With fall weather here, now is a good time to take a look at birdhouses in your yard and give them a good cleaning. A used nest is a great thing, but an old bird nest is not. Old bird nests in a nest box can be covered in things like droppings, feather dust and pieces of decaying insects. Remove the old nests and give the birdhouses a good washing. Then fill them with a variety of dried grasses from the yard to make them attractive to new birds to come and call home.

ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION

Did you know that the nonprofit Habitat for Humanity has a network of stores called Habitat ReStores that accept leftover materials from home renovations projects? The stores collect the items and resell them to benefit the work the charity does. If you’re undergoing a home renovation project, consider donating your surplus supplies or lightly used home items you no longer need. The top eight items ReStores love to receive are bathroom items (sinks and bathtubs), kitchen cabinets, working appliances (stoves, refrigerators and dishwashers), doors, windows, lighting fixtures, doorknobs and flooring.

ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION

When you are decorating your home for Halloween, be wary of putting up fake spider webs in your yard. Many craft stores sell synthetic fiber material that can be stretched, pulled and manipulated to look like oversized spider webs on windows, bushes and trees, but this material is problematic for a few reasons. First, it’s not recyclable or biodegradable, so it ends up clogging landfills. But wild animals like birds and owls can get entangled in it, too. If you want to decorate, stick with natural things like gourds, pumpkins and dried corn instead.

ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION