Be a good neighbor on Halloween

Many people enjoy handing out candy to their little visitors on Halloween. To make sure your visiting trick-or-treaters stay safe in your yard:

• Clear away lawn equipment and any clutter from the yard, walkways, and steps so kids don’t trip over them.

• If you have lighted jack-o’-lanterns, position them far enough away from where kids will stand so their costumes won’t catch on fire. Better yet, use glow sticks instead of candles.

• Make sure paper or fabric decorations can’t blow into the flame of a jack-o’-lantern.

• Keep all of your outside lights on during the evening.

• If you are driving during trick-or-treat time, watch for kids.

Before sending your children on their rounds, make sure they eat so they won’t be tempted to dig into their goodie bags before you can examine them.

Check to make sure no parts of their costumes drag on the ground. Kids could step on them, trip, and fall.

If they are wearing masks, be sure they have a good field of vision. Face paint is a better alternative.

Tell them to walk, not run, stay on sidewalks, and cross streets only at intersections, not between parked cars.

Advise kids to approach only those houses with outside lights burning. Never go inside a house. They should wait at the door for their treat.

Young children should be accompanied by an adult. Older kids should travel with a group of friends.

Take time to teach your children how to have fun, but be safe on Halloween.

Top 5 Financial Planning Tips- What are the best ways to improve your money and budgeting situation? These top five strategies will help.

1. Make saving a priority.

-Saving on a regular basis can be hard, but if you treat this as an expense, you’ll have better success. As with any bill, you should make it nonnegotiable to pay into your savings account each month. Even a little saved on a regular basis will make a
difference. If you struggle with this strategy, consider an automatic deduction to a savings account to make it a no-brainer. 

2. Plan for the unexpected.

-A budget is crucial, but we don’t always know what is in the future. To prepare for the unexpected, you need an emergency fund. This is different from a long-term savings account because you should expect to use this money at any time. By realistically developing a working budget and having a reasonable emergency fund, you will
have the means to pay all your expenses and avoid debt. 

3. Understand your emotions. 

-It is important to understand your money personality and that of your spouse. If you tend to be a spender, recognizing this and developing strategies to manage your expectations is important. A person who tends toward saving as much as possible also needs to learn how to properly spend money. If you and your spouse are opposite money personalities, communication about your financial goals will help you develop a plan that works for both of you.

4. Set your goals. 

-Without goals, you will be unable to stay on track. Getting input from a good financial planner can help you see how much you need to save for retirement. Paying off debt should always be your first goal in financial planning. You also need to identify what you want to spend your money on. If you love to travel, then your extra money after savings may go toward that. If you have significant expenses coming up, like college for your kids, or the purchase of a new home, then you should be clear about those goals. Whatever your goals are, identifying them, talking about them, and tracking them is crucial.

5. Don’t bet on what you hope to happen. 

-Many people plan their financial present based on things they hope happen in their financial future. But if those things don’t materialize, you can be in trouble, especially if you are accumulating debt now in anticipation of a change in your situation. Until you actually get that bonus, move to a cheaper city, inherit that money, or see the
stock market move up, don’t spend that money. It is better to have it actually be a bonus and increase in funds than to have to deal with trying to come up with money you’ll never see.

Want to get tough dirt out? Let us CHAT it out…

In order to be really good at a job, a person must first understand the fundamentals of
that profession. That’s why Hansen Steam Way puts so much emphasis on training.
Did you know that carpet cleaning is a profession based on scientific principles of chemistry and physics? It’s true. The ability to effectively clean anything—not just carpet—requires an understanding of the four basic principles of soil suspension; chemical action, heat, agitation and time. We remember these fundamentals by the acronym CHAT.

The first of the fundamentals is chemical action. Water is used in cleaning because of how it reacts with many soils. In fact, water does the majority of the work in cleaning.
However, water alone is not very effective on oily or greasy soils. We need specialty
cleaning agents to dissolve some of the more difficult soils like food, grease and petroleum oils found in things like makeup, shoe polish and ink. These soils would be difficult or impossible to remove with plain water.

It’s amazing how little of these cleaning agents we need to get great results. When we dilute our products, we are actually using about 99.9% water! If you find this hard to believe, consider how much bubble bath you need to make a whole tub full of suds. It’s not much is it? Similarly, we use just enough cleaning solution to break down soils and no more. This assures that we leave no unwanted residue.

Many uneducated cleaners subscribe to the “more is better” mentality, so they overuse cheap, harsh detergents and leave a residue. This is one reason why carpets get dirty quickly after untrained carpet cleaners do the job.

The second principle of soil suspension is heat. Heat helps cleaning agents work better and faster. Applying a heated cleaning solution makes cleaning more efficient, so we use less detergent. Heat also helps liquefy oily, greasy and sticky soils, suspending them into the cleaning solution for effective removal.

Agitation is the third principle of soil suspension. It makes cleaning more efficient by helping distribute cleaning agents for better penetration. By agitating the cleaning solution into your carpet, we suspend soils and lift matted carpet yarns for better cleaning.

Time is the fourth principle of cleaning and soils suspension. This is one area where many carpet cleaners drop the ball. In order for a cleaning agent to work well, it needs “dwell time” to penetrate into the carpet yarns and break down stubborn soils. When
untrained cleaners rush this process, cleaning results suffer. We make sure we allow the product to work so soils are completely dissolved for removal.

All of this is why after Hansen Steam Way visits, you can expect fluffy, fresh-smelling carpets that stay cleaner longer. Once the carpets are completely cleaned, we can apply a
carpet protector to help prevent stains and maintain that fresh, clean look even longer.