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What are the benefits of downsizing your Charlotte home? Actually there are quite a few. First and foremost is the amount of money you’ll be saving. Moving into a smaller, more energy efficient home is going to have an immediate positive impact on how much you’re spending on monthly electric, gas and water bills. You’ll also have a lower montage mortgage or rental fee which will also translate into more money going into your bank account. And with fewer rooms to furnish, you’ll obviously be spending less on furniture!
Downsizing also is going to give you more free time. If you’re not spending your weekends doing maintenance projects around the house then you’ll be able to do things that matter. You can finally take up that hobby you’ve been thinking about or even take a vacation with all that money you are saving!
Another benefit of downsizing your home is how it will downsize your stress. Without worrying about making big mortgage payments or all the upkeep you’ll find a huge emotional weight has been lifted off your shoulders. You’re simplifying your life and that means reducing stress which is directly tied to a healthier lifestyle. Even sleeping better because you’re not worried about bills is a huge plus.
When you decide to take the downsizing plunged you’ll need to also downsize the amount of stuff you’ll be taking with you. Simply put, a five bedroom house won’t fit into a two bedroom apartment. Getting rid of your “extra” stuff won’t be a problem when you hire a team of professional junk haulers.
First you’ll want to pass onto family members or donate to charity those items you feel are appropriate. But everything else is going to be junk and that junk has to be gotten rid of. The professional junk hauling team at Junk King Charlotte will be up to the challenge. They’ll have the manpower and truck space: two extremely important commodities when it comes to hauling away clutter.
With Junk King Charlotte, all you’ll need to do is designate what you want taken away. You don’t need to haul it out to the driveway or pull it up from the basement. That’s what the junk haulers will be doing. As soon as they are finished with clearing out the stuff you know you won’t be taking with you, you can have a better portrait of just how much space you’ll really need in your new home. People who have downsized their lives have reported to having initial regret at having to let go of so much. However, once they get settled in to their new living space they are amazed at how much better their lives have become. Downsizing showed them the way!
A big shout out should be given to the Environmental Protection Agency for their Energy Star program that has been around for several years. The goal of Energy Star is to encourage manufacturers to make products which run on less energy. Less energy means lower bills for your and natural resource savings for everyone. Buying a refrigerator or stove or any other electrical appliance with the Energy Star rating means you’re doing your part. But what happens when you unplug that device and get ready to toss it out? Should the concern about the environment stop? Absolutely not. Which is why GE has teamed up with the EPA’s second major program WasteWise.
Unlike the Midwest or Northeast regions of the country, Charlotte is not really considered “basement” territory. Part of the reason is all that wonderful red clay that is so much a part of our state’s heritage. That same clay is extremely dense and retains water like a sponge. Those are two conditions which don’t make for decent basement building. A lot of new homes will have what they call a “walk out” basement which are often built on plots of land that have a slope to them and can support this kind of construction. In older homes, you’ll find more cellars than basements. Even though both of these spaces are under the house, a cellar is used more for storage than as a family room. There are also rooms built on top of garages which are referred to as “Charlotte basements.” If you’re fortunate enough to have a home with a basement, be it a cellar or above a garage, then you still might find the need to clear out the junk.
For this year’s Earth Day celebrations the University of North Carolina at Charlotte has reason to be very proud of themselves. Last year the campus broke their own record by recycling over 2,000,000 pounds of garbage. If you know a college aged student then you can appreciate how much garbage they can generate! UNC also was able to divert 39% of the campus trash away from landfills. This year the UNC Charlotte’s Office of Waste Reduction and Recycling Projects say that they are on target to break their own record once again and plan to hold a huge party on Earth Day.
There is a unique program coming to Charlotte as part of Holocaust Remembrance gatherings. There are 18 violins that had been repaired by a special shop in Tel Aviv. These violins are no ordinary musical instruments but instead were once owned by Jewish musicians who played them in the death camps and ghettos of World War II. For the last several years Amnon Weinstein has been on a quest to find these special instruments and has scoured the attics and basements around the world. Now these fully restored violins will be part of a musical celebration honoring their previous owners. All of this points out that there may be some very special treasures in your own attic that should be brought down from the dust and cobwebs.
The wacky weather that has hit the country this year has brought spring into the Charlotte area a lot sooner than anyone anticipated. The result is that pollen is everywhere. It’s covering Lake Norman, dusting cars and the ground. By some estimates this is the worst season for pollen in over ten years.
Recently the Charlotte Fire Department responded to an early-morning fire that began in a garage and spread quickly to the rest of the home. This occurred on Lockley Drive in Eastover. Fortunately, the couple who lived in the house was alerted to the fire by smoke alarms. It was suspected that lightning might have been the cause of starting his fire as rolling thunderstorms crept through the neighborhood just before the fire started up. In order for lightning to start a fire there needs to be some “kindling” to strike. While there is no mention in this particular case that this garage was overflowing with junk, it stands to reason that it certainly wasn’t sparse. This is a primary reason for clearing out junk in your own garage or home: removing a potential fire hazard.
Here’s some good news for those Charlotte residents who consider themselves to be a bit of a “green thumb”: the Southern Spring Home and Garden Show is heading to Charlotte. This is an exciting expo which will have over 400 exhibits covering topics such as home improvement, green living and garden showcases. This annual event provides all kinds of wonderful inspiration for Charlotte homeowners as they get ready to welcome spring. You can’t help but pick up a lot of helpful gardening tips by spending the day at this expo. To get you ready here are a few tips you could share with some of your fellow gardeners:
If you live in a city like Seattle, Philadelphia or San Diego you know that going green is actually a law. That’s because all of those cities require mandatory recycling be conducted by all of its citizens. Anyone who forgoes the recycling rules you could be fined or not have their garbage picked up at all. While this might sound a bit extreme most folks in those cities have embraced the recycling programs because it takes very little effort to manage. The city has provided all residents with recycle bins that have to be filled up with the proper items and put on the curb along with the regular trash. The result is that tons of garbage is diverted away from those cities’ landfills and put to much better use.
For the most part “saving” can be a good thing. That certainly applies to saving money for a rainy day. Saving is also important when it comes to family pictures or keepsakes. You can also save recipes, favorite books and even DVDs that you watch over and over again for your enjoyment. We all have something we like to save. Yet there are some among us that take saving to an entirely different level. This is when a compulsion kicks in and compels a person to begin hoarding objects. In extreme cases of hoarding you can’t really blame a person for being lazy or criminally negligent. Instead, you need to look at deeper psychological issues that have triggered these patterns of hoarding and have created hazardous living environment.