Proudly serving the residents of Hampton Roads

Welcome to Live Billing!

Living Green: Opt Out

Maintenance Tip of the

Month

Regional Events

Event Registration

Kids’ Crew Kick-Off

Announcement

Earth Hour

Get Organized! Store It!

Creating a Household

Storage Plan

Take an Energy Check

In this issue:

March 2014

LINCOLN MILITARY HOUSING

COMMUNITY NEWS

Welcome to Live Billing! Please visit www.LincolnRECP.com for information about this energy

conservation program and learn more energy saving tips! You may also visit

www.YesLiveGreen.com for payment and account information.

Tip of the Month:

Learn to love your computer's power management tools, which include automatically turn-

ing off the monitor, turning off the hard drives, and putting the entire system into "sleep"

or "hibernate" mode (preferably after half an hour of inactivity).

Microsoft says that "hibernate" mode keeps monitors sipping just 5 watts of energy and the

PC just 2.3 watts, or almost as good as shutting the computer down.

The U.S. Department of Energy still urges complete shutdown at night or when you're

away for long periods, if you're counting every watt. But the convenience of keeping the

computer in "hibernate" is almost as good if you don't want to endure a lengthy startup in

the morning. Either way, you save as much as $90 a year in power costs compared to a PC

left on with a 3-D screen saver running.

Source: Microsoft Small Business Center, U.S. Department of Energy

This Month’s Living Green Tips

March Living Green Tips: Opt Out: Find small ways to reduce your impact on the environment.

Make sure your printer pater is 100% post consumer recycled paper. Save five pounds of

carbon dioxide per ream of paper.

17 million catalogs are mailed every year. This causes 62 million trees and 25 billion

gallons of water to be used to produce a typical year’s worth of junk mail. That’s over 80

pounds per household, or close to a tree’s worth.

Ask to “please remove my name from the mailing list” to cut down on junk mail.

Save paper, postage, and gas by paying your bills online.

Save paper by requesting to get your statements online rather than through the mail.

A carbon footprint is a measure of the impact our activities have on the environment and

climate change. It relates to the amount of greenhouse gases produced in our day-to-day

lives through burning fossil fuels for electricity, heating and transportation, etc. The carbon

footprint is a measurement of all greenhouse gases we individually produce and has units of

tones (or kg) of carbon dioxide equivalent. To learn how to measure your carbon footprint

and how to off-set it, please go to www.carbonfootprint.com

JOIN US IN HELPING THE ENVIRONMENT BY LIVING GREEN!

Maintenance Tip of the Month

Clean the garbage disposal. It’s good to get in the habit of doing this

monthly. Pour a cup of vinegar into an ice cube tray, fill up the rest of the

tray with water and stick it in the freezer. When the solution has frozen, pop

out the vinegar ice cubes and place them in the disposal. Turn it on and let

the ice cubes scrub the disposal as they are ground up. The vinegar will

remove accumulated grease and eliminate odors coming from the disposal.

Clean all drains, including the disposal, two or three times a year by

pouring in equal parts salt, baking soda and vinegar, followed about 30

seconds later by two quarts of boiling water. Give the mixture a chance to

work overnight to clear clogged drains.

Regional Events

Register online today for these upcoming Regional

Events:

3/7 Date Night– Mardi Gras Dinner & Dancing

7-9pm at the Little Creek Clubhouse, limited childcare provided,

Lottery event.

3/13 VIP at the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia

5:30-7:30pm volunteering at the Foodbank, families ages 6 and up

welcome, Free VIP Tshirt, RSVP event.

3/25 Homeskills & RECP Workshop, 10am-11am, OPEN event at

Little Creek Clubhouse, no sign up needed!

Save the Date: April 1st – Lottery begins for ASYCMA Father Daughter Ball ticket

giveaway

May 2nd- Budget for Baby with NMCRS

May15th—Lottery begins for Camp Kids’ Crew

May 16th- “Mom Rocks” Spouse Club Event

May 17th- Guys’ Day Out, Golfing

June 7th- VIP “Clean the Bay Day”

June 12th– ASYMCA Father Daughter Dance @ The Westin

June 27th-28th– Camp Kids Crew Kick off Event

July- August—Kids’ Crew Summer Event Series

Be sure to check www.LincolnMilitaryResident.com for a complete list of your FREE events!

Kids’ Crew Kick-Off

Camp Kids’ Crew

June 27th—28th

Our Kids’ Crew Kick-off Event will be an overnight

camping trip for 100 families!

Families can register for this Lottery event starting April 15th. Lottery registration

will close on May 15th and winners will be notified at that time. Families will get to

experience this overnight adventure complete with activities, games, swimming,

fireside songs and more! Each family will receive a tent to keep! More details will be

provided online beginning April 15th. The complete details and lottery registration will

be on www.LincolnMilitaryResident.com.

Other fun Kids Crew summer fun will include: Movie Night, Summer Fun Fest, Ocean

Breeze and pool parties. Watch for complete details in next months newsletter!

Kids– you don’t want to miss out on all of the fun we have planned for you and your

Event Registration Website

The new event registration website is up and running! Make sure you don’t miss out on

Lincoln’s FREE events! The website will require you to create a new account. You will

need to have your Tenant ID number and your service member’s last name to log-in. IF you

need your Tenant ID, please contact your District Office. The first time you log-in, you will

not see any events or profile information. It will take approximately one hour to update your

profile. After that hour you can log back in and see all of your upcoming events and

contests.

Visit: www.LincolnMIlitaryResident.com to set up your account and register for events.

JointheConversation

Be sure to “like” us on

Facebook!

March 9th Daylight Savings

Earth Hour 2014 Uniting People to

Protect our Planet!

Show the power of Lincoln families and come

together to make a difference! Earth Hour is your

opportunity to become part of a global community.

Turn off your lights for one hour on Saturday, March

29th from 8:30-9:30pm!

This action shows that by taking small steps you can

make a difference towards a more sustainable planet!

Let’s show the world the power of our Lincoln

communities!

Date: Saturday, March 29th

Time: 8:30-9:30pm

Get Organized!

Have a clean house, cut the clutter and get organized.

Store It! Create a Household Storage Plan

Face it we all wish we had a larger home, maybe then we would have our household storage under control right? Well the truth is no matter how large your home, no matter how many closets, cupboards or square feet of garage space, surplus stuff will find a way to take over when your back is turned.

We know household storage is battle, so we thought this household storage plan would help you win this fight, no matter where you live, your plan can follow!

It takes some work, but the principles are as simple as ABC:

-Assess -Box and Banish, and -Corral and Control.

“A” is for Assessment

To start building a household storage plan, you have to know two things: what you have, and where you want to put it. To learn this, you will make an assessment of your household’s storage possibilities and your family’s needs.

First, walk the house from room to room, and list every potential storage area, large or small. The hard- to-reach top shelves in your kid’s closets. The skinny space beneath the master bed. The shed or garage.

For now just focus on the smaller spaces, nooks, crannies, and cupboards available for household storage.

Now it’s time to sit down at a table to work on Assessment Lit Two: Stuff to be Stored.

Clothing (out of season clothing, children’s hand-me downs, maternity clothes)

Season décor (Christmas trees and decorations, Easter baskets, Halloween costumes)

Household file archives (tax records, personal documents, family information, files)

Sentimental and keepsake items (your old yearbooks, children’s schoolwork, report cards, hubby’s awards)

Luggage

Sporting goods (bikes, skates, camping gear, outdoor game sets)

Children’s storage (outgrown baby equipment, toys, children’s keepsakes)

Sewing, hobby and craft equipment, and supplies (sewing machine, fabric, hobby supplies)

Party supplies (paper goods, punch bowl, seasonal tablecloths, extra beds or bedding for guests)

Less- used cleaning supplies or equipment (carpet steam cleaner, automotive cleaning supplies) Tools and hardware (hand tools, power tools, hardware items, garden tools) Original packaging for computer, audio and video components (keep boxes and packaging for newer

components, as the manufacture may condition warranty service on returning the item in original packaging; toss out the packaging of warranty items, maybe you are PCSing again in 2 years and you like to use the original box for your TV)

Get Organized!

Now using your list of storage areas, give each item a good home.

Examples: Luggage under beds, seasonal decorations to a high shelf in a closet or in the garage.

You’ll be smiling once you get through your list and find a new home for your items that you find necessary to keep and store. Now you have to find the energy to deal with the other half of your “stuff” list, stored clutter that may need to be banished- for good.

Good candidates for banishment include:

Ugly knick-knack and frou-frou (figurines, decorative items you aren’t using, maybe gifts from your mother in law that are in still in their box and it has dust on it)

Unused small appliances (sandwich squashers, fondue pots, any appliance that has been used less than 5 times in 2 years)

Excess kitchen equipment (novelty cake pans, give-away mugs and water bottles, jello- molds in the shape of the USA)

Non-working anything (burned-out lamps, broken radios, tools without handles)

Unusable clothing (worn-out children’s clothes, two sizes too small clothing, your husband’s shirt from his sen-ior year of high school)

Excess furniture (the yard sale table you’re going to refinish someday, broken bed frames, bumpy mattresses, legless sofas)

Just plain junk (anything dead, missing, incomplete, unusable, or just taking up space) Again, if you haven’t used it 5 times in 2 years you can get rid of it, it’s ok!

One you have your items determine how you are going to banish them. Maybe donation to charity, hold a yard sale (check with your District Office to see when a Yard Sale may be planned for your neighborhood), or haul them to the dump. The goal is the same no matter how you get rid of it, to get them out of your limited storage space and make room for your necessary storage items.

“B” is for Banish

You now know what storage space is available, and which items you are keeping or banishing. Time to Banish and Box. You will go room by room, shelf by shelf and pull out currently stored stuff, sort it out and then put it away in a designated storage area or banish it.

This process will take time and effort, here are some tips for sorting and getting your plan to work: Keep your assessment list in view. Know exactly what items are assigned to the top shelf in your hall

closet, this will help you from putting things around the house in random places. Work one shelf at a time. Don’t tear apart the entire house and pull everything into your living room-

that is more work than you can manage to finish in one session. One space at a time. Box it, box it, box it , unless you are going to banish it. Maybe you decided that party supplies are

going to be stored on the top shelf in your hall closet, but right now it’s full of extra cleaning supplies and board games. Drag the garbage can and some empty boxes for each room. Place cleaning sup-plies in the box for kitchen, the board games in a box labeled family room. Toss any trash into the garbage can. Any games that aren’t complete into a donate or garbage. Repeat this process for each area.

After you have cleared your shelf and wiped it down, put the items in designated boxes into the rooms you determined where their new home.

Get Organized! Remember, your home didn’t get this way overnight and you aren’t going to be able to finish in one day. You may want to set a time and give yourself 30 minutes a day to work on each area. Maybe ask the kids to sort their toys for you, make it a family effort.

“C” is for Corral and Control It took a couple of weeks, but you’ve turned out your household storage and you feel great! Organized. Efficient. There are a few loose ends left to tie up. To keep control, you’ll make a final inventory Control list- your guide for the future. Wait until after you’ve assessed, boxed and banished your storage before trying to corral it into containers. Only after you’ve sorted the keepers will you have a true idea of what storage helpers you may need.

Plastic storage containers with lids are the best for general storage. Color-coding helps keep things sorted: red for holi-day, green for sentimental, beige for gardening equipment. Plastic storage containers are great for the garage, areas that may have dust and dirt.

Cardboard records boxes with removable lids are inexpensive and easy to use. Store children’s clothing inside, and mark each box with size and season information. Handles make them easy to move and they stack easily.

Use a portable hanging rack to store out-of-season clothing and formal clothes. Hang garments on the rack and cover the rack with an old sheet to prevent dust.

IF you must keep your textbooks, LPs, or childhood collection of books, use the small moving book boxes. They are easier to lift than a larger box and you can save your money for the plastic containers.

Under the bed containers are good for seasonal linens, table linens, or extra blankets. The last step is to take a complete inventory of your complete, corralled storage areas. Note your storage areas and what they contain. Type up the list and keep in handy so when the holidays approach and you have company coming you know exactly where to go for extra linens, blow up mattress and your holiday décor. After you use them, you know right where to put them back. It takes work to win the battle of storage, but nothing beats a well put together plan that keeps things efficient and organized.

Would you like to learn more home organization and

basic home cleaning? Join us on March 25th from

10-11am as we host a Homeskills & RECP

Workshop at the Little Creek Clubhouse.

This is an OPEN and free event for all Lincoln

Military Housing Residents. Source: organizedhome.com

In Next Month’s Issue: Organized Home: Paper Chase: The ABCs of Household Paper

Management Kids’ Crew Event 2 Announcement Living Green Contest