Cindy's Weekly Wisdom What do all these things have in common? Buy (Red): 10 to 50% of the proceeds of which go to eliminating AIDS in Africa. Book Sale: 20% proceeds go to your child's school! Would you like to buy some wrapping paper to support our band trip? How about a beautiful $200 beaded bracelets that supports JDRF? An undisclosed portion of the proceeds are donated to the organization. Rubber bracelets for sale for every cause possible. Typically $1 each. Obviously, these are all ways of coaxing a donation out of you; that is, providing a rationalization for a … [Read more...]
Archives for November 2011
Meaningful Gifts
The combination of the words meaningful and gifts is probably half the problem with the whole gift giving phenomenon. We place so much importance on material gift giving that the thought of an alternative is almost unheard of. And of course the retail industry milks this sentiment for all it is worth because they want to sell more product. There are so many other ways to show someone you love them aside from giving material gifts. Do something for someone, spend time with someone, have a nice outing together, get a manicure or facial together, play a round of golf with a friend or take a … [Read more...]
Mini Mission Monday ~ A little kitchen declutter
Mini Mission Monday is about finding ten minutes a day to declutter. To make it easy for you, each Monday I set seven declutter missions, one for each day of the week for you to follow. It takes the guess work out of decluttering and makes it easy and "fun" for you to achieve some quick decluttering. One of the key features of the holiday season is food. Lets face it, it would be just another day without all those special foods that we break out just for this occasion. So what makes preparing food easier? That's right a decluttered kitchen where the things you need are easily found because … [Read more...]
Green Gift Monday the Alternative to Cyber Monday
I wanted to bring this to your attention today in advance of Cyber Monday The Nature Conservancy is celebrating the second year of Green Gift Monday, which coincides with Cyber Monday, November 28th, the biggest online shopping day of the year. We'd love for you to join us in raising awareness by promoting green, responsible giving options for the holidays – like purchasing energy efficient products, creating a do-it-yourself project, or donating to a charity in a gift recipient’s honor. Last year's Green Gift Monday was a huge success, with 65+ partners showcasing their support. The … [Read more...]
Simple Saturday – Corinna’s Color Coordinated Bookshelves
I wrote about bookshelf organization for Cindy's Weekly Wisdom this week, and I showed my friend Corinna's living room book shelf. Here are photos of her ninth grade daughter Audrey's color coordinated shelves, along with the letter Corinna emailed me explaining the hows and whys of the color coordinated books. Audrey's colour coordinated bookcase. The color book order is only about looks. We’ve just retrained our brains to visualize what a book looks like, and therefore what color it is, when we want to find a book. That’s actually easier than it sounds. It also reacquainted me … [Read more...]
Friday’s Favourite Five ~ 25 Nov 2011
On Fridays at 365 Less Things I share with you my five favourite comments from my wonderful readers and my five favourite web finds of the week. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I did. Fave Five Comments. Enjoy! This comment form Spendwisemom just goes to prove that Christmas can have a different format to drowning your children in gifts and still be great for both you and the kids. This week Sara added her voice to the group and wow is she doing her bit for the environment. You can read about it here if you missed her comment on Wednesday. Perhaps we have a Kindle convert in Martha @ … [Read more...]
Happy Thanksgiving & Black Friday Advice
Colleen and Cindy wish all our American readers and the good folk of Leiden (Netherlands) a very happy Thanksgiving May you eat all you want and not gain an ounce. Now that would be something to be grateful for. A little more Wisdom from Cindy In the United States, Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving, the day that marks the start of the "holiday shopping season." It's a day of amazing sales and deep discounts. Some stores open as early as 4:00 am, with people staying up all night in the parking lot so they can be the first in the door, as the very best sales (aptly named … [Read more...]
Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom ~ How do you store your books?
Cindy's Weekly Wisdom Books are a collecting weakness of many people. I know that in my early 20s I dreamed of having a library - ideally one with a rolling ladder. Then I moved every year for four or five years and put that foolish idea behind me. Books are heavy! I've been a library user my whole life. I remember when I was a girl going to a particularly library that kept the Nancy Drew novels separate from the rest of the books - heaven! And I have clear memories of Library Period in elementary school. Back then, I read biographies of famous females. Annie Oakley, Mary Todd … [Read more...]
The Big Freezer “Use it Up” Challenge
This is my freezer, not Dizzy's. As you can see it's not big enough to hold food clutter. Due to that fact the food in it is constantly being decluttered. Last week Dizzy informed me she was totally committed to Buy Nothing New November, a self imposed challenge as she was not able to comply during October. Not being one to do it the easy way Dizzy has committed to only buying milk and bread while feeding her whole family with just the contents of her Freezer for the whole month.  If I attempted that my family would stave to death due to the minuscule size of my freezer but that is a whole … [Read more...]
Mini Mission Monday ~ Make way for guests
Mini Mission Monday is about finding ten minutes a day to declutter. To make it easy for you, each Monday I set seven declutter missions, one for each day of the week for you to follow. It takes the guess work out of decluttering and makes it easy and "fun" for you to achieve some quick decluttering. With the holiday season upon us I think I will continue to focus our mini missions around having the house ready to receive visitors/guests. So we will concentrate on the areas they will be most likely to see and use. Monday - Take a good look around your living room. The room where you … [Read more...]