2young2retireUK

Video guides to packing for a house move

I don't have many talents but I've moved home 8 times in my adult life and have never even so much as damaged a drinking glass during the course of all those moves. 

If you're moving home in the near future and want to arrive at your new pad with all your possessions intact, check out the video guides to packing up your home prepared by reallymoving.com. 

Some of the tips given are only common sense but, if you haven't moved home for a while, the videos might give you some ideas (even if only about the equipment you'll need to stock up on beforehand).

Stuff

I've lived in four places over the last year and, each time I moved, I made a conscious effort to reduce the amount of 'stuff' that I've been carrying around with me from place to place.  I practically wore a groove between my Manchester city centre apartment and the only charity shop that I could find in the vicinity but, now that I'm back in my own place and have no plans for moving again in the forseeable future, I sense that I'm starting to accumulate again.  And that makes me feel uncomfortable.

Do you have too much 'stuff'?  Essayist, programmer, and programming language designer, Paul Graham does and it makes him uncomfortable too.  Find out why in 'Stuff'.

Home appliances of the future

If you're on the look-out for home appliances that'll make your life easier once you get so busy in your retirement that you wonder how you ever found time to work, read on...

Electrolux Design Lab is an annual competition to find the most innovative home appliance concept designs from industrial design students around the world.

This year, entrants were invited to submit ideas for futuristic domestic gadgets - appliances for food storage, cooking or washing.

Runners-up included a clothes valet that 'sucks germs and micropollutants - like the chemicals of body odour and cigarette smoke - out of the clothes' so that you can wear them again without washing them first(!), a toaster that prints the news, weather and snapshots onto your toast in the morning and a WiFi-connected clothes hamper and washing machine that stores dirty clothes and automatically washes them when it fills up.

And the winning design?  Flatshare - a modular fridge for shared living spaces which allows each sharer to have his or her own fridge space.

See the winner and all 7 runners-up here.

100 best DIY sites on the web

If the credit crunch has got you thinking about getting stuck into some DIY projects, have a look at the 100 Best DIY Sites on the Web, compiled by Jessica Hupp. 

Personally, I can never think about DIY without remembering the gloriously bungling Reg Prescott - brainchild of the much loved and lamented Kenny Everett.  If you're not familiar with either Kenny or Reg (or if you just want a good giggle on a Thursday morning), check them out here:

And, still on a DIY theme, here's Kenny with his DIY Bee Gees Kit:

101 painless ways to detoxify your mind, body and home

If you're looking for ways to feel good this summer, have a look at '101 Painless Ways to Detoxify Your Mind, Body, and Home' by Laura Milligan.  (It'll take you all summer to check out all the useful resource links that the article contains.)

Get snapping to clear clutter

You're either going to love or hate this idea, but...

If you're short of storage space or you're having a clear-out, have you ever considered taking digital photos of items that have nostalgic or sentimental value for you?  The photo will still evoke the memories but will take up much less space than the original item. 

For other tips to help you get and stay organized, visit Unclutterer.com.  There's a useful section there about dealing with inherited clutter - 'objects that legally come into your possession or responsibility after the loss of a loved one or when a family member is transitioned into a retirement community or nursing home'.

What's your Walk Score?

The resource that I'm sharing with you today works for US, UK and Canadian readers and could prove increasingly useful as you get older...

If you're thinking about a change of location when you retire or you're keeping an eye open for a suitable location that will serve your needs as you get older, check out Walk Score.

Walkable neighborhoods offer many benefits to their residents with regard to better health, reduction in greenhouse gases, increased public transportation options, increased community activity and face-to-face interaction with neighbours, and stronger local businesses.

Walk Score helps people find walkable places to live by calculating the 'walkability' of an address by locating nearby stores, restaurants, schools, parks, etc.  The Walk Score of an address is shown as a number between 0 and 100 and the general guidelines for interpreting your score are as follows:

90 - 100 = Walkers' Paradise: Most errands can be accomplished on foot and many people get by without owning a car.
70 - 90 = Very Walkable: It's possible to get by without owning a car.
50 - 70 = Some Walkable Locations: Some stores and amenities are within walking distance, but many everyday trips still require a bike, public transportation, or car.
25 - 50 = Not Walkable: Only a few destinations are within easy walking range. For most errands, driving or public transportation is a must.
0 - 25 = Driving Only: Virtually no neighborhood destinations within walking range. You can walk from your house to your car!

It's a brilliant idea but, before you rush out and buy a new property based on its Walk Score, you do need to bear in mind that Walk Score is just an approximation of walkability and that the strength of an address's Walk Score is no substitute for spending time on the ground in your chosen location and really checking it out before you commit to the move.  You can check out the known issues with the system here

91% of women over the age of 50 are afraid of the Internet

A new report from Post Office Broadband in the UK has revealed that:

- 91% of women over the age of 50 are afraid of the Internet
- a third of women in this age group find the Internet too technical and difficult to navigate
- 41 per cent of people over 50 are afraid of becoming victims of online fraud and
- 31 per cent of over 50's say they don't understand 'internet jargon'.

The report has, apparently, been released to coincide with 'Get Yourself Online' week (however, a Google search revealed no information about this project whatsoever).

The Post Office's broadband service which went live at the end of 2007, has a core target audience of the over 50s and late adopters of internet technology.  In an attempt to appeal to 'low-income users and those previously discouraged by the perceived complications of card payments', it enables subscribers to pay for the service in cash at any of the UK's 14,000 local Post Offices.

Carry on abroad

In an effort to determine the quality of life available to a person living solely on a basic pension, MSN frugal blogger, Piper Terret, has just spent a whole month attempting to do just that.

In a blog posting this week, she turns her attention to the number of retirees who move abroad, exploring some of the most popular retirement hotspots and also some of the emerging ones - such as South East Asia and Central America. 

If you're considering a move to another country, this posting is worth reading for the comments section where people who have actually retired abroad feed back about their experiences.  Discover what they have to say at The Frugal Life Blog.

How much would you pay for a 'future-proof' home?

According to a new survey, nearly a third of Britons would be willing to pay extra to buy a house that had been adapted to meet their future needs and would enable them to remain living there for the rest of their lives.  Find out more on the GMTV website.