The U.S. Department of Energy has many figures available in regards to saving gas. Below you will find many tips on spending less on gasoline, and also some things to consider when purchasing a new car.

Ways to Save Gasoline

-Drive at 60 miles per hour or less. You will get better mileage driving slower — in fact, you can save up to 23% more gas by going below 60 miles per hour. You can have more control over your speed and gasoline use by paying attention, slowing down, using cruise control, and planning ahead so you don’t have to speed.

-Run errands more efficiently by combining your errands into just one trip. This can save gas because starting and restarting the car uses up more gasoline than getting your errands done in one trip.

-Make sure that your tires are inflated properly. Not only will this make your car safer, this step will also allow your tires to last longer and will save you gasoline. Making sure your tires are inflated properly can increase your gas mileage by three percent or more. This really adds up!

-Aggressive driving is harmful to your gasoline efficiency, as well as to the comfort and well-being of yourself and others. Road rage can lower your gas mileage by five percent on regular roads, and by a whopping 33% driving down the highway! Sudden stops, braking aggressively, and speeding all decrease your gas mileage unnecessarily.

Buying a Car

The most important thing you can look for when buying a new car is fuel efficiency. If you factor the price of gasoline into the overall cost of the vehicle you’re considering buying, that SUV on sale looks a lot less tempting. By purchasing a more fuel efficient car, you can save money on gasoline that can go toward road trips, car accessories or anything else.

The government has a guideline of fuel savings on a Fuel Economy website. You can check out the website to compare the gasoline efficiency of different cars and that can help you make a wise choice when purchasing your new car.

Even a difference of just 10 miles per gallon can save you $4,000 in only five years. Does this number sound familiar? It is the average vacation budget for a four-person family! It is easy to imagine, then, what you could do with the money you saved.

Not only will paying attention to fuel efficiency save you money, you will also be helping to save the planet!

There are many important questions you should ask yourself before undertaking the task of loading your moving truck. Do you have reliable friends who may owe you a favor, or just be willing to help? Are you capable of moving all of your heavy boxes and furniture yourself? Do you have mover’s insurance and insurance on the truck? Are you comfortable driving the truck? Is it worth the trouble to move everything yourself, and is it cheaper than hiring a moving company?

You may want to hire a moving company if you answered “no” to any of the above questions. However, be aware that it may be difficult to hire a moving company at a moment’s notice — this too requires planning). The moving truck you rent should come equipped with straps, a ramp, carrying harnesses and a dolly.

One of the most important things to know when packing your moving truck is to always use padding underneath, between and on top of everything that is not in a box. The tips below will help you efficiently pack your moving truck.

The Sears website (under the link Manage My Life) has a guide for preparing your appliances for a move. Check this website for other tips. Before you even begin to pack the truck, disconnect all your appliances and electronics, disassemble beds and tables, and roll up your rugs.

First Things First: The Heavy Stuff

You want to load the heaviest things onto your moving truck first. This will provide stability for your other boxes and will not cause your fragile, lighter items to become crushed or otherwise damaged. Bulky furniture like armoires and mattresses are typically loaded first, as are washer and driers, fridges and couches.

Load your truck from floor to ceiling and from left to right. You’ll want to put the heaviest things near the cab’s front to stabilize the truck. Be sure to balance the weight, however: don’t put heavy items on just one side of the truck.

Load heavy boxes after the heavy furniture, placing the boxes on top.

Empty Space

Here is a good rule regarding empty space in your moving truck: there should be no empty spaces! Fill in any spaces with boxes or small items. During a move, every tiny space is valuable.

Fill drawers with items. Moving a dresser with empty drawers creates a lot of wasted space! You can fill in gaps between furniture with soft, non-breakable items, such as pillows, blankets and stuffed animals. Be sure to wrap the pillows in plastic or place them in a garbage bag to keep them fresh and clean.

Fragile Items

Fragile items should be the last thing you pack into the moving truck, as they go on top. You can also place small and light items on top of the stack.

Load your fragile boxes on top of the heavier things as you move to the back of the truck. You may not be able to reach the area near the cab after loading all the heavy items, so keep this in mind when considering when to load the fragile boxes. You may want to stack fragile boxes on top of heavier boxes near the rear of the cab before adding more heavy items, which can block your access. Garage tools should be placed near the back of the truck, as they are awkward in shape and may be useful when you first set foot in your new home.

Moving is usually an inconvenience, but it does not have to be a headache. Following these steps will help you to have a stress-free move.

Moving companies aren’t for everybody. There are some who would rather pack and move their own boxes. However, some people find the expense of hiring professional movers is worth the convenience. If you are of that type, consider the guidelines below for finding the moving company that is right for you.

It is important, after all, to choose wisely! The BBB (or Better Business Bureau) received 9,000 complaints in 2011 against moving companies, for various reasons. Make sure you know what to look for so you do not get scammed out of your hard-earned money or your valuables. You do not want your items to get damaged or your things to arrive late — or, worse yet, not at all. Also, it’s important that the price you are quoted reflects the actual price, and is not unreasonably higher.

Estimates

You can get estimates at most reputable moving companies by calling or accessing their website. According to the BBB and the AMSA (the American Moving and Storage Organization), you should get at least three estimates before deciding on a moving company. These estimates should be on paper, not merely stated over the phone or received online.

Research

It’s also important that you read reviews for the moving company you are considering. Many of the scams and broken items movers experience can be avoided by simply doing your research. The BBB website has reviews on over 17,000 companies, as does the AMSA website. If you are moving out of state, check with ProMover on the AMSA website, and also be aware that the government requires that all interstate moving companies carry a special license. You can check for this license at the Protect Your Move website sponsored by the FMCSA (the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration).

Insurance

Always shop for mover’s insurance before you move. You can buy minimum coverage of .6 cents per pound of your things, which is the required amount, but it’s a better idea to invest in full coverage. You don’t want to have to deal with thousands of dollars of broken electronics when you finally arrive at your new home. Be aware that as of May 15, all interstate movers must include the cost of full insurance in their moving estimates.

Some Things to Watch Out For

There are many red flags that the FMCSA advises that you be aware of. Do not do business with a moving company if they exhibit any of these red flags, and always take moves to safeguard your belongings. Here is a list of some of the red flags from the FMCSA website:

-Driving a rental truck: A moving company should have their own truck with their logo on it, not a rental truck from another company.

-Requesting payment up front: Never pay before the services are rendered when it comes to moving. You should also expect NOT to pay a large deposit.

-No physical location: Make sure that the moving company you choose has a physical location, such as a warehouse or an office. Visit the office in person to make sure that it is maintained properly. If they don’t take care of their own location, how sure can you be that they will take care of you and your belongings?

-No business name: The website for the moving company should have a physical address you can visit, as well as a company name and information regarding insurance and licenses. When you call them, they should answer with their full company name, not something generic. This is how you can be sure that the company is credible.

-Your rights: You should be handed a booklet called “Your Rights and Responsibilities When You Move,” especially if you are moving out of state. Out of state movers are required to give you this information. If they don’t, do not do business with them.

-Giving an estimate without an inspection: If the estimate sounds too good to be true, it is, especially when the moving company has not come by to inspect your things. Only in person can a moving company give you an accurate estimate and determine which items will be covered by their own insurance plan.

Doing your homework can ensure a safe and efficient move, giving you more time to enjoy your new home. After that, the only problem you’ll have is what to do with all those extra moving boxes!

Another good reason for reorganizing once per season is that the items we use during different seasons change. You don’t want ski equipment taking up valuable closet space in August, and you won’t need your camping equipment in January.

There are many good ways to store your items so they’re easily accessible when you need them, whatever the season may be.

Holiday Decor

Store holiday decorations in the same box — mixing Christmas ornaments with Halloween costumes can give you a headache when the holidays are upon you and there is already too much to do.

The most important thing you can do to make those boxes of holiday decorations easier to handle is to label them. Label the boxes of holiday decorations by holiday so you can easily access them when you need to.

Sports Equipment

Sports equipment is seasonal, so it is not hard to decide which items need to be stored for easy access and which need to be put away for next year. For example, you won’t need beach umbrellas in October, so why not take them to your storage unit until you do need them? This will keep your sports and recreation equipment easy to find and more organized.

Kitchen Organization

Some kitchen equipment is also seasonal: people tend to barbeque more during the summer, and crock pots are usually used during the winter months. By pushing the kitchen appliances you won’t need toward the back of your cupboards, you will make more room for the equipment you do need.

Outdoor Storage

It is a good idea to reorganize your outdoor storage shed, garage or tool shed for each season. This will make it easier to access the things you need without having to sort through tools and other supplies that are inappropriate to the season. You can also use your outdoor storage area to keep your patio furniture protected from the rain, snow and sun.

Clothes

Clothing organization is the most important change you can make to get ready for a new season. After all, you use your clothes everyday, the styles change with the weather and with trends, and reorganizing your closet can save you some time in the morning.

You can use a spare closet to store any of the clothing items you won’t need for the season. You can also use underneath the bed, on shelves, the basement, or the attic to store those clothing items — just make sure that the basement or attic is climate-controlled, to avoid doing damage to your clothes!

You can discourage moths and other pests from finding their way into your stored clothing items by washing them before you store them.

However, this is the not the most green way to live your life. Some minor adjustments to your life, such as knowing when to shut down your computer, can help our planet and save you money on electricity bills.

When to Shut It Down

A good rule of thumb is to shut down your computer if you are not going to use it for more than a couple of hours. If you’ll only be away from your computer for twenty minutes or more, make sure you at least shut down your monitor.

When you turn on your computer, there is a surge in electricity, but that surge is small and is nothing compared to the energy wasted by leaving your computer on. It is a good idea to shut down your computer if you will not be using it for a while. Most modern computers don’t take too long to start up, anyway.

Turn Off Your Screensaver

Screensavers are from a bygone age of computer technology, and you don’t really need one anymore. Newer monitors, especially LCDs, don’t burn images into the screen, and a screensaver wastes a lot of energy and can stop your computer from entering sleep mode.

Sleep Mode

Sleep mode, or the power-down feature, is an automatic process available on most computers, running the computer in a powered-down state that uses less energy while keeping your programs available for quick access.

Make sure you allow sleep mode on your computer, which you can access in the settings area of your operating system. And keep in mind that setting your computer on sleep mode doesn’t mean you never have to shut down your computer!

Upgrade

Investing in a new computer will help you save energy, as modern computers and monitors require less energy. There are Energy Star computers that can save you up to $150 per year.

A common reason for not shutting down your computer is that it takes too long to start up and load — this is another good reason to invest in a new computer. Newer computers have quicker loading times, and it doesn’t take long at all to start up. This makes leaving your computer on all day a lot less tempting.

Use Power Strips

Your computer accessories can also drain a lot of power, even when you are not using them. Many of these devices, such as printers, are constantly on in a stand-by mode that wastes energy and costs you money. You can unplug these accessories from the wall when they are not in use, or you can buy a power strip. The power strip has an on and off switch so you can regulate the flow of electricity to your computer. Also, power strips are relatively inexpensive, and a lot of people have quite a few of them just lying around the house.

These tips will help you save money on electric bills and protect your valued computer and all the data on it. I don’t know what I’d do without my computer, and I certainly want to keep it in good condition!

Shutting down your computer regularly is one small step toward saving money on electricity bills. You may be able to find other energy drains in your office or your home.

Many people will find that the resolutions they made on New Year’s have already been forgotten. With the onset of warmer weather, now may be a good time to assess and prioritize the resolutions that have not yet been accomplished. You can also use this as a chance to make new resolutions or summer plans. Here is a list of the three most important resolutions you can make this summer:

1) Recreation and Fun

You may have been cooped up all winter, but now is your chance to enjoy the sunshine and fair weather. There are many festivals and fairs to enjoy during the summer, plenty of hiking trails and bike routes, and other outdoor activities. This is a good time of year to get outside and explore the nature around you, even the flowers blooming in your own yard.

You might find it helpful to make a list of fun activities to do this summer. I make one every summer, and it helps me stay focused so I don’t lose one minute of the sunshine and beautiful weather! You can fill up your summer to-do list with such activities as:

1. go camping — or build a teepee in your own backyard!

2. run through the sprinklers or visit a water park

3. go swimming in a lake or at a public pool

4. BBQ hotdogs and see how many you can eat

5. make fruit pops

6. see a new hiking trail

7. sunbathe

8. use up a whole container of sidewalk chalk

2) Health and Safety

The summer has the most beautiful weather of all the seasons, and yet the heat can be dangerous. Make sure you drink plenty of fluids, especially as the temperature crawls ever higher. In addition, summer is a good time of year to refocus your eating habits by eating fresh foods and eating “clean.” An article defines clean eating with this acronym:

C: Count All Your Meals

L: Lean Protein (such as ground turkey instead of ground beef)

E: Eat Vegetables and Fruit

A: Avoid Refined and Processed Foods

N: Never Eat Mindlessly (watching TV while eating, for example, can distract you, causing you to consume more calories than you otherwise would)

3) Organization

If you didn’t already start your spring cleaning, it is not too late. Summer is a wonderful time to simplify your life by tossing out items you no longer need or storing them in a self-storage facility.

Cleaning and organizing will help you get a jump on your summertime fun. Put your sleds and skis away — you won’t be needing them again for a while!

These mid-year resolutions can help you stay organized this summer, and help you have more fun. There are many websites devoted to making your life simpler and more organized. Don’t forget to get out there and enjoy the sunshine!

The mudroom is the first room you encounter when you enter your home. As such, it can become cluttered with shoes, jackets, boots, purses and other things that tend to get thrown aside when you come home from a hard day at work or out running errands.

If you don’t have a mudroom, you can easily convert a kitchen pantry or linen closet near the front door to accommodate these items. If you can’t give up your whole pantry or linen closet, why not try converting half of it to use as mudroom storage?

Clearing some food out of your pantry and moving it into cupboards or shelves can give you plenty of space to store purses, wallets and keys. You can add coat hooks or racks in order to hang jackets and scarves. You may find that you simply need to move a few items around in order to free up space for organizing a mudroom area.

One good piece of furniture for your mudroom is a bench, which gives you a space to sit down and remove your shoes after you get home. A bench with drawers or shelves provides space for your shoes, while hooks allow you to keep jackets, purses and bags off the floor. Your kitchen or mudroom can quickly become cluttered if jackets and coats are strewn over chairs or are all over the floor.

Organizing a mudroom can be cheap, easy and fast. You won’t even need to buy many tools. A good way to save money on tools is borrowing them from friends, family and neighbors. If you save your leftover paint, you will have plenty of decorating options at your disposal.

Things like cork board, paint, hooks and wood can be very inexpensive, and it is worth the cost to keep your home more organized.

You can do this project for under $100. If you borrow tools and save your paint, this project gets even more inexpensive.

An organized mudroom will give your home a more pleasant look by reducing clutter. Also, when your purses, jackets, keys and bags are organized neatly by the entrance to your home, you’ll save time and be free of stress every time you leave the house.

PP and PVC are some of the most difficult plastics to recycle, and they may not be available for curbside recycling. However, you can find facilities to take these materials. Many other types of plastic can be recycled easily.

LDPE stands for low-density polyethylene. You can recognize it by the number 4 that’s in the recycling symbol. These are the types of plastic that you probably use most often. These items include grocery bags, plastic wrap and food storage baggies. Grocery bags are the easiest to recycle out of all of these.

You can take your plastic grocery bags back to the store where you got them for recycling. This is the easiest way to recycle these items, because, chances are, you will be at that store again soon. You can also use these plastic grocery bags for smaller trash bins, such as in the bathroom, the laundry room or the office. The most efficient way of getting rid of plastic grocery bags is to bring your own reusable bags to the store when you go shopping.

Most grocery stores now have plastic grocery bag bins for recycling right outside of their stores. You should check the label on the container before depositing your grocery bags, and make sure that they are both clean and dry. You can also place other LDPE plastic items in these bins.

The number six inside of the recycling symbol signifies Styrofoam (EPS), or Polystyrene (PS). Since Styrofoam is not biodegradable, you should always recycle or reuse it, unless you can avoid it entirely.

Many electronic goods are packaged inside Styrofoam, and this should be recycled. Unfortunately, Styrofoam food packages cannot be recycled, things like coffee cups, egg cartons or meat packaging. Since these plastics must go in the garbage, it is best to avoid buying foods with Styrofoam packaging altogether. For instance, you can buy egg cartons made out of cardboard instead, which is recyclable. There are some things with the number six symbol, like CD and DVD cases, that can be recycled. Some cups are also marked with the number six symbol.

The Alliance of Foam Packaging (AFPR) has a list of locations for dropping off Styrofoam and other foam packaging, as well as other information. Even though Styrofoam food items can’t be recycled, in 2010 the AFPR reported that in 2010 over 50% of the Styrofoam they collected was used to produce recycled packaging.

Packaging peanuts are made out of Styrofoam. They are also known as polystyrene loose fill, and it is hard to recycle them. They scatter around your house and stick to clothes. Also, they are not accepted in most plastic recycling bins. You can call the Plastics Loose Fill Council to find out where their many drop-off locations are located. Call 800-828-2214 for their 24-hour hotline, or look online at the Loose Fill Search center. However, if you have the storage space, these Styrofoam peanuts can be useful later for packing or shipping, so you may want to consider storing them in your house for future use.

Even though plastic recycling can seem daunting and confusing, it is satisfying and worth the effort. There are many Internet resources you can use to find your nearest recycling facility, or determine which types of plastics belong in which bins. Happy recycling!

It can be easy and even fun to organize your child’s space. When your child can access and find everything they need, life will become less stressful for both of you.

There are a lot of products available now to help you and your child get organized. It is important that you let your child take some responsibility for organizing their space. If they feel responsible, they will be more likely to keep their room organized, and it can even be fun.

Children have different needs to fit their individual personalities. The goal of organization should be to make things easier to access for your child. For example, if the bar in their closet is too high for them to reach, a lot of their clothing can end up in untidy heaps on the floor, under the bed or stuffed into a closet, causing a headache when you need to find an article of clothing during a rushed morning. You can buy a wide variety of storage boxes and other storage tools in order to help your child stay organized. You might also consider putting pictures on storage containers, rather than long words that your child may have difficulty reading. Choose storage containers in your child’s favorite colors to make the task more appealing.

Shoe holders that hang over a door are a valuable storage tool for children, and don’t only have to be used for storing shoes. They can also be used to store:

-Small toys or stuffed animals

-Clothing accessories

-Hair accessories and jewelry

-Art and craft items

-Dolls and action figures

Another good storage idea for your child’s room is placing storage baskets and bins in the closet, under the bed or on top of shelves. They can be helpful for storing many different things:

-Books and school texts

-Clothes to wear the next day

-Shoes

-Sports equipment

-Underwear, socks and other small clothing items

-Stuffed animals

-Linens and blankets

The very best way to keep your child’s room organized and free of clutter is to throw away or donate any item that your child doesn’t use. These items can consist of clothing they no longer wear, toys they have gotten tired of, or sports equipment that is not being used. If you don’t want to donate or throw something away, consider using a self-storage unit for these items. Temporary storage is useful for children’s toys that aren’t being played with often. If you pack up these toys for a couple of months, they will seem fresh and new when you bring them back out again. You can then replace the box with more toys that aren’t being used. This is a good way to recycle your child’s toys instead of simply buying more when they get bored.

The most important thing to remember when organizing your child’s room is to keep it simple and fun. If your child finds that it is rewarding and fun to live in a clean room, they will be more likely to keep it clean, organized and free of clutter.

PETE is marked with the number one inside of the recycling symbol, and HDPE is marked with the number two. They are very common plastics and easy to recycle. PVC, PP and Other are a little bit more difficult, but it is worth your time, if only to keep your garbage bin less full.

PP stands for polypropylene and is indicated by the number five inside of the recycling symbol. PP often makes up dairy containers, such as yogurt containers and cheese, sour cream and butter tubs. Also, Bria water filters, bottles for maple syrup, bottle tops and take-out boxes (the plastic kind) are made out of PP plastic.

A lot of cities are now beginning to offer recycling for PP, in addition to the more common plastics HDPE and PETE. Another option is the Gimme 5 program by Preserve, which is a company that collects PP plastic marked with the number five. This company uses your clean PP plastic containers to make new things, such as razor and toothbrush handles and other things, such as colanders and even plastic cutting boards. It is good for the environment and worthwhile to recycle PP.

You can deposit your PP plastic in some Whole Foods stores and some other stores as well. There is a Gimme 5 ap you can download for your phone if you need help finding one of the 200 Gimmie 5 locations in the country. There really is an ap for everything!

PVC, or polyvinyl chloride, is another difficult plastic to recycle, but it is possible to find facilities that will take your PVC.

PVC is what makes up industrial piping, shower curtains, building materials and some car dashboards. The website Earth911 can help you find a place to recycle PVC in addition to vinyl flooring and carpeting, billboards, medical supplies and other materials made out of vinyl. You can also check with VinyLoop. They are an Italian company by SOLVAY Plastics and they have found a way to easily recycle PVC by separating it from the other materials that make up PVC. Although PVC is hard to recycle, it is not impossible.

The other type of plastic that can be hard to recycle does not have an official name. It is often simply called “Other,” because it isn’t made up of just one type of plastic, but many different kinds. The number seven inside the recycling symbol lets you know that you are dealing with a mix of plastic compounds. Other can even include some plant-based compounds. More and more places are offering recycling solutions for Other plastics, but the service is still not widely available.

Now that you know of some places that will accept your hard-to-recycle plastics, such as PVC, PP and Other, you’ll be able to save space in your garbage bin and take your trash out less often. You will also be helping the environment by keeping these plastics out of the landfills. Happy recycling!