Minimize energy bills for your holiday decors

Christmas holiday months is the common time of the year when most household electricity bills goes up than normal, this is because we usually put up all kinds of holiday decorations both inside and outside our homes for the holidays and most of these decors consume electricity. The more decorations, the nicer it looks, and the brighter it gets, the merrier and livelier. But effects of all these glimming lights also cause a fast rise in our electricity bill. Although, I cannot tell give you a solution that makes the electric company to wave your electrical bill this season, there are infacts somethings that each one of us can do to minimize the energy consumption this holiday, like using automatic timers.

Nowadays, you can buy different types of timers for both indoor and outdoor that you can use with most electrical decors to control the on and off of the decors automatically. Most timers are reusable, that is why even if it will cost you more to buy the timers the first time, you can use and reuse these timers for years to come, so the cost will not be so heavy if you think of it this way, the long period. Automatic timers will come really handy when you dont want to plug and unplug each electrical decors every night or day.

There are different types of timers, one of the most common one is the automatic on/off, where you can set the mode and adjust the desired time frame when you want the device to go on and off. This type of timer will be great if you wish your decors to turn off as soon as everyone is asleep, say 11 pm, when almost everyone is sleeping or trying to sleep and cant really see your decorations anymore so might as well have the decor off and save the energy. And have it set to turn on in the morning when everyone wakes up, lets say seven in the morning. And you no longer have to sweat worrying and thinking if you turn on or off the decors. Some decors that will be great for this type of timer is blow-up santa balloons, etc.

Aother type of timer that you can buy is the Dusk-to-Dawn timer, where it has a built-in sensor to determine the outdoor light, which will usually works really great if you setup icecles and christmas tree lights outside, where it will turn on when it started to go dark outside and turn off as soon as the dawn arrives. This will save you lots of electricity and no more reasons like you forgot to turn it off in the morning , or you woke up late and have the lights running while the sun is out for 2-4 hours more..

With the global warming being a worldwide concern and everyone is affected, it is time that each of us do a little something to help, and one way to help is use less energy! If each one of us use less energy everyday this holiday, multiply by the billions, that is a lot of energy save everyday!

Hopefully this holiday, you save some energy, save some money and help save your planet as well.

Written by JAZEVOX

Great use for clothes you dont use

There are many different reasons why we get rid some clothes, to mention a few: create space in the closet, clothes wont fit, cannot wear it because its not your style, and any other reasons that you may come up with. But deciding HOW to get rid of some clothes is just as emotional and mind-buggling as deciding WHICH clothes to let go.

Most of my clothes when I was young are all gone now, some were given away to my relatives and some were given to some people who asked my mother and my grandmother for some hand-me-down clothings for children because their parents cannot afford to buy new ones at that time.

Few days earlier, I wrote an article Solving your closet nightmares which talked about how to convince yourself to get rid unwanted clothes, and be willing to reclaim valuable closet space. But once you have decided WHICH clothes you are willing to let go, the next question is, HOW? Im sure if you have a hard time letting go with these clothes, there must be a value in them, and things with value, you cannot just throw away, right?

Here are some suggestions that you can do to get rid of clothes that you are willing to let go:

Sell them locally. There are several ways that you can sell your used clothings but dont expect to get the same amount as you paid for it, remember it is a used one, and that will cause price depreciation. Check for your local stores to see if there are used clothings consignment in your area, where you can drop off your clothes and the consignment store will sell them for you in their brick and mortar store, and when it will sell you get paid, or other times you have to pay store space where you can display your clothes for selling.

Sell them online. One of the favorite place to sell used clothing is eBay. But eBay have rules and regulations with regards to selling used clothings and which is allowed and not allowed to sell. But selling used clothings online take some works, patience, and money. You need to clean and wash your item to make them useable and sanitized. You need to take photographs of the actual item and also pinpoint the flaws specially that used clothings are imperfect and bounds to have damages and holes and fading. And you need to be willing to spend some money for listing them online, which may or may not sell, most listing cost is non-refundable, so selling used clothing online is a gamble as well, you have to pay for listing fee that could possibly wont sell. And with the millions of inventories listed online, selling your used clothings might be a challenge to sell.

Donate them. Most areas have non-profit organization that are willing to take your usable used clothings as donations so that they can hand it to the less fortunate and the needy. Other times, these non-profit organizations will run a rammage sale or thrift store to house all the domated clothings and they will sell these clothings at low prices and the proceeds of the sales will be donated to the needy, the poor, people who can definitely benefit and need it. If you donate, expect not to get any money payment, because as the word implies, you donate, you give it to help others. But the good thing about donating is that you know that your used clothings will have a purpose somehow instead of just throwing them away. And at the time of donation, you can also asked for receipt from the non-profit organization so that you can use it as tax right-off. Not all might be qualified as tax right-off, but you can read more about that in IRS form...

Hand-me down. If you have brothers or sisters, cousins, relative or friends whom you think can use and may like the clothes that no longer fit you or not your style, ask them if they want it! Just make sure that you wont hand them a piece of crap, if you know what i mean, pants without zippers, blouses with missing buttons, over-stained ones, shredded pieces, because giving them a used crap might appear as an insult rather than a gesture of love and giving (i think).

Throw it away. For those used clothings that you plan to hand-me down, or donate like pants without zippers, blouses with missing buttons, over-stained ones, shredded pieces, the best way to dispose of them is just to throw them away or make them into rags/wipes in your household. If the main reasons why you are getting rid of these clothings is because it is stained, ruined, cutted, etc, then chances are nobody will like them as well. Only give to give people what you think they can truly wear and appreciate and the only reason while you are getting rid of them is because they wont fit you, they are not your style but it was given as gift to you, etc.

Related article: Solving your closet nightmares