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The Easy-to-Find Information Center

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Household information links and commentary

Slightly Creaky does extensive research to find the links you would most likely need and provides them for you in an easy-to-find format. You can access this information from any of our web pages using the top or side menus. Each division has generalized headings, followed by more specific ones.

Thus, if you are looking for help with a dripping faucet, you could access it through the "Leaky Pipes" page where there is information on plumbing, electrical, carpentry, and other household repairs. We attempt to keep all information no more than two levels below the topic home page.

 

Click to access category

  • Entertaining. Whether you have one person visiting or five dozen, we provide links to sites to make entertaining easier and unique. There is also a suggestion about planning events outside your home, in your yard, a park, or a formal banquet hall.

  • On the Table. Providing a listing of web sites that provide generalized or specific recipes and cooking suggestions. Each week we also feature a viewer's Favorite Recipe. Send yours (original only, not copied) to recipes@slightlycreaky. If you try any of the items on this page, please submit a review.

  • Leaky Pipes. Covering many types of household (and outside the house) repairs.

  • Pets. Mice, horses, cats, fish, dogs, and dozens more. We provide information about care and feeding, boarding, medical and health. Have you ever thought about putting a GPS tracer in your dog or cat (or iguana)?

  • Hobbies & Interests. Indoors or out, this section looks at the way people spend their leisure time. Designing model train layouts, knitting, gardening, collecting, exercising, and even creating web sites. We also have a special page for Online Games.
         There are 20 web pages in this section, To access them, go to the Hobbies & Interests Main Page.

  • News, Information & Literature. Newspapers, news magazines, books (print and audible), and a considerable amount of information is now available online. If you are interested in reading the New York Times, looking up what is showing on TV, or checking out information in an encyclopedia or dictionary, there are a huge amount of resources here.

  • Virtual Communities. This is a Slightly Creaky exclusive, bringing you web cams from around the world with monthly special features and updates. Watch cruise ships, traffic, take tours zoos, and even peek into nighclubs and resorts.

Every link is checked out weekly by our volunteer research. Should you find a link that is misdirected or non-functioning, please report it to our Webmaster. Should you wish to suggest an addition to this site, submit it to suggestions@slightlycreaky.com.

Be sure to read our Submission Policy and Disclaimer.

Links to Featured Items

Links to Featured Items
(or scroll down to see them)

Featured Article


Rat-Pack Syndrome

For most people, collecting is a perfectly healthy behavior. It's an outlet for expressing passion for just about anything, such as stamps, wine, art, shoes, sports cards and comic books. Everything is fair game. However, in some cases, collecting may get out of hand. People have been known to hoard items compulsively, not out of necessity, appreciation, or financial investment. They just find themselves unable to part with anything.  Abnormal collecting can disrupt normal life, causing problems for the collector and the people they live with.

A compulsive pack rat is not of any specific age or gender.  A person with this problem may hoard items due to certain events which may have happened in his or her life. A  behavior often seen is hoarding of items which no longer have any value. This could be in the form of sentimental objects which are no longer of any use or of items which someone wants to keep out of fear of forgetting particular memories.

At worst, compulsive hoarding can cause fires, unclean conditions such as rodent infestations, injuries caused by tripping on clutter, and other health and safety hazards, The hoarder may mistakenly believe that the items are very valuable, or may realize that they are useless. A pack rat may have a refrigerator filled with food items that expired months ago without ever eating them, but would vehemently resist any attempts from relatives to dispose of the unusable food items.

This is a disease which must be treated. However, you should not become confrontational and should first work on a specific strategy prior to talking with a person who you feel has this problem. You should talk with his or her family members and make a decision on how you want to handle this behavior as a group.  It will not help you if you decide to confront the person by yourself as you will more than likely need help from others in making this person address his or her problem.

Have you ever put aside broken items with the expectation that you'll get them fixed one day? Chances are that these items are still where you left them and they're still broken. Immediately schedule a date on your calendar and repair them when the date rolls around or toss the items right now while you are thinking of it.

Beware of being held hostage by your possessions. When your stuff begins taking over your life and you spend all your time climbing over things, looking for missing items, and fretting over where you'll put your next treasure, you are wasting precious time that you can never buy back. As a rule, if you don't use it or enjoy it, it's nothing more than clutter. If you don't know what it is, it's clutter. If it's too nice to use, it's clutter. Toss it or give it to someone who will use it and appreciate it.

Resources:
 Extreme Pack rats Need Help
How to Know If You Are A Hoarder Or Just A Messy Housekeeper
Pack-Rat Syndrome
The Brothers Grim

 

Favorite Recipe             (January 13)

These have been submitted by viewers. Slightly Creaky is not responsible for content; please use precautions.
Click here for previously submitted recipes

Esther’s Crockpot

Beef & Barley Soup     

 

1 ½ lbs. beef chuck cut into 1 inch pieces
1 tablespoon oil
3 medium carrots cut into thick slices
2 medium parsnips cut into slices
3 ribs celery cut into slices
1 medium onion coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon dried Italian herb mix
½ teaspoon pepper
½ cup regular barley (pearl)
6 cups beef broth
1 (14 ½ oz.) can undrained diced tomatoes

Brown beef in oil.  Mix vegetables in crockpot and sprinkle with herbs and pepper.  Top with barley then beef.  Pour in broth and undrained tomatoes.  Cover and cook on low 5-6 hours.  Before serving add a couple of handfuls of frozen kernal corn and more broth if needed. 

Serves 6-8

 

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The obvious legal statement.

The folks at Slightly Creaky are volunteers. None of us get any salary or compensation in any form. We are not a corporation, just a few folks working out of our houses. If anything on this site bothers you, if you notice mistakes, please let us know.

While we do maintain editorial rights, things slip past, especially on the message boards. The submitted columns and news articles, as well as the postings on the message boards, belong to the contributor(s), not to the Slightly Creaky team. We are simply a vehicle bringing you information to the best of our ability. We have no control over the sites we link to. Web site contents frequently change. If you find anything improper, objectionable or not working, please notify us.

Be sure to read our complete Legal Information and Policies