Living Clutter Free Does Not Happen by Accident

By Dee Dee Bass-Francis, Chaos Solutions
Clutter is generally a case of mind over matter.  If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.  However, most of us do mind.  We mind when our homes, cars and offices become disorganized because whether we realize it or not, physical clutter creates mental clutter.
 
January is National Get Organized Month and [...]

Holidays and House Guests: Tips To Get Invited Back

With the holidays come house guests.  Do you know how to be a good house guest AND get invited back?  Sooner or later you’ll be a guest in someone’s home.  Whatever the situation, you’ll want to be considerate of your host, and leave a good impression. Here are some suggestions on how you can do [...]

From Clunkers to Appliances

Cash for Clunkers may have expired but free money from the government remains for buyers of energy-efficient appliances.
Funded at $300 million by the stimulus bill earlier this year, the program will offer rebates to buyers of energy-efficient appliances and other products that carry the Energy Star label.
According to the Department of Energy, consumers can expect [...]

Resource for Consumers on Food Safety

The Department of Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug Administration recently launched a new website to provide consumers with a single source on food safety:
Foodsafety.gov is designed to help consumers and families get all the latest information on food safety and food recalls in one convenient place.
Features include:

Information across the federal government [...]

What Do 401(k) and Mortgage Statements Have in Common?

They are both too damn hard to read and understand. Both contain dizzying sets of numbers indistinguishable from the other.  And most people still don’t know exactly which numbers to focus on.
Many of us see mortgage relief in sight with the federal government’s “Make Homeownership Affordable” initiative or offers from mortgage companies to refinance.
But again, [...]

Homeownership No Longer Building Black Middle Class

Kai Wright, writing in the liberal American Prospect, discusses home ownership as the foundation for black middle class and the imploding mortgage crisis’ effect on it, all told through the lens of his mother’s own foreclosure experience:
For years, scholars have primarily turned to one of three measures to identify the middle class: occupation, income, and [...]

Scams: Hitting Us When We’re Down

So much for not hitting someone when they’re down. Scams are attacking the unemployed and homeowners.   
When Nancy Dix received a letter promising to help her prevent foreclosure on her home in Ansted, W.Va., she jumped at the chance. The letter, from an organization called Mortgage Rescue, said all she had to do to save her [...]

Turn Cheap Into Charming: Supermarket Bouquets

From the last glance of my retirement savings, we are still in a financial crisis/depression/generally poor economy. The much touted economic recovery may be here for months before anyone actually starts spending again. We’re still cutting back, focusing on the necessities and less on luxuries. But there are certain life luxuries that you cannot do [...]

June is Home Safety Month

There is nothing more necessary than to feel safe in your own home.  But it is also important to protect your home against interior as well as exterior threats.  Since the break-in I’ve reinforced the perimeter and added some other safety solutions. But safety inside the home is also important.  There is no point being [...]

Help for Actual Homeowners

Michelle Singletary elaborates on the government’s launch of a new website to assist troubled homeowners looking for help. The Making Home Affordable program and accompanying website arranges in one place information on the two-pronged approach of the new initiative.