Family

6 Useful Questions To Ask When Comparing Retirement Homes For Your Loved One

As your loved one grows older, offering them the care and attention that they require may become harder especially if you have strong commitments such as a demanding job. This does not mean that you have to sacrifice the quality of care that your loved one gets. You can ensure that your loved one is comfortable and well cared for by enrolling them in a retirement home. In this article, the discussion will center on some important questions you should ask as you are reviewing different retirement homes to gauge their suitability for your loved one.

1. What Physical Activities Do Residents Get?

As one advances in age, the need for physical exercises usually increases. Physical activities help keep the mind sharp and they also assist in warding off ailments. In the ideal facility, residents should have access to a wide range of physical activities guided by highly skilled and experienced physical therapists.

2. Do You Have Staff Who Have Medical Training?

If your loved one has a chronic ailment, you should only enroll them in a retirement home that has staff with medical training. Retirement homes with staff who have experience in offering medical care are ideal since people tend to get sick as age sets in. In a facility with trained staff, you will be sure that your loved one will receive the best care in case there is a medical emergency.

3. What Protocol Do You Follow in Case of Medical emergencies?

Remember medical emergencies occur without warning and the best that you can do is to ensure that your loved one will receive the best care should any emergency arise. The ideal retirement community should be affiliated to a medical facility and they should also have procedures that allow your loved one to receive the best care in case they get sick.

4. What Diet Do You Offer Residents?

It is important that you understand the diet that your loved one will be following. The ideal facility should have a diet plan that is bound to keep your loved one healthy. However, the facility should also enjoy your loved one to enjoy any other meals they would be eating if they were at home. If your loved one has any dietary restrictions, you should find a retirement home that can cater for the restrictions.

5. What Is Your Experience in The Community?

You should direct this question to the residents of the facility instead of the management. The word of mouth reviews from the residents of a retirement home can help you gauge the quality of services in the facility. If all the residents confess to having a great time, it is a pointer that the facility offers quality services.

6. What Are the Visitation Rules?

Some facilities have very strict visitation rules and restrict visits to residents. Before enrolling your loved one as a resident in any facility, it is good that you understand when you can visit and the items you are allowed to bring in the facility. Ideally, you should settle for a retirement home with lax visitation rules so that you can pop in and visit your loved one any time you are free.

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Home

Top 6 HVAC Maintenance Tips

The performance of your heating and cooling unit depends on the care that you offer to your system. To increase the durability of your HVAC system and ensure that it is always functioning optimally, it is advisable that you learn some easy maintenance tips that you can carry out without personally. Remember that with proper care and maintenance, you can avoid the cost of replacing your unit and also do away with regular visits from a repair technician. Below are some easy DIY maintenance tips you can implement on your HVAC unit.

1. Fix and Clean the Fins

Over time, the fins on your fan can get bent or crushed. If your unit has bent fins, you may find that your unit is taking longer to cool your residence. You should inspect the fins in your unit and realign damaged fins by gently pressuring them with a dinner knife. As you are realigning the fins, ensure that you clean any accumulated dust and debris on the fins.

2. Clear the Area Around Your Condenser

If you have a unit that relies on an outside condenser, it is important that you clear any weeds or plants around the condenser. If there are any plants, debris or dirty materials around the condenser, there is a high likelihood that they will be sucked into the unit hence lowering its efficiency and increasing the probability that it will break down. By clearing the area around the condenser, you will increase the lifespan of your unit and ensure optimal performance.

3. Clean the Vents of Your HVAC System

Over time, dirt and debris tends to accumulate in your heating and cooling vents. If you have dirty vents, you will never have clean and fresh air in your house. This is because your unit will keep recycling the dirt in the vents. Dirty vents usually lead to musty air and increased susceptibility to health complications such as allergies and asthma attacks. To avoid these health complications and ensure optimal HVAC performance, clean your vents regularly.

4. Change the Air Filters

The air filters in your unit usually trap dirt and debris that comes through your unit hence ensuring that your residence has clean and fresh air. Over time, air filters tend to get clogged by too much dirt. This usually means less fresh air for you due to diminished HVAC performance. You should ensure that you change the air filters in your HVAC unit at least once per month to ensure that your unit continues operating efficiently.

5. Visually Inspect Your Unit Regularly

Paying close attention to the performance and state of your unit is the best way to detect any issues before they exacerbate and get out of hand. To spot issues quickly, ensure that you inspect your unit regularly. Should you detect any issues such as change in the hum produced by the condenser or decreased heating and cooling performance, it may be time to call in a professional.

6. Get a Professional HVAC Technician to Service Your Unit Periodically

Though you may be handy, there are some unit issue that require the expert solutions that can only be offered by a trained and experienced technician. At least twice a year, it is advisable that you call in a technician to inspect and carry out comprehensive servicing on your unit. With the assistance of a trained professional, your unit will always operate at peak efficiency.

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Business

7 Tips for How to Ship a Box Over the Holidays

With the holiday season fast approaching, many of you are probably getting ready to send big packages full of delicious goodies and fun gifts to your family members and friends. But what happens when you get a note from your loved saying that, yes, the package arrived but it was smashed in?

Life happens – we all get that. However, there are ways to safeguard your precious gift boxes and ship them with little to no risk. You don’t have to wonder whether that delicate ornament you’re sending will arrive in one piece. When you follow our tips and tricks, there will be at least one part of your holiday gifting that won’t cause you stress and anxiety.

Let’s learn how to ship a box safely over the holidays:

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Food

14 Best Asian Snacks and Delicious Desserts

Asian snacks are some of the most popular types of cuisine in the world. Whether you are looking for something sweet or a little bit salty, the best Asian snacks will have you craving for more. Below are some of the best Asian snacks you might want to sample soon:

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Home

6 Best Types of Deck Materials for Homeowners

Cost, workability, durability, insect resistance; these are some of the critical factors you should consider as a homeowner when choosing the material to use in building a deck. Decks are flat surfaces with the ability to carry the same weight as a floor, but are typically constructed outdoors, at a higher point from the ground, and often connected to the main building. They act as extended living spaces and are a great alternative to patios.

With the numerous decking options available, there are some deck materials you absolutely can’t do without while starting to build a deck. The following six types of deck materials are highly recommended:

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Home

6 Best Types of Flooring Materials for Kids and Pets

When getting a new floor for your home, considerations such as your family are critical, especially if this includes kids and pets. Other factors to consider include scratch-resistance, comfort, durability, colour and stain options, and water resistance. What you should go for is a practical flooring option that compliments both your taste and lifestyle. So, what are the best flooring options to consider when you have kids or pets?

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Lifestyle

12 Wrapping Paper Alternatives and Substitutions

As wasteful as wrapping paper is, thankfully, there are many eco-friendly alternatives that produce less waste and which beautifully wrap any gift. Just looking around the house, you’re sure to find some of the wrapping paper alternatives on this list. Instead of going for the old newspaper, which can be rather ugly, here are some of the more unique possibilities available to you.

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Home

8 Best Garden Flowers for Beautiful Homes

Making your garden look beautiful may be something you like to do as a personal project. Taking time to work in the yard can allow you to grow a gorgeous garden that all your neighbours will admire. In fact, a beautiful garden and a well-manicured lawn can increase the real estate value of your property with the best garden flowers! However, you’ll need to know what the best garden flowers are before you start working on your garden in this upcoming season.

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Lifestyle

The Top 5 Benefits of Registered Education Savings Plans

Paying for college is becoming more difficult all the time, but fortunately there are now easy ways to save for your child’s education. A government-sponsored Registered Education Savings Plan (heritage RESP) allows you to start saving money for your children’s education as soon as they are born. The plans are simple to start and also reduce a lot of your stress in this area. Below are five of the main advantages of these types of savings plans.

1. There Are Choices in Investment Options
With a RESP, you can choose from among various types of investments, including mutual funds, GICs, and of course, stocks and bonds. This is similar to the rules for a TFSA or RRSP. Depending on the type of plan you choose, this means you can choose your investment options based on risk tolerance or even a certain objective. Above all else, it means you can feel more in control over your savings plan.

2. It Is an Extremely Easy Way to Save
With RESPs, you save money over time, and it is much less painful financially to do it this way. In addition, there is always the possibility that you could receive more government grants and money in other forms along the way, which means the amount of money you end up saving is likely to be bigger than you’d planned.

3. Government Grants Help Your Savings Efforts
Because of the way they are set up, RESPs come with the potential of getting various types of government grants that complement the money you’re already depositing into the account. This means that in addition to your own contributions, you also get “free” money from the government, which helps your savings account grow even faster throughout the years. Because of this, it is a good idea to continuously check the government websites in case any new opportunities for funding pop up along the way.

4. Anyone Can Contribute to the Plan
A Registered Heritage Education Savings Plan is set up so that anyone can add to the account. If you have a friend or family member who would like to make a donation to your RESP, they can do so. There are also group and family RESPs that you can create, allowing for many different ways to save for your child’s college education. You can easily donate to someone else’s account as well, because the accounts make it easy to donate to anyone you wish.

5. There Are Tax Advantages to Having a RESP
Finally, RESPs offer a great tax-free opportunity that can save you a lot of money at tax time. The money you contribute to the RESP is tax-free, and even though the money is taxable once it is being used, most students are in such low tax brackets that it won’t cost them much. The fact that the contributions are tax-free also allows for the money to build up a lot faster, so over time you’ll be surprised by the amount of money that is in your account.

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