It is almost the best time of the year. Pride is so close I can almost smell the perfume of all the drag queens. We all looking forward to the one month of the year that we get to celebrate our community, its history, and the progress we have made. Though the fight for our civil rights is far from over we are better off than when we began the fight.

Pride is a yearly event where we all come together as one community and one family. We are reminded that we are not alone and that we deserve to be allowed to be our 100% genuine selves all the time. These are all things that we need to apply to our lives all year long.

We need to make sure that we are always being an inclusive group and are accepting and welcoming to all members of the LGBTQ+ community. We should not exclude and have a bias towards any of our brothers and sisters. If you do, it is time for you to do some serious soul searching and get your mind right. Because you are part of the problem.

When pride ends and you return to your everyday life, you can not forget what pride stands for. Stay proud of your community and who you are. Fight for your rights and the rights of every other member of the LGBTQ+ community. One way that you can help yourself to remember the principles of pride is by owning pride merch.

Every time you see all of your Pride merch you will remember all of the principles that Pride stands for. While the best place to buy Pride merch is normally at a Pride festival, shopping online for merch comes in at a very close 2nd.

You can find just about any type of pride merch you can dream of through a quick internet search. It doesn’t matter if you identify as genderqueer, pansexual, demisexual, or lesbian, you can find a pride flag that is made especially for you. Once you find the pride flag that represents your identity you can find shirts and anything else you want with that flag on it.

If you prefer the classic rainbow pride flag you will be able to find everything from belts, to hats, and anything in between. If you would like something you can wear as a daily reminder of the values of pride, rainbow pride rings are a great option and give you a fashionable way to display your pride.

Hanging a Pride flag at your home is very important for visibility. The more Pride flags people see the more they realize that they know and love more gay people than they thought. This will hopefully lead to those people becoming allies to help us in our fight for civil rights.

It is time to load up on Pride gear. Go ahead and start hunting for the Pride merch that perfectly represents you. We are all individuals and there is merch available that will let you celebrate your Pride in that individuality.

Go ahead and figure out the Pride flag that is assigned to your identity and buy one to add to your front porch. Wave the colors of your community with pride. Remember visibility is important. Let everyone in your area know, “We are here, and we are queer” and we are not about to go anywhere.

Kitchens may be the heart of the home, but they're also by far the dirtiest room in the house - not in terms of mud and dirt maybe, but in terms of grease and spills and stains and general messes. For that reason, it’s a room that needs a bit more love and care than other rooms in the house might and one way to do that is to replace the kitchen cabinets with shiny new ones.

Most DIY processes are actually very simple, and replacing kitchen cabinets is no different, even though it might sound like a big job. So what are the steps involved?

Everybody thinks they’re good at guessing measurements accurately, but they’re almost never right. Before you do anything else, make sure you accurately measure the height, depth and width of your existing cabinets. This will enable you to confidently choose your new cabinets without any guesswork.

It’s easy to get carried away when you’re buying items for your home, because everything starts to look very exciting and new. But as with any larger than average purchase, it’s important to make sure you decide your budget beforehand and stick to it.

Yes, this is actually the first step. Don’t make the mistake of ripping out your old cabinets only to realise you can’t find a replacement you like - it’s a very annoying position to be in, and won’t make the rest of the family look too kindly on you while they have to navigate a cupboardless kitchen for days while you try to choose some nice replacements. Discuss this change with your partner before taking any action, and make sure that your replacement cabinets are not only chosen but ready and waiting next to you on the floor before you start taking down any existing furniture.

Luckily, no one is suggesting you go out, get a carpentry qualification and build your own beautiful kitchen cabinets. By all means do that if it tickles your fancy, but RTA Kitchen Cabinets (that is ‘ready to assemble’) are much easier and faster - you’ll be able to complete the job in an afternoon and get straight back to enjoying family time in the kitchen.

DIY kitchen cabinets are also by far the cheapest option. Firstly, buying the items themselves is much cheaper as the come flatpack, but in addition since you acn install these yourself you don’t need to employ a workman to put them up for you, meaning you make a significant saving on labour costs.

The effects of climate change are starting to catch up to us all, and increasingly both businesses and individuals are paying more attention to what they can do to reduce their impact. Aside from debates on veganism and air travel, one of the best things you can do is to increase your energy efficiency, reducing wasted energy and reducing your emissions of greenhouse gases.

Although we should all do this as individuals, it’s vital that businesses start to do the same as they can have a bigger impact all at once than individuals can. So what are some effective ways you can change your approach to the environment and increase your energy efficiency?

One of the biggest ways large buildings water energy is through poor insulation, and one of the best ways to combat this issue is to replace any outdated single pane windows with double (or even triple) glazed models.

This prevents heat from escaping in the winter and even reduces the increase in internal temperature during the summer months, reducing the need for central heating during colder periods and the need for air conditioning during hotter ones. This may feel like a big up front investment, but as well as reducing your premises’ environmental impact, this improvement will also save money in the long run.

Instead of leaving it up to individual managers and team members to try and implement green policies, instead hand down company wide policies on energy usage, recycline, emissions reduction and other environmental issues. This will signal to all employees that this is an issue the company cares about while simultaneously making it easier for managers to enforce as they have the authority behind the policy.

A great way to save energy is to allow employees to work from home a few days a week if they choose too. As well as reducing whatever carbon emissions they might create during their commute to work, it also means that less energy is needed during the work day on the premises as there are fewer people using facilities and equipment.

If your building has cooling towers, you should give them a thorough review to see if they’re in proper working order, and if any cooling tower repair is needed to ensure safety or efficiency. There are lots of upgrades available out there today to reduce the environmental impact of cooling towers, such as devices which can ensure that the waste energy and water is reused.

If you’re looking to reduce your business’s environmental impact, the tips above are just a few ways you can get started.