Affordable School Supplies!!!!

If you have not heard of or been to The Scrap Exchange in Durham I wholeheartedly recommend a trip! This place takes stuff that people would normally toss and use it to create art or for other projects.

If you are a teacher, home school your kids or need back to school supplies, this is an affordable gold mine!  Some of the “new” items they recently received this month include: 1940-70s Vintage Magazines, Mini Glass Beakers and VXI Tuffset Headsets.

It is a great place for an alternative birthday party for kids, too or to get your creative juices flowing. For instance, they have wallpaper samples. I am in the process of repairing my old dollhouse for my nieces and those samples are going to be perfect!

Check out their groovy site:

http://www.scrapexchange.org/

For those outside of the Triangle area, here are some similar stores:

http://www.scrapbox.org/ in Ann Arbor

http://www.artsandscraps.org/  in Detriot

http://urbanore.ypguides.net/ in Berkeley

http://www.mfta.org/ New York

Hunka Hunka Burning Junk

A friend of mine recently referred me to Aaron Mangal who is the Triangle area co-owner of College Hunks Hauling Junk.  I was really impressed with Aaron’s commitment to being green in every way possible. I am really excited about future eco-friendly events he has cooking!

What could be better than really handsome men removing your junk for you?  Saving you time & energy (and a sore back!) by coming up and picking up all of that stuff you have finally de-cluttered? And even better, doing it in an environmentally sensitive and responsible way?  The guys recycle or donate stuff instead of having it ending up in the landfill.

If you want to get organized, de-clutter and still be green, these guys are an easy solution!  More info here:

http://www.1800junkusa.com/

Is Disorganization Costing you Time with Family?

Consider these statistics:

Organization & Learning

“Educational Researchers have long known that humans find it difficult if not impossible to learn bits and pieces of information that lack organization.”

National Association of Professional Organizer statistics

As the school year approaches, organization could be a key component to help your child succeed in school.   Is your child organized?  Are you?  What step can you take today toward that goal?

How Much $$$$ is Disorganization Costing You?

Eliminating disorganization can put $$ in your pocket:

• Late payments (misplaced bills leading to interest and penalties)

• Pending rebates (not collecting the necessary information)

• Duplicate purchases (unable to find what you already had)

• Unused gift cards (not with you while shopping)

• Overdraft fees (failing to reconcile)

• Multiple trips to store (shopping without a list)

• Repairs (neglecting maintenance)

• Tax Deductions (not tracking mileage and business expenses)

• Late fees (overdue items)

Organizing Your Mind for the School Year

First, take some time to reflect:

What do you want to accomplish for the school year?

What does your child want to focus on?

What are the priorities for the family?

Then, decide on goals:

Have you checked the expiration date on meds/supplements recently?

One time when I was out of college I was visiting my parents my baby brother started playing a game called, “How old do you think stuff in Mom’s medicine drawer is.”  My brother is a funny guy and soon we were all in tears laughing.  Aspirin from the 80s is something we laughed at back in the 90s.  We could laugh because my parents never used it.

It’s not funny for anyone to accidentally use expired medicine, aspirin or supplements. I am working with an elderly client and I recently found several bottles of expired medicine and supplements.  She has short term memory loss and having current meds organized is vital!

I have found many of my clients will stock up on sale items and then have several jars of vitamins, etc.  Many times these items expire and now money has been wasted instead of saved.  Think before you buy all those items in bulk.

If it’s been a while, take some time today and go through all of your family’s meds and supplements.

Some helpful articles:

http://www.wisegeek.com/how-do-i-dispose-of-expired-medicine.htm

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1395748/should_you_take_expired_vitamins.html?cat=68

Meet Miss Malpo: Repurposed Woman Extraordinary!

I was in Natchitoches, Louisiana last week. You might have never heard of it, but if you watched Steel Magnolias you have seen it.  I was lucky enough to spend time with the incomparable Sybil Rhodes and her bridge club.  These ladies are the real deal and much more entertaining than Steel Magnolias!  We should all be so lucky to have people like Sybil and her bridge club friends in our lives.

Sybil is one of those people you feel blessed to know and if I live my life a 100th as well as hers than I can die happy.  I am featuring her today because she is a great example of being creative, solving a problem and a fun & easy way to be green. She was respurposing and reusing before it ever became fashionable!

Her friend Miss Camille (teacher of the lovely bridge group) was having trouble with her garden.  Miss Camille is a very fine gardner, but crows were ruining her crops.  Sybil did some research and decided to create Miss Malpo (named after an original cereal from one of her many travel adventures).  She used an old wig, clothes, jewelry, to dress and repurposed bedding to create her scarecrow.  Now Miss Camille’s garden is crow free and has created lots of amusement.  Some people have not understood where Miss Malpo’s southern hospitality is when she does not wave back!

Not to worry, Sybil is creating a boyfriend for Miss Malpo.  He has his overalls and will be made of repurposed swimming pool noodles.

Calling all Green Businesses & Interested in Being More Green

October 18-20 in Raleigh!

I have been invited to have a booth and hope to see many of you there.  More info:  http://reuseconex.org/

Reuse Alliance is proud to host ReuseConex – the one and only event that connects all facets of the nation’s reuse sector! We’re bringing together people from far and wide to learn about the triple bottom line benefits (environmental, social and economic) of reuse.

ReuseConex will include:

• Expert panelists, motivating speakers, and informative workshops
• 40+ reuse-related exhibitors,
• Tours of local reuse centers,
• A reFashion Show andmovie screenings, and much more!

The event will also have 3 distinct attendee tracks, so we can meet everyone’s interests:

1) Reuse 101 – provides the general public and reuse sector novices a better grasp of the sector

2) Best Practices – allows reuse sector members to learn from each other

3) Skills Builders – allows advanced reuse sector staff to refresh and develop key organizational management skills in an interactive workshop format.

Please review the rest of the website for all the pertinent details for attending, sponsoring/exhibiting, or volunteering at ReuseConex.

Who Should Attend?

Become a part of this ground-breaking event:

Register Today!

These are a few of my favorite things….

Luckily, you won’t have to hear me sing; you would run to the mountains of Austria if you did!

I am very passionate about repurposing items to help get people organized!  It saves you money, is better for the planet, works those creative gray cells, and children love it!  Talk about a win win win win situation!

A WINE CASE can be repurposed to store your holiday ornaaments.  If they keep bottles of wine safe, your ornaments will be too.  Many wine stores will give you cases for free and you can color coordinate your boxes. They are also easy to organize because the boxes are uniform. You also get to enjoy a case of wine, too!

A TISSUE BOX can be repurposed to hold all of your plastic bags. Now, I know we all have our reusable bags that we keep in our car, but we occasionally will get that stray paper bag (make sure you reuse or take it somewhere like Harris Teeter where it will be recycled).  Here’s a no cost way to keep them all organized and not all over the house.

A TWO TIERED COOKIE STAND can be used to create a GET OUT THE DOOR QUICKLY area to hold cell phones, keys, sunglasses, etc.  What I like about using the two tiers is friends have a place to set their keys when they come to visit and can put them on a separate plate.

A DUST PAN is a lego/small toy scooper-upper! Get your children involved. Kids love to use this to get organized and get cleaned up!  The more fun you make organizing, the more likely the kids will want to participate.

What are YOUR FAVORITE items to repurpose?

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