Two tips to keep clutter to a minimum

When you purchase something new, first don't buy it unless you have a specific place to put it. This really applies to larger items but could apply to that pair of shoes too. Second, when you bring home that new item, get rid of something that you no longer use.

Another Shred Fest

Driving around yesterday I saw an ad for another community shredding event in my area. Keep your eyes out!

Shred Fest

This weekend a local financial planner hosted a " community shredding event". At the event, you bring old financial documents (utilities bills, credit card statements, etc.) that you don't need to keep and have them shredded on-site by a shredding service. They pull up a truck, a noisy truck, and you watch your documents go through.

Before the event, the company provided a list of what to documents to keep and for how long. I've attached one I found on line that was similar. We spent a few hours clearing out a file cabinet and ended up with 4 paper bags! And we do this periodically, so I can only imagine some household's files.

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/mtg/20000518h.asp

Look out for such an event because these shredding companies are expensive to hire, so take advantage of a community shred event. Keep your identity safe, save time, and keep you clutter in check!

Not the greatest product....

I was cleaning up in the garage this afternoon and came across a Ziploc "Big Bag". They came out with these a while ago, maybe a year, and I have used 2 of 3 that came in the box. I have decided that I don't like them as a storage solution (now I only mean the these extra large storage bags, not their regular food storage products).

The main reasons why I don't like them is when you fill them, they are very awkward and bluky to store. They don't stand up on their side well, nor do they flatten out well. They also become heavy quickly. Their website suggests among a variety of things, to store books, photo albums in them. A storage box is a better alternative to storing books and photo albums.

I think there are better alternatives out there. Any ideas what these bags are good for? Anybody just love them?