Health: The more self reliant you are, the more you are forced to do in a day. If you are not paying someone to mow your lawn, to rake your leaves, to clean your gutters you are doing it yourself. If you don’t pay someone to walk your dog, paint your house or reseed your lawn you are doing it yourself. The more self reliant you are in your every day life the more active you become and the more self sufficient you are, the healthier you are. Not everyone has the motivation or time to carve out to exercise but if you exercise by just learning to be self reliant and not depend upon others you will burn calories naturally by just maintaining your day to day living.

Money: If you can be self reliant and not pay someone to do something you are capable to do you can put that money in the bank. Each time you get lazy and grow less self sufficient and outsource a task you could have done you gave away your hard earned cash. That cash in this current environment could have gone into the bank for a rainy day. The best example of cash savings is dining. It will always be cheaper in the long run to buy groceries and cook for yourself than to eat out on a daily basis. Cheaper, and healthier to be self reliant. When you learn to live self sufficient you find all aspects of your life improves as you work harder and force yourself not to be lazy.

Online Writing – This is always a popular option when you are researching on how to work from home full time. The main reason is that there really are endless ways to earn enough income to work for yourself while investing very little of your own cash in the process. You can earn passive income from creating your own blog and adding SEO focused content to drive traffic and earn income using advertisements. You can also use content sites that are out there and add articles however my experience is that if you use an existing content site to place your writing, you see quicker income streams but you run the risk of that company going away and losing your revenue stream. Be self sufficient and create your own blog or website with your online writing is my suggestion in how to work from home.

Contractor Positions – If you have a specific skillset market yourself and learn how to work from home by selling your own skills as a product. This is a wide open bucket that can range from sewing, cooking, typing or pretty much anything you can do that you can figure out how to market which would allow you to learn how to work from home. You would be surprised how many people are NOT self sufficient and more importantly for this topic would rather pay someone to do something so they don’t have to be. Cash in on other people’s laziness and then you can learn how to work from home.

Money breeds Money – the last way I am going to describe in this article on how to work from home involves you investing cash into a business. Real estate rental properties is a classic example where if you own a few rental units you can earn enough to cover the business and your personal expenses. Of course, this route involves a big cash investment on your part. Other ways to you can learn how to work from home if you have cash to invest include buying up dividend earning stocks and taking the cash each quarter instead of reinvesting your dividend. CD Laddering is another approach but not in these times where the interest rates are low. Basically money makes money if you have it to invest.

If you have had wine splash on clothing before, you probably know how badly it stains. Have no fear – there is a way to prevent wine from staining your favorite materials. The best part about this is that the stain remover is inexpensive and likely in your kitchen cabinet.

Salt. That is all you’ll need to remove wine stains from your clothing. The trick is to use the salt immediately. As soon as you get wine on your clothing (or any material) simply cover the spot with a layer of salt and let it absorb the wine for several minutes. After approximately 5 to 10 minutes have passed, throw the material into the washing machine and turn on the cold cycle.

There are some instances where you can’t machine wash the damaged material. If you can, try hand washing the item in a large sink or tub. You should always use caution if the damaged item is a delicate material. If it is dry clean only, you should not wash it.

I once spilled a glass of red wine on my white cotton curtains. I used salt and the cold cycle immediately after this incident occurred and there is NO trace of the wine on my curtains today!

Benefits of using tomato cages

Yes, a tomato cage is a great way to tame and control your tomato plants. But there are actually a lot of other reasons why you should use tomato cages in your garden. By training your plants to grow up through the cage you will be allowing the air flow to better circulate around the growing fruit.

Using a tomato cage will also strengthen the overall plant. As tomatoes grow they can become heavy and pull on the different branches where they hang. A tomato cage will allow your plants to produce large fruit without them breaking the plant in the process.

Make your own tomato cages

A trip to any garden store will allow you to purchase a selection of different types of tomato cages. Depending on the type of cage you purchase the cost may be quite high. Many homesteaders prefer to save money by making their own tomato cages.

There are several different ways that you can make tomato cages. For a basic tomato cage all you really need are four wood stakes roughly the height you require, nails, and twine. Place small nails approximately every 6 inches up the sides of each stake. Once this is completed you can put the stakes around your tomato plant within equidistance of each other. Start at the bottom of the stakes and wrap twine along the outsides of each one. Make sure to wrap the twine around each of the nails to add additional support to the cage!

As your tomato plant grows simply train its branches to grow up and out of the cage.

If you enjoy yarn crafts the simple answer is yes. By all means teach yourself how to knit and crochet. Just like crochet you can also knit a variety of useful items that will further your self sufficient lifestyle and reduce your spending.

There are certain advantages to knitting versus crocheting. The biggest, and likely most important advantage, is the amount of yarn that knitting uses. If you were to complete a similar project in each style you would notice that knitting consumes less yarn than crocheting does. For this reason it might make more sense to knit larger projects in order to cut down on the overall expense.

Must people will agree that it is easier to crochet than it is to knit. Crochet requires the use of a single hand to hold the hook. Knitting will require a knitting needle in each hand. Many people learn to knit in alternative styles because it is difficult to master the two-handed coordination that this skill requires!

It seems to make the most sense to start off with as simple crochet project in order to master this skill. Once you have completed a few projects you may want to branch out and explore what knitting has to offer. At least you will have a better understanding of the types of yarns and supplies that are available to you.

Trick 1

Take a look around your home at every piece of furniture you own with a knob. These knobs are typically there to allow you to easily close and open drawers. Now go around and jiggle these knobs. How many are loose?

You can easily solve this problem with the help of a cheap bottle of clear nail polish. Remove the screw holding the knob onto the drawer. Coat the screw with a layer of nail polish. While the nail polish is still wet, use the screw to reattach the knob to the drawer. After the nail polish dries, your knob will no longer jiggle and you won’t have to worry about constantly tightening it!

Trick 2

Do you hate the way your house smells after you cook? This is particularly annoying if you have made a smelly meal like fish. You can easily solve this problem by boiling a pot of water on your stove. To the water, add some cloves. For an extra kick, add the peel of a citrus fruit to the mix. After the solution has boiled for a bit, simply turn off the burner and let the scent flow through your home. It will drown out the other smelly scents!

Trick 3

Stickers. They might be price tags or name tags or something else altogether. Stickers can be so annoying when it is time to remove them. They tear and leave behind gunk and sticker remnants. There are a few easy ways to remove this stuff. One of them involves squirting the sticky area with a bit of WD-40. Rub it in and then easily wipe off the sticky leftover! Sometimes smooth peanut butter can eliminate sticker gunk too!

Trick 4

Are you sick of replacing your shower curtain because it gets coated with soap buildup? You can save money by simply throwing it into the washing machine. Make sure to spin it out well because you don’t want to put it into the dryer. Simply hang it back in the shower and let it air dry naturally!

Method 1

Fill a spray bottle with equal portions of water and white vinegar. Spray the surfaces of windows and mirrors with this solution. Use old newspaper to wipe the vinegar solution carefully from the surface. Make sure to use even strokes to avoid any streaking that might occur.

Tip: You can throw the used newspaper into your compost pile for easy waste disposal!

Method 2

A hot shower will cause your bathroom mirror to fog over. This annoying problem can easily be solved with the help of a foaming shaving cream. Simply apply a layer of the shaving cream to the mirror. Wipe it off with a clean cotton rag. Not only will your mirror no longer fog, it will be clean and streak free too!

Method 3

Fill a spray bottle with water. Add a few tablespoons of cornstarch to the bottle and shake until it dissolves. Spray the surfaces of mirrors and windows with the solution. You can use your clean cotton rag to wipe off the solution.

Method 4

Similar to Method 1, this method also involves white vinegar and water. In addition to these two ingredients, you will also want to add ammonia to the solution. Each ingredient should be added in equal parts. Use the item (rag, paper towel) of your choosing to clean the surface of the window.

There are lots of different types of windows and mirrors out there. Experiment with each of these methods to determine which one works best for you!

Inspect the area where the window frame meets the wall. Look for any gaps between the two that might be creating a draft in your home.

Using silicone culk, carefully seal up any gaps that were discovered in step one.

Inspect each glass window pain and look for anything that appears out of the ordinary. If you see any cracks in the glass, you will want to quickly have them replaced.

Take a look at the putty that holds each window pane into place. You will want to look for any sings of deterioration, including any cracking that may be visible.

Replace deteriorated putty by first removing the window pane and old putty.

Examine any painted area around the wooden windows.

Remove old paint and apply a fresh coat of paint to any location around your windows that have started to peel. This will protect against rotting.

Install drip caps above each window to protect the wooden frames from rotting.

What you need:

• Dust Cloth
• Mild Soap
• Windex

Using a dust cloth, wipe the vinyl window frame thoroughly to remove any dirt that may have built up.

Use mild soap to remove any dirt from the vinyl window frame that is not wiped away with the dust cloth in step one.

Use mild soap to wash the glass surface of your vinyl windows.

Use a dust cloth to carefully wipe away any streaks that are left behind.

Repeat steps one through four every six months.

Tips:

Make sure to use clean dust cloths when you are maintaining your vinyl windows.

When cleaning the exterior side of your vinyl windows, use extra caution. Call a professional if you are concerned about accessing them.

As part of the self sufficient lifestyle, it is important to learn how to take care of simple things like itchy insect bites. It is also important to learn inexpensive ways to care for these common problems. This article accomplishes both objectives by using household ingredients to relieve the itching while also saving you money.

All you really need to eliminate the itch is baking soda and soapy water. The first thing you need to do is examine the bite. If you see a stinger, grab tweezers and carefully ease it from your skin. If you do not see a stringer, take a piece of paper and slowly run it over the bite. This will remove the small stingers that you might not be able to see.

Once your bite is free of itchy stingers, wash it vigorously with soap and water so it does not become infected. Dry the area well with a clean cotton cloth. Take about a teaspoon of baking soda and add a small amount of water to it and mix the ingredients together. Keep adding water until you have created a paste. Cover the insect bite with the paste and allow it to dry.

As the baking soda paste dries, it will slowly pull the venom out of the insect bite. The venom is what typically causes insect bites to itch. Repeat as necessary!