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No matter how rich you are, whether it was a gift or not, non-used clothes are clutter. When you have so many clothes that they can't fit into the normal closets of s normal home- condo, dorm room, or apartment-you have too many! Remember, there's only one of you-and if you have to stash and box and truck clothes away to get room for the one's your're actually wearing, you have too many. I'm not in any danger of being elected to the ten best dressed list, but I try to always be presentable. The clothes in my closet take up only five feet of width. I have better things to do than sort through a dry-goods store inventory every morning. Here are seven tips for whittling down your closet. 1. If it's not flattering to you-the color or the cut...

The holidays are coming and that means lots of entertaining which leads to more cleaning. Here are a two tips to help you get through the holidays. The average party generates thirty-one stains, twelve of which are on the best furniture and at least half of which are red dye base, plus four broken and seventeen left or lost things, three scratches, countless pounds of scattered litter and waste. The most obvious but seldom-practiced party precautions is to triple the waste containers throughout the party area outside and in. Every guest (even the drunks) will look for a disposal site first, and if one is right at his elbow, he will make use of it, and others will follow suit. Likewise, once one slob slings sausage on the silk centerpiec...

After investing many dollars to bring our babies into the world, then another $15,000.00 to $25,000.00 to get them six years old and into school ( plus an incalculable amount of love, effort, and emotion along the way), we seek evidence to assure ourselves they are going to be productive people. The first trickle of assurance comes in the form of some scribbled art done in kindergarten, and we snatch it up and place it into scrapbook storage. By first grade we actually see intelligent words (even if the letters are a little out of alignment); every sheet is collected. By the second grade sentences are being produced and they overcrowd the scrapbook and stuff the drawer. By the eighth grade, we have mountains and foothills of evidence tha...

"Under the kitchen sink" isn't the answer-yet most of us have the entire supermarket aisle selection under there, nice and handy for breaking our back and bumping our head and for the little ones to get into. There's rusting cans, bottles with disintegrating labels, and boxed cleaners that have turned into unidentifiable white lumps surrounded by soggy cardboard. All these items just waiting to be leaked on should your plumbing break. This is not a place to store your cleaning goodies. If you just removed all the snoutless aerosols. anything that's rusted shut or ruined, the accidental duplicates, the free samples you will never try, and the bottles and jugs that contain only a teaspoon of something-you could reduce the volume by half. C...

You may have a serious junk problem if you: Hide when the doorbell rings Wear your coat when you answer the door so your caller will think you were just leaving Wait until dark to pull the car into the garage Live in fear that someone you respect may someday open one of your closets Have to think about how to cross a room Finally find the Christmas tree lights while hunting for the Easter baskets Finally replace a badly worn or broken part- then keep that broken part Fear lifting the lid on some of the Tupperware containers in your refrigerator Hide the tangled contents of a messy drawer by laying a couple of neatly folded things over the top Drag your 22-cubic foot chest freezer into the yard to keep the repairman from coming into the h...

Many of us have a wooden cutting board on our counter top or stashed in our kitchen cupboards somewhere, and we butcher more than meat on it- salads, carrots, and scraps all get worked on (and into it). The value of a "butcher block" is the very fact that wood is hard enough to work on but soft enough to allow knives and sharp tools to be used on it and even pierce it, without dulling the knife or chipping the block. Hence a block surface has only an oil treatment- none of the usual wood finishes like varnish or paint can be used on it. So the blows of our preparation instruments aren't the only thing it absorbs- food particles, fats,meat and vegetables, juices, etc. can soak in and provide a fine encouragement for bacteria growth and o...

Here's a simple way to keep your data safe from potential bad actors in one easy step. Are you ready? Here it is: Log out and lock your computer whenever you're not in front of it. That's right, it's so simple it can almost be seen as an analog approach to cybersecurity. But make no mistake, all those in-depth disk encryption efforts can be rendered pointless. If you step away from your computer while it's on and unlocked, anyone passing by can access it. Working Remotely Promotes Data Vulnerability What's perhaps most insidious about someone gaining physical access to your computer is the fact that the attacker doesn't need any advanced technical know-how to steal sensitive information. A momentary lapse in vigilance at work or a coffee...

Your Grandma always "aired out the house" in the spring. This airing out announced the coming of spring. but is it really necessary? Yes, it is! Today;s homes actually need airing out even more that Grandma's did.The house, which had been draft-proofed as far as possible with storm windows, heavy curtains, felt strips around the door and window frames, and blankets stuffed under the doors, was opened up to let the fresh spring breezes flow through. And as winter's cooking and heating odors wafted away on the wind, serious spring cleaning began. But talk about closed up! Our modern homes make those of thirty or forty years ago seem like wind tunnels by comparison. You can almost feel your ears pop when you slam a door. Our homes today ar...

This is a question we are asked often. So, let's compare them. A sponge is easier to handle, you can even cut them to fit your hand. They hold five times the liquid a cloth does. A sponge will soak up liquid liquids more speedily. They work well on flat surfaces. With a cloth, you can exert more finger power. They are far superior for situations where it's important to be able to come up with a lot of clean sides. A cloth can fit into very small spaces. So there you have it, either one will do the job. My personal preference as a professional house cleaner is a dish cloth. I think sponges will stay damp longer and hold more germs. I keep a cheese shaker filled with baking soda and a few drops of essential oil next to my kitchen sink and...