Optimize your Dryer

Here's a couple of hints to help your dryer work even more efficiently:

1. Put your dryer close to the exhaust. If your air has a shorter distance to move, that means less energy is used and its less likely to get clogged.
2. Smooth piping for the exhaust is better than pipes with pleats. Its more direct than having to move over the pleats.
3. Air drying always saves energy

Clean your Dryer!

Build up in your dryer? Luckily cleaning your dryer is a piece of cake. Follow these simple steps to clean your dryer!

1. Wipe down the inside of the drum
2. Use a dry cloth to wipe down the lint trap and the vent.
3. Use the hose attachment on your vacuum to suck out any more lint in the vent.
4. Clean the lint trap with warm and soapy water (but let it dry first).
5. Very gently open the top of the drying and vacuum the outside of the drum. If you don't feel confident in prying, don't feel obligated to do so.
6. Repeat in 3-6 months!

How to clean a dishwasher

First things first: pull out the bottom rack and make sure there isn't and food bits around the drain that's causing a clog.

If you're good there, put a cup of white vinegar in the top rack and run the empty dishwasher on hot. White vinegar is a cleaner and disinfectant and it works even better with hot water.

Lastly, put one cup of baking soda in the bottom of the dishwasher and run a short hot cycle. This gets any stains out and gives your dishwasher a fresh smell!

De-stink Your Sink!

Garbage disposals have to do a lot, and its no surprise that they periodically need to be cleaned. Luckily, doing so is super easy and quick. Here's how you do it:

Pour half a cup of baking soda down the disposal, then pour a full cup of white vinegar on top of it. This will make it all fizzy sounding, which is normal. Let it sit for a couple minutes. In the mean time, go boil a kettle or pot of water. Once it is boiling, pour the water down the sink. This helps get things loose easy to clean off.

After that, put two drinking glasses of ice down the disposal. Then grab rock salt (normal salt will work, just not as well) and put it over the ice. Turn the sink's water on and turn the disposal on. Keep the disposal on until you can't see the ice anymore. This gets the gunk off of the blades of the disposal.

After that, keep running the water and the disposal and get the citrus of your choice, a lemon, orange, or lime, and put them down the sink. This helps deodorize your now clean sink!

4 Tips on How to Dry Your Clothes Faster

1. Clean out your lint

Lint build up is the #1 thing that prevents effective drying. Keep it clean to dry your clothes fast!

2. Wring out your clothes before you put them in the dryer

No use in drying it in the dryer when you could take a lot of the water out yourself.

3. Put dry towels in with a load

This makes it to where the towels absorb much of the water. Divide and conquer the water!

4. Make your dryer vent hose shorter

This one is a bit more labor intensive, but could help tremendously. The shorter the hose, the more efficient your dryer becomes. 

How to easily and quickly dry your shoes!

 Tie the shoe laces together tightly.

Put the shoes in the dryer, but have the shoe laces to be outside of the dryer. This allows the shoes to dangle against the door in the dryer. Put on low heat and dry your shoes!

4 Simple Water Heater Maintenance Tips

1. Keep it clear

As cluttered as the garage might be, its a good idea to keep items away from your water heater. 

2. TURN THE WATER OFF!

This water is HOT! You don't want to be tinkering with the water heater and accidentally give yourself 2nd degree burns. Make sure you turn the water off before you start fixing the water heater!

3. Type

The first solution to any problem is identifying it! To do this, you should make sure you know what kind of water heater you have. There are natural gas, electric or propane, tank-type, and tankless-types. 

4. Drain

Debris and sediments can build up in your water heater, which causes them not to work as well over time. Once a year its a good idea to drain your water heater.