One of the problems that many people who are disorganized have is problems managing their money and credit. Errors in same can result in wasting a lot of money on finance charges, lost cash, etc. I am an accountant (not a CPA) and this is one of the few areas in which I rarely have a problem. Following are some thoughts which might help you a bit. Oh, I know, you are rolling your eyes and thinking of clicking to get out of here and look at cat pictures, but I promise I try to make it easy and it is important. (Nothing here is intended to be specific accounting advice.)
First, you must have a system to collect all those credit card slips and the like that come into your life. There are three reasons for this. It is good to know where the receipt is if you need to return something. It is good to know where the receipt is if there is a problem with something which needs to be fixed under warranty or if you need it for your income taxes. Lastly, it is a really, really good idea to match the slips to the bills for them when they come in. Especially in today’s world where one’s credit information may be stolen, it is a good idea to match the slips to your bills when you get them. I have a section in my wallet set aside for them. I take them out of my wallet on Friday nights and Sunday nights and sort them into folders - you can sort them into envelopes and hold the envelopes (small manila ones are good for this) together with a rubber band. (You may notice that I use all different kinds of office supplies - I like them and they can be used for all sorts of purposes, my husband has been known to shop in office supply stores for gifts for me.)
Second, you must have a system of some sort for your unpaid bills. I am a paper bill person, I don’t trust doing anything financial online (I have worked with computers since I learned to program in Fortran in the early 1970's on a main frame computer and don’t think there is a safe website - as evidenced in recent years by hacking of the websites of large banks and insurance company.) If you pay your bills online this might be a bit easier for you as you will have all of your bills available on your computer - but still match the slips to the bills. The system doesn’t have to be fancy, but you do need to keep track of your bills and pay them on time.
I have a rather simple system - I have a plastic pocket attached to the wall next to my desk. When a bill comes in I check it. If it is a credit card or other bill for which I get slips for items charged I match the slips to it to make sure it is correct. Even I will end up misplacing some slips over the year, but I have most of them. After the slips are matched or the bill is checked (always check that your prior payment has been correctly posted to the bill) I put the bill and payment envelope back into the envelope and write the amount due and mark the date seven days before the bill is actually due as the date to pay the bill on the outside edge of the bill and put the bill into the pocket on the wall with the date and amount due showing. By using this date instead of the actual due date I mail the bill payment out a week before it is due and it has plenty of time to arrive on time. If there are only a few slips I will put them in the envelope with the bill and envelope. If there are a lot of them I will staple them together and put them in a folder I keep for this purpose in my desktop stack of files (I will get to what this is in a future post). For you, get a large manila envelope, folder, anything similar so that you know where the matching slips are when you pay the bills. There are some bills such as for my newspaper, snow clearing, heating oil etc. which need a quicker turnaround and I will send them as soon as possible. If you are paying your bills online you might want to set up reminders for 7 days before the bills are due.
When I sit down at my desk for the day (I do this at sometime during each day although not always on weekend days to check email and anything else I need to do in our home office) I look to see if any bills are dated as due “today”. If there are I will make sure to pay them - write the check, circle the amount due on the bill, write the date and check number next to the circled amount and staple any slips which are listed on it to the bill. I use a computer program for my bills, but will not get into posting them now. If you have any payments which are tax deductible or for business purposes you should mark them with something to make them obvious - perhaps a red star - in your checkbook (unless you are posting them right away). If you are not going to have the chance to pay your bills daily or if you don’t want to deal with them daily, pay them at least once a week. I know that many organizing books tell you to pay them once a month - I know I never have all my bills in the house at the same time during the month to do that. ALWAYS list and subtract your checks from your checkbook. Bounced check fees are rather expensive these days - why give away money to your bank when you don’t have to and if you bounce a check to a company, it will know about it in the future and it does affect how the company looks at you, especially if you do it a lot. Also do you want to take a chance on bouncing a check to your niece, grandson, best friend, etc.? They will then be hit with a fee from their bank also. (Also always make sure to list your deposits in your checkbook and add them in to your balance. Mark the source of deposits, not just as “deposit”. - Write Deposit - gift from Aunt Joan, or Deposit - dividends from XYZ corp - in your checkbook so you can check back as to what has been deposited and what has not.)
Third, mail the bill payment in the envelope provided if there is one (or make sure to send it out electronically if that is what you do). Make sure there is a stamp on the envelope (unless it is one of those rare companies which pay the postage for you) and that there is a return address on the envelope, just in case - if the company prints their address as the return address, I put mine on the back flap. Always include the stub with the amount you are paying filled in - I will put a line across any space which is for a change of address, etc so no one else can fill it in. Seal the envelope with everything in it and mail it. (I normally do this the day after I write the check.) If the company does not give you the envelope preprinted to mail the payment (such as when there is a payment book) I put the address in the address book of my word processing program so it is easy to print an envelope when needed and I don’t have to worry about putting on the wrong address or the label with the address falling off the envelope. Have a specific place to put outgoing mail so you don’t forget. I have a wire pocket hanging from my desktop file holders which holds the outgoing mail. If a piece of mail is too large to fit in the pocket, I have an envelope shaped card which reads “Mail to go out” which is put in the same pocket to remind me to take the other mail which does not fit in the pocket.
Don't forget to shred any papers you are throwing out from your bill payments - including envelopes.
We pay all of our credit cards in full every month. Neither of us is comfortable owing money. Over the years we have had a mortgage, a few car loans, an RV loan in addition to our credit cards. The mortgage was paid off in half the time it was for. One car loan was paid off early as we got rid of the car, the others paid on time. I often pay additional principle with the RV payments to cut down on the overall cost of the loan as I will pay less interest over the time of the loan.
I know most people are making payments on their credit cards and not paying them in full. I understand that average person in the United States owes $15,000 in credit card debt. That is a lot of money to be paying off, especially since it is likely increasing at the same time. We have been very careful to make sure that we do not buy things unless we can pay for them - this includes a driveway, a fence, siding, windows, and a new roof over the years. If you are on the credit card payment debt wagon you need to get your accounts paid down. When you are not paying finance charges/interest you have more money for you. I will not go into what to cut out to bring your expenses down - it varies for everyone. (I hate when there is an article about how to cut one’s expenses and the ideas offered are such as to stop buying coffees and to bring one’s lunch. We don’t drink coffee and we already bring lunch.) What is necessary varies for everyone, but look at what you spend money on and think about if it is really needed or wanted. So see where you can cut back to help you have more money available to pay off your bills and stop them from increasing so quickly. I will go into suggestions based on what we do to save money in another article.
Here are suggestions which will help with paying down your bills. The first idea will actually speed up paying down the bills. Figure out which of your credit cards has the highest interest rate. Presuming that you are paying more than the minimum now on your accounts, pay the minimum amount on the accounts which are not the one with the highest rate and pay the difference of what you can pay for the month towards the one with the highest interest rate. This will lower the amount of interest you are paying monthly the quickest. When that bill is paid off use it for the new amounts you are charging if you can, and pay it in full EVERY MONTH so you do not pay interest on your new purchases. Then repeat with the next highest interest rate card. Think about it , if you owed, say, $2,000 each on 5 credit cards by paying off the one with the highest rate first, you will have less to pay off on each of the others as their interest rates are lower. In addition as one pays down the account one owes less interest on the account each month and by paying off the highest rate, one cuts down the additional amount one owes the fastest. Using simple interest (which credit card companies do not do, they make you pay interest on the interest you owe, so the difference is even more dramatic) -
If you have a credit card at 25% and another at 18% -
You pay (at simple interest) $500 a year in interest on the 25% interest card.
You pay (at simple interest) $360 a year in interest on the 18% interest card.
If you pay the 25% card off first you will no longer be paying the $500, but will have added $360 (less any minimum payments) to your debt.
If you pay off the 18% card first you will no longer be paying the $360, but will have added $500 (less any minimum payments) to your debt.
Therefore by paying off the 25% card first in full you will have gotten rid of more debt and paid out less in the interim than if you did it the opposite way or paid off part of each debt during the year. Again, since I have used simple interest the effect is even more dramatic as in real life you would pay more than the amounts listed since you are paying interest on the interest. ALWAYS MAKE THE MINIMUM PAYMENTS on the other cards which you are not paying off. This idea is the one I like and the one that makes the largest monetary difference.
The second idea is aimed more at making you feel that you are accomplishing something. Pay off the smallest account first, paying the minimum amount on your accounts. This will result in your seeing that an account is paid off quickly and is over with, but may result in your paying more overall and taking longer overall to pay off all your accounts in full.
If you have a card which pays you cashback on purchases - have the cashback applied to the balance due.
As you pay off your accounts use the one which has been paid off and has the lowest interest rate for your new charges and pay that account in full every month - this will keep you from accumulating more debt.
Now, I know there are times when one has to charge something and pay it off due to emergencies. I know someone whose husband was hospitalized for an extended period when they were young and first married and they lost his salary while he was ill in addition to all the expenses that came about. They were very careful afterwards and in 2 years they had paid off all their credit card balances from the period he had been ill and they used a different credit card while doing so. This way the new charges they made while they were paying off the bills were paid in full and did not accumulate interest.
I will talk more about bills and banking and keeping track of both in the future. The important thing is to make sure that you make a start at keeping track of what you owe and what you have and getting your credit card debt paid down - and don’t forget to pay any car, mortgage bills, etc. and your rent. The better you are at paying your bills the higher your credit rating will be and the less you will pay for interest in the future.
You may now go and look at the cats.
Thursday, February 25, 2016
Thursday, February 18, 2016
CLEANING UP AFTER THE MICE - FINALLY DID A DISGUSTING JOB
Sometimes I, and I am sure all of you, have great plans to get things done, but something keeps us from it. Sometimes it is the fact that some things we have to do are just plain disgusting to do or we don’t want to do them for some other reason. All of this leads to tasks being put off.
We had mice in our kitchen a few years ago and I have not finished cleaning up from them. Yes, a few years ago. I may or may not have mentioned this before. We had an exterminator come in and deal with them. I pulled almost everything out of the cabinets under the sink a month or so later and either soaked items in bleach and water mixture or tossed them. I did the same with the 2 small drawers we have in this cabinet area. I never got to the small cabinet below these drawers and the bread drawer next to them. Since the bread drawer was where we found the mice, I have not really been able to deal with it.
My husband told me that he when they had mice at the place he worked, clean up had to be done be done with bleach and water mixture wearing disposable plastic gloves and masked while they did it. This is part of what slowed the process down, in addition to the gross out factor of what I had to do, I have a problem with a face mask as I am small boned (fat, but small boned) and the masks do not fit me correctly. So I dealt with the mask for as far as I could back then and then stopped. I kept planning to get back to it.
In the interim the cleaning supplies which had been stored under the sink (and the containers were soaked in the bleach/water mixture when they were removed) and replacement purchases since, have been stored in 2 stacked cardboard boxes in our craft studio off the kitchen. (A lot of items were just thrown out if we deemed them too far gone to keep or easy and relatively cheap to replace.) The boxes long ago collapsed on each other leading to disorganization in them and there is less than a foot of space to walk between the boxes and furniture in what is a tight room. The studio was in the middle of being put back together from the bed bugs in 2009. This project had been stopped as we needed to replace a dresser used for storage and could not find one the correct size. Of course as soon as we found one, the mice came to visit. So the studio organization cannot be finished until the mice clean up is done. Sound familiar?
Last fall I went looking online to check about cleaning up after mice and found that the government instructions are to spray the area and items with Lysol. No mask needed. So I did that. I sprayed the 2 cabinets and the 3 drawers. A week or so later I went to work on the drawers. I pulled out the top small drawer (and I do mean small) and cleaned it with bleach and water. I had new shelf liner to put in it. I looked at the drawer and was still grossed out by the thought of putting my dish towels in the drawer (which is what was stored in this drawer before) even sprayed, cleaned with bleach and relined. I looked at the drawer and realized that it was just a small box with a front to match the cabinetry attached to it and that the front had not been exposed to the mice as it sat outside of the box front and the cabinet front. The drawer was also old - our house was built in 1949 and since then the cabinets were recovered and had new doors/drawer fronts put on, but the insides were the original cabinets and drawers. The wood the drawer was made of was definitely showing its age. Husband, in addition to other crafts, does woodworking and I suggested to him making new drawers, as it was a only a question of making boxes and attaching the decorative fronts. He looked at what I showed him and agreed. So we made new small drawers for and replaced the 2 small drawers using the old fronts. In the spring we plan to do the same with the bread drawer. We need warm enough weather for the finish to be applied and ran out of time. So, I now have a drawer for my kitchen towels again and no longer have to keep them in the studio and have them in the way there, as well as again having a drawer for a few of my lesser used kitchen tools. But that was where I stopped, short on time during the assorted holidays and, to be honest, avoiding what was a disgusting job.
Well, last week I decided it was time to stop putting the project off. I opened the doors to the cabinet under the sink and looked. There were 3 bottles of floor cleaner for the flooring that we had on most of the first floor of the house, 2 boxes of matches and a zipper bag with wicking for decorative oil lamps (for use in blackouts). I put the aluminum pan I had used before for soaking in the bleach/water in the sink and soaked the 3 bottles and washed them clean. I dried them with paper towels and set them on some newspapers to finish drying. I tossed the matches - cheap enough to buy new ones and how does one wash a cardboard box? I then tossed the bag that the wicking was in and put the wicking in a new bag. I, of course, wore disposable plastic gloves for all this. Now all was done under sink except the big job.
Yesterday, Tuesday, I finally did the job I had been putting off. We had previously organized the cabinet by putting a 2 wire drawer unit in a year or so before the mice and I did not want to take it out. I planned carefully. I put newspapers on the floor to hold the pan with bleach and water (in between using this disposable plan I keep it inside a knotted closed plastic kitchen size bag). I put newspapers on the floor to hold other items I needed. I pulled 10 sheets of paper towels off so I would not have to touch the roll while working. I brought the kitchen garbage pail over and opened it. I had disposable plastic gloves. I then mixed the bleach and water and sat down on the floor to start work.
I started with the pipes inside above the floor of the cabinet and then went on to the inside top edges of the cabinet and the walls of same. I then started at the back of the side of the cabinet which does not have the drawers, working my way forward cleaning the floor of the cabinet. It took several passes of cleaning in each area I worked on to make sure it was clean. I then ran out of paper towels. I took my gloves off, careful not to touch the outside of them and set them on newspaper. I pulled off another 10 paper towels, got my gloves back on without touching the outside and went back to work.
This was a little harder. I had to pull out the drawers to wash them and I also had to wash their frame and I did not want to deal with removing the drawers from the unit. With the drawers pulled out as far as they can be I had to reach around them to reach all of the floor to clean it - again repeating until I was sure it was clean. While working around the drawers I found a ripped open pack of mouse poison from the exterminator and picked it up with a paper towel and threw it out, then went back and cleaned the area of any leftover poison a few times using a clean paper towel each cleaning.
When I was done I threw out everything except the pan from the bleach - I still have items to soak in it - and put it back in its knotted closed plastic bag. I took the garbage bag out immediately to the pail and it will be picked up tomorrow at the regular pickup. (Of course I immediately put a new bag in the kitchen pail.) I left the cabinet doors open to let air in to help dry the floor. A major job that has been put off is almost done - and the worst part of it is what is done. Well, except for the overwhelming smell of bleach and Lysol which is still dissipating.
I am going to line the floor of the cabinet with shelf liner. It was never lined before, but I decided it needs to be done now. I actually was thinking of doing this tonight, but then remembered that I had not written a post for tonight, so I will get to it next week - I hope. I will then put back the cleaning items I have. It will be much emptier in there than before. I will also buy a new small plastic tray for the top drawer in the cabinet as I used to keep my sponges and such that are in use in a similar one - then the area around my sink will be a bit clearer.
Getting a job done that one did not want to face is an accomplishment and I am glad to have the worst of the job done. That leaves the small cabinet under the drawers to do and the new drawer to replace the bread drawer to make.
We had mice in our kitchen a few years ago and I have not finished cleaning up from them. Yes, a few years ago. I may or may not have mentioned this before. We had an exterminator come in and deal with them. I pulled almost everything out of the cabinets under the sink a month or so later and either soaked items in bleach and water mixture or tossed them. I did the same with the 2 small drawers we have in this cabinet area. I never got to the small cabinet below these drawers and the bread drawer next to them. Since the bread drawer was where we found the mice, I have not really been able to deal with it.
My husband told me that he when they had mice at the place he worked, clean up had to be done be done with bleach and water mixture wearing disposable plastic gloves and masked while they did it. This is part of what slowed the process down, in addition to the gross out factor of what I had to do, I have a problem with a face mask as I am small boned (fat, but small boned) and the masks do not fit me correctly. So I dealt with the mask for as far as I could back then and then stopped. I kept planning to get back to it.
In the interim the cleaning supplies which had been stored under the sink (and the containers were soaked in the bleach/water mixture when they were removed) and replacement purchases since, have been stored in 2 stacked cardboard boxes in our craft studio off the kitchen. (A lot of items were just thrown out if we deemed them too far gone to keep or easy and relatively cheap to replace.) The boxes long ago collapsed on each other leading to disorganization in them and there is less than a foot of space to walk between the boxes and furniture in what is a tight room. The studio was in the middle of being put back together from the bed bugs in 2009. This project had been stopped as we needed to replace a dresser used for storage and could not find one the correct size. Of course as soon as we found one, the mice came to visit. So the studio organization cannot be finished until the mice clean up is done. Sound familiar?
Last fall I went looking online to check about cleaning up after mice and found that the government instructions are to spray the area and items with Lysol. No mask needed. So I did that. I sprayed the 2 cabinets and the 3 drawers. A week or so later I went to work on the drawers. I pulled out the top small drawer (and I do mean small) and cleaned it with bleach and water. I had new shelf liner to put in it. I looked at the drawer and was still grossed out by the thought of putting my dish towels in the drawer (which is what was stored in this drawer before) even sprayed, cleaned with bleach and relined. I looked at the drawer and realized that it was just a small box with a front to match the cabinetry attached to it and that the front had not been exposed to the mice as it sat outside of the box front and the cabinet front. The drawer was also old - our house was built in 1949 and since then the cabinets were recovered and had new doors/drawer fronts put on, but the insides were the original cabinets and drawers. The wood the drawer was made of was definitely showing its age. Husband, in addition to other crafts, does woodworking and I suggested to him making new drawers, as it was a only a question of making boxes and attaching the decorative fronts. He looked at what I showed him and agreed. So we made new small drawers for and replaced the 2 small drawers using the old fronts. In the spring we plan to do the same with the bread drawer. We need warm enough weather for the finish to be applied and ran out of time. So, I now have a drawer for my kitchen towels again and no longer have to keep them in the studio and have them in the way there, as well as again having a drawer for a few of my lesser used kitchen tools. But that was where I stopped, short on time during the assorted holidays and, to be honest, avoiding what was a disgusting job.
Well, last week I decided it was time to stop putting the project off. I opened the doors to the cabinet under the sink and looked. There were 3 bottles of floor cleaner for the flooring that we had on most of the first floor of the house, 2 boxes of matches and a zipper bag with wicking for decorative oil lamps (for use in blackouts). I put the aluminum pan I had used before for soaking in the bleach/water in the sink and soaked the 3 bottles and washed them clean. I dried them with paper towels and set them on some newspapers to finish drying. I tossed the matches - cheap enough to buy new ones and how does one wash a cardboard box? I then tossed the bag that the wicking was in and put the wicking in a new bag. I, of course, wore disposable plastic gloves for all this. Now all was done under sink except the big job.
Yesterday, Tuesday, I finally did the job I had been putting off. We had previously organized the cabinet by putting a 2 wire drawer unit in a year or so before the mice and I did not want to take it out. I planned carefully. I put newspapers on the floor to hold the pan with bleach and water (in between using this disposable plan I keep it inside a knotted closed plastic kitchen size bag). I put newspapers on the floor to hold other items I needed. I pulled 10 sheets of paper towels off so I would not have to touch the roll while working. I brought the kitchen garbage pail over and opened it. I had disposable plastic gloves. I then mixed the bleach and water and sat down on the floor to start work.
I started with the pipes inside above the floor of the cabinet and then went on to the inside top edges of the cabinet and the walls of same. I then started at the back of the side of the cabinet which does not have the drawers, working my way forward cleaning the floor of the cabinet. It took several passes of cleaning in each area I worked on to make sure it was clean. I then ran out of paper towels. I took my gloves off, careful not to touch the outside of them and set them on newspaper. I pulled off another 10 paper towels, got my gloves back on without touching the outside and went back to work.
This was a little harder. I had to pull out the drawers to wash them and I also had to wash their frame and I did not want to deal with removing the drawers from the unit. With the drawers pulled out as far as they can be I had to reach around them to reach all of the floor to clean it - again repeating until I was sure it was clean. While working around the drawers I found a ripped open pack of mouse poison from the exterminator and picked it up with a paper towel and threw it out, then went back and cleaned the area of any leftover poison a few times using a clean paper towel each cleaning.
When I was done I threw out everything except the pan from the bleach - I still have items to soak in it - and put it back in its knotted closed plastic bag. I took the garbage bag out immediately to the pail and it will be picked up tomorrow at the regular pickup. (Of course I immediately put a new bag in the kitchen pail.) I left the cabinet doors open to let air in to help dry the floor. A major job that has been put off is almost done - and the worst part of it is what is done. Well, except for the overwhelming smell of bleach and Lysol which is still dissipating.
I am going to line the floor of the cabinet with shelf liner. It was never lined before, but I decided it needs to be done now. I actually was thinking of doing this tonight, but then remembered that I had not written a post for tonight, so I will get to it next week - I hope. I will then put back the cleaning items I have. It will be much emptier in there than before. I will also buy a new small plastic tray for the top drawer in the cabinet as I used to keep my sponges and such that are in use in a similar one - then the area around my sink will be a bit clearer.
Getting a job done that one did not want to face is an accomplishment and I am glad to have the worst of the job done. That leaves the small cabinet under the drawers to do and the new drawer to replace the bread drawer to make.
Thursday, February 11, 2016
GET YOUR MEDICATIONS ORGANIZED TO SAVE YOUR (OR SOMEONE ELSE'S) LIFE
Now a serious subject in organizing. Prescription and over the counter medications. They can be dangerous if not organized and taken care of. Note that I have no medical training and that nothing is to be taken as medical information - just how I deal with and make sure our medications are organized and safely stored.
We have no children and none come in the house, so we do not have to worry about children getting their hands on medications in our house, but if you have children who live or come into your house make sure that all medications including over the counter ones are in a location that children absolutely cannot reach. This includes any “day of the week” boxes and children considerably older than you might think. Don’t forget to make sure that pets also cannot take your medications. In medications all things are better safe than sorry.
My husband and I each have several conditions which we take medications for, on an ongoing basis. When husband was diagnosed and given his first pill - he was to take it daily - I went out and bought a day of the week box. I told him that I would put his pills for the week in the box on Saturday nights for him. He insisted that he did not need one. I pointed out to him that sooner or later he would be unsure if he had taken his medication and we would be able to tell by looking in the box - otherwise we would have to know when he started the bottle of pills and then count the remaining pills and figure out if there was an extra pill. This was much simpler - and it works.
Over the years we have progressed to a day of the week box for each of us in our bedroom for morning pills, a day of the week box for each of us in the kitchen for our lunch and dinner pills, and a day of the week box in the kitchen for husband’s bed time pills. That’s 5 separate boxes all together. They are generally filled Saturday night for the coming week - sometimes on Friday if we know we will be home extremely late on Saturday night. I also note any pills which need to be refilled at that time. (If you don’t renew your pills, you can’t take them.) Your doctor and the pill bottle should tell you when to take the pills and if they are all taken at once or spread over the day. It is urgent to take them as you are suppose to so that you have the correct amount of the medication in your bloodstream. Too much could have serious problems. Too little may be of no value. Generally pills which are taken over the day are taken when you are awake. For example, “take every 4 hours” does not usually mean that you need to wake during the night to take a dose - but check with your doctor if you are not sure. I have found that generally pills such as this are intended to be taken over 12 hours - such as every 4 hours,4 times a day or every 6 hours, 3 times a day.
Most of our prescriptions these days come in a 90 day supply - a big bottle for some of the larger pills to deal with, especially if one of us takes multiples of the pill during the day. So I have kept a 30 days supply bottle for each pill and count out a 30 day supply from the 90 day bottle and keep it in the matching 30 day bottle. NEVER HAVE AN UNMARKED OR MISMARKED BOTTLE OF PILLS OF ANY TYPE. One time we had a problem in which what we knew should be full 90 bottles of pills only had 60 days worth. Since then I make a line on the lid of the 90 day bottle each time I take out 30 days worth of pills, so if I run short I know that something was wrong.
Always know what pills you and any one else in your house whose pills you are responsible for are taking and what dosage they are. (One time instead of blood pressure pills I was given an asthma inhaler, major problems would have resulted if I had not immediately known it was wrong.) Know what the pills look like. When you get the pills from the pharmacy - by mail or in person - make sure the name and dosage of the pills are correct, as well as the count on the bottle. Also know and check if your medication is “ER” - extended release as same is different than the regular version of the same medication. (Never cut an ER pill - or any other for that matter - unless you check with your doctor or pharmacist. ER pills are generally in a outer shell which dissolves over time dispensing the medication into your system a certain amount at a time.) Then open the bottle and make sure the pills look like they should. If they don’t bring them to the pharmacy or call the mail order pharmacy and check that the pills are correct. We check our pills before we leave the pharmacy section of the store. If you are taking generic medication the brand can change and the pill can be different in appearance. (One of husband’s pills changed from orange to green with a change in brand.) NEVER ASSUME THAT PILLS THAT LOOK DIFFERENT THAN LAST TIME YOU TOOK THEM ARE THE SAME - ASK.
I know you have heard this before - take your medications as you are told to and take the full amount you are suppose to. If you are told to take a medication for a certain period take it for that period. If you are told to take all the pills in the prescription - take all the pills according to the instructions. If you are told to take the pills and renew the prescription - do so. Stopping some pills just because you feel better can result in your condition getting worse and with others stopping pills all at once can be a problem if you have to taper off the pill. Never give your medication to anyone else, even if they have the same symptoms.
If you are taking pills “as needed” watch the expiration date and dispose of the pills after the expiration date. The current recommended method of disposing of your past due or unneeded pills is to crush them and add them to something someone would not eat - the garbage in general, kitty litty, coffee grounds. It is no longer recommended that you flush the pills down the toilet as water supplies are being contaminated by same.
I keep our 30 day supply bottles of pills in one of my kitchen cabinets - the bottom shelf of the already mentioned cabinet left of the sink. I keep our 90 day bottles in the medicine cabinet of our downstairs bathroom which has no shower or tub. It is recommended that medications not be kept in a bathroom with shower or tub as the room gets steamy and it is not good for the pills. If you have children - remember - make sure the pills are locked in someway to keep them out - small children might think it is candy (never tell a child that your medicine or the child’s medicine is candy) and an older child might be looking to take your medication to get high. Check medications to see if there are any special conditions that they must be kept under - say a certain temperature range.
Over the counter medications are real medications and have side effects. Always check the side effects before buying OTC medications and make sure that they do not interfere with your prescriptions medications - call your pharmacist or doctor if you are not sure. OTC medications should be disposed of, as above, when they go past their expirations date.
Now, we want to have the same OTC medications upstairs and down. I keep the old bottle when the contents are used up or disposed of and redate it with the date of the new bottle. I only do this with the EXACT same medication. I then put half of the new bottle in the old bottle. I put, for example, aspirin in the aspirin bottle and write on the new expiration date. I would never put Advil in an aspirin bottle. Be very careful if you do this. Don’t buy more than you can use before the expiration date, unless it is the smallest amount.
It is urgent that medications be stored and taken properly and kept safely away from children and pets and anyone else who cannot be trusted not to take them - on purpose or by accident. If your medications are not organized and properly stored the wrong pills might be taken, the pills might be taken at the wrong time or in the wrong number, the pills might be taken by the wrong person, you might run out of a vital medication, you might stop taking pills too early or take them too long or too much. Check your prescriptions now and make sure they are correct and set up to take correctly. Dispose of any prescriptions or OTC medications which are no longer needed, used, or past their expiration date. Medications used properly improve or save our lives. Medications used incorrectly can have the opposite effects and can be catastrophic.
We have no children and none come in the house, so we do not have to worry about children getting their hands on medications in our house, but if you have children who live or come into your house make sure that all medications including over the counter ones are in a location that children absolutely cannot reach. This includes any “day of the week” boxes and children considerably older than you might think. Don’t forget to make sure that pets also cannot take your medications. In medications all things are better safe than sorry.
My husband and I each have several conditions which we take medications for, on an ongoing basis. When husband was diagnosed and given his first pill - he was to take it daily - I went out and bought a day of the week box. I told him that I would put his pills for the week in the box on Saturday nights for him. He insisted that he did not need one. I pointed out to him that sooner or later he would be unsure if he had taken his medication and we would be able to tell by looking in the box - otherwise we would have to know when he started the bottle of pills and then count the remaining pills and figure out if there was an extra pill. This was much simpler - and it works.
Over the years we have progressed to a day of the week box for each of us in our bedroom for morning pills, a day of the week box for each of us in the kitchen for our lunch and dinner pills, and a day of the week box in the kitchen for husband’s bed time pills. That’s 5 separate boxes all together. They are generally filled Saturday night for the coming week - sometimes on Friday if we know we will be home extremely late on Saturday night. I also note any pills which need to be refilled at that time. (If you don’t renew your pills, you can’t take them.) Your doctor and the pill bottle should tell you when to take the pills and if they are all taken at once or spread over the day. It is urgent to take them as you are suppose to so that you have the correct amount of the medication in your bloodstream. Too much could have serious problems. Too little may be of no value. Generally pills which are taken over the day are taken when you are awake. For example, “take every 4 hours” does not usually mean that you need to wake during the night to take a dose - but check with your doctor if you are not sure. I have found that generally pills such as this are intended to be taken over 12 hours - such as every 4 hours,4 times a day or every 6 hours, 3 times a day.
Most of our prescriptions these days come in a 90 day supply - a big bottle for some of the larger pills to deal with, especially if one of us takes multiples of the pill during the day. So I have kept a 30 days supply bottle for each pill and count out a 30 day supply from the 90 day bottle and keep it in the matching 30 day bottle. NEVER HAVE AN UNMARKED OR MISMARKED BOTTLE OF PILLS OF ANY TYPE. One time we had a problem in which what we knew should be full 90 bottles of pills only had 60 days worth. Since then I make a line on the lid of the 90 day bottle each time I take out 30 days worth of pills, so if I run short I know that something was wrong.
Always know what pills you and any one else in your house whose pills you are responsible for are taking and what dosage they are. (One time instead of blood pressure pills I was given an asthma inhaler, major problems would have resulted if I had not immediately known it was wrong.) Know what the pills look like. When you get the pills from the pharmacy - by mail or in person - make sure the name and dosage of the pills are correct, as well as the count on the bottle. Also know and check if your medication is “ER” - extended release as same is different than the regular version of the same medication. (Never cut an ER pill - or any other for that matter - unless you check with your doctor or pharmacist. ER pills are generally in a outer shell which dissolves over time dispensing the medication into your system a certain amount at a time.) Then open the bottle and make sure the pills look like they should. If they don’t bring them to the pharmacy or call the mail order pharmacy and check that the pills are correct. We check our pills before we leave the pharmacy section of the store. If you are taking generic medication the brand can change and the pill can be different in appearance. (One of husband’s pills changed from orange to green with a change in brand.) NEVER ASSUME THAT PILLS THAT LOOK DIFFERENT THAN LAST TIME YOU TOOK THEM ARE THE SAME - ASK.
I know you have heard this before - take your medications as you are told to and take the full amount you are suppose to. If you are told to take a medication for a certain period take it for that period. If you are told to take all the pills in the prescription - take all the pills according to the instructions. If you are told to take the pills and renew the prescription - do so. Stopping some pills just because you feel better can result in your condition getting worse and with others stopping pills all at once can be a problem if you have to taper off the pill. Never give your medication to anyone else, even if they have the same symptoms.
If you are taking pills “as needed” watch the expiration date and dispose of the pills after the expiration date. The current recommended method of disposing of your past due or unneeded pills is to crush them and add them to something someone would not eat - the garbage in general, kitty litty, coffee grounds. It is no longer recommended that you flush the pills down the toilet as water supplies are being contaminated by same.
I keep our 30 day supply bottles of pills in one of my kitchen cabinets - the bottom shelf of the already mentioned cabinet left of the sink. I keep our 90 day bottles in the medicine cabinet of our downstairs bathroom which has no shower or tub. It is recommended that medications not be kept in a bathroom with shower or tub as the room gets steamy and it is not good for the pills. If you have children - remember - make sure the pills are locked in someway to keep them out - small children might think it is candy (never tell a child that your medicine or the child’s medicine is candy) and an older child might be looking to take your medication to get high. Check medications to see if there are any special conditions that they must be kept under - say a certain temperature range.
Over the counter medications are real medications and have side effects. Always check the side effects before buying OTC medications and make sure that they do not interfere with your prescriptions medications - call your pharmacist or doctor if you are not sure. OTC medications should be disposed of, as above, when they go past their expirations date.
Now, we want to have the same OTC medications upstairs and down. I keep the old bottle when the contents are used up or disposed of and redate it with the date of the new bottle. I only do this with the EXACT same medication. I then put half of the new bottle in the old bottle. I put, for example, aspirin in the aspirin bottle and write on the new expiration date. I would never put Advil in an aspirin bottle. Be very careful if you do this. Don’t buy more than you can use before the expiration date, unless it is the smallest amount.
It is urgent that medications be stored and taken properly and kept safely away from children and pets and anyone else who cannot be trusted not to take them - on purpose or by accident. If your medications are not organized and properly stored the wrong pills might be taken, the pills might be taken at the wrong time or in the wrong number, the pills might be taken by the wrong person, you might run out of a vital medication, you might stop taking pills too early or take them too long or too much. Check your prescriptions now and make sure they are correct and set up to take correctly. Dispose of any prescriptions or OTC medications which are no longer needed, used, or past their expiration date. Medications used properly improve or save our lives. Medications used incorrectly can have the opposite effects and can be catastrophic.
Thursday, February 4, 2016
A PROJECT THAT TOOK DAYS INSTEAD OF AN HOUR DUE TO DISORGANIZATION
My husband got a loom for Christmas. It is not a huge one, but it is 32 inches wide. It is something he has wanted for decades. He was willing to give up a trip he loves in early December to cover the cost. He has had small hand looms in the past, but never one big enough to make more than a potholder or thin strap on.
He was very anxious to get it set up and use it, which we can all understand. We set it up a couple of days after Christmas. He will be using it in the living room or dining room due to logistics in the house. It was set up in the living room as due to a piece of furniture - a DVD chest he made - being displaced to the dining room from the living room so the Christmas tree would fit in the living room, so there was no room in the dining room. Due to the Christmas tree, there was not really enough room in the living room either for the loom, but there was more room than in the dining room.
The easy way to set up what is called the warp (the threads that one weaves the other threads - the weft - through) for this type of loom is to set up a short wooden dowel in a device which clamps onto a table or other flat surface. This is done so that the distance between a certain part of the loom and the dowel is the amount of warp needed to work with, plus extra for needed waste. Husband moved a coffee table out of the way (too low to use) and brought up a tray table. He set up the dowel clamp on the tray table and we went to work warping (putting the warp on) the loom. I had to help him for this part as it is easier with two people. It went surprisingly well and he was subsequently able to make a nice 2 foot long piece for a table or a bureau.
What does this have to do with organizing? I am getting to that - already there was a problem with space due to displaced furniture and Christmas tree. I would have waited until it was all cleared up a bit, but I understand him wanting to go forward right away after decades of anticipation.
After the success of the first piece he waited until the Christmas tree was down (he did encourage me a bit more than usual to get it done) and stored away before attempting a second larger piece. We started warping the loom last Sunday using the same tray table. We were not so lucky this time, perhaps because this piece was to be wider and longer and therefore pulled more on the dowel, the tray table fell over, the dowel assembly fell apart and all of the loops knotted together on the floor. We tried for some time to sort them, than gave up and cut them off the loom.
In finishing up setting the downstairs of the house back from Christmas, I then put, among other items, the DVD chest back where it belonged. He had the idea to open the front of the chest and attach the dowel to the top of it - it is a very heavy chest and could not fall over. We got about 75% of the way through the warping process and the dowel assembly fell apart and ended up back on the floor.
We were able this time to sort some of the loops apart, reattached the dowel to the DVD chest and started again. Same problem. Husband was frantic and ready to sell the loom. We managed to get the loops untangled from each other by sheer stubbornness on my part and ordered take in for dinner as it was now too late to cook.
Husband had a new idea. He brought up a foldable worktable from the basement with a long dowel which he put the through the opening of the worktable and clamped the table closed around it. We started again. Now, thinking ahead, we stopped each time we had a group of loops around the dowel and tied the loops together. This way if we had a problem, we would not lose all of the work we had down to knotting together of the loops. (All of the loops are to be knotted together anyway when they are finished.) We finally got all of the warp threads on to the loom.
After we gave up on using the tray table husband took it to use to hold the items he needed to do the warping on his end. They were loose on the table and were over and under each other. He also could not reach the table from where he was. I moved the table closer and sorted the items out a bit.
So, what have we learned about organizing from all this -
1 - Don’t rush doing things until the space you need is ready. (Much easier not to climb around Christmas decorations.
2 - Have the right equipment - until we had the right setup for the dowel we had a problem.
3 - Keep the tools you need where they can be reached and organized - the table close at hand and the items sorted for ease of access made the job much easier.
4 - If it is possible, protect the work in small groups (tying groups of thread loops together as we went in the final attempt) to prevent bigger problems.
5 - Don’t give up - persevere.
Oh, there was one other problem which arose from losing the warp so much. Yarn is sold is what is called “dye lots”. Two units of the same type of yarn in the same color might be slightly off from each other as each time a “lot”of yarn is dyed it comes out slightly different from all other “lots” of that yarn in that color. It is just that each time dyeing is done it is slightly different. So yarn companies give each “lot” a number (or letter and number combination). When we started he had enough yarn to make both the warp and the weft of the piece from the same cone of yarn. We lost yarn when we had to cut it off the loom. He no longer did. Luckily I was able to find some more of the yarn with the same dye lot marking today. So, plan ahead for the unexpected. If I had not found the matching cone of yarn today, he would have had to use a different yarn from a different “lot” for the weft (the weft is the bulk of the yarn needed). This would not have been a problem as it would have been all of the weft done with the other “lot”, but that would have left him with 2 unusable amounts of the yarn from the 2 cones. Now it matches and can be added to the started cone.
Do you have a problem with starting projects without preparing properly or without having sufficient room to work properly?
As a side followup note - today I brought the drinking glasses which I had taken out of the kitchen cabinet and I donated them to Goodwill. A job started and finished.
He was very anxious to get it set up and use it, which we can all understand. We set it up a couple of days after Christmas. He will be using it in the living room or dining room due to logistics in the house. It was set up in the living room as due to a piece of furniture - a DVD chest he made - being displaced to the dining room from the living room so the Christmas tree would fit in the living room, so there was no room in the dining room. Due to the Christmas tree, there was not really enough room in the living room either for the loom, but there was more room than in the dining room.
The easy way to set up what is called the warp (the threads that one weaves the other threads - the weft - through) for this type of loom is to set up a short wooden dowel in a device which clamps onto a table or other flat surface. This is done so that the distance between a certain part of the loom and the dowel is the amount of warp needed to work with, plus extra for needed waste. Husband moved a coffee table out of the way (too low to use) and brought up a tray table. He set up the dowel clamp on the tray table and we went to work warping (putting the warp on) the loom. I had to help him for this part as it is easier with two people. It went surprisingly well and he was subsequently able to make a nice 2 foot long piece for a table or a bureau.
What does this have to do with organizing? I am getting to that - already there was a problem with space due to displaced furniture and Christmas tree. I would have waited until it was all cleared up a bit, but I understand him wanting to go forward right away after decades of anticipation.
After the success of the first piece he waited until the Christmas tree was down (he did encourage me a bit more than usual to get it done) and stored away before attempting a second larger piece. We started warping the loom last Sunday using the same tray table. We were not so lucky this time, perhaps because this piece was to be wider and longer and therefore pulled more on the dowel, the tray table fell over, the dowel assembly fell apart and all of the loops knotted together on the floor. We tried for some time to sort them, than gave up and cut them off the loom.
In finishing up setting the downstairs of the house back from Christmas, I then put, among other items, the DVD chest back where it belonged. He had the idea to open the front of the chest and attach the dowel to the top of it - it is a very heavy chest and could not fall over. We got about 75% of the way through the warping process and the dowel assembly fell apart and ended up back on the floor.
We were able this time to sort some of the loops apart, reattached the dowel to the DVD chest and started again. Same problem. Husband was frantic and ready to sell the loom. We managed to get the loops untangled from each other by sheer stubbornness on my part and ordered take in for dinner as it was now too late to cook.
Husband had a new idea. He brought up a foldable worktable from the basement with a long dowel which he put the through the opening of the worktable and clamped the table closed around it. We started again. Now, thinking ahead, we stopped each time we had a group of loops around the dowel and tied the loops together. This way if we had a problem, we would not lose all of the work we had down to knotting together of the loops. (All of the loops are to be knotted together anyway when they are finished.) We finally got all of the warp threads on to the loom.
After we gave up on using the tray table husband took it to use to hold the items he needed to do the warping on his end. They were loose on the table and were over and under each other. He also could not reach the table from where he was. I moved the table closer and sorted the items out a bit.
So, what have we learned about organizing from all this -
1 - Don’t rush doing things until the space you need is ready. (Much easier not to climb around Christmas decorations.
2 - Have the right equipment - until we had the right setup for the dowel we had a problem.
3 - Keep the tools you need where they can be reached and organized - the table close at hand and the items sorted for ease of access made the job much easier.
4 - If it is possible, protect the work in small groups (tying groups of thread loops together as we went in the final attempt) to prevent bigger problems.
5 - Don’t give up - persevere.
Oh, there was one other problem which arose from losing the warp so much. Yarn is sold is what is called “dye lots”. Two units of the same type of yarn in the same color might be slightly off from each other as each time a “lot”of yarn is dyed it comes out slightly different from all other “lots” of that yarn in that color. It is just that each time dyeing is done it is slightly different. So yarn companies give each “lot” a number (or letter and number combination). When we started he had enough yarn to make both the warp and the weft of the piece from the same cone of yarn. We lost yarn when we had to cut it off the loom. He no longer did. Luckily I was able to find some more of the yarn with the same dye lot marking today. So, plan ahead for the unexpected. If I had not found the matching cone of yarn today, he would have had to use a different yarn from a different “lot” for the weft (the weft is the bulk of the yarn needed). This would not have been a problem as it would have been all of the weft done with the other “lot”, but that would have left him with 2 unusable amounts of the yarn from the 2 cones. Now it matches and can be added to the started cone.
Do you have a problem with starting projects without preparing properly or without having sufficient room to work properly?
As a side followup note - today I brought the drinking glasses which I had taken out of the kitchen cabinet and I donated them to Goodwill. A job started and finished.
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