can be messy to eat them with the core in tact. You can also wind up missing some of your delicious apple. If you have kids, you have to worry about seeds and the choking hazard they bring. Cutting up an apple with a knife can lead to waste. An apple corer makes things simpler. Simply press the corer over the middle of the apple an get those perfect slices everyone loves.

Can Opener
More and more canned food have pop tops, but they are not yet universal. It’s a good thing there are a wide variety of can openers. The latest designs are easy to grip and some are designed to lift the whole can top off, rather than cutting into the can and leaving sharp edges. Many people are particular about their can opener, so be sure to hold a few different kinds in your hand and see which feels right to you.

Potato Masher
A potato masher may not seem fancy enough to be included among the best kitchen gadgets, but it is a very handy tool. To many people “mashed” potatoes are really whipped potatoes and once you give up the potato texture something is lost. With a potato masher, you get a mostly smooth texture while getting the occasional little piece of potatoes for the homemade feel. Potato mashers can also efficiently mash other soft foods, such as ripe bananas for banana bread, hard boiled eggs for egg salad, or avocados for fresh guacamole.

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