car towing companies

5 tips for choosing the right car towing company near you

Hello, this is Cathy writing. Jeff and I, being quite old now, have been around the block and have ordered dozens of car towing services over the years. Now, while we write about everything from the stress of moving to the purpose of businesses, we decided to write about choosing the right car towing company.

This weekend our old car broke down and we had to order a towing service, and while doing so we remembered all the tow trucks we ordered in the past. We’ve gotten very good at choosing the best towing company, and these are the tips we use:

Tip #1: Don’t trust bad reviews because towing companies get a lot of flak from angry people who’s car just broke down. Just like taxi companies who often have to deal with people who aren’t having the best day, towing companies must do their best to provide service to people who are having a bad day, and this leads them to often leaving bad reviews. This is just the nature of the industry, which means sometimes the best possible company in town has the most bad reviews.

Tip #2: Use business directories like Yelp to find local towing companies near you. Typically, companies with listings on these directories are more trustworthy than companies that weren’t able to get listed.

Tip #3: Call several companies over the phone, ask them all for a cost estimate, and choose the most expensive one! This advice might seem weird at first, but often towing companies that offer super cheap deals provide less quality. Companies that are bold enough to charge more usually do so for a good reason.

Tip #4: Look for a towing company with a diverse fleet of different trucks. Sometimes a towing company can just be a single guy with a wheel-lift tow truck. But, companies that have been established and trusted by the community tend to have more truck options, like rotator trucks and flatbeds. This is especially important if you need to get a larger vehicle towed, because wheel-lift tow trucks are mainly meant for smaller cars, so you may need a company with a flatbed tow truck.

Tip #5: Last but not least, ask friends, family or locals for their favorite towing company. For example, Jeff and I were visiting friends in Saskatoon, SK, when our car stalled and we needed a tow. We called up our friends and they recommended Saskatoon Towing. The company ended up being very good to us, getting the job done quickly for a reasonable cost, and so we’re glad we asked our friends for advice.

These are the 5 tips we’ve developed and used throughout our lives to choose the best car towing companies, whatever the situation. We’ve always been served well and our hearts go out to all the people with car troubles who end up choosing the wrong company. When your car breaks down you don’t have room in your head for any more stress, so choosing a good company can make all the difference. Good luck and safe driving!

why you shouldn't attempt mold removal by yourself

3 Reasons to Leave Mold Removal Service to the Experts!

Welcome back to Jeff & Cathy’s Household Blog. In a recent post I mentioned 5 home maintenance chores that I would never attempt myself (click here to read), and mold removal was one of them! Although it should’ve been #1 on that list, and today I’m going to explain why, with 3 reasons mold removal service should be done by professionals and not attempted alone.

#1: Mold Can Be Damaging to Your Health

If you find mold growing profusely in your attic and decide to put on a doctor’s mask and clean it with kitchen cleaning supplies, you may be doing serious harm to yourself. Mold untreated in homes is worse than not trying to clean it yourself of course, but there’s a good chance that if you’re not a professional mold remover then your protective equipment may not be up to par to protect your respiratory system against mold spores in the air. Especially after roiling the mold about while cleaning, the spores become loosened and can contaminate your lungs, quickening the rate at which you may experience health problems. Experts, on the other hand, will block the area off and prevent unnecessary damage to your health. They wear standardized equipment like HAZMAT suits guaranteed to protect them from hazardous materials and use cleaning solutions designed to eliminate mold.

#2: You Might Be Wasting Your Time Because Mold Grows Back

Removing the mold is one thing, but if it’s not properly remediated by the source, which is typically moisture and poor air circulation, mold will certainly grow back over time. That’s why you may be wasting your time if you go up into the attic with a dish rag and try to clean it. Mold should be remediated and cleaned professionally to optimize the chances that the mold won’t grow back for as long as possible.

#3: There Are Probably Professionals Near You Offering Free Cost Estimates

At least do this one thing before you decide to clean the mold yourself: get a quote from a trusted local company and hear what they have to say! For example, you might look to get a cost estimate from mold removal Victoria BC professionals. In that case, what could possibly be the harm? By getting a free quote from experts, you can ask them questions and determine the source of the problem. You might even find yourself getting quotes for a price much lower than expected and decide to go ahead with ordering their services. After all, we’re talking about the health of your home here, so looking around the companies near you who specialize in treating mold problems can do nothing but help your situation. Personally, Jeff and I recommend getting quotes from at least 3 reputable companies in your area. Choosing the cheapest one isn’t always the best option, too, which is worth keeping in mind.

I hope these 3 reasons why you should leave mold removal service up to the experts has convinced you to make a more prudent plan of action to tackle your mold problem.

All the best!

moving tips

How to deal with the stress of moving

Packing up and picking up everything you own to move to a new house is not supposed to be a stress-free act. For some, it’s a relief and they’re excited for the change of scenery. For others, they’d rather not move but have to for work or other matters. Jeff and I have done much moving in our days and had some particularly stressful moves, but we’ve coped and the last move we did was a breeze after compiling our strategies for dealing with the stress. We want to share our experience for other young families, so they too can benefit from what we’ve learned.

The first thing you should do is to remember that this experience of moving is supposed to be stressful. After all, you might have a million things in your mind, all of them tasks that you need to attend to. Like will the carpet cleaners show up on time? Why aren’t the pressure washers here yet? Will I be able to find a family doctor where I’m moving? When should I switch over the car insurance? There’s already a scratch on the new walls! These are examples of worries you might have, so it makes sense not to be at ease with the whole process. By remembering this you can accept your emotions, and it’ll be easier to simmer down if a difficulty that arises threatens to push your sanity over the edge.

The second thing you and your family can do is work hard to make the process of moving fun. Jeff and I often had friends help us so we could chat and laugh while moving furniture and unpacking. We also played music in the yard and had a decent amount of breaks with snacks. And when we new all the driving was done for the day we’d make unpacking even more fun by having a few drinks and putting a sports game on in the background. These things may all be distractions, but they help to keep you in a good mood. And while you’re working in a good mood you can see the big event looming on the horizon, the moment when you can fall back in your couch and say, “Ah, sweetie, we’re finally done!”

Another final tip I’ll add here is for when there’s that one big thing you just can’t stop worrying about. For me, I was constantly worried that our previous landlord would make us pay for new carpets and drywall after moving, because the damages of living there for years might be more than what they call “living damage”. It was hard not to worry about this, but I just had to remind myself this was out of my control. If a big bill came up, Jeff and I would figure it out. Until then, worrying was useless, and was only causing me more stress than what was needed. It can be hard to redirect your thoughts away from your main worry, but it’s a muscle you must train and after you train it you’ll be prepared for other bothersome troubles in the future.

After reading this I hope your move will be a little less stressful, or a lot less stressful. And it will be over soon so keep it up!

home care

Is hiring professional pressure washers worth it?

I used to get this question all the time from my clients when working in real estate. New home buyers are always looking for a way to save a penny, and I don’t blame them. There’s a lot expenses involved in starting a new family in your newly purchased home. But even if you’ve been in your home for many years, you might still like to know whether or not it’s worth while to hire a professional pressure washing company or attempt to do it yourself.

I always told my clients that by doing your own pressure washing you’re only going to save about $100 at the cost of using your own time and energy. Believe it or not, but getting pressure washing services are typically very affordable because it doesn’t cost much. According to a pressure washing Victoria BC company, the cost could be as low as $60, and may not much be more than $200 depending on the how much surface area needs to be washed. Then again, if you’re only looking to remove a few stains from your driveway then you could easily do this yourself with a cheap pressure washer machine from Amazon. However, if you’re looking to get your whole driveway pressure cleaned, as well as the home siding, the deck, the fence, the garage door, etc., then it’s definitely worth while to pay to have professionals do the job for you. Here’s why:

  1. Professionals are insured and licensed to cover against accidents.
  2. Professional pressure washers will do an expert job, washing all those spots that might otherwise be missed by the untrained eye.
  3. The cost of professional pressure washing is very affordable.
  4. Having professionals do your home chores frees up time for you to do other things.
  5. You support your local economy when you employ the services of a small local business.
  6. You raise the value of your property when it is well maintained, and professionals will ensure that the job is completed to these standards.

Moreover, if you live the retired life like me, or indeed don’t have enough time on your hands to be outside pressure washing your own garden passageways on the weekend, then not only would hiring professionals ensure that the job is well done it’ll also free some time from your hands, or allow you to spend time doing enjoyable things.

In a previous post, I mentioned pressure washing as one of the house chores I would never attempt alone. This is a personal choice, but I have good reasoning for it. Experts would do a lot better of a job than I could possibly do, and I don’t mind paying $100 to have those expert results.

So, to conclude I’d say that it could be worth it to do your own pressure washing if it’s just a small area and if you have the spare time, but on the other hand if you seek a job well done and have a larger area to clean, you’re most likely better off hiring professionals.

What is the purpose of any one individual business?

A business cannot exist long without providing a real service. Scams and rug-pulls are inevitable, but valuable service is necessary. It is very hard to grow while providing a disservice to everything around you; it is easy to grow when you are in harmony with everything around you. Plants and humans are different, however. Very slightly. A human has more chance of death compared to a plant because they have more potential purposes. Yes, really, welcome to Jeff & Cathy’s Household Blog where we talk about these darker subjects….

A business is like a spirit shooting spider webs across its local area to see if anything will benefit from the act. Certainly, most people would slap away spider webs shooting towards them. That means, a business needs to be attractive enough for random strangers to not bat the metaphorical spider webs away violently while also being actually attractive enough for them to at least want to stare at it fore 3 seconds. In hopeful terms, you at least had someone listen to your service’s proposition for more than 5 seconds!

Now by this point you managed to slide your greasy rump into the popular scene of events. You could be slanging data recovery service to some hippies in a cave in California or you could be selling AI kneepads to bull-riding rednecks in Texas, but then the only way to tell if the business would succeed in the future is if your service was actually useful.

Therefore, the purpose of any business is to be useful to someone or something.

home maintenance

5 Home Maintenance Chores I Would Never Attempt Myself

You may guess it’s because I’m retired at middle age, but actually even when I was a new homeowner in my mid-30s I would have never attempted to do these 5 household chores on my own.

I made a successful career out of hiring intelligent people, and I’d rather pay to have an expert do a good job than attempt to save money and use my own valuable time just to botch something. I like to make life simple. So, take my advice or not, it doesn’t matter to me. But, I’d recommend you hire an expert to do these 5 following household maintenance chores, unless you already have experience doing them yourself:

  1. Pressure washing
  2. Tree service
  3. Landscaping
  4. Mould removal
  5. Window cleaning
middle aged retirement

Retiring at Middle Age: What Does it Feel Like?

For those of you wondering what it feels like to retire from a long career at middle age, I wrote this article for you.

First of all, for me personally, it felt shameful to retire. I’m still in my fifties and many in my profession go well on into their seventies before retiring. But I worked hard all my life and it took a lot of thought to convince myself that I deserved to retire early. With the fortune I made in selling real estate, there’s no need for me to get back to the grind. It’s time to enjoy my middle years doing things I’ve always wanted to do: writing, blogging, traveling, visiting family. So at first retiring in middle age felt shameful, now after being retired for several years it feels great!

I do miss my job sometimes and know I have the energy to go back to work if I ever wanted or needed to, but each month makes living retired life easier. I’ve picked up all my fantasy hobbies, even finishing books I’ve always wanted to read but never got around to. I still have many years of my life to enjoy, hopefully, and it’s nice to know I can enjoy them stress-free, living in comfort with my family in our quiet home.

Conclusion

So, therefore, overall I’d say that to retire at middle age feels strange and maybe a bit wrong at first, but if you know you can afford and deserve to retire early, it creates magical opportunities to do the things you’ve always wanted to do.