Lifestyle Upgrades

For a while, I hardly thought that this merited a blog entry, but as time goes on, I continue to derive great pleasure from the fact that I’ve been able to eliminate the feeling of having dry skin and the annoying occurrence of static shocking me seemingly every time I touch something during the winter months.  By investing a total of $60 into two products, my experience has improved, and that’s what this blog is all about.

1) Cool Mist Humidifier — $20 at Home Depot.  Running the furnace to keep the place warm has a drying effect on the air in the home.  This is easily counteracted with a humidifier, and I was surprised just inexpensive they can be.  There are certainly more expensive options, but for me, this little 2 gallon number placed in my bedroom does the trick.

2) Chlorine filtering shower head — $39 at Home Depot (requires changing the filter every six months at a cost of $10).  Many people are aware of the benefits of filtering chlorine and other nasty things from their drinking water, but they may neglect the fact that much of the chlorine that our bodies absorb is the result of our daily showers.  Installing a new showerhead is pretty simple, and the positive benefits can be felt almost immediately.

By the way, I’m not a Home Depot shill.  These just happen to be the products that I purchased, and by no means are a specific product endorsement.

All of us can make “free” donations to charity every day by visiting The Hunger Site and its sister sites.  Once each day, in less than 30 seconds, we can visit these sites and make small contributions to help alleviate hunger, provide free mamograms to low-income women, provide health care for needy children, provide books to promote literacy, preserve rainforest land, and feed animals in shelters.  All we have to do is visit the sites and click the button on each site that say “Click here to give — it’s FREE”.  Corporate sponsors make the donations on a pay per click basis, so we can increase our impact by spreading the word.

The concept behind these sites is fantastic.  It allows us to feel like we’re actively making a positive impact on the world each day, however small, and serves to remind us of how fortunate we are to be in the position of the donor rather than the recipient.  Just as all the parts of our lives are interconnected, so too are we interconnected with the world that surrounds us.  These sites remind us of that, and benefit all of us positively.