GON Reader Letter #1
Refresh instead of
throwing away when possible
I was reading an article in a magazine about cleaning up after Christmas. It said to throw away ornaments that look tired.
Instead, use my tips on a beloved ceramic piece:
If an object has lost some of its red paint, re-coat that area with red nail polish.
If a shine has faded, use
clear top coat polish to renew it. (Spray varnish will turn unpainted areas yellow.)
A black Sharpie pen can touch up chips on that snowman's hat. (Hobby Stores have Sharpie pens in
many colors.)
I like to repair or repaint before storing ornaments. I have more free time after Christmas than before the holiday. It's fun to paint a little and get great results!
Refresh instead of throwing away when possible.
Since we have mild December weather in SE Texas, one
January I shortened the sleeves of several of my holiday t-shirts before storing them. When the next December arrived, I was glad I did!
I enjoy your column and tips!
-- Arleen in SE Texas
GON Reader Letter #2
Always have these items handy
I have an old mug with a few pens, pencils, a highlighter, a black sharpie and a pair of scissors in each room...except the bathrooms. It's very handy, convenient, and contained in one small mug in each room. From time to time, I check to see the pens are still working and nothing else has migrated into that mug.
-- Linda Jacob
GON Reader Letter #3
A powerful tool in my life
I'm one who has to write things down; not type them into a computer. I buy packs of 3" x 5" notepads and document every phone call with the date, time, with whom I spoke and what was discussed. I jot down my lists, notes, thoughts and reminders and later on I photograph those pages and save them to a note-keeping app (I use Evernote).
I also forward important emails to the app and have saved your articles, too. Every entry then becomes searchable by word, number, etc.
To demonstrate the power of this tool, instead of an address book, my parents kept their contacts on 3" x 5" cards in a recipe box. I photographed each card and stored them in my app to make them searchable. My parents had included birthdays and other special days, relationships, and even in what years they sent holiday cards.
One day I searched my app by the phrase, "Red Bank Register"...a newspaper from which I'd saved some articles. I was pleasantly surprised to to pull up not just the articles, but any entry that contained the word "red" and any entry that contained
the color red, including those address cards to which my parents had made important updates in red ink.
Know that I really appreciate you!
-- Joy Plochocki, Married, mother of three, and grandmother of 4.
