Twice the Free Heat

I was reminded this morning when I was up with my son that fall has definitely arrived...it was cold!

Instead of turning on the heat, which its not THAT cold to do (but these tips will help even when its snowing out!), what I decided to do was some laundry. Laundry?

I learned this first idea from the Sears man when he came to fix our washer/dryer shortly after our son was born. It works best if you have a small home, but would probably help in just about any circumstance.

Remove the silver vent/tubing/duct from the wall which is connected to your dryer. Instead of blowing all that hot air out into the cold, have it heat your home. Place at the end a cut piece of pantyhose to catch the lint and make sure the air is blowing out. You will notice an immediate difference in temperature and it will help cut back your heating bills (not to mention your whole home smells like fabric softner).

The second idea comes from my mom. When I was home and we would make cookies or cakes or anything in the oven, unless it was summer, she always left the door down when we turned the oven off. "Free Heat," is what she called it...and it was! I do this now in my own kitchen and especially in the cold winter, this is a huge help.

Hope everyone had a nice weekend.

A second use for hand towels

When we bought our condo during the height of the housing craze we didn't check the bathroom as closely as we should have. Shortly after we moved in we realized that our window sill in the bathroom was in some serious need for sanding, repainting and just general repair. To be polite, while I love my husband dearly, I did not marry Mr. Bob Villa and I am not Martha Stewart.

Rather than try ad nausea um to fix the sill, or pay for someone to fix it, I placed a hand towel down and put our shampoos etc on top. I change the hand towel about once a month, and four years later, the sill is pretty much the same as it was when we bought it. And since the towel collects all the soap remnants and other "shower junk" I will continue to use even once our window sill is fixed because it makes for no mess clean up -- just throw the towel in the wash with others and that's it!