Baby’s Highchair Tearing Up Your Wood Floors?

My 10 month old’s highchair was scratching up our Brazilian Cherry hardwood floors every time I moved him around during lunch and dinner time.

I tried lifting up as I moved his chair, but it would still ding the floor.

So, I went searching around the house for a solution and found some old furniture-moving felt pads that are used to slide sofas, tables, etc. across hardwood floors without damaging them.

I had 4 of them, so I put one over each foot of the highchair and they fit perfectly. Now, no part of the chair actually touches the wood floors and I can move it around without worrying about scratching up the hardwood.

I bought them at Home Depot, but you can probably find them just about anywhere. They’re gray, fuzzy like shag carpet, and about the size of a pancake. Sometimes they come packaged with 4 of the white smooth discs that you put under furniture to move it across carpeting.

Give them a try, and save some money in hardwood floor repairs…

 

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Which Credit Card Should I Pay Off First?

Confused about which credit card to pay off first?

Let’s say you have five credit cards with balances on them, and you want to get them paid off as fast as possible…how do you do it?

Most people will tell you to sort the cards by the interest rates, and then pay off the highest rate card first.

This makes a lot of sense, but it ignores the “momentum” aspect of paying off cards.

How do you get momentum?

You pay off the card with the smallest balance first, and then take focus all of your payments on the next smallest balance.

This gives you a mental boost when you go from 5 credit cards with balances to just 4, and so on.

You get an immediate sense of accomplishment, and you are more motivated to pay off the next card in line.

If you go by the interest rate method, you could be paying for a long time if your highest rate card is also the one with the largest balance. It seems like you’re going nowhere, even though you are doing the right thing!

Another trick to try is to split your extra payments between the highest interest rate card and the card with the lowest balance — this gives you both momentum and near maximum savings on the interest you pay each month.

Pay off those cards, then throw them in a drawer and enjoy your new sense of freedom!

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Hot Car Air Conditioning Tip

Right now, it’s the middle of the summer, and I have a black car — can you say HOT!

I used to get in my car, start it up, crank the air conditioning, and drive away. It always took FOREVER to cool down, and I was miserable the entire time. I couldn’t even hold the steering wheel because it was so dang hot.

Well, I got smart and figured out what I was doing wrong with my auto air conditioning. First, you have to keep your windows cracked a little to keep your interior from heating up so much. Just leave a couple of windows on opposite sides of the car down about a half inch. This makes an amazing difference. Some newer cars have solar powered fans that suck hot air out through a small opening in the sunroof while you are parked – awesome.

Next, when you get in your car, roll all of the windows down all the way — no matter how hot it is outside. Now drive for a block or two to exhaust all of that super-heated air out and THEN turn on the air conditioning and roll the windows up. This works because no matter how hot it is outside, the air inside of your car is even hotter due to the greenhouse effect of the sun coming through the windows and generating heat inside that has nowhere to go.

Temperatures inside of cars parked in the sun have been measured up to 130 or 140 degrees! This is why it is so dangerous to leave kids or pets in your car for any length of time unsupervised.  By getting rid of that super-heated air before you crank the AC you will get a head start on cooling your car, and you will be nice and cool much faster.

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Always Wear Hearing Protection

When was the last time you wore hearing protection?

Do you even own earplugs or noise-blocking headphones?

I have a constant ringing in my ears (tinnitus) because I never used to wear any kind of hearing protection when mowing the lawn, going to concerts, watching airshows, etc. I was naive, and figured my hearing was invincible — boy was I wrong. Now I have this constant high-pitched ringing / buzzing in my ears and it drives me crazy.

I’ve looked around, and there is no cure for tinnitus, so now I’m stuck.

Do yourself a favor and always use earplugs whenever the noise level seems even slightly loud to you. You absolutely need protection when mowing, using a drill, hammering or construction work, attending a concert, anywhere near a jackhammer, etc. Even cranking the stereo in your car while driving can damage your hearing — it seems funny, but after the damage is done there is nothing you can do to fix it.

Like a lot of things, hearing damage seems like “something that happens to other people” or “that will never happen to me” or “I crank my stereo all the time and I can hear fine”. You don’t realize what is happening until it’s too late, and the damage adds up over time — little by little so you don’t notice it. Protect your hearing now or lose it later.

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The Easy Way to Get a Nice Thick Green Lawn

Have you noticed that the grass in your lawn gets thinner each year while more and more weeds keep showing up?

There is an easy way to fix this and it’s called overseeding.

What the heck is overseeding? You simply buy a bag of grass seed at your local hardware store, core aerate your lawn, spread the seed, cover it with a light layer of compost, and then water twice a day until the seeds sprout. Once they sprout, you can cut back to watering once a day.

After about 4 weeks your lawn will be thick, green, and lush.

The core aerating is an important step — it helps get more water, nutrients and air down into the root zone of your lawn. It also helps remove some of the thatch layer that builds up over time.

The type of seed you buy should match your existing lawn or complement it. For example if your lawn is thin under your trees or in shady areas make sure you buy seed that does well in full shade. Are the areas in full sun burning up? You may need seed that thrives in high heat.

The type of compost you use is not really important. I’ve used sheep manure, steer manure, chicken manure, etc. The steer manure was only $1 per bag while the other two are $5 per bag, so I usually mix them together to get more coverage for a lower cost.

The increased thickness of your grass will force the weeds out and keep them out. The thicker and healthier the grass, the fewer weeds you will have.

Overseed early in the spring and again in the fall during cooler temperatures. Grass seed does better when it’s cooler and hates the high heat of mid-summer.

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