Monday, February 23, 2004
Dear Heloise: Need a home for all those magazines, calendars and wrapping paper sent as inducements to contribute to charities?
Once a week, I cut our address label off all the magazines and drop them off, along with any other little appropriate freebies, at a local assisted-living nursing home. This way, the residents have current magazines to read. Many of them or the staff also put the wrapping paper to good use. Pat Dougherty, Dunnellon, Fla.
This is a nice way to recycle items that still have a good use, and it is a "heart hint" as well. Please call first to be sure a facility can use your gifts. Heloise
Fast Facts: Small key chains are handy as zipper pulls -- here are a couple of suggestions on what to use them for:
Upurse
Uluggage
Ujacket
Ulight pull
Dear Heloise: I put a plastic foam cooler with a frozen block of ice substitute in my car for transporting frozen foods and meats home in the hot, hot summertime. Mima of Missouri
Dear Heloise: Several months ago, I bought a throw rug for my hallway. When I went back to the same store to buy another one, I found that a rug with a similar pattern had been introduced, and I could not remember which one I had originally purchased.
Using my digital camera, I took a picture of my rug, printed it using my computer, took the picture to the store and matched it to the same rug. Fast, easy, accurate and very inexpensive. Kathleen A. Pleasant, Washington, D.C.
Dear Heloise: My husband and I seem to always get a lot of business cards, and I don't like to throw them away. I like to have them handy and close by. I discovered that if you buy a three-ring binder and baseball-card sleeves, this works well to keep them organized and is very inexpensive. You can buy baseball-card sleeves where school supplies are sold, next to the dividers and page protectors, for only a couple of dollars. Jen in Texas
Dear Readers: Want an easy way to make your address book stay neat and clean? Write names in ink, but addresses and phone numbers in pencil. No problem when you need to make a change. Heloise
Dear Heloise: Could you please pass this along to store clerks? If an item has already been picked out from the store shelves, especially if it is a gift item, I do not want one that is already in a box. Sometimes I have spent quite some time looking over what I am buying to see that it is painted well, etc. I get to the counter and am handed one by a store clerk that is all packed up in a box. Who knows what it looks like? Please tell them to ask or at least offer to open the box. Thanks. JoAnne, Via E-mail
XSend a great hint to: Heloise, P.O. Box 795000, San Antonio, Texas 78279-5000, Fax: (210) HELOISE or E-mail: Heloise@Heloise.com.
King Features Syndicate