7 Tips To Make A Stress-Free Move A Reality

Moving into a new home can be stressful, especially since you’ll need to bring all of your things with you. Not only will you need to accomplish exhausting tasks to make your new home livable, but you’ll also need to adjust to the new environment and allow yourself to live comfortably.  

Before you drive and move into your new home on the day of the turnover, you should prepare everything to make the transition smoother and faster. You wouldn’t want to arrive at your new home only to find out that you’ve left most of your belongings in your old house. One can only imagine the hassle it will cause you. 

Listed below are some tips you can use for a stress-free move:  

1. Consider Hiring A Mover 

Since you’ll need to transfer bulky items such as appliances and furniture into your new home, you might want to consider hiring movers instead of making multiple trips and transporting these using your own car. 

While hiring a mover can cost you money, you’ll be saving a lot of effort and time since you won’t have to do everything by yourself. Moreover, traveling back and forth with your car isn’t a practical move, since you’ll have to pay for more gas money and perhaps damage your vehicle with the heavy items on its trunk. 

When looking for a mover, you should try to look for a company near your location. This way, you can avoid delays that may affect your moving schedule for the entire day or even week.  

Moreover, a moving company should provide insurance for the items to be transported. By doing so, you can rest assured in case something goes wrong with the vehicle while in transit, causing damage to your items, especially for fragile and valuable ones.  

2. Create a Checklist 

Before you begin packing and calling for services, you should first create a thorough checklist to cover everything you need to accomplish before your move-in day. This is to ensure you won’t miss anything important that can hinder your move.  

Ideally, you should create a list on your computer and sync it to your mobile phone or tablet so you can view it on the go. If you’re moving with your family, you should also sync the list with your spouse’s device so they can see the tasks you need to accomplish days before.  

In making a practical checklist, you should start with the tasks you need to do months before your moving day. These may include shopping for new furniture online or hiring a home inspector to detect any damage and a repair company that can make your home more livable and safer.  

As you create your list, include the specifics as much as possible. This may even include the smallest details such as your toothbrush. While you can always purchase a new one at a nearby store, you wouldn’t want your first day to be filled with stress looking for missing items.  

While…

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Should You Use Fold-Up Portable Clothes Dryer

A portable clothes dryer is a device that can be used to help you get your clothes dried in places where an electric outlet may not be readily available. A portable, fold-up version has the added benefit of being compact for storage and easy portability when needed. There are many pros and cons associated with this type of option for drying clothes, and you will need to weigh your options carefully.

1. Why you might need a fold-up portable clothes dryer

Portable clotheslines can be used inside or outside to cope with an unexpected surge of laundry, for camping trips, washing delicates while away on vacation, or as a solution for living in small spaces where there is no room for a permanent line.

Since these lines are portable and relatively compact they’re perfect for adding storage or additional hanging space when you live in a small apartment. Hang the line between two heavy-duty towel racks and then use baskets to hold whatever isn’t currently being dried – that’s one way to keep things organized but still make the best possible use of what little space you have!

2. What are the benefits of using a fold-up portable clothes dryer

There are many benefits to using a fold-up portable clothesline. It is easy to set up, environmentally friendly, and convenient for apartment dwellers with limited space.

The benefits of owning a fold-up portable clothes lines are as follows: 

Convenience

being lightweight and collapsible makes the portable clothesline perfect for traveling or moving short distances while traveling. 

Ease of use

the durable material made this product very easy to assemble which makes it perfect for those in rental properties where they can’t install traditional outside clotheslines without permission by their landlords. 

Environmentally friendly

using a temporary or permanent outdoor investment saves your clothing and linens from deteriorating before their time because they are hanging

3. How to choose the right size for your needs

There is a variety of fold-up portable clothes lines available for those in need. They range from small, medium to large and are made with different types of materials that vary in weight and longevity. The size you choose should be based on what you will use the product for: if it’s just light laundry then a smaller option may suffice but in case that it is your only means of drying clothes, the bigger size would be more practical.

Size should not only depend on how much you need to dry at one time but also where you will install it and for how long: if your goal is just to get clothes from wet to slightly damp then a smaller option may suffice, whereas if you want them bone-dry then the larger one is a better option.

Also if you live in a smaller apartment you should consider getting a smaller one rather than the big one, since you don’t really want it to take up a lot of your space.

4. The different types of fold-up portable clothes dryers available on the market…

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Brilliant Ways To Prepare Vegetables For Kids

Image: cottonbro from Pexels

Getting children to eat their vegetables can be a real nightmare. It takes some imagination, time, but also a great deal of patience.

It’s no news that vegetables are a must for kids but they should be an essential part of everyone’s diet, as they’re full of different nutrients. Ideally, they should eat a wide variety of different vegetables and fruits to get all the nutrients they need.

However, if you feel that it is difficult to get them to try new vegetables, it is better to eat the same vegetables than not to eat any at all. If you do not know where to start, take a look at our tips.

Carrots, peas, sweet potatoes, and beets are some of the sweetest vegetables, which can be easier to start with.

The reason why children are more willing to eat fruit instead of veggies is that they prefer sweetness to the bitterness of certain vegetables, so a good idea is to first start with sweet varieties and then introduce new varieties one at a time.

Put them as a side dish and see what happens when they get used to the taste.

Pinterest

Raw vegetables for kids are usually not a big hit, but you should persist and come up with interesting ways to serve them.

You can chop raw vegetables like carrots, zucchini, broccoli and put them on a skewer too.

Kids love to experiment and play with their hands, so why not make dipping sauces from different vegetables such as hummus and encourage them to try them. This will make the plate and meal much more colorful and enticing.

Make sure you offer vegetable skewers as an appetizer before the main meals. It takes advantage of your children’s hunger and makes them more likely to try new things.

Kids love to play with their food, so why not turn this to your advantage. A super easy and fun way to do this is by cooking together.

Take some fresh pieces of crispy carrots, peppers, and celery and put them on a skewer. Your children will find it great fun to eat some vegetarian burgers while dipping them in a ranch sauce or Greek yogurt.

Making faces out of vegetables is more fun than you might think. Try using broccoli for hair, slices of mushrooms for ears, black seedless olives for eyes, and carrot sticks for a smile. Challenge your children to create a character, a monster or a princess, or their own self-portrait. There are endless opportunities to have fun in a healthy way.

An excellent and brilliant way to help children get the nutrients they need is to blend green vegetables in fruit smoothies.

You can choose some spinach or kale leaves or some chopped zucchini and use them together mixed with a ripe banana and a little almond or coconut milk. Your child won’t even notice that you have used them and they will love the taste of the…

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EPIC, Coalition Call on Retailers to Ban Facial Recognition in Stores

facial recognition surveillance

EPIC, Coalition Call on Retailers to Ban Facial Recognition in Stores

EPIC and a coalition of privacy and civil liberties groups are calling for stores to stop using facial recognition technology. The new campaign tracks which major retailers use or are considering using facial recognition and aims to pressure these entities to stop. Corporate use of facial recognition is especially concerning because, according to Sen. Ron Wyden, government agencies are already buying surveillance information from corporations to evade warrant requirements. EPIC has joined a number of coalitions urging a ban on facial recognition including: an international letter opposing the technology, a statement of concerns on police use of FR, and EPIC’s Ban Face Surveillance campaign. EPIC recently endorsed legislation that would ban federal law enforcement use of facial recognition and pressure state law enforcement to do the same.

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EPIC, ACLU, & EFF Urge Court to Prohibit Wholesale Forensic Cell Phone Searches When Probable Cause is Limited

EPIC, ACLU, & EFF Urge Court to Prohibit Wholesale Forensic Cell Phone Searches When Probable Cause is Limited

EPIC has filed an amicus brief with the ACLU and EFF in United States v. Morton urging the full Fifth Circuit to prohibit invasive forensic searches of cell phones when law enforcement only has probable cause to search some of the data on the phone. In Morton, police obtained a warrant to search the defendant’s cell phone for evidence of an alleged drug crime, but instead conducted a forensic search of the phone’s full contents and uncovered evidence of an entirely unrelated crime. A Fifth Circuit panel ultimately found that the search violated the Fourth Amendment because it reached a type of data on the phone that was not likely to contain evidence of the specific crime being investigated. EPIC, ACLU, and EFF applauded the panel’s recognition that “the scope of cell phone searches must closely adhere to the probable cause showing, lest authority to search a device for evidence of one crime mutate into authority to search the entirety of the device for evidence of any crime—a prohibited general search.” The groups argued that, in an age when “Americans’ dependency on smartphones has, intentionally and inadvertently, resulted in our phones containing vast troves of our personal information, strict limits on searches and seizures are necessary to preserve privacy” and that technological and administrative convenience “is no justification for discarding the Fourth Amendment’s probable cause and particularity requirements.” EPIC regularly files amicus briefs challenging unconstitutionally broad cell phone searches, including forensic searches of entire cell phones.

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Pros and Cons of Growing Your Own Animal Feed – reThinkSurvival.com

Whether you’re raising livestock to sell, eat or produce milk, eggs and cheese, feeding your animals high-quality food is a must. Of course, doing so can become quite expensive, especially when supply and demand fluctuate so quickly. By now, you might even wonder whether growing your own feed is a better alternative. After all, if you want to be fully self-sufficient, you’ll have to make the switch eventually, so why not now?

Weighing the pros and cons will help you decide which option is right for you and your specific situation.

Advantages of Growing Your Own Feed

There are numerous advantages to growing your own animal feed, the most notable being self-sufficiency. Once you’ve established your fields and gardens, you’ll no longer have to rely on other farmers and producers for feed. Thus, you won’t have to worry about fluctuating prices or whether a certain ingredient is available. Instead, you can go off-grid and maintain a self-sustaining operation.

Of course, doing so can also benefit your budget, you and your livestocks’ health and the environment. Plus, cultivating your own feed crops isn’t as difficult as it might sound, so it may be a wise option for homesteaders and survivalists who wish to live independently.

More Affordable in the Long-Term

One of the greatest advantages to growing your own feed is affordability. Letting your livestock out to pasture and raising free-range birds is much more cost-effective when compared to visiting a feed store each week. Plus, letting your animals graze is one of the easiest ways to promote optimal health and nutrition, especially in cattle and horses.

If you don’t have room for a full pasture, consider growing hay instead. Cultivating this herbaceous plant requires less space and a single acre can feed one to two large livestock. Meanwhile, goat owners may harvest enough to feed their entire herd, which stretches their feed — and dollars — much further.

Farmers and homesteaders who already manage cropland might also minimize feed costs by allowing their cattle to graze unused fields. Cows enjoy eating plant remnants, weeds and wildflowers, so they’ll quickly clear any unwanted growth. Plus, they’ll help fertilize the field as they munch, which aids in regenerative agriculture and allows you to easily rotate your crops once the cattle have had their fill.

Do you own pigs and chickens? These animals are even easier to feed as much of their diet consists of table scraps, leftover produce and lawn trimmings. Skins, tops and bruised areas on fruits and vegetables are all fair game, too. Even spoiled milk and meat cuttings can become food for swine.

Of course, you should still supplement your animals’ diets with grains. Raising your own fodder provides a cheap alternative to purchasing seeds and directly feeding them to your livestock. In fact, you can easily quadruple your feed supply by sprouting the seeds and harvesting the fodder every seven days. Try making fodder from wheat, barley, whole oats and even sunflower seeds to add variety and…

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The Biodynamic Gardening Journey of Keith & Kay Jeffrey

Compost tea is made and sprayed out generally every 2 weeks in-between the Biodynamic preparations. I can say the Biodynamic Preps are done every month according to the BD Calendar. Compost tea has times when we might be making dandelion, or comfrey, or stinging nettle, or yarrow drenches or teas. It is all dependant on weather and seasonal plantings.

Keith’s worm farm is a hands-down favourite, we get approximately 8-10 litres per month on average of leachate (worm wee) this is mixed at various rates of 50% – 10% ratio to water dependant on the plant and delivered either as a spray or drench. There is nothing else that compares to this for plant food especially veggies. The castings supply depends on the season, summer is about 60 litres and in winter it’s about 25% of that amount. The castings are mixed in the compost and spread as needed and available.

Amazing Bees, we have one very active hive with approximately 40,000 bees in spring/summer less in winter although some natives flower in winter so the numbers are subject to the seasonal food supply.
The bees pollinate our garden (and our neighbours) and they add something to the property like our Penda Tree Xanthostemon Chrysanthus that has grown but never flowered for 7 years. The Beehive is located near the tree and this year it was ablaze with the most magnificent display of yellow balls. We believe the bees have made a massive change in the energy of the garden. We have more birds, native bees, insects, and flowers than ever before. Plus we have beautiful fresh honey yum!

Our next-door neighbour sells firewood at this time of year and we get the bark and small chips – his rubbish by the wheelbarrow full and it’s great as it’s come from properties that are cleaning up usually from cyclones or summer storms and is full of mycelium spores. We use it everywhere even as edges which make whipper snipping easy.

Belonging to garden clubs or any club associated with gardening is an excellent source of cuttings and plants they always have exchange tables or rolling raffles where you can get some excellent plants for a 5 cent ticket. The best way of receiving free plants are the birds, although they often bring in unwanted fast-growing undetected vines.

All this sounds like a lot of trouble and some days it is but we wouldn’t have it any other way, to personally know the food you eat and the trees and plants living on your property that shade you in summer and willingly supply you with fresh juicy orange, or strawberry when you take a break, how can that be called too hard?

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How a new global addressing system can help Australian farmers to operate safely and more efficiently

The Australian countryside boasts an incredible diversity of natural landscapes and is home to a thriving agricultural industry worth over A$66 billion. However, poor addressing can be a daily frustration for many people living and working here. Places like fields, barns, and forests have no addresses at all, while rural postcodes cover broad areas and are not accurate enough to direct deliveries, visitors, and vehicles to specific locations, costing precious time and resources.

Chris Sheldrick, CEO of what3words grew up on a farm and developed a new global addressing system by building on his deep understanding of poor addressing and the challenges faced by rural communities around the world. He says:

“When it comes to describing where things are in the middle of a field things can get really complicated. Growing up, I would often spend time waiting by the roadside to flag down incoming delivery vehicles that would otherwise miss our entrance by miles and frequently get stuck down narrow lanes, typical of the British countryside.”

Chris went on to co-found what3words in 2013.

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President Biden Signs Executive Order Requiring More Scrutiny of Tech Mergers and Data Privacy

antitrust Big Data competition Data Protection Agency Facebook FTC WhatsApp

President Biden Signs Executive Order Requiring More Scrutiny of Tech Mergers and Data Privacy

President Biden today signed a wide-ranging executive order with the aim of promoting competition. EPIC has long argued that market consolidation in online platform threatens privacy. The Executive Order aims to address the ways in which dominant tech firms are undermining competition and reducing innovation in three ways: 1) greater scrutiny of mergers, especially by dominant internet platforms, with particular attention to the acquisition of nascent competitors, serial mergers, the accumulation of data, competition by “free” products, and the effect on user privacy; 2) encouraging the FTC to establish rules on “unfair data collection and surveillance practices that may damage competition, consumer autonomy, and consumer privacy”; and 3) encouraging the FTC to establish rules barring unfair methods of competition on internet marketplaces. More than a decade ago, EPIC urged the FTC to block Google’s proposed acquisition of DoubleClick. EPIC said that the acquisition would enable Google to collect the personal information of billions of users and track their browsing activities across the web. EPIC correctly warned that this acquisition would accelerate Google’s dominance of the online advertising industry and diminish competition. The FTC ultimately allowed the merger to go forward. EPIC has since repeatedly warned FTC that other mergers posed similar risks to consumer privacy and competition, including Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp.

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What Would a World Without Personal Property Look Like?

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by Aden Tate

Within the World Economic Forum’s Great Reset, the mantra has come out that by the year 2030, “you’ll own nothing. And you’ll be happy.”

For those of us who haven’t been brainwashed by communism, this likely seems somewhat disturbing. But let us examine just how one can ensure “people don’t own anything.”

Let’s look at what a world without personal property looks like.

Medical Tyranny

“If it were up to me, anybody not wearing a mask when they are out in public would be arrested … That’s an act of domestic terrorism and should be treated like one,” Lancaster, California, Mayor Rex Parris

Let’s start with the low-hanging fruit, shall we? John Locke pointed out that “Every man has a property in his own person,” with Paul Skousen further adding that your body is your first piece of original property that you own. If you are to own nothing, does it not follow that your body will no longer be your own as well?

We already see the fruits of this type of thinking in forced (or coerced)vaccinations for people to work and travel (and not be arrested). We’ve most certainly seen this with mandatory masking. What could be the further logical progressions of this type of thought, though?

Is mandatory sterilization out of the question? What about forced organ donation? Are these indeed that far out of a concept – are they not the next logical step – in a world where you own nothing?

Forced Relocation

“The theory of communism may be summed up in the single sentence: abolition of private property.” – Karl Marx.

You will no longer own your house. And if you no longer hold the right to choice, your body, or your property, then you likely won’t have much of a say as to where you would reside either. Perhaps climate change could be argued as a reason to move all people into cities. Maybe racism/equity could be claimed as to why your home is being given to somebody else.

Regardless of which form it takes place, there are excellent odds that you would not be permitted to live where you want for long.

The Death of the Second Amendment

“The meaning of peace is the absence of opposition to socialism.” – Karl Marx

Your right to defend is centered around your right to life and right to own property. As illustrated above, if you no longer own the right to your own body, you in essence no longer own…

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