Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Phil 4:6-7



Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Helpful Hints


Just call me Heloise...or don't, on second thought. But you can call me Babs, how's that?

As I was putting Christmas decorations away this past weekend and storing odds and ends leftover from the season, I thought of some things I do that might help you. We all do things differently and I'm always sort of nosy to see how other folks do them, whether they are helpful or not. So, if you don't like the way I do things, what can I say? Just enjoy the ride. And if this is old news? Well, sorry about that.

These albums have been one of the best things I've found for organizing -- you know all those DVD boxes and CD boxes you have consuming space on your bookshelves? This one album, which you can find here, holds 48 discs. Do you have any idea how much space 48 DVD boxes consume? A buttload, I tell you. It was an enormous pleasure throwing them all away. Now I have two albums that take up very little space on my shelves (room for more books -- yay!). These two albums hold almost 100 DVDs (and unfortunately are almost full which means we have waaay too many DVDs) -- I'm sure you can imagine how much room 100 DVD boxes consume.



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As I was putting away Christmas wrap I had a clever idea (at least I think it's clever). I am forever running out of wrapping paper. I always think I have some, but then I go to my wrapping paper box, and there is never enough of one type left (I think gremlins, or little girls, steal it). I end up with 15 pieces of not-big-enough wrapping paper and have to make a run to the store.

My solution: at the beginning of each year I will buy two large rolls of solid colored wrapping paper and one large roll of white ribbon. For the entire year, every gift gets wrapped in one of the two colors (one for girls and one for boys) and tied with white ribbon. The following year I will pick two new colors. The packages can be dressed up with stickers or a big lollipop for children and a pretty bauble (or left in the "tailored" look) for adults.

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I have sort of the same problem with birthday cards. Birthday cards are just so darned expensive. Why should I have to shell out $3.50 just to send birthday wishes? You can call me cheap if you want, but I prefer to think that I'm not buying into commercialism. A few years ago I started making my own cards. Now you can go gonzo on making cards and spend way more than $3.50 in supplies, but I usually buy one theme stamp for the year and all my birthday cards get that stamp. I change themes each year so (hopefully) no one gets the same card twice. These types of boxes of multi-colored cards are very cost-efficient, but they are nice. You can stamp a design on a solid sheet and cut it to fit on the front of the colored card. Handmade and cute.

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I recently found a new use for my cell phone. Like most cell phones these days, my phone can take pictures. They are, however, horrible quality (at least mine are) and I can't even upload them to my computer because I use a Mac and most cell phones use Windows technology. The thing about my cell phone, however, is I always take it with me wherever I go. So when we ran out of dog food recently, instead of trying to remember (and not being successful) what brand and type of dog food we buy for Maggie, I took a pic. Now all I have to do is match up my pic with the package in the store. You would not believe how helpful this is. Do you do it, too?

 


 That's all for my tips today. I hope it was a worthwhile ride!

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18 comments:

  1. I'm thinking I really like those CD/DVD albums.

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  2. Love, love, LOVE the DVD/CD albums!!! Really, I do, but do you find it weird at all to go looking through an album to find a movie you want to watch. Kids are usually so visual, I'm not sure I could put there movies in there, but I am seriously thinking about moving ours to a system like this. I'd love to know how your kids are liking your new system.

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  3. Ack... "their" movies in there. My brain is fuzzy right now.

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  4. Quick question... did you get the brown or the burgundy?

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  5. I love them, Jennie. Really I do.

    Charlotte,
    Mine are brown and they are not as bright as the pic on Amazon.

    My kids like them fine. I admit Faith had a problem at the beginning, but so many DVDs have pics on them these days, that it was no big deal. For those that did not have pics, I cut the paper insert and placed it in the pocket with the DVD. It's actually kind of fun to flip through the books deciding on which movie to watch.

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  6. We put our DVD's into albums about a year ago and I love it too. I really disliked the clutter of all those cases.

    Another idea which we did this year for Christmas decorations was to set aside one box for Advent things so I don't have to scrounge through every box. Why did I not think of this before?

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  7. I hate the cd/dvd racks full. I'll have to consider making the leap to the albums, but I have a fear of throwing away the inserts and liner notes!

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  8. Brilliant ideas. Thank you for sharing :)

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  9. we do that for our DVD and wii games too, though those are MUCH nicer than what we have. the kids are easily able to find the movie they want since the older ones read but a lot of DVDs now have pictures on the actual DVD so the younger non-readers can usually find what they want. love the holders you have.

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  10. I luv a great tip! And you have several here, thank you!

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  11. You let people call you Babs? Around here, that is a major offense!

    I bought 3 of those albums and thought they were a great idea but no one wants to let me take away their boxes for CDs, DVDs or games :(

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  12. Hey, in my fuzzy headed state this morning, I forgot to mention that I do kind of a similar thing with the wrapping paper except I like to use brown paper and my stash of ribbon in the craft closet. If all else fails you can tie a brown paper package with string and decorate it with markers or stickers.

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  13. Jenny, I did that with the Advent decorations a few years ago and then could not believe it took me 20+ years to figure that out! ;-)

    Sara, Anything you want to keep from the DVD cases you could tuck into the pockets. I cut a square from a few of the DVD paper inserts that Faith wanted to save.

    You are welcome, Mary Elizabeth.

    Regina, It's amazing how smart kids can be when they want to be! ;-)

    I'm glad it was worth the ride, Allison.

    Barb, I'd let you call me anything! Actually no one at my house has ever tried. :-) And about the DVD boxes, I didn't ask! (Nice mom, huh?)

    That's smart, Charlotte. I ordered some really big rolls that come in boxes with cutting blades (handy!), and they might last a couple years! (unless Faith finds them)

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  14. I like those DVD binders A LOT!!

    Thanks for the tips.

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  15. I really like the Birthday card idea! I like it even better for Christmas cards...which we didn't do this year because we didn't have the xtra cash for postage! I like it, I like it, I like it! You are a wealth of information today!!! Thank you!

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  16. Regarding the cards - we made up packages of homemade cards for a few Christmas gifts and they were very well received. Not only do they save money, but it can be hard for older folks especially to get out and buy cards for every occasion. Paired with a booklet of stamps they made a great gift.

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  17. Well, I asked about the video games, because sometimes they take those to the used-game store for trade-in. Then they saw the binders and...well...the binders are still empty 4 months later.

    I may start with the CDs, though. I doubt anyone will notice if I do that.

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  18. Laughing about the phone pics! My dad was just recently talking about how he takes pics on his phone when mom sends him to the store. Heaven forbid he comes home with the wrong frozen vegetable package- he licked that problem! :)

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I appreciate your comments -- sometimes I feel like I'm talking to myself!