Cutting Down on Heating and Cooling Expenses

The cost of heating and cooling your home can add up. If you live in a hot climate like I do, your air conditioner does double duty and racks up the kilowatts in the summer. You can, however, put several measures in place to control these costs. 

The Thermostat. Installing either a programmable or automated thermostat is useful. Either will help you control the temperature and ensure a budget-friendly setting is in place when no one is home. If you have a two-story home and run two units, set the thermostat downstairs to one degree lower than your target temperature and the one upstairs to one degree higher than your target temperature. This arrangement facilitates your units to work in tandem with each other instead of against each other. 

Air Filters. Using cheaper air filters can also be a benefit. The more expensive ones are great, especially if anyone in the home has allergies or sensitivities. The con is that your unit works harder to bring air in because of the thickness of those filters. Air conditioning professionals have various opinions about what filter to use, but I find using the cheaper air filters works just fine for my particular case. 

The A/C Unit. Keeping your unit clean and well-maintained will keep costs in check as well. Lightly spraying the condenser coil of your unit and rinsing out the dirt and debris will keep air flow running smoothly through the coil. A dirty coil hinders air movement, making the unit work harder. A yearly inspection of your unit is always advisable too. Contact your utility company to see if they run specials on annual maintenance services. The specials usually run in the late spring, before you’re ready to switch on the A/C. 

Insulation and Duct Sealing. Another thing to consider is checking the level of insulation in your attic and how well your ducts are sealed. If you have fewer than 12 inches of insulation in your attic, it could be a problem. Rectifying these issues is expensive, but you save a lot of money in the long run. I did it for my home during the summer months and my electric bill went down by almost $100 the next month, and the temperatures were even higher than the previous month! Many utility companies offer rebates for making your home more energy-efficient and some expenses even give you a tax credit on your tax return. I received over $1,000 in rebates and a $122 tax credit for installing attic insulation and solar screens and sealing the ducts. Call your utility company and request an energy audit on your home to see where the inefficiencies are in your home and if the company offers rebates. 

Window Treatments. By no means do I keep current on window treatments, but I do know that blackout honeycomb shades are great at keeping the heat or cold out as well as keeping the light out! I have a set of non-blackout honeycomb shades in the water closet and I can feel the heat emanating from the window in the summer. The blackout shades…no heat at all. 

Time-of-Use Plans. If your utility company offers time-of-use plans, look into it. They’re not for everybody. Many people don’t want the restriction of when they should and shouldn’t do high-powered activities like laundry, running the dishwasher, and cooking. I’m on a time-of-use plan and I have had a few months where I actually paid more for being on the plan than not being on any kind of plan at all. The amounts were small and I’ve saved money life-to-date being on the plan so I continue to subscribe to it. 

Equal Payment Plans. Many utility companies offer the option of paying the same amount every month regardless of the actual bill amount. They periodically average out your actual usage and make adjustments to your payment to make sure you don’t get too far ahead or behind. If your income stream is more or less the same amount each month, enrolling in the equal payment plan makes sense. Your bill is completely predictable, making it easier to budget. 

The Proof. I have employed all of these strategies in my home. I have a 2,600+ square foot 2-story home with two A/C units and no swimming pool. I pay $74 a month for electricity and $47 a month for natural gas. I’m not disclosing this to brag in any way, but to demonstrate that these strategies work! So the question is…how low can you go?

Protecting Your Wireless Home Security System

Home security systems have now become wireless, which makes installation, maintenance, and operation a lot easier. It comes with a price, however. Because of the system’s dependence on your home wi-fi to communicate any issues, a power outage can be trouble. No power equals no router and/or no modem.

I thought to myself, “What would stop a burglar from finding my breaker box and just shutting everything down?” Even if there’s a lock on the box, a pair of bolt cutters would solve that problem fairly quickly. If the alarm system has no wi-fi, it won’t work unless it either has cellular capability or, in the case of alarms using VoIP, the technology to maintain connectivity.

Photo courtesy of Amazon

Plugging your router and modem into a battery backup system will eliminate this weakness. Depending on the system, it will keep them running for at least an hour; long enough where a potential crook isn’t going to wait around for the backup to drain out. If the crooks are less advanced, they might assume the alarm is nonfunctional and break into the house just to have the alarm blare away, to their surprise.

If you have a wireless alarm, check with your security company to see if cellular or other technology is utilized to maintain connectivity during power outages. If not, seriously consider purchasing a battery backup system to give you an additional layer of protection against potential thieves. It’s a small investment to make to protect your belongings and increase your peace of mind.

Feasible Decluttering

Decluttering your home can be a monumental task, especially if you feel that there’s too much “stuff” in it and you don’t know where to start. Hiring a professional organizer is an option, but can be rough on the pocketbook. Here’s a few tips and thoughts about decluttering your home without the help of a professional.

Chaos creates chaos. If you feel like your thoughts or general mindset are a bit chaotic, take a look around you. Are you looking at clutter all day? Unorganized stuff looks chaotic and I really believe it takes a toll on your mind and psyche. If you’re an especially visual person, the effect can be even greater. A chaotic environment creates a chaotic mind and could make you feel nervous, uneasy, closed in upon, or held down.

Don’t make a grand plan. I highly advise NOT making a plan or schedule to declutter your home. Why? Because all it takes is one off day and the schedule is out of whack. Then you feel either guilty or like you’re behind the eight ball. As a result, there’s a higher likeliness that the plan will get completely scrapped. Just work on your home when you can and make a sincere effort to do it consistently. Try one task a week at first. If you feel like you can do more, try two a week.

Do it in workable chunks. If your entire home needs decluttering, thinking about how to tackle the whole thing is overwhelming. Thinking about decluttering one closet? Not as much. And don’t feel like you can’t move on until an entire room is finished. One day you might feel like organizing kitchen stuff. The next day, maybe not. Perhaps tackling the bookshelf sounds more appealing that day. Make it as enjoyable as possible so you can get through to the end result – a clutter-free house!

It gets messier before it gets cleaner. Whenever I reorganize and perform my annual “purge”, it looks like a tornado went through the area. At the end, though, it’s all good again. If, for example, you’re working on a closet, take everything out of it. Everything. Lay it all out on the floor. Get boxes or bags and start separating everything into four categories: keep, give to charity, throw out, and not sure. Once everything is in a box or bag, go back through the “not sure” and make a decision. That part might take a while. After that, get the “give to charity” and “throw out” items out of the area and focus on putting the “keep” items back in the closet.

The 6 month rule. As you’re going through your stuff, ask yourself, “Have I used or noticed this in the past 6 months?” If the answer is no, consider donating it or throwing it out. This, of course, does not apply to holiday and seasonal items. I don’t want to see anyone throwing out their Halloween cookie cutters because they’re reorganizing in August.

Keep your camera handy. Last year, my mother went through my Grandma’s attic and gave me a box she found full of trophies I earned or won when I was younger. It was great going through it and reliving some of those memories, but I had no intentions of displaying them. Ever. Instead, I took a photo of each trophy so I could always look back on them if I ever felt nostalgic. I then removed any engraved personalized plaques and put them in the “give to charity” box. People do buy trophies at thrift stores. They’ll use them for a work function and give them away for things like “Ugliest Sweater” at the office holiday party. It’s cheap for the company and brings smiles to the employees. If you come across an item that falls in that category where it holds a little bit of nostalgia, but you’ll never actually do anything with it, take a photo and allow it to get repurposed or enjoyed by someone else.

Don’t discount spaces that aren’t conspicuous. Sure, no one but you and your family see what’s in that junk drawer in the kitchen. That doesn’t make it any less important than a place that’s more conspicuous. Decluttering a “hidden” area like a junk drawer is just as important because YOU now know it’s organized. You will feel the satisfaction regardless if anyone outside of your home ever sees it.

I hope these tips help inspire you to start organizing your home. I’d love to hear your comments about your decluttering experience!