Holiday Mail for Heroes - Send a Card Through the American Red Cross

Here's an opportunity to do something special for our troops this year. Red Cross and Pitney Bowes are teaming up and collecting holiday cards for distribution to service members, veterans and their families in the US and around the world. The goal is to collect one million holiday cards to send. The deadline to send your cards to the distribution site is December 10, 2008.

Click here for more information.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

I just wanted to wish all my readers a very Happy Thanksgiving. The official start of the holiday season. I want to give thanks for all the blessings I have in my life - family and friends like you.

Take care today and eat as much as you want!

Cut Out One Shopping Trip and Save $$

I saw this tip in the November 11th issue of Woman's Day Magazine recently and wanted to share it with you.

Cut out one shopping trip in the next few weeks to save money for holiday gifts. Try and use up all the frozen, canned and packed foods in your house and only purchase milk and fresh produce during the week. You can use the savings for holiday gifts for your family and friends without hurting your budget.

I think this is such a great idea, I'm going to try it the first week in December. I'll let you know how it goes.

Postal Employee Hides Junk Mail - Buries it in His Yard

I found this article in the Los Angeles Times today about a postal carrier in North Carolina who, rather than deliver pounds of junk mail each week to his customers, chose to hide it and bury it in his own backyard.

Now, obviously this is illegal and he is serving probation for doing it. But you have to ask yourself, doesn't he have the right idea? Wouldn't it be better for all if we never got that annoying stack of flyers, circulars, and unused coupons every week along with the important mail?

I think so. How about you?

Gift Card Log Book - Franklin Covey's New Great Idea

Do you receive gift cards for your birthday, holidays or just because? Here's a great way to store them and keep track of their balances at the same time.

The Gift Card Log from Franklin Covey is priced at an affordable $12.95 and comes in a beautiful shade of green. You can store your gift cards, along with a paper insert for keeping track of your gift card's balance, all together in one beautiful little log book.

I am going to order one ASAP.

Oprah's Clean Up Your Messy House Tour - 20% Savings Extended at the Container Store

The Container Store is extending it's 20% off coupon promotion in connection with Oprah's Clean Up Your Messy House Tour. Click here to get the new coupon which expires on November 30, 2008.

A Quote for Today

Here's the latest quote from Real Simple Magazine that I wanted to share with you:

To undertake is to achieve.

Emily Dickinson

A Favorite Office Tool - The Elfa Mesh File Cart

Here is one of my favorite things that I use every day in my office. It's the Elfa white mesh rolling file cart from The Container Store. I asked for this for Christmas a few years back and my dear husband gladly complied.



What I love most about this file cart are the two drawers below the files where I can store all my smaller office supplies - stapler, calculator, ruler, paper clips, etc. I bought one of the Elfa plastic drawer sorters that fits right into the top drawer and holds all my stuff.



Here's a hint for you - the letter size and legal size file carts are the same price. I asked for the legal size because the drawers are larger and will hold more. I just use the large legal size pendaflex folders and put my smaller letter file folders inside. Works for me!

Oprah, Peter Walsh and The Container Store Want to Help You Get Organized

Oprah Winfrey, "Clean Sweep" organizer Peter Walsh and The Container Store are teaming up to get you organized. Oprah's Clean Up Your Messy House Tour is traveling the country to knock on doors and organize random clutter filled homes. Peter Walsh will head the organizing team.

As the well-known organizer from the "Clean Sweep" series on TLC, Peter Walsh is also the author of two wonderful organizing books "It's All Too Much" and "Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat?"


I met Peter Walsh last May at the Book Expo America. He told me that he thought he knew me from somewhere although we'd never met before. I told him it's because he's been faithfully reading my blog (if only....).



The Container Store is involved in this project by providing their wonderful organizing products including Elfa shelving and closet systems. They are offering everyone a 20% off coupon good for one week (till November 19, 2008). Click here to get to the web page where you can download the coupon.

What will you buy with your 20% off coupon?

Amazon's Kindle - A New Way to Organize Your Books

If you know me, you know I love to read. When I travel, I usually read 5-7 books a week. So, when I travel, that means packing 5-7 books in my suitcase - making it heavier than I want. And now, with airlines charging for baggage by number of bags and by weight, this has become an issue for me.

Amazon has created an electronic book called the Kindle. With the Kindle, you can download over 190,000 books, magazines, and newspapers directly onto your Kindle, thereby making carrying books a thing of the past.

I haven't purchased a Kindle yet - I understand they are coming out with a upgraded version in the next few months. If you have a Kindle, I would love to hear what you think of it.

A Quote from Winston Churchill

Here's another quote I received in my daily emails from Real Simple Magazine that I wanted to share with my readers:

Out of complex intensities, complex simplicities emerge

Winston Churchill

Organizing Your Paint Chips

Here's a little tip that has worked well for me when I'm trying to keep track of what colors the walls inside my house are painted. I keep a paint chip sample for each room I've painted with the color and name of the paint on one side and the room where this paint was used on the other.

Then I keep all the samples together on a small metal binder ring that I keep with my paint and painting supplies.

No Email Fridays - Would This Work for You and Your Office?

Check out this recent article from ABC World News about companies that are instituting a "No-Email Friday" policy. What do you think? Could you survive without reading your email for one day? Would your business survive?

Let's Clean Out That Garage

Now that summer has ended and the weather is cooling off, it's time to tackle that messy garage. Make sure to pick a weekend when the weather will be favorable with no rain in the forecast.

First, go through and remove anything you know you will be giving away and get it out of the area right away.

Then, start early on a Saturday or Sunday morning. Eat a good breakfast and bring water outside with you to keep you hydrated during the day.

Take EVERYTHING out of the garage and sort it into categories:

Gardening/yard: lawn mower, rakes, shovels, potting soil, flower pots, weed-wacker, hedge trimmer

Tools: tool boxes, electrical tools, cutting saws/tables

Recreation/sports: skis, skates, bicycles, helmets, bats/balls

Auto supplies: motor oil bottles, jacks, car covers,

Holiday/other decorations: Christmas tree, Halloween decorations, ornaments, flags

Bulk items (groceries/durable goods): paper products, cans of food

After you have finished sorting, go through each category with an eye toward honesty: What do the kids still play with? What do you really use? Are you still skiing? Snowboarding? Roller skating? Biking?

Once you've pared the contents of your garage down to those items you can't live without, you can begin the organizing process.

Create zones in your garage for each category you've organized your belongings into. Each of the items in the above categories should be stored with the other items in that same category; i.e. lawn and garden items should be kept together, holiday decorations should be stored in containers - labeled and sorted by holiday. Keeping the same holiday decorations together will save you an enormous amount of time when decorating for the holidays.

Once you've established the zones for your belongings, now is the time to purchase containers for those belongings.

Clear plastic containers work well because they stack nicely and you can see what is inside. Rubbermaid and Sterilite make excellent containers and they are readily available at Target and Walmart nationwide. Label each box with its contents and stack together with the labels facing outward.

As I've said before, cardboard storage boxes don't do well in garages due to possible insect or rodent infestation or if the garage gets wet.

Who knows, after you're done cleaning and re-organizing your garage, you just might be able to park your cars inside again.

If You Do Nothing Else Today ....

..... remember to VOTE!

What Are You Doing Tomorrow?

Last July, while walking back to my hotel from the San Diego Comic-Con, I passed the San Diego Hall of Administration building. What appears on the front of the building caught my eye and made me want to post it today - the day before the Presidential Election:

Good Government Demands the Intelligent Interest of Every Citizen

Remember this tomorrow, when you go the polls.