Do you find foreign coins in your pocket after traveling? Wondering what do I do with all this foreign change I inherited from my folks?  Well, for years, UNICEF and the international airline industry have teamed up to give travelers a convenient way to help the world’s children.

Through theChange for Good® program, millions of people have donated their unused foreign coins and notes to support UNICEF.

If you have foreign currency that you wish to donate, please send it to the address below. Include your name, address, e-mail and phone number with the donation, so that we can send you an acknowledgement of your gift.

U.S. Fund for UNICEF
ATTN: Change for Good Program
125 Maiden Lane 
New York, NY 10038

 The Get-Well Gamers Foundation relies on in-kind donations to keep  Member Hospitals supplied with enough video games, systems, controllers, and other accessories to meet the demands of their patients. If you would like to donate your new and used videogames to the Get-Well Gamers Foundation, simply box them up and mail them to our headquarters at the following address:

The Get-Well Gamers Foundation
21612 Hanakai Lane
Huntington Beach, CA, 92646

Please remember to include a note with your full name and return address inside the box, as this allows us to mail out thank-you notes and tax-deductible receipts.

Are you finally getting around to your spring clean-out?  Ready to pass on all those things your kids no longer use or need?  

Operation Give is a great recipient for your toys, art & school supplies, clothes and toiletries.  One trip to Fed Ex and you can ship it all off for free.  Doesn’t get much easier than that.  Here’s what you need to know. 

The mission of Operation Give is to bring hope and solutions to the disconnected people of the world, in most cases where the U.S. military operates. They provide our soldiers with the resources they need to accomplish two goals; improvement of over all health care and to provide disconnected individuals access to technology, education, industries, jobs and income.

They are looking for the following items (in good condition):

A. Toys:
Dolls; cars and trucks; balls, especially soccer balls; plush toys and stuffed animals; plastic animals and dinosaurs; tool and cooking sets; puzzles; binoculars, Magna-Doodles, basic Legos; blocks; jump ropes; Frisbees; picture books; baby toys; stacking cups; shape-sorters; chess sets

No: Please don’t send toys that will not work without batteries; toys that require electricity; violent toys (guns, violent action figures); toys that shoot projectiles; Naked Barbies or comparables

B. School Supplies:

Pencils, pencil sharpeners, pens, notebooks, calculators, paper, coloring pencils, markers, etc.

C. Art Supplies:

Colored pencils, pastels, markers, brushes, paint sets, paper, chalk, etc.

D. Personal and Baby Care Items:

Toothbrushes, toothpaste, dental floss, deodorant, shampoo, bar soap, diaper ointment, lotion, disposable razors, baby bottles, sippy cups, baby spoons

E. Clothing in Good Condition
(we welcome good clothing for adults, too)

F. Every day Medical Supplies: 

Information on how and where to ship your donation can be found here.

What are you waiting for?  Go ahead, give generously of your excess !
 

It’s a good reminder of how you can highlight your "collections" while using them to help organize other things in your home.   

Another great example of this from Better Homes and Gardens are these Vintage Tins that have been transformed to hold craft supplies. 

So, look around at the things you love to collect and ask yourself how you might use them in your household organization.  Let them be beautiful AND useful!

One of the hardest spaces to keep organized can be the home Fridge and Freezer.  With multiple hands taking stuff out and putting it back, things can get lost and easily forgotten until they are beyond redemption.  So here’s a few ideas to better organize your fridge and freezer.  Let’s start with this wonderful example from I Heart Organizing.  Notice her use of labels to identify where things should be stored. 

Put labels on shelf fronts or on containers that can group like items together. 

Organizing Made Fun also uses containers to organize the content of her refrigerator.

I love the use of a lazy susan in the fridge as well. 

 If you are a visual person, you might prefer a refrigerator like this one — the glass doors allow you to easily see your contents at a glance.

 The first steps toward an organized fridge/freezer?

1. Empty all contents into a large cooler

2. Wash out the interior of your fridge/freezer

3. Toss anything that is expired or you no longer need

4. Group like items together (i.e. beverages,condiments, dairy, fruits and vegetables etc.)

5.  Add containers or labels or other organizing products to help keep your items organized

6. Return contents to refrigerator. 

photo from Marthastewart.com

If you are a visual person who likes to keep your paperwork out where you can see it, then hanging a series of clipboards on the wall may be the solution for you.  You can choose plain or color coded clipboards to help you and others in your household know where to find important papers like bills that need to be paid, letters that need to be mailed, , the grocery list for the week or your child’s music schedule.   Just be sure to check your boards regularly for action items and to update information as it comes in.  A clipboard for each family member or different labeled boards for your various to-do  and reminder lists can help keep you and your family on track. 

You can also use clipboards as a place to house invitations/maps to upcoming events,  phone messages for others in the house, chore checklists and so much more.  

They are an inexpensive, easy to install, visual filing system for keeping those active items "in your face" .  If it feels like a fit for you, give this idea a try. 

“I’ll put that away later”

“I’ll wash those dishes in the morning,”

“I’ll pay that bill next week”

I’ll throw that out tomorrow” and so on.

Small chores left undone multiply and a series of small tasks create a lot more havoc when they’ve been put off. Whether it’s a cluttered room that needs tidying before you can clean, or a sink full of dishes with dried food, or late fees on unpaid bills, or front door dirt tracked all through the house, a small chore put off “now” becomes a much bigger chore “later”.

These small acts of procrastination also set a tone and attitude for others in the household until everyone’s small acts of procrastination create one overwhelming mess.

So,  next time you catch yourself thinking “I’ll do that later”, remember it’s a lot easier to do it now. 

There’s lots of great ornament storage products you can buy, but  someone just emailed me this real simple solution for smaller ornaments, pack them in an egg carton!  Just be sure you handle the egg cartons as if they still had eggs — ornaments are fragile!