This page provides links to guides for finding the best day care for both children and adults, recipes, gardening tips, home repair assistance, and advice for getting rid of stains.
You can also find valuable real estate information including various home sale and apartment rental sites for the Chicagoland area. If you are moving out of the area, you may want to check the city comparison guides to see how your new area compares.
To research property, use the Cook County Assessor's Office site to find assessed values and the recent home sales section to check the sales price of area real estate.
Web resource 
Available with Skokie Public Library card 
Available in Library only
Child and Elder Care
CareGuide@Home
Billed as "everything families need to understand, plan, and manage care for their elderly loved one," this website provides a full range of elder care services, articles, and resources.
Day Care Action Council of Illinois
This website provides news and information to help you find and evaluate child care. The site also provides information about available financial assistance.
FindCareNow
This website features links to information about childcare including childcare centers, preschools, after school programs, and family care.
Health and Aging Organizations
A service of the Administration on Aging and National Institute on Aging to help connect people with information about aging, this directory includes names and contact information for organizations that provide information and resources relevant to the needs of older persons.
Skokie Child Care compiled by Skokie
Public Library
This online directory provides detailed information about the services offered by local preschools, child care centers, home day care providers, extended care services, and social services agencies. The directory is maintained by Skokie Public Library staff and hosted on the SkokieNet community information network website. A condensed, print version of the directory is also available.
Cleaning
Stain
Guide
Find out how to remove hundreds of different stains with this online stain guide.
Food
Nutrition
Center for Food
Safety and Applied Nutrition
Provided by the United States Food and Drug Administration, this site provides consumer information, press announcements, and links to food safety sites.
Recipes and Cooking
AllRecipes.com
Find thousands of recipes, menu ideas, meal preparation tips, information on cookware, and news on this culinary website.
The Cook's Thesaurus
This cooking encyclopedia provides entries for thousands of ingredients and kitchen tools. Resources include pictures, descriptions, synonyms, pronunciations, and suggested substitutions.
Epicurious
Search more than twelve thousand recipes or find reviews of restaurants and cookbooks at this website.
The Fanny Farmer Cookbook
Search more than 1,800 recipes in the 1918 edition of this classic best selling cookbook, which was the last edition to be completely authored by Fannie Farmer.
Food from Better Homes & Gardens
This site contains a recipe database, cooking guides, and meal planning information.
RecipeSource
RecipeSource is one of the oldest online recipe archives with a large database of recipes arranged by region for ethnic cooking or type of dish for traditional fare.
The Webtender
Browse this online bartender's guide for drink recipes and ingredients, a "Bartender's Handbook," a discussion forum, and more.
Gardening
Chicago Botanic
Garden
The online home of the Chicago-area "botanical museum" includes information about plants, gardening, and "Illinois' Best Plants."
Garden from Better Homes & Gardens
This online collection of gardening guides for the homeowner includes a plant database, garden plans, and buyer's guides.
PlantCare.com
This database of over 1,300 species of house and greenhouse plants includes photos and advice on watering, lighting, and pest care.
Home Repair
AllAboutHome.com
Find all sorts of tips and advice for cleaning, improving, and keeping up a home at this website from "the home care specialists" at ServiceMASTER Clean.
DoItYourself.com
Browse How-to guides for thousands of home projects at this consumer website about construction.
Fine Homebuilding Online
This website covers a variety of topics to assist homeowners with framing, interior finishing, roofing, safety, and tools. The site also includes video guides of professionals handling various repair jobs.
Home Improvement Reference Center from EBSCO
Home Improvement Reference Center™ contains online content for home improvement assistance, including maintenance, remodeling, electrical work, plumbing, wood projects, outdoor improvements, decorating, and gardening. It includes 27 major reference works in full text with more than 10,000 images (none found elsewhere online). Additionally, the database contains nearly one hundred videos of popular home repair projects, a convenient A-Z browsing tool, and full-text magazines (e.g. This Old House).
McGrawHill Construction:
Sweets.com
This searchable collection of information on building materials is based on manufacturer's catalogs and is arranged in sixteen building trade divisions.
PartSelect.com
This site provides detailed information on appliance repair including forums to post specific questions about individual problems.
RepairClinic.com
Use this website to find repair guides for major appliances, order parts, and get online assistance from a "RepairGuru."
Recycling
Chicago Recycling Coalition
An all-volunteer group that provides information on recycling all kinds of waste material and older products in the Chicago area.
Earth 911
Use this website to find the nearest recycling centers for various products.
Recycling Resources from Northwestern University
This site provides information about recycling, lists recycler locations, and specifies the types of products they accept in the Evanston area.
Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County
This site contains information on materials and locations for recycling in the Skokie area.
General Real Estate Information
Bankrate.com
This website provides ratings for credit cards, new and used auto loans, money market accounts, CDs, checking and ATM fees, and home equity lines.
Buying a House
From the consumer legal site Nolo.com, this website provides a wealth of resources for the prospective home buyer including common real estate forms.
Cook County
Assessor's Office
Search for assessed values of homes in Cook County, learn about the
assessment and appeal processes, and download forms at this site.
Note: Forms require Adobe Reader.
Moving.com
Resources on this website include tools for finding homes, apartments, and moving companies.
REALS.com
This website provides a detailed directory of links covering all aspects of real estate.
Zillow.com
Zillow.com is a powerful home valuation tool that offers free home valuations via an address search. Other information available included: value changes for each home, comparable area sales, satellite and aerial views, and individual home data.
Apartments
Chicago
Reader SpaceFinder
Search through the Chicago Reader classifieds for apartments or sale property in the Chicago area.
Chicago Tribune Online Edition: Rentals
Find apartments throughout the Chicago area at this site which includes information on the rental market, articles, and a rent survey.
ForRent.com
Search for apartment vacancies across the United States at this site which also offers help for finding corporate housing, senior housing, and moving advice.
Pioneer Press Online Classifieds: Rentals
Search apartments and other rental properties in the local Pioneer Press newspapers.
City Comparisons
Sperling's BestPlaces
BestPlaces compares over 3,000 United States cities by housing, costs of living, crime, education, economy, health, and climate.
Yahoo! Real
Estate - Neighborhood Information
Find neighborhood information including demographics, cost of living, housing characteristics, and quality of life.
Home Listings
Chicago
Reader SpaceFinder
Search through the Chicago Reader classifieds for apartments or sale property in the Chicago area.
Chicago Tribune Online Edition: Home Search
Search by city or community for home listings in the Chicago area. Other resources include mortgage data and community information.
Cyberhomes Homes for
Sale Website Directory
Find homes across the United States and get tips for selling a home, moving, and financing a home with this directory of home buying websites.
Homes for Sale from U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
This site provides real estate listings offered by various federal agencies including the IRS, FDIC, HUD, Customs, U.S. Marshals Service, and more. The site also includes information about homes sold due to foreclosure.
Pioneer Press Online Classifieds: Real Estate
Search real estate listings from the local Pioneer Press newspapers.
Public Records Electronic Database
This database contains local public filings of new businesses, new
homeowners, home foreclosures and sales, and bankruptcies in the Illinois
counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry, and Will.
Skokie
Public Library's guide to this database available
REALTOR.com
Search the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) database or find information about financing or moving at this versatile website.
Recent Home Sales
Closing Prices of Chicago-area Homes
From the Chicago Tribune Online Edition, find recent home sales prices for individual communities, addresses, and zip codes.
Domania Home Price Check
Enter an address to find home sales for neighborhoods throughout the United States. User registration is required for detailed listings.
Public Records Electronic Database
This database contains local public filings of new businesses, new
homeowners, home foreclosures and sales, and bankruptcies in the Illinois
counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry, and Will.
Skokie
Public Library's guide to this database available