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Do you consider yourself handy? With home improvement projects spiking during the recent lockdowns, it’s likely more and more of us do. DIY sales soared over summer – but are you looking after your tools and equipment like a professional would? 

More than a mere matter of pride, efficient toolbox organisation can keep expensive items in top condition and make every job easier. If yours is currently a frustrating mess or you’re just getting started, read our top tips below on how to introduce some much-needed order.  

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Have a clearout (and clean-up)

From our wardrobes to our garages and even fridges and freezers, better organisation often starts with a clearout. Remove every last item and take stock of what can stay, what can go, and what can be grouped together.

Freeing up space will make rifling through tools less of a time sink. Make sure to clean up drawers and compartments before putting everything back in its rightful spot.   

Label key sections

Next up is categorisation. If you have a large toolbox with multiple sections, it’s worth creating a clear labelling system so you’ll know where to find everything at a glance. You’ll also be less likely to put bits back in the wrong place over time that way.

Possible categories could include hand tools, power tools and accessories, depending on the kit you have available.  

Use containers for small items 

What about all those smaller bits and bobs that seem to end up in every drawer and pocket no matter what you do? Much like a kitchen larder for spices, invest in a selection of clear tubs to keep loose items like bolts, nails and screws together. You’ll want to label these too to avoid getting confused and mixing them up.   

Order tools by weight

Most larger toolboxes will have multiple layers. If yours does too, it’s logical to store heavier items like power tools at the bottom, medium-sized tools like hammers and wrenches in the middle, and all remaining lighter bits at the top. 

Organising tools by weight reduces the risk of a toolbox toppling over. You’ll also be less likely to damage lighter tools – or hurt yourself – when putting items in or taking them out. 

Insert tool foam

Tool foam sheets are a smart solution for keeping items from sliding around on the move, as well as making them easier to visually distinguish. They’ll reduce bumps and scratches too – though you’ll likely need to custom-cut yours to suit your equipment. This process shouldn’t be too tricky with a good quality utility blade in hand, however.

They say a tidy desk promotes a tidy mind – and the same goes for your toolbox. Follow the tips above to make every job a breeze and ensure the best possible results.

 

Traveling is one of the most eye-opening and memorable experiences that someone can have, but it is also one of the most perfect ways to start learning a language. If you’re going traveling soon but don’t know how to use it to your advantage in terms of progressing your language skills, make sure that you try some of these 5 tips to ensure that you can master your desired language while having the time of your life on vacation.

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Don’t Be Afraid to Talk to Natives

One of the worst things that you can do when trying to learn a new language is not having enough practice of speaking to native speakers. It can be embarrassing to try and speak in a language that you aren’t completely used to or confident with, especially to people who are 100% fluent. A good thing to remind yourself of is that you don’t need to be perfect when speaking to natives. They will understand that it is not your first language and will also appreciate that you are making the effort to speak to them, rather than expecting them to speak your language in their own country. By speaking to native speakers, you can practice pronunciation, intonation and possibly even make some new friends to regularly practice speaking with. 

Avoid Headphones

A key way of mastering a language while you’re traveling is to avoid wearing your headphones at all costs. By doing this, you will be able to hear constant conversations happening around you and may even pick up on new vocabulary. If you’re always listening to other’s conversations, you can get a good grasp of pronunciation and intonation, as well as providing yourself with free listening exercises. A good way to test your listening comprehension is to listen to conversations and attempt to translate them in your head to test how much you would really understand in a real-life conversation.

Take Study Books with You

Just because you’re traveling, it doesn’t mean that you can’t bring your normal study books with you. There are elements of learning a language that are impossible to master with just speaking to natives alone – they require hard studying. A great example of this is grammar and tense. In Spanish, for example, there are different words that carry the same meaning, such as words meaning ‘to be’: ‘ser’ and ‘estar’. The differences between ser vs estar can be confusing – they completely depend on sentence context, and most likely won’t be fully understood by speaking to natives alone. If you’re finding yourself sitting in a hotel room waiting for a restaurant reservation or a taxi to the airport, have a quick look over your study books to make sure that the information stays fresh.

Immerse Yourself in Media

There is nothing more overwhelming than going to a different country and finding yourself surrounded by magazines, books, TV shows and movies all in a foreign language. If you want to master a language though, you must try to embrace this scenario rather than hiding away from it. Pick up the magazines and use them as a reading comprehension exercise. If you see words that you don’t understand, it never hurts to ask someone nearby what it means – assuming they can speak English of course! You may also find that movie theaters play English language films but provide subtitles in their language, meaning that you can see a new blockbuster and learn translations at the same time!

Record Newly Learned Vocabulary

When you’re in a country that predominantly speaks the language you’re learning, you can be certain that you’re going to learn lots of new vocabulary and cool new sayings that you’ll want to remember for your studies. However, if you learn this new information on a morning while speaking to natives, you most likely won’t remember what the new information was when it comes to the evening of the same day. It is vitally important that you note down new information and new vocabulary as soon as you learn it, either in a journal or in a note app on your phone. 

Learning a language while you are traveling is arguably one of the best possible ways to master that language quickly. By being constantly surrounded by it, you will be able to learn all sorts of new information and tips and tricks that you never knew existed. Make sure that you make the most out of your travels by following these tips to continue your language studies while on your travels.

If you have a garage you no longer using, you are not alone. In fact, according to a recent study by US households, only 15 percent of homeowners with a garage use it to park a car. For the remaining 85% of homeowners who have a garage, the most common use is storing things they no longer have need.

Intentionally repurposing your garage for better use can make your home more comfortable and valuable.

Of course, a garage conversion is different for everyone, but most successful garage conversions are spare bedrooms, home offices, home gymnasiums, movie lounge, and apartments.

If you don’t have a car or prefer to park it in the driveway, you can easily turn a cluttered garage into stylish space.

Here are some solid ideas that will stir your creativity:

Home Office

Transforming a garage into a home office is one of the easiest conversion options.

The complexity or simplicity of the office depends on the desired atmosphere and the type of work performed. Basically, you need electrical outlets and an internet connection.

If you have an expensive laptop with important files and you need to spend countless there, the garage door must be properly insulated from cold and moisture.

You will need to install an insulated garage door if you don’t already have one. Not only do you save unnecessary electricity costs, but you can also make your home office more convenient.

Noise is another important factor to consider. Of course, you want your home office to be as quiet as possible. To accomplish this you need a garage door opener installer.

You should also include space-saving storage solutions to improve your organization.

If you can’t get more natural light in your garage, you should install garage doors with transparent door panels.

Playroom

As your family grows, your house will become more crowded.

If your garage is suitable, you can turn it into a children’s space, where they can play, paint, and basically have fun without disturbing the rest of the family.

The main thing is to make the room as child-friendly as possible, which means that you need to update the garage door opener. If you use the garage as a playroom, it is important that children cannot open the garage door.

Don’t forget to cover your floors with high-quality rugs so that your little ones can safely play on.

Spare Bedroom

If you like to party but do not have enough room for guests to spend the night, you can convert your garage into a guest room.

Before decorating, make sure the room is insulated to keep guests warm.

You also want to make sure it doesn’t contain pests.

Depending on the room, you may only need a lick of paint and a comfortable bed to make guests feel at home, or you may need to invest in a rug.

Home Gym

If you lead an extremely busy life it can be difficult to spare time to go to the gym. Most people want to stay in shape, but the distance to the gym and membership fee discourage them.

If this sounds like you or you just want to exercise privately, you can turn your garage into a gym.

Converting your garage into a gym can be as simple as just getting a few weights, setting up a punching bag, and maybe add an exercise bike.

As with a home office, the simplicity or complexity of a home gym depends on your budget and fitness goals.

You don’t necessarily have to have all the expensive machines to start with, the main thing is to have a separate exercise room.

All in all, there is a lot you can do with an unused garage. So, why let the place go to waste when you can make it a vital part of your home?

In 2020, vinyl sales were the highest since the early nineties with over 4 million vinyl LPs purchased. With the rise of music streaming in the last decade, it’s fair to say that this resurgence in “physical music” is surprising. Here are four reasons why we think turntables are so popular amongst the younger generation. 

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It’s something you can touch and collect

A vinyl can be shared, traded, gifted, put on the wall as a decoration, passed over to your kids or grandkids, there is something special about that. The artwork on the cover is large and gives you a familiar feeling that we all used to have when we bought records, tapes or CDs back in the day. Also, once you own your vinyl, it’s yours to keep. Streaming music is only yours as long as the platform you’re streaming your music from is up and running. 

It’s an experience

Buying a record in a store is a special experience in itself. Hunting through hundreds of records to find the one that makes you feel happy and excited is a feeling you don’t have when streaming music, it’s similar to doing a scavenger hunt with your friends when you’re younger. The listening part once you get home, it’s also something unique. Opening the record, looking at the artwork, rediscovering the lyrics and the artist credits, laying the record on your turntable and simply enjoying the music, there is something special about that. 

It brings us together

Vinyl is a passion that can be shared across all generations, from your jazz fanatic grandma to your metal addict dad, this hobby brings people of all ages together for the love of music. In fact, we see more and more parents buying their children a Crosley record player, they’re colourful, appealing to kids they look fun and they’re super easy to set up. It’s actually a great thing you can share with your children and it could definitely bring you closer together. 

It’s valuable!

Having a decent record collection could be a good investment as they can be resold at a high price later on. Retro LPs such as Elvis Presley or The Clash can be sold for hundreds of pounds across marketplaces so it’s definitely something to keep in mind when you start collecting records.

Several businesses are searching for new tools and strategies that can help them improve. Due to the COVID -19 outbreak, most firms have lost a lot and are trying to recover. Companies have employed several strategies, made policies, and increased their marketing and customer relations efforts. Few firms have begun to see the need for automation. 

CRM is short for Customer Relationship Management. It is a vital technology for businesses.

The software provides several organizational benefits to businesses. Some of its functions include automating vital tasks and organizing contacts.

CRM technology might not be simple to operate. However, understanding CRM is vital to the modern-day firm. It can serve as a communication platform for customers and inside the company. It is necessary since most places still have restrictions on movement and require organizations to work remotely.

What is a Customer Relationship Management Technology?

CRM technology enables businesses to carry out management duties with ease. It performs functions such as tracking and organization of customer data.

The data might be user behavior, purchase records, sales interactions, and more. These data can be helpful to your marketing team for the optimization of sales.

CRM technology comprises several tools and techniques. Knowledge of it can help scale your business and improve your sale. It tracks customer behaviors through your websites, sales pages, and email campaigns.

Eight Benefits CRM Technology Can Bring To Your Firm

Improve Your Customer Service

Though the technology has several functions, its primary function is to manage and improve the company-customer relationship. It does this by gathering client details. These details include demographics, previously sent messages, and purchase records. You can click on https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/demographics.asp to read more about demographics analysis.

For an organization to improve customer experience, they require client details. CRM software helps your firm gather such information. This leads to a better consumer experience.

Gets Your Sales Up and Running 

Another benefit of this tool is its effect on the sales process. It helps you automate some tasks and performs analysis on all sales data.

Clients Retention 

It is one thing to procure leads, another to convert them, and finally to keep them. Retaining clients have several benefits for your enterprise. Some include continuous revenue, uninterrupted cash flow, and more.

CRM provides automated ticketing, sentiment analysis, user behavior record, and customer support functions. They help you understand what areas you need to improve in your customer service and relationship.

Get More Data Access and Rule Your Industry

Only those with access to data and their usage can rule their industry. CRM software does not only provide you with relevant data on your customer and user behavior – it breaks them down into easily understandable metrics. These metrics include demographic information, bounce rates, click-through, and others. They let you rate your campaign success and improve accordingly.

Improves Efficiency and Productivity

Since this technology enables the automation of some tasks, you can allocate more time to other vital management responsibilities. This therefore ensures that every aspect is handled well and loopholes covered.

Productivity can improve if you do things with high quality and speed. It is one thing CRMs technology brings to your firm. You can read this article to know more about productivity.

Provides a Centralized Information Database

One trouble with the old filling and data-keeping system is retrieval. Since we document tons of files regularly, it becomes tasking to sort them out when needed. It made the process slow.

However, with the introduction of a tool like CRMs, file retrieval has become easy. CRMs collect, store, and collate client data. It supplies data to a central database accessible by all authorized staff. 

Support Lead Nurturing 

Following up with leads is not an easy task. It is complicated and arduous. You need to understand the lead behavior alongside other things. However, CRMs have made this less tasking.

The software manages the entire tracking process and sends frequent alerts to your staff. They are to notify them of when to contact the lead. These are not just periodic but based on the prospect’s user interaction. It tells you the best time to reach them.

Better Client Segmentation

Segmentation is vital in every business. It refers to the classification or grouping of clients based on several headings. For example, you might have a segment for new clients and another segment for your monthly subscribers. It is necessary for creating high-converting email campaigns.

CRMs automatically carry out the segmenting tasks and group clients based on specific channels. It is then simple to find clients and create high-target marketing campaigns.

Conclusion

 There are several ways you can improve the operation and running of your business. One way is to use automated tools like CRMs. There are several benefits of using this technology. One vital benefit is easy and fast access to client data.