Manage My Home Blog

Let the garden dreaming begin!

Be of good cheer. The first of the spring 2009 garden catalogs arrived the other day, marking the official start of garden-dreaming season. It's too early to order plants. But it's the perfect time to look out your window and identify boring spots in the yard.Read More

Posted at 12:18PM Dec 31, 2008 by ehynes1  |  Comments[0]

Smart home, smarter home-owner

Coming from a technology background and working for Manage My Home, I can’t help but think that there have to be technology-driven solutions that can help people like me stay more organized with routine chores around the home. Read More

Posted at 11:30AM Dec 31, 2008 by RaviAcharya  |  Comments[0]

Organizing My Favorites at Home - We Want Your Help!

We have decided that Manage My Home can help create that organizing experience for all of our favorite home related sites - we don't need all of the information they provide but we do need the best of the information, sites, blogs, comments, tips - you know what I mean.  But we need your help.  Give us the best places on the web for great home related information - the sites you can't live without.  If you are the first with your suggestion and we use it, there are some benefits!Read More

Posted at 11:51AM Dec 29, 2008 by Jim Hilt  |  Comments[5]

The battle to be efficient in an old house

Oh the joys of home ownership.  Each day is a new discovery.  We already knew there were leaks and drafts throughout the house.  But we didn’t realize how bad it was until the temperature dropped into the single digits.Read More

Posted at 09:55AM Dec 16, 2008 by Cindy  |  Comments[0]

Alleviating Climate Change Trumps Aesthetics

“It's too greenish,” my family complains, nearly in unison, about the light in the kitchen. They might be right. After last night's CFL light bulb changing fest, I also noticed that the light in my bedroom is way too bright. This lighting is brutal, but I would feel way too guilty if I went back to incandescent light bulbs.

Posted at 03:58PM Dec 10, 2008 by PhyllisT  |  Comments[4]

Things we should do, but don't

We live with things that we know we should fix but don't, either because we don't know where to start, or it's not in the budget, or we don't think it's that big a deal. Do you have something like that at your house?Read More

Posted at 09:56AM Dec 09, 2008 by ehynes1  |  Comments[3]

My skepticism fades as the Man Room takes shape

Three weeks after the move our house is still in shambles – except for the Man Room.  My husband was quick to find furnishings and electronics to build out his entertainment space...

Posted at 10:51AM Dec 03, 2008 by Cindy  |  Comments[4]

Quick fixes for holiday decorating

So its the Sunday morning before my parents were arriving for the Thanksgiving holiday, and I looked around the house feeling quite content.  After a year in the new house, we had achieved major milestones:  furniture in place, rugs covering the hardwood floors, some pictures hung, the guest room having a new bed and bedding, the office and bedroom painted and bathroom fixtures hung (by yours truly).  However, being a perfectionist, there was a wall in our living room that was bare...  completely.  And not in the good minimalist way.  In the bad, you have an empty wall that makes it feel like you haven't moved in yet.

Posted at 10:03AM Dec 01, 2008 by Jim Hilt  |  Comments[1]

Man Room vs My Room

My husband, Monte, is really excited about setting up his Man Room in our new basement.  He has his eyes on a new Samsung HDTV that will be the centerpiece.  If it was up to me, we’d still have my 32” tube TV that was an open-box special eight years ago.  But it’s his room, so he gets to have some fun with it...Read More

Posted at 08:55PM Nov 23, 2008 by Cindy  |  Comments[2]

Of snakes, soggy trucks, and a good website

Given their respective climates, you might think that North Carolinians would be obsessed with gardening and Minnesotans would spend their short summer doing something else — perhaps fishing their trucks out of Lake Minnetonka. But, in fact, Minnesotans are wild about gardening, and the people of North Carolina spend their summers trying not to step on poisonous copperhead snakes. (I'm not making that up.)

Posted at 10:01AM Nov 17, 2008 by ehynes1  |  Comments[0]

Don't pass up the moving advice!

Family and friends have lots of advice to offer for any life event.  Moving is no exception.  There was advice we heard and advice we took.  Using a reputable moving service was advice we heard, but unfortunately didn’t take...Read More

Posted at 12:40PM Nov 13, 2008 by Cindy  |  Comments[3]

Lowering a fireplace's carbon footprint

‘Tis the season. Almost.

Here in the Northeast a fireplace seems traditional, romantic and necessary during those long, cold winters, right? Traditional and romantic, yes. Necessary? Not really.  

The bad news is that burning anything — no less wood,  which is a sustainable resource — pollutes. So how does the green in me accept the use of our charming family fireplace? I learned there are a few steps we can take to lessen the footprint our blaze makes.

Posted at 01:22PM Nov 12, 2008 by PhyllisT  |  Comments[1]

There's still time to plant bulbs!

These days, if you're anything like me, around 4:30 p.m. or so you ask yourself, "Crikey,  is it night ALREADY????" Actually, I don't ask myself that, I say it quite loudly, disturbing my co-workers in the Manage My Home cluster of cubicles at the furthest end of the most remote wing at Sears headquarters and making it painfully obvious to everyone within earshot that winter is not my favorite season.

Which is why you should plant some spring-flowering bulbs before the ground freezes.

Posted at 11:35PM Nov 06, 2008 by ehynes1  |  Comments[2]

Moving Day Hell - Part 2

Our wedding was in three weeks and we made the crazy decision to put our Chicago condo on the market before we left for our honeymoon.  It’s not like we didn’t have enough going on at the time.  Planning a wedding by ourselves was like having a second job.  Trying to sell the condo at the same time was just cruel punishment that left us severely sleep deprived.  It was a considerable project to make a one-bedroom condo look big enough for two people, to hide any signs of a dog, and make storage space look plentiful.  But looking back I have to say it was worth every sleepless night.Read More

Posted at 11:26AM Nov 06, 2008 by Cindy  |  Comments[0]

Moving Day Hell - Part 1

It was straight out of a movie…We were newlyweds buying our first home.  We hugged and kissed as the keys were handed to us at closing.  We rushed to the house and my husband carried me over the threshold with our yellow lab, Sammie, following closely at his knees.  Sammie sniffed through every room while we talked about furniture arrangements…

Well, at least that’s how I thought it would go.  The whole moving experience was more like a Three Stooges episode than a romantic comedy...

Posted at 02:16PM Nov 04, 2008 by Cindy  |  Comments[1]