As you may have noticed by now, I haven’t been posting new material so far in July.  The reason is that we are extremely busy due to moving and making home improvements.  I decided to temporarily suspend writing activities during this time in order to work on our house and get things ready to move.  Most likely, there will be no new content posted during the month of July, 2008, but I plan to resume regular writing activites beginning two weeks from now on August 1, 2008.  Thank you for your continued support!

Where one lives is often a reflection of that person’s interests, personality, and economic state.  Therefore, choosing a place to live is one of the most important decisions in life, and this decision must usually be made multiple times throughout life.  Moving can be stressful, and changing so many things at once requires a good plan of action ahead of time.  Let’s look at a few things you can do to develop your own plan of action.

In the Beginning
Before you run out and choose a place to live, sit down with anyone else who will be living in the new home and create the following list: Read the rest of this entry »

Young toddlers have a tendency to hide in clothing racks and behind things at the store, but there is a way to easily keep track of them without putting them on a leash.  Simply carry a four or five foot piece of string and hold on to one end.  Tell your child that you want to play a game where he or she holds on to the other end and pretends to be a “doggie” or some other favorite animal.  If the child lets go of the string, you’ll instantly know that he or she may be about to run off and hide somewhere.  This can also turn into other games that involve strings, and the child may even look forward to going to the store in the future.

At what point does one stop enjoying life and become simply a slave to his or her possessions?  Would that be an arbitrary figure, such as once one spends a “large percentage” of time maintaining, organizing, and worrying about possessions?  Would it be once a “significant portion” of each day is taken up by dealing with possessions?  Life shouldn’t be about what you own.  Your worth isn’t in your possessions.

If you or someone you know is spending an excessive amount of time dealing with constant house problems, car problems, clutter problems, or time management problems, maybe it is time to consider owning fewer things.  This sounds simple on the surface, but owning less requires forethought and a bit of up front work if one wants to avoid significant life disruptions.  For example, you wouldn’t want to get rid of your only means of transportation simply in the name of owning less.  Let’s save time and own less the sensible way.

Get More with Less Read the rest of this entry »

Instead of putting up with that gigantic, heavy metro phone book tossed to the curb by the phone company, try finding a phone book with smaller print or one that leaves out those mostly worthless residential pages.  You’ll save space, weight, and paper.  Just recycle or give away the old phone book and request that the phone company no longer toss that giant book toward your house again.

Welcome to Sensible Harmony’s new Quick Tips category!  I’ll periodically post quick, short tips for random things in life.  If I think it’ll save you time, money, stress, or the like, I’ll consider it for a quick tip.

The First Tip
If you have one or more young children, this tip may save you some time and hassle while eating at a restaurant.  When choosing a table, pick one of those tall tables with high chairs that seem to be popular at many small restaurants and cafes.  The children won’t be able to get down and run around so easily, so they’ll often just stay put and eat their food.

There are a few big life decisions that nearly everyone considers carefully before acting (such as buying a new home or getting married), but many things in life are worth researching ahead of time before jumping into something new.  The stress that comes with these life changes can be reduced with good planning, research, and consultation with other people who have experience with the thing being considered.  Today I want to focus on the research aspect of this process and its benefits for stress reduction, time savings, and money savings.

Knowledge and information are powerful things.  When you know exactly how something works or what process to go though to accomplish a goal, the actual work of completing the task is extraordinarily easier.  Trying to blindly muddle through a life-changing process is a bad idea.  You should always do your research.

When? Read the rest of this entry »

Eat fruits and vegetables.  Drink lots of water.  Eat three, well-balanced meals each day.  And the list goes on…

We often hear these time-tested, health axioms, but sometimes it is hard to follow them to the letter during busy schedules and frequent travels.  Sometimes we just need something healthy to fill in the gaps when our food schedule isn’t as it should be.  While fruits and vegetables should always be high on the list of foods to eat, choosing a quick, healthy snack from the list below is a lot better than resorting to greasy fast foods or simply going hungry.

To this end, I present eleven healthy snack choices which I personally eat and enjoy on a regular basis.  Remember that there are many other healthy snack alternatives than those on this list.  Look for those snacks which are low in fat, sodium, cholesterol, and calories (unless you need a calorie boost).  Those snacks which are also high in protein, whole grains, and antioxidants are excellent choices.  Be wary of anything that contains trans fats or MSG, and avoid large amounts of corn syrup, preservatives, and artificial sweeteners.

The Snacks Read the rest of this entry »

You’re the most creative person I know!  Okay, I may not know you personally, but I still know that you have an amazing ability for creativity.  How do I know this?  I know because humans in general are very creative.  Whether it’s solving problems, painting on a canvas, cooking meals, or completing the latest crossword or sudoku puzzle, humans are constantly involved in creative endeavors.

Some people think they aren’t creative.  They say things like, “I wish I could do that!” or, “If only I had [insert popular person's name]’s talent!”  I’m here to tell you that these people are not devoid of creativity.  They simply haven’t realized their amazing potential.  They may even be involved in a number of creative activities without realizing it.  Sometimes just getting through another day without going crazy requires a lot of creativity.  You don’t have to be an artist to be creative.

Found Inspiration Read the rest of this entry »

In yesterday’s “Organize Memorabilia with Binders, Part 1” we covered the basics of choosing the right three-ring binders and plastic pages as well as choosing memorabilia that is best suited for binder organization.  Today, we’ll look at the steps to actually dividing and organizing the memorabilia, and then we’ll put the finishing touches on those filled binders.

Divide and Conquer
Once the appropriate memorabilia has been selected for binder organization (don’t forget to get rid of excess and unwanted mementos during this step), the true organization begins.  Memorabilia must be categorized or sorted in a way that best fits your needs.  For example, if you’d like to be able to look at all vacation related memorabilia in one place, then categories are probably the best option for you.  If, however, you’d prefer to see things in the order they happened through the years, organizing by date would be the best option. Read the rest of this entry »