Is Your Yard Equipment Ready for Spring?

As spring finally starts to arrive, there are likely a number of tasks around the house that will be kicking off in the coming weeks. Whether you’re mowing the lawn, prepping the garden, or refreshing those flower beds, it’s time to break out your equipment and get to work. One question, though: Is all your yard equipment actually ready for spring?

If you’re like a lot of people, at the end of the year you just clean up your equipment a bit and put it into storage. If you don’t do anything else with it, though, this can actually shorten your equipment’s life and increase the likelihood of breakdown during the busy spring period. Before you dive into all those spring tasks, here are a few things you should do to keep your mowers, tillers, and everything else running smoothly.

Change Those Fluids

When was the last time you changed the oil in your mower? How old is the gas in your trimmer? As the spring arrives, you should start your equipment out with fresh fluids. Not only will this ensure that your engine is properly lubricated when you start your various spring tasks, but it will also prevent potential problems that can result from old gas breaking down over the long winter months.

Depending on the equipment you use, this can also be a great time to lubricate other moving parts or grease any bearings that might have dried out while things were in storage. Check your owner’s manuals to see if there are any other fluid or lubrication recommendations for your equipment while you’re working on your spring prep. If you can’t find the owner’s manual, check the manufacturer’s website or other online resources for tips.

Sharpen Your Blades

There are many pieces of yard equipment that feature blades or other cutting surfaces. These can get dull as time goes by, and in some cases may even pick up a little bit of rust over the winter depending on where you live. This can cause some serious problems heading into a new year, resulting in uneven cuts and potentially even contributing to blade damage or other failures. Before you fire things up for the first time this spring, spend a little time sharpening those edges to make sure that everything’s working like it should.

Of course, not all blades can be revived by simple sharpening. While you’re checking them out, look for cracks or other signs of damage in the blades that can’t simply be buffed out or sharpened away. If a blade is cracked or damaged, replace it completely instead of trying to sharpen it. Cracked or damaged blades can break while under the stress of use, potentially causing damage or injuries in the process. The cost of a new blade is a small price to pay for staying safe while working around the house.

Other Equipment Maintenance

Depending on the equipment you have, there may be other maintenance tasks you need to perform as well. Changing oil filters, fuel filters, and spark plugs are great beginning-of-spring maintenance activities that go a long way toward getting your year off on the right foot. If you use electric equipment, test-charge any batteries to make sure that they can still hold a good charge after being in storage for the winter. Pneumatic and water hoses should be checked for leaks before use, and any nozzles or sprayers should be cleaned to remove dust and other gunk.

Seed Starting 101

Planting a garden in the spring is a great way to have fresh fruits and vegetables throughout the year. Even homeowners who don’t have space for a large garden plot often plant a few things in containers or small raised gardens on their property. While it’s not quite time to start planting in a lot of places, that doesn’t mean you can’t get the jump on gardening season by starting your seeds. Depending on where you live and what you’re planting in your garden, there are a few different ways to get seeds started for your garden this year.

Starting Seeds Indoors

Before starting your seeds, be sure to read the seed packet to get an idea of how long before planting you should get your seeds started. In many cases this will be six to eight weeks, but it could be longer or shorter depending on exactly what you’re growing. In addition, the packet should give you an idea of when is best to plant based on where you live; you can then time you seed starting based on that guideline.

Prepare a growing medium by using a seed-starting mix or other potting soil. Break it apart to loosen it, then dampen it slightly with some water. Avoid using outdoor garden soil or soil with added fertilizers, as seeds won’t need the extra fertilizer or organic materials from the soil and having too much of these can actually cause problems.

Once you’ve prepped your growing medium, fill some seed-starting trays or other containers until they’re around 2/3 full. Place a few seeds in each cell or container, covering them with more of the dampened mix. Add just a little bit of water, then place the containers in a warm, sunny place. Cover them with a thin sheet of plastic wrap or plastic seed-starting domes to help control the humidity until the seeds sprout.

Starting Seeds Outdoors

Some plants, including a lot of flowers and certain vegetables such as squash and beans, do better when started outdoors. In many cases these are referred to as “direct sow” seeds because they are typically planted directly into the ground instead of being started in pots. This is often the case with plants that germinate and grow quickly, since they can rapidly outgrow indoor growing spaces. If you want to get a jump on these seeds, you’ll need to start them outdoors.

If you have a greenhouse set up, you can start a variety of seeds in it, including seeds that you might otherwise start indoors. Even if you don’t have a dedicated greenhouse set up, cutting the bottoms off of gallon water or milk jugs can still give you the benefits of a greenhouse without the dedicated structure. Failing that, you can also use plastic sheeting to construct a greenhouse tent to achieve the same end.

If you don’t wish to plant directly into the soil, use small individual flowerpots filled with the same seed starter material you would use for indoor starting. This provides more room for root development while still fitting inside of a greenhouse (either static or makeshift) for warmth and weather protection. Once the plants start to outgrow their greenhouses or fill out their pots, they are ready to transfer to the soil.

Planting Time

When it comes time to plant seeds that were started indoors or in pots, the process is pretty simple. Indoor plants should be placed in a partially shaded area that’s protected from the wind for a few hours each day, gradually exposing them to more sunlight and wind for around seven to ten days before planting. Once you’re ready to actually plant, dig a hole slightly larger than the container you started your seed in and add more starting soil to the bottom of it. Remove any excess sprouts from each starter, leaving the strongest plant as you transfer the plant and its surrounding soil to the hole. Fill in around it with soil, then water.

Top Video Doorbells for 2021

It’s a new year and a new article about doorbells. What can we say? Video doorbells have added a much-needed component to a range of systems, from home security to smart homes. Who doesn’t want to know who’s at the door before they so much as bother to get up and look out the peephole? No one. That’s who.

Choosing a video doorbell can be a challenging process. There are a lot of technical differences between many different models that look alarmingly similar, as well as various considerations like subscription fees and installation requirements to be aware of.

What You Need to Get Started

Video doorbells require various methods of installation and have different means of powering the sensitive electronics within. Before you choose a doorbell, it’s important to determine if the doorbell will require an existing doorbell transformer, and if so, in what voltage. Older systems could produce as little as six volts, while newer systems could produce as much as 16 volts.

Systems that don’t require an existing transformer usually run on a battery pack that’s removable and rechargeable, which makes them far more flexible options for homes that might otherwise not be able to power a video doorbell. With a self-install, it’s important that you monitor the power usage for the first few weeks to ensure that your doorbell is getting adequate power.

What About Subscriptions?

Many video doorbells will require a monthly subscription fee in order to maintain your video feeds on their cloud storage. You can usually choose from a few different packages that will allow you to retrieve data for a set amount of time and in a specific resolution. It might seem silly to pay extra for HD video of your front door now, but if that video feed helps catch a porch pirate because the images were so crystal clear that the perp was unmistakable, you’ll appreciate it.

Top Video Doorbells for 2021

This is not meant to be an exhaustive list of video doorbells for 2021, but these are some of the better ones on the market as of the writing of this blog, as determined by independent reviewers.

• Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2. It’s on the upper end pricewise for video doorbells, but that’s because this doorbell has all the whistles and… er… bells. Using a radar sensor, the Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2 can actually tell where people are on your property in order to provide the best view of both visitors and intruders. It also has one of the highest resolution cameras currently available, at 1536p HD, as well as Alexa greetings.
• Nest Hello. With a mid-to-upper price point, you should expect a lot from the Nest Hello. Fortunately, it really delivers. Although it requires a hardwired connection, the Nest Hello can recognize individual visitors using facial recognition software, as well as announce them via Google Assistant or Alexa. It also continuously records video, unlike Ring products which require a triggering event to start recording. That’s a pretty nice feature for people who need more intense monitoring, as well as those who want to keep an eye on the wildlife scampering around their yard at night.
• Maximus Answer DualCam. Although the Maximus Answer DualCam won’t be able to communicate with Alexa or Google Assistant, it can do something no other video doorbell currently does: look straight down. This may seem like a small thing, but if you have limited porch space or simply struggle with neighborhood box thieves, being able to see that your package is still safe and sound on the porch is kind of a huge benefit. The doorbell is a dual cam, however, meaning that it also will look straight out at visitors like all other doorbells do. Reviewers have complained that the speaker can be very quiet, but if you’re only using it to watch packages, that may be a smaller concern considering the smaller price point.

Add More Kitchen Storage With Cabinet Pull-Outs!

It’s wonderful to walk into a home that has lots of counter space, just stretching out like barren land ready for you to populate it with your favorite kitchen gadgets. But even a kitchen with limited counter space can be made so much more useful by better utilizing the thing that’s just below those counters: your lower cabinets. Lower cabinets are some of the most poorly utilized spaces in kitchens absolutely everywhere. No one wants to bend over to sort through dark and poorly organized cabinets, so eventually those spots just get kind of forgotten and ignored. This is where pull-out cabinet units can massively transform your space.

What are Pull-Out Cabinet Storage Units?

If you’re not familiar with pull-out cabinet storage units, well, welcome to a world of storage options you may have never even imagined. Pull-out cabinet storage basically turns the inside of your cabinet into pull-out bins, often resembling drawers or racks. So instead of getting down on your knees to dig around until you finally find that one pot lid you desperately need, you need only slide the drawer open, select it from the proper spot, and go on your merry way. These are a great way to increase the usability of your kitchen cabinets, improve your kitchen organization, and generally make you feel like you’ve got some cool stuff going on behind those very average closed doors. There are several different types out there, here are the main ones:

• Trash bins. Some of the original pull-out units were designed with stashing a trash can in mind. They’re still a popular choice for cabinets with no internal drawers or plumbing in the way, since many people don’t like to leave their trash exposed. Some units will hold just one can, but others have space for an additional trash can, which can be used for things like recycling.
• Internal drawers. Internal drawers are exactly what they sound like they should be. When you open the cabinet, you’re immediately confronted with drawers hidden just inside the door. This can be handy for small items, or if you’re not entirely sure what you want to stash inside your cabinet. The enclosed construction is pretty flexible and allows you to add things like dividers, should you want to toss your entire spatula collection in one, for example.
• Pull-out racks. Metal racks are often less expensive than full-on drawers, but they are really better suited for larger items like pan lids, baking pans, pots, and the like. Closely resembling dishwasher racks, pull-out racks come in a range of designs, some with more flexibility in organization than others. They’re a great option for all those awkward things that generally get tossed in the lower cabinets, but watch the height on the bins. Some are very short, which would be bad news for top-heavy items or things you intend to stack.

Sizing Cabinet Pull-Outs

Choosing the right size of pull-out can feel a little counter-intuitive. There are several inches lost to clearance and hardware when you install a unit, so there’s a lot of temptation to choose one that’s too large and try to make it fit in order to maximize your space. This is the worst possible thing you can do. It may seem like you’re losing space, but remember that you’re adding tiers and levels of organization you could have only dreamed about in the past, so really, unless your cabinet is highly unusual, it’s a net gain.

Start by measuring the clear cabinet opening, which is the space between where the opening to your cabinet starts and where the door to the cabinet swings. If your door will move completely out of the way when opened, measure to the hinges. If it won’t, angle it so it intrudes as little as possible and measure from the open side to the door. Your final cabinet insert should be about an inch more narrow than the clear cabinet opening to allow for hardware. You’ll also want to measure the depth of the cabinet from the inside of the cabinet face to the back side of the unit. The goal is for the final depth to allow for the door to shut over your pull-out unit, concealing it completely.

Better Garbage Disposal Care Tips

A garbage disposal can be a great addition to your kitchen. If it isn’t taken care of correctly, though, the blades can dull or rust over time, and the overall effectiveness of the disposal will drop significantly. With proper care and maintenance, you can add years to the effective life of your garbage disposal. Perhaps more importantly, the care that you put into your disposal now will pay off in the long term by helping to prevent costly repairs and the premature replacement of your disposal unit.

Proper Garbage Disposal Use

One of the best things that you can do for your garbage disposal is to learn how to use it properly. This may seem like a no-brainer as most garbage disposals simply require you to put your scraps in and flip a switch; in reality, though, there’s a bit more to it than that. If you’re sending the wrong items down your disposal you can dull the blades, clog it, or even damage your unit, which can lead to costly repairs.

Ideally, you should use your garbage disposal to dispose of softer food items and things like ice that will melt anyway. Avoid disposing of bones, shells, fibrous vegetables such as celery or asparagus, hard seeds or pits, and nuts. You should also watch out for overly starchy food items like potato skins, as well as items that can continue to soak up water or become kind of a gloppy mess like cooked pasta or coffee grounds. Fats and oils should also be avoided, though that’s in part because of what they can do to your plumbing.

One other tip to keep in mind when using your garbage disposal: Run cold water before and after using the disposal to make sure that food is properly moistened and washed away. This not only helps the garbage disposal to work properly, but it will also help prevent food buildup that can lead to bad smells in your kitchen.

Caring for Your Garbage Disposal

In addition to keeping an eye on what goes down your garbage disposal, putting some time into periodic maintenance will go a long way toward avoiding significant problems with your unit. Before doing any work with your garbage disposal that requires you to be anywhere near the blades, make sure that the disposal is unplugged so that it can’t accidentally come on while you’re working on it. This is one of the most important things you can know about working on your disposal!

Some garbage disposal maintenance is pretty simple to do. If you don’t use your disposal very often, make a point of running some water and turning the disposal on every 2-3 days. This ensures that the blades and other components won’t start to rust as a result of sitting there unused in a moist environment for too long, and keeps certain components from drying out. You should also give a whiff to check for unpleasant smells around the sink every few days. If you do start to smell something, either cut up some lemon or orange peels and feed them to the disposal, or mix some ice cubes with rock salt and baking soda and use that. Either solution should take care of your odor problems.

If the disposal isn’t working or seems to be struggling, cut off the power and shine a light down the sink so you can see if anything is tangled around the blades or otherwise obstructing them. Using pliers, a wrench, or specialized tools that might have come with your disposal (and NEVER your hands), untangle or otherwise remove any debris before plugging the unit back in, then see if that took care of the problem.

What Are Smart Locks?

Home security is important. As smart technologies continue to grow in popularity, an increasing number of homeowners are turning to higher-tech solutions to meet their home security needs. While options like smart cameras and connected doorbells are becoming much more common, not as many homeowners realize that it’s possible to upgrade their doors with smart locks as well. These locks come in a variety of designs, offering some pretty interesting options to those who want to take their home security to the next level.

What Are Smart Locks?

As the name implies, smart locks are door locks that have “smart” connected functions. This means that you can lock and unlock the locks remotely without the need to physically unlock it with a key. They often offer status monitoring as well, allowing you to see whether your doors are locked or unlocked (and in some cases, even whether the door is open or closed.) While there are fully electronic smart locks available that can only be opened remotely, the majority of consumer smart locks feature a physical keyhole and/or a numeric keypad for access as well.

For most smart locks, you can lock, unlock, and monitor them using a smartphone app or a connected hub device such as Google Home or Amazon Alexa. Remote key fobs (similar to those you see with most cars) may also be used to control the lock remotely. Some locks also incorporate biometric features, allowing you to lock or unlock the device by touching a fingerprint reader.

Smart Lock Advantages

There are a number of benefits to installing smart locks on your doors. By allowing you to unlock the door remotely instead of having to use a key, you can get into or out of the house faster when your hands are full or in emergency situations. This remote feature also comes in handy if you realize that you forgot to lock the door when leaving the house or if you need to have someone stop by and pick something up for you while you’re away.

Smart locks also give you a greater degree of control over who can and can’t access your home and when that access is granted. Many models connect with other devices such as smart doorbells or connected camera systems, letting you see who’s at the door before making the decision whether to lock or unlock. In many cases you can even include the smart locks in smart home routines that you’ve programmed on other devices, having them lock or unlock at certain times or when certain routines are run. This can improve the overall security of your home, allowing the doors to lock automatically when potential threats are detected or at times when no one should be visiting.

Installing Smart Locks

Most smart locks aren’t much more difficult to install than standard lock units, though they are likely to have more post-installation setup required. Many smart locks function as a deadbolt, though they may incorporate the doorknob and standard door lock as well. Depending on the model of smart lock being installed, additional components such as a solar panel and battery unit may be included in the installation as well. These components may be integrated into the lock mechanism, or they may be separate.

Once a smart lock is installed, it still needs to be configured to work with your app or other devices. This is usually a pretty straightforward process, similar to pairing a device with your phone via Bluetooth, though some users may experience problems during installation or integration into an existing smart home setup. After setup is complete, the locks should function without issue, using encrypted digital keys over a wireless or Bluetooth connection.

Sliding Barn Doors for Beginners

The cottage look has become a huge trend for homeowners, especially those with older homes that have lost a lot of their original charm to generic remodels over generations. One of the big elements of this new wave in design is the sliding barn door, a simple door mounted on a track that slides to cover a doorway. It’s not a fancy invention, nor is it a new one, so why are they getting so much attention all of a sudden?

The Sliding Barn Door Aesthetic

Sliding barn doors add a ton of cottage chic to a home, especially one that’s already boasting pre-modern features like custom hand-built kitchen cabinetry, built-in storage, and unusual spaces. The sliding barn door is a simple but elegant touch. It’s literally just a door built from wooden slats, just like you’d see on an old-fashioned barn on a farm. That rugged, simple look complements a lot of different styles, especially considering the many different kinds of materials that can be used to achieve the final result.

Considerations Before Installing Sliding Barn Doors

There are many things to consider before you choose sliding barn doors for your home. The first, and most important, is whether or not a barn door actually makes sense with the rest of your design. If you’re literally choosing a barn door because they’re trending right now, that’s about the worst possible reason to make the call. Instead, ask yourself if you really like the cottage chic look, and if you do, if it makes sense with the other design choices you’re making in your home. Although some purists may argue that there’s absolutely no place for a cottage look in a modern home, most designers would agree that the most important thing is consistency. After all, a lot of homes built in the last 40 or so years don’t really have a strong aesthetic of their own, which leaves a lot of room for creative minds to wander.

If you do decide you want to go with a barn door, and it’s consistent with the styling of your home, keep these additional things in mind while choosing the door and where it will be installed:

• Barn doors don’t insulate well. Because barn doors hang on a sliding track, rather than sealing shut, there’s more air, light, and sound infiltration around them. This is fine for a lot of uses, but may make them a poor choice for spaces like bedrooms or bathrooms where you’d like more privacy. If you have pets, for safety’s sake, choose a door and hardware that are heavy enough to keep the bottom of the door from being shoved forward to allow a smart dog or cat to open these doors from the bottom.
• They do save a ton of space. Even though they’re not the greatest doors for insulation, barn doors can save a ton of space that a regular door will require to swing. Instead of losing a whole wall to opening a door, you can instead move the furniture a few inches off the wall to allow the barn door to slide behind. Unlike pocket doors, you don’t need to tear out a wall to install a barn door; you simply run along the outer wall. This can also help minimize the impact of doors that cover water closets and pantries.
• Planning is important. Before you decide that you absolutely must have a barn door, look very carefully at the space where you think it should go. Remember, the door will need room to move along a track, so there must be room on both sides of the door opening (at least enough to allow for the hardware), and no elements that stick out of the wall. If you’ve got a flat light switch or outlet that will end up under the door, consider how that will affect your ability to use the electricity in the room.

Easy Ways to Make Your Home More Pet Friendly

Pets play a large part in many families. While these fuzzy (and sometimes not-so-fuzzy) friends can bring a lot of fun and companionship, keeping pets happy and healthy can take a lot of work as well. One way to keep this under control is to improve the overall pet-friendliness of your home. Much like babyproofing before bringing home a new child helps to prevent accidents and other problems, putting in some time to make your home more pet friendly now will save a lot of headaches and other issues down the line.

Pet-Friendly Homes

There are a few different concerns you should consider when trying to come up with ways to make your home more pet friendly. Think about whether there are any areas of the home that your pet might get hurt or sick if they get into. Do you have a pet that’s likely to chew on things? Stop to consider what those things it chews on are made of. Take an inventory of all the things that you don’t want your pet to damage or break; how many of them can’t be replaced?

As you can see, pet friendliness includes more than just restricting access to certain parts of the home. A truly pet-friendly home is one that will keep your pet safe in many ways while also protecting important items from your pets. There are a few different ways to go about this, of course, and there is no one right answer when it comes to how you should approach making your home more pet friendly.

Common Pet-Proofing Techniques

The way that you approach pet proofing and making your home more pet friendly will depend in large part on how your home is designed and decorated. With that said, here are a few ideas to serve as starting points for your pet-friendly revamp.

• Check the interior of your home for peeling paint or similar problems, especially if you have an older home. Some paints contain materials that could be toxic for pets, so removing peeling paint areas and giving everything a fresh coat of pet-safe paint can help to keep your companions safe.
• Secure potentially dangerous areas like stairwells, fireplaces, and crawlspace access points. Replace rusted or loose coverings to make sure that they can’t be pulled back or shaken free by a determined pet. Then install baby gates or other barriers as needed which will allow you to get through but prevent passage by those without opposable thumbs.
• Lock up cleaners and other chemicals where your pets can’t access them. Some scented cleaners may smell like food to pets, and even non-toxic chemicals can still make pets sick or cause other problems if ingested. If you have medications in the home, they should be locked up similarly.
• Get a trash can with a sturdy lid, preferably one that can be operated hands free. This will not only keep trash from being spread out in your home but can also keep pets from eating things that they really shouldn’t.

Of course, this is just the start of ways to secure your home and make it safe for your pets. Regardless of the specifics, though, the end goal is to make sure that there are fewer things within reach of your pets that could potentially cause them harm.