Here’s some terrific advice from Hitha Herzog, writing for U.S. News, about some things around your home you should consider tossing out. Not because they may be taking up valuable space in your home, but because they could be costing you more money than they need to be.
Here are some ways to say goodbye to old stuff without causing a hole in your wallet:
Ditch the ancient electrical items and appliances. If you are a gadget and appliance aficionado, you live for new product launches. The opposite extreme is keeping outdated items in heavy rotation. According to a study from Energy.gov, appliances account for 13% of your household’s energy costs; even more if you don’t have EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) Energy Star-compliant items. The worst offenders include: dishwashers, air conditioners and washers and dryers. If your gadgets are more than 5 years old or your appliances are so ancient they aren’t Energy Star-certified, consider tossing or replacing them.
Say “no” to magazine purchases and subscriptions and go digital. If you still get magazines sent to your home every month, you aren’t alone. On average, around 14 million people still subscribe to news magazines, according to a Pew Research Center study. This number is far less than it was 10 years ago and continues to decline as more people get their news digitally. In addition to causing massive clutter in your home, your average magazine costs $3.99. If you’re grabbing three per week, you could spend well over $600 per year. Take this advice and go digital: It’s cheaper and more environmentally friendly.
Replace regular light bulbs with LED lights. LED lights may not be on your radar yet, but they should be. LED bulbs last close to 20 years. While they may initially cost more than regular bulbs (they run, on average, $15 to $22), you won’t have to replace them as frequently.
Throw out and replace old cosmetics often. Few things are worse than having to replace items from your makeup bag. But using old makeup not only leads to disappointment (items lose their potency over time), it could cause you to spend more to compensate for the loss in effectiveness. Studies have shown that makeup immediately oxidizes and degrades the minute you open the packaging, and after a couple of months, it can accumulate bacterial and fungal growth. Do yourself and your wallet a favor: Throw out and replace anything that’s more than a couple of months old, before bacteria wrecks your perfect skin and annual beauty budget.
