The predicted low by the weekend is 31 degrees. It’s getting downright chilly and that means it is time to get ready for winter. There are a few things that we do each year to winterize our home that helps to save energy and cut down costs.

First we check for drafts. We live in a mobile home, so we have quite a few drafty spots throughout our house. Our favorite fast fix is expandable foam that you buy in a can. It really helps to fill up holes and stop drafts. It is also really good in keeping out critters.

Lining the windows with a plastic film also seals up drafts and helps to keep the heat inside. The kits are fairly reasonable and do help to keep the house warmer in the winter.

With no carpeting in our home, we make use of rugs to help keep the floor cold as it is usually freezing early in the morning. When I catch rugs on sale, I usually try to pick up one even if it may not exactly match. The eclectic look is in style anyway.

It’s these not-too-cold-but-close-to-it days that really make me think about the coming winter. While our winter might not be as severe as other parts of the country, it still takes a little effort to prepare for it. Little extra steps are always worth it when it comes to saving energy and cutting our heating costs.

Did you know that October is Energy Awareness Month? With the cooler temperatures, we have already had to turn on our heat. I’m already dreading those high energy bills and thinking of ways to save energy. I’m sure I’m not the only one who is thinking how to lower their energy bills this winter. For the rest of the month, I will be posting tips on how to make your home more energy efficient this winter. And thanks to Trane, a global leader in air conditioning systems, services, and solutions, I have five desktop calculators to give away. Did you know that you can save about 3% of your heating cost by lowering your thermostat by 1 degree? Figure up those savings on one of these –

To enter, just leave a comment(no spam, trackbacks do not count) on this post about how you plan to save money on your energy bill this winter. The five winners will be chosen at random. Winners will be notified by email and must responde within 5 days. Contest is open through October 31, 2008. Winners will be chosen by Random.org and notified Monday, November 3rd, 2008.

It seems that every white shirt that we own winds up with some sort of grease stain on it. While the stain may fade after treatment and washes, it is always still there. When I was asked if I would like to try Greased Lightning, an all purpose cleaner and de-greaser, I was eager to give it a test.

My first test was a white shirt that had gotten stained with greasy spaghetti. Luckily I had the Greased Lightning and treated the stain before washing. I then tossed the shirt into the laundry. Here is the shirt before –

And here is the shirt after one wash -

Greased Lightning really worked well and I was very surprised to see the stain gone. My next test was a tougher stain as it had already been through the wash. Here is the before as the shirt is already treated with Greased Lightning –

And here is the shirt after -

I was much more impressed now since it worked on an existing stain. Now I have found a must have product to have in the laundry room at all times.

Since you can also clean with Greased Lightning, I decided to use it to clean the top of my stove. It worked really well at cleaning, too. It’s quite refreshing to find a product that is all-purpose and actually works well in all areas.

I have just begun to scratch the surface of the cleaning power of Greased Lightning. If it works on mildew stains, carpet stains, porcelain, refrigerators, and toilets, then I may never have to buy another cleaner again. After seeing the results with the laundry and the kitchen, I’m inclined to believe that Greased Lightning will live up to what it promises it can do.

This week I have my motivation for cleaning my house – the DirectV installer is coming Thursday. Now I have a strict deadline for getting my house finally in order.

Monday I worked exclusively on laundry. With the weather turning cooler, we need less summer clothes readily available. So I sacked up a lot of summer clothing to put in storage. Just doing that has made a huge difference.

Today I plan to tackle the baby’s toys as she has way too many. For right now, I’m going to sack up what she hasn’t played with in a while and put in storage. In a few months it’ll be like new toys.

It’s sad that it takes someone coming to the house to get me probably motivated to clean up. But hopefully once I have it clean then I can resolve to keep it that way.

I’ve used plastic colored clothes hangers for years. I hang my husband’s clothes on white ones and mine on green ones. Lately, though, that’s hasn’t been the case as it has been just grab, hang, and get done with the laundry. We tend to wear the same clothes each week and have a lot of clothes that we just can’t wear anymore. So a new idea formed for these colored hangers.

I really need four colors to do this but my idea is to hang clothes on certain weeks on certain colored hangers. This way we can visually see which clothes are getting worn. When four weeks has passed, whatever still hasn’t been worn on the colored hanger needs to be given away as it’s obvious we aren’t wearing it. Right now I have three colors: white, green, and black. So I just need to buy a fourth color to really get this going. Hopefully this will help us thin out out clothing and organize our closet a little better.

While researching a good rust remover, I found this interesting article on a homebrew rust remover that uses something you might have in your kitchen right now- molasses.

I bought some molasses to make some ginger cookies and haven’t used it since. This might be the perfect test to see if it actually works. You use one part molasses to nine parts of water. The author of the article had success with it but warns that it can damage other metals, so use caution with it. It removed the copper from the wire he used to immerse an item into the solution. I have a New Orleans Saints garbage can that I’m hoping this solution will remove a lot of the rust in it.

The solution may take up to a month to work. If I don’t have to invest any money in it and it works, then it will be worth the wait.

Congrats to the following commenters. Check your email for more information.

Roddy
80smom
Beauty Items
Chinese Herbs
Mustang Roush

When asked if I would like to review the new Oral B Pulsonic toothbrush, I was kind of excited to try a new electronic toothbrush. And knowing that it was from Oral B and already loving my Pulsar toothbrush, I had little doubt that the Pulsonic would disappoint. And I was right.

This sleek, rechargeable toothbrush works wonders. I love that feeling after you have your teeth cleaned by the dentist. This toothbrush gets pretty close to delivering that overwhelming feeling of clean. There are more than 27,000 gentle sonic vibrations per minute. It also has two speeds, so you can use a lower speed for sensitive teeth. The toothbrush also lets you know when 30 seconds has passed by briefly stopping and starting and also stutters when two minutes has passed. So if you want to get in your full two minutes of brushing, then you can easily keep up with your time.

The Oral B also comes with two heads, the main toothbrush and a bristle head that is used for getting in between the teeth. Store it on the small, recharging base.

The Pulsonic takes up little, precious room on your vanity. It’s compact and works wonders. I had tried a Tooth Tunes toothbrush since I had wanted to get into the habit of brushing my teeth for at least two minutes. But I found it boring and was the slowest two minutes of my life. The Pulsonic is fun to use and those 30 second increments fly by. Now I brush my teeth for two minutes and it feels like only 30 seconds have gone by.

It’s a great toothbrush and although I love my Pulsar, I’ll continue to use the Oral B Pulsonic.