u/swhill1

one of the reasons we stuck with one kid was so we could actually afford to give her experiences. like dance class. with more than one kid i dont think we'd be able to do all the stuff we do now.

my daughters been doing ballet for a while and she's honestly so good. like not just saying that cause she's mine lol she actually has rhythm and coordination which she definitely didn't get from me.

she loves it so much she practices at home and i'm just watching her thinking yeah this is why we stopped at one. we can invest in her hobbies without going broke. getting her new stuff when she needs it, paying for the classes, all of it is manageable cause there's just one.

anyone else feel like being OAD means you can actually do things properly for your kid? like focus on one and actually make it work

Used the same electric brush forever and honestly can't tell if it made a real difference over a decent manual brush with good technique. Dentist's never flagged anything either way.

Anyone switched from electric back to manual and noticed a real difference at checkups?

i’ve been looking at a couple rental properties again after being out of the market for a while and i’m honestly trying to understand what people consider a reasonable deal now. one place caught my attention because the rent looked pretty strong on paper. not some obvious bargain, but enough that i thought okay, maybe this one actually works. then i sat down at home and started running the income against the debt payment. used a DSCR calculator mostly because i wanted one simple number instead of staring at my spreadsheet for another hour. and it was tight. really tight. not disastrous, just the kind of deal where everything needs to go more or less right. and at 49 i think i’m past the stage where “it works if nothing goes wrong” sounds attractive lol. so i’m curious what other Toronto investors are doing now. are you still expecting a rental to comfortably cover its financing from day one? putting significantly more down to make that happen? or are people accepting weak cash flow because the longer-term value of the property is the main reason for buying?

we’re doing a backyard ceremony in sydney for about 35 people this spring. no big venue or anything fancy, just want it to feel nice without blowing the budget.

food is the biggest worry right now. already looking at vanilla blue for some simple canapés and a couple of platters since they seemed reasonable. still figuring out if that covers enough or if we need to add something else for the evening.

anyone done a similar low key wedding? how did you handle the food without it getting too expensive? and is it better to do one bigger order or mix a few smaller things?

I run a small apparel business and it’s basically just me and my printer. So I've been using the same DTF supplier for over two years. They were pretty reliable offering good quality, consistent colors and the most importantly I trusted them

Then last week, I got an email saying that they're shutting down. Done. Gone…

I panicked because I have orders to fill. I need transfers. I started googling frantically. Found a few options. One Dtf transfers site caught my eye becuase their prices are way cheaper than my old supplier. Like, almost half…

It's tempting and I could really save a lot of money. But the low cost is kind of scary. What's the catch? Are they using cheap film? Will the adhesive fail? Will the colors be off?

I've been burned before. When I first started, I went with the cheapest option. The transfers looked great at first. Then they cracked after two washes and I lost customers and I learned my lesson…. like the hard way..

But I need a new supplier fast. This site has good reviews and they seem legit. But I'm still nervous…

Has anyone ordered large batches from a new supplier like this? How do you test quality without wasting money on a huge order?

spent three hours dragging the fifth wheel up a washboard forest road on friday only to find my usual spot completely covered in crushed beer cans and literal toilet paper. I just dont understand how people can buy an 80k rig and still treat the woods like an actual dumpster

I was so frustrated I just turned around. Completely gave up on the whole "off grid" aesthetic for the weekend and just pulled into ausable Pines campground so I wouldnt have to clean up someone elses biohazard before leveling out

Honestly starting to feel like the whole free camping lifestyle is just getting ruined by social media geo-tagging. kinda just want to park permanently somewhere and be done with the constant hunt tbh. Anyone else noticing the public lands getting exponentially worse this year or am I just losing my patience?

About a flooring project... we're looking to pull up about 650 sq ft of gross carpet in our living room and hall. Budget is pretty tight after fixing our ac recently, so trying to stay around $3.50/sq ft. Was gonna just grab lvp from home depot, but saw some affordable engineered hardwood for around $2.20 a sq ft that looks decent. We have a 45lb dog so mostly worried about scratches, and wondering if staple down or glue down is better for 3/8" over plywood subfloor?Anyone have thoughts on going this route with affordable engineered hardwood?

Just moved into a small two-bed place and it still feels a bit bare. Living room has a basic sofa and a coffee table but the shelves and corners look really plain. Kitchen is open to the living area so everything kind of blends together.

I’ve been slowly picking up a few things to warm it up. Found some nice dinnerware and a couple of glass pieces at Victoria’s Basement that actually look decent without being super expensive.

Still need ideas for simple decor that doesn’t take over the space. What do you usually put on open shelves or side tables to make a room feel finished without cluttering it? Prefer stuff that works in a small apartment.

Just moved into a larger office space in Alexandria after outgrowing the small one. I cleaned the old place myself before handing it back and it wiped me out. Floors, desks, kitchen area, bathrooms… the whole thing.

The new office is about 3,200 sq ft with an open work area, a couple of private rooms, a small kitchen, and two bathrooms. It’s mostly open-plan with a lot of desks and some glass partitions.

I’m looking for a reliable office cleaning service that can handle regular cleans a few times a week so I don’t have to keep doing it myself. Anyone have recommendations or tips for finding a good commercial cleaner in the area? I’m just too tired to keep this up.

honestly getting so tired of the anxiety of putting gear in rental cars. did some shore diving down in the keys last week and hauling two soaking wet BCDs, heavy fins, and dripping wetsuits in the back of an enterprise crossover is literally terrifying. You just know they'll try to hit you with a $250 "deep cleaning fee" if they smell even a hint of neoprene or ocean water

We laid down like three layers of trash bags and hotel towels and I was still sweating bullets every time we threw the tanks in the trunk.

Lately when I do these trips I just try to grab an older truck or jeep with rubber mats off turo just so I don't have to deal with the corporate desk breathing down my neck about a few grains of sand. But even then, I hate leaving saltwater puddles in a vehicle

What's the actual hack here for shore divers who fly in? Do you guys buy those giant rubbermaid tubs at a local home depot when you land, or just pack massive heavy-duty dry bags in your checked luggage? peeling off a 3mm wetsuit in a dirt parking lot and trying to keep the mess contained is kicking my ass tbh

honestly ive been questioning my entire approach to client timelines lately. the whole coaching industry seems obsessed with locking people into these massive 6-month or year-long retainers. Tbh I think half the time it just creates dependency and drags out the "work" way longer than necessary

I had this weird wake up call over the weekend watching my younger brother deal with his college admissions stuff. His practice scores were completely stuck, and the whole house was just miserable because it was this endless, year-long slog of studying. Eventually my parents just hired Boosted Brains to just get the misery over with. He only prepped for like 5 or 6 weeks. it was just a really short, intense sprint, he hit his target, and then he just... moved on with his life.

Seeing him just finish a major goal and go back to being a normal teenager made me realize how toxic the "endless growth" mindset can be

why do we assume our clients need to be in a constant state of agonizing, slow-drip transformation? Has anyone here actually shifted their practice away from long retainers to just doing hyper-focused, 4-6 week sprints? kinda tired of the current industry standard ngl

Had a patient last week tell me her electric toothbrush was making her gums recede because she read it on some wellness blog. She was ready to throw a perfectly good OralB in the trash based on advice from someone who probably also sells supplements. This is not a rare conversation anymore.

The myths patients walk in with have gotten so much worse since everyone started getting dental advice from influencers and random Reddit threads, which is a little ironic to say here, but still. I spend more appointment time correcting bad information than I do explaining anything new, and that part of the job never used to feel this exhausting.

What I keep noticing is that people trust bad sources partly because those sources are confident and simple. Nobody wants nuance when they have twenty seconds of scroll time. So the real answer about pressure, bristle type, brush head size, technique, all of it gets flattened into some viral take that is wrong in a specific and frustrating way.

Curious how other hygienists are handling this. Do you have a goto way of walking someone back from something they are completely convinced of without making them feel stupid? That balance is tricky and I have not fully cracked it.

I own a small commercial building with a few office tenants. Between the shared lobby, bathrooms, kitchen areas and the exterior windows/entrances, keeping everything presentable is taking more time than it used to.

Right now we handle basic daily tidying but the deeper interior cleans and exterior glass are falling behind. It’s starting to look a bit neglected and I don’t want tenants complaining.

How do most of you handle cleaning for commercial spaces? Do you keep it in-house or outsource the whole thing? Just trying to find a setup that doesn’t need constant chasing.

ive been a hygienist for 8 years and theres just something SO satisfying about getting all that calculus off. the crunchy sound, the patients relief, seeing the gum health improve over time. love it honestly

whats your favorite procedure? the office i work at has become part of smile partners usa and theyve actually given us better equipment and more time per patient, which has made a huge difference in quality of care tbh. for any hygienists whove moved to a group practice like that, did u notice a difference in patient outcomes?

I run a small restaurant and the cleaning is starting to stress me out. We do the daily wipe downs and floors ourselves, but the windows, mirrors and higher spots never look as good as they should. Guests notice when the glass is smudged or the corners look dusty.

I’ve already got CleanWise Solutions Office Cleaning coming in once a week to handle the deeper clean so my team can focus on service.

How often do you get the full clean done in your place? And do you find it better to have the same people every time or is it fine to switch? Just trying to keep standards up without it costing too

honestly been wondering lately if the rba is flying partially blind when it comes to measuring the actual housing wealth effect right now

We all obsess over saturday auction clearance rates as this ultimate real-time indicator of macro sentiment, but the data is getting so fragmented. Read a brief breakdown by some property buyers a while back highlighting how much high-tier stock is just quietly trading off-market these days to avoid public portal costs and the stigma of a passed-in auction

If a massive chunk of the actual market liquidity is happening in the dark, then major indices like corelogic are basically just indexing the public leftovers. Makes you wonder if the official econometric models are over-weighting a dataset that gets more skewed every single quarter

anyone else feel like standard housing metrics are slowly losing their predictive value?

Ngl I'm 27 and still barely making it paycheck to paycheck. My office job pays okay but after rent at 1350, bills, gas, and food I'm lucky to have 300-400 left. Seeing my buddies settle down and buy houses while I'm still splitting a place with roommates is starting to mess with my head. I've been watching crypto for a while and decided I wanna give trading a real shot on the side. My main goal is to reach some financial independence by the time I'm 32 so I can travel more and stop worrying about every single bill. Anyone whos been in this same spot got any beginner mistakes I should avoid? How long did it take you to feel like you were actually getting somewhere? Real stories only please.

looking at buying a place in QLD and trying to work out how much weight to give council planning stuff in my decision. everyone talks about location, land size, building condition. but Im starting to think zoning, overlays, flood mapping, easements might be just as important for long term value. feels like this stuff could affect resale or future development potential, but it's rarely highlighted in listings.

wondering if other people are factoring this in or if I'm overthinking it. how much of your purchase decision is based on council data? do you do this research yourself or just rely on conveyancers and agents to flag issues? Keen to hear what other investors are doing

turned 38 recently and decided to be brave with a new active serum, but my skin clearly had other plans. my barrier is completely broken, red, and every simple moisturizer stings right now.

i’ve stopped everything and I'm currently just rinsing with lukewarm water and using plain petrolatum at night. it's helping a bit, but the healing is taking forever and my skin still feels super tight.

a friend suggested looking into professional calming protocols (she recommended places like all saints clinic for custom low-energy barrier recovery), but I'm honestly nervous to put any treatment or device on an already angry face.

for those who've dealt with a bad barrier flare-up in your late 30s or 40s:

1. did you just wait it out at home with zero therapy?

2. or did you find any gentle professional clinic treatments that actually helped speed up recovery without making things worse?

Curious what other hygienists have noticed over years of doing this. Had a patient come in for the third time in a row with the same buildup in the same spots, and she swore up and down she had been flossing every day. Same conversation as the last two appointments. Same spots. Same result.

There are patients who genuinely try and just have bad technique or anatomy working against them, and those I don't mind spending time with at all. But the ones who nod along and clearly have no intention of changing anything, I wonder if the education portion even matters at some point, or if it becomes just something we say because we're supposed to say it.

Had a coworker who stopped doing the full spiel after a certain point with repeat offenders and just focused on the clinical work. Part of me gets it. Part of me thinks that's the wrong call because you never really know when something finally clicks for someone.

What actually works for you when a patient clearly tunes out the standard advice? Does changing how you frame it help, or is it mostly just luck when someone actually follows through?