How to Secure Your Home While Away on Summer Vacation

Summer is the perfect time to go away for a relaxing vacation. An unguarded home, however, is a perfect target for thieves. Take a few precautions before you leave for vacation to provide you peace of mind and true relaxation.

Secure your important information. Purchase a removable or external hard disk drive for your computer. Save all important files and financial records on this hard disk drive only and not on your primary hard drive. This portable drive should be removed from your home when you are away for extended periods and may be stored in a safe deposit box. All important hard copies of deeds, licenses, birth certificates, social security cards, unused credit cards, etc. should be kept secure in an off-site safe deposit box as well.

Secure the perimeter of your home. If you have a sliding glass door, place a broom handle or stick in the track of the door to prevent it from being opened. The latch on a sliding glass door is very easy to bypass. Drill holes in the upper right or left corner of all lower panes of your wooden windows and insert a long nail, which will make opening the window difficult from outside the home.

Ask a friend or trusted neighbor to collect your mail each day while you are away. Ask them to also walk around your home and look for anything strange. If possible, leave at least one car parked in your driveway and leave a few lights on inside the home. Purchase several timers and set them to turn on at dusk and turn off around the time you would normally go to bed. If a thief is watching your house, this may fool them into believing that someone is home.

Perform a walkthrough of your entire home and film everything using a video camera. Store the tape along with all other important items in your safe deposit box. This evidence will be useful to provide to the police and your insurance company if someone does manage to break in and steal or damage items in your home.

Inspect both the inside and outside of your home one last time before you leave. Unplug any dangerous or energy inefficient appliances and raise the temperature slightly on the thermostat. Check that your oven is turned off. Close all blinds or curtains, making it difficult to see into the home from outside. Make sure all exterior doors are locked and place padlocks on all gates, storage buildings, and crawlspace doors.


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How to Prepare Your Home for Overnight Visitors

Your home is your comfort zone; a place where you can unwind at the end of a long day, but is your home ready to accept overnight visitors? Follow these easy steps and be prepared for them.

Perform a thorough cleaning of the entire house. Vacuum every inch of carpet and rugs and sweep and mop all the other floor coverings. Use disinfectant to clean all counter tops and bathrooms. Change the air filter in the hallway return. Make sure each room of the house is as clean as it can possibly be. Adjust the thermostat temperature to the most comfortable setting for the current season. If you have pets, find out whether your guest has any pet allergies so that you'll know whether or not to keep them separated.

Wash and fold your best towels and leave enough stacked in the bathroom for each day that your visitor will be there. Prepare a basket with soap, shampoo, mouthwash, toothpaste, and shaving supplies, in case they forget a few things. Buy plenty of snacks and drinks and have them chilled well in advance. Rent a few movies as back-up entertainment and leave them near the television. If your visitor has given you any special gifts in the past, find them, dust them off, and leave them out on display to show how much you appreciate the gift.

Create a guest account on your computer and be sure to leave the computer logged into that account so that your visitor may check their email and use the Internet without having access to your personal files and information. It is a good idea to create a restore point on computers running Windows operating system and back up any important files to external storage devices. Lock all filing cabinets and search the house for documents like bank statements or personal mail and put all of it away. Now is a good time to shred any old documents that you no longer need.

When your guest arrives, give them a short tour of the house and show them to their room. Keep the house quiet and give them plenty of time to unpack and relax. Offer them refreshments and tell them where to find you when they are ready. If you will be eating out, prepare a list of restaurants in advance and allow your guest to choose their favorite type of food. Enjoy your time together without worrying about the condition of your home and without the stress of making last-minute decisions.


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How to Give Your Spouse a Relaxing Massage at Home

Treat your spouse to a well-prepared massage. Help them relax and ease the tension from a long hard day.  Begin by learning proper massage technique. You can take massage classes from a massage therapy school or you can find training DVD videos online. It is important not to hurt your spouse by using improper techniques. Also, do not attempt a hot stone therapy unless you know what you are doing.

Purchase the necessary equipment. At very least have a massage table, some linens, and some massage oil. Find a quiet room in your home where you can avoid the outside world for at least an hour. Take the phone off the hook and if you have children, let them stay with a relative for a few hours. The goal is to achieve uninterrupted quiet time with your spouse. Prepare the room by setting up the table and covering the windows with blankets to block any outside light. Turn on some relaxing music. Soft piano music is perfect for this or even some soft nature sounds. Be sure to turn the music down very low. Put a glass of ice water in the freezer so that it has time to become very cold. A heated massage table pad is a nice touch because it feels much better to lay naked on a table when it is warm. Light some scented candles or burn some scented oil to appeal to their sense of smell. Do not wear any jewelry or strong cologne or perfume.

Before you begin, find out if your spouse has any trouble areas, like shoulders, neck, or back that are bothering them. Then, while giving the massage, do not speak if you can help it. Your spouse will tell you whether the pressure you’re applying is too weak or too strong. Be mindful of your posture while giving the massage. You can very easily hurt your back if you are not careful. Breathe deeply through your nose and exhale through your mouth while you massage them. The sound of your breathing will help to relax them. Take your time and massage their entire body. When you are finished, let them lay still and relax for awhile.

When the massage is finished, offer your spouse the cold water and be sure to extinguish the candles. They may experience dizziness or even nausea after the massage. If this is the case, care for them and keep the house quiet for as long as possible. Take turns giving and receiving massages and make it a monthly or even weekly routine.

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How to Protect Your Family from Home Invaders

The security of your family is very important. Not everyone can afford home security systems or guns. This article describes several easy and inexpensive ways to prepare a home to protect your family.

Always know that if someone wants to break into your home badly enough, they will find a way. That doesn't mean that you should make it easy for them to do so. It is surprising to me how many people have told me that they lock the doors to their home only while away. This is very dangerous! Purchase a deadbolt lock for any doors that are easily accessible to the public and keep these doors locked at all times. Start a habit of locking all doors at all times. If you leave to go to the store, lock the door behind you. When you get home... lock the door behind you. Teach children to lock doors behind them and to always see who is knocking at the door or ringing the doorbell before opening the door.

If the home is equipped with wooden window panes, use a power drill to drill a hole in one corner of each window where the upper and lower panes meet. Make the hole large enough to insert a heavy gauge nail. The nail should be easy to remove in case of emergency. It's not a bad idea to tie a piece of string to the head of the nail to make it easy to pull out. The point of the nail is to make the window difficult to open from the outside.

To secure a sliding glass door, cut a broom handle or stick to fit the space in the track behind the door where it slides when it is opened. It is very easy to bypass the latch on a sliding glass door, so be sure to leave the stick in position while the door is not in use. If you have a fenced-in yard, be sure to lock the gate when not-in-use. Also lock storage sheds with a lock large enough that it may be seen from outside the fence.

Leave a light on during the night, both inside the house and outside. This may just deter someone from breaking in if they think someone may be awake inside the house. Also, it's easier for crooks to operate in the dark. If you own a dog, give them full run of the house during the night. They have amazing hearing and will let you know if someone is snooping around outside.

Cover all windows with shades or blinds at night so that it is difficult to see into the home. If it is easy for someone to see from the outside that you own the latest game system, a huge expensive TV, or maybe some expensive artwork, then it may prove tempting for a would-be thief to put your home at the top of their list. Actually, if you can afford all of these high-dollar items, then a home security system is probably a wise investment too. The bottom line is that your family's safety comes before all material things. If you find yourself in the situation where someone has entered your home, let them take your money or some of your belongings if it means that they leave without harming anyone. Then call the police and file a report.


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How to Determine Which Wire is “Hot” in Household Wiring

Your home repair project involves installing a light fixture and an electrical outlet. You flipped the breakers and disconnected the existing fixture, but now you’re uncertain which wire is the “hot” one. What now?

In the United States, household wiring code offers us a clue as to which wire SHOULD correspond to what. Extreme caution should be used, however, when dealing with electricity, even if you feel certain that you know which wire is which. The possibility exists that a misguided handy-man who came before you made the wrong choice connecting the wires. You can never be too careful when your life is at risk.

According to code, the black wire is always the "hot" or "live" wire, meaning, it is connected to a source supplying 110 VAC. If you are connecting this wire to an electrical outlet, this wire should connect to the narrow spade, or brass colored terminal. If you have not switched off the breakers like you're supposed to and you grab the copper conductor of this wire, you will probably feel an unmistakable tingling sensation quickly travel up your arm. If you do feel it, let go of the wire because this sensation is not good for you. If this happens to you often, be sure to have someone around who knows CPR and first aid when you do home repairs.

The green wire is your friend. This is the ground wire. Its sole purpose for existing is to save your life by providing electricity an alternate path to ground. In the case of a short circuit, the current passes through the ground wire and overloads the breakers, causing them to trip. Sometimes this wire will also have a yellow stripe. Be sure to connect the ground wire properly when performing an electrical repair. If the copper conductor of the "hot" wire that we just discussed were to maneuver it's way over to the metal casing of, for example your ceiling fan, and make contact with it without the ground wire attached, you would be in for a nasty surprise when you touched the metal casing of the fan.

The white wire is known as the "neutral" wire. In any circuit, whether AC or DC, there has to be a complete path in order for the electrical current to flow. The white wire alone should not have a charge and should not hurt you if you touch it. If installing an electrical outlet, this wire connects to the wide spade or silver colored terminal.  Sometimes, you will find a red wire living side-by-side with the black, white, and green wires. This wire is known as a "traveler" wire and is used to connect power between 3-way light switches.

Always use caution when working with household wiring. Turn off the breaker that corresponds to the circuit that you are working on. If you are not certain which one is which, switch off the main breaker. Even then, it is a good idea to test the wires with a multimeter to be absolutely certain that the wires are not "hot". It's a good idea to test between the black wire and the white wire and then between the black wire and the green wire. It is important to note that when reading AC voltage with a multimeter, if you connect your probes between two wires that are both "hot" (110VAC) the reading will be 0 volts. (A lesson that I learned the hard way!) Always know what you are doing when dealing with electricity. Small mistakes could prove to be fatal.



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How to Reduce the Amount of Dust in Your Home

A dusty home is an unhealthy place to live and very uncomfortable for those with dust allergies. Follow these easy tips to remove much of this dust from your home.

The first step in reducing the amount of dust in your home is to understand what causes this problem. Dust forms due to a number of things, including pet dander, dirt particles entering from outside the home, the decomposition of upholstered furniture and clothing, insects and their waste, dead human skin cells that have been shed, and many others. Through routine cleaning practices and some preventative measures, all of these problems may be controlled to an extent.

Let's begin with the central air conditioning system if your home is equipped with one. It makes no sense to clean and dust while there is a large machine recirculating dust and spewing it all over the house. Make an appointment to have the ducts cleaned and in the meantime replace the air filter with a high quality filter that is rated for maximum filtration of dust and allergens. Regardless of the directions specified on the filter, replace it every month. Leaving an air filter in place for several months at a time in a home with a high level of dust will cause unnecessary stress on the central air system and result in costly repairs.

Now do a thorough cleaning of your entire home using furniture polish and clean cloths where applicable. Don't forget to dust ceiling fans, blinds, drawers, and cabinets. Clean every surface in the home where dust could settle. Be sure to wash all bedding materials and if possible wash your curtains. Mop all hardwood and laminate floors and vacuum all carpeted areas using a vacuum with a Hepa filter. Clean your shower and bathtubs. At least once a month, move furniture, including dressers, beds, refrigerator, clothes washer, and clothes dryer and clean behind and underneath them. As this is a time consuming and often strenuous process, it may be necessary to alternate one area of furniture a month and then another the next month. Cleaning behind these pieces of furniture just a few times a year is better than never cleaning behind them at all.

Verify that each entrance of your home is equipped with a mat for guests to wipe their feet on. If you own a pet, be sure to bathe and brush them frequently. Check for cracks and crevices in your home where air may be flowing from the outside and repair them. If your home is equipped with attic stairs, verify that the door is sealing properly when closed. Products are available now that may be installed on an attic entrance that seals the door when shut.


If the dust problem persists, invest in an air purifying machine. The ionic air purifying machines do not require replacement filters and help capture a large amount of dust from the air. Consider removing large area rugs and upholstered furniture from your home. Switching carpeted areas to hardwood or laminate flooring will also greatly reduce the level of dust in a home. Be sure to keep closets and drawers which contain clothes shut at all times when not in use.  Following these simple tips will reduce much of the dust in a home and will simplify the cleaning process in the future.

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How to Clean Your Home a Little Each Day

In one week or less, a home can transform from a perfectly clean living space to a completely horrific nightmare of clutter. It's difficult to explain what causes this phenomenon, but I do have several solutions for how to recover from it.

In most homes, it is natural for clutter to accumulate in a short period of time. This does not mean that the inhabitants are filthy people or that they do not care to keep a clean home. Clutter is evidence that people; busy people at that, are living in the home. The following steps should assist in maintaining a clean home within a budgeted amount of time.

Share the responsibility! If two or more people live in the same home, then EACH ONE should be responsible for cleaning it unless one of them is under the age of three. Each person should take responsibility for their own belongings and also for their messes. This is simple. If only one person in the home wears a size 13 shoe and there are two of them lying in the living room floor, it is that person's responsibility to relocate the shoes to a closet or appropriate storage space. If food that is packaged in a wrapper is opened and consumed, the wrapper should be deposited in the garbage can and not on the coffee table or on the floor.

Use the "Back and Forth" method of spot cleaning. This really works! Start at one end of the home and identify all of the things that do not belong. Pick up a few; not too many, and walk to the other end of the home. Upon passing the spot where each item belongs, deposit it neatly and continue on to the other side. Repeat this process, starting from the opposite end. With a radio positioned at a halfway point, music may be heard throughout the journey. Several things are accomplished using this method. The home slowly becomes organized. The person cleaning gets some valuable exercise and entertainment by singing and possibly dancing as they go. The entire house does not have to be cleaned each time this method is performed, but it is a useful means of managing clutter in high-traffic areas.

Once clutter has been cleared, it is a good idea to perform deeper cleaning. Scrub or mop floors, dust furniture, and vacuum carpets and rugs. As with the "Back and Forth" method of cleaning, deep cleaning does not have to be done all at once. Pick one day to clean the kitchen. Clean the bathrooms another day. Only do as much as time or energy allows.  By using these steps to keep a home in a manageable state, there will be less stress involved when a surprise visitor drops in unannounced.

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How to Make Money Risk-Free Online Without Spending Your Own

I am going to share with you several easy ways that I have made money online over the last few months. They are all easy to do and best of all, they're all FREE. Not a scam or a sales pitch. I don't want anything from you other than your attention for a few minutes. Money will never exchange hands between us unless you buy something from me on EBAY.

After having tried and failed to make money using advertised systems and even setting up a website with paid links and spending more than I made, I decided that I wanted to make just a little money; something for my troubles. It didn't have to be a lot. I just didn't want to have to pay anything to do it and I wanted to do something simple. Using this advice won't cost you anything other than your time.

Set up a free checking account at your local bank using whatever their minimum deposit is. This should preferably be a new account that doesn't contain your life savings. It will be used, for starters, to set up a PayPal account and then later it will be used to hold the money you make. That money can then be withdrawn as cash or transferred to another account for safekeeping. Set up a free email account and then set up a free PayPal account. PayPal will require you to have a checking account (your free one) and you have to verify your account by confirming two small deposits that PayPal will make to you.

Sign up with a trusted online survey website and complete surveys for money. Now, find several of your friends who want to make money too. Have them set up free email accounts and then refer them to the same survey websites. Use your best judgment and don't give away too much personal information to any website unless you trust them. Keep in mind that when you do reach your payout point, there may be a waiting period from the end of the current month before they issue your check. This is normally done for security purposes and it is a little inconvenient, but it's free money.

Join an online auction website and sell random items throughout your house that are taking up space and that you no longer need. Some examples of things that sell very easily are video games and systems, DVD's, die cast model cars (very popular!), and books. There are usually fees involved when you sell things online, but I've found that if you regularly pay off your auction account using your PayPal account, you will stay fairly well ahead and never spend any money out of your checking account. Just be sure to leave enough money in your PayPal account to cover these fees. If you do not have enough money in your PayPal account to cover the fees, it will be withdrawn from your checking account.

Another useful online tool are online classified ads, which are comparable to the classified section of the newspaper. The major difference is that most of these online classifieds do not charge you to list items for sale! Do you have some exercise equipment or furniture that you want to get rid of? Why not make some money from it and have someone else take it away for you? You can also find items on these classified ad websites that people are giving away for free! All you have to do is contact them and go pick it up. What are you going to do with all this free stuff? Well, remember that online auction account that you set up? Sell these items for profit. Friends and family are also good resources for free things. Offer to help them clean out their storage areas and get rid of old junk. You'd be surprised how much of that "old junk" is very valuable to someone in another part of the world.

True, using these methods will not make you rich overnight and I don't expect to be featured in any financial magazines any time soon, but these ideas do help to make some money. For example, using the ideas mentioned above, I've made over $600 in just a little over a month. Granted, you and I may not have the same type of personal possessions to sell, but yours may be worth much more than mine. One last tip, set up an account on eHow.com, write articles like this one, and share your success and your ideas with other people. If your article becomes popular, eHow will pay you. I hope these tips are helpful to you and that they make you as much money as they have for me!


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How to Avoid Online Money Making Scams

Opportunity presents itself around every corner on the Internet for the average person to become a millionaire overnight. I have spent some time and money "investing" in some of these opportunities and I want to help you avoid spending money on something that will offer you no return.

The first thing to consider when reading an article about making money online is, does the article sound believable? Does it sound legal? Does the program or system that you are buying into produce anything tangible or of any real worth to anyone? Does it offer a guarantee or trial period?

If everything seems to be legitimate at first glance, then it's time to do some investigating. Does the website offer contact information? Is there a phone number listed? If so, call the number and try to speak to a living human being. If you can't get through to anybody now, imagine how hard it will be to get a refund later if needed.

Visit the Better Business Bureau's website (www.bbb.com) and search for the website address (url) for the company that you are considering paying for services. Are they registered? If so, do they have any complaints against them? Do a whois lookup on the domain name. (ex. makelotsofmoneyovernight.com) Web sites like register.com are useful in performing a whois lookup. What name is the website registered under? If you search on this name, what information can you find online? If you find other web sites associated with the original website, search for them with the Better Business Bureau as well.

If you decide to make a purchase from a website, check to see if the "check out" page is on a secure server. If you are using Internet Explorer, look for the yellow lock symbol at the bottom of your web browser. Also be sure the web address begins with "https". When making a purchase, use a credit card rather than a debit card. Credit card companies usually cover fraudulent spending if someone obtains unauthorized access to your account.


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