August is here and that means the return to school for your young ones. Shorter autumn days bring a hectic round of sports, activities and events and calendars fill with cryptic notes. The holiday stress will follow and a new schedule will interrupt your relaxing summer. Get organized now with these tips so you can have a great school year!

Ease the Family into a School Year Schedule

The first day of school is no time for a drastic adjustment of household sleep schedules. Instead, ease children back into a school year routine gradually. During the last two weeks of summer, re-introduce a school year bedtime. Begin waking late sleepers earlier and earlier, closer to the hour they’ll need to rise when school begins.

Don’t neglect mealtimes! Younger children, in particular, need to adapt to new meal routines before the school day demands it of them. Plan meals and snacks to accustom little ones to rituals of the school day before the school year begins.

Create a Calendar that Everyone Can Use

Each school year floats on a sea of schedules. School functions. Lunch menus. Scout meetings and music lessons. What do you do when you’re drowning in paper?

You’ll need a family event calendar to track after-school activities, school programs and volunteer work. Add specialized calendars and schedules, and you have it: a one-stop shop for family time management.

Form is less important than function. A paper calendar with large squares lets you enter information easily. Pre-printed white board calendars are easy to revise when necessary. Color-coding entries by family member helps keep busy lives straight.

Paper planner fans dedicate a planner section to serve as the main calendar, while tech-savvy people store the info in a smart phone or tablet and sync with multiple computers. Choose a calendar format that works for your family.

Post the family event calendar in a public place near an area that gets a lot of use (like the kitchen or living room). Use magnets to attach the calendar to the refrigerator, or tack it to a bulletin board. Add other branches to the calendar as well: school lunch menus, class assignment sheets, sports practice schedules. When the teacher calls for field trip volunteers, you’ll know at a glance whether you’re free to join the group on the bus that day.

Plan Before You Shop

August is the second-biggest sales month for clothing retailers. Back to school clothing sales begin as early as July! Are you prepared to run the school clothes gauntlet? An informed shopper is a savvy shopper, so prepare before you shop.

Take an afternoon and assess each child’s clothing needs. Empty drawers and closets of outgrown or worn-out clothing, and either store or donate the discards. Develop a wardrobe needs list for each child. Check for possible hand-me-downs from older siblings as you make your list. If you discuss the needs list and the family budget with your children before you shop, you’ll avoid in-the-store tantrums.

Similarly, ask the school for classroom supply lists before shopping for school supplies. Do shop early! With back-to-school sales beginning in mid-July, tardy shoppers have a tough time locating needed supplies among September’s Halloween costumes and Christmas decorations.

The school year always brings a large amount of stress with it. By utilizing these tips, you’ll be sure to ease into coming months without as many headaches as you’ve had last year. By planning ahead, you’ll make back-to-school time far more easier and you’ll enjoy it more too!

Emergency power systems traditionally use generators powered by gasoline, propane, or diesel fuel.  The purpose of investing in one is to provide your home or business with a way to generate electricity in case a power outage occurs.  This can be invaluable when it comes to maintaining a comfortable temperature during outages, protecting computers and other hardware, preventing food spoilage, and a myriad of other things you take for granted while electricity is readily available to power everything.  Fortunately, even better options have become available that don’t require noisy traditional generators.

Have you heard of something called an Indoor Generator™?  Instead of being powered by messy and pollution causing fuels, these battery-powered units can be set up conveniently inside your home or business.  There are many reasons why these kinds of backup power generators are preferred by so many home and business owners.

An Indoor Generator™ installed by Dallas electrician, ElectricMan Inc.

With all of these benefits and the obvious versatility of indoor generators, it is clear why many people prefer them over standard generators.  A reputable Dallas or Plano electrician can easily get one set up for you today.

If there are two things you should never mix, its water and electricity. Water actually reduces the body’s electrical resistance. This is why you probably know to never get electrical devices wet; such as bring a radio into the shower with you. It is important to keep yourself safe in the room that has the most water in it. Here are some tips when it comes to running electricity through the bathroom.

Sometimes it can be difficult to light the bathroom properly. With minimal windows or frosted windows, the light just doesn’t come in the same. Lighting is even more important in this situation so you have proper sight to avoid any hazards. You may require ample lighting to keep everything in your bathroom visible at all times. Plus, proper lighting can make your bathroom more peaceful and relaxing.

When installing lights in a bathroom it is important to ensure that they are watertight and water proof. When you have a hot bath or a hot shower there can be a significant amount of steam. If this steam gets into the light fixture or electrical connection it can corrode the wires and increase the chance of electrical surges and fires. If you are installing new lights in your bathroom have an expert check the product and connections to ensure that you are safe.

Blow dryers, shavers, curlers – there are many electrical devices that are commonly used in the bathroom so there needs to be an electrical outlet. This can be a huge risk for electrocution if not properly placed. Electrical outlets should be on their own dedicated circuit. In the event that there is a surge or water contact, only that circuit will shut off. The outlet should also have a GFCI (grounded fault circuit interrupter). Without a grounder, electricity can escape from the device and if you are wet, this is the last thing you want. Lastly, the outlet should be near the sink for functionality, but not close enough that any wires can hang into the water.

Our bathrooms can be a place of peace and escape, but you must respect the danger of putting electricity near water. If you are looking to remodel your bathroom call in an Expert Electrician.