Author: Beau

Paper towels are undoubtedly useful. They serve certain functions that dish clothes don’t. For example, I would rather wipe my mouth with a paper towel than a dish cloth. I don’t like cleaning a toilet with a dish cloth because afterwards, I have this icky cloth I have to contend with. I would rather throw away a used paper towel and be done with it.

However useful, we use far too much. Annually in the U.S., we use more than 13 billion pounds of paper towels, and that number is growing every year. This leads to over 3,000 tons of paper towel waste just in the U.S. alone each year. If each U.S. household used one less 70-sheet roll of paper towels, 554,000 trees could be saved every year. If each U.S. household used three less rolls per year, it would eliminate 120,000 tons of waste.

Discarded paper towels create 254 million tons trash every year globally. By cutting back on paper towel use, you can save money, reduce landfill waste, save trees, and more. Let’s look at some ways to use less and save money on these glorious paper towels.

Price Compare Like a Champ

Buying paper towels is surprisingly complicated. There are different numbers of rolls in a package and different amounts of square feet on every roll, so the cheapest price may not be the best deal. The best way to determine what to buy is to compare apples to apples based on the price per square foot. To do this, divide the price by the number of square feet listed on the package. So if a 100 square foot package of paper towels is $5, you would divide $5 by 100 and end up with $.05 per square foot.

If you do that with the different packages–the cheapest ones versus the ones on sale, and so on–you will find the lowest price per square foot of paper towel. That is the one to buy.

BUT buying the cheapest brand can backfire. It is true that very cheap paper towels (Walmart’s brand, for example) don’t absorb well, which means you end up using more of them, going through the roll faster, and losing the money you thought you were saving by buying the cheapest price per square foot.

Consumer Reports did an test on paper towels and found that Bounty Extra Soft, Walgreens Ultra Quilted, CVS Big Quilts, Kirkland Signature from Costco (which is what I usually use), and Up & Up from Target had the best absorbency. I generally believe in buying the cheapest roll of paper towels unless a brand has proven itself to be bad.

Recycle Old Clothes

I have found that cutting up an old cotton tee shirt, sheet or a flannel sheet has worked great at making cheap napkins. I keep them folded in a little basket on the kitchen table so we just pull one out when we need it. If I have company at the table, I break out the good napkins.

When I have bought paper towels on sale with a coupon, I take my serrated knife and cut the roll in half and that gives me twice the towels for one price. Of course, you have watch yourself and not just use more from the halved roll.

Reduce Use

You may think, “I don’t use too many paper towels” but it’s easy to see how paper towel use can get quickly out of hand if you consider these estimates for a family of four. Use as napkins at meals = 84 sheets per week. Use as hand towel in the bathroom – (4 potty breaks a day x 4 people) = 112 sheets a week. Washing up before meals and before cooking (3 meals a day) = 105 sheets a week. Washing and drying fruits and veggies (assuming you eat them at each meal – which you should) = 63 sheets a week.

Cleaning two bathrooms once a week = 20 sheets a week. Wiping down the kitchen after cooking = 42 sheets a week. That’s 426 paper towel sheets a week (typically 3.5-7 rolls a week – most paper towels have 60-120 sheets per roll) and I haven’t even covered cleaning up spills, pet messes, kid messes, washing hands after baby diaper changes, snacks and more. Paper towel use adds up alarmingly fast.

If you become conscious of your paper towel use, you can easily cut down. Use one sheet to dry your hands, just give them a shake first. Use newspaper to clean windows, it works better anyways.

The Final Paper Towel Thought

While looking for ways to save money on paper towels, I realized something. There are really only two things you need to do to save money on paper towels… never pay full price. Use fewer paper towels. That’s really all there is to it!

Winter north of the Mason-Dixon line area can bring unpredictable weather. From cold, rainy fall days to snowstorms, having reliable heat in the colder months is demonstratively obligatory. Now is the time to ensure that your gas furnace can get you through the winter and keep your home warm and toasty.

Furnaces are one of the most important pieces of equipment in your home. Having a furnace go out unexpectedly is one of the most stressful situations a homeowner can face. You can’t let this happen in the dead of winter.  It’s important to keep track of how efficiently and effectively your natural gas furnace is running. Furnaces give certain telltale signs that they are failing.

By keeping an eye out for the main signs, you can be prepared for a furnace repair or replacement.  In addition, being prepared will allow you to do research on new high-efficiency natural gas furnaces before the time comes to replace your unit. High-efficient natural gas furnaces operate at up to 98% efficiency, far greater efficiency than older furnaces. Let’s talk about 5 sure fire signs it is time to replace your furnace.

Higher than Expected Energy Bills

Energy bills are higher despite usage staying the same. Furnaces that have become inefficient have to work harder to provide proper heating, resulting in more expensive heating bills. Consider spending the money to replace your furnace and enjoy the benefits of a reduced bill during the life of your new appliance.

If your furnace is operating with little to no maintenance issues, but you’re noticing a higher utility rate and you’d like to get your bills down, there may be some lower cost solutions for you. Some alternative options may be updating your thermostat to a programmable one, cleaning or updating your duct system, purchasing an electric fireplace or portable heater, or just adding some extra blankets around the house. Or just bite the bullet and replace the furnace, it is only a matter of time.

Your furnace is more than 15 years old.

If your furnace is past its 15-year mark and beginning to have maintenance issues, there is a very good chance it will need to be replaced. It may be working, but it is likely not operating at maximum efficiency and your utility bills are probably at all time high as a result.

Furnaces are like cars; the older they are, the more maintenance they need, usually incurring the most breakdowns in the last two years of their lives. If your furnace is roughly 15 to 20 years or older and you have a repair costing more than 15 percent of a new furnace, you should go ahead and replace it (because it is more likely to break down again soon).

Generally speaking, a good rule of thumb is, no matter the age of the furnace, if the cost to repair is 50 percent or more of the cost of a new furnace, you should replace it.

The Rooms Throughout Your Home are Different Temperatures

Do you feel that some rooms are too cold while others are too hot? Or are you always trying to adjust your thermostat to make your home more comfortable? This is a sign that your furnace lacks the ability to properly distribute the air to keep you comfortable in your home.

An inefficient and old furnace can result in some rooms being colder or warmer than others. This is likely the result of an old furnace and outdated duct system losing its ability to distribute heat evenly throughout the house.

The Burner Flame is Yellow Or Making Strange Noises

A yellow or flickering flame may be a sign that poisonous carbon monoxide could be created by your furnace. The Flame should be blue. Other possible signs of carbon monoxide are:

• Streaks of soot around furnace.
• Absence of an upward draft in your chimney.
• Excess moisture found on windows, walls, or other cold surfaces.
• Excessive rusting on flue pipes, other pipe connections, or appliance jacks.
• Small amount of water leaking from the base of the chimney, vent, or flue pipe.
• Rust on the portion of the vent pipe visible from the outside.

All of these could signal the yellow flame and all of these will cause you to replace your furnace.

Now the noise. Whats is that noise? Old furnaces often start to make some strange noises as they get toward the end of their life. Have you heard any banging, popping, rattling, or squealing noises coming from your furnace? Another noise too lookout for is when you hear the furnace blower running excessively. Does your blower turn on and off frequently or does it blow cold air sometimes? If so, this is a sign that your furnace may need to be replaced.

Is Your House Dry or Dusty?

Old furnaces often lack the ability to moisturize and clean the air in your home. The air may feel stuffy or stale. Does anyone in your family suffer from allergies to airborne dust, mold, pollen, viruses or dander? Or does anyone suffer from dry nose, dry throat, or dry skin? Other signs may be frequent dust accumulation, static shocks, drooping plants, furniture cracking and musical instruments that do not stay in tune. These signs all suggest that your old furnace is not capable of providing you with the comfort you and your family may want.

If your heating system does not provide adequate moisture or clean air in your house, it may be a sign to replace your home heating system. Excessive dryness affects the walls, furniture and the plants in your house. Also, this extreme dryness can cause problems for you and your family, especially if anyone has the allergies we mentioned above. So, when you see the walls peeling or your plants drooping, it’s probably time to get a new furnace.

In Summary

The real takeaway here should be that the winter is going to be cold, it’s going to be dark and it’ll happen every year, so get a new furnace. The general rule of thumb is that if the cost of maintenance or repair of your furnace is more than 50% of the cost of a new one, just replace it.

A New Year is once again upon us. This quote by Melody Beattie comes to mind; “The new year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written. We can help write that story by setting goals.”

Yes, 2019 is going to be a great year for us all, and this year’s resolutions will be more than just a wish.

Making an annual list of New Year’s resolutions is a venerable tradition. By some accounts, it dates back to the ancient Romans, who customarily made a show of promising the god Janus that they would behave better over the next 12 months than they had in the past year. But while Janus was the patron deity of new beginnings, hence why January starts off our year, he also provided a convenient excuse. If a citizen of Rome didn’t actually follow through with his various self-improvement vows, he could always shrug it off by explaining that it was Janus’ will. Then, presumably, he could just go on gorging himself at banquets or betting excessively on gladiator fights.

Sounds familiar? Have you been shrugging off your new year’s resolutions too? Throwing away each years clean slate and prime opportunity for personal growth?  Me too. Lets talk about some ways we can push ourselves to achieve the goals we set for ourselves in 2019.

Make Your Bed Every Morning

Excuses are easy, but when it comes right down to it, it’s also easy to make your bed each morning. If you make your bed in the morning, that means you’re telling yourself that you won’t be getting back into it for the rest of the day. The day has begun and you will conquer any and all tasks before you, starting with making that bed. It might be a small accomplishment, but making the bed sets the tone for the entire day.

In a 2014 commencement speech at University of Texas at Austin, Admiral McRaven said: “If you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another. “By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter.”

Sometimes being an adult is hard. Sometimes going into work every day is hard. Sometimes, I come home from the office and question if I accomplished anything at all. But at least I made my bed! Starting every day off with a mini victory can do a tremendous amount for your psyche.

Start a Morning Run Streak

Running in the mornings helps you to remove yourself from the daily challenges of life and gives you time to focus on the bigger picture. Running is great, but streak running is a whole different animal. Streak running creates a psychological bond to the act of running and ‘maintaining the streak.’ Once you cross 50, 100 or 1,000 days straight of any activity, you are much less likely to decide that today is the day you are going to quit. But what happens when you do end the streak? Start over and try to beat the last streak.

Plan to Prepare

We often miss opportunities to be our best and make the most of our time with others because we didn’t find time to prepare. Granted, most of us  are pretty good at winging it, but we can be much more effective when we deliberately set aside time to prepare for our next goal, accomplishment or achievement. It’s not easy to find extra time in the day, so rather than hoping you’ll find the time you need when you need it, block in the time you want for prep on your calendar.

Schedule 15 minutes to review objectives. Block an hour immediately when the motivation to grow hits you just to clear your mind and rehearse. Carve out as many hours as you need to create and practice the plan.

Stop Making Excuses

If you are looking for a reason not to do the thing you should do, you will surely find it. Part of taking ownership of your life and reflecting how you got to an unhappy state is to understand how you are enabling your poor decisions. It is usually with excuses, like you’re tired, or you don’t have time when you’re not making time, you will do it tomorrow, etc. Stop making excuses, and start owning your life and pushing yourself to do the work.

Happiness doesn’t fall into your lap, it takes work like everything else. So get out of your own way and stop making excuses.

You Are Not a Victim

You are not a victim of every whim and circumstance, and you do have some control over your life at any given time. It is about how you wield that control that determines whether you can change your life. Stop resisting responsibility for your life, because the sooner you take ownership of it and stop blaming others, you will have more autonomy and you will start making progress.

At the end of the day we are accountable to ourselves , our success and failures is a result of what we do. Blaming, whining, deflecting accountability, risk aversion, and resistance to change are symptoms of the adversity-beaten individual. Uncontrollably bad things happen to all of us all the time, but we can control how we react to them.  When we fully commit to having responsibility in any process, we begin to integrate external tactical support and our own internal capabilities, and develop a sense of control for the results.