Recreation center in Schaumburg, Illinois, closed until further notice after fire
A construction crew hit a gas line in the 200-block of East Weathersfield Way Monday around 11 a.m., causing a fire. The recreation center and its outdoor pool were both evacuated.
The fire was contained to the construction site and no injuries were reported, village officials said. NICOR was called to the scene to shut off the gas and the road was closed for hours during the response and investigation.
The Schaumburg Park District said as of Wednesday, it was still working to restore critical systems and ensure the facility is safe.
The Meineke Pool at the recreation center will also remain closed until further notice.
Members of the Meineke Recreation Center may use the CRC and the Schaumburg Tennis Plus facilities.
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You could even print out a few copies of the before and after pictures and post them in each room that you want to work in as a little extra boost. Decluttering doesn't have to be a solo task. In fact, you could really benefit from enlisting some help from a trusted friend or family member. Having someone else with you will give you an extra set of hands, which can come in handy if you need to move heavy items or take multiple trips up or down the stairs to put things away. However, even more than that, your friend can serve as a backstop to help you make the right decisions about what you should keep — and what you don't really need. If you've been holding on to something for sentimental reasons, a friend might be able to assist you in deciding if it is really worth letting it take up the space. After a discussion, you might decide that the space is more valuable than the memory attached to the item and that simply taking a picture of it will be sufficient. Similarly, your friend could help you weed through your utensil drawer and guide you to realizing you don't really need five sets of serving tongs. If you haven't heard of the four basket method and how it can help declutter and organize your home, then you've been missing out. Despite being a simple and straightforward technique, you'll be surprised by how much you're able to pare down what you own and make more space for what you actually need. As the name implies, you'll need four baskets (or boxes/bins) for each room/space you go through. Make quick labels for each container: keep, sell, donate, and trash. Once you have the materials set up, you're ready to start decluttering. As you pick up an item, decide which category it belongs in, and place it in the correct basket. You might find it helpful to fully empty the room/closet that you are trying to organize. This gives you a blank canvas and lets you see how much room you truly have. Plus, it will also put everything into a central location, like a bed or a table, so you won't have to keep moving around to grab items and bring them to the right box. Once you've finished sorting everything out, take time to organize the keep bin and return things where they belong. Then, deal with the remaining three baskets promptly. Put the garbage in a trash bag (or recycle as appropriate), bring the clothes to a local donation center, and get the sell pile listed on an online marketplace or brought to a consignment store as soon as possible. You don't want to leave anything lying around for long; it will only add clutter to a new space in your home. Making decisions about what to keep and what to let go of isn't always easy. What you don't want to do is get into a lengthy debate with yourself over the worthiness of keeping a particular item. This will significantly lengthen the overall process if you spend several minutes going back and forth over whether to keep one thing. You're also much more likely to lose your motivation to keep working if you've barely made a dent after 20 or 30 minutes. Instead, keep yourself focused and moving along by having a set of questions ready to ask yourself any time you wonder whether you should be keeping something. Start by considering whether you actually like and will use something — don't hold on to a gift from a friend or family member if you know it will permanently reside in the closet. You can also ask yourself if you actually need the item. For example, even if you have 25 t-shirts that you actually like, you don't need that many. This would be a good opportunity to weed through the pile and declutter. Before you begin decluttering, think about what you want the space to look like once you're finished. In order to be successful and accomplish that goal, you might need to let go of a fair number of things. One strategy that could help you avoid keeping more than you should is to place limits on yourself. Tell yourself that you can only keep what will fit on a given shelf in the closet, or in a drawer in the kitchen. Begin by clearing everything off the shelf and moving it to a table, countertop, or bed. As you go through the pile, place the items that you want to keep back into the drawer or onto the shelf. If it becomes too full before you've finished decluttering, then you'll need to take a second pass and pick out a few more items that you really don't need to keep. By setting a limit at the beginning — and holding yourself to it throughout the process — you can make sure that you get rid of enough to gain back the space and organizational potential that you were looking for. The 90/90 rule is another technique that can help you declutter your space. This "rule" encourages you to prioritize what to keep by focusing on whether an item is something you actually use. Each "90" in the title refers to a question you should ask yourself. The first question to ask is whether you have used a particular belonging over the past 90 days. If you answer "yes," then keeping the item would be reasonable. If you answer "no," then you'll need to move on to the second question, which is whether you will use the item in the next 90 days. If the answer to this question is also "no," then you likely won't have a use for it and should just let it go. To put the 90/90 rule into practice, pick one area of your home you've been wanting to declutter. Make sure you have a box ready to collect all of the things you decide to let go of, and then get started. Pick up one item at a time, ask yourself the two questions, and decide what to do with it. If it is something you have used recently or will in the near future, return it to where it belongs. Alternatively, you could set up a table or use the bed to hold everything you decide to keep until you've finished going through the full space. This way, you'll be able to better organize everything at the end — and you might even find a few duplicates or very similar things you could part with. Maybe it's just us, but turning anything into a challenge automatically makes it sound more appealing and motivating. When you add in the support of a close friend or family member, you'll likely feel even more positive about your chances of success. For this reason, embarking on a 30-day decluttering challenge with a friend may be just what you need to finally get rid of all of those items you've been holding on to over the years. There are different ways you and your friend might choose to structure your challenge. You could pick a different room/zone of the house to declutter each day. For example, one day might focus on the linen closet, one on the console table in the entry room, and one on the pantry. Another idea is to try the 30-day minimalism game. With this "game," you and your friend would each have to get rid of (trash, sell, or donate) a number of items to match the day of the month. So, on the fifth day of the month, you'd clear out five items, and on the 28th, you'd get rid of 28 things. When all is said and done, that means you will have gotten rid of an impressive 465 different items. Think about one area of your home you'd like to declutter. If you look back over the past weeks (or months), how many times have you looked at that area, seen something that needed to be put away or given away, and thought, "I'll do it later?" If you're like many people, the answer is probably several times. This "I can do it later" mindset can really interfere with you keeping your home clutter-free. Later either never comes, or, if it does, you're left with a huge mound of items, instead of just the original one or two things. If you teach yourself to deal with clutter as it starts popping up, you can avoid facing a mountainous mess. One of the best ways to set yourself up for success and to ensure this method works seamlessly is to establish a "donate bin" in an easily accessible location. This will avoid the added friction of trying to track down an empty box, which could prevent you from following through with getting rid of an item, or result in the clutter pile simply shifting. Consider where you will put this bin, such as under the entryway console table, on a shelf in the garage, or in an extra cabinet in the kitchen. If the location is visible, opting for an attractive basket with a lid, such as the Honcesta Large Storage Basket With Lid, can prevent it from sticking out like a sore thumb against the rest of your home's decor. Enjoyed this article? Get expert home tips, DIY guides, and design inspiration by signing up to the House Digest newsletter! Read the original article on House Digest.
