With the rampant popularity of DIY solutions through the internet, everyone thinks that they can do their own home repairs on their own. While it’s true that there are easy home repairs, there are also reasons that you should let a handyman do the work as doing it yourself can do more harm (think costly repairs) than good. Here are the top five reasons to hire a handyman.

There are home improvement projects that you just can’t handle

When you hire a handyman, they have the tools and equipment that what most household usually don’t have. Below are the following tasks that are way better left to a handyman:

Flooring and tile installation – Tiling and flooring require special tools and the experience of the handyman to use it effectively. A slight mistake in this area could ruin the entire look of the floor.

Plumbing – Plumbing is an issue that no one would like to handle. When there’s a problem in the drainage system, only a professional problem can inspect the problem and provide an appropriate solution.

Painting – Although most homeowners do it on their own, it is not as easy as it looks. Painting a room or an entire house is a time-consuming process. You need to prime, tape and trim and you have to clean all the mess. A handyman will do all these work for you.

Home Renovation – You can’t just break the walls of your home with a sledgehammer and expect it to look exactly as you planned the next day. You need a proper renovation plan to make sure that your home’s structural integrity isn’t affected. You cannot create such a plan if you are not as experienced as the handyman.

Save time

When you do the work on your own, there will be times when you have to pause to do other work or buy tools and equipment to finish the job. This could take a lot of time compared to when you let the handyman do it for you. A handyman is prepared with the right tools, materials, and how to get the job done effectively.

Save Money

A handyman knows what he or she is doing; therefore, you only need to pay once to get the job done right. No need for trial and errors and the costly redone when your own work is flawed. A handyman will make sure the job is finished. Moreover, when you need materials, handyman often has discounted rates for suppliers.

Skills and Experience

Whether it’s flooring, plumbing, painting or any home repairs or improvement a handyman has the skills and experience to get the job done. It’s not his first rodeo and he has seen it all before. He or she has the necessary skills and experience to complete the job.

Tools

No more going to the hardware store to buy an expensive tool that you don’t know how it works and that you’ll only use once. Your handyman will have the tools for every job and how it can be done efficiently.

Workmanship

When working with a handyman, you can be sure that the finished job is what you expect it would be. One of the reasons for that is that they need to maintain a good working relationship with their customers. If there’s an issue or confusion, they will do their best to shed light in the situation.

Safety

Aside from getting the job done, safety is one of the priorities of the handyman. A handyman is trained to use the tools and equipment safely. The handyman also has the protective gear to protect themselves while the work is being completed.

While DIY can work, it is not always the best solution. It can cause a lot of stress particularly when things go wrong and worse it could put you and your family at risk. So why not choose a quality handyman who can take care of everything for you and get the job done effectively.

What a handyman can do for you

Here is a list of the jobs that a handyman can do for you:

Plumbing
Painting
Residential and commercial improvements
Home and commercial repairs
Tree removal
Carpentry
Drywall repairs
Hardwood flooring installation
Landscaping

What if you learn new ways to clean your home in half the time as you used to? You’d get to finish all your household chores without having to block off a whole bunch. Here are a few tips to help you get started.

Have A System

If you want to reduce the time you spend cleaning your house, the first thing you have to do is create a system. That means you need to clean your home in the exact same order every time. You have to work with a specific room first, begin and end at the exact same place in every room so that there is no need for you to waste your precious time running from one area to another. The whole premise of having a system is to be consistent. You have to do the same thing every time you clean. This will become your routine, which is a good way of cleaning because the speed is due to the method being employed instead of doing things in a hurry. This is not a gimmick. You can really clean your home in half the time.

Top To Bottom Cleaning

You must not start cleaning any room by wiping the table and then the blinds. You will just see the dust that came from the blinds drop to your newly cleaned table. You have to start at the very top of any area such as the ceiling fan and then work your way down to the floor to avoid doing the cleaning all over again. Also, you have to start cleaning from the left and then move to the right instead of moving from one place and then to another.

Window Cleaning

Are you having problems getting that shine on your windows when you use paper towels and Windex? Maybe because you are using the wrong tools! You need to use an expert grade window squeegee to get this job done. Add a drop of dish soap to one gallon of water. Wipe it on the window using a cloth and then remove it using a squeegee. Be sure to start at the top and once you are at the bottom, don’t forget to wipe the blade before repeating the process. Once you are done, you will get a window that is streak free. In case a squeegee is not your favorite, you can use a glass cleaner and a microfiber cloth. Use horizontal strokes when wiping the window with a cloth. Don’t use circular motions because they can leave streaks. Don’t use paper towels or newspapers because they can also leave residue.

Prepare Your Tools

When cleaning your house, you have to make sure that all the cleaning tools and solutions you need are within arm’s reach. Doing so will prevent you from going back and forth. You can place your tools and solutions in the apron you are wearing or maybe in a bucket. If you are worried about the huge bottles, you always pour the cleaning solutions into smaller spray bottles, which you can carry easily.

Be Proactive

The first rule when it comes to keeping your home clean is to prevent problems before they even begin. For instance, prevent scum and grime buildup in your shower by using a shower cleaner.

Remove The Kitchen Grease

Grease will eventually wind up on your kitchen cabinets, especially those located next to or above the range. You can wipe off the grease using a cleaner. Just make sure that the solution contains orange oil. You can also go for a regular grease-cutting dishwashing solution, which is effective at getting rid of the grease. In case you are dealing with a tough stain that just won’t come off even if you are already using a strong detergent, you should consider a homemade cleaner. Combine water and baking soda. Scrub the solution on the problem spot using a cloth.

Choosing new drawer hardware is a great way to freshen up your kitchen or bathroom. There are so many different kinds and styles of drawer hardware that the choice can seem like a large one. You have to think about the style your cabinets have and how they fit in with the appliances or other fixtures in the room. Then quality and durability are also important issues, as are color and material of the drawer hardware. Also the size of the drawers is extremely important because even good quality hardware can be damaged by drawers that are too big for it. Here are some ideas to help you in your search for new drawer hardware.

Drawer Sizes

Of course people do have different sizes of drawers in their kitchens and bathrooms, and it is important to take the size of the drawer into account when selecting drawer hardware. Take the time to measure the drawers before you go shopping for hardware. Also feel how heavy the drawer is and how easy or hard it is to pull out. All of these will need to be taken into account when selecting drawer hardware. Each piece of hardware is made to pull a set amount of weight frequently, but having drawers that are heavier than the appropriate weight for the pull will cause the screws to strip and the knobs or handles to fall right off. Also purchasing the best screws for the job is important for the same reason. Heavy duty screws are needed for drawers that are very heavy or difficult to pull out.

Also the size of the drawer’s face is also important for stylistic purposes. You should think about how big the knob or handle is and how it will look against the size of the drawer face.

Types of Drawer Hardware

It is also important to understand the types of drawer hardware. There are two basic kinds of hardware for drawers. Handles and knobs both offer different looks and different ways of opening the drawer. Try a few different handles and knobs to see which kind fits in your hand better. Also remember that sometimes certain handles or knobs will not work as well as other handles or knobs. It all depends on the size of your hand, your reaching abilities, and whether or not you have arthritis or other hand problems.

Materials

Drawer hardware is available in several different kinds of materials. Currently metal is the most common material, and there are many different kinds of metal available. Some common choices include nickel, bronze, brass, and pewter, although there are certainly more choices than just those few kinds. Usually the type of metal you choose depends entirely on the color you want. Think about how each color will look against the color of the cabinets when making a decision.

In addition to metal, there are also a few other choices when it comes to materials. Glass drawer pulls are certainly making a comeback, probably because of the wide variety of choices in colors and styles. Hardware manufacturers are able to make many different variations with glass rather than metal because they have a much wider palate of color to work with. While metal hardware may be very ornate, it typically will not be very colorful.

Style

Style is also very important when choosing new hardware for your drawers. Style can be as simple as how the hardware looks on the drawer or as complicated as how it feels in your hand. It is a very good idea to take samples of several pieces of hardware home so that you can place them up against the drawers and see how they look.

The financial business is adding new terms and neologisms every month due to the increasingly complexity of personal finance and commerce or business relationships. However, for someone that is not familiar with all this jargon it turns very difficult to understand even the basic explanatory brochures or articles explaining common products. To clear some basic concepts, following is a list of common terms used frequently on financial flyers and other pieces of writing.

Collateral, Guarantee, Security

There are two types of loans out there: Secured and unsecured. Unsecured loans are awarded to people without other assurance of repayment than their word (signature) or personal credit. This means that if the borrower fails to repay the loan, the lender has no other means of claiming his money than taking the debtor to court on a long and tedious legal process.

Secured loans on the other side provide the lender with an additional protection. An asset is pledged as guarantee of repayment and in the event of default (lack of repayment), the lender can either repossess the asset or obtain the money owed by forcing its sell on a public auction. The asset pledged as an assurance of repayment is indistinctively referred to as: Collateral, Security or Guarantee.

Provisional Financing, Refinancing, Restructuring, Roll Over Agreement

These terms are often used with different meanings but with the intent of clarifying financial jargon, we suggest the following uses for the terms: Provisional financing refers to a short term loan or line of credit that is used for buying the borrower some time till a more convenient and definite loan can be obtained; Refinancing implies the cancellation of a previous loan with the money obtained from a new one that has different terms (usually lower monthly payments either because of a lower rate or a longer repayment program); Restructuring often implies a series of refinancing agreements that imply more than one debt and more drastically term changes than a simple extension of the repayment program; Finally, a roll over agreement implies the postponement of the loan repayment by obtaining approval for an identical loan with the same lender.

Delinquency, Default, Bad Credit

These terms are often used on articles and flyers about personal financing and non-traditional financing. People that have to face financial difficulties often damage their credit by paying late debts that are due, or missing a payment or missing several consecutive payments. All of these are recorded on the debtors’ credit report and hurt their credit stance lowering their score.

The above situations are referred to as delinquencies: paying late or missing payments. Failing to repay the loan (missing several consecutive payments) is known as default and usually leads to the debt being sold to collection agencies that will try to claim the money by different means. Finally, the consequences of default and delinquencies on your credit along with other problems like excessive debt have a negative impact on people’s credit which is known as bad credit, poor credit or low credit score.

Principal, Interest, Term

The Principal is the amount of money that is lent by the lender to the borrower and has to be repaid. The Interest is the price of the transaction: This price can be expressed as an overall amount but unless the loan is a short term loan, it is usually expressed as a rate or percentage. The term is the period of time for the loan repayment; it can refer to the overall repayment period including the repayment deadline but it can also refer to the repayment frequency whether you have to make monthly, biweekly or weekly payment.