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Organization
Evacuate your home – 9 checklists to help
We all need to be prepared to evacuate at any time. Making preparations ahead of time will make things easier during the disaster and will help you get back to your life more quickly afterwards. Do it NOW. Don't wait!!! Evacuations happen far more frequently than we realize. We think it will never happen to us. So did most folks who have been through an evacuation and the disaster that caused it. Wildfires, floods and hurricanes are all in the national news each year. Transportation and industrial accidents often only make the local news and may involve fewer people – but to those involved the size of the group does not matter. We don’t need to dwell on possibilities or worry needlessly. However, a little planning and preparation in advance is an excellent investment of time ... [Read More]
Garage Storage
Since we are in the garage looking at the turquoise door and the mini mudroom, I'll show you the cubby storage that gets a lot of attention whenever we have a garage sale. Everyone comments on it! It was born from the different styles Wheels and I take toward storage -- and a little desperation! Wheels -- and Bytes -- and Bytes big brother --- are visual people. They have to see something for it to exist. It's literally out of sight out of mind! I am the polar opposite. Out of sight and in its place means it doesn't get lost. They have piles here and piles there and they can reach in without hesitation and tease the hammer out from the bottom of a stack of tools. I tear my hair and will NEVER find that hammer. Because who puts a hammer in a pile of wrenches???? Really! Then ... [Read More]
Build a Mini Mudroom in Your Garage
We lived here only a very short time before realizing that a house designed and built in 1977 needed some work to make it livable for today! When our house was built, it was a big deal to have a two car garage open directly into the kitchen so groceries in paper bags could be carried in easily. One of the things I have long wanted is a landing place by the garage door because a lot of other things happen around that garage door nowadays! I wanted to be able to kick muddy garden shoes off and out of the way, a place to store reusuable grocery bags and assorted household “stuff”, somewhere to hang caps or light jackets so they weren’t tossed who knows where. In short, someplace convenient for storing things to be picked up and used and returned as we come and go through that turquoise ... [Read More]
6 tips for selling books online
Selling books online for me actually started with a huge collection of nonfiction books. Textbooks from a degree or two. Books from work in a highly specialized field which dried up with the economic changes in 2008. Each shelf holds 85 to 100+ books on a specific topic, about ½ inch wide each. Seven units of six shelves -- each full and then piled to the ceiling on top in just the basement alone. A lot of books! Yes, I read them all --- except the big reference books. I'm not that nerdy! Then we decided to remodel the basement. I started clearing out the book shelves by donating those reference books to a college library. The local city library hosts a used book sale every year so they received a couple hundred books on general topics. Several trips were made to a resell ... [Read More]
Clean Your Refrigerator in Three Days – Day Three
We’ve broken a big job into three smaller components that you can do at different times. Small task components help utilize your time and energy more efficiently, to work around physical limitations or demanding babies, to reduce stress and find time for you. This little secret of breaking a big job into smaller ones is invaluable! You can find Day One and Day Two by clicking the links. Today we pay attention to the freezer compartment. Cleaning the freezer is easy because generally it does not get the traffic or the spills that the refrigerator compartment does. I leave the refrigerator running as I do this because it is a fairly quick process. I also usually plan cleaning the refrigerator/ freezer just before a stock up time so the shelves are somewhat empty. First, ... [Read More]
