3 Tips For Moving A Piano

 Are you planning to move a piano? There's no denying the size and weight of a piano may be intimidating to move, but if you know what to expect and plan ahead, it's not as difficult as it looks. Here are a few tips for moving your piano so it arrives safely.

1. Disassemble the Piano

Pianos consist of many different parts, and while some may be able to remain intact during a move, others must be removed in order to prevent damage. If you're familiar with the workings of pianos, you can remove the necessary parts before moving day. If you're not, ask an experienced individual to help by removing anything that could break or bend during transit.

2. Disassemble Your Furniture

Chairs, desks, tables and other furniture should be completely disassembled prior to moving. Not only will you save space and make your move more efficient, but you'll avoid damaging furniture in transit.

3. Cover Your Piano

The piano itself must be covered at all times while it's being moved to prevent accidents from occurring. A good quality cloth or plastic will suffice, or you can simply use a dark sheet or blanket for added discretion. Never tie the piano to the truck with anything but purpose-built straps and pads, as wire cables and nylon straps can cut through your piano's exterior.

Final Thoughts

Moving a piano isn't as intimidating as you might think, and if you break down the process, it's not difficult to accomplish. However, it's always smart to use a Modern Piano Moving service whenever possible, as it's a safer, easier option in the vast majority of cases.

How to be Calmer in Life

 Have you ever seen people be totally calm in even the most difficult situations and wondered what their secret was? Some people just seem able to keep a level head no matter what is going on around them, and it is these people who are the most healthy in mind and body because they don’t allow external influences to affect them. They keep grounded and peaceful and are therefore better able to come up with solutions to the problems facing them. If you would like to know how they can do this and use this calmness in your own life, here are some great tips. 

 

Image from Pixabay

 

Regular Exercise 

Exercise is crucial for many reasons, and the ability to keep calm no matter what (as far as possible, at least) is one of them. When you exercise, your body releases endorphins, hormones that are known to improve the mood substantially. In fact, ensuring your hormones are well balanced in general is also a good idea, and there are many ways to do this, including online testosterone replacement therapy. 

 

When you feel happy, you will also be calmer, and you won’t make any rash decisions. If you think of the times you have felt stressed and angry, you will know that it’s easy to say or do the wrong thing that you later regret. Exercise more and have more endorphins in your body, and you will be able to think before you act, keeping you calm. 

 

Practice Mindfulness 

Life is busy, and being busy all the time doesn’t always leave much time for being calm; it’s stress and anxiety for most of the time. This is where being mindful can help immensely. Being mindful means living in the moment and not worrying about what happened in the past or what is going to happen in the future because, for the most part, you cannot change this. There are many ways to practice mindfulness, and finding your best path may take a little time, but it will be worth it. 

 

Some people find that meditation works well for them, for example. Others prefer a walk in nature, yoga, or doing something artistic such as painting. You simply need to find something that takes up your entire focus, even if it’s only for a little while. When you get back to ‘real life’, you will be much calmer for it. 

 

True To Themselves

What is it that you love more than anything? What puts the biggest smile on your face? This is the path you need to follow, either as a career or hobby. Not doing what you love will lead to frustration and sadness – it could even cause depression. Honoring your own truth and doing what makes you happy will reduce the frustration you might be feeling and help to keep you a calmer, happier person. This is true even if there are aspects of your life that you don’t like; as long as you find time to do whatever makes you smile, you will still be calm. In fact, this can help you deal with the less positive parts of your life because you will be better able to think about them and come up with a rational solution. 

 

Down Time 

It may feel as though you simply have to be on the go at all times to get everything done and keep everyone happy, but this won’t help you to be calm and could even mean that your productivity and efficiency are reduced. Taking some time out to relax and just unwind, whether that’s a vacation away from it all or an hour or two of doing nothing at home, will mean you can come back to work or life in general with a better attitude, and you’ll be refreshed. This means you will get your work done more efficiently, even if you have a little less time to do it. This is a great way to remain calm – if you feel yourself boiling over or feel totally overwhelmed, just step away. It doesn’t have to be for long, just enough time to re-set yourself, and then you can continue calmly and more happily. 

 

Honesty

Trying to please everyone all the time means that you can end up feeling dissatisfied, not just because it means you find it hard to say no and are therefore busier than you should be, but also because you are not being true to yourself. Every time you agree to do something that doesn’t fit with your true ideas and feelings, you are stopping yourself from doing something that you really do believe in and want to do. The more honest you can be by saying no when you can’t take on any more work or when you disagree with what is being asked of you, the calmer and happier you will be in general. 

How to Help Your Aging Parents without Taking Control

 

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Everyone ages eventually, it’s a part of life. Everyday tasks such as cooking and cleaning can become far more challenging. When this happens usually assistance steps in such as loved ones or professionals. If your parents are struggling to manage basic everyday tasks, then there’s a chance that you’re wanting to get more involved and help them out. 

Thankfully there are plenty of ways to do that! Of course, when helping them out, you don’t want to be overbearing or take on too much control. The role reversal of being cared for to being the caretaker is already very awkward. So how can you help your parents without coming off as condescending or making them feel as if they lost their independence? Look no further, because this post has it all!

Let your parents know that they’re in control of their lives

The last thing you want to do is to make your parents feel helpless. Your parents aren’t helpless, they just need some help. So whenever you’re visiting them, try to work alongside them rather than doing the work for them. If you both are doing grocery shopping, then ensure that both of you are carrying the groceries. Let them carry the lighter groceries while you carry the heavier things. This is a small example, but it does show that they’re in control and you’re just helping out a little.

Of course, you want to create the best retirement for your parents, understandably, you want to help as much as possible. Sometimes, seniors will stop doing tasks because their caregivers and family members will take over. This places a large amount of responsibility on the caretakers, plus it immediately pushes the decline in health for the seniors. Both parties lose in this scenario. So it’s better to just step in and assist rather than trying to do everything. Working together is key as this creates balance.

Accept the fact that your parents may not want help at all

It’s common for aging parents to just flat out refuse any sort of help, whether this is from their children, grandchildren, or medical professionals. There may be plenty of reasons for this. One major fear that many seniors have is getting treated poorly by nursing and caretaking staff. Other fears can even include dealing with the possibility of getting mistreated by loved ones or just losing their sense of independence altogether.

 Whatever the case may be, it’s understandable. Just the thought alone of hiring brilliant wrongful death attorneys can be stressful because you’ll be in a situation that you never imagined facing. Yes, it’s incredibly difficult trying to accept the fact that your parents may not want any help from their own children or medical professionals, but sometimes it needs to be accepted.

Respect boundaries

This ties in with the above paragraph, you should respect what boundaries your parents have in place. You should ask permission rather than take the liberty to do whatever you want. Don’t just assume that you can accompany your parents to their doctor appointments or anything else. Instead, it’s better to ask them. Your parents deserve to have their dignity and trying to overstep boundaries and baby them is going to be demeaning. The more you insist on helping, the more controlling you’re going to appear. Your parents don’t need their children to parent them. Just ask whether they want assistance or not, if they say no, then respect it.

Talk with your parents about small ways you can help

It’s so important to not become overbearing or try to parent your parents. However, there are ways to ensure that they’ll stay safe at home while also making your life easier. Talk with them about making modifications in their homes. Some small ways to help out your parents that create a major impact can include getting a security system for their home, a built-in camera doorbell, rails in the bathrooms, or even a medical alert system.

There are plenty of senior care products out on the market. A lot of seniors have accidents in their homes such as falling, intruders, and so much more. You can keep your mind at ease by knowing that your aging parents are safe with these types of products. Just try and talk about getting some modifications to their home to make sure that they’re going to be safe, and to let them know that you’ll be far calmer as well with these modifications. They may be a chance of them rejecting the idea, but it never hurts to raise the idea to them. 

How to Help Your Weight Loss Journey When It Plateaus

 In a perfect world, everyone would have the time to exercise and eat healthy every single day. Unfortunately, this is not the case for many people. What happens when you are eating well and exercising regularly but your weight loss journey has plateaued?

Via Pexels

What Is A Plateau?

A plateau is when your weight loss progress stops or slows down. It doesn't mean that you have stopped losing weight, it just means that the scale isn't moving in a positive direction and you're not burning as many calories as before. Plateaus can happen for all sorts of reasons: increased stress levels, lack of sleep, bad eating habits, traveling, lack of exercise, or even hormonal changes.

What you need to do is try and figure out why your weight loss journey has plateaued so that you can start losing weight again.

Surgery

Some people have gone down a surgical route and that may help for a while, but even after weight loss surgery, your weight loss can plateau before you have reached your goal weight. If this is the case, then it is best to see a specialist for a gastric sleeve revision. This surgery will help more than just your weight loss plateau, it can also help with any conditions related to weight including diabetes and sleep apnea. 

Supplements

You can always try a weight loss supplement that will help make your body more efficient at losing weight, but it's important to use only the best ones. If you choose one of these options and still cannot lose weight, then there may be something else going on with your health or hormones.

Exercise

There are plenty of exercise options that you can try for weight loss. Things like high-intensity interval training (HIIT) or boot camp workouts might work well. You don't have to do these alone either, they make great group classes and friends will be happy to help motivate you when the going gets tough during your workout.

Adjusting your lifestyle so that you are more active is another way to help weight loss along. Park a bit further away so you have to walk a bit further, or take the stairs. Little adjustments to your daily life can help break that stagnant weight loss.

Eating Habits

When it comes to eating habits, you need to make sure that you are not falling into bad traps. You can try a high-fat diet for weight loss by limiting carbohydrates and increasing the percentage of your daily calories from healthy fats. The ketogenic diet is a great way to get rid of extra body fat without doing any exercise at all!

Get More Sleep

Your body slows down when you don’t get enough sleep, which means that it won't burn off the food that you eat as quickly. This is why it's important to get around eight hours of sleep per night. During this time, your body will burn off calories and create more energy for the next day so that you can exercise or just generally get stuff done.

Hormones

If none of these options work for you then there may be something wrong with your hormones that needs to be managed by a specialist such as an endocrinologist. Hormonal imbalances can cause many problems including weight gain, fatigue, and even depression.

Cut Back On Alcohol

If you are drinking one or two alcoholic drinks per day, then it might be time to cut back. If you're not sure how many calories are in your drink, try an online calorie counter so that you can see exactly what sort of damage this is doing to your weight loss journey.

Stress Management

High levels of stress can cause your body to store more fat and slow down weight loss. This is why it's important to try and reduce the amount of stress that you're dealing with every day, even if this means taking up a new hobby or spending time with family members.

Check Your Water Intake

If you are not drinking enough water then it means that your body is dehydrated. This decreases the amount of energy being produced so you won't have as much motivation to exercise or burn off calories with physical activity.

While these are all great ways for helping out your weight loss journey when it plateaus, sometimes you just have to try something else. This is where the real work starts because now you need to figure out what worked for other people in your situation and see if their methods can help with yours too.

There are options for helping your weight loss journey when it plateaus so never give up hope and remember that there is always someone who can help. Finally, try not to be discouraged if you hit a plateau because this is an all too common symptom of weight loss!

4 Ways to a Less Stressful Thanksgiving at Your Home

 

Isn't Thanksgiving so great? It's one of the least stressful holidays for me personally. 

Fourth of July finds me worrying about burns and blown-off fingers and how many people are in the swimming pool. 

Christmas finds me frantically wrapping presents for days on end, holed up in the bedroom trying to hide what I'm doing, tossing a ring pop out the door now and then to keep my kids happy for a while. 

Comparatively speaking, Thanksgiving is a walk in the holiday park! Here are some ideas for making it even less stressful that I have learned over the years (since moving into our bigger house where we host a lot of parties!).

BEFORE: Instead of purchasing GladWare, saving up plastic containers (whipped cream, sour cream, lunchmeat, etc.), or loaning out your favorite Tupperware, (hoping it will come back to you someday), ask guests to bring a few small containers of their own to take leftovers home in. If they forget, put out some aluminum foil and paper plates for them. 

HOW THIS HELPS YOU: This puts the leftovers ball in their court and you can relax and enjoy the day while they are getting all packed up.

BEFORE: Put several extra empty trash bags at the bottom of your kitchen trash can.

HOW THIS HELPS YOU:  When a wonderful guest offers to take out the trash for you, they won't have to ask you where more bags are. You're hosting a party and you're busy! Sometimes during a party my kitchen is so full I can't even wade through the people to get to the empty trash bags, so that eliminates that problem as well. (Also, I tend to get distracted easily and forget what I was doing before I was interrupted, so...)

BEFORE: Yes, I know it's bad for the environment and clogs up the landfills. Just buy sturdy and large paper plates, as well as plastic cups and silverware. Don't forget to also purchase small paper plates for desserts. Forget the soda for kids and just get Capri Sun juice pouches (you know they make purses out of the empty pouches, right?).

HOW THIS HELPS YOU: Obviously you won't have to do dishes if they are all in the trash. If you have a compost pile, even better.

BEFORE: Put a cloth or paper tablecloth on the main table.

HOW THIS HELPS YOU: If it's paper, just take it off after everyone leaves and throw it away. If it's cloth, toss it in the washing machine. This saves you time wiping down a very messy table and then probably also having to sweep the floor as well. 

Now it's time to relax for the evening and watch Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. Or check out my helpful post about How to Have a Happy Thanksgiving from 2015 :-)