10/24/12

One way to help extend the life of food is to freeze perishables and leftovers to defrost and eat later. But how do you know if your freezer is actually cold enough to preserve food? Do the ice cream test: If a container of ice cream is soft when you take it out of the freezer, your freezer is too warm. Turn down the temperature until your ice cream is solid, and you'll know everything else is at the optimum temperature to stay preserved.

10/23/12

Decorating your home with string lights can be a festive way to bring joy to your home and neighborhood. When shopping for new lights, consider ones that are LED and Energy Star qualified. They use a fraction of the energy of traditional lights and can last up to 10 times longer. So while the investment up front may be a little more, over time you'll save money and energy. If every string of lights sold in the U.S. were Energy Star qualified, our country would save $80 million on electricity in one year.

10/22/12

With colder weather approaching, water pipes are more likely to freeze at night. One way to prevent this is to invest in inexpensive tubular pipe insulation, which is simply a polyfoam tube that helps keep pipes from freezing and keeps hot pipes hot. One added benefit of insulating pipes is that less "sweat" on pipes means a smaller chance of pipes becoming a breeding ground for mold.