Archive for November, 2009

Getting Through a Locked Door

November 23rd, 2009

While getting through locked doors is generally considered the vocation of thieves it can also be a handy skill in a lot of other scenarios, the most common being when a key for a door around the house or office has become locked. The first and perhaps best known is to pick the lock. Most locks around the house these days use a cylinder locking mechanism, which works by using tiny metal pins that fit inside the cylinder to prevent it from turning. In the case of an emergency then (or if you‘ve just given up with the fiddly lock picking), you may want to break the door down. Instead you’re much better off kicking the door with the heel of your shoe and aiming for the weakest point on the door. Depending on what you’re locked out of you may also want to consider breaking in through a window, or climbing in through a window if its been left open.

Home safety for the upcoming holiday season

November 21st, 2009

To that end, it’s never too early to start preparing your home to be safe during the holiday season. That’s why DirectBuy, the leading members-only home improvement and home furnishings club, is offering some home safety tips to help homeowners get a head start.

Add holiday items to the mix—lights, trees, candles, guests, etc.—and you up the ante on things that could possibly go wrong,” said Mike Georgeff, of DirectBuy. Some easy, cost-effective measures to improve safety in your home include:

Regularly testing your smoke alarms and installing smoke and carbon monoxide (CO) alarms on every level of your home — especially near sleeping areas.

Replace your furnace filter regularly during heating seasons.

Carefully inspect holiday light strings each year and get rid of any with frayed cords, cracked lamp holders, or loose connections. Be sure to unplug the light string when replacing light bulbs, too.

DirectBuy offers many products to help your home run more efficiently during the holiday season and the rest of the winter months—all at direct insider prices. About DirectBuy

With more than 160 locations in North America, DirectBuy offers its members access to approximately 700 brand-name manufacturers and their authorized suppliers in the US, and more than 500 brand-name manufacturers and authorized suppliers in Canada.