Freecycle.org - Give and get stuff for free in your neighborhood.
WiLife.com - Get video surveillance for your home or small business.

Clark has noticed that a lot of garage space is not used for parking cars very much anymore. Garages have become giant storage rooms for a lot of people. There's a whole cottage industry of contractors who will convert your garage with special shelving or storage units. The Washington Post recently reported on one such company that offers slanted walls covering, ceiling mounted bike hoists and more. Why do more and more Americans want to trick out their garages? Clark thinks it's simply because we buy too much stuff, which also accounts for the growth of the off-site storage industry. Not too far from where Clark lives, there's a posh neighborhood with a storage company that's built their facility to look like it's from colonial Williamsburg! But while storage may be necessary during certain times of life -- when you're moving or getting divorced, for example -- the bottom line is that we're just buying too much junk. When Clark goes jogging at his beach home, he passes by a house with a three-car garage. Once the doors were open and he saw that two-thirds of the garage was stacked with storage boxes from the concrete floor to the roof. Maybe we all need to stop buying so much and discard some of the stuff we don't need. Clark's wife dates everything she puts in their home's storage room. If a year passes and she hasn't needed it, she sells it or gives it away. Meanwhile, Clark never grabs a cart when he's shopping -- unless he needs to get a very heavy item. That way he can cut down on impulse buys. When was the last time you went through your closet? If you want to cut down on what you have, try having a garage sale or giving it away on Freecycle.org.

A lot of people use burglar alarms to keep their homes safe. But such alarms aren't always safe for your wallet. Raleigh's News & Observer recently reported on how alarm salespeople canvas neighborhoods following a break-in and capitalize on the fear by signing homeowners to expensive three-year contracts. Even worse, many of the contracts have a rollover provision. So unless you properly notify the company otherwise, you'll be signed up again at the end of the contract -- even if you've moved out of the house! Clark despises some of the sales practices in this industry and even once overheard a veteran salesperson training a newbie while he was dining out. The vet was as bad as some of the burglars that might break into your home. Granted, not everyone in the field behaves like this.

Clark encourages people to go with alarm companies that don't require a contract. And beware of the TV ads you might see. Sometimes the initial fees are misrepresented to lure you in. Purchasing the alarm hardware is pretty standard, but make sure you're paying a reasonable price for monitoring costs -- in the mid-to-high teens range, and definitely lower than $20/month. Keep in mind that about 99.7 percent of alarms are false, so response time from the police may be slow. If you're worried about slow response time, a recent Forbes story detailed how you can now have a camera as part of your system. If the police can see an intruder via the camera, they'll be prompt first responders. But companies charge a huge markup for this camera technology. The article stated that in one instance the camera system cost $1,700 and there was a monthly monitoring charge of $45 on top of all the other fees. Fortunately, companies like WiLife.com sell affordable cameras that even a self-professed techno-idiot like Clark can operate. Clark's even heard of people with a second home at the beach or the mountains installing a camera -- not for security, but instead for when they're feeling nostalgic and want to see their other property!

How should you deal with a builder who doesn't honor the terms of your warranty after you close on your home? For the past 15 years, Clark has been advising people to picket the builder at their developments. You used to have to call your jurisdiction to find out how to go about picketing, and make sure that you never said slanderous things about the builder's character. But today instead of physically picketing, people take their ire online. Business Week did a report on homeowners who have set up gripe websites. Some builders have even fought back by trying to put clauses in their contracts that aim to silence you if you do business with them. That's an infringement of free speech. A builder who is afraid of the truth is not someone you want as a business partner.

Clark knows that building a house is difficult and involves a lot of micro-management with all the day laborers and subcontractors. He advises people not to close on their home until all the contractual items are complete. If you're getting pressure to close anyway, consider hiring a lawyer to withhold money in escrow to cover any outstanding issues. This practice, known as retainage, is a standard set at 10 percent in the commercial market. Just remember that once a builder completes your house, you're yesterday's news. The only reason they have to care about you is their reputation. So consider taking your battle online if need be.

One of Clark's staffers was recently on vacation for four days. While in San Diego, she spoke to some Europeans who laughed at her meager "holiday" time -- they were abroad for eight weeks! The Wall Street Journal recently reported that only one in seven American workers takes a "long" vacation of two weeks at a time. In fact, people don't even use all the vacation that they've accrued. More than one in three forfeits vacation days. Then there's also the working vacation trend, where you go away but spend most of your time working remotely. Clark thinks people are better as workers and family members when they take some time to chill out. He sees a lot of people with "emperor syndrome," where they think that the company can't survive without them. "Impostor syndrome" is also common. That's when people become afraid that the company will realize they're not necessary if they're out on vacation. These kinds of insecurities can really drain your productivity over time. Clark advises people to get away when they have the chance and turn off their "Crackberry" devices. The world won't collapse if you take a few days to enjoy yourself. Yahoo! recently sent around an internal e-mail trying to compel staffers to take their vacations. The employees were outraged by the move, and the company had to back down and make vacation a voluntary thing. There is, however, a ray of hope on the horizon; members of Generation X (those born between 1965-1978) tend to take 100 percent of their vacation time. When's the last time you took a week off from work?