Time and space
Online paper saver
Homefolio is a handy new tool by the Denver online home-maintenance startup . Here’s how it works: After creating a free BrightNest account, users simply create their Homefolio on the website, then go through each room of their home and enter details about appliances, wall coverings, paint colors, flooring and other features. Based on the information entered, BrightNest provides customized, weekly to-do lists, reminders and step-by-step instructions. This tool also can store owner’s manuals, design details, contractor and service phone numbers, and emergency contacts.
“The Homefolio is the go-to tool for organizing,” company owner Allen Shulman said in a recent statement. “It keeps all essential information in one easy place.”
Energy
Bathroom conservation
Toilets made before 1993 use at least twice as much water, if not more, than high-efficiency toilets manufactured after that year, according to . To find the manufacturer date on your toilet, look on the underside of the tank lid. Switching out an older toilet for a newer one can save a family of four 14,000 to 25,000 gallons of water per year. And to save even more water:
Install vacuum-assisted, low-volume toilets.
Consider only flushing when it’s absolutely necessary. (As they say in the hills, “If it’s yellow, let it mellow…”)
Check regularly for toilet leaks by placing food coloring in your toilet tank. Repairing leaking toilets can save more than 600 gallons of water per month.
Never use your toilet as a wastebasket.
Avoid using toilet-bowl cleaners such as toilet tank tablets. These products affect the pH of water in your toilet tank and can cause leaks by damaging the rubber and plastic parts of your toilet.
Money
Free kids book offer
Kids who participate in Barnes & Noble’s affordable Imagination can close out the summer by picking out a free book. All kids have to do is read any eight books this summer. It doesn’t matter whether they are library books, books borrowed from friends, or books they buy. Then, write a short entry about those books in one of the store’s Reading Journals, . Bring the completed journal to the store, and selected a free book. Details at barnesandnoble.com.
Elana Ashanti Jefferson, The Denver Post
