EHS, INC

•  Extras

• Always follow manufacturer’s direction when using adhesive and pay close attention to the safety information. Use adhesive in a well-ventilated area

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• To clean up after using a strong adhesive, wash skin and use a hand lotion to reduce tackiness. On surfaces, use a dry cloth on wet glue, or sandpaper or a putty knife when glue is dry.

•  Non-gel toothpaste smooths mirror scratches.

• If you have sticky drawers, sand the runner and rub with wax.

• For a jammed window, run a pizza cutter where it’s stuck.

Door Maintenance

It's normal for doors to require a little care and maintenance.

For doors that stick, check the hinge screws. If a screw is loose, glue a couple of toothpicks in the screw hole. Let it dry and then break off the excess before inserting the screw. If the door continues to stick, use carbon paper to see where it's too tight. Sand the area marked with carbon and touch up with paint.

Quickly eliminate tight or squeaky hinges with multi-purpose lubricant. Put rubber pads on rattling doors to lessen the gap between the door and frame.

For hard-to-turn locks, put powdered graphite on the lock and latch.

Keep doors looking new by removing scuff marks.
With a little TLC, you can keep doors looking and functioning as good as the day you got them.

Clean, repaint or re-stain and re-caulk doors to keep them in shape.

Check for leaks, poor drainage and lawn sprinklers that may subject your outside doors to extended water exposure.

Damp or damaged weather stripping can cause your door to stick. You may need to straighten the weather stripping with small-nosed pliers and re-nail.

Is your doorknob rattling? Loosen the setscrew and remove the knob. Put putty or modeling clay in the knob. Push the knob back on and tighten.

Don't use oil on hard-to-turn locks because dust adheres to oil and locks are hard to clean.

You can fix stripped screw holes by inserting a wooden peg into each hole. Cover the peg with epoxy glue, re-drill the hole and insert the screw.

For a squeaky hinge, apply WD-40 No-Mess Pen oil and wipe off. You can even place powdered graphite over the hinge.

Organizing The Mud Room

It's always great to come home to an organized house. Since the mudroom is your gateway to the outdoors, it often becomes the catch-all room.

Keep dirt at bay by putting a mat inside and outside the mudroom door. So you never lose your keys, have one place for hanging them.

Control clutter with a pocket organizer that hangs on the wall. Mail, magazines and school notebooks will be nicely tucked away.

Use more hooks to hold other family gear and be sure some hooks are within reach for kids.

Have a bench that multitasks for taking off shoes and for extra storage.

For dirty shoes, use a boot caddy to contain any mess.

Baskets and bins are great in a mudroom for holding items like gloves and hats.

Contain rainy day puddles with an umbrella stand.

Hang a mirror by the mudroom door for a quick look before facing the world.

Make the mudroom warm and inviting. Paint it a cheerful color. The room needs rough-and-tumble surfaces that still have character. Satin or semi-gloss paint finishes make it easier to clean and maintain mudroom walls.

Mudroom flooring should be durable, easy to clean and slip resistant. Darker colors hide dirt better.

Add extra shelves and even a drop-leaf shelf to hold sacks of groceries and mail.

Use mesh storage bins with an absorbent liner to hold wet shoes.

To dry damp clothes, place them on an accordion-style wooden wine rack.

Put a boot scraper next to the mat outside the mudroom door.

Add a small weathered table for extra storage on top and underneath.

Toilet Repair

This DIY Basic will show you how to stop a running toilet.

For most people the workings of a toilet are a mystery until something goes awry, such as a toilet that won't stop running. Here are a few simple repairs to try before calling a plumber:

Start by jiggling the toilet handle. If this stops the running adjust the lift chain inside the tank. The chain "may" be wrapped around the lift arm and you may need to move the position of the chain on the arm.

Simply disconnect the hook from its slot and reconnect at the next slot on the float arm, and if this doesn't work check to see if the float has become disconnected. The top of the float should be slightly above the water's level. If it's not adjust the arm on the float until the float rests where the water level is about 1/2" below the top of the overflow pipe.

If the toilet is still flowing freely, try using a dye tablet (available at hardware of plumbing supply stores). Simply flush and as the water in the tank begins to fill, drop in the tablet. If your tank is leaking you'll begin to see the water in the bowl turn the color of the tablet.

Sometimes the flapper valve is the culprit and doesn't seal the tank properly. This should be easy to fix. Turn off the shut-off valve below the tank and flush the toilet to "empty" it. Remove the flapper and replace it with a new one. If the flapper valve seat is cracked, you'll have to replace the whole unit, which you can find at a hardware store. Be sure to follow the manufacturer's instructions carefully.

If the flapper valve and seat seem to be in good working order and your toilet is still running, the ball-cock assembly may need replacing.

First empty the tank and then replace using a ball-cock assembly kit. Be sure to follow the kit's instructions carefully. With some know-how and a little elbow grease, you can end the running toilet problem at your house.

Home, Environmentally Friendly

Making just a few small changes around your home will not only help reduce your energy bills, it will also help protect the environment.


Instead of using latex-based enamel paints, try using paints low in what's known as VOCs- or Volatile Organic Compounds. It's a much better choice for the environment.

Replace incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescents. They last 13 times longer and use 75% less electricitiy.

Does your fridge pass the eco-friendly test? Just shut the door on a dollar bill. If it slides out easily, it's time to replace the seal.

Even more efficient is a fridge with the freezer on the top, so consider buying one next time you're replacing units.

Think about splurging on an LCD flat-screen for your computer. It uses only a third of the electricity of tube-based models.
Energy saved means less harmful emmisions and that's good news for the planet and your family.

Swith to double pane windows. Double pane windows keep more heat inside your home so you use less energy.

Clean or replace furnace, air-conditioner and heat pump filters.

Run your dishwater only with a full load.

Put on a sweater. Instead of turning up the heat in your home, wear more clothes.

Plant a tree. Trees suck up carbon dioxide and make clean air for us to breathe.