Documents Every Senior Should Have in a Safe

Senior Thursday

We know the importance of having a will—especially when children or blended families are involved.  But as we age, this document, along with others, are a must for the elderly.  In addition to a will, every senior should have a trust, a power of attorney for property and a power of attorney for health care.  An attorney can help draw up these documents.  These documents should be kept in a safe place—either a safe-deposit box at the bank or an in-home fire-proof safe.

In addition to these legal documents, seniors should have copies of their life, auto and home insurance policies, including contact information.  Regarding their health, seniors should have health insurance information in their safe, and a list of their physicians, allergies and medications. 

All financial information should be handy, too, including a list of investment accounts, IRAs, bank accounts, savings accounts, etc., as well as debts such as mortgages or loans.  Account numbers and contact information should be on this list.

Other legal documents to keep safe are birth certificates, marriage certificates and death certificates, as well as powers of attorney you hold for others. 

Finally, include your burial wishes, especially if there are specific instructions you want followed such as cremation or choice of cemetery.  If you already have a burial plot, the paperwork should be in the safe.

Let someone in the family know where your documents are kept, and how to access these documents in case of an emergency.  This can be a child, a close friend, or an attorney.

Losing a loved one, or leaving loved ones is never easy.  Being prepared make the journey smoother.

 

If you need help organizing your papers, contact Prima By Design (847-955-1822) for an estimate.

Different Uses for Hangers

Tips for Tuesday

We've been using hangers all our lives, watching the evolution from wood and wire to plastic and velvet.  There are special use hangers for pants, skirts, belts and ties.  Some hangers hold one item, some are designed to hold several items at once to save space in your closet.

But while we know what we usually use hangers for, here are some unusual uses for hangers.

Wire Hangers

·         Grabber/reacher—pull it at the bottom to lengthen it, then use the hook to grab wires or things you've dropped behind furniture, or to grab items from upper shelves.

·         Slip shower curtain rings over a hanger, then hang scarves from the rings.

·         Sunglasses—fold and slip them over the hanger.

Multi-Pant Hangers

·         Bracelets/necklaces

·         Ribbon

·         Scarves

·         Men's ties—sort by color on each rod.

·         Sweaters—fold as you would for the shelf, then slip over a rod.

Clamp or Clip Pants/Skirt Hangers

·         Hang photos/photo strips

·         Clip recipes onto the hanger, then hang it on your cabinet while cooking

Belt Hanger (with hooks)

·         Hang one in the kitchen for towels and oven mitts

What have you used hangers for?

Home for Sale: Staging the Air in a Home – Yes, the Air!

Moving on Monday

When a house has all the features that an approved buyer is looking for, but the home’s air quality has everything left to be desired…

Home sellers, realtors, advisors all know the drill.  If a person wants to sell their home it has to be cleaned up, any excess furniture and other loved items put away or stored away from the house in order to make it look more presentable to possible buyers.  Few sellers or professionals consider de-cluttering the air.    

Habits that we have come to love, whether it is a cigar or cigarette or the love of spicy cooking, the odors fill a house as much as any large unsightly couch.   The evidence, however, is in the air.   Our pets, including furry felines, large or multiple dogs or birds, other pets can leave distinct and unwanted odors and dander in the air that may turn away a potential buyer before getting even a few feet into the door.  The home may have been a perfect fit, but not with an indoor air quality problem.

Sometimes perfumed air fresheners are used to cover up the offending odor and make the home more desirable.  These may hide the immediate problem, but just as putting a rug over a soft floor board doesn’t fix the floor, the perfume doesn’t make the house safe for future occupants, especially children or otherwise sensitive individuals.

Basements often have musty, moldy odors, even long after the water leak or flooding damage has been remediated.  That too must be changed before a house is put on the market.  

The solution is relatively easy, there are air purification units for rent or purchase that clean any of those problems in a short time.   No need to purchase multiple units;  the best ones are small, portable and will do the entire home in a relatively short time.   Best of all, they do the job.   Begin decluttering the air in your home – moving or not.  

If you have stale air in your home, selling or not, contact Brigitte Cornelius of TGI Clean Air & Water. She san help you come up with a solution that is best for your individual situation. 

TGi Clean Air & Water
Brigitte & Steve Cornelius

P.O. Box 113
Mount Prospect, IL 60056
www.tgicleanair.com

Ten Minutes Early

Frugal Friday

Last week I talked about being frugal with your time—scheduling yourself accordingly so you don't overstress yourself.  This week, I'd like to look at the benefits of getting up ten minutes early. 

We all know that getting up an hour earlier would give us lots of time to get things done.  But who wants to sacrifice an entire hour of sleep?  Especially if you can't get to bed any earlier.  I know I can't survive on only six hours of sleep. So I tried something different—I set my alarm for ten minutes earlier.  That's it—ten minutes.

And I was pleasantly surprised! 

I couldn't believe as the mornings went on what that ten minutes meant to me.  I used to get up and get dressed to walk my daughter to the train station, then go for a walk through the neighborhood.  I would take a different route depending on the time I had to get out the door for clients.  There were days I'd be rushing around trying to get the dogs fed, read and respond to emails, post on Facebook, and tidy up the kitchen before I left. 

Getting up ten minutes earlier made my life so much easier.  You wouldn't think ten minutes can do much.  But now I can put away a load of laundry, select my clothes for the day, put away dishes from the sink, write out a check to pay a bill, or any number of little things that I'd try to do when I got home from my walk.

Doing this freed up my time later.  If I get my breakfast ready before my walk, I have time to do some upper body work with hand weights while I'm waiting for the dogs to finish eating.  If I set my clothes out before my walk, I can use that time later to scan in a document my accountant needs.  I've used the time to call utilities, to file papers that are laying on the kitchen counter, and to send a quick email to a client.  My mornings are much less stressful—and because of a measly ten minutes.  Who knew?

What would you do with ten extra minutes a day?

Clean Up Your Music Collection

Tips for Tuesday

This may be aging myself, but how many of you have vinyl albums, 8-track tapes, cassette tapes or CDs full of music in your home?  You've purchased some and you've made your own mixes.  Some are duplicates on different media, but others are unique.  How do you decide what to keep and what to get rid of? 

The first question to ask is whether or not you have the right player for the music.  Do you still have a turntable for your albums?  Do you have a working cassette player?  If not, then donate the music, or take them to a used book store like Half Price Books where you may get some money for them. 

Next, look at what you have left.  Do you have the same albums on different media?  Keep only one copy.  Then look at the artists and titles.  Are there any duplicates in the same medium?  Do you have all of the albums by one artist, and also their "Greatest Hits" album?  Why do you need both, since they have the same songs?  This goes for "Live" recordings, too.  You probably have all those songs on other albums.

Once you have sorted everything you are going to keep, convert them into MP3 files.  Even if you don't have an MP3 player, chances are your phone or computer can hold these files and act as a player.  You can then sort your music into playlists—holiday, genre, tempo, etc.  You may like certain songs to play while walking or exercising.    Keep these in a separate playlists. 

Make backup copies of all your files.  You can then donate or sell the original media, freeing up space in your home.

Moving Yourself with Portable Containers

Moving on Monday

One way to save money when moving is to use portable containers, or pods.  These are units that are delivered to your home and you fill yourself.  They come in a variety of sizes and styles.  Some are made of corrugated steel, some are soft-sided, and others are wood. If you are moving a long distance, wood or steel containers would work best.

Some containers are small and only hold about 1 ½ rooms.  Others are 10-12 ft long and hold several rooms.  Companies can help you estimate the number of units you will need for your move.  You should make a detailed list of the furniture and contents of your rooms, including basement, garage and attic for an accurate count.  They will also need to know how many boxes you will be packing with the contents of your cabinets. 

Once you know how many units you need, you can set up delivery of the units.  Check with your local government agency to see if they have restrictions on the number of days a unit can be in front of your house.  You will also have to let the company know of any possible hazards, such as low-hanging wires, narrow streets or steep driveways.  This may limit the size of containers you can have delivered.

When the containers are dropped off, start filling them, using every inch of space so things don't move around.  Use bungee cords to hold your furniture against the sides of the unit.  Be sure to cover breakables and furniture with moving pads so they don't break or get scratched.  Place heavy items on the bottom, and lighter items on top.  Never put flammables or hazardous materials in the containers.

Once they are loaded, the company will pick them up and take them to the new location.  They can also hold them in storage for you if you won't be going directly to your new home.  After unloading them at the new house, the company will pick up the empty containers. 

While this is a money-saving option for you, it requires strength, patience and skill.  You will have to move all heavy furniture yourself—no experienced movers to help.  So be sure this is something you can handle before signing the papers.

Being Frugal With Your Time

Frugal Friday

If it's anything I've learned over the years, it's that there is no such thing as 'normal.'  We wish for a normal life or a normal day.  For me, that means a day when everything goes as planned, and nothing goes wrong.  And I have to say, there are a few of those.  Unfortunately, there are more that don't.

How many times have you looked at your schedule and thought—this looks like an easy day.  Then, the dog throws up on your carpet as you're leaving for work, there's an accident on the highway with traffic backed up for over a mile, and you realize you forgot your lunch, so you have to run out and get something instead of making up for lost time by eating at your desk.

The next morning might go more smoothly.  But then you get a call from your mother that she ran out of her prescription medication, your husband calls and asks you to send flowers to his boss's wife who had emergency surgery, and your son 'reminds' you there is an Open House at his school that evening.  

You had your days all planned out to the minute, from errands to cleaning to cooking to laundry.  Then these emergencies happen.  Your life is anything BUT normal.

So how do you cope?  I call it being frugal with your time.  Just like you put away money for a rainy day, or are very attentive as to how you spend it, you should also do this with the minutes and hours in your day. 

Never plan out every minute of every day with something that needs to be done.  Odds are, these emergencies will creep up, eat up your time, and before you know it, nothing is checked off that list. In fact, the list keeps getting longer, not shorter.  So leave cushions in your week for these emergencies.

Allow more time for appointments and tasks than you know they will take.  For example, you have a dentist appointment with a 15 minute drive each way.  You know the appointment is only for a cleaning—30 minutes tops.  So you allow yourself an hour.  But then traffic and lights slow you down, the dentist is running late, and they discover a cavity that needs filling.  Suddenly, that hour appointment turns into two hours and the bathroom doesn't get cleaned as a result.  

Finally, don't take on any more tasks than you are sure you can handle.  It's much easier to say no at the beginning than handing it back mid-project.  

Be frugal with your time, and you will find you have more of it than you think.