First of all, a grateful thank-you to everyone who made my blog #1 in the Amazon Kindle Blogs Home & Garden category (#13 of all blogs overall)!! I just found out–woo hoo!
I am inspired to write this post about saving gas & time because my good friends in Atlanta are struggling to find gasoline to buy… I wanted to make sure that everyone affected knows to go to http://search.twitter.com and search for #atlgas. I have seen some very fresh info there on which stations have gas for sale.
There are some simple and quietly effective objects you may have in your home that give you back an amazing ROI in reduced errands. Every time I use these items I get all smug about how I didn’t have to drive anywhere! Here are these three unappreciated yet valuable items:
- FOR SKIPPING THE POST OFFICE…a shipping scale. You can get these for $20 on up, with the average price for a good one being about $50. Having one of these means USA readers have virtually no reason to ever go to the post office again. Knowing the weight of your package enables you to use Click-N-Ship® from the US Postal Service, which allows you to print out shipping labels with paid postage from your own printer. They will bring you free mailing supplies for Priority Mail, so you don’t even need to go out for boxes… and then you can put packages on your front porch and request a free pickup. I guess you’d have to go out for packing tape sometimes, but that’s it. (More about this on my previous post, Top Four Post Office Avoidance Tips.) You can also use many other stamp purchasing services like Stamps.com. I like Endicia which has a great starter deal when you buy a label printer.
- FOR SKIPPING THE DRY CLEANER…Dryel Home Dry Cleaning Kit. I am not a spokesperson for Dryel (but hey, call me!)– I just really love it. Don’t you always have those slacks where there is just one little tiny darned spot on them? Or you have clothes that smell like cigarette smoke from a party, but are otherwise fine? This kit allows you to take care of those dry-clean-only items that just need a little freshening up. I can stretch dry cleaning trips r-e-a-l-l-y far between with this kit!
- FOR SKIPPING THE GROCERY STORE…the freezer. An oldie but a goodie…if you plan, buy, and cook well you can eat for quite a while from your freezer without having to go to the grocery store! We like to get Costco items for the freezer such as pot roast, quiches, and other main dishes, and of course it’s great to store veggies in there too. We also use Dream Dinners for meal preparation and typically have many of those meals ready as well.
By the way, I also like to keep a thermal "cooler bag" in my car to carry quantities of frozen and cold items home in the Texas heat. With it I am able to spontaneously run more errands in one trip without worrying so much about spoilage. What are your errand-reducing objects? Share in the comments! (No fair saying "computers," by the way– too easy!)
Follow me on Twitter for my Daily #ClutterTweetTip: www.twitter.com/clutterdiet
Don’t pair socks – buy identical styles. One for each family member to simplify laundry sorting then just tumble them into the sock drawer.
“lazy” moms prefer to call it “moving children towards independence” – teach children to do their own laundry. They outgrow their clothes in a year anyway so don’t worry too much about the quality of the job.