Random Tips-O-Plenty

So some random household tips have been popping into my head lately, and I thought I'd share ~ why not? Some things will make you say, "No Shit, Sherlock" and maybe some will make you say, "Huh, I never thought of that!"

A couple I have already posted on the fb page, so for the 2 people that read those, excuse me for repeating myself :)

1. I can do "survival sewing" ~ meaning I can mend holes, buttons, add patches, and hem something with a needle and thread if I absolutely have to. BUT I find using hemming tape is an easy and cheap alternative to getting pants hemmed. Especially if you're a shrimp like me and have to hem many pairs! Here's what it looks like, found almost anywhere like RiteAid, Walgreens, Joann's, Amazon, etc...instructions on the package.
2. Do you by chance have a wood shower rod? Wood closet rods?  Take a little olive oil on a rag or paper towel and rub it into the pole once a month, your curtain and hangers will glide like butter, with less cholesterol!  
3. Got candle wax on your fav table cloth or clothing? Pick off the big chunks then iron (high heat) with wax paper in between the cloth and the iron, you will be ironing the wax paper itself, and voila! The wax paper will suck up the candle wax via the heat of the iron.
4. Got wax or some mysterious crust on your nice antique (or contemporary) furniture? Take a plastic credit card or some card you don't care about (Ralph's Rewards, PetCo Rewards) and use it to scrape off the offending stuff. Plastic won't scratch the surface. 
5. Got a small closet STUFFED with clothes on thick plastic hangers that are all askew? Amazon sells thin, thin "no-slip" hangers that will give you much more space on the rod and ease in getting clothes in and out of the bounty that is your wardrobe. Photo below, roughly $26 for 50 hangers!
6. Always loosing your keys....on a permanent basis? And you have important keys like office keys or your boss's new Mercedes key on there? Go to PetCo or PetSmart and have a small pet tag engraved in their automated machine, stating "If Found, Please Call xxx-xxx-xxxx" and put it on your keyring ~ Then pray a nice person finds them next time :)
7. LADIES: use an upright Cigar Box on the back of the toilet (or the side, on the floor) for tampons. Or use a regular flat box, if there is room on the back of the toilet. You can go to any smokeshop and buy an empty one ($3-$5) or coax it out of the person behind the counter. It will look cool and hide the goods perfectly~

That's all I've got for today, but I'm sure more will come to mind, so I will let you know when I remember!

As always ~ Thanks for reading :) 

Kitchen Cupboards: A Place for Meal. . .Worms?

The answer is No. Surprising, I know. But sadly, often your home is a home away from home for them. Now if I only knew where their actual home was~ Because, maybe a 10 year old bag of cereal is their Home. Maybe I'm the asshole who just evicted a bunch of them. Huh. Anywho, I have some photos to share (none of the mealworms, gross and stop wanting just the sensational stuff!)  ~ These are the cupboards where I found cereal from long, long ago and a galaxy far, far away, crackers made by companies that no longer exist, rock-hard powdered drinks, 11 years worth of take-out condiments (beginning the year they moved in) AND some actual dry goods from the previous owners. No shit. My client confessed. 

So, while the photos may not be as impressive as an Oprah home-makeover show, just know that the cleanse, physically and psychologically, was enormous. And the mealworms are in their own kind of heaven now, the dump. I love my job - I actually do! I LOVE cleaning out that kind of stuff - and making people feel so much better about their home! It's a blessing :)  As always, Thanks for reading!

Just 3 "Befores" 

The rest are "Afters" 

And this Guy, just cus I didn't think he should live in a drawer anymore. 

A Proud Moment~

After moving a client from Santa Monica to Venice, I was paid an utterly awesome compliment - VB (my client) looked around her new place at the tail end of unpacking and said "I can't even imagine doing this without you, can you? Write yourself a quote from me, whatever you want, and I'll sign it."


I'm not writing my own quote from her, cause I don't think I can beat that one.  And my reply to her is this, "I think anyone can do anything out of necessity, but I sure do appreciate your take on it!"


Much love, VB!   Now today I'm going back to make her a MacBook of photos of her recent trip to the Himalayas with her Mom, Merry Christmas to her Momma!

Thanks for reading and may your week be organized!   xo rr

Check out Someone else's Kid Solutions!

<---- Before: A huge dresser is a catch-all and totally underused.


After: ------>
A small cabinet I found in the yard
is re-purposed and just the right size!

<----------->

Before: Ummm, don't really need to say anything here, except 5 & 9 year old girls  share a closet....

After: I am hopeful that it stays this way....
but I am also a dreamer ;)

<-----------------> 

Thanks for visiting! Ciao ~ Ruby 

Confession-of-the-day: Sometimes, I'm a Mess!

Hi There-

Forgive me People, for I have been a mess. Maybe the term "mess" is relative, but for me to preach organization and then carelessly toss DVDs and books around, neglect making the bed for days, and often leave my PJs on the floor (WTF?),  well, it's just wrong, and this is my collective, giant confessional.


I feel it necessary to show you as well. The aforementioned PJs on the left, the chaotic bookshelf above-right, and below is my poor beautiful antique Chinese chest, slowly becoming a small electronics & handbag depot. Chairman Mao would have sent me to the fields.



So, it was time to get my tiny place whipped into shape. Money where my mouth is, baby.
I began with the bookshelf. It's not as easy as you might think, especially when you have different sized things, books/albums/DVDs all on one shelf.  As you've all read and gathered, I have a limited space, to say the least-because I don't have the space to say the most.

On that shelf in particular, I was in a bind - not having enough of any one thing to adjust the shelf up or down and fill it. I also didn't have an extra shelf to insert, which would have helped fix the issue.  I had to get creative with placement. First, I pulled out all the regular sized books, edited my other shelfs to fit them, then put everything else on it's side. Next, biggest  things on the bottom (the albums), then my "coffee table" books side by side and leveled, to become a shelf in themselves, and lastly the DVDs.

I had to give up a few regular sized books, and I also edited my DVDs (you may be thinking What a sad collection for an actor & writer...) BUT I know that everything, I mean everything, I may need or want can be found on this giant series of tubes I'm using right now. And, less we forget, the Public Libraries - while they're still open!


You don't have to always donate your stuff if you're having a hard time parting with it, you can also sell your media at Amoeba or your local resale place (getting a few bucks always makes it easier).  In LA/SF, check out www.amoeba.com.

With the Chinese chest,  I just simply put my purses away in their box and my tiny electronic devices into their silver vase you see there. My phone lives on that plate, where it charges.  I'm allowing myself to keep the one purse out that I am currently using. The glass box full of beads is art, to me anyway :)


And that's my big secret - I like to toss things around and leave them where they lie. Sometimes...

Thanks for listening!

xo ruby

Tip-O-The-Day: Easy Access Jewels!

Ok, not real jewels, but jewels in the sparkly, shinny, dangly, I-just-got-this-at-the-best-thrift-shop kind of way.

If you have real jewels to organize, I do not discriminate, but maybe my ways are not the best for really delicate or fine jewels, the basic black velvet box or tray is best for those.

But if you're like me and have jewels you cherish but will never live off of or put in a will, here are some (dare I say) clever ways to keep them in control.  Above, you'll see all my danglies. I simply took an old silver chain and nailed it at both ends into the wall above my little dressing/makeup area. I admit, they do not always get put away so nice and neat, usually they're thrown on the shelf right below the chain, but when I want to get everything in order, it's easy to slip them back on the chain.

Next, to your right, are the emergency exits, and my rings. Now, I've done this a few different ways before. I take 2 or 3 chopsticks, pencils or . . . right now I'm using these unusual tiles I found somewhere - and stick them into a glass full of garden rocks, the little polished kind you can find almost anywhere including the dollar store.  Obviously, once you stick them in the rocks they are weighted down - or you can put the chopsticks, etc. in the empty glass and pour the rocks in, either way. Then all you do is plop your rings on!

Last, to your left, is simple and what many of us do - you can get these chain hooks at any self-respecting home-type chain store like Target or Walmart (or Fred Meyers, lil shout out to my Oregon People, man I miss Freddies!)

Another idea I have for chains, I unfortunately don't have photos for but I can quickly tell you about it - a few years ago an old boss of mine tore out a page from a magazine of a fantastic idea,  and for Christmas that year, I made it for her - I think the total cost was $20 or $30.

I took:

• A gold gilded frame from Target, 12 x 12 
• Tool peg board, the kind you see in an actual tool shed or mechanic's garage
• The pegs that you stick in the peg board
• 1 can gold spray paint 

I spray painted the peg board and pegs, let them dry overnight. Then framed the peg board like a picture. Recycled the glass that came with the frame.  Stuck the pegs in and hung it in her closet with some of her necklaces on it for a surprise. She loved it - and, honestly, it felt great to replicate something that was selling in a fancy magazine hundreds of dollars.

K, that's all I got today. Thanks for reading!! 

xo ruby

Tip-O-The-Day: CDs, WTF To Do w/ Them?!

Hi!

Sooooo, are you sitting near a book case right now, or better yet, a CD stand just filled with all your most prized (and dated) music? If you're under 25, maybe not. But if you had any income throughout the 90's, I'm betting you have a fair amount of music on disc.

Now that you're all teched up and out with your ipod/iphone/imac/itunes/ipad and ibrain - what are you going to do with those stacks and stacks of discs?
There are three questions to address here:
1. Can you really get any money at Amoeba for them?
2. Can you even give them up, or at least give up their cases and the idea of ever selling them?
3. How the hell and who the hell has time to download 500 CDs onto a computer?

Well, I can tell you how I answered these questions when I moved from San Francisco in 2004 and did NOT want to lug three shelves of CDs with me.

1. I didn't have a this mac, or a computer of this millennia yet, so I didn't have a man-enough machine to download them all.
2. Since I needed to keep them, I paranoid-ly decided my taste in music was not cool enough to ever sell them, so I went to Target, bought two giant CD books and rolled out the blue bin to disassemble and recycle all the cases. I was afraid they wouldn't get recycled if the jacket covers were still attached. But some friends were horrified that I didn't care to keep the band info & lyrics, etc.... If you're one of these special romantics, you can keep the paper covers and put them in pocket of the CD book with corresponding CD.  Whatever spins your record (I just made that up, as you can tell).  So once my CDs were out of their cases, into the books they went.

3. When I did get a download-worthy computer, I made a home-made spindle out of a wax pencil and a candle holder. I put as many CDs on it as fit and set it on my desk next to my computer and just started popping them in over and over whenever I was home. While puttering, while watching movies, while cooking, while talking on the phone, while cleaning, while writing.  On the way out for an errand? Popped one in. Going next door to see my Girls (my neighbors are now indispensable friends) - Popped another one in. It took a week maybe, and when one was done, I'd just put it directly back in the book. BUT if that's not an easy option, you can make two spindles and have one on the other side of your desk for "loaded" CDs.  Just choose one method or the other for putting them away, otherwise you end up with them sliding all over your desk and getting ruined, not to mention in the way.

That is how one can tackle this seemingly endless or daunting task - it's not undoable (= doable), it's not impossible, and you don't even have to give up your CDs!

Tapes, on the other hand....Brothers and Sisters, give up the ghost. Really.

Thanks for reading!

xo ruby