ArcaMax

What would you pay for a good night's rest? A soccer club in England once spent nearly $200,000 on custom mattresses, pillows and even wallpaper designed to help players sleep before home games. Clearly, they believe sleep is nonnegotiable.

And they're right. Sleep isn't a luxury -- it's essential. Without it, we're cranky, forgetful and prone ...Read more

Q: I’m relocating to a new area a few hours away for a job. I plan to stay there for the long term. I’m unsure whether I should buy a new house or rent one. What are your thoughts? —Charles

A: Moving to a new area for a job is an exciting opportunity, but it also involves important decisions, one of the biggest being whether to buy a ...Read more

What would it feel like to check your bank balance and find a pile of money you didn't know you had? Stop wasting money on goods and services that don't matter in the long run. By plugging the money leaks in your life, it's possible you could see the financial equivalent of working a second job in your wallet.

BUYING FROM A TV OR INTERNET AD. ...Read more

A new leather sofa or leather handbag -- so beautiful. Or perhaps it's the car you've had for a long time, the one with leather upholstery that still looks fantastic because that you've babied and protected it against spills and stains. And then somehow, that beautiful leather gets hit with an ink stain. It shouldn't happen, but life being what ...Read more

I love simple DIY household cleaners, not only because they're so much cheaper than their commercial cousins but because they work better. I'm certain that over the years I've tried hundreds of recipes and formulas. Let's just say that some work well; others, not so much.

Recently, I've been researching and testing the wonders of cornstarch to ...Read more

Hiring a professional painter is like hiring a magician. One day your walls are dingy, the next they're flawless. The only trick? The bill. A single room can set you back $400-$600. Multiply that by a few rooms, and you might as well start selling plasma.

The good news: You can paint your own walls. With the right tools and tricks, nobody will ...Read more

Dark, shadowy, dirty lines on the carpet along baseboards, under doors and draperies, along the edges and in the crevices of carpeted stairs are visible signs of a problem called filtration soil. With the right tools and information, you can clean the dirty edges of the carpet. But first, it's important to know what that dirt is and how it got ...Read more

Knowing how to get rid of ants around the house is important. But it's also fun to learn just how fascinating these creatures are. They're industrious and super smart, as far as insects go. Some ants can support up to 50 times their own weight while upside-down on glass. Ants are found almost everywhere on Earth. The largest ant colony ever ...Read more

Kitchen cabinets are for storing dishes, not grease. Unfortunately, wood cabinets -- painted or natural with a clear finish -- are prone to all sorts of grease, grime and gunk from simply being in the kitchen.

Depending on just how much grease and grime you're looking at and the supplies you have available, here are four options for your ...Read more

I can't tell you how many times I've been tempted by those gorgeous sets of matching glass storage jars that pop up in catalogs and on Pinterest boards. Perfect rows of grains, beans and pasta looking like a magazine ad. Lovely, yes. Affordable? Not so much.

Meanwhile, I'm over here stacking cottage cheese tubs in my fridge, and guess what -- ...Read more

STINKY TOWELS AND CLOTHES

No matter how many times you wash those items, you just cannot get rid of the disgusting sour, mildewy odor. The problem is clear evidence of bacteria that continues to live in those items, despite having been previously laundered and dried.

Place the offending items in the washer, and set it to the hottest wash cycle...Read more

I remember my grandmother saying, "If we didn't need food, we'd all be rich!" This may be true, but then, a life without food would be a little less pleasurable. Still, there are so many ways to make great food cheap, make perishable food last and the grocery budget stretch like nobody's business.

Enjoy today's tips, filled with practiced ...Read more

Avocados are fickle. Sometimes they seem to be ready for consumption but then hard as a rock when cut into. Other times avocados look like they'll be rotten before you get them home. This unpredictability isn't just expensive ($1.25 each for medium, $2.50 each for large at my local supermarket, as I write); it also contributes to wasted food.

...Read more

Some hobbies require a second income just to afford them. Golf, skiing, photography with professional gear -- those can run into the thousands before you've even broken a sweat. But the best hobbies? They're often the ones that cost very little, or nothing at all, and leave you richer in ways that have nothing to do with your bank balance.

Here...Read more

Fabric softeners are designed to reduce the amount of static in synthetic fibers and make laundry come out feeling soft and smelling great. These products contain lubricating ingredients that help coat and "soften" fibers in fabrics when added to your laundry load in the form of liquid, powder or dryer sheets.

So why would anyone opt to go to ...Read more

Apparently, I'm a slow learner. I can't think of another reason it took years to associate my sons' and husband's itchy skin problems with the dryer sheets I used.

While we didn't experience respiratory problems that are often associated with fabric softeners, there is credible medical evidence that the perfumes and additives in laundry ...Read more