DrDeClutterBlog.com

Don’t let your newspapers pile up outside your front door when you’re gone. Make sure to set up a VACATION HOLD asap.

And, save time! Instead of making a phone call, or forgetting to make it and put your newspaper deliver on VACATION HOLD or other request, go online and do it quickly. It also lets you check if you want them when you return, or you can donate them to local schools, etc.  

Our local Longmont Times-Call can be accessed at https://www.timescallcustomercare.com/

Check you paper and see if they offer this quick click system too!

Happy vacation/holidays!

The holiday season can kick up the spam phone calls  that waste your time and energy. You can stop this insanity quickly by making just one phone call.

“Cell Phone Numbers Go Public This Month!” This may be an urban legend, but just to make sure, you can take action now and stop them in their tracks!

To prevent spam calls, take just 20 seconds and call the following number from your cell phone: 888-382-1222.

It is the National DO NOT CALL list It will only take a minute of your time.. It blocks your number for five (5) years. You must call from the phone number you want to have blocked.You cannot call from a different phone number.

You can however go online and type in numbers there. https://www.donotcall.gov/default.aspx

Please help your family and friends stay less stressed too, pass this on!

“For the first time ever I was taking the family on the road.
We stayed with my in-laws,
which on life’s list of experiences ranks right below
sitting in a tub full of scissors.”
~ Jeff Foxworthy   

Dull scissors are the pits! Dull hair scissors are a disaster for your finely clipped do!

I confess, I cut my own hair. I have most of my life. I get it reshaped by at a salon about twice a year, then, as it grows out, usually unevenly anyway, I trim it up. I started doing this out of frustration at paying for a cut and coming home to find it uneven already! Having to trim it up to get it even all around made me just do it myself on an ongoing basis.

So, if you do this too, and I know many, many do . . . make sure you have a very sharp pair of good hair scissors. I bought mine at Sally’s Beauty Supply years ago here in Longmont.

I just recently had them sharpened (waited way past necessary) at Johnson Sharpening. They have a table at the Farmer’s Market each summer. They take your shears and bring them back the next week for pick up. They also have a store front, find out more at JohnsonSharpening.com.

Boy, it’s SO nice to have them all sharp again!

If you have any kind of scissors that need sharpening, Search online “scizzor sharpening + your city”. It’s really worth it.

Most shops do other items as well like knives, saws, blades, mowers and tools.

A safe and fun Halloween is a must! Prepare to have a good one by using these 13 ooooooohhhh “13!” . . . ;-D  basic common sense tips to help create great memories for your kids and yourself!

1. Always use common sense. Yup, right off the bat, there it is. Seems like, well, “common sense!” But, kids walk in the dark and do things that can set them up trouble.

2. Young children should always go trick-or-treating with an adult.

3. Never trick-or-treat alone. Make sure to have a great time with your buddy or buddies.

4. Plan your entire route and make sure your family knows what it is; this includes time leaving and getting back too.

5. Make sure to wear safe costumes. Safe for walking, skipping and playing in, as well as flame retardant as possible due to lit candles in pumpkins.

6. Candy? Wait until you get home for your parents to check your candy before you dive in and eat! Sadly, there might be questionable goodies, or packages with cuts, or . . . worse. I don’t want to go there, but, you know. Plus, very few of us, especially little kids, have the willpower to not eat waaaaay toooo much candy and pay the consequences soon enough.

7. Be very cautious of strangers and those teasing or daring you to do something you don’t want to do, or that feels wrong.

8. Never go inside a house. Unless you absolutely know the people – they are family friends, relatives, etc., stay at the door, get your treats, and move on, after a mighty fine “thank you!”

9. Visit houses where the light are “on.” If the lights are out and the house is not decorated, you can pretty much assume they are not home, or are not participating with candy giving, etc. Next!

10. Walk. Do not run. No body needs a ripped costume or skinned knee when there’s so much fun to have.

11. Walk on sidewalks and driveways, not on the grass or through lawns.

12. Carry a flashlight.

13. Carry a cell phone if necessary.

Most of all, have great fun! Remember to say “Trick-Or-Treat!” Smile big! And, say, “THANK YOOOUUUUUU!”

Happy, fun Halloween.

You think paying me to help you get organized will set you back a few Piggy Bank dollars? How about a declutter job that costs $84 million per year over the next 12 years!

No, they’re not from Hoarders TV Show.

Look up! Because that’s what Jerome Pearson, president of Star Technology and Research, Inc. says it will cost to clean up the clutter that’s in our heavens. But, hey, not to worry! Since space debris is a global problem, that cost could be shared among a number of nations, he added!

WHA?

Humans. We trash everything! We consume, then trash. Very sad.

I don’t there are any sofas or plastic lawn chairs floating up there right now, but I’d guess there will be soon.

HOW MUCH CLUTTER IS UP THERE?

NASA estimates that Earth’s orbital debris cloud contains more than 20,000 pieces as big as a softball and more than 500,000 bigger than a marble.

All the talk about going to Mars, putting a hotel up in space, etc. just seems to me to be a few more places we get to litter and trash. I can see it now. I pay $250,000 to go to the Space Hotel and Lounge and while sitting having a lovely cool fruity drink I see trash floating all over in space out the window. Geez.

EDDE: JOB OPENINGS COMING SOON 

They plan on creating spacecrafts just for this job. To job to declutter space.  At least it will put some people at NASA back to work.

Each spacecraft, known as an ElectroDynamic Debris Eliminator (EDDE), would capture orbital debris in a net, then drag the junk down out of harm’s way.

Pearson says that, EDDE’s services may be sorely needed. A new report warns that there is already so much junk in space that humanity may have reached a “tipping point,” in which collisions could start to increase exponentially, spawning more and more debris.

Yeesh! Don’t drive in space anytime soon to avoid this.

A FAST AND WEIGHTY ISSUE 

How fast and heavy is your clutter?

Pieces of space junk — which may be defunct spacecraft, abandoned launch vehicles or fragments from satellite collisions — zip around Earth at speeds up to 17,500 mph (28,163 kph). Okay, that’s fast! Keep a watchful eye out! In fact, that’s so fast that even tiny paint flecks can damage a spacecraft  And there’s a lot of this stuff, much of it larger and far more dangerous than paint flecks.

LEO (low-Earth orbit) is cluttered with about 2,500 objects bigger than a softball (roughly 4 inches wide), Pearson said. No big deal, right? Wrong. This debris would weigh about 2,000 tons here on Earth

IN SUMMARY

While on or off the planet:

 - Don’t litter.
 - Pick up after yourself.
 - Don’t live in clutter.
 - Get organized.
 - Don’t jettison stuff out of your rocket ship if you’re not going to go back and pick it up before coming home.

You can read the entire article with more photos here.

Back up your computer into the ether-net. Why? If you use a physical backup on your office, and you are hit with fire, flood, hurricane, tornado, theft, spilling a juicy box on it!… or other mayhem , you’ll have lost it all.

Mozy is an extremely affordable backup system, I use it.  Mozy also lets you tap into your harddrive from anywhere in the world. You can’t do that with a physical hard drive sitting at home in your office.

You don’t even know it’s backing up several times a day.

Find out more at Mozy Online Backup

My brother, Dave lives west of Baltimore. He emailed me with a very good preparedness list, he feels pretty ready, though no one of course knows what will happen anywhere until it gets there.

Ace Hardware has hurricane preparedness plan and kit. See it all here.

Most importantly, don’t wait until the last minute,

and

don’t think you’re above it!

You’ll be wrong, possibly dead wrong!

I just got  my signed copy of a great news children’s book,  “Spider On the WEB.” What’s extra special about this book is that it’s written by my good friend, Mary Kaskie. Mary and I graduated from high school in St. Paul, Nebraska and get together with other friends at least once a year to catch up.

Mary (Berggren) Kaskie has been a teacher and now an elementary school counselor for over 25 years. She also has two great kids, so Mary knows children! “Spider On the WEB”, this lovely and fun, educational and timely children’s book was born out of Mary’s experience and belief that children learn and remember life’s important lessons best when taught through story form. Great for parents and grandparents as well as librarians and teachers to use as a learning tool with questions in the back of the book.

Book Reviews says:

“Spider On The Web” is a delightful story about Dissy, a cheeky, little monkey who meets up with an online spider in a chat room on the computer. Dissy makes some unwise decisions and gets herself trapped in a sticky spider´s web. Missy, the monkey´s conscience, tries to guide Dissy in the right direction. Watch as Missy turns into a superhero to help save the day. Educators and parents can use this book as a springboard to discuss the dangers of online predators and guidelines for computer safety.

Order Mary’s new book and let Dissy the monkey teach your children or grandchildren the right use of computers for their own safety.

Congratulations Mary! You’re helping parents and teachers help our children in the most creative of ways! :)

It’s just too easy to toss paint cans and cleaning supplies into the garbage, but it’s one of the worst things we can do! They leak into the soil and our water system and hurt us all. I know it may take a little more effort to not ditch them in the trash, but think of all the good you’re doing! Thank you in advance!!  

And, thanks to my longtime friend Jennifer (click on her name and then on the arrow on the site page and see her always lovely, happy face!) for sending along her friend Adele’s great experience of safely disposing of everyday toxic materials.

“I had lots of stuff to move out on a real deadline. It’s not 10 yet,  so have done one closet and on the second now. For sure, someone is dropping stuff at my house unknown to me! Another white silk short sleeve blouse discovered at the back of the cupboard. How many of these did I have? They populate like rabbits!

Onto the years of stacked up, never to be used again hazardous waste: paint, cleaning supplies, poisons etc.

We have a great company that is in a lot of cities around the country. WM- Waste Management.

They send a kit with a plastic bag. Cost is $20. In Cherry Hills Village you are offerred the opp to do this once a year. I threw out 20+ years of paint, chemicals that were crusty in the jars and assorted other stuff.”

WM works with Residential, Business and more. Find out if WM is in your area. They have a listing of cities including Guam, Puerto Rico and into Canada!
 

Did you know that it’s against the law to throw electronics in the trash? It is in many states.  But, and this will be a “duh!” . . . we shouldn’t need laws to tell us to do what is common sense and important to help keep the soil, air, water and ultimately, all living beings (us) to stay healthy in the first place by keeping our environment clean and healthy.

We all know that “throwing” our computers and monitors, and for that matter, any tech gadgets into the trash is not only a bad idea, but don’t always take the time to do the right thing to recycle them correctly. I’ve been in many a house and business where there are small to tall stacks of e-waste - computers, printers, monitors, phones and other electronic gadgets and parts - waiting for somewhere to go. My clients are trying to do the right thing, but it’s also sucking up a percentage of their living, working or storage space in the mean time.

Recyclers recover more than 100 million pounds of materials from electronics each year. It’s still only a drop in the bucket of all the electronics that need to be recycled correctly.

So, how and where to dispose of them? I’m going to lead you to a few sites that give you lots of information, not just my area, as every state is different. But for those in the Longmont, Colorado area where I live, I want to tell you that I just found out last week where you can take your computer towers  to be recycled and reused FOR FREE!

Longmont area:

1.  Computer Specialists of Longmont These awesome folks have a local gadget guy that takes them repurposes them. YEA! Give them a call first and ask about taking your flat screen and laptop too. Just no big old montors (like the one I’m looking at while typing right now! (I love my big, old T-REX monitor!!)

And, of course, don’t see Computer Specialists as just a dumping ground! Take time to shop; see their in-store products and give them your real business too – I just had a computer fixed – they’re the “specialists!”, really nice and EZPZ to work with.

2. G&S Mountain Recyclers - This is another Longmont business where they also destroy your harddrive and refurbish computers for local non-profits. Watch their video, which not only shows what they do to recycle computers, but how great that they’re making a difference in our community by creating jobs, linking up with the local LaborForce. Great job G&S! 

And what about all your other egadgets? G&S can take care of all the e-waste you can’t just donate, but for a fee can let it go! I know we hate paying to get rid of these things, but really, you’ve enjoyed it, it’s served you for months, years, decades! . . . pay a small fee and let it go. This fee constitutes your taking care of us all, and yourself in the long run.

Denver: BuyMyTronics 

How and where to dispose of computers and other electronics:

First place to start is to go online to search for your local e-cycle, eco-cycle and recycle centers.

Most larger towns have one for paper, plastic, glass, etc. and will have their electronics recycle plan for the greater community or region or can lead you to where it is. Here’s Longmont’s as an example which includes Shred Events! Yea again! Don’t miss my article on how to shred too.

Plug-In To eCycling Partners

Earth911  Great ideas for lots of things that need recycling.

DigitalTips

Thank you for loving our planet!