Selling your home this Spring?? Listen up on how to improve your curb appeal- quick!

Add flowers for instant curb appeal!

The experts all agree that curb appeal is one of the most important aspects to consider when selling your home. When selling, it's the appearance from the street that will very often determine whether potential buyers come in to see the inside, or never get out of their cars.

Flowers are one of the easiest and least expensive ways to make the front of your house look inviting and instantly increase the curb appeal of your home.  Without any real landscaping at all, flowers can transform a rather drab and dreary looking front yard into one that looks colorful and lush.  When selling you should have lots of color to entice prospective BUYERS!!!  Surveys show that RED is the best color of flowers for your front yard to attract buyers.  

You should choose colorful flowers that will be in bloom during the time you're selling your home.   You don't need to have a green thumb, or spend a lot of money to get great results either.  Visit your local home improvement center or nursery and they will be happy to advise you of the best flowers and plants for your purpose.  For under $100.00 you can make a huge difference in the curb appeal to your home.  In a Buyers market, you want to attract every prospective buyer you can-- and it's easy!

One of the nice things about using flowers in this way is that you'll see the results immediately.  And so will buyers visiting your home!

Live a Productive & Stress Free Life!

Architects and structural engineers get paid big bucks to design buildings strong enough to withstand the damaging impact brought on by Mother Nature’s fury. Architects use building codes, blueprints and computer simulations to help them identify and mitigate stress-fatigue factors, which might contribute to the collapse of the building. Ironically, people, like buildings, are also susceptible to stress-fatigue factors and physical collapse brought on by the crippling affects derived from excessive fear, anxiety and worry. Research indicates that a person will react to stressful situations based upon the temperament style that he or she was born into. For example, aggressive people have “anger management,” expressive people have “emotional management,” passive people have “self-esteem management,” and analytical people have “stress management.” In other words, people who tend to be extremely detailed, organized, critical and shy attract stress into their lives like metal shavings are drawn to a magnet.
The major behaviors associated with people under stress include; aloofness, increased sadness, panic attacks, overly sarcastic humor and extreme negative self-talk. Stress occurs when an analytical or “melancholy” type of person is overwhelmed by his or her attempts to balance their physical, financial, personal, spiritual and career interests. The long-term affects of prolonged stress are accumulative and can be physically and mentally damaging over time. Stress manifests in the body as TMJ—teeth grinding, tension headaches, neck/shoulder pain and lower back pain.
Here are several practical ideas that you can use to help you dramatically reduce your stress level and live a much more productive life.
-Get plenty of sleep.
-Eat balanced meals and avoid eating junk food.
-Drink plenty of water and avoid nicotine, excessive caffeine and other stimulants.
-Avoid drinking alcohol in excess.
-Learn to make decisions quickly and let go of the need to over-analyze everything.
-Express your feelings appropriately and don’t bottle up your emotions.
-Avoid trying for perfection and don’t sweat the small stuff.
-Maintain a positive mental attitude by utilizing affirmative “self-talk.”
-Stop worrying so much and look at situations more optimistically.
-Smile and laugh frequently throughout the day, don’t take yourself so seriously.
-Mix leisure with work: take breaks and get away when you can.
-Make a point to spend quality time with your friends and family.
-Become more tolerant. Don’t be overly critical of yourself or others.
-Always be kind and gentle with yourself.
-Listen to upbeat music or watch your favorite movie.
-Exercise for cardiovascular fitness three to four times a week.
-Set written goals, plan your time and prioritize your activates.
-Keep a list of things to do and stay focused on short-term accomplishments.
-Get a massage or take a warm bath.
-Do something nice for someone else.

-Rismedia 2/4/11

Declutter your home- ease stress & simplify your life!

RISMEDIA, March 3, 2011—(MCT)—Inside many of us lurks a pack rat—at least a little one, anyway. Even inside Deniece Schofield. Schofield is a nationally known organizing expert who teaches people how to get their clutter under control through her books, magazine articles, TV appearances and seminars.
Schofield and her husband are planning a move from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to Las Vegas, and the prospect has brought her to the unpleasant realization that she has years’ worth of stuff to cull through before the moving truck arrives. “I’m going to have to practice what I preach,” she said with a laugh, “and that’s really hard.”
Truth is, the tendency to keep stuff is common, though some people have more difficulty than others letting go. In fact, Schofield said pack rats make up the majority of people she meets at her organizing seminars.
Pack rats are just clutterers, people who keep more stuff than they need and probably lack a good system for managing it. Their clutter isn’t so extensive that it prevents them from living normal lives, but it can add to their stress.
Schofield likes to ease pack rats into decluttering by assuring them they don’t have to get rid of things—not yet, anyway. But they do have to get the things they don’t use out of the mainstream.
Maybe it’s the five dull potato peelers in the gadget drawer, the 27 unmatched coffee mugs or the stack of bed sheets that no longer go with your decor. They seem too useful or potentially valuable to just get rid of them, but they’re standing between you and orderliness.
One approach to dealing with that excess is to box it up, Schofield said. But don’t just stick the box on a shelf someplace, where it will become more clutter. Instead, make a list of the contents, note in that inventory where you’re storing the box and keep the document someplace where you can find it easily, such as in a file or on your computer desk top. “That’ll give you even more comfort,” because you’re maintaining control over your possessions, she explained.
Then, write a note on your calendar to check the box in a year. Most likely you’ll realize you didn’t miss the stuff inside, she said, and you’ll be ready to give it away, sell it at a garage sale or take it to a consignment shop.
Another approach is to let yourself keep only so many of a particular item, be it margarine tubs or pens or used greeting cards. Designate a space to store them or decide on a number limit, she said. Once the storage space is full or the number has been reached, don’t keep any more until your stock is depleted.
That’s harder to do with clothing, so Schofield recommends this trick: Start by hanging all the clothes in your closet backward, so the hanger hook is facing you. When you wear an item and hang it back up, turn the hanger the right way.
Give yourself a year, and then go through your closet. If the hook is backward, you know at a glance you haven’t worn that garment in 12 months. It’s a good candidate for culling.
What about all the stuff stored in the basement, the attic, the garage or the storage space you rent across town because you’ve already filled up your house?
Tackle it one box at a time, Schofield said. If you set out to organize the whole thing, you’ll just get overwhelmed. It helps to have a friend with you to go through the box, someone who can be more objective about its contents, she said.
Once you’ve successfully handled one box, you’ll be motivated to try another. And another.
Schofield is quick to note that those methods aren’t meant for items with genuine sentimental value. Those can be harder to part with, because our feelings about them are tied up with our feelings about the people who made them, owned them once or gave them to us. “You’ve got to remember, that thing is not the person,” she said. If you can’t use it, take a picture of it, and then give the item to someone who needs or wants it more than you do. “You keep the memory; you don’t have to keep the monstrosity,” she said.
Getting rid of things is only half the remedy for pack-rat tendencies, though. You also have to be judicious about bringing in new things to replace them.
Schofield recommends taking a hard look at your shopping habits and making an effort to curb the urge to acquire. When you see something you want, write it down instead of buying it, she suggested. Put a date on the note, and revisit it in six weeks. If you still want or need the item, buy it. Most likely, you won’t.
And don’t buy anything unless you know exactly where you’re going to put it, she said. “Exactly” doesn’t mean on the kitchen counter or in the office somewhere. It means displayed on this table or stored in that drawer. But what if the item is on sale? “Well, it’s going to be on sale again someday,” she said. “You have to be tough on yourself.”