Spring has sprung, and there's no day like today to get the house in order. Here is a clip-and-keep reminder of spring cleaning and maintenance chores to help keep your home in tip-top shape:
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| Illustration by Mark Marturello • The Des Moines Register |
Always be careful using ladders and shut off the power to your house before you begin work. Clean the glass, remove dead insects and replace any bulbs on exterior lanterns and fixtures.
• ID your house. Make sure your house numbers are clearly visible from the street, or put them on your mailbox.
• Clean filters. Change the filters in your air return (for your air-conditioning system) on a monthly basis.
• Revisit the mailbox. Give it a fresh splash of glossy spray paint if needed, or replace it if it's looking shabby. Consider planting dwarf varieties of shrubs around your mailbox — they'll be easier to maintain than flowers.
• Clean and inspect exterior details on your home. Take a look at the front of your house and determine whether you need to touch up the paint on the trim, window boxes or shutters.
• Clean railings, doorknobs, doors, awnings. Check the manufacturer or installers' recommendations for cleaning instructions. If you have older awnings and you can't find instructions, use a soft brush, mild detergent and warm water, and test an area first. For painted wood or composite resin railings, use warm water, a soft brush and mild detergent.
• Clean and check your windows. You can clean your windows (inside and outside) yourself or hire a professional service, but this is a project that pays big dividends. During the work, inspect the locks on your windows; make sure your ground-level windows have working locks. Don't forget to check those screens — remove and clean them if they're dirty — and make any repairs or replacements.
• Vacuum your upholstery and drapery or blinds. Chances are, you haven't done this in awhile. It also gives you an opportunity to look for any stains or repairs that need attention.
• Clean lampshades. Use low suction and a brush attachment if you have one on your vacuum cleaner, or a broad, soft paintbrush if you don't. If you have lampshades with cracked plastic or ripped fabric linings, replace them — they're a fire hazard.
-Elizabeth Betts Hickman
The Tennessean
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| HOME SWEEP HOME
When it comes to cleaning house, Gail O'Neill, host of HGTV's "Mission: Organization," says you should "trash first and organize later." O'Neill advocates keeping only what you really need and want and then you won't have to spend so much time cleaning.
To prove the point, she throws out a startling statistic: "Cleaning would be reduced by 40 percent if clutter were eliminated," she says. Other tips:
Keep your house clean. Don't just clean up for company.
Take your time. Declutter first, even if it takes this entire year, month-by-month, and then go one room at a time and deep clean. Break it up into manageable bites.
Move things around to keep your decor fresh — it also gives you the opportunity to clean.
Simplify your cleaning. Choose one multipurpose cleaner and try to use it for as much cleaning as you can. "Less stuff, fewer fumes," says O'Neill.
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Help raise a roof for Indian Ocean victims at East-West Center party
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| DJ Toki |
Volunteers from the University of Hawai'i and the East-West Center are hosting a fund-raiser for a June trip to Sri Lanka during which they will build homes for the victims of December's Indian Ocean tsunami. The group will be working with Habitat for Humanity International.
"Raisin' the Roof: The Habitat for Sri Lanka House Party" takes place from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. tomorrow at thirtyninehotel, that too-cool arts-and-music venue. There'll be pupu, door prizes and music by DJs Toki and Monkey.
The party welcomes those 21 and older. A $10 donation gets you in. www2.hawaii.edu/~habitat/about.htm.
Mmm! Wake up and smell new car interiors at Hawaiian Auto Show
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| The 2005 Chevrolet Corvette |
Cars, cars, cars and other four-wheel vehicles are for your perusal at the First Hawaiian International Auto Show, continuing at the Hawai'i Convention Center.
If you're looking for a new car or you just love the scent of a new car, this is the event for you, with 250 new vehicles under one roof.
Hours are 10 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. today, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. tomorrow. Admission is $7 general; $5 ages 62 and over, military, students 13 and older; $4 ages 7-12; free for 6 and younger. Free for kids 12 and younger when accompanied by an adult tomorrow, Kids Day.
The Honolulu Advertiser is a sponsor. www.hawaiiautoshow.com, 943-3500.
Rubber ducks file in for parade down Kalakaua
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| The Great Hawaiian Rubber Duck Race is at the Ala Wai Canal today, after the parade.
Karen March
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Rubber duckies and their fans will take over McCully Shopping Center and the Ala Wai Canal today at the 18th annual Great Hawaiian Rubber Duck Race. The event, a benefit for the United Cerebral Palsy Association of Hawaii, begins at 9 a.m. with pre-race attractions including kids' games, entertainment and a duckie store.
At 12:30 p.m. there's a parade from the shopping center to the start of the race, Kalakaua Avenue bridge. Finally, at 1:18 p.m., the race begins, with an awards ceremony afterward. The top 50 finishers, adopted by humans for $5 a duck, win prizes.
Merrie Monarch on KITV tonight
If you don't have tickets to the Merrie Monarch Festival in Hilo — truly the center of all that is hula — then the second best thing is to watch it on television.
KITV will televise the final night of competition, which focuses on modern hula, from 6 p.m. today.
You can watch streaming video, too, at www.thehawaiichannel.com.
Festival winners also will be announced tonight.
Kaka'ako family fun at Gateway
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| The Kaka'ako Carnival fun continues today and tomorrow. |
It's family-fun time in the heart of Honolulu as the second annual Kaka'ako Carnival continues at Kaka'ako
Gateway Park. The benefit for the nearby Hawai'i Children's Discovery Center
features the E.K. Fernandez midway of rides and games, food and entertainment.
Hours are from noon to midnight today and noon to 10 p.m. tomorrow.
Admission is free.
Watch for 'Chariots' and 'Daggers' at Sunset on the Beach
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| Ziyi Zhang, left, and Takeshi Kaneshiro star in "House of Flying Daggers" at Sunset on the Beach.
Sony Pictures Classics
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This week's Sunset on the Beach events are presented in conjunction with the Hawaii International Film Festival, which is celebrating its 25th year.
Tonight's movie is "Chariots of Fire," which also is celebrating its 25th anniversary. The drama, about two British track athletes heading for the Olympics in 1924, won Oscars for best picture, costume design, original musical score (by Vangelis) and original screenplay.
Tomorrow's film is "House of Flying Daggers," Zhang Yimou's elegant martial-arts epic.
Sunset events begin at 4 p.m. at Queen's Surf Beach in Waikiki with food booths, and entertainment from 5 p.m. The films screen at about 7 p.m. Admission is free.
HIFF's Spring Showcase continues through Thursday primarily at the Dole Cannery Theatres (there's one screening at the Doris Duke Theatre Monday). Go to www.hiff.org for a complete schedule.
Calling all teddy bears: Make your way to Pearlridge for vital mission
Bring a new or gently-used teddy bear to the eighth annual Teddy Bear Roundup from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. today at Pearlridge Center Uptown Centerstage.
The event, sponsored by Prevent Child Abuse Hawaii, the Hawai'i chapter of Prevent Child Abuse America, and Partners for Prevention, hopes to collect 3,868 teddy bears or stuffed animals to match the confirmed cases of child abuse in Hawai'i last year. The toys will be distributed to family shelters, children's hospitals and other organizations that help families and kids in crisis.
There'll be entertainment and costumed characters such as Winnie-the-Pooh at today's roundup.
