Chemical Safety in the Home

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Today’s homes are filled with chemicals. There are detergents, cleaners, polishes, paints, solvents, pesticides, automotive and garden chemicals. Just how dangerous are these products? Consumers need to carefully read the labels to find out. Look for the signal words. The most dangerous is poison, followed by danger, warning and caution. A product is considered hazardous if it has one of the following properties:

  • Flammable/Combustible: can be easily set on fire
  • Explosive/Reactive: can detonate or explode
  • Corrosive/Caustic: can burn and destroy living tissues
  • Toxic/Poisonous: can cause injury or death if ingested, inhaled or absorbed
  • Radioactive: can destroy cells and their chromosomes

Chemicals and off-gassing from chemicals in home products (carpet, draperies, furnishings, etc.)

.. Read the rest

Unreachable Cabinet Spaces: an Elusive Black Hole

Accessibility Home Safety Tip No Comments

The most popular home remodeling projects are kitchens and bathrooms, according to surveys from the National Association of Home Builders. Homeowners want to improve areas of their home that will give them the greatest return upon resale, but will also benefit them in the meantime. With kitchen remodeling, cabinets are one of the features that people want to change most.

Older cabinets were not primarily designed for function or accessibility, but for style. They had many “dead” spaces that defied access. The shelves were too high or too low or were unreachable black holes in corners. Newer, accessible cabinet designs remedy this with an “Optimum Reach Zone” or ORZ... Read the rest

Safe Home, Happy Home in 2019

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The beginning of the year is a good time to take inventory of your home and just how safe it is. There are many home security devices and systems on the market, ranging from a simple lock to a full-blown “safe room.” Choices exist for every particular need and budget. New door camera devices like Ring, Remo DoorCam, and Z Modo can alert you to who is at your door whether or not you are home. You can also integrate your home security apps with Alexa, Nest and even your Apple watch. There are also many security services that can monitor your home for a monthly fee... Read the rest

Unclutter to Boost Your Mood

Home Safety Tip How to Organize No Comments

Welcome to 2019! If you’re like most Americans you have made resolutions to exercise more, lose weight and get organized. Why is getting organized so high on the list of things to accomplish? It could be because it has been nagging at you for so long. You know you could do more if only you didn’t have to contend with so much clutter and disorder. Studies support this. Neuroscientists at Princeton have shown that clutter has a negative impact on your ability to be productive and focus. It bombards the brain with unimportant information. Psychologists at UCLA confirmed this with a study of families and their clutter... Read the rest

Avoid a Post-Holiday Headache

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The Guiness World Record for the “Most Holiday Lights” belongs to David Richards in Canberra, Australia. His display has almost 1.2 million LED lights strung on 75 miles of cable. The most lights on a residential property is 601,736 lights held by Tim and Grace Gay in LaGrangeville, New York. Their display spans two acres and takes two months for their entire family to rebuild each year. Most of us don’t come close to having this amount of lights, but many of us do amass our own large holiday collections. It can be a lot of work to drag out all the boxes and hang the lights and decorations... Read the rest

Brighten Those Dark Winter Months

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We are headed into those dreaded dark winter months. Our mood grows gloomy and we feel tired and lack energy. Lighting is often overlooked in the realm of accessibility even though it is critically important. Without light, there is no perception, no color, no style to guide you. A lack of lighting can lead to falls and it also adversely impacts our mood. People most profoundly affected may develop Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) or other health problems associated with insufficient natural light.

The older you get, the more important light becomes. The lens of the eye yellows over time and eye muscles weaken... Read the rest

The Move Makers Awarded Highest Distinction in Senior Move Management

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Lake Oswego, Oregon — The National Association of Senior Move Managers (NASMM) has announced that The Move Makers has been awarded the NASMM A+ Accreditation for its excellence in the senior move management industry. Only 50 out of 950 member companies nationwide have achieved this distinction. The Move Makers is the only senior move management company in the northwest to earn A+ Accreditation.

“This accreditation decision represents the highest level of professional achievement that can be awarded to a senior move management company,” according to Mary Kay Buysee, NASMM’s Executive Director. “An organization receiving a three-year NASMM A+ Accreditation has put itself through a rigorous peer review process.”.. Read the rest

Are You Squirrelling Away China and Crystal?

How to Organize What are you Squirreling away? No Comments

Modern couples typically do not order china and crystal for their wedding registries, or at least not like the old days. In fact, couples are marrying at older ages now and prefer online registries at places like Amazon, Home Depot or Honeyfund (for honeymoon trips). Many Millennials are choosing experiences, not seldom-used items that merely take up valuable space. We remember visiting older relatives and seeing the china and crystal in museum-like china cabinets. Then, it was passed down. Ask anyone. They will tell you about that box of china they have in the attic or garage or some inaccessible place in the kitchen... Read the rest

Taming the Tide of Toys

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Does your playroom look like a tornado has hit? Do you find toys everywhere in your home? Are you constantly stepping on Legos or picking up puzzle pieces? I can relate. Having had three children in a ten year span, I know what having too many toys looks like. When my youngest was a toddler and the oldest was in junior high school, there were tons of toys for all age groups all over the floor of my house. I also had a girl and two boys which meant having additional toys to please each gender. I fell prey to the marketing of the era... Read the rest

Kitchens: The Heart of Your Home

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Make the Heart of Your Home Easier to Use

 
The kitchen is the heart of your home. It is increasingly being used for multiple purposes. It’s where family and visitors gather to prepare meals, have conversations, and build memories. As our lives become more casual, the kitchen becomes more important. It is the central meeting area for the family. By following some simple rules of accessibility you can make your kitchen one that is more comfortable and easy to use for everyone. Universal Design principles will reduce fatigue and allow for safer and more efficient use of your kitchen.

To start, the layout should be one that allows for flow through the three major areas of use: the refrigerator, the sink and the cooking area (stove, oven or microwave)... Read the rest