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Swing into Spring: Five Easy Ways to Welcome Warm Weather

Blooming bulbs and Spring breezes signal that warmer weather is on the way.

Sure, many of us will do an all-out session of Spring cleaning, but even small, simple jobs can bring the season’s freshness inside.

Shake the winter doldrums out of your organized home with these five easy ideas to swing into Spring:

Let the Light Shine: Wash the Windows!

Sunny days look brighter through clean windows, so tackle the grime that winter storms have left behind on interior and exterior windows now. Whether you’re an advocate of the diluted-vinegar-and newspapers approach, or prefer to wield a squeegee like the pros do, choose a bright, still day to clean exterior windows.

Freed from their dark winter coats, clean windows spill sunshine inside, raising everyone’s mood!

Catch the Breeze: Open Windows on a Warm Day

Cold weather brings shut windows and tightly-closed doors–which can create a build-up of stale odors in any home. When you live with them, your nose learns to ignore them, but nothing whispers “Spring is here!” like a freshly-aired house.

Solution: let breezes blow! Air out the house one sunny afternoon to bring Spring’s freshness inside. Opening doors and windows to catch a breeze will chase away old cooking smells and any stale or musty odors that have built up during the winter months.

After an hour or so, close windows and doors, then tackle surfaces with an electrostatic cleaning cloth to capture any dust or pollen that’s settled out in the breeze. Run the vacuum cleaner to remove dust from floors–and enjoy the Springtime freshness!

Blooming Wonder: Bring the Season Inside

Even if the budget won’t stretch to regular purchases of cut flowers, Spring’s blooming make it easy to spark up a home with fresh blossoms.

Cut small branches from a flowering tree, or gather ready-to-bloom daffodils and tulips from the garden.

Even an inexpensive bundle of cut flowers from the supermarket cooler can bring a welcome breath of Spring indoors.

Displayed simply, in a tall water glass, vase or mason jar, they’ll add a splash of Spring color and fragrance to your home.

Fresh Start: Clean Out the Refrigerator

The arrival of a new season is a good signal to clean out stored food in refrigerator and pantry. As farmers’ markets and roadside stands open to offer fresh food for the new season, create a good home by cleaning out the remains of winter.

Make a quick check of expiration dates of food stored in refrigerator or pantry, and toss expired foodstuffs.

Look sharp for the last survivors of holiday gift baskets! If you haven’t eaten the smoked salmon spread or served the Texas Hot Chili Mix by now, donate these treats to the food bank, so they’re enjoyed by others.

Give vegetable storage areas special attention. Bearded carrots, limp celery and shriveled onions can be tossed into a crockery slow-cooker overnight to make vegetable stock–or consign these items to the compost bin. Be ready to store Spring’s bounty in a clean and roomy vegetable crisper!

Cull the Cuddly: Wind Down the Winter Warmers

Fall brings no greater pleasure than pulling out fleecy sweats, flannel pajamas and warm blankets–but by season’s end, these cuddly favorites are frequently worse for wear.

As warm weather approaches, take a hard look at the family’s cold-weather bedding and favorite winter warmers. Separate out the stained sweats, pilled flannel sheets and shrunken loungewear for recycling or donation.

As you return winter bedding and clothing to closet storage areas, make a quick list of any needed replacements. Look alert! End-of-season clearance sales make it easy AND cheap to replace worn-out linens and faded clothes.

Ready to swing into Spring? Welcome the season from your organized home!

By Cynthia Ewer
Editor, Organized Home

http://organizedhome.com/clean-house/swing-into-spring-in-your-organized-home

Buying

Questions on Purchasing a Home?

Join us at our office on March 20, 2012  at 6:30 for the next Home Buyer Seminar. The Crye-Leike office is located at 118 Fairfield Dr., directly behind the Shell station on Hwy 98.

Topics of discussion  include:

  • Credit
  • Loans
  • Home Inspections
  • The Closing Process

Please call Crye-Leike (601 336 6941) today to reserve your seat. We look forward to seeing you there.

Buying

Study Calls Today’s Market Good Time to Buy

Researchers from several universities have just completed a paper that looks at what they call the hurdle rate. This is the point at which it’s equally smart to rent or buy if your only criterion is to build wealth. Based on today’s hurdle rate, it’s a better time to buy than to rent, because you can build more wealth owning than renting.

The study looks at what they call an indifferent renter. This is someone who is just as happy renting as buying depending on which choice is better at building wealth over a holding period, in this case eight years. The study assumes the renter puts the savings from renting into an investment to earn a return.

The hurdle rate is the point of equilibrium between renting and buying where it’s a wash in terms of wealth building. If today’s hurdle rate rate is lower than the average past property appreciation rate for a particular market, then it makes sense to buy, because future property appreciation should be such that an individual will, on average, create more wealth through owning rather than renting. On the other hand, if today’s hurdle rate is higher than the average past property appreciation for a particular market, then this is a sign that ownership can be a drag on wealth creation.

“It’s not a perfect reason to buy, it’s just a test,” says Ken. H. Johnson of Florida International University in Miami, one of the authors of the study, called “The Rent vs. Buy Decision,” released about two weeks ago. “But it’s a good sign that the market’s turning.”

The paper is part of a series Johnson and some other researchers have been doing on the rent vs. buy decision. This paper just looks at the narrow topic of the hurdle rate; other papers look more broadly at whether it makes sense to rent or buy based on financial considerations. In one earlier paper, renting can make more sense in some instances, at least in the short run, if renters invest all of their savings over a period of time in an instrument that generates a yield comparable to what they would earn in appreciation on a house in their market. But since few renters could realistically invest all of their savings from renting, it’s more appropriate to assume renters don’t invest all of their savings. And in these cases, owning is the overwhelmingly better investment over the holding period.

http://speakingofrealestate.blogs.realtor.org/2012/02/13/study-calls-todays-market-good-time-to-buy/

Buying

Hattiesburg Real Estate

1301 Marie St.  Hattiesburg , MS 39401  $139,900

3 bedroom, 2 bath. Large living/dining area. Separate den with fireplace. Large corner lot.

Call Crye-Leike today for details!