Flat Fee MLS Blog

  Need free boxes for your move or to store items while you sell your home?  If so, forget digging through the supermarket dumpster.  You can save yourself some money and trouble, while you recycle at the same time. 

The U-Haul Website has a Free Box Exchange Service.   The U-Haul Box Exchange is a messageboard that you can use to trade, sell or buy reusable boxes and moving supplies. With every reuse of a box, a new box is prevented from entering the cycle.

To get started, you will need to create a U-Haul Customer ID.   To post a new message or to see posted messages in your region, simply click on that region listed below.

Thank you for visiting Why6percent. com, your trusted flat fee MLS listing service since 2004.    

P.S.  Sellers should remember to take advantage of a free home listing at the InfoTube.net homes for sale website.  Thousands of Home shoppers visit the site daily to look for new listings, video tours, real estate advise and more.  Don’t miss the traffic.  The Infotube Featured Home Service is Free for Why6 customers.

                                                                     Let the light of day brighten up your night! Powered by a built-in photocell, solar night-lights require no wiring and no electricity, and they turn on automatically at night. Now you can harness the sun to illuminate your driveway, paths, steps and decks with easy to install solar lights that recharge (for free) during the day. Your curb appeal is also enhanced for night time viewing by potential home buyers while you are marketing your home.

Designed to look great whether you like traditional or modern, these energy-savers are available both in-store and online. There is a vast array of holiday night lights available online, including Christmas and Halloween. They are becoming increasingly popular, particularly since they are so much easier to install than traditional wired systems. If you decide you don’t like where you put them, or simply want to expand or mix things up, they are also much easier to move than wired units.

By harnessing the sun for your night time lighting projects, you are saving money, saving energy, and enhancing your home’s curb appeal-this is an easy way to go green.

thanks for visiting why6percent.com

Yes, you heard right…according to expert Brian Clark Howard, the latest announcement from Sam’s Club (the big box retailer of modern consumerism) is that they are poised to market solar panels at nine Southern California Clubs: Corona, Murrieta, Glendora, Ontario, La Habra, Chino, Long Beach, Fountain Valley and Torrance. These locations  have Home Effieciency Centers that have been created to showcase green products and appliances.

Sam’s Club is working with Borrego Solar Systems and BP Solar, and buyers can expect to save in the neighborhood of $500. Consumers can expect to see kiosks in participating stores that tout the benefits of solar energy.  The company is also ramping up offerings of Energy Star appliances, low-flow fixtures, DFLs, LEDs and other green building products.

The news from Sam’s Club echoes recent reports that IKEA is investing $77 million into its GreenTech energy fund, with the goal of producing and selling solar panels, efficiency meters, and energy efficient lighting. The green trend is finding its way into home marketing, as a selling tool and to educate homebuyers and sellers regarding energy efficiency that saves them money.

That Sam’s Club and IKEA are making forays into home renewable energy is big news. This will make a real dent in our current energy crisis and pave the way for a cleaner future. Alternative technologies available in stores across the Heartland will make this possible.

thanks for visiting why6percent.com 

                                             Here’s something that’s fun to do with kids. Dry out the marigold and sunflower seed from the dead plants in your garden. Place them in a glass jar with a lid. Keep them in a cool spot till spring.

In the spring, start new plants by placing in a pot or long-length planter and cover with plastic. The seeds germinate in a few days, once they are large enough you and the kids can plant them in the ground.

This keeps the kids interest because it’s a fairly fast project and teaches them to garden and to  recycle the dead plants for next planting season.  It’s fun, give it a try!

Tip for A Private Space that Holds Kids Interest  

1. Draw a square in the soil

2. Plant an outline of plants that will grow tall and make a private garden room

3. The perfect plant for this is the Sunflower which will give them privacy in their garden room

thanks for visiting www.why6percent.com

                                                               Remember the old folk wisdom that said to place a brick in your toilet’s water tank? Well, that was partly correct, but placing a plastic bottle filled with water and a few pebbles is better. It’s an effortless way to save water-which is an increasingly scarce resource.

The average model uses three to seven gallons per flush and most will flush perfectly well with a little less H2O. You don’t have to turn hippie and call it ”mellow yellow” in order to save clean water….a bottle in the tank will displace enough water to save half a gallon to a gallon each use or up to about 10 gallons a day in a typical home.

What’s wrong with using the brick? They have been known to disintegrate in toilet water over time, leading to damaged plumbing. All you have to do is drop a little sand or some pebbles in a bottle, fill it with water, and put it in the tank, making sure not to disturb the the toilet’s working parts.

Easy enough?

thanks for visiting www.why6percent.com

During previous decades,  “draft snakes” were regular accessories in many homes, particularly during the Great Depression and in other tight times, according to expert Brian Howard. But as current homeowners have gotten used to relatively cheap oil, these handy items have largely fallen out of favor. However reducing drafts in the home can cut down  on energy use 5 to 30%, according to the U. S. Dept. of Energy.

Place a rolled bath tower or custom-made “draft snake” across the bottom of leaky doors and windows. This will improve the efficiency of heating and cooling, which are typically the biggest energy uses in the home, as well as make your rooms more comfortable.

The best thing about a “draft snake” is that it is an extremely cheap and easy way to green up your living space.  You can buy premade ones, reuse an old towel or get crafty and make one out of scrap fabric, filled with sand or kitty litter for weight. Add humorous touches with googly eyes or felt tongues. Another idea: recycle old neckties into adorable “draft snakes.”

Here are 5 tips to tighten up your home’s envelope:

1. Seal your attic door

2. Install gaskets in outlets

3. Seal ductwork

4. Replace door gaskets

5. Repair window gaskets

Sealing against drafts will save you both energy and money.

thanks for visiting www.why6percent.com

Here’s an easy tip to save money and conserve energy:

Turn your dial to cold water-with most clothes, you really don’t need hot water to get a good cleaning. Ninety percent of the energy used by washing machines goes into heating the water. The higher the temperature of the water, the more electricity you’re running and the higher the cost in terms of both energy use and money.

Add in one of the earth-friendly laundry detergents available everywhere these days and chill out about any harm to your clothes or the environment.

thanks for visiting www.why6percent.com

 Houseplants can help remove certain harmful volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) from indoor air. Things nobody wants around their lungs or their kids.

According to NASA and the Associated Landscape Contractors of America (ALCA) in the late 1980’s they conducted a study of 19 houseplants and found that the plants had potential for capturing harmful gases. The study was an attempt to find ways to purify air for extended stays in orbiting space stations.

Many of these plants are adapted to tropical climates and grow under dense canopies and low-light conditions. They have to be superefficient in capturing light as well as in processing the gases necessary for photosynthesis. Because of these traits, they have greater potential for purifying the air in your home by capturing the harmful gases.

The next time you visit a local nursery, pick up a few of these common houseplants: palms, ferns, corn plant, dracaena, rubber plant, weeping ficus, english ivy, peace lily, dieffenbachia (dumb cane), schefflera, orchid, philodendron, pothos, dwarf banana and Chinese evergreen. Florist mums and gerber daisy will also do the job for you. What they learned in outer space can be applied to your inner space as well.

thanks for visiting www.why6percent.com

                Quiet as the evening breeze and almost as green-installing an attic fan can bring the ancient wisdom of natural ventilation to your home with modern technology. Man has harnessed natural ventilation to keep his dwellings cool, yet the contemporary house ignores this idea, relying instead on creating a sealed and expensive conditioned environment.

Summer temperatures in an attic can get up to 220 degrees, and fans can bring that down to 100 degrees, cooling your whole house. Make sure you have venting fans in your attic, the temperature controlled type being the best. The cold air your air conditioner produces is being heated by the hot ceiling, making your AC much less efficient.

Air conditioning is the biggest electricity user in many homes. An AirScape whole house fan (WHF) can reduce or even eliminate the need for A/C and dramatically lower home energy use and the cost by up to 50%. In dry climates where evenings cool off, it just makes sense to harness the cool air that mother nature provides, rather than expensively manufacturing your own.

AirScape whole house fans are much more sophisticated than the old whole house fan: modern, energy-efficient and very quiet using advanced noise -reduction strategies. They are designed to run all night, steadily drawing cool fresh air in through open windows while exhausting hot stale air out through the attic roof vents. This flow creates a comfortable, natural living and sleeping environment while drawing heat out of the structure to reduce A/C load for the next day.

Conserve energy, save money, and help the planet….You’ll be thrilled you did!

thanks for visiting www.why6percent.com

One hypothesis is that cacti evolved to counter the effects of harsh solar radiation. According to researchers at the Institute of Geobiology in Chardonne, Switzerland, they announced in the mid -1980’s that tests showed employees who used to suffer from headaches and tiredness felt better after working for two years with a cactus next to their monitors.

If you’re worried about the uncertainty surrounding possible links to cancer and other problems from electromagnetic fields (the science is unproven) but why not play it safe and enjoy a little nature while you work?

thanks for visiting www.why6percent.com