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Get Warm

Stop Shivering and Get Warm Without Breaking the Bank

The wind is fiercely blowing, and the weather forecast is calling for snow and below zero temperatures. You can't wait to get home to cozy warmth. Instead you are greeted by drafts, cool temperatures and a chill you just can't rid off. With rising energy costs most of us are leery to raise the temperature on the thermostat, so what is a person to do?

Start with the Windows

For the largest culprit of lost heat, start with your windows. Take some time to put plastic on them. This will add extra protection from wind and cold. During the days keep blinds and curtains open to allow the sun in to help heat the house. Around sunset close your blinds and curtains to add additional insulation trapping the heat inside.

Stop Drafts

They seem to come from every door. One of the best ways to stop a door draft is with a draft stopper or door snake. Filled with dried peas, rice or pillow filling, draft stoppers can be placed in front of a closed door to stop a draft. In addition to using draft stoppers, consider adding door sweep. A long, thin broom like piece of vinyl these attachments should be installed along the inside bottom edge of your door. Together, this should help keep drafts from creeping in.

Keep your Furnace Flowing

If you have a forced-air furnace, to keep it heating properly, it is recommended to change your furnace filter every month during the heating season. In addition to changing the filter, make sure your vents aren't blocked by furniture. This wastes money and can lead to cold rooms.

Keep your Windows and Doors Closed

If a room gets too hot, turn on a fan or turn down the heat instead of opening a window or door. Opening a window will just cause your furnace to work harder, raise your energy bill and waste heat.

Bundle Up with the One You Love

If you still have a chill, it may not be from a lack of furnace heat. Consider taking a warm bath, drinking a cup of hot tea or hot chocolate and crawling under a cozy blanket with the one you love.

Great Family Games

Our Pick for the Best Games to Play with Family

Just like your families, we at Speed Queen enjoy spending time with ours. A favorite family past time is playing board games. Below is a list of games that we find fun and a great way to spend time with our families.

Trivial Pursuit 90s edition

Even thought the 90s weren't that long ago, you will find this game challenging and fun. The Trivial Pursuit 90s edition puts a new twist to the old game with six new categories featuring: Opps, Wired, Trends, Important, Hangin' and Viewing.

Don't Break the Ice

Great if you have little ones you want to play with. The object of this game is to tap the ice blocks out one by one, but not to break the ice causing the polar bear to fall. The winner is the one who can keep the polar bear from falling.

Twister Moves

A new "twist" on a family favorite, Twister Moves gets you dancing and moving by asking participants to follow more than 100 dance commands called out by a DJ. Miss a step and you're out.

Scene It?

The trivia game for the ultimate movie buff. Using your DVD player and TV, the game shows clips from popular television shows and movies. The team with the most points wins.

Cranium

Cranium is a fantastic game filled with loads of activities. The game features four challenge areas: Creative Cat where teammates will have to sketch or draw the clue, Star Performer where you will need to hum or sing in order for your team to guess the answer, Word Worm where you will have to either unscramble a word, guess definitions, fill in the blanks or spell it backwards and finally, Data Head where your knowledge of useless trivia is tested. This is a rambunctious game for all involved.

Operation: Shrek edition

Still an ultimate classic, now with a new twist, you and your family can operate on Shrek. With a steady hand remove Shrek's ear wax, but what ever you do... don't touch the side.

Taboo

Are you good at saying what you mean without really saying it? Then Taboo might be the game for you. Without giving the words on the card away, share clues with your teammates and get them to guess what the word on the card is.

Phase 10

A card game similar to rummy, players must get through all 10 phases asked of them including one set of two and a run of three; seven of one color and two sets of four. The more players the more challenging this game is.

Guess Who?

A new twist on 20 Questions. Guess Who?, has players attempting to guess the identity of their opponent's mystery person. With more questions and the process of elimination, the identity of the mystery person is slowly revealed.

Hi Ho Cherrio

This one is sure to bring back childhood memories when you play with your children. Put all your cherries on the tree and be careful not to spill the bucket putting them all back on.

Talking Gooey Louie - Honorable Mention

The trick to winning Gooey Louie to pick the right "gooey." Kids will love this game, it's gross and disgusting. Players are asked to put their fingers up Gooey Louie's nose and pull out a "gooey." If you pick the wrong "gooey" his eyes pop and his brains fly into the air. The player who picks the right "gooey" saves Louie from losing his mind.

Purchase these games either at your local retailer or by visiting www.etoys.com.

Indoor Fun

Inside Fun for Rambunctious Little Ones

I have fond memories of playing during the winter. We would spend hours outside building forts, throwing snowballs, sledding down hills, ice skating and building snowmen. But, when it was time to come inside, the friendly camaraderie my brothers and I shared turned into World War 3. My mom became an expert and diverting that extra energy into fun indoor activities.

Treasure Hunt

My mom would design a map and hide the treasure for us to find. While she was doing that, we would be setting up our campsite in the living room. Using blankets, kitchen chairs, sofa cushions and anything else we could get our hands on, we constructed tents, a hospital (incase we were injured on our expedition) and a mess hall. We would then spend a good few hours mapping our strategies and running into the obstacles mom had created. We had to fend off lions, guess riddles ... we right out of one of the real Indiana Jones stories.

Floor Skating

It wasn't until we became older we learned that this was the way mom got her floors really clean. With our help, we would clear out as much of the furniture out of the dining room, living room and kitchen as possible. Then with clean socks we would skate across the hardwood floors. We would laugh when one of us would crash, but at the end of skating our socks were dirty and mom's floor was sparkling.

Indoor Olympics

Every summer my mom would create the neighborhood summer Olympics. We would spend weeks getting prizes and making medals out of construction paper and yarn. Every kid in the neighborhood turned out for this annual event.

During the winter, we would have family indoor Olympics. We would assemble in the living room for the obstacle course. One at a time my brothers and I would jump from sofa cushion to sofa cushion laid out strategically on the floor, run around the dining room table (which at the time seemed huge) four times, up the stairs to the end of the hallway, do twelve jumping jacks, back down the stairs, around the dining room table four more times and back over the sofa cushions. Whoever had the fastest time would get to lick the brownie spoon! What a reward!

Puppet Show

Growing up we didn't have a lot of money, but we sure had a lot of fun. My mom had inherited a sewing kit filled with buttons, she had tons of yarn left from knitting and crocheting, we had markers, glue and crayons from school. Using brown paper bags we would create characters from some of our most wild stories and put on a puppet show for my mom and my grandma who would have braved the cold and walked the four blocks to our house to see our master piece.

Children have loads of energy and fantastic imaginations. With a little encouragement and some fun stuff around the house you too can create some fantastic childhood memories for your kids that someday they just might write about. Thanks mom!

Stain Removal Corner

"Baby, it's cold outside." The air is crisp, there's snow on the ground and you and your family are enjoying all the fun and splendor that winter has to give. You've built snowmen, attended festive New Year's Eve celebrations or snuggled close by a romantic fire. Now it's time for the clean up from some of winter's most memorable stains!

Hot Chocolate Heaven

Hot chocolate has a long history dating back to the early Aztecs, but it wasn't the original sweet goodness we drink today. Hot cocoa was originally a mixture of ground cocoa beans, water, wine and hot peppers. After the Spanish invaded Mexico, that sugar was added. It wasn't until hot cocoa was introduced to the English that it took the shape of the wonderful libation we know today being made with milk, sugar and cocoa.

Removal Guide

• Always read the care label on clothing or fabric.
• As soon as possible pretreatment spray stain remover, spray stains and allow it to sit for a few minutes.
• After the pretreatment soak, pour a small amount of a heavy-duty liquid detergent on the stain and lightly rub.
• Wash according to the care label.

Bubbly Everywhere*

Initially, champagne was a holy wine served during communion, today, champagne is the wine of choice for celebration. It has been used to launch ships, celebrate Olympic victories, wedding vows and ring in the New Year. It is also a very stubborn stain!

Removal Guide - Light Stains

• Always read the care label on clothing or fabric.
• Wash the stained item in the hottest water safe for fabric. Do not use any soap (natural soap, bars or flakes) since it could make the stain permanent or harder to remove.

Removal Guide - Heavy Stains

• Always read the care label on clothing or fabric.
• Using 1 quart of warm water and 1 teaspoon of an enzyme presoak product, soak the garment for 30 minutes.
• Wash according to the fabric care label.

*Note: if all the sugars are not removed, a brown stain will appear on the garment when it is heated in the dryer or by an iron. The sugar caramelizing causes this.

Smoked Out

After an evening in front of the fire, and the chimney sweep is no where to be found, you decide to tackle the job yourself. So, now that the fireplace is clean, how do you get the soot out of your clothing?

Removal Guide

• Always read the care label on clothing or fabric
• Put down a blanket and carefully remove the soiled clothing. Take them outside and shake off any excess soot.
• Using a heavy-duty liquid detergent or phosphate-based detergent, add 1 cup of water conditioner and a 1/2 cup of all-fabric bleach; wash clothing in the temperature recommended on the care label.
• Allow to air dry.

Inspect clothing for odor and repeat as needed. Cottons like to hold odors; they may require additional washes.

See more stains by viewing our stain removal guide!

Tackling the Closet Monster

Tackling the Closet Monster Easy as One, Two, Three

Who would have thought that watching the barrage of do-it-yourself home improvement and home organization shows would have finally paid off? Like most people, when it comes to closets, I am very unorganized. After a while I couldn't take the mess nor would the doors close. I needed some serious help getting organized.

Step One: Sort it All

The first thing I did was get boxes from the grocery store and labeled them: Keep, Throw Away, Rummage Sale, or Donate. Then I began going through everything in all of my closets and sorting them into one of these four categories. There were some items I struggled with. To help me decide I asked myself when was the last time I used the item? Did it hold sentimental value? Did it still fit and if not will it really fit again? Do I really like it anymore?

If I hadn't used it in a year, if it held no sentimental value, and was never going to fit again because the item was either too large or too small, it was put into the appropriate box.

After everything was sorted, I took the donation box to the local Goodwill store, threw out the junk box and gave the rummage sale box to the church rummage sale.

Step Two: Building a New Closet

After purging my closets, the next step was to develop an organization system that not only could I live with but that would grow with me. Using a closet kit I got from the hardware store I added a second hanging bar to one half of the closet for pants and short skirts. I purchased cubby stacks for sweaters and shoes and I added a top shelf for hats and miscellaneous items. For non-clothing items, I purchased smaller containers like photo boxes for all of the pictures I had scattered about, a fishing tackle box for my paints and paint brushes, and large Rubbermaid® boxes for my Christmas decorations and out of season clothing.

Step Three: Going Retail

Having worked in retail during high school and college this was a pretty easy task. When putting my clothing back into the closet I started with the hanging items first. Blouses went from sleeveless to long sleeved, organized by light to dark, the t-shirts with collars then without collars, also organized by color light to dark. Skirts and then pants and finally dresses, which were organized casual to dressy, short to long and by color. Jeans, sweaters, and sweatshirts were folded and put in the cubbies. Call it a little obsessive, but when I go shopping I don't splurge as much because I am now aware of what I have in my closet.

With hard work, creativity and a lot of determination, you too can beat back the closet monster as easy as one ... two ... three.