Category Archives: Anything & Everything

Dec22

Moving At Short Notice Doesn’t Have To Be An Ordeal…

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Moving At Short Notice Doesn’t Have To Be An Ordeal…

In an ideal world, we’d all have a lot of notice to plan out every little detail of our house moves, and take all of the necessary steps to make sure it’s a stress-free breeze. Unfortunately, we don’t live in an ideal world! Sometimes, life throws us a fast one, and we find ourselves having to move into a new house or apartment at short notice. If you’re in this situation, here are a few pointers to make it as easy as possible:

Start Packing. Right Now! From the moment you know that you’re going to move, before every little bit of paperwork is in order, you should begin your packing process. Packing everything you’ll need is a big task and the sooner you get started, the sooner it will be out of the way. Obviously, there are certain things that you’re going to want access to between now and when you’re all settled into the new place. For this reason, start off with the least essential items, like art and other decorative items. Make sure to keep your boxes nice and organized, labeling them with categories or the room that they’re ultimately headed to. It’s also a good idea to clean the place up as you go, which will save you having to do it in one big rush closer to moving day.

Packing up house really is a monumental task. It can be exhausting and, frankly, overwhelming at times. If you are feeling the stress of packing, there is always help available even if your friends and family can’t fit an assist into their schedule. Simply enter a search for “movers in Raleigh, NC” (or your local area) as chances are high that a professional team of movers offers packing services too.

Make Reservations Well in Advance: After taking a bite out of your packing, this should be your next highest priority. While business comes in peaks and troughs, the removals industry is never exactly slow, and various moving companies, valet storage services, and so on are going to have pretty full calendars for the year ahead. For this reason, you need to start calling companies up and making reservations as soon as you have a definite moving date. First of all, this will give you a little more wiggling room for comparing quotes and finding the services which are most cost-effective for you. Secondly, there’s a slim, but potentially catastrophic chance that you won’t be able to find any professional movers in time! If you need to be out of your property pretty soon, then start making calls as a matter of urgency!

Set Deadlines: Seeing as you’re reading this, there’s a fair chance that you have a date where you definitely have to be out of wherever it is you’re currently staying. However, this shouldn’t be the only thing that you’re marking on your calendar. Moves are inherently stressful and if you want to mitigate that stress as much as possible, it’s important to exercise some self-discipline and set yourself deadlines for packing up certain boxes, making arrangements with the movers, sourcing help from your friends, and so on. Organizing yourself like this might feel like way too much but you’ll be doing yourself a big favor, and because you’re on a tight schedule you won’t have to be self-disciplined for too long! 🙂

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Flickr Image

 Featured Image By: Wikimedia

Dec21

Going Away For Winter? Don’t Forget To Protect Your Home

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Going Away For Winter? Don’t Forget To Protect Your Home

Taking a vacation over the winter period has become more and more common. Some people want to spend Christmas with the family, others want to counter the January blues by carving up the ski slopes or going somewhere exotic to get some much needed sun. Everyone has a right to go on holiday. The issue is that winter is also burgling season – abandoned houses and freshly-unwrapped gifts offer the perfect opportunity for professional thieves. To give you peace of mind whilst on your vacation, here are some great ways that you can safeguard your house and deter burglars.

Employ a House Sitter: The best way to put off thieves is to not leave your house empty. Robbers will survey a house for days before making a move to check that it is empty. They will read social media posts stating that you’re going on holiday and count the cars in the driveway. Throw them off by having someone stay in your house, or at the very least randomly make visits to check up on things. You may need someone to feed the cat and water the plants, anyway. Make sure that this house sitter is a close friend or family member that you can trust.

Install Security Lighting: The winter months are great for thieves because they’re dark, which makes it easier to go undetected. Catch thieves with motion sensitive lighting. No one will want to pick your front door lock if they’re lit up for all the street to see. This form of lighting also has non-security related practicalities, such as helping you find your keys in the dark.

Buy a Burglar Alarm: The most obvious method is, of course, to install a burglar alarm. This can be fitted on windows or a door to detect if someone breaks in. Make sure it’s always got batteries in it so that it’s always armed and ready.

Invest in CCTV: If you really want to ensure protection, security cameras are certain to ward off potential robbers. Strategically placing one of these can give you scope for all possible entries and even help out the neighborhoods (providing they are alright with you installing a security camera). Even a non-working camera can put off a thief.

Lock Up Your Shed: Thieves will often target garden tools as this doesn’t even involve having to go into the house. Keep all of your garden equipment stored away and lock the door with a padlock, otherwise you may come home to find you have a missing lawnmower or bicycle.

Home Insurance: If you choose to opt for none of these features, at the very least you should invest in home insurance so that any items that could be stolen can be replaced without you having to fork out money. This won’t help you replace sentimental objects, so if you’re worried about losing these kinds of items, the other security methods mentioned are recommended. If anything, many of these anti-burglary features such as a burglar alarm, CCTV, security lighting, and secure locks will help to lower your insurance fees and strengthen any claim you make.

Featured Image By: Pexels

Dec19

The Redemption of Debt: Can It Ever Be A Good Thing?

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The Redemption of Debt: Can It Ever Be A Good Thing?

If you were writing a film of modern life, it’d be pretty easy to cast the good guys and the bad guys. The good guys – medicine, financial freedom, political freedom – basically cast themselves. So do the bad guys: illness, political strife, debt –

Now, hang on a second.

It’s time someone did this. It’s not popular; it’s not the kind of thing that we’re supposed to say. It rubs against the grain of all of those sayings we constantly hear; against being implored to live within our means.

It needs saying, though: Debt is not always a bad thing.

[ Audience gasps, women grab their pearls, and mustached men shake their heads with disappointment at such a statement. ]

Don’t believe me? Here are some examples of points in life in which debt is actually a useful thing. When it can be constructive. When, for once in the story of life, debt can wear a white hat.

The Case For Debt – Student Debt: We hear a lot about student debt in the media. We hear about it rising uncontrollably, how students fear not being able to pay it off and will spend their working lives trying to do so. No one is saying that the cost of a college education doesn’t need to come down. However, without student debt – without the bad guy – people wouldn’t have college degrees. In this instance, debt is the price you pay (figuratively as well as literally) for an education and for career prospects. Without it, these things would be out of reach for many people.

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The Case For Debt – Home Remodeling: For homeowners, debt is frequent. We don’t tend to think of a mortgage as a debt, but it is – technically, the issuing bank owns the property. So there’s the first good debt, and it’s not even the point I wanted to make.

Home remodeling with companies like innovateatlanta.com (or something similar in your local area) is a wise investment. It can increase not only your enjoyment of your home but the price of your house. In a rising housing market, you could make a huge return on the cost you paid for the home improvement. You don’t have to get into debt to make home improvements, but it’s not uncommon. The cost of good renovation work that will have the benefits as mentioned above is not cheap; personal loans is the quickest and easiest solution. You can then pay it back and make money back when you sell the house. Who’s the good guy now?

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The Case For Debt – Reassuring Creditors: It isn’t necessarily just financial products that you have to pass a credit check for now – so you need your credit file to be in good shape. Creditors don’t want you to be a mystery. If you have no debt, you’d think that would be a good thing – but to potential creditors, it’s a leap into the unknown. They don’t know if you make your repayments, as they have no prior history to judge off of. Keeping a small, well-managed debt on your credit file is more reassuring and makes you more likely to be approved.

So while debt may never be a permanent white hat, it’s not always the darkest of blacks either.

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 Woohoo!

 Featured Image By: Pixabay

Dec18

Transform Your House Into A Techno-Geek Paradise

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Transform Your House Into A Techno-Geek Paradise

The modern home has changed a lot over the last decade, more than most people though it would. But today technology is so advanced that the possibilities for transforming your home into a slice of techno heaven are greater than ever. It feels as if we’re on the cusp of a lifestyle revolution on the same scale as that which people living in Victorian England experienced when they first got piped water. In a word, it’s huge.

So what cool things are out there and how are our homes changing for the better? Check this out.

ISmartAlarm: Ever since the middle ages, we’ve been relying on bits of metal in our pockets to keep our homes secure, also known as keys. But keys are problematic. Not only can they get easily lost, they also don’t provide us with any active protection while we’re out of the house. The good news, however, is that there are a bunch of new technologies, mainly paid for through crowdfunding, that promise to make our homes a lot more secure.

One of those is the iSmartAlarm project, starting on Indiegogo a couple of years back, which is designed to monitor our homes from top to bottom and alert us to any and all threats. It combines things like motion detection, pet tracking, video cameras, and child tracking. In fact, it’s everything you need to create an Orwellian superstate in your own home.

Sites like www.suddenlink.com/internet are already looking into ways to provide customers with the high-bandwidth WiFi and coverage they’ll need to keep these systems up and running. So it’s probably only a matter of time before we’ll see these sorts of Mission Impossible movie security system, which used to be used to protect priceless diamond jewelry, coming to our homes.

Control4 Home Automation: Ever since the 1960s, people have lusted after a consumer robot that would do the dishes, make them drinks (especially this!), and clean the house. We’re still waiting, of course, but in the meantime, there’s a lot to get excited about. One thing that is piquing the interest of techno geeks worldwide is the idea of the automated home –  a home where you no longer have to do the boring stuff, like turn on the lights. It’ll do it all for you. Well now, thanks to firms like Control4, their dream is becoming a reality. The company offers a product that controls the lighting, the security, the climate and even the audio all from one control panel. It’s currently being marketed mainly to restaurant owners and hotels, but there’s no reason why the system couldn’t be set up in somebody’s home.

The system allows people to customize their living experience in any way they want, according to www.mensbe.com. That means that you can dedicate an entire room to a theme you love – Star Trek, Harry Potter, CANDY?!

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 Dream room!!

Featured Image By: Flickr

Dec8

Brush Away The Winter Blues With These Spring-Ready Sprucing Tips

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Brush Away The Winter Blues With These Spring-Ready Sprucing Tips

On the run-up to Christmas, we all love winter. The colder days and snowed in occasions can be bearable, because we’re so full of festive cheer. But, as Christmas winds down, the winter blues can start to kick in. When that happens, all we can think about is the promise of spring, milder days, and the beautiful blooms that go with it.

So, this winter, do things differently. Instead of letting the winter blues set in, beat them away. Think about some of the jobs that you’d usually do in spring and incorporate them into your winter revamp. It’s time to bring the spirit of spring into your home and spruce those winter blues away.

Begin With Basics: There are so many simple home improvements that you can do around the home that make such a difference to the overall look and feel of the place. By adding in a fresh lick of paint or giving everything a good old scrub, it could make your home feel like it’s had a complete renovation. It might seem like a big job at first, but as soon as you get started, you’ll begin to get excited about the result. When winter starts to feel a little stale, a quick clean or redecoration could make you feel so much more ready for spring!

Dress And Showcase: Next up on your home spruce, you’re going to want to show off what you can and work on the rest. Maybe changing up the accessories you have around the home is all it will take to add that little something that you’ve been looking for. Change the accent colors you have in each room or even add more accessories to create a look you’ve had in mind. If you’ve done all you can with the details, you might need to think big. If your furniture is starting to look a little shabby, why not upcycle it? Get a few ideas from Pinterest or on Youtube and sand, paint, and style away until it looks like something you’re proud to show off.

Replace Or Repair: Winter can make you think about the appearance of your home and forget about the functionality. You want it to look great, but glaze over the practical parts. But, if you prioritize them now, you’ll be grateful come spring. It’s so important to stay on top of the functional areas of the home, like your garbage disposal, oven, and even A/C systems. You might just need to give them a clean or routine service or they could need much more. If you require any repairs that need doing or need new appliances installed, now is the time. Ahead of spring, you can iron out all the kinks in your home to make it feel brand new.

Get Outside: It’s common for a lot of yard work to be saved for spring. By why not do it now and get a head start? There are so many garden jobs that you can get done in the winter. In fact, it’s the best time of year to do some things. And, you’ll even give yourself a break come spring as there will be less to do all at once. Then, you’ll have a clean and spruced up home that’s functioning fine and a gorgeous garden to go with it. And how could that not beat away those dreaded winter blues?

Featured Image By: Pexels

Nov18

Ill or Injured – and Bored? Productive Uses of Your Time

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Have you ever been in the position where an accident has left you confined to your bed or at least your home for a while? It’s never as much fun as you expect all that time off work to be, is it? The novelty is okay, for a while. You can catch up on all those TV shows everyone has been talking about, sleep in, and take it easy. And then, sometime around day three, it gets old.

It’s not that we are our jobs. We won’t suddenly fall to pieces without them. But the action of inaction is the problem. Just as we get bored and stressed if every work day is the same, we can have an identical reaction to being restricted to our home. At least with work, you’re seeing different things, places, and people. When you’re stuck inside the house, you get stir crazy. You’re not using any mental energy. So if you’re recovering from an injury, make some lemonade from lemons and put the enforced rest to good use.

Learn a Language: If you’ve got a long-term injury, you may be at home for several weeks or even months. You’re liable to pass the time staring at screens, so why not take the opportunity to do it for a good reason? There are several excellent language learning apps available, including the ones on this list: https://www.lingualift.com/blog/best-language-learning-apps/. This way, you can use some of that pent up mental energy in a productive way.

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Consider Why You’re There: We have come to meekly accept that accidents happen and when they happen to us, we just put them down to experience. But if that accident wasn’t your fault, whose was it? Through no fault of your own, you’ve lost many hours of work and, if you were a part-time worker, possibly your job.

Consulting http://getlegal.nyc/personal-injury-negligence/ and similar sources is a good idea here. You may well be entitled to compensation that would go a long way to improving your situation. You could put it into savings, use it for medical treatment, or fund a small business.

Practice Mindfulness: As previously noted, being home alone all day can be dull. That stir crazy feeling is liable to make you feel irritable. As any nurse will tell you, bed-bound patients aren’t the most patient patients. But if you can’t move much physically, then you’re going to be limited in where you can go. Not mentally, though. Meditate and concentrate on clearing your mind.

It may sound like a waste of your time but it allows you to be in command of situations and you get better at it with practice. Once the time comes to get back out there in the world of work, you’d be stunned how useful it can be. As the poem goes, “if you can keep your head while all about you are losing theirs…”

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Of course, none of this changes the fact that once you’re able, you will want to get back out there and start living a bit. But if you can take the chance to gain some skills and use your time productively, you’ll be in a better position to take advantage of what comes your way.

Nov16

Fabulous Time Saving Hacks For Your Household Routine

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Fabulous Time Saving Hacks For Your Household Routine

Do you remember being a child and your birthday was a month away? It seemed like a lifetime. It stretched eons into the future as if it would never come around and that toy you so wanted would never be yours. The passing of six months seemed like a huge part of your lifetime – in large part because it was.

As an adult, the idea of a month until your birthday seems like nothing at all. You even get to the stage of not wanting your birthday to come around at all. Six months is a standard period, not an everlasting stretch of time you will never see the end of.

That’s because adults and children perceive time differently. By the time you’re in charge of your own home and family, time flies past at an astonishing rate and makes life more stressful. You feel like you’ve only just taken the Christmas decorations down before it’s time to put them up again – nothing ever slows down. And in the midst of that, you rarely have time to relax.

There has to be a way to grab back a little bit of time… right?

Time, a famous quote by Astrid Alauda once said, is the only thief that we can’t get justice against. Now it’s time to grab a few hours back from time’s firm grip. We spend an astonishing amount of time doing housework per week, and literally no one loves it – it seems a ripe area for a little trimming, surely?

Time Saver #1: Safety pins for socks in the washing machine: Fed up of having to search high and low for a matching pair of socks? Then use a simple safety pin to keep them together when you throw them in the machine. No, it’s not going to buy you enough time for an episode of your latest binge-watch TV show, but it’s something!

Time Saver #2: Quick cleaning wherever possible: It may sound stupid, but one of the fastest ways to save time when cleaning is not to let things get dirty in the first place. Use foil every time you use an oven; choose quartz worktops for their stain-resistant properties. If you’re feeling slothful, go for as much cast iron cookware as you can – it’s actually better if you scrub that less!

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Time Saver #3: Keep cleaning products in their used rooms: If you’re like most of the population, you keep your cleaning products in one particular area of your house. That means if you want to do a quick clean of the bedroom, you have to traipse into the kitchen for the polish. Instead, invest in multiple sets of cleaning items and store them in each room, so there’s always something within reach.

Time Saver #4: Iron more than one item at a time: Even if the modern trend of doing away with ironing altogether doesn’t appeal, you can still save time. Thin items of clothing can be pinned together (or just held, if you’re feeling lazy) and ironed at the same time, as the heat transfers. A shiny ironing board cover will magnify the effect.

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Now, that’s four starting points: on your marks, get set, go!

What are some of your methods to cut down cleaning time? What is your least favorite chore? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

Featured Image By: Pixabay

Nov4

The Mixed Emotions Of Moving House

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The Mixed Emotions Of Moving House

It is important to take a compassionate approach when moving to a new home. It’s not the easiest thing to do. In fact, it is well known as one of the most difficult and stressful things you can go through – and that’s even when you are looking forward to your new home! So how can we deal with your own emotions, as well as those of our nearest and dearest during the moving process? Read on to find out.

Stress: No matter what else you are feeling about your impending move, stress is likely to be featured on your radar somewhere. With all of the packing, cleaning, and organizing to be done, very few of us get away from it stress-free.

So how can we effectively manage our stress during a move and stop the process from being worse than it needs to be? First of all, it’s essential to be organized. Chucking things in bin liners the morning of the move is going to do nothing for your stress levels. Same with getting to your new home and having no clue where your mugs and coffee are. And spending three hours looking for your duvet before you can get into bed is not going to keep you calm. You need to know where everything is and how to get to it. Create check lists, label boxes clearly, and keep your boxes organized by what room they belong in to help keep yourself more organized.

The actual process of lugging boxes and transporting them can be exhausting and stressful, too. Especially when you have the major task of unpacking them all at the other end to look forward to. To help with this, you could employ professional furniture removalists. They can take the brunt of the heavy lifting while you conserve your energy for the trials ahead.

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Sadness: It is not surprising that when moving, a lot of us can experience sadness. It can be hard to move out of a property that holds a lot of sentimental memories for us. It can be equally as difficult to take the plunge and move further away from loved ones and friends. Especially if you have built an amazing relationship with them over the years.

It can help to have a going away party so you can say goodbye to everyone in a formal way. This gives a sense of closure and celebration in moving onto the new and shows that you care as well as will stay in touch after the move.

Excitement: One of the most major emotions that a lot of people feel when moving is excitement. It can be thrilling to move to a new property and decorate it just they way you want. You might also get excited about making a fresh start, meeting new neighbours and friends, and sampling all that your new town or city has to offer.

It’s important to not get carried away, though. Doing too much when you first move can bring about exhaustion and additional stress. This is not the best way to start your new life. Also while you want to get going at putting down some roots, it’s often better to let friendships develop naturally over time.

Featured Image By: Pixabay

Nov3

Is Your Home Really As Clean As You Think?

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Is Your Home Really As Clean As You Think?

We all know how important it is to ensure that our homes are as clean as possible. Cleaning gets rids of nasty germs and bacteria that can grow in problem areas such as the kitchen and bathroom. And once your home is free from bacteria and germs, you will find that your family won’t fall ill so often. Because of this, many families strive to keep their home as clean as possible. But are you really doing as good of a job as you think you might be? Here are some common parts of household cleanliness that many families overlook. Make sure you start focusing on these areas next time you clean the house.

Dust And Mites: In this modern age, many parents are working full-time and don’t have as much time as they would like to clean their houses. That means that dust has a lot longer to build up. Modern houses also have well-sealed windows, which are often closed when the central heating is on. This causes the air to turn stale in the rooms. Stale air alongside all that dust can encourage mites and other small bugs to gather in your rooms. The only way to prevent these insects from moving in is to keep on top of your dusting. It is also crucial to Get rid of the small bugs in your windowsill and air out your rooms as often as the weather will permit.

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Clean Your Air: There are more reasons why you need to watch the quality of air in your rooms, as well. If someone in your family suffers from asthma or emphysema, then you will really need to make sure that the air in your home is as clean and pure as it can be. Otherwise, their symptoms could worsen. Stale air can also start to smell quite bad. So how do you clean air? It’s easy really; you just need to buy an air purifier. If you aren’t sure which one to get, you can take a look at review sites including Plenty Air.

Toilets And Toothbrushes: Now it’s time to take a look in your bathroom. Even though you may regularly clean your bathroom with lots of products, it could still be dirtier than you think. Especially the area around your toilet. Did you know that germs spread every time you flush your toilet? In fact, they can travel up to six feet in distance. I bet that’s more than what you thought! There is also another area in your bathroom that can be a breeding ground for germs. And that is your toothbrushes! To make sure they don’t get too dirty, you should keep them well away from your toilet. And make sure to replace them every three months.

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Squeaky Clean!

Bed Bugs: When was the last time you inspected your mattress? Even if you change your bed linen regularly, your mattress could still be the perfect home for bedbugs. The only way you can prevent these little creepy crawlies from settling in your bed is to change your pillow every three years. Washing your bed linen in a boil wash every week will also help to prevent you from finding bed bugs in your bed. If you do notice a problem with these pests, it is so important to call in a bed bug exterminator immediately before the issue gets even worse. They will also provide you with the information to prevent the return of bed bugs so use it well.

*Lil Red Horror Story: A few years ago my BFF and I planned a trip to Niagara Falls. We were young and broke and was on the hunt for the cheapest motel humanly possible. We found one for a price that was too good to be true and about a day after booking our rooms my dad asked me if I read the reviews for the motel (No, I didn’t. Whoops!). Apparently, the reviews were consistently saying that the motel had bed bugs which explains their dirt cheap price! Long story short, the motel had a no refund policy and my mom had to call the place and claim that there was a “family emergency” to get said refund and not come home from Niagara Falls crawling with bed bugs! Yikes and yuck!

Featured Image By: Pixabay

Oct28

Ways To Wrap Your Mind Around New Technology

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Ways To Wrap Your Mind Around New Technology

Technology is at the center of everything. With new developments happening every day, it can sometimes feel as though gadgets are taking over. But when things are advancing so fast, how can we keep up? As soon as you get the hang of one new gizmo, there’s another one to get to grips with. There’s no denying that technology has made a lot of things easier, but what do you do when you can’t get the hang of it? There’s no stopping the pace of technology but you can at least take steps to help you get to grip with things a little faster.

Instructional Videos: Presumably, the computer is one thing you are comfortable with. You found this blog post, after all! It may seem crazy to use one form of technology to help with another, but it’s a good tip. A computer can help you with an abundance of things. There is a wealth of information on the internet so it would be silly not to use it. Watching videos is a fantastic way to get the hang of new technology. There are videos on just about anything. Whether you’re struggling with a phone, a camera, or a microphone, there’s sure to be a video showing you how to use it. These videos are fantastic because they’re easy to follow and you can see the steps to take. You don’t have to worry about understanding instructions when you can watch (and rewatch!) somebody show you how.

Product Reviews: If you’re struggling with knowing which product is the right match, reviews could be a great help. It’s worth checking out thesmartcave. They have some fantastic product reviews that are sure to help you navigate the technological minefield. From phones to thermostats, they’ve got you covered. Reviews are excellent at laying out in simple terms what features a product has to offer. You don’t want all the fancy lingo and sales pitches. You just want an easy to understand lowdown of what a product can do! That’s exactly what reviews offer you.

Ask The Kids: This might sound strange, but it works! Kids are growing up in this technological age where there’s a new gadget for them to play with every week. And what’s more, they’re picking them all up extremely quickly. Kids approach technology in an entirely fearless way. Even better, they are fantastic at using it. If there’s something you’re struggling with and you know some technically minded kids, then don’t be afraid to ask for their help. A kid who started using a smartphone before they started walking will be able to set up your new Sat Nav with ease.

The trick is not to let technology overwhelm you. Even if the instruction manual makes no sense, don’t let yourself get disheartened. There is always an easier way. Use old technology to help you understand new technology. Alternatively, use those who have grown up using these confusing gadgets. Either way, persevere. With a little effort, you’ll be a technological whizz in no time!

Featured Image By: Pixabay