If you live in the winter-ravaged areas of the Midwest, odds are you’ve owned your fair share of snow shovels.  Having survived the harsh St. Louis winters of sleet, freezing rain and snow, I’ve gone through a full compliment of shovels, ranging from plastic flimsy pieces of you-know-what to ergonomic, back-saving miracle devices.

This brief series will help you pick out the snow removal device that’s right for you.

It’s been mentioned a bit before, but it bears repeating: before going outside to shovel, you need to stretch.  A lot. Not just the obligatory side-to-side stretching, but a good 2 - 5 minutes of holding poses.  And please, layer up!  And take frequent breaks!  There’s no way your driveway or sidewalk will be cleared if you’ve passed out - nobody wants that.

One of the most important things to keep on hand this winter is a good, sturdy outdoor broom.  But don’t keep in outdoors when snow is in the forecast.  Keep it in your basement, a utility closet, by the front door - anywhere but outside!  We’ve found that, much like in Warner Brothers cartoons, “That first step is a doosy!”

Having an outdoor broom indoors will help you get outside and put your best foot (cleanly!) forward.

We’ve tested a lot of brooms over the years, and we’ve found that a nice sturdy broom, like the Goldblatt 16164 Wood Finishing Broom provides the best combination of value and durability.  In our particular corner of the Midwest, we get an awful lot of sleet, freezing rain and snow.  Each bout of inclement weather brings us a new challenge, and time and time again, the Goldblatt has been up for the task of clearing off our porch and some of the steps leading down to our walkway.  Sure, everything eventually gets shoveled, but why put up with the hassle of having to keep a shovel inside?  It’s not like you’re going to shovel the area outside of your door while still inside your house, right?

Now, I’m a big supporter of the United States Postal Service, so I always make sure my walkways are cleared before I leave for work.  It may take a little extra time and effort, but imagine how it must make your mail carrier feel to not have to trod through snow, sleet and/or freezing rain and have favorable conditions to walk on?  The broom is an essential first step to get rid of the top layers of snow to make everyone’s lives easier.

(Please note: this post was not approved by the Nor’easterly affected folks in the Northeast.  They’d scoff at the use of a broom to clear the top layers of snow off their porches.  But for you midwesterners and southerners, this is a good first step!)

I’m snowed in today, with the nasty-nasty sleet + snow combination keeping me from unearthing my car and heading into work.  My wife, on the other hand, wasn’t so lucky.

At 5:30 this morning, with the snow tapering off to light flurries, we started the long and arduous process of digging her car out from beneath the plowed snow.  Now, I won’t bore you with too many mundane details about shoveling technique, but I can suggest a few items to help you adequately prepare yourself for the cold.

First things first: stretch!  A lot of the shoveling motion is a bend-and-twist, so make sure to get your back all good and limber.  Once your back is in working condition, make sure to stretch out your legs and arms.  Being good and loosened up is a great way to avoid injury in the inclement weather.

Next, make sure you drink plenty of fluids before going outside.  It may sound stupid, but staying hydrated in the cold is very important.   While hydrating, you may want to pop a few ibuprofen or tylenol if you’ve been privy to back aches and pains — it’s better to head it off at the pass now than having to wait the 30 or so minutes for the pain relief to kick in.

Finally, before heading outside, make sure you layer up!  This means to put on two pairs of socks, long johns, t-shirts, sweatshirts, jackets and a coat if you need to.  A nice warm hat is also highly recommended, as well as a scarf.  If you’re ready for the elements, you can stay active longer in the cold.

I’ll leave you with some advice: Please don’t stay outside for prolonged periods of time shoveling snow, clearing sidewalks or clearing off your car.  Take a few breaks, drink some water and take it easy.  The snow will still be there waiting!

A cautionary word of advice: if you haven’t already made your new year’s resolution, please pledge to do something: take photographs of everything in your house and upload them to an online photo site like Flickr or Picasa.  Write down serial numbers of all of your electronics and valuables and store that on a thumb drive or an online document management site like Google Docs.

We’re in the middle of a prolonged tiff with our insurance company over ownership of some of the stolen items, and having pictures and serial numbers would have been a tremendous help.

Your photographs don’t have to be high-quality, but just having them on hand is a big help.  If you have a video camera, even better.  Narrate while you shoot video of everything you own that you know you’d need in case it was stolen.

We were fortunate enough to have original boxes for some of our items and all of my power tools, but for the jewelry, electronics and computer stuff that was stolen that we had no records of, well, the fight continues.

So please, take an inventory of your items and catalog them in a secure location.  You’ll be glad you did if you ever have to deal with an insurance company’s claims department.

I hate to kick off the new year with a post like this, but this past Monday, my wife and I had our home broken into and our valuables taken.  The thief managed to strike during the light of day while the two of us were at work and had ample time to rifle through our belongings and make a safe exit.  Naturally, the break-in shook us up.  In fact, as I’m writing this, I have an installer out putting in a new home security system.

So, what can you do to make your home safer?  Here’s a quick - but certainly not complete - list of things to help ward off burglars.

• Consider buying some window alarms.  These little guys are cheap, run on batteries and can get quite loud.  For as crafty as thieves are, they sure can be dumb… so when they hear a loud alarm, they’ll likely bolt.  The downside to the window alarms is that they only go off when the window is raised, so would-be thieves could still break your window, just not unlatch and raise it to gain entry.
• Put some of your household lights on a timer.  Since I get up every morning at 5:30am for work, I typically go to bed around 10pm.  My wife and I usually keep our timers stashed away until we’re about to go on a vacation, but now we’ve got them turning on lights before we get home from work and after we go to bed.  We like to use the multi-setting timers so we can vary the on/off times and make it look more natural.

In closing, I hope a home invasion is something you never have to go through.  Just dealing with the insurance company alone makes me wish I caught the guy in the act so I could just write him a check and be on my way, rather than dealing with the hassles it brought on.

After a brief hiatus for the holidays, a hectic work travel schedule and some roadbumps along the way, we’re back - and just in time for the New Year and everything it brings.

In our tough economic times, it’s really important to look to save money in every way possible.  Hiring contractors can be expensive, and, in most situations, is an unnecessary move that will put you further in the red.  We’re here to help.

Santa delivered me a pint-sized video camera, so look for video tutorials on how to solve some common household problems, more in-depth features on home maintenance, and, of course, great product reviews for tools I think everyone should own.

I look forward to helping everyone out in 2009!