Homeowner’s Academy
This is your guide to interesting facts, tips and general homeowner information. We hope you find the information useful – and feel free to share with friends!

New Year – Time to Get Your Home Organized

Spring cleaning often comes with a fresh coat of paint. Painting can be a great way to change the feel of a room or give your home some great curb appeal. Painting also plays a role in home repair by protecting the wood of your home against the elements, essential here in Florida.

If you decide to try your hand at painting this spring, People’s Trust has some tips that can keep the experience enjoyable and safe for everyone in your family.

Try Some Eco-friendly Paint

Spring conjures up the sniffles for many people in the great outdoors, but paint may do the same thing inside of your home. Household paints have previously contained up to 300 toxic chemicals, including the hazardous volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that release particles into the air for years after you paint.

Try a low-VOC paint, which tends to be water-based, for any home interior painting. These have taken off in recent years and come in every shade and finish imaginable. Some brands also create no-VOC paints by replacing chemicals with more natural ingredients. These no-VOC paints are often pet-safe, but always check the label and never leave your pet unattended in a room where paint cans are open.

Home Repair Supervision

If you have children, never let them be in a room with open paint cans by themselves. If children are under the age of 10, they should never be in a room with any open painting materials. Even eco-friendly paints are extremely dangerous if ingested. If you believe your child has ingested any paint, immediately call poison control at 1-800-222-1222.

Try Cloth Catchers for Indoor and Outdoor Painting

You can pick up plastic sheets to protect your floors and lawn, but these often move and tear as you walk around painting. Turn to cloth or canvas drop cloths that will stay in place easier and can be weighed down with objects without the risk of tearing.

For painting the outside of your home, try a tarp with tie-holes. These can be staked into the ground to provide a steadier surface for a ladder.

Ventilate: Make Room to Breathe

If you’re painting inside, open the doors and windows. If your room has a fan, turn it on. You want proper ventilation for any space you’re painting to help air out the room and not breathe in paint fumes. If you can’t ventilate where you’re working, get a respirator and only paint in short stints.

Ventilation is essential to most common home repair improvements.

Stick to the Shade

If painting outside, you know that you need to take a break in the shade, but what about your materials? Paint, paint thinner and lacquer all need to stay in the shade as much as possible when painting outdoors.

Not only can heat and sun alter some of these items when they’re sitting in the can, but heat can also be a big problem for these flammable items. The city of Las Vegas actually warns its citizens to be careful when painting their homes or canvases outside because paint thinner has been ignited by the sun and started home fires.

Clean Up after Home Repairs

When you finish painting for the day, clean up the entire space. This will prevent spills and any accidental exposure.

Latex paints can typically be cleaned from surfaces and your skin with soap and water. Oil-based paints will have specific cleaning instructions located on the paint can itself. Take a look at your can before you start painting and write down what it says, because paint often spills on the outside of the can during the painting process.

Gasoline was once used to clean paint off of brushes, but this should never be used. Gasoline is extremely dangerous and should never be used as a cleaner for any object.

It’s always a smart practice to clean up and watch your space clearly when doing any home repair project.

by PTI Marketing | Jan 01, 2014

With a New Year come’s the chance to get organized.   Even in the age of smartphones, it’s great to have a one-stop location for your family to have a go-to place to know what’s going on this week or month.   We dub it the “family command center.”   An information center for busy families to find out where they need to be and even leave messages for each other or reminders.   People’s Trust Insurance wishes you and your family a happy and healthy New Year and hopes these organizational tips will help you and your family get organized in the New Year!

Make it yours

Just as there’s no such thing as a “average” family, there’s no one right way to set up a family command center. One family may find a single three-ring binder can hold all the information they need to make it to work and school on time each day. For others, the family command center will fill an entire wall with whiteboards, personal inboxes and cubbies.

To determine what your family needs in an information center, consider what information needs to be collected and shared in the household. Your command center components might include items like:

  • Family calendar
  • School calendar
  • Household chore checklists
  • Frequently called phone numbers
  • Babysitter/emergency information
  • School lunch menus
  • Shopping list
  • Coupon files
  • Personal inboxes for each family member
  • Whiteboard for notes and reminders
  • Incoming/outgoing mail
  • Bills to pay
  • Receipts file
  • Storage for pens, pencils, paper, markers and erasers

Location, location, location

Once you have an idea of what information you’ll track and how much space your command center will require, it’s time to give it a home.  Where to set up your family command center? Again, it’s a choice as individual as your household.  One family will add a command center to the family’s kitchen wall, while others claim the prime real estate of the refrigerator door. Some households prefer a desk-based solution, with file drawers at the ready, while others rely on wall-based messaging using whiteboards and sticky notes.

Wherever you choose, keep in mind that the center won’t work if no one can see it! Hidden away behind a door spells instant failure, so choose a spot that’s out in plain view and on the family’s fast-track each day.

A place for everything … and everyone

No matter how pretty–or organized!–the family command center may be, it won’t work unless you use it. Encourage the household to use the command center by giving each family member a “buy-in”: a place of their own for notes and messages.  Mount magnetic paper holders to the refrigerator, labeled with children’s names, or create color-coded sections on a whiteboard to give everyone ownership of the information contained there. Hint: tuck love notes, a small treat, or a “get out of chores free” card into children’s message areas to make using the command center more fun! 

Build regular checks into your routine

To bring the concept to full usefulness, build “command center checks” into your morning and evening routine. Knowing that there’s a thumbs-down entry on tomorrow’s school lunch menu gives you plenty of time to pack a substitute sack lunch the night before. No more morning panic!

Reminders

You can even mark when your homeowners insurance is due!

Source: Organized Home

This Blog is sponsored by:
People’s Trust Insurance Company