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Caring for Dry Skin Inexpensively
Dry skin can be a challenge both to care for and to live with. Your skin may become flaky at times or even become red and irritated. Dozens of over-the-counter products promise to relieve the itchiness and flakiness once and for all, but often these (usually) high-priced products fail to live up to their promises.
There is no need for you to suffer from dry skin, and no need to spend a lot on creams that over-promise and under-deliver. A few simple changes to your skin care routine and lifestyle can make all the difference. Try these methods for a few weeks, and you should soon see more vibrant and healthy skin.
Dry skin is the result of a lack of sebum or oil production in your skin. Sebum is made within the skin cells and is vital to having healthy, elastic skin. Since dry skin does not make enough oil, you will need to replace it both from the inside and outside.
The first thing to do is look at how you cleanse your face. Some women use a lot of harsh astringents. Others use soap and water. A natural cleanser like pure Castile soap will have few chemicals, perfumes or other irritants, and the liquid soap will have none of the chemicals required to make it solidify into bar soap.
Wash your face gently with warm, not hot water each morning and night and pat dry. Avoid rubbing too hard to prevent redness and flaking.
Next, find a daily moisturizing cream that is rich but not overly heavy. The heavy ones can clog pores and lead to other issues. Since dry skin is often irritated by the weather, especially cold weather, and allergens, such as during spring and fall, light-weight moisturizing creams that include soothing ingredients like chamomile and aloe vera are excellent for handling dryness and redness at the same time. Your daily moisturizer will usually have SPF in it these days to protect you from the sun, which can also help prevent your skin from drying out.
Some women like to use a heavier night cream. If you can find one that works well and is not too expensive, and does not have too many chemicals or leaves you looking like you are covered in yogurt, then by all means use it. Otherwise, just use your regular daily moisturizer.
Now you should consider your diet, and how it contributes to the health of your skin, which is the largest organ of your body. It needs to be nourished just like every other organ. You need to stay hydrated to keep your skin moist and supple, so 8 eight-ounce glasses of fresh water a day will help.
The best supplements for your skin include Omega-3 oils, which contain vital components for smooth skin, and can be found in fatty fish like salmon and mackerel. Vitamin E, and a B complex vitamin can also help. You can find vitamin E in various cooking oils and peanuts. B vitamins are most commonly found in whole grain products like cereals.
Providing your skin with the proper nourishment is one of the best ways to improve your dry skin, so aim for healthy fats and a natural diet low in processed foods. Eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, and if you do opt for animal products, choose lean proteins like fish and turkey.
Nourishing dry skin both inside and out is the best approach to healing it and looking great without spending a fortune on creams, lotions and potions. When your skin has the necessary nutrients, it can start to produce more of the oil it needs to stay smooth and supple. It can also repair itself with more protein and look less dry if you avoid junk food like cake and cookies, which can be very drying for the skin.
Your daily skin care routine will keep your skin clean and help it retain moisture without irritating your skin, or clogging pores. You will not only look great, you will feel better too, and your nicer-looking skin will give you a great boost in self-confidence.
FURTHER READING:
How to Keep Your Household Tools Organized
If you are like most people, you probably have tools in a number of places in your house and/or garage but can rarely find any of them, or the right one, when you need it. Unless you use your tools every day, chances are they are in a heap somewhere, neglected and not likely to be used because you don’t have time to sort through them to find what you are looking for.
You might have tried to tackle sorting your tools in the past, only to give up in disgust. You might also have sorted them and kept them tidy for a time, but they are now right back to the same jumbled mess and you haven’t got the heart to try to sort them again only to have the same mess appear again in another three months.
The good news is that there are a number of ways to sort your tools and keep them well organized and convenient without needing a huge tool box or a lot of storage space. You won’t need to deal with jumbled drawers and bins ever again.
One of the best ways for a DIY mom in particular to get all the tools in the house sorted is with the help of a handy shoe bag that you can hang over the back of a door with the help of a couple of metal brackets. Hang it in the garage and label the holders if there are any small items that slip down and can’t be seen. If you have to do extensive work in another room, just unhook the brackets and take it into the bathroom, upstairs to the bedroom to hang your new shelves, and so on.
A shoe bag is an excellent choice for keeping your tools in order for a number of different reasons. It is inexpensive, flexible, has a lot of compartments, and is easy to use. It is convenient to hang up and helps keep the tools out of the way, but handy enough to use any time without digging in a lot of boxes and drawers.
A shoe bag can be surprisingly durable. They are usually made of sturdy fabric and/or plastic and designed for daily use, so they can certainly hold up to occasional use as you pull your tools in and out.
Best of all, it is so simple to find things, especially at the lower levels, where you can look right in, that almost anyone can use it. Just be sure to keep the most expensive or dangerous tools up out of the reach of younger children.
A shoe bag can be one of the cheapest and yet most convenient ways to store all of you household tools so that you never have to hear, “Where’s the hammer?” again.
FURTHER READING:
How to Get Started as a Do-It-Yourself Mom
How to Become a Do-It-Yourself Mom: A Guide for Simple Home Decorating Ideas for Smart Women
Your Greener Energy Guide: A Beginner’s Guide to Alternative Energy Production
Simple Tips for Healthy Hair
When it comes to beauty and personal grooming products, items designed for use in or on the hair make up a significant share of that market. Indeed, men and women the world over spend literally billions of dollars on hair-related products, from shampoos and conditioners, to colors, gels and sprays.
Many people think that these items are essential for healthy hair. However, in most cases, all that is really needed are some natural products to keep the hair and scalp clean. Most people tend to use far too many products in far too great a quantity. From mousses to gels to hairsprays, people load down their hair with oily conditioners and then drying sprays and gels and damaging dyes. There has to be a better way to care for your hair every day and save money too.
The truth is that styling products tend to make your hair look flat and dull, even dry and lifeless. These products build up over time, resulting in limp, overtreated hair. If you blow dry your hair, use a curling iron or a straightening iron, or other styling appliance, you can do even more damage.
Avoiding too much hair product can let the natural beauty of your hair shine through. Using a natural shampoo and conditioner can also stop your hair from getting dried out by harsh chemicals that strip the hair and scalp of its natural oils, or loaded down with too many oils.
Gently wash your hair from root to tip, and if you do feel you need conditioner, try a natural one like warm olive oil on your hair, not scalp, down to the tip. Apply, leave on for 5 to 15 minutes, depending on how dry your hair is, and then rinse well with warm water. Avoid non-natural hair colors and stay away from appliances that can scorch your hair. If you do use styling products, wash them out well each time you shampoo, and avoid using them every day.
Finally, think about your diet. If you hair is brittle, consider eating more lean protein like fish and turkey, fresh fruits and vegetables, and little or no junk food. This can also improve your nails and skin too.
Caring for your hair with natural products and improving your diet can help your hair become more healthy, shiny, clean, and natural, without having to spend a lot of money.
FURTHER READING:
Using Apartment Search Websites, Part 3
If you are looking at a sublet, a short term stay, usually from 3 months to a year, just about the same rules apply. Find out how long they plan to be out of the apartment and why, and what access, if any, they might want to the apartment while you are living there.
In many cases it is because they are relocating for their job, or they have met a new life partner and are moving in with them, but want to keep their place just in case things do not work out the way they hope.
Access will usually start out at about once a week until they remove all of their essentials, and it should then settle down to much more infrequently after that.
Once you have arranged for a visit to the apartment that you want to sublet or rent, be honest if you don’t like it or it doesn’t suit, or you really can’t afford it, because that frees it up for other people to look at.
Be realistic.
Using Apartment Search Websites, Part 2
At most times of the year there will be a fair number of listings to sort through, especially in a large city, so you will need to be organized and look through the listings carefully.
Make sure that you have an idea of where you wish to live, the price limit that you are willing to pay and how many rooms and bedrooms you need. Then your search will be easier and faster, without wasting any time on places that are not suitable for you.
Have an idea of what part of town you want to live in, especially if you are relocating, Where will your new apartment be in relation to your new job? What are the schools like? Are you going to college and want to live close to it, but it has more than one campus?
What is public transportation like? Even if you can’t get too close to where you will be working and studying, is your new place on the main bus or train routes that can take you door to door without too much hassle?
If you are relocating for a job, don’t be shy about asking for help. The human resource person who hires you is going to be either a local person who will be in the know about the area, or someone who has just moved there herself and can share all she has learned. In many cases she will know a good realtor or broker, or someone who has recently moved and who can help give you the inside scoop.
She might know of someone who rents, or might even be moving herself and can tell you all about the neighbors and the area. In some cases, she might know of people who are looking to rent a room or apartment, so you can have a place to move into right away, and then look more extensively once you get there.
Use more than one website or broker in order to find a range of apartments. Especially with this economy and the house foreclosure crisis, there is a lot more competition to rent since people are not buying or have in fact lost their house, and need to rent.
When you find a listing you like, print it out, and act quickly. Make sure you take notes on each page about the places you see, and ask about how much of a deposit will be required. It will usually be 1 month, but it might be more, so ask first and be clear about any other terms of the rental. Be sure to make notes and get everything in writing.
Once you have made arrangements to visit, be on time, and professional. If they are not, well, buyer or in this case renter beware.
Also be careful of apartments where they admit it needs repairs. Get the items in writing and an agreement that they will be fixed before you move in. Ditto painting the place. You will want everything to be ready when you move in, especially if you have a lot of personal possessions you need to move in.
If the apartment is furnished, this can help you save some money in the short term because you will not have to buy a lot of household items. On the other hand, Ikea and other stores are so cheap these days that you might be better off buying your own.
As for sublets, they can only charge a certain amount extra for the furnishings, usually 10%, so be sure to ask to see the rent bill and then get everything in writing.
We will discuss apartment hunting using apartment search websites in more detail in the next section of this article.
Using Apartment Search Websites, Part 1
When people need a place to stay for a prolonged period of time they generally think about renting or buying a home. The types of places they look for are usually houses and even more often, apartments.
While finding a good house can be accomplished with the aid of a real estate agent, you may need to use either a broker or the Internet to conduct an apartment search.
Apartment search sites will show you lots of different apartments which are available for rental. These apartments will be from a number of states, perhaps even different countries. While this may seem confusing at first, all that you need to do is to narrow the search down to your area of choice, size of apartment and budget/price range.
An online apartment search will yield lots of information about the different types of apartments that you can rent. Among the details, you will find the location, usually on an interactive map showing not only where the apartment is situated, but all the local facilities near it, such as supermarkets, schools, churches, gas stations and so on. All of this detailed information will be especially useful if you have a family.
In addition to the places where you can find an apartment you will need to see if the apartment has the space that you need, and the facilities. You need to find out their pet policy as well.
You can search the number of bedrooms, see photos of the place, look at the dimensions of the rooms, like whether or not the kitchen is eat-in, and so on. You will also find information about if an apartment is furnished or unfurnished. The price range of various apartments can also be found in the internet apartment search. You will also want to know if it is a direct rental from the landlord, or if it will be through a broker.
In the latter case, you will not only need at least one month’s rent and the same for a deposit, but a broker’s fee as well. In some cases you will need a second month’s deposit as well. In addition, there will usually be a credit check and perhaps even an employment check, so be prepared to shell out triple the monthly price of the rental, plus moving expenses.
We will discuss apartment hunting using apartment search websites in more detail in the next section of this article.