New Non-Toxic Spot Shot®
eliminates even the toughest carpet
stains, no matter how old or stubborn,
with an environmentally-friendly formula
that”s safe for kids and pets. It”s not
q uite magic - but with
a combination like that, combination like that,
i t might as well be. See for
yourselfatspotshot.com.
S pot Shot. What Stain?
create as many notebooks as you need,
design the pages yourself and keep it all
in your laptop. For instance, I use a One-
Note notebook to store all my website
passwords. (I password-protect this, of
course.) I scan contracts and other im-
portant papers into another notebook
so I can instantly find them. The possi-
bilities are limitless.
No space for a file cabinet? No prob-
lem, especially since they’re an eyesore.
Every month I stuff my paid bills, re-
ceipts, magazine clippings, flyers, kids’
schoolwork and anything else I want to
keep (but don’t have enough time to
scan) into a prepaid envelope and mail
to G`o`cp%Zfd% Within a few days, all the
documents I sent appear on my pixily
.com Web page, where they can be eas-
ily accessed, organized, e-mailed and
printed. Plans range from free to $60
per month.
Money management is a snap with
two cool tools. Hl`Zb\e Fec`e\ (quicken
.com, free) gives me an instant snapshot
of all my bank accounts and credit cards
wherever I have access to a computer. I
also use my bank’s free bill-pay service
and subscribe to text-message alerts
from both services so I know when a bill
comes due, if a large transaction goes
through, if a balance is running low or
whenever a repeating payment is added
to one of my accounts, which is a com-
mon online scam to watch out for.
bedroom
This spot ends up hiding CDs,
books, clothes, maybe a cell
phone charger and who knows
what else. The key is to divide
and conquer.
Mine is a family of avid readers
and I’m proud of that—but the down-
side is bedside-table clutter. We got so
overwhelmed with books that I cleaned
house by selling them on 8dXqfe%Zfd#
which is very simple: Go to the site,
click “Sell Your Stuff,” type in each
book’s ISBN number (found on the
back cover), set a price, then let your
mailman haul the lot away. (Amazon
charges a small fee at the time of sale,
and you are paid electronically.) To
forestall a relapse, I stopped buying
books altogether and rent them through
9ffbjn`d%Zfd% I set up what’s called a
“pool” of books on the site, which
starts sending them to me. When I’m
done with one, I ship it back in the pre-
paid envelope and Bookswim sends
me another. Voilà—a constant supply
of books and no storage issues. Plans
start at $10 a month.
I had nearly given up on my public
library because the books I wanted were
rarely available when I stopped in. (If
they were, I would inevitably forget to
return them by the due date and rack up
huge fees.) And the selection of audio
books was always picked clean. Recently,
though, I reunited with my local branch.
Via Google, I found and accessed my
library’s online catalog, which allows
me to put a hold on any title I want so it
will be there when I show up. When I
check something out, I send my assis-
tant, Sandy (see kitchen, page 52), a text
message to remind me of the return
date. Books on tape? I don’t even leave
the house for those. This year our
library partnered with Fm\i;i`m\%Zfd
to provide free digital selections to
members. For this, you’ll need a digital
music player, a computer and Over-
Drive’s free software. All set? Click “Find
Free Downloads” at OverDrive.com to
search for your library.
With two growing kids and a per-
sonal penchant for shoes, the closet
floors are overrun with barely used
pairs that never get any street time. I
donate what we no longer need to a
wonderful charity called Soles4Souls
that gives footwear to the needy. Log on
to soles4souls.org for details.
When I’m not using my cell phone
(that is, when I’m sleeping), it goes on
my bedside table in the ) Gf[ :_Xi^`e^
JkXk`fe ( kangaroomstorage.com, $20).
There’s space for two gadgets, so I sup-
pose I could share with my husband,
but I don’t—I put my reading glasses in
the other pod and a nail file and book-
marks in the mail slot at the back. M
