Count Down Power Timmer

Never forget to turn off the iron etc.

Automatic Sliding Door Closer

Problem:  Kids leave the sliding door open and waste cooling and heating.
Solution:  Automatic door closer

I have lost many hours of my life closing the sliding door, and trying teach my kids and thier friends to keep the patio sliding door closed.  After looking online at commercial products and at YouTube videos I came up with a solution that very easy and useful.

weight, pully, string, nail

Quick Pillow Case Change

Problem: Trying to fit pillow in a tight pillow case.
Solution: Reverse peal it on.

For years I had a pillow fight of sorts each time I tried to put a new pillow case on my pillow.  My mother-in-law who is a nurse showed me this trick that makes the task much easier.

-Grab the pillow case by the outside bottom with your right hand.

-Push your right hand through the inside of the pillow case (turning it inside out) but leave you hand in place.

-With your left hand place the bottom of the pillow in  your pillow case covered right hand and grab onto the pillow bottom.

-While holding the pillow bottom firmly with your right hand pull the pillow case up and over the pillow and you are done.

Kind of link reverse pealing a banana.

Fan Idea To Beat The Summer Heat

Problem: Hot summer nights that make it hard to sleep
Solution: Plywood and Fan in the Attic access opening

This idea works great in the San Jose, California area and in any area where the night are generally cool.  Most nights in our area are a lot cooler then our Summertime day temperatures but it is not always easy to get the cool outside air in the house.  One solution (I rejected) was to use a whole house fan.  These fans suck air out of the house and blow air into the Attic space.   These fans help in at least two ways,  one the really hot air is pushed out of the Attic and two the air sucked from the house creates a vacuum that allows you to pull in cool outside by just opening a window.   If you open a window on the opposite side of the house from the fan location you can pull that cool air all through the house. 

The problem is that it can be a bit pricey if you have someone else install it, and the noise on most of those fans is so loud it makes you crazy.  One day I had the idea of doing this on the cheap (and quiet) by screwing a regular old house fan onto a piece of plywood and sticking that into our attic access hole.  To my surprise it worked better then I could have imagined.  The fan noise is much less then the typical whole house fan and we cool most of the living space by opening just one window on the opposite side of the house. 

Several of our friends have used our idea with box fans, high speed floor fans, and attic gable fans with great success.  So keep cool!

Socks That Always Match

Problem:  Trying to find a matched pair of socks.
Solution: Buy all your socks the same.

This has saved me a lot of time and headache.  After doing the wash it was socks that always took the most time to sort out.  One day I hit on the idea of buying 14 pairs of white socks and 14 pairs of black socks that are all the same.  When the socks come out of the wash I just dump them in the drawer.  Any two white or black socks I grab always match.  When they start to wear out, I trash them all and start over with new socks that are all the same.     I suggest that you buy more socks then you typically use between washes.  That way you have a few extras to replace the ones that get "eaten by the dryer" or go to wherever it is that lost socks go.