Most houses sound like a bad symphony. The dishwasher roars in the kitchen as the washing machine “takes off” on spin cycle. The neighbor’s dog just treed a squirrel and is barking its head off. And at night, when you hope for a little silence, your husband snores like a freight train. Sound familiar?
Sometimes we even learn to get used to the noise. But there are lots of reasons a little peace and quiet is more than a luxury. The obvious ones: our hearing and our sanity. But did you know that noise can also lead us to overeat? Some science says that lots of noise can boost hormones that drive appetite. There have also been links found between high blood pressure and noise (beyond how your blood pressure boils when your son blares his music).
It might seem hard to get away from it all, but a few things can make a big difference in the noise level at any house. Here’s what to try.
Schedule appliance use. Try not to run more than one big appliance at a time. Maybe let dishes wash overnight, after you’ve done some laundry.
Buy quiet. Plug in any new purchases you can at the store to hear how loud they are before you buy. A good gauge: The buzz of any contraption should be low enough that you can have a conversation while using it. If you can’t take it for a test-drive, check out consumerreports.org—their ratings include noise level.
Pad your environment. Rugs and curtains (the thicker, the better) absorb noise. If you don’t mind a slightly stuccoed look on your walls and ceilings, textured Acousti-Coat latex paint (about $32 a gallon) will suck up sound, too.
Seal gaps. Want to block out the dog barking next door? Use weather stripping to plug cracks in doors and windows. It comes in brown, black, and white, so you can match it to your doors and door frames. Using plastic sealants (like Great Stuff) to fill gaps around pipes and heating registers can limit noise that travels from one room to the next.
Hang heavier doors. Solid doors block more noise than hollow-core ones. Unfortunately, they run $200 and up. But you can save money by replacing only certain doors—say, the ones to your kids’ rooms.
Insulate your dishwasher. Remove the screws holding the unit in place, pull it out, wrap fiberglass insulation around the outside (just the hidden part), then put back into place.
Silence snoring. The best position to avoid snoring is on your side. To help keep the snorer in this position, prop one pillow behind the back and another in front of the waist.
Blend with a towel. When using a coffee grinder or blender, have a thick towel handy to wrap around the appliance. These gadgets can be as loud as lawn mowers and you’re within inches of them, so buffering the noise is a smart move.
Have quiet hour. Start having a time in the house where electronics are banned for an hour. This’ll help everyone in the household appreciate a little silence and give kids a time when there’s no TV to distract them from homework—imagine that.
However, there are many moments when they are "in" that I really would like to remove them but can't. Hearing aids are great but sometimes the noise is rough. However, back to the time when the kiddies were growing up in our tiny, cracker box of a house, each morning I ready to them a Bible story and we had morning prayers. Then they played, we had lunch, and shortly after lunch it was nap time. Before naps I read a quiet story to them from little Golden books (ya'll remember them, surely) and then sleepy time for 1 to 2 hours. That was Mommie's quiet time. Of course, though quiet I had to iron, sew, etc. But I COULD nap, read, rest. So carve out that bit of time. 
.Seriously tho, my g-kids & son live on our property & are here almost daily & will nit-pick over which tv show to watch relentlessly. So, to save argument, I just shut it off & drag out the craft cart & let their imaginations do the rest. 
Decadent (yet smart!) desserts
