money

  • Garage Greatness: The Humble Origins of MyPillow

    There’s an old adage – anything that separates you from the ground is worth spending money on. It goes for good quality shoes, it goes for good quality mattresses, and – on a related note – it goes for a comfortable pillow! Everyone knows the hotel room struggle of trying different pillows and combinations of pillows, trying to find the one with the perfect mixture of firmness and softness, but for most people this hunt isn’t inspiring. For a certain kind of entrepreneurial spirit, however, any hardship is inspiring. Mike Lindell has just that spirit. 

    Lindell tried everything to create the life he wanted for his family through an increasingly bizarre list of business ventures. In 2004, he finally found the million-dollar-idea – or to be more accurate, the multi-million-dollar-idea! MyPillow, a company that he begun in his residential home’s garage, has now sold over 30 MILLION pillows! Before he was the king of pillows, however, Lindell’s life followed a rocky path through business failures and drug addiction. In spite of this adversity, his drive never faltered, and Lindell has made a successful company out of humble beginnings in the family garage. 

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    9 Things you Shouldn’t Store in the Garage

    The garage is truly one of the most versatile rooms in the home. Behind your garage door is a huge space, with room for your vehicles, your hobbies, and your storage. Every homeowner uses their garage differently. For some, the garage exists just to park their cars. Others practice woodworking, auto repair, or some other hobby in the garage. Many families use their garage for storage, filling the huge room with different possessions. It is this last group that we’ll be addressing today, as we look at what items you shouldn’t store in your garage. 

    You see, the garage door is an excellent way to keep people out of your garage, but depending on the construction of your home and your choice of residential garage door, it might not be as good at keeping the elements away from your valuable possessions. Since the garage is typically less insulated than the rest of your home (and usually not heated or cooled) the goods stored there are vulnerable to all the problems of storing things outside, albeit to a lesser degree. But if you want to protect your stuff, there are certain things that you should never store in the garage, no matter how much insulation your garage door may have!

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    How to Prepare Your Garage Door for a Hurricane

    Hurricane Irma’s recent passage through North Carolina has left many of our customers thinking about their home’s hurricane preparedness in a whole new light. Even people hours inland from the coast can be at risk during hurricane season, and for our readers around the globe, many other areas present threats of tornados, monsoons, or other natural disasters. If you want to prepare yourself against these natural threats, the best place to start is the most vulnerable part of your home. Believe it or not, that might actually be the garage door!

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    6 TOP Garage Door Secrets

    Everyone likes a good secret – people love knowing secrets, or keeping secrets. Knowing something that other people don’t can be powerful, and of course it can be rewarding. But did you know that even now, your garage door is keeping secrets from you? That’s right – sitting out there in your garage is the key to saving money, staying informed about your home, or adding another whole room onto your house! Today, we’re going to pull back the curtain and pass along six juicy secrets about your garage door that you might not have known.

  • The Best Garage Door Opener

    Homeowners often ask – which is the best garage door opener? That is a very good question, but the answer might surprise you.

    Most people don’t know what model of garage door opener they currently have installed, and for good reason. Garage doors and garage door openers usually have names like “the 3610” or “the 8550,” which can be difficult to remember and don’t mean much to your average homeowner. In fact, homeowners may not even know what they’re looking for in an opener – what they do know, is what they don’t like about their opener. Maybe it’s too loud, or it’s slow, or it doesn’t always open when you push the remote’s button.

  • Garage Door Technologies: Top 4 Innovations

    The modern world is all about technology, and in today’s day and age, consumers want everything in their life to be smarter. Cutting-edge technology has improved our cars, our phones, even the credit cards in our pockets have chips inside them now! It should come as no surprise then that the garage door is not immune to these forces of modernity, and today’s doors have all sorts of tricks that old-timey carriage house doors couldn’t have imagined. Today, we’re going to talk about the 4 best innovative garage door technologies, and if you’re still using an older door, give you a chance to see what your missing out on!

  • 8 TOP Celebrity Garages

    What is your dream car? Have you always wanted a convertible sports car, or maybe an old-fashioned roadster? Having a garage stocked with rare and valuable cars is a huge status symbol, and it’s not surprise that some celebrities are notorious car collectors! Sometimes, it’s what’s behind the garage door that counts – and here’s a list of the top 8 celebrity garages!

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    Getting the Most Out of a Garage Door Replacement

    Hey homeowners! Are you happy with your garage door, or is it something you try not to think about? Many homes are still using a garage door installed decades ago. If you’re considering selling your home soon, an outdated door won’t do you any favors during appraisal, and it could even sour a potential buyer’s impression of the property. For a homeowner who is considering selling, it makes quite a bit of sense to go ahead and upgrade the door now – barring extreme circumstances, a garage door will work excellently for the first year of installation without problem, so you may as well let your family enjoy some time with the new door before passing it on to the next owners.

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    Wood Garage Doors Pros and Cons

    Wood garage doors have been around just as long as garages have been! Early carriage house doors were usually made of wood because it was the predominant building material of the time, and into the 1980s and 1990s most garage doors were still being constructed out of wood. The iconic sectional overhead garage door rose to popularity during these years, and these doors were usually made of detailed wood panels.

    Nowadays, modern garage doors are likely to be made of metal – aluminum garage doors are lighter, cheaper, and easier to maintain, so for many homeowners they are the more sensible choice. For some, however, the luxury and beauty of a wooden door is more desirable than the ease of a metal door. Modern wood garage doors are impressive, and they’re one of the best ways for your home to make an impression on a passerby. A Plus Garage Doors has installed residential and commercial wood garage doors of all varieties, so we can tell you all about their advantages and disadvantages. Once you’ve learned about the subject, you can decide if a wooden garage door is right for your home.

  • How to Instantly Transform your Garage Door!

    How often do you notice a garage door? If you’re like most people, garage doors are probably practically invisible to you. You might notice a particularly ugly residential garage door, or if a restaurant has a commercial door installed on the front wall you might think about it for a moment, but if you see a totally normal garage door you probably wouldn’t think twice about it. What if we told you that there was a product that could change that completely, and make every visitor notice and remember your garage door?

  • The 7 Best Garage Door Recycling DIYs!

    When you look at your garage door, you probably don’t feel very inspired. That’s okay! Here at A Plus Garage Doors, we live and breath garage doors, and even we can understand that most homeowners aren’t exactly in love with theirs. The garage door can be an eyesore, or a headache, or just a loud grumbling part of your morning routine that is forgotten the second you close it behind you on your way to work. For some people, however, that isn’t enough. Some people look at their garage door and are inspired… Today’s blog goes out to them!