Mail Boxes

Have you ever looked at a neighbor's mail box and sighed with envy? I particularly like the ones that have a flowerbed at the base with climbing flowers twining around the post. I also like the mail boxes that have been hand painted - as long as the artist knew what he was doing, that is!

If you suffer from mail box envy, take a look at Mailboxixchange.com. They offer many types of mail boxes, including but not limited to single-unit mail box and post packages, wall mounted mailboxes, commercial mailboxes, and post mailboxes.

I mentioned that I like hand painted mailboxes, and I was surprised to see the large selection of scenes offered through Mailboxixchange. There were plenty of scenes to suit a wide variety of tastes: birds, flowers, hunting scenes, nautical themes, and landscapes are just a few of the types of illustrations offered.

If you prefer clean and classic lines, there are plenty of choices that fit that description as well. In fact, it seems to me that, no matter your preference, Mailboxixchange is the place to begin your search.

Ceiling Fans

Ceiling fans are a money-saving addition to a room: using the fan during both winter and summer can lower your heating and cooling costs, and a ceiling fan that also has a light fixture means that you will more than likely not need to purchase additional light fixtures for that room.

We have had ceiling fans in nearly every room in both of the homes we have purchased. (We've only ever owned one home at a time.) In the first home we purchased, almost all of the fans needed to be replaced, and we found nice Hunter fans on clearance. They served us well, being both attractive and functional.

Our current home had no ceiling fan or light fixture in the living room, which we found rather odd. We ended up purchasing two nice standing floor lamps for $10 apiece, and they have solved our lighting problems. We still have not installed a ceiling fan, and we really need to do that. No-name or Casablanca fans, it really doesn't matter to me what brand we buy. I just want a decent and sturdy fan at a cheap price.

How often do you use your ceiling fans?

Got Dust?

source for both images

I despise dusting! I think it is because it seems like such a futile task - when I dust, my duster does nothing but spread the dust around, and seconds after I have dusted, the surfaces have another coat of dust on them. Aggravating!

Enter the surprise package I received via FedEx on Saturday morning. Wondering what on earth it could be, I opened it to find a cute cardboard house containing a free Swiffer duster, 5 refill dusting cloths, a blurb about the "5 Signs of Clean," and several other little freebies for good measure. I don't know how Swiffer picked me for this, but I'm glad they did!

Let me tell you, the Swiffer duster is the best thing - ever! Based on all the marvelous, deliriously happy reviews I read, I bought FLYlady's duster a couple of years ago. Let me say that I absolutely adore the FLYlady and highly recommend her services, but the duster just didn't do it for me. (Sorry, dear FLYlady!) The Swiffer duster, however, did!

Skeptic that I am, I started out with the easy stuff: our bookcase. When I saw that no dust flew into the air and the shelves remained dust-free after half a minute elapsed, I decided to try something a little more challenging - the TV. What do you know? Even the tiny crevices were free of dust! Would this clean our fake plants that were absolutely gray with dust? It did, with no problem.

Whoo-hoo! I'm sold! If you haven't yet tried a Swiffer Duster, give it a shot. It just might make that horrid dusting chore more bearable.

Great Value Dishwashing Detergent

Thanks to my friend, Karen, I recently learned yet again that expensive does not necessarily equal best. Like Karen, I was never satisfied with my dishwasher's performance. In fact, I washed the majority of our dishes by hand. I felt like hand washing saved electricity and produced better results.

When I read Karen's post about Wal-Mart's Great Value Dishwashing Detergent (powder form), I decided to give it a shot. Yep, Karen and Consumer Reports were both correct. My dishes came out clean. Aparently, the magic is the enzymes in the powder. These enzymes eat through the food left on dishes. In fact, Consumer Reports advises against prerinsing your dishes that you are going to put through the dishwasher. That saves time, water, electricity, and labor! What's not to love?