You wouldn’t think it from the weather in Sydney this long weekend, but we’re officially in Spring season, and of course, that means spring cleaning! Get started with these tips:

Avoid harsh chemicals
Don’t fall for marketing gimmicks, those cleaning products won’t provide you with a miracle cure for getting rid of dirt. The best treatment always has been, and always will be, elbow grease and a natural ingredients. For instance:

• baking powder (bi-carbonate soda) makes a wonderful cleanser. It removes discolouration in the bottom of teacups, and works wonders for removing stains from your pots and pans
• Use a 50/50 mixture of vinegar and water as a Spray-and-Wipe substitute that can be used both in the kitchen and the bathroom (but not on stone or marble though, as it will corrode the surface). Better for your skin and easy on the nose!

Cleaning windows
Don’t bother with the old squeegey that leaves puddles of water at the base of the window:

• Kill two birds with one stone by using old newspapers as a window cleaner. Then you can still pop it in the recycling afterwards! Used with the water-and-vinegar mix above, news print is fantastic for a streak-free clean.
• A smear of tea-tree oil (again, applied using newspapers) can help to keep windows and mirrors fog-free.

At the end of the day, the most effective way to get a clean house is to just get off your butt and do some cleaning!

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What other chemical-free, or environmentally friendly house cleaning techniques do you use? Feel free to share in the comments!

I realised that my last few articles have all been about shopping, so let’s take a break and look at other ways in which you can make a difference in your world for a change :-)

You probably already know this, but Australia’s climate follows a cyclical weather pattern influenced by various winds and ocean currents, which scientists have dubbed El Niño and La Niña. A friend of mine recently “predicted” that we’re heading towards another drought because of El Niño, which, according to studies by the Bureau of Meteorology, means that we can expect less rain.

The cycle sure seems to come around quick! It wasn’t all that long ago that we were on severe water restrictions. Maybe if we get the jump on this one early it won’t be so bad, so here are a few water saving tips that to try:

… in the shower
The best way to save water in the shower is by installing a low-flow shower head, which reduces the amount of water required without sacrificing the “punch” of a regular shower head. Better still, a quick google will help you to locate businesses that give these away for free (with some even offering free or heavily discounted installation).

Shorter showers will also help save water, but if you’re really looking for extreme water savings, then you could also try using a bucket to collect water while waiting for it to heat up, and using that to water the garden or flushing the toilet with!

… in the kitchen
Before I met my wife Jenny I used to wash the dishes with running water, but she helped me to see the light. The best way to wash dishes is to soak the dishes in the sink first, which both helps to reduce water use as well as the amount of scrubbing required. If you have an extreme kitchen with two sinks, use one for soaking and one for rinsing.

… in the laundry
Wait for a full load of washing before you run the washing machine. Apparently each load uses around 17 buckets of water depending on your washing machine, so less washes means less water. An extreme tip here would be instead of letting the dirty water run down the drain, keeping it for flushing toilets. I don’t think it’d be so good for watering the garden, to be honest :-)

I’m sure you know of many more ways to save water around the house. Share them with us in the comments!

Lastly, just for a bit of fun, here’s a video IBM created about how technology can be put to use to make water “smarter” (Disclaimer: I work for IBM). Check it out!

Last weekend, me, my wife and some friends held our very first garage sale. I mean I’d done loads of these before back in Adelaide with my parents, but it was my first time in Sydney. The event would have been much more successful had it not rained and rained and rained on the day! Only a few die-hard bargain hunters came by, but we still managed to take nearly $400, including some deals negotiated both before and after the event.

If you’re thinking about having a garage sale, here are some pointers:

• Pick a date, and check the long term weather forecast. It won’t be 100% accurate (it said chance of showers on the date that I picked – ha!) Obviously it’s better during the summer months.
• Beware of traders – these are the people who try to get in early, snap up all of your best bargains, and then re-sell at the markets or elsewhere. They’re cut-throat, and will make every attempt to find out what you’ve got and get in there first, with fake stories about how they’re working on the weekend and can’t make it on the day but really desperately need a fridge, or else they show up at your door at some ungodly hour of the morning.
• Advertise! Your signs will get you a bit of traffic, but for maximum effectiveness, put an ad in the local paper, and make sure that it’s the one that gets read by more people of the type that would go to a garage sale. For instance, in Sydney you’d be better off with an ad in The Telegraph (the preferred rag of the working class) rather than the Sydney Morning Herald (too high brow). Make sure to specify the date, and the exact time when the garage sale will start, to prevent the scabs mentioned in the previous point. There are also some free classified Websites such as Gumtree which worked quite well for us.

What are some of the things you’ll need to prepare?

• Sticky labels for price tags
• Plastic bags for people to carry things with
• A “float”, i.e. a bit of extra money in small denominations to start with so that you can give change
• Street signs – remember that you’ll need one for the traffic in each direction, and if you live far away from a main road, extra signs to give directions to help people find you
• A ledger to keep track of monies (especially if you’re sharing)
• A book to read or something else to do during the quiet periods
• Drinks and nibbles

And finally, be prepared to haggle! There will be some hard bargainers, so make the decision in advance whether you’re going to play hard ball and live with the possibility that your stuff won’t sell, or be a pushover and get rid of all your stuff cheaply and quickly but live with the regret that you could have earned more.

As for me, it looks like we’ll be having a re-do next weekend when the weather is more amenable. Look for us on Twitter! I’ll be using the same hashtag as the first one, #naidoomarkets.

If you live in NSW, your electricity bill is going to go up by around 20% from the beginning of July. So now, more than ever (even if you don’t live in NSW), you should be thinking of ways to reduce your energy use. Here are a few that I recommend:

• Use energy saving light bulbs
  These are significantly cheaper to run than your old incandescent bulb, and many businesses are giving them away, with some even coming around to install them for you for free too, because they get carbon credits which they can then use to either offset their own emissions or sell to others who need them. The only down side to tis kind of bulb is that they can take a little while to warm up, meaning that they won’t reach their full brightness immediately. But they last much longer than incandescent bulbs too, meaning you’ll save even more in the long run. (When I moved house, I took all my energy bulbs with me… am I the ultimate cheapskate or what!)
• Turn off devices at the power point
  These days, convenience means we never turn things off. Our electronic gadgets and appliances are always in “standby mode” awaiting our beck and call, which means that they are still consuming energy, and by some accounts may be responsible for as much as 10% of your total energy bill. My parents do this as a habit. Me, I’m too lazy (plus my PC is busy helping to save the world, electricity bills be damned :-)

Ultimately, the best way to reduce the cost of electricity is to use less of it. Turn off lights when you’re not in the room, and think twice about buying that big plasma TV – yes, I still have my chunky old 68cm Sony.

Lastly, you could also consider using natural gas if it’s available in your home, but that’s another post for another day. Make sure you don’t miss it by subscribing to THRIFTerrific!