Eric G. shares his last-minute holiday gift guide, offering practical and appealing ideas that are perfect for those rushing to find the right present. From high-quality earbuds to durable flashlights, he highlights affordable options that make great stocking stuffers or thoughtful gifts for loved ones. As the festivities unfold, Eric emphasizes the importance of preventing holiday disasters, especially when hosting gatherings. He provides essential tips for ensuring your home is ready for guests, including maintaining functional toilets and being mindful of kitchen safety. With a mix of humor and valuable insights, this episode equips listeners with the tools they need to enjoy a stress-free holiday season.

As the holiday season approaches, Eric G. dives into a treasure trove of last-minute gift ideas perfect for those who may have procrastinated on their shopping. From budget-friendly options to more extravagant finds, Eric shares personal favorites that are useful, fun, and ideal for anyone on your list—from the DIY enthusiast to the tech-savvy listener. Among his top picks are the Poly Voyager Free 20 earbuds, which feature adaptive noise canceling and exceptional audio quality, making them perfect for calls or music in busy environments. But it doesn't stop there; Eric introduces practical gifts such as the Coast Polysteel flashlight, a durable and compact tool that fits easily into any bag, making it a great stocking stuffer for anyone who needs reliable light at their fingertips.

Moving beyond gift-giving, the episode transitions into essential safety tips for hosting gatherings during the holidays. Eric emphasizes the importance of maintaining a functional bathroom—specifically the need for reliable toilets—to prevent awkward situations when guests arrive. He recommends investing in quality toilets like those from Toto, which are designed to flush effectively and reduce the risk of clogs. Beyond plumbing, Eric also advises on electrical safety, particularly concerning the use of power strips and space heaters, which can pose serious fire hazards if not used properly. He underscores the need for vigilance and preparation to ensure a smooth and enjoyable holiday experience for all.

Takeaways:

• Consider giving practical gifts like high-quality wireless earbuds that enhance daily experiences.
• Make sure your toilets are in top condition before hosting holiday gatherings to avoid disasters.
• Use reliable tools and gadgets to streamline home improvement projects and save time.
• Always check the condition of your holiday lights and ensure proper electrical safety.
• Be proactive in home maintenance to prevent any unexpected issues during holiday festivities.
• Invest in quality bathroom fixtures that ensure comfort and efficiency for your guests.

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Pyramid Heating and Cooling
• Monument Grills
• HP
• Hewlett Packard
• Coast
• Gerber
• Wiha
• Toto
• American Standard
• Kohler
• Build.com
• Costco

To get your questions answered by Eric G give us a call in the studio at 833-239-4144 24/7 and Eric G will get back to you and answer your question and you might end up in a future episode of Around the House.

Thanks for listening to Around the house if you want to hear more please subscribe so you get notified of the latest episode as it posts at https://around-the-house-with-e.captivate.fm/listen

If you want to join the Around the House Insider for access to the back catalog, Exclusive Content and a direct email to Eric G and access to the show early https://around-the-house-with-e.captivate.fm/support

We love comments and we would love reviews on how this information has helped you on your house! Thanks for listening! For more information about the show head to https://aroundthehouseonline.com/

Information given on the Around the House Show should not be considered construction or design advice for your specific project, nor is it intended to replace consulting at your home or jobsite by a building professional. The views and opinions expressed by those interviewed on the podcast are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Around the House Show.

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It's around the House.

And this first hour of the show today I thought we could have some fun and talk about some great gifts out there you can jump on for quick ship.

For all of you last minute shoppers out there.

This last segment of the hour we're going to be talking about something fun.

How to maybe stop those holiday disasters from coming on.

And it could be something simple.

It could be something big around the House shows brought to you by Pyramid Heating and Cooling.

Serving in Oregon, the Portland Metro area and Bend, Oregon.

They are your one stop shop for heating and cooling and indoor air quality.

But we've got you coming.

This is around the House.

Welcome to the Round the House show, the next generation of home improvement.

This is where each week we do a deep dive into your home.

And this first hour of the show today I thought we could have some fun and talk about some great gifts out there that you can jump on for quick ship for all of you last minute shoppers out there.

But first, this hour is brought to you by our friends at Money McGrill.

Check them out@monumentgrills.com for your perfect outdoor barbecue with all those features.

If you're looking for something with propane that you can run on a budget, check them out for that high quality, low price grill.

Monumentgrills.com well today I thought let's dive into some great gifts.

We're not getting crazy expensive here.

We've got some stuff that's super expensive and a lot of this is just favorite stuff that I found out there that are really cool for you to give to somebody or maybe just a gift to yourself over the holiday season here.

Some of these could be great stocking stuffers.

These are things that I've just absolutely enjoyed.

And none of these things are none of this is sponsored guys.

So really this is stuff here that nobody's paying to be in here.

This is just some great gift ideas that could probably help you out for your shopping for that person that likes listening to podcasts, to doing those DIY projects all around the house.

The first one here is a fun one.

And you know, I'm an Apple earbud person.

I'm an Apple user on the phones and stuff.

I have been forever and that's just the language I speak.

But I've not been a super big fan of the Apple EarPods.

And so there's a great one out there that works really well, especially in noisy environments and especially when you're talking on calls or listening.

And that's from a company you probably haven't even thought about that makes earbuds.

This is hp.

Yeah, Hewlett Packard, they have a great one out there.

Check out their Poly Voyager Free 20.

These are true wireless earbuds.

Adaptive noise canceling.

So adaptive ANC air, enhanced audio and personalized comfort.

And here's the cool thing is it works with multiple things.

So you can be working, working on a conference call on your, maybe you're on a laptop, you can sit there, switch over to the music that you want to be listening to and you can bounce back and forth.

And the microphones, they got three microphones on there.

So it's meant for really getting your speech and not the junk around you.

So if you're talking at a, at a, at a cafe or you've got some background noise, maybe you're working from home and the kids are getting a little crazy, the dogs are barking.

This does a better job of taking that out and just eliminating that noise.

And I do like that multi point connectivity, which means you can quickly and easily pair the two devices at once and boom.

And just bounce back and forth between those, which is really cool.

And since these have eight hours of talk time basically on them, they're ready to go as far as working through your whole day.

And there's a lot of cool details on this.

And so it's got a single multifunction button, so it's pretty easy to control.

And it's just a great way to take out those and they're, they're more comfortable.

That's the thing I think I like about these the most, is that you've got more flexibility.

You know, you get the, for instance, you get the Apple ones, you put them in, hope they fit.

If not, guess what?

They're miserable.

These have the different, you know, pieces you can swap out and make it the most comfortable.

They're really designed so you can use them all day long and they do a better job of staying in your ear as well.

So they're just going to be in there, they're discreet, they're not this big huge thing.

And they got high powered 10 millimeter speakers with the adaptive noise canceling, which is super cool.

So here's the deal and I'm going to put all of these things just so you guys know, I'm going to put all these things up on the Front page of the around the House Online.com website with links.

Because a lot of these I'm doing on Amazon because that's the way you're going to get these things fast, right?

So many of you can get this in a couple days in the country.

You can order it and get it there.

You can always look at your local Best Buy or something like that or hardware store.

But really I'm going to try to get you the fast way.

In case you're listening to this closer to Christmas, you'll have a better chance of getting it there.

This is not by any means an Amazon commercial, but I'm just going to show you that right there.

The cool thing with these, with these Poly Voyager Free 20s that these things are regularly 149 as at least the moment right now and I don't know how long this is going to last but 89.99 on Amazon at least of the day of this when we're recording.

So take a look.

That's a killer deal for a great set of earbuds.

And from your friends at Hewlett Packard now they do have other ones out there.

If you're looking for something that's a little bit more.

You're like, ah, that's cool.

But do they have a better one?

Yes, they have the Poly Voyager Free 60 earbuds.

And these are cool.

These are the 60 plus earbuds.

And so basically this gets you the maximum functionality and each earbud features a three mic array like the other ones do.

But it has a touchscreen charge case that offers remote control, Bluetooth switching and in flight entertainment connectivity.

So that's the cool thing here.

And they're again designed for all day wear, which is awesome.

And so that's the other thing too is you get these.

That's got the different case.

You know, it's just like anything, you get the higher features with that.

So the.

These are kind of cool.

So you get these here with the true wireless earbuds, noise canceling mics for clear calls, touchscreen charge case.

Of course it works with everything for PC Mac team certified.

And this is what's cool with these things.

And that really gets you kind of the ultimate.

This has six microphones, three per earbud.

So really it's designed to really get above that background noise.

And so you get, you get clear outside calls thanks to Windsmart technology reduces wind noise.

And so they've really kind of Amped these things up.

So if you're looking for something that's going to really outperform those best earbuds that you have out there, this is great.

So, and the cool thing is with these two, either one of these, they've got an app so you can actually control what's going on with them from the app instead of trying to just hit the button so many times.

So you've got ways to do it.

So you can connect up to two Bluetooth devices, including PC, Mac, iPhone, Android at any time.

With Multipoint technology, it remembers up to eight Bluetooth devices.

So that's pretty cool.

So it's meant for like zoom, Google Meet certified for Microsoft Teams.

So it's really designed to work with all of these.

So take a look.

I'll have both of these up here on the website around the house online so you can take a peek there.

I think those are two great sets of earbuds that you can rock with whether you're listening to music, whether you're in a meeting or listen to us on a podcast.

I think that's a great way to up that user experience for you and get something that's going to be very, very comfortable.

Now here's a good one here.

This is one of my favorites out there.

And this is from a local company.

To me, this is Coast.

Now coast is a flashlight knife maker here you can see them in almost all your home improvement stores.

But one of my favorite flashlights I have and I have these all over my house, you can hear it right there.

These are super bright flashlights.

Coast Polysteel 600,000 lumen LED flashlight with pure beam twist focus stainless steel core Crush proof black.

30 bucks.

30 bucks on Amazon.

This is a great stocking stuffer.

Fits in a backpack, a purse fits in your hand.

I mean that's the thing is only probably 5 inches long.

It is great and super durable and battery powered and it's got the twist focus.

You can focus all that and it is a absolutely bulletproof, drop proof, dust resistant, crush proof, great light that you can have.

So this is great to put in the console, your car, you know, put it in someplace, keep it around your house.

Great to have by the bed.

It's small in case of a power outage or just any place you need some backup light.

These are just little torches that go in there and it's 30 bucks.

So it's a great stocking stuffer from anybody to a student out there, to a kid, to anybody else.

Now I've got one more in that $30 price range I want to talk about right here.

This is a great stocking stuff around the house.

We'll be right back.

We'll have more of this information on this stuff@aroundthehouseonline.com when you want to look for yourself.

We'll be right back.

Welcome back to the around the House show.

The next generation of home improvement brought to you by our friends over at Monument Grills.

To find out more, check them out@monument grills.com and get that order placed soon so you can have it for the holidays.

Now we've been talking about my favorite gifts here that you can really get quickly of Amazon or run down to your home improvement store or something like that.

Because I don't want you have to wait weeks.

And the way their shipping goes these days, I mean, I just got a package here a few weeks ago that wasn't even really in the Christmas holiday shipping thing yet.

But I don't know where FedEx dropped it, but it was not anywhere near my house because I don't even know what.

When you look at the picture on the app, I'm like that colors and around my house.

Luckily, good neighbors, wherever they were, came by and dropped off at my house.

And that was delivered to the wrong one.

And thank you for taking it by and dropping it off at my place where it needed to go when we're going out to break here.

We were talking about a great little tape measure that I love and that's the Crescent lufkin Shock Force G2.

It is the 35 foot Nighteye Magnetic Tape Measure 1.

It's a black tape measure with yellow highlighted numbers on it, which is great.

I like seeing it in bright light.

I like seeing it.

It's easier for me to read.

And they make them in a bunch of different lengths.

I like the 35 one.

It's a really great long tape measure.

For bigger projects, they make 25s.

I have both of them.

They work really well.

But this gives you 17 inches of reach.

The magnetic hook is awesome because if you're measuring something, it really helps keep it up against any metal edge that you have.

Any corner trim or if you're working on steel studs, it's even better.

It just sticks to stuff.

So it's a really good magnetic at the end, which keeps it on, which I like it.

If I'm.

I'm measuring something where I've got a nail in or something like that, it makes it even better for those bigger projects where I'm trying to get some center lines, things like that, really great tape measure.

And for 30 bucks, that's a great deal.

So take a look at that.

And again, I'll have this one up sitting there on, up on around the House online dot com.

I'll have all these different products up there for you to take a look.

Now another one here I think is a great one.

And this one you're going to go, oh, really?

But I want you to consider it because what we're seeing is a lot of aging in place out there.

Maybe you're getting something for an aunt, an uncle.

You're getting something maybe for your parents or for a loved one.

Maybe it's your spouse, whoever it is.

And this one's a little interesting and I don't want you to give me too much grief over it, but I think it's a smart one because you want people in your life, the ones you care about, to be able to take care of themselves really for the longest that they can.

And now I'm going to talk about the toto that are out there.

Whether you're looking at the washlet or you're looking for a more expensive toilet, that is the way to go.

And I think you can really come up with a lot of choices with that.

Depending on what you're looking at, you can look at stuff that you can grab at.

You could jump online and get something you can run down to Costco if they're there.

Sometimes they are, sometimes they're not.

But really when you take a look at that, there is a great gift for somebody.

Because here's the thing, when you think about it, you're giving them the freedom.

If they're getting older or if they're hurt, they can be able to take care of themselves without having to ask for help.

And there's a lot of added dignity there.

And who doesn't like a heated toilet seat?

So take a look.

You can get them online, Wayfair, Lowe's, Home Depot, Build.com courses.

Prices are all over the place, but all it takes is to have an outlet back there behind the toilet.

And guess what?

You plug that in, hook it up to the water line that is going up to the toilet tank already bolted on there and you're good to go.

So you're adding that self care comfort.

You've got eco friendly tech.

You don't have to worry about that.

Loss of toilet paper.

If we have any toilet paper shortages again, you're going to be good to go.

And of course this is the best of the best.

There's a reason why high end homes put in Toto.

And you know, Toto makes more toilets out there than American Standard and Kohler combined.

They are the clear number one manufacturer out there and they just make a better one.

I've been using them for over, oh geez, probably 12 or 15 years now is my exclusive on almost every project I've done that it has fit the bill for.

So they are the king of that.

So there's a lot you can look at that.

I mean you can get crazy too.

If you're building a super luxury house, you can go spend 270, 271 bucks on a washlet or you can go in there and get crazy with the Toto Nealest and pay $20,000 for one too.

So if you saw that south park episode, it's funny, but this is a great way to go also.

Just a housewarming gift, new year gift, anything like that.

It's a good way to go.

So take a look on Amazon or your favorite online retailer.

Most of them have it, Lowe's, Home Depot, those kind of people have it on there as well.

And again, sometimes I've seen them on Costco on their shelves inside the store if you're a Costco member.

So take a look at that.

I really love to see the products that are out there so you can be something very comfortable.

We switched over to them in my house.

And I tell you what, when you get into a bidet toilet like this, it's one of those things that with the washlet, people come over and they don't want to leave your bathroom.

So it's a pretty cool thing and a great conversation piece at that.

So check out Toto.

You can give a gift that'll help somebody out as well.

Now one of my favorite tools here that I just absolutely love.

And this is made by Gerber.

Now Gerber Gerber Products.

Literally their main office is five minutes from my house.

They're down the street.

I drive past them when I go to my local big box home center for home improvement stuff.

They're right next door.

I literally drive right past the front of that place and they are a Portland institution.

But Gerber gear is everywhere.

You've seen them out there.

Now they have got, I think this is one of my favorite multi tools.

So this is the Gerber Gear Center Drive multi tool.

So it's got a three and a quarter plain edge knife, needle Nose pliers, center axis built driver, wire cutter, pry bar, nail puller and more.

Comes with the bit set sheath in black.

Made right down the street from my house here in usa.

I saw him making it a few weeks ago when I was down there.

And you can get it online.

Amazon 135, 134 bucks.

134.98 is the price today at least.

And boy you can get those things quick.

And it is a premium survival tool.

So this is great.

This is something great that you can give somebody whether it's a young kid that is just getting out into home improvement or maybe getting into their scouting or whatever they're getting into hiking outdoors.

This is a tool that really works.

And so you got the 16 in 1 solution equipped with a 12 piece bit set and it is ready to rock.

So with that center drives it gives you maximum torque and efficient rotation.

For using that you got spring loaded pliers.

And so you can deploy the needle nose pliers single handedly.

It's a one thumb opening system, X channel rail design.

So it is really cool.

So Gerber Gear is an amazing company.

They started about 85 years ago and they've been doing this great and a lot of their products are made right here in the US Literally right down the street where I saw these things getting made.

So take a look when you're looking at Gerber, if you support the Made in USA stuff, take a peek.

Those guys do a great job.

They label it, you'll see it Made in usa.

Some of the stuff is overseas but I know they're expanding and bringing more of that back.

Like many companies, which I love.

And the more we can do to support that Made in USA stuff, I really like it, especially when it comes to building stuff like this.

And one thing about Gerber Gear as well, take a look at their custom shop.

Yeah, you can order it.

Those guys made me a around the house knife.

That is absolutely beautiful.

Put my logo in the blade.

Super cool people.

Great stuff.

So take a look at the custom shop when you go over to Gerber Gear and take a look at them.

But Amazon is a great way to get something quick.

Now when we come back, we're going to wrap up more of these here for your Christmas holiday gifts.

And I've got an amazing brand of tools you might have heard me talk about a year or so ago.

We'll talk about when we come back around the house.

We'll be right back.

Don't change that dial.

Welcome back to the around the House show.

The next Generation of home improvement.

I'm Eric G.

And thanks for joining me today.

We're always having fun here on the radio and if you want to find out more about us, head over to around the house online.com and you can message you there and find of course all of our social media and everything else over there.

You know, just head to TikTok.

We've got YouTube, we got Instagram, we got Facebook, we got our Facebook group Around the House nation.

All those different things ready to help you on your next home improvement project.

Now this hour is brought to you by our friends at Monte McGrills.

Check them out at montemcrills.com We've been talking here about some of my favorite gift ideas that you can get quick Amazon online, your home improvement store and one of my favorite ones, a brand of tools you might not have heard about but they're amazing Wiha w IHA and they have an impact bit set that goes on the end of your impact driver or drill that is killer.

These things, I've never broken one and I've put them through the paces and they are durable and these things are so cool for that stocking stuffer.

So it gets you all the different bits and it's got this energy absorbing torsion zone for 120 times performance over a standard bit.

So it's really good.

So it's a premium quality tool steel for strength and durability and they really made these things fit into that really well.

So they've found the right grade of steel as well that gives you some flex without breaking them off.

So it's a really good deal.

So you could sit there get this for about 30 bucks.

It is a killer deal when you're out looking for stuff out there.

And check out WIHA tools German company, their screwdrivers are next level awesome.

So that is something I would sure take a look at and it is awesome.

Now the next one here is interesting and this one is super fun and it's something that you know for the budget Chinese cheap tool actually works really well.

Take a look at the when I'm talking laser levels there is one a laser level a tripod.

It is Hupar hue par their 90 foot 98 foot self leveling laser level green line laser.

This thing for the price is money.

Now get this is what's cool about this.

So this comes with the with a tripod.

It's designed for.

It's got the laser cross line.

So it's made for picture hanging tile, home renovation, indoor projects, battery carrying case included.

It's got everything runs on two double A batteries.

Literally, guys, it's 50 bucks.

You don't have to go out and buy $1,000 name brand or a $500 or $300 name brand, one that's probably made over there in the same place anyway.

But this thing is Money.

It's off 38% regular, 79.99 on Amazon, 49.99.

And this is a money saver as far as time.

So it's got self leveling, it's got the manual mode.

You can really go through and really set stuff up.

So whether you're doing tile on the wall, you're doing anything, it doesn't do the floor, but it does do your ceilings.

And so something to look at.

Now they make them for other applications so you can go through.

And the manual mode's nice because if you want to set it up to do an angle, like if you're running something up a staircase and you're trying to do moldings or something like that and you want to really get it in there, you can do that.

But I tell you what, it is a really cool deal for that.

Now they do make other ones that if you're doing floor tile, you're doing things like that.

Of course you can dive into those, but they're really not that much more.

So you can get into the Huepar laser level of 360, self leveling.

This is a rechargeable green beam and 3D laser level, 124 bucks.

So you can see what's going on there.

And some of these are just really killer deals.

So take a peek at it.

There's a lot you can work with these and some of them you can get as crazy as you want.

But really most of them are under 300 bucks across the board, no matter how crazy you get with it.

So if you get the 16 line self leveling laser level, 4 by 3, 60 degree cross laser level with receiver, LCD screen, Bluetooth green, all the crazy stuff still under 300 bucks.

You see where I'm going?

So check out Hupar Huepar.

I'll put that up on our around the house online with a link to it so you can see which one if you're thinking about it.

But for 50 bucks in the tripod, you can get their basic one for about 30 bucks online as well.

Take a look at these guys.

That was one of my first ones I bought recently.

And of course, I've got some other ones, but that one is so easy to set up and use.

And a lot of these come with a magnet base on it as well.

So you can literally go stick it to a piece of metal, put it on a piece of corner, trim, whatever, and it's a great way to go for that next project.

So that's a great one right there.

I'm really super stoked about that.

Now, the last one here is a little bit more money on my list here that I wanted to talk about.

But again, it's from our friends over at Monument Grill.

If you're looking for an inexpensive barbecue, we've talked about this, and what they do is they make some great grills.

And this one here, it's good, affordable grill.

So let's talk about this for a minute.

I'm talking about their Mesa 425B's grill.

Now, these guys have a lot of sales on the holidays, which is okay.

But the Mesa series is really cool.

And I like this for a midline.

A midline grill.

So the Mesa series gives you all the stuff you're looking for in this.

So the 425B kind of gets you, depending on what you're looking at.

Like the black one there.

Mesa 425.

435 bucks for a really great barbecue.

And it's got a window in the lid, and it's got the illuminated knob, lights.

It's got 52,000 BTUs of power, 50 square inches of cooking area, and of course, just a really solid grill for outdoors.

And for 420, 435 bucks, you're good to go.

So that is something to take a peek at.

Great quality.

If you order online, they deliver between three to seven days, so you can get it there quick.

Sometimes Lowe's has them as well.

But really take a peek out there if you want something bigger, heavy duty.

We've talked about it before.

Look at the Denali 605 Stainless Smart Tech Natural Propane Gas Grill 799.

That is the kind of the king of the hill of theirs.

But I tell you what, for some of these other grills, for a lot less money, a little bit smaller.

But you can get a great grill with Monument Grills.

And that, guys, wraps up my top holiday gift guide.

But we got a lot more show to go here.

I wanted to start talking about a little bit of safety on some issues that I'm seeing coming up again and they pop up in the news again.

And I wanted to start talking about this in the last segment of doing some holiday safety around here because I'm seeing stuff happen again and I'm like, okay, we're losing too many people out there needlessly.

So the first up I wanted to talk about is one of the biggest mistakes I see people make in their homes with electricity, and that is using power strips to power anything with any kind of electricity going to it.

You cannot take a power strip and run an air conditioner, a space heater, anything like that.

This is that time of year right now, as we get into deep winter, that we see house fires, business fires, office fires, especially office fires, for leaving that space heater underneath the desk on, and the trash can gets tipped over, a piece of paper ends up down there, and now you've got a major fire.

And I know plenty of places that I have worked in the past that have banned space heaters because they don't want to in the workplace, because they don't want to burn the place down.

And I've just seen it so many times.

I had a business next door to mine here probably nine years ago, eight years ago, that the space heater in the office did exactly that.

But you see even more of it where people hook them into.

They'll go, plug it in.

They'll go, oh, there's a power strip.

Bam.

And all of a sudden, those power strips are not rated.

They're rated for low voltage Christmas lights.

They're rated for maybe hooking your computer up.

They are not meant to hook a table saw, a heater, anything like that.

You are going to overload it and those things will catch on fire before you even know it.

They melt down and you've got a heck of a problem.

So that's one of the big ones right there.

That is probably one of the leading causes of fires out there, of plugging something in is just overloading that power strip.

And just, guys, if you have that in your house, you see it say something to somebody, hey, guys, you got that plugged in?

That's.

That's an issue.

See something, say something, as they say.

All right, we come back.

I'm gonna have some more safety tips here for you to maybe just bring up as a refresher.

So we don't have any disasters over the holidays.

And so we'll talk about preventing disasters here in this last segment around the holidays, especially when you got family and friends coming over.

I got some tips for you.

We'll do that just as soon as around the HOUSE returns.

Welcome back to the around the House show, the next generation of home improvement.

Thanks for joining me today.

I'm Eric G.

If you're just joining us, we were just talking about my holiday gift guide for last minute gifts.

Stuff you can buy either locally or on Amazon or any one of those places you can get pretty quickly.

And now this last segment of the hour, we're going to be talking about something fun, how to maybe stop those holiday disasters from coming on.

And it could be something simple, it could be something big.

So here is my list to help make the holidays just a little bit easier.

When we went out to break, I was talking about just making sure space heaters and stuff were not plugged into power strips or extension cords, things like that, that you're following the manufacturer's directions.

The best one here that I can give you and this is an important one.

If you are having people over to your house for the holidays, make sure that your toilets are in working order.

How many times does somebody come over, maybe it's an aunt, it's an uncle or grandparent or somebody, and now somebody's asking for the plunger.

This is something that can usually be avoided with either maintenance where you're going in and swapping out repair parts, making sure that's working, or you're upgrading those hundred dollar name brand, store name brand toilets that you put in there that were the the house brand of whatever home improvement story you went into and putting in something that's going to flush, well, that's virtually impossible to plug up and that's using something like a toto.

I love the toto.

Drake's.

That's a great toilet to put in there, about 300 bucks to get a good one, but you can pretty much toss away that plunger.

And if you've got a whole bathroom downstairs that's off the kitchen or off the family room, off the dining room that everybody's using, that might be the place to put that.

Because if you install that toilet, the chance of plugging that up without kids putting toys in it or doing something crazy is next to impossible.

Like I say, once you put in something that is quality, it just doesn't happen anymore.

And here's why.

What they've done with toilets, you look back at 20 year old 1.6 gallon toilets, they were horrible.

When they first in the 90s changed those things over to that engineering was not figured out on the toilet.

They just said oh, we use less water, it'll be fine.

You ended up flushing that thing three times and you're using as much as the three to five gallon toilets that were in the 70s and 80s.

So that was one of those things that was a.

It was a bad misstep by the government getting ahead of the toilet manufacturers.

And it just didn't work well in the us well, as time goes on, at first we had a little black market of the toilet supplies out there where people are taking out their three and a half gallon ones and selling them and getting as much as a new toilet.

Because I was working the home improvement in those days.

It was happening.

But really what you're seeing now is over the last five to 10 years, you've seen the biggest brand like Toto, largest brand and manufacturer out there.

These guys have gone out and they have really designed.

I've been using them for at least 15 years here in the US and almost every project and they just don't plug up.

You gotta try.

I was showing up at probably seven or eight years ago at the home yet the big design and construction week in Las Vegas or Orlando, wherever, and Toto was sitting there, they had a bucket of golf balls and they were flushing them down as a test to show that you could basically do anything.

You couldn't do that with those American toilets.

Now these companies have finally seen what Toto is doing, your American standards, your Kohlers, and they've dialed it in, they've started to copy what they're doing and they've made better toilets.

But Toto is still just one step ahead of everybody else.

I've still not seen a toilet that flushes better than one of theirs.

So really it might be worth that extra hundred bucks that you spend at the home center for the cheapy one.

But put something in there and your local plumbing store should have them.

You'll be good as gold.

You'll be dialed in.

You can get them at different heights.

I like the comfort height, it's a little bit better.

It's not so low to the ground.

So for adults, especially with bad knees, a little bit easier to get up and down.

And of course, if you want to do a bidet toilet seat at that point, it's up to you.

But if you're not into those, it's fine.

Just put a good toilet in, it's going to save you a bunch of headaches on that as well.

Now the other one is Christmas lights exterior.

Make sure you understand where the GFCI that that is Plugged into that ground fault circuit interrupter where the reset button is.

Because many times that outlet that's outside for your Christmas lights could be hooked into the bathroom.

As far as, you know, in the electrical system, Depending on how old your house is, that could have a GFCI outlet.

You don't know how to reset it.

So I get.

This time of year, I usually get four or five emails that come in, how do I reset that?

And I tell people where to go look for that so they can find it.

Many times it's hiding behind the refrigerator in the garage.

That's probably one of the most common places because there's a outlet up there that's high.

It's a GFCI outlet.

People back the fridge, plug it into that, which those really aren't designed to run off a GFCI outlet anyway.

But that thing wears out.

They wear out about every 10 years.

And they plug the Christmas lights in and it kicks off and people are going, what's happening?

So that happens.

And these days, Christmas lights, I tell you what, the quality has not come along with technology.

They are getting lower and lower.

I put in to test out two really smart light strings out back.

And I've been dealing with their customer service now for.

I was going to do a story on them.

Been dealing with their customer service now for two weeks.

And these smart lights are not working.

They've gotten wet.

They were not designed for Pacific Northwest rain, even though they're fully rated for exterior.

And I'm gonna have to pull these things down because they are just failing.

They've only been up for four months.

Some of these things don't work.

And that's what I'm doing out there and testing them to see what goes on.

But when I have two strings up and they're both failing, we know that there's a engineering problem in there that they're gonna have to fix.

And when I pull the bulb covers off their LEDs, there's moisture inside everything and it's not sealed up well.

So I can see that they've got a problem with these.

And they did not seal them up.

They're not designed for a wet area, even though they're rated for it.

So be careful out there, guys.

And those Christmas lights, unless you bought permanent mount ones that are meant to be outside 365 days a year, when you go into your home improvement store and buy lights, those are meant to go up for a month, be taken down, go for a month, they are not UV rated to be out there 24, 7.

So you need to make sure you're using the right ones there.

Now, next up here, this is the time of year that you see cooking fires.

Like how Thanksgiving we had our turkey fires, right?

We had people taken in.

This was crazy.

We had people taking their turkey fryers and putting them in the kitchen inside.

Like, awesome.

Can I get a side of carbon monoxide poisoning with my turkey, please?

Think everybody's going to sleep in the turkey?

No, it's the carbon monoxide that they're trying to poison you with.

But really, this is the time that we start seeing a lot of people baking, a lot of people not paying attention, lots of things going on.

And we have fires.

So have that fire extinguisher, have the fire blanket in there.

Those are great inventions.

You can throw that over a cooktop fire like 15 bucks on Amazon.

You can throw it on there.

Good to go.

That takes care of it.

Put the fire out.

And the thing I like about the blankets is you throw it on there, it puts the fire out.

What's awesome with that is you don't have the fire extinguisher mess to clean up.

Tell you what, that's the bigger project is cleanup after that because that stuff goes everywhere and it's a pain to deal with.

So think about that and then go through and do some maintenance.

Do not the day before Christmas with two days before Christmas.

Throw the oven in self cleaning mode.

Do it now.

Do it before you do a bunch of baking because you can get some of that kind of burnt taste.

If your book, if you're doing pies right after self cleaning oven, not the best taste.

So if you have to get it cleaned up, do it now.

Bake some stuff in there.

Don't worry about it that way it's seasoned well going in there.

And the same thing if you're barbecuing outside.

Is your barbecue cleaned up?

Don't do it right before the big cook.

Make sure you don't have any grease fires.

Make sure that stuff's dialed in.

And while you're out on the appliance maintenance, just go around, make sure the fridge is working.

Vacuum out the dust bunnies underneath it.

Make sure your filters are good.

Just be prepped for everything there.

Check the ice in the ice maker.

If you got that beer fridge outside that's got the ice maker and when's the last time you pulled ice out of it?

Toss the ice, put a new one in there, get it cleaned up so you got backup ice.

That's some of the smart stuff.

You can do to get ready.

And then the other thing is, when you've got people over, use some ventilation.

Turn your fan on medium or high.

That's moving air around the house.

Turn on some bath fans, Crack a window.

If it's not too cold or too hot outside, get some ventilation going in there.

Because what happens is when you're having that big party and you got a bunch of people in your living room, many times it's not the food you ate, People relaxed.

They got a couple cocktails in them, but it's the carbon dioxide in there.

Let's make everybody sleep.

So if you want people to bail out of there because you're getting tired, don't do that.

But if you want people to stay awake for the rest of the day, make sure you got some ventilation going in there.

A couple of bath fans, cracked window.

Maybe not the most energy efficient, but at least you can get some fresh air inside.

If you've got a newer home, then you've probably got an energy recovery ventilator.

If you've got a skylight you can open.

These are all little tricks to help keep that air fresh inside.

And that'll work really well for you that way.

So those are some of my tricks.

Make sure you don't have any leaks.

Everything's working.

Make sure that you've got a new filter in the.

In the furnace, so the air is moving.

You don't have the thing broken down for the holidays.

And then just basic safety.

And you guys can have a great holiday season.

And of course, all this food.

Make sure you're watching the dates on the food.

You don't get food poisoning by keeping those leftovers a little bit longer than you should.

All right, that wraps up the first hour of the show.

Make sure you catch the second hour.

If you're on the radio and they're only catching the first hour, don't worry.

You can catch that on your favorite pod player.

Happy holidays to everybody out there.

I'm Eric G.

And thanks for tuning in to this hour of around the House.