WHEN THERE IS A FLOOD FIRST THINGS FIRST

Flooding can cause damages worth millions of naira to your home, and it's a very difficult to clean up. The steps to take once there is a flood and how to safely begin the process of recovery.

Response to a flood must be quick and efficient. The longer water lingers, the more severe the damage will be.

Eliminate Danger

First thing is to ensure the flooded area is safe to work. Number one concern electrical danger. Check for electrical appliances that may have been damaged before, during or after the flood.

Be careful that live electrical cables are not exposed as you begin to assess damage. If there is any risk of electrical shock exposure, first turn off the power to the building and resolve the danger.

Know the Source

Flood can come from three main sources:

• Source 1 is cleanwater. This water comes from an overflowing sink, bathtub, or broken water supply line. This is the preferred source should water damage occur, since it poses minimal risk of contamination or respiratory danger.
• Source 2 water is sometimes called "gray" water. It is not drinkable, but also not full of sewage. Source 2 water can contain soap and/or food contaminants but not raw sewage.
• Source 3 water, sometimes called "black" water, is highly contaminated. It contains bacteria or chemicals harmful to touch, consume or inhale. Source 3 water must be removed by a professional with proper immunizations and personal protective equipment. Source 3 water can include any type of sewer back-up, water that has run across open ground before entering the structure, or anything related to a chemical spill. And it occurs mainly in Nigeria when rain falls.

Shut off the Source

If the water is Source 1 or 2, your next step is stopping the source. (If Source 3, the best advice is to wait for a professional.) Be sure you know where your main shut-off valve is for your home's water supply. If the leakage is coming from an appliance or fixture with a shut-off valve, turn this valve off instead of the water to the entire building.

Save what you can as fast as you safely can.

After you have identified and stopped the source of the water, action to prevent further damage to household items and materials. This can include:

• Furniture: Immediately relocate furniture soaked in water. This is very important for wood furnishings, or those that have a stain finish prone to bleeding. Nothing ruins carpet quicker than bleeding, wet furniture.
• Valuable Household Items: Like documents, photographs, and valuables.
• Flooring: Once furnishings are removed and wall-finishes are stripped to drywall, you can address the flooring. As a general rule, carpet and cushion (pad) damaged with Source 1 water can be cleaned and salvaged. Carpet cushion damaged by Source2 water needs to be disposed, but the carpet can be sanitized and salvaged. Flooring damaged by Source 3 water needs to be disposed of immediately.

If you have light water damage, you may be able to deal with it yourself. Place floor fans approximately 12′ along the room(s) perimeter, pointing the air flow in a clockwise direction. This pushes the air to the outside of the room.

HOW TO GET RID OF THE WAIST GAP IN YOUR JEANS

Finding a good pair of jeans is hard. Then you eventually get a nice pair with the right length and there is this gap that sticks out at the waistline. To fix this, sew a small piece of elastic to the back of your jeans, or sometimes the sides of your jeans.

Jeans sometimes fit at the hips, but then there's a  gap at the waistline. Website I Am Momma explains how to fix this with a small piece of elastic and some sewing skills. She uses a 6" piece of elastic, about 1/2" thick:

Start in the middle and sew to the end using a zig-zag stitch. As you sew, pull the elastic tight and let the jean fabric feed through the machine normally. Do the same thing to the other side of the elastic. This will make the elastic centered and don’t stitch through the belt loops on the other side. Lastly do one stitch in the middle, also try not to stitch through the belt holes.

As you can see from her photos, the elastic creates a small bunch in the back of your jeans, eliminating the gap altogether. 

And there is an option of just eating till the slack is no more...

WHAT IS REALLY AND TRULY NECESSARY?

The alert comes in and you pay PHCN bills, subscription fees for DSTV, BIS, and WIFI/MIFI. A huge chunk of your salary is used for paying utility bills and you’re wondering how and if you’ll ever survive the 30days till the next payment….story of the life of a typical Nigerian employee.

Finding myself in that situation made me ask myself serious questions and also provide answers that were as honest to me as possible. I had to analyse my choices and financial habits and see what could be changed. I’ll share advise I got from my research in a practical way, since I’m currently living these advise.
Financial blogs suggest keeping a daily record of expenses, but the Naija reality makes it almost impossible. However, its all good advise, and you would be better putting it to use. The below are practical ways to begin the journey of being debt-free;

1. Your case is an emergency; And just like in the ER(Emergency Room), first thing to do is to stop the bleeding. STOP all loans from every source.

2. Start saving immediately; Start saving at least 20% of your salary. Put a standing order on your account(ask your bank or account officer).

3. Try to get out of existing debt; List your debt from the smallest up on the list to biggest debt down on the list, then start working your way out of it from smallest to biggest debt.

4. Make a monthly budget; And this time please adhere, *side eye*, It’s actually easier than it sounds. Simply list all regular expenses (Rent, School Fees and Feeding) and list all your irregular expenses, (Eating Out, movies, car maintenance, medicals). The trick is to break it all down to monthly expenses, even go a step further and open an account for them. Break it down into monthly expenses and you will see a reduction in expenses. When there is a defined purpose for money, waste is highly unlikely.

Above all, you consumption habits should be altered hereby reducing the likelihood of getting into debt again.

IT'S YOU TIME!

Its highly unlikely that we would want to harm ourselves on purpose, but it just happens that way most times. The state of our body is hardly a thought we harbour, or love to harbour. We are busy with family, work, friends and stuff. (which are all ingredients of a healthy life by the way).

The absence of physical pain, to many, means all is well. Going for a check up in Naija is done only when we get referred by a hospital. I often wonder why, maybe we dread searching and finding out things we are not sure we want to deal with, things we are currently too busy to deal with.

You can either be forced to take care of your health or you choose to take care of your health.

For you to be useful to those you love, you need that time off to rest and occasionally, take a trip to the doctor's for a checkup. To better handle the task at work with better precision, and be a better spouse, parent or friend with a better outlook towards life in general.

Healthy living is closely tied to healthy eating. Make sure that you make a healthy choice at each point in time, make a change one day at time.

What I do daily is, when i'm thirsty i do water not a cup of coffee,I take lemon and honey in warm water, rather than eating out and I cook my meals in the healthiest way I possibly can....and many other not so major changes I have made to my diet. And although I have not seen any major changes yet, but my general feeling of well-being has improved greatly.

Good health is a way of life, a process and not a destination or a reward.

 Take time off and take care of You!


Do share ways you take care of yourself, routines you engage in.

AN ATTEMPT AT A LESS MATERIALISTIC LIFE

Well my colleague at work told me i was tending towards being materialistic, I rolled my eyes, saying in pidgin English  'on-top how much salary'. When someone describes a person as materialistic, it is believed that such a person must be spending big bucks on designer clothes and all kinds of fancy things.
 I then went digging, out of curiousity, and i came up with some interesting findings.

  Ok....so what really is Materialism?

In lay man's terms, its spending money you don't have on crap you don't need.

 I saw a definition of materialism that i liked on lifehacker.com

It's best defined as an insatiable desire to own things and the belief that when 

those desires are fulfilled we'll achieve happiness. Basically, materialism suggest 

a yardstick for success: the more you own, the better your life will be. 

Let’s say it as it is, Materialism urges us to buy the coolest gadgets, designer clothes, hair and so on. Bigger is always better to the materialistic, even though Smaller would be just enough. we need to show off to some people that we are big and life is goooodd. 

It is cliche that purchases don’t buy us happiness. and as a quote i saw somewhere, 

‘by and large, money buys happiness but only for those who lack basic need’

Let's face it,  materialism doesn’t buy us happiness, real long-term happiness.....

Materialism is closely tied to shopping, so you I tried to avoid it by adopting some tricks;

•  spend more on experiences rather than objects, the buzz of a new object wears off after you use it repeatedly, but a fun experience lasts a longtime if not a lifetime.

• When buying expensive things I research the item, to make sure i am getting the right item for the right price at the right time.

• Also I try to equate the number of hours I had to put in at work, with the value of the item I am buying, and I can immediately know if its worth it.

• I tried to limit my exposure to the media to a specific period of the day and stick to it. Well, I feel like I’m a traitor here, shout out to my fellow communicators.

• Gave up magazines for books, it’s even a better use of my time.

• I did some house-cleaning and realized how useless shopping for extra things can be, since i had so much unused/ under-used stuff. I definitely thought twice before buying anything.

• I spent quality time with family and Friends.

• Spirituality gives meaning and purpose to my life.

No need to go home and break the i-Pad, kick down the 500 inch screen flat-screen or give out your designer wears, in fact its far from that. We just need to know and understand the difference between what we actually need and what we merely want.

The 1980 Mercedes Benz 350 series was 'The car' to own when i was much younger,fast forward to today, it was an historical monument of some sorts for my kids whom i showed with pride the cars i grew up seeing.

I admit  there are those that derive immense pleasure from shopping, however there will always be a newer model or improved technology of  your dream car, i-phone and whatever it is you want.Then you keep wanting to go bigger and better, and the cycle continues.

I doubt the War against Materialism can be won, but it definitely helps if we consciously make better spending decisions. 

THE TAKE OFF...

Life is crazy in itself. Life in Nigeria, especially Lagos, (that’s where I live) it’s crazier. I set up this blog to give ‘smart tips’ that could make life easier . So! this is my plan about how things will most likely unfold; LiveSmartNG should answer the following questions as regards topics being discussed,

1. Do I want to achieve this?

2. How to do this in the simplest way possible?

Various aspects will be covered;

SmartLife: General issues and choices that affect our lives and how we live. 

SmartHealth: Making conscious choices about your health as you go about your daily activity.

SmartMoney: Involves choices on being debt free and building savings. I’ll share what works for me and you can share what works for you.

SmartHome: Clearing the clutter and home devices that I know will help.

SmartFashion: A nice, budget-conscious wardrobe is achievable.

SmartConnections: Connecting with family, friends, colleagues. despite the crazy routine we go through. 

SmartBusiness: Businesses in Nigeria become over-emotionally charged, I can share time tested tips on how to gain loyalty and increase your chances of success. If nothing, we’ll discover how to out-behave the competition, it would go a long way in Nigeria. 

Please expect to be inspired, educated and entertained but also expect to be challenged with tough questions too. Your participation, through questions, comments, feedback and recommendations will be appreciated.

Thank You for reading!!!