Month: May 2008

I’ve been a packrat since my earliest childhood–saving everything, generally for the sake of “projects”. I could throw away those little boxes that the decongestant comes in, but who knows? I might need them for a project someday. I could throw away those panty hose with runs–but there are lots of projects that could use them. So I keep almost anything.

I’ve started to get a little better about throwing things away–pantyhose, for example. I’ve discovered that I don’t really end up using the pantyhose for anything. It just sits in my drawer making me have to sort through everything to find a pair without runs.

Other things, though, are still hard. I save the boxes the decongestant comes in–and recently used six of them to create a divided pencil holder/storage thing for my bookends (that I made from corrugated cardboard salvaged from work). I save toilet paper tubes–and use them to keep stray cords manageable–or to hold the plastic sacks that I get from Walmart. I stuff the sacks into the toilet paper tube and drop the whole tube into the bottom of my trash can. It keeps the sacks contained and available to use as trash can liners whenever I take out the trash.

And then there are the things that I go out of my way to collect. I do a fair bit of laminating at work, and at the top of each sheet of lamination is a 10×30 inch strip of clear plastic that doesn’t have anything inside of it. I felt loathe to throw it away–especially when I noted its similarity to transparencies. I use transparencies on occasion when I’m scrapbooking, but they’re pretty expensive to use regularly. This on the other hand…it’s free, and I’d throw it away otherwise.

So I have a paper bag full of laminating waste.

I haven’t done much scrapbooking since I gathered it, so it’s just been sitting in my closet. I considered throwing it away, but decided not to–after all, you just never know when it might come in handy.

Then recently, I’ve been reading Marla Cilley’s (the FlyLady) book Sink Reflections. She talks about her “Control Journal” inside and recommends that readers make one of their own using a 8.5×11 three ring binder. She talks about putting your routines inside page protectors so that you can use a dry erase marker to mark off each step as you complete it. I like the idea, but abhor the thought of using that large of a notebook for my Control Journal. I prefer using half sheet notebooks for anything that I’m going to be carrying around with me regularly. Besides which, my planner (which I will begin using again when life demands–when I get back to being a student after my brief respite into the leisurely life of the working woman ;-P) uses a half sheet, and it’s much easier to let everything be consistent.

But, as far as I know, there aren’t page protectors for half sheet binders. Or if there are, they’re bound to be pretty expensive. As I puzzled over this issue, the thought struck me–“Why don’t you make your own using the laminating stuff? Brilliant idea.

So I cut the laminating stuff into 8.5×11 sheets, folded them in half and punched three holes along the open edge. There you have it–page protectors for half sheets. At no cost.

I begin to think that being a packrat really does pay off.