Garage Spring Cleaning Ten Steps to an organized Garagesource: ivillage.com

1. Sort Your Stuff Start by sorting everything into categories. The “like with like” principle is a basic, yet powerful, organizing technique.

2. Toss the Trash Be ruthless; 86 all the broken equipment, rusted tools, and toys that are missing pieces. Haul the recyclables to the curb or to the recycling center, and check www.eiae.org to learn where you can drop off hazardous waste.

3. Share Your Stuff Once you have separated items into groups, and tossed the trash, you may be surprised to see how much good stuff you own. Keep the best and give away the rest.

4. Measure the Space To see exactly how much room you have for storage, park your car in the garage and open the

doors and trunk. Use chalk to outline the floor space. Measure the gap from the top of the open trunk to the ceiling; you can then hang things above your car.

5. Plan the Space The items you decide to keep need a home, and the floor is not an option. Plan out the space, designating certain areas for specific items.

6. Store It Where You Use It Keep the items you use most in the easiest to reach locations.

7. Add Storage Options Now is the time to add shelving and cabinets, tubs and bins. Old kitchen cabinets and versatile pegboards add valuable storage along the walls.

8. Give Everything a Home Don’t mix categories and store similar items together. Consider a sports rack for balls, gloves, cleats and hula-hoops.

9. Label, Label, Label Label each bin, shelf, container and cabinet door. This makes it much easier to maintain order, so even when you’re in a hurry, you’ll be able to quickly put things away.

10. Maintain the New System To keep your garage looking great you’ll need to break the old habits that caused the clutter in the first place. Adopt a household rule that you’ll put away the item when you’re done with it.

Free Tax Return Preparation source: irs.gov

Puzzled by the tax law or which credits and deductions to take? Need assistance with your tax return?

You may want to visit a volunteer site. The IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program or the Tax Counseling for the Elderly Program offer free tax help if you qualify.

Trained community volunteers can help you with special credits, such as Earned Income Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit, and Credit for the Elderly for which you may qualify. In addition to free tax return preparation assistance, most sites also offer free electronic filing (e-filing). Individuals taking advantage of the e-file program will receive their refunds in half the time compared to returns filed on paper – even faster if you have your refund deposited directly into your bank account.

To locate the nearest VITA site, call 1-800-829-1040.

Did you know?April Events

1 April Fools’ Day5 Palm Sunday9 Passover19 Good Friday12 Easter15 Tax Day22 Earth Day

in 2008, 27,462 high school students applied to Harvard University. Of these students 2,500 scored perfectly on the SAT critical reading test, and 3,300 had a perfect score on the math portion. Only 1,600 students were accepted to Harvard. source: Outliers, Malcom Gladwell

The

GoodNeighbor

Gazette

the Good Neighbor Gazette

Good News from your Real Estate Professional April 2009

Pico De Gallo- allrecipies.com

INGREDIENTS

* 1 medium tomato, diced * 1 onion, finely chopped * 1/2 fresh jalapeno pepper,

seeded and chopped * 2 sprigs fresh cilantro, finely

chopped* 1 green onion, finely

chopped* 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder* 1/8 teaspoon salt* 1/8 teaspoon pepper

DIRECTIONS

1. In a medium bowl, combine tomato, onion, jalapeno pepper (to taste,) cilantro and green onion. Season with garlic powder, salt and pepper. Stir until evenly distributed. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Tech Corner - What is a Tumblelog?

A tumblelog is a blog variant that is well suited to short multimedia posts, including text, pictures, audio, video, and quotes. If you’re not quite ready for a full fledged blog but want to share photos and info online, a tumblelog may be a good fit for you. Find out more at tumblr.com

Netbook Mania!- cnet.com

Bridging the gap between a full-blown laptop and a PDA, netbooks have found a niche and are selling like hotcakes in the near $300 price range. By design, netbooks have limited horsepower and storage and are designed primarily to connect users to resources on the web (or ‘the cloud’).

With computing moving in the direction of web-based applications such as Google Docs, Picnick photo editing software, web based communication, and social networking, netbooks offer users what they are looking for at an affordable price and in a bite sized package.

Despite a huge proliferation of Netbook models, these specs seem to be standard:

* Screen resolution 1024x600 * Intel Atom CPU running at 1.6-GHz * Wi-Fi B and G * Ethernet at 100Mbps * A slot for a flash RAM memory card * External VGA output jack * Integrated graphics * Two or three USB ports * Built-in camera * Headphone and microphone jacks

If you are thinking of buying or selling a home in the near future, please call for a personal interview and property assessment with no obligation.

This is not intended as a solicitation if your property is currently listed with another agent.