DIY Product Reviews

There are many new vacuum cleaners on the market, but one thing remains true. You have to use it enough and correctly for you to get the full benefits. The amount of dirt and dust your carpet traps is amazing. It really is a good filter for your home, but it needs to be cleaned like any other filter. I well vacuumed carpet will last longer and wear better than a dirtier one. The small rocks and debris act like knives on the carpet fiber.

Q: How often should you vacuum?
A: Heavy traffic areas daily and light traffic areas weekly

Q: Do I need to move the furniture?
A: Yes, move the furniture and vacuum the entire carpet once per month.

Q: How many times should I go back and forth over the carpet?
A: Heavy traffic areas 7 strokes and light traffic areas 3 strokes

Q: How do I remove indentations left in my carpet from furniture?
A: Rub a coin over the indentation to raise the carpet pile.

Q: Do I need to steam clean my carpet?
A: Yes. How often depends on who and what you have in your home. The EPA recommends every 3 months for homes with pets, smokers, and kids. Pets and kids mean every 6 months. 12 months for everyone else.

Q: What do I need to do to maintain my vacuum?
A: Never let your vacuum bag or bagless container get too full. This will cut down on the performance of the vacuum. Remove threads that get wrapped around the beater bar after each use. Replace the belts at least once a year or sooner if the manufacturer recommends this.

Following these tips and the carpet manufacturer’s recommendations will make your carpet last for many years.

All households are bombarded with paper on a daily basis. Bills, bank statements, pay stubs, calendars, schedules, menus and permission slips seem innocent enough individually, but when joined with the other piles of unattended paperwork, they form an army that overwhelms even the best defenses. Follow these guidelines and you will conquer the paper clutter and be organized.

1. Sort all mail received and paper work into separate categories. Immediately discard all letters, papers, which you know is junk mail.

2. Deal with each item as you handle it. Do not toss it aside to go through later.

3. Devise a filing system for filing your correspondence. Have a file for things that need immediate action, one for those that are part of a household’s ongoing management, and one for those that are more infrequent but nevertheless crucial, such as tax records, insurance policies, wills, and home maintenance documents.

4. Set aside time each day to open mail, go through paperwork in your inbox and sort and file appropriately with instructions on attached slips on the action you need to take clearly spelled out along with time deadlines for something to be paid, something to be done, or something to be filed.

5. At the end of each week, take out each file and respond appropriately by paying the bill, responding to the request, or moving items that need to be filed into their permanent locations. Of course, if you know something is urgent and can’t wait until week’s end, clip it to the front of your file box or place it in front in a folder labeled Urgent and act accordingly.

6. Save telephone time by keeping calendars, schedules, take-out menus and phone lists into clear page protectors in a 3-ring binder. Flip through the household notebook to quickly check meeting dates or find phone numbers.

7. Organize magazines and newspapers into baskets kept near couches and living room chairs for people to look at during their free time. Be sure to keep in the habit of sorting through this on a regular basis and filing those magazines you decide to keep and tossing old newspapers and magazines you wish you toss.

These guidelines will help you conquer the paper demon.

Do air purifiers work? What you need to know. A buyers guide to home air purifiers.

Have you ever stopped to think about the air you breathe? Is it as pure as god intended it to be or are we poisoning ourselves and our loved ones by inhaling polluted and stale (yes, stale!) air. Before you start complaining about the rising pollution, car fumes and factory smoke, let me make it clear, I am talking of the air you breathe in your home sweet home where you spend a major part of your life with your loved ones.

Contrary to popular belief, our homes can become havens to irritating indoor impurities affecting everyone, especially, sensitive people and those suffering from allergies. Our houses can become a haven for Dust mites, Cigarette smoke, Cooking odors, Bacteria, Pet Dander, Mold spores,Spray chemicals like hair spray, insecticides, etc. These affect the quality of air we breathe in the house. The amount of air a units moves is also important in reducing these pollutants.

Fortunately, you can improve the quality of air you breathe in your home with the use of air-purifier. Simplistically speaking, air-purifiers work by drawing in the polluted air through the air cleaner where a filter blocks large pollutants and irritants and allows remaining air into the ionizing section where it is cleaned and let out. You thus get clean air without any irritants or allergens. There are questions about how safe and effective the ozone producing units are. You will be able to find a good portable air purifier that produces no ozone. Some models that have tested well with ozone are: Whirlpool AP45030S, Kenmore 83202, and the Hunter Permalife 30547. The Hunter model is the most affordable at under 50 dollars, while the other two are just over 100 dollars.  These three model are in my top ten.

Air-purifiers are basically of two types. Single room air-purifiers (portable), as the name implies can be used to effectively clean only a single room. This means if you need to use air-purifiers in more than one room, you need to purchase one for each room. Whole house air-purifiers, on the other hand, purify the whole home and though expensive to install, is cost-effective in the long run. However, both have their own advantages and disadvantages and you need to decide on the type you need after a detailed study of your requirements.

As regards systems of air-purifying, there are many like HEPA, electronic systems, UV systems, specific allergy related air-purifiers.You need to choose the air-purifying system depending on whether you want to fight a specific allergy or chemical odor or want to get rid of excessive dust and so on.

The best type of air purifier, however, is HEPA which stands for “High Energy Particulate Air,” and was invented by the government to remove radioactive dust from the air in the event of nuclear war.The best HEPA air purifiers use more than one filter in a series. As a result, they can boost your home’s indoor air quality by an astonishing amount in just a few hours. These devices are ideal for people whose health depends on clean indoor air, such as asthmatics and those with severe allergies

To conclude, we all want the best for our families and giving them pollution-free healthy indoor air to breathe must rank at the top of your priority. Air-purifiers is an absolute necessity, without doubt.

How you need to clean a toilet bowl depends on how dirty it is (or why?).  A rust stained toilet will be a different process than how to clean a toilet bowl that is caked with hard water deposits.   There are some great products that will allow you to have a clean toilet bowl no matter its current condition.

The first step in any serious toilet bowl cleaning is lowering the water level.  Most of the time the worst stains occur right at the water line.  You want to lower the water level, so your cleaner of choice does not become diluted.  You can drain most of the water out of a toilet bowl by simply pouring a 2 gallon bucket of water into it quickly.  This will allow you to be able to get at the stains or build up.

There are many good toilet bowl cleaners on the market, but do not mix them.  They will not work better and it can cause a dangerous chemical reaction.

A toilet that is stained because of mineral deposits can be cleaned easily with a strong commercial cleaner.  These cleaners enlist a moderately strong acid to dissolve the build-ups.  Follow all the safety instructions when using this type of cleaner.  Allow the cleaner to set for a few minutes before brushing it off.  Only use a non-metallic brush, you do not want to scratch the porcelain.  Pumice stones are not recommended due to the possible damage to the toilet’s surface.

A toilet bowl that is stained by rust or iron requires a different cleaner.  Rit Rust Remover or IronOut both do a good job.  Draining the bowl of excess water is important and allows the cleaner work best.  Multiple applications may be required for severely stained toilet bowls.

These tips can allow you to have a bright white and clean toilet bowl.