Pool noodle blocks drafts
Preventing cold air from entering the house in the winter is essential to keep your home warm and to cut back on heating costs. One summertime staple — a pool flotation noodle — can be used to help block out drafts. For older homes that often have large gaps under doors, simply cutting open a pool noodle and sliding it onto the bottom edge of the door can do the trick. It’s soft enough to not scratch floors and flexible enough to slide back and forth so the door can be used. For exact instructions, look online for easy tutorials by searching “pool noodle draft dodger.”
POSTAL SUPPLIES THROUGH THE MAIL
If you hate standing in lines, here’s a fast and eco-friendly way to get your postal supplies sent right to your home. You can order things like postage stamps, envelopes, boxes and other supplies from the U.S. Postal Service website, and then your postal worker brings everything you bought directly to your home. Since the post office is working six days a week delivering mail, they’re going to be in your neighborhood anyway. This is a fast and easy way to get what you need and have it delivered without extra fuel being wasted to bring it to you.
PLAN YOUR DRIVE
It’s believed that people in the city of Los Angeles waste about 100 hours every year sitting in traffic, on average. Even worse than lost time, transportation is now the No. 1 source of carbon pollution in the United States, with much of it coming from cars and gridlock traffic. To cut down on traffic waste, avoid driving during peak hours whenever possible. Plan errands like grocery
shopping and appointments before lunch or after lunch (before the evening commute times). And make use of smartphone apps to plan your drive; an app can suggest times that are less busy and routes that will make your drive quicker and more fuel-efficient.
ROUND UP FOR CHARITY
What if every time you bought a cup of coffee, a pair of shoes or a bag of groceries, you could round up your purchase to the nearest dollar to help a worthy charity? A new smartphone app called Drops lets you do that, and it’s a cinch to use. Simply sync a credit card to the app after you’ve installed it on your phone. If you buy a cup of coffee for $1.97, Drops will automatically round up your purchase to $2 and donate the three cents to charity. You get to pick the charity, and every two weeks, the app gives you an update on how the spare change you’ve donated is helping to make a difference.
CAREFUL COMPOSTING
It’s believed that around 20 to 30 percent of the trash thrown out of a typical home is food waste. Composting is one of the best things you can do to cut down on waste (and create some beneficial mulch for your yard and gardens). But composting can also attract some unwanted pests, like rats and mice. In the cold months, compost is attractive because the decomposing waste is covered and warm. To make it less appealing to animals, keep it wet and turn the pile with a pitchfork or shovel at least once a week; you can also limit your composted food scraps to veggie trimmings, eggshells and coffee grinds.
TRY CAULKING CORD
A classic tip to winterize your home is to use caulk to seal up windows and prevent cold air from seeping in. But for some people, using a caulk gun can be both messy and complicated, and it can create windows that are eyesores when you’re finished. For the less DIY-inclined, try Mortite caulking cord. It comes wrapped up like small rope, and you just unroll, press with your fingers and — voila! — cracks, gaps and holes are sealed up. It comes in a variety of colors to match the color of your windows, too. The best part: It never hardens, so if you ever want to remove it, you just peel it off.
TIME FOR HVAC CHECKUP
One of the best investments you can make for both your home and health is to hire an HVAC technician during the fall to inspect your furnace or heat pump. The visit costs about $100, and they’ll make sure your system is working efficiently and is clean. They will also check to make sure there is no carbon monoxide leaking into your home. This autumn visit will pinpoint any potential problems that need fixing, and repairs now are better than breakdowns during brutally cold winter months, when getting your system fixed can mean a wait of several days.