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  • Hi, I’m Emily

    Emily Fazio

    I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle.

    You can find me writing for Home Living Handbook, HGTV.com, and a handful of other websites. Follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note if you'd like. I love notes.

    Thanks for visiting!

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Home + Garden Inspiration

March 18, 2011

We attended the Buffalo Home + Garden Show last weekend, just for fun, to get a little insight into newer technologies and improvement processes. Not only are the free pens and lip glosses top of the line (pomegranate!), but we stumbled upon a few cool products too. I think you’ll like them.

Emily, exploring and schmoozing with the best of them.

First of all, the swag. (Please, I hope someone other than me is reading it “stuff we all get…. swwwwaaaag” like Michael Scott.) I’m mostly excited about the new magazines; I don’t subscribe to any of these at the moment, although Buffalo Spree’s a nice to have and I even have friends outside of Buffalo that still subscribe. And I just had to have DESIGNNY and the Under The Dome catalogue, which highlights the Botanical Gardens.

Freebie magazines. I hand-selected my favorites. And way to go, Natural Fuel; we made out well with you, scoring at least $15 worth of insulation products, which, I’ll add, completely covered the cost of our bought-online-at-discount tickets. We don’t even get Natural Fuel here in Rochester, but I can tell you that this sways me to like you more than our current provider. Yes, we only took one bag although I’m sure their marketing budget would have permitted us to take two. Electric switch sealers, you say?

Thanks to Buffalo's Natural Gas Service for all of these insulative goodies! This next one of Pete is just a subtle reminder that we really want Verizon FiOS in Rochester. Work on it, Verizon. And we really don’t need any more of these reusable bags, but it definitely was the strongest bag we picked up along the way and therefore was well worth it since we (well, I) picked up a lot of swwwwaaagggg.

Run that fiber into Rochester, Verizon. We want you, I swear. But as far as the cool products that I think you’ll really like? Here are three that are pretty neat: Bagster, Kanberra Gel, and LeafGuard.

I really dug Waste Management’s DIY dumpster system, Bagster. Although it’s a comparable price, yet less space than a real dumpster, you wouldn’t have to deal with the delivery planning and time limits so many contractors make you commit to. And it still holds a LOT (3,300 pounds, or 42 sheets of drywall, which we’re oh so familiar with the size/weight of after this project). A dumpster bag, in a bag. I could hardly contain my amazement. I should have known about this. Besides being less obtrusive than a huge metal dumpster sinking into your blacktop, the best part to me is that you can go pick it up when you want (it’s $30 at our Lowe’s), so it’s ready to use as soon as you are, say, if you were waiting for a perfectly warm weekend to demo the bathroom or replace windows or clean out the garage. When you’re ready for it to be picked up, Waste Management drives on over, hauls it into it’s dumpster, and it can go straight into the landfill. They do charge for pickup based on your location, but even considering the cost to purchase and the pick-up fees, it’s not unreasonable in exchange for the benefit of having a dumpster on hand all the time. Note: the rep totally told me it was biodegradable at the show, but I can’t find anything to validate that on their website, boo.)

(Editors note 3/23/2011: The Bagster is made of polypropylene, a material that will decompose over time, so that makes me like it even more. According to Sr. Marketing Manager at Waste Management, Dave Friedman, they’re working on a way to effectively and safely remove the Bagster from the disposal process so it can be recycled. His comment validates what the show sales rep informed me of. Cheers to that! Thanks for the contribution, Dave!)

Nonetheless, a good product for small projects. Also, brand freaks, Bagster was highlighted by Ad Age as One Of America’s Hottest Brands.

Bagster, from Waste Management.

How about the next goodie? Meet Kanberra Gel. What? Yeah, I hadn’t heard about it either but you can pretty much guarantee than anything related to mold and overall poor air quality gives me the chills after watching Income Properties and Holmes on Homes, marathon-style.

The product (that sample that I snagged in the photo above) is a fresh-scented cream that, according to the brochure, is an “all natural, safe and effective air purifier [that] eliminates bacteria, fungi and other microorganisms.”

I had to try the Kanberra sample – it’s at work right now and based on the evaporation rate, it may only be for a few more days. The gel starts to dry out and slowly crack and disappear, all while neutralizing odors, and ridding the home of bacteria, molds, and all other kinds of things you don’t want to believe are actually there. It comes in a few different sizes (2-16oz containers) to treat areas as small as closets, as large as basements, and even works to purify household HVAC units (in a model that works directly with air handler units).

The last product we were wooed by was the Englert LeafGuard gutter system. I don’t even need new gutters (yet), but you know that feeling when you know there’s a better, more efficient model of something and you just have to have it? These gutters are more unique than traditional models because it’s [entering a brochure quote] “the only seamless, one-leaf protection available… that’s built to stay clog-free.”

Englert LeafGuard collateral.

I can think of plenty of homes with gutters that must be congested with leaves on a routine basis (mine’s not one of them, fortunately). The price wasn’t enormous either, especially given that you’d be saving on gutter cleanings and (yes, this is real) they’re guaranteed as long as you own your home.

Cool stuff, right?

OH. Just one more thing. I’m posting a picture of this dog house in hopes that someone will make me one for Cody. It even matches the big casa.

Dog house. That matches my house. No, really, I don’t need this, but I liked it a lot. If I’m ever on property with lots of land I’ll make a kids playhouse that looks like it. Scalloped siding detail makes me happy.

 

*I’m not affiliated with any of these products, and haven’t been paid to endorse any of them. The swag is just that, and no funds were exchanged for being featured in this post.

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Emily
I'm a home improvement enthusiast living a very merry, DIY-filled lifestyle. As a freelance writer, you can find my work on many popular home and garden sites, including HGTV.com, Home Living Handbook, a Pursuit Channel for Men's Journal, and other outlets. Follow me on social, or drop me a note.

10 Comments


Rebecca @ the lil house that could
March 18, 2011 at 9:44 am
Reply

I love going to those things! My husband and I recently went to the Philly Home Show. We left with a mop and some dip mixes. Needless to say I didn’t find any awesome blogworthy dog houses!



    Emily
    March 18, 2011 at 10:32 am

    I was on my best behavior and successfully avoided buying the dip mixes… or cheesecake mixes… or bread mixes… probably because we were already carrying too many bags of brochures and magazines. Oi, marketing collateral.

Rachel
March 21, 2011 at 11:06 am
Reply

Kanberra Gel- thats a neat sounding product!



    Emily
    March 21, 2011 at 11:22 am

    Yes – I’d be inclined to buy the product that went into a HVAC system if I had one. The sample size I’ve been using has been evaporating for a week and a half and still isn’t gone.

Irene
March 21, 2011 at 2:38 pm
Reply

Aha!

I’ve known about Bagster since last year, when we were considering getting one. The we realized that our town has homeowner clean up days where you can transport your stuff to the dump for free – SCORE! Our poor minivan sure did transfer a lot of crap.

I think the bags are awesome.



    Emily
    March 21, 2011 at 6:10 pm

    Lucky! I had been slowly tossing my stuff with the weekly trash before the big dumpster arrived :)

jb @BuildingMoxie
March 23, 2011 at 11:55 am
Reply

Emily — heck of a write up. thanks for the bagster coverage — and yeah, probably until about this point it was something I have passed saying — “ahhh… for reals? Nah.”) would be curious to see pick up costs and to hear whether they are marketing to contractors. I haven’t seen this Kanberra Gel yet . . . it’s interesting. anyway –thanks again. ~jb



    Emily
    March 23, 2011 at 1:25 pm

    Thanks for visiting, jb!

    I was impressed at the show how consumer-friendly it was. Seems more logical for a DIY-size project that’s too big for the garbage can but small enough to not warrant a dumpster, so maybe contractors would appreciate using it (especially if they’re working on a project that’s bound to have stops and starts or on a quickie project in a space where a real dumpster just wouldn’t be friendly).

    My Kanberra is almost completely dissolved, 1.5 weeks after putting it out to do it’s thang.

Briana
April 26, 2011 at 6:08 pm
Reply

Emily – polypropylene does breakdown over time, hundreds of years. Scientists estimate between 200 to 1000 years. Bet Waste Mgt is slow getting bagsters recycled – too labor intensive. When they sell their 1 millionth bag, it will be 3000 tons of highly recyclable material in the landfill.



    Emily
    April 26, 2011 at 6:22 pm

    Yes, it’s not ideal, and they’ve approached me directly about it citing ways that they can safely recycle while still providing a good consumer value while still providing a safe working environment for those employed at the company.

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