Natalie sings!: Creating a toddler YouTube channel

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Yesterday our child turned 23 months old, and as I reflect back on 22 months, I think it will go down in our daughter's life story as the month she started singing. A lot. And asked us to sing for her. A lot. "Mommy sing more songs!" and "Natty sing by self" were two of the most common sentences our daughter uttered this month.

I've caught myself turning teary-eyed on many occasions this month as my daughter sings to me or sings to herself when she thinks I can't hear her. She has many songs now, but she has some all-time greatest hits. She references "Class on the Farm" (aka her pre-preschool class) where they sing "Old McDonald" while holding animal puppets, and then she proceeds to belt out a rushed "OldMcDonaldhadfarm E-I-E-I-OOOOOOOOOOO" (that last O gets really drawn out, and Old McDonald's most popular animal appears to be a duck...it's always a duck). She also runs around like an airplane while singing "The Wheels on the Bus" and manages to get through the lines about the wheels and the wipers before just looping on "All through the toooowwwwnnnnn" (again, her signature singing move appears to be drawing out that final note). And, after months of me singing "Hush-A-Bye Baby" to her while rubbing her back as she lays heavy-eyed inside her crib, Natalie has been singing all the lyrics of this song to herself, to me, and this week, to the Cabbage Patch doll of my childhood that I regifted to her as she prepares to become a big sister.

She's added new songs to her repertoire this month thanks to earning a new privilege of screen time. Up until hitting 22 months, Natalie had practically zero interest in TV. I had DVRed her an episode of Sesame Street months back, but it was way over her head and she watched for about 30 seconds before going back to coloring. Of course, her lack of interest in the screen has not bothered me, but I have thought about ways to slowly introduce her to videos without making it too much a part of our lives. Though I am not a believer in parking kids in front of the tube, I figure there might be times in the coming months when having her spend 15 minutes watching part of a show will be useful.

Creating a YouTube channel
I made Natalie a YouTube channel, and it's been the perfect way to introduce her to media while at the same time completely controlling what she watches and for how long. So far her channel is exclusively composed of Sesame Street clips, almost all of them from the official Sesame Street channel.

Making a YouTube channel is super easy. If you're signed in to your YouTube account, each time you watch a video you'll see an "Add to" option in the menu underneath the video. Simply click "Add to" and you'll get several options of ways to save your video, including "Favorite videos," "Watch later," and any personalized channel name you've created.

Our favorite videos
Sing the Alphabet Song!
This is by far my favorite video. It's catchy and fun without being annoying. Memorizing the lyrics takes no time, and it's fun to hear Natalie repeat back all the words as we run through the alphabet together.



Usher's ABC Song
This is one of Matt's favorites, and watching this enough times has caused it to literally become embedded in my dreams (plus, Usher started dancing with me at my friend's party [in my dream] and he is, not surprisingly, an incredible dance partner). How could you not find this man and this song charming and addictive?



Feist sings 1, 2, 3, 4
It took me a couple days to translate Natalie's toddler speak in reference to this song, but now it's impossible not to chuckle when she walks around singing "counting a 4" and "chickens from the shore" and "penguins at the door."



Norah Jones sings Don't Know Y
You know I love a good pun, and I fully hope to indoctrinate my child with a pun-loving philosophy. This is such a clever twist on Norah Jones' famous song. Natalie goes crazy every time the letter Y shows up in the video after being late to his playdate with Norah. "Natalie sees Y!" she shouts. Yes, we are trying to break our child of the habit of referring to herself in the third person, and no, Elmo, you're not helping, but you are cute.



Jimmy Fallon, Sesame Street and The Roots Sing "Sesame Street" theme
This one is purely for fun, but I finally figured out why my daughter runs around saying "A-OK": "Sunny day, everything's A-OK." And Jimmy Fallon is just adorable and a recently minted dad!



ABC-DEF-GHI Song (by Bird Bird)
OK, so the visual quality of this one leaves something to be desired, but that's because it's authentic vintage Sesame Street that dates back to at least the early 80s when I remember watching this frequently. Bonus points for how Big Bird teaches kids to spell "car" and "cat" at the end.



Potty Time
OK, this one is admittedly ridiculous, but it has also prompted my child to ask to go sit on the potty because Elmo sits on the potty. Adults, please notice how many ridiculous puns and other jokes the  Sesame Street geniuses embedded in this one. Oh, potty humor.



I Love Trash
Here's another throwback to my childhood (and yours too, no doubt). I just liked this song as a kid, and as an adult I can appreciate how a song like this teaches some great vocabulary by getting kids to make connections. "Anything ragged or rotten or rusty"? It's impossible for me not to laugh as Natalie runs around singing "I love traasssssshhhhhhh!" and I always have to resist saying, "Actually, remember how you hate trash and hate to get dirty?" Again, she's my daughter.



Kermit and Elmo Discuss Happy and Sad
This is one of the few non-musical clips in our queue, but Natalie loves to ask for this one, saying, "Elmo and Kermit the froggie play tag." Watching this video with her has taught me that I don't talk to her very often about emotions, so I should probably get on that. This video also helped prompt me to buy art featuring Kermit for her new room because Kermit appears to be perhaps her favorite Sesame Street character, and I fully endorse this choice.



Benefits of the YouTube channel
I am not surprised by how well the clips keep her attention, because it's no secret that toddlers and children can be mesmerized by the screen. I am surprised, though, by how much the clips have taught her. Her little brain really is a sponge, soaking up everything in front of her. The videos we've selected for her channel have helped her further memorize the alphabet, identify specific letters by site, begin to understand the sounds different letters make, identify numbers, learn opposites, spell a couple simple words, and even learn about emotions such as happy and sad. Sure, she gets reinforcement of all these concepts through books, toys and daily activities, but that's why I think the personalized YouTube channel has been a great supplement to her routine and education -- it gives her another way to make connections and learn.

Speaking of routine, Natalie wakes up each morning knowing that she'll change her diaper, go downstairs, have some milk, and watch a couple videos while I do her hair. This past month she has asked for this routine without fail. Creature of habit? Clearly my daughter. 

Something I love about the YouTube channel routine is that we only watch these clips from our desktop computer, so she still does not watch any TV on our actual TV. In a way, it feels like this option allows us to save some of the mystique of the television for when she's a bit older and better suited for slightly longer stretches of screen time. Right now, thanks to these 2-3 minute videos, our daughter only gets in about 10-15 minutes of screen time per day, and it seems like the perfect amount.

Have you made your child a YouTube channel? What are the best videos out there for toddlers? We'll eventually look to expand outside Sesame Street, so I'd love some suggestions!

Doodle.com: Organize your friends

Doodle.com is a website I wish I had thought of creating myself. It satisfies the conundrum most of us face when trying to rally our friends together for a social event: how do I find a time when everyone is free? As the event organizer, you can create a poll, send it to your friends, and immediately see if and when everyone is available.

Here are the reasons I love Doodle:
1) It's free.
If it were not free, I wouldn't use it.

2) It's super easy to set up a poll as an event organizer.
It has taken me approximately 3 minutes to set up polls, about as long as it might take to send an email requesting the same information.

3) Poll respondents do not have to create a Doodle account to answer your poll.
I think this helps guarantee most, if not all, guests will reply.

4) There are lots of poll options. 
 I haven't experimented with all these yet, as the default poll settings generally have worked well for me so far, but I appreciate options such as, "Ifneedbe," another choice respondents can select in addition to the traditional "yes/no." The "Ifneedbe" option is apparently the only way a group of my girlfriends and I could find a weekend when all of us are available for a trip.

5) The poll tallies for the event organizer exactly who is free when and encourages more democratic scheduling.
I sometimes find that trying to schedule a group event via email can lead to scheduling bias. Because I don't have the raw numbers (compiled by a computer) starring me in the face, I might unintentionally choose a date that is not actually the most convenient one for the greatest number of people. There's something about seeing the unfiltered scheduling results on Doodle that makes me feel a little more democratic.

6) People respond to Doodle polls quickly.
The few Doodle polls I've administered get 100% participation usually within a few hours. This is way different from email, which I feel like people open, mean to respond to, don't respond to immediately, and therefore ultimately forget to respond to at all. There's some interesting psychology behind this one, no doubt, and here's my personal theory. To make an analogy, email is like an essay test, and Doddle is like a multiple choice test -- people just think multiple choice is easier, so they do it first. If you want fast results, use Doodle.

I haven't been this excited about an online tool in a long time. Enjoy!

New storage, first nursery purchase

Today's post is a bit of a mash-up because our lives are a bit of a mash-up these days...We took advantage of the holiday weekend and did a lot of Craigslisting (more on that in a bit).

We had cleaned out our backyard storage shed while the electricians were working on our master bathroom last week. Cleaning out the shed partially involved properly disposing of 12 gallon cans of latex paint, some fertilizer and engine oil left behind by the house's previous owners. So we investigated our county's household hazardous waste policies and came across this information. Somewhat surprisingly, according to the site, latex paint can be thrown in the regular trash, but I felt weird about kicking buckets and buckets of paint to the curb, so we loaded the items in the trunk of my little Protege and took it to the dump. (The timing also worked out, seeing as they accept household hazardous waste drop offs Thursday through Sunday only.)

Say adios to shed clutter!

There were a number of other still-usable items in our shed that we no longer needed (and a couple in our garage that we needed to clean out in order to make way in the garage for needed shed items). So we posted the following on Craigslist by Saturday afternoon and all were off our hands by Sunday afternoon:

• Push lawnmower -- sold for $30 (Matt uses a GrassHog, currently housed in our garage, to cut our limited backyard grass)
• Recycling bin -- free. Once we started our recycling can experiment successfully we no longer needed the open-air container.
• Two brass fixtures -- free. One used to hang in our entryway, one used to be on our back porch.
• Bag of gravel -- free
• 41" by 57" mirror -- free. This actually came from our master bathroom and had been hanging out in our garage for the last week.

We also had a space heater and some gardening pots we weren't going to use, so Saturday morning while someone else in our neighborhood was having a yard sale Matt took the items to the curb with a sign marked "Free" figuring someone might want to pick them up, and sure enough within minutes they were gone. Genius strategy! I love getting rid of stuff we no longer need; it is so liberating.

With items Craigslisted or given away, we had only a few items we needed to fit into our garage, namely some gardening supplies (mulch, topsoil, grass seed, shovels, gloves), the aforementioned GrassHog, a plastic wheelbarrow and a giant blue tarp. After rearranging a little, we got the tarp and wheelbarrow into our pre-existing garage storage space, the GrassHog can easily rest in the corner with the rake and ladder, and we just needed something for our gardening supplies.

We clearly do not need that shed! Everything leftover from the shed has easily fit in our garage.

I searched online and found several ideal and affordable options for storing gardening supplies at Target, and while I was prepared to order an outdoor storage bin online I was pleased to discover the one I was looking for (this Suncast 50-gallon deck box) was actually in stock at our local store for $60. After taking the five minutes needed to assemble it (no tools required!) it perfectly lived up to our estimations of space and storage ability. So it's currently hanging out in another corner of our garage, though Matt would like to move it to our patio once it's installed. I don't have a strong opinion one way or the other.

You might notice in the above wide-angle garage shot that there's one other large item in our garage. That's right, on the left-hand side you may have spotted our first baby purchase. We'll be getting three big-ticket items for the nursery: a crib (obviously), a chair of some kind (exact type TBD), and a dresser that can double as a changing table. We (let's be honest...I) decided to start with the dresser/changing table. I knew I didn't want an actual changing table because of its limited functionality as the child grows. And, I don't care about things being all matchy-matchy in the nursery (and I don't have an absolute vision of what the nursery will look like either). So I thought the dresser would be the place to start. But what should I look for in a dresser that will double as a changing table?

I had a couple requirements:

• Safety -- obviously, it should be well built.
• Made out of real wood -- I figured a real wooden dresser could be more stable and therefore safer than one made of a lighter material, and I also hoped it could last for more than a few years.
• Affordability -- whether I bought a new or used dresser, I didn't want to exceed $200.

Something I had to research was changing table size. How high should it be? How wide is a changing table pad? I found this useful post from one of the blogs I read, Ohdeedoh, and discovered that a changing table is approximately 36" high and that a changing table pad is 17" wide. The user comments at the bottom of the post were also helpful. It sounded like a lot of parents like the IKEA Hemnes 3-drawer chest, which is a cute option at $200 and meets the general dimension specifications, but it is not all made of wood. We had just been in World Market where I spotted this Dark Mahogany Chase 3-drawer dresser for $300, and then someone on Craigslist was selling it for $200. But as I kept scrolling through Craiglists postings I started to find a few dressers that were the right size that would work as changing tables if given a little TLC. So I settled on this $40 3-drawer wooden dresser.

I see lots of potential in this well-built piece of furniture. So we'll add "refinish changing table" to our summer bucket list. We haven't tried to tackle anything like this before, but the good news is that we have time on our side and this post from Young House Love to get us started (although their project and ours are not exactly identical in terms of the dresser materials we're trying to refinish). Do you have any additional advice for novice furniture refinishers?

Ditch your Google Reader web app

You all know that as I much as I enjoy writing blogs, I equally enjoy reading blogs, and Google Reader is the perfect way to keep up-to-date with blog reading. But the Google Reader web app is not the greatest, so I was thrilled when Matt introduced me to my new favorite Droid app, NewsRob, and today you can now download the official Google Reader app as well.

I haven't had time to experiment with the new official Google Reader app, but I've been using NewsRob for a couple months, and I've grown partial to this program.

 
Why is the free NewsRob app worth downloading?

With the Google Reader web app, you have to click on every single post. You can't simply scroll through your posts, as you can through the regular Google Reader site. Thankfully, though, the NewsRob app allows you to easily move from one post to the next simply by hitting right and left arrow buttons that show up on either side of the screen. This means way less clicking overall and less back and forth.

Additionally, I always found myself getting frustrated with the small size of the buttons on the Google Reader mobile site. I'd be trying to click on one blog, but I'd inevitably hit the one above it or below it, often several times in a row. The layout of NewsRob is much more user friendly and makes me more likely to hit the right button the first time.

If you decide to use the official Google Reader app, leave me a comment to share how it's working out for you.

And, on a totally different note: in case you forgot, today is December 1, which means it's time to change your air filter! Not on a schedule yet? Change yours today, and I'll alert you on March 1 when it's time to change again.

Matt's email archiving system

If you use Gmail, or at this point most email systems that are not my pathetic work email account that is always seeming to run out of storage space, you have a ton of online storage capacity. In fact, Gmail reminds me that I am only using 897 MB of my space, a meager 12% of my allotted 7461 GB.

 
Why only 12%? Because sometimes I throw emails away. Gmail even says to me, "Stephanie, you have insane storage capacity. Why would you ever want to throw something away?"

Gmail, you are right. I will archive for the rest of my life.

In fact, starting today, I am adopting my husband's archiving system. With his system, when he sends a message, he sets up his Gmail account to automatically archive his email. This takes the conversation out of his inbox, but keeps it easily accessible with nothing more than a simple search for a friend's name. It ensures that he never accidentally forgets to respond to an email, because he knows his inbox only contains emails he's waiting to respond to.

How do you get this Send and Archive system? Simple! Click on the Labs link at the top of your Gmail screen (it looks like a chemistry beaker). Scroll down until you see "Send and Archive. With this lab added to your Gmail account, your default Send button has now become Send & Archive.

 This is a much more efficient way to clean out your inbox by ensuring that you keep the messages you've responded to out of your inbox.

Experiment updates

I told you earlier this week that I've been engaging in several household experiments. So far, I have won one and lost one.

Household win: recycling!

Matt and I did this fairly easy switch for a new recycling "bin" that is actually a trash can with a recycling sign slapped on. On Thursday, the recycling company accepted it as they would a regular-sized recycling bin. Victory! Now I will have to figure out a paint plan to make that recycling logo official. Maybe I'll make a stencil!

Household fail: gas company meter reading

The gas company did, in fact, send someone to our house on Thursday to read our gas meter after I complained about an insanely high bill. I know the company actually came by, not because I was home, but because 1) there were footprints in our mulch and 2) when I called the company Friday, they told me they took this reading of 6847, exactly what I saw when I snapped this photo as evidence Thursday morning before leaving for work

So, it seems like this should also fall into the category of a household win, no? WRONG! Here's the deal:

The company claims they really took a reading on April 7 of 6826 CCFs. They are sticking to that claim, despite the fact that the second customer service rep I talked to at Washington Gas told me, "I doubt that actually happened." Right, me neither, because I had to leave our gate open to let someone in on Thursday, and I haven't done that in the three and a half years we've lived here.

This reading is only funny because it means that between April 7 and April 29 we only used 21 CCFs, but between March 9 and April 7 we used 200 CCFs, which I take issue with because we turned our heat off on March 15. When the person I talked to on Friday said the company sticks by these numbers and will not be adjusting our most recent bill, I said, "So, this means that I can expect an incredibly small bill issued in early May?" he said, "Yes." I mean, if this is true, we're talking about the smallest bill we've ever received while living in this house. I will be watching you, Washington Gas.

Finally, I said, "I would really like to be able to send in my meter readings [any method: website, phone, snail mail, whatever!] each month so I can be guaranteed that the bills are accurate," he remained me that Washington Gas does not allow us to do that, but that I can pay attention to the next meter reading day listed on my gas bill and call if I see a discrepancy. Well, you can bet I will be doing that. Something just seems off in this entire situation, and it annoys me that Matt and I conscientiously turn our thermostat down in the winter and up in the summer in efforts to be environmentally friendly but also help save money, yet it does not seem to affect our bills.

The next meter reading date in May 6, and you can bet I've already entered that in my Google calendar!

Tip 33: Reduce your bill (mail)

First of all, I realize this is the latest I have ever blogged in the day (and I bet some of you were thinking, "Maybe today will be the day she breaks her blogging streak!"). Well folks, this post is primarily late because I just got home from my monthly book club (yes, I am a huge proponent of organized activities, obviously, and I will blog about its evolution later).

I wish I could tell you how to reduce the number of bills you receive in a month and how to reduce the amount you owe each month, but the only thing I can say is ask for special deals, especially any perks you may get through your employer, and/or threaten to switch to a different service (we're mostly talking about TV, cell phones, Internet...good luck negotiating with the power companies, though I am sure someone succeeds here). At most, though, this knocks $10 or maybe $15, $20 off your monthly bills, but not enough to retire at 35 (my dream). What I can say, though, is that if you haven't already....

Tip 33: To further reduce the amount of paper that comes into your house, your need for shredding and recycling, and to reduce your chances of a late payment, conduct all of your bill pay online.

Up until a year ago I was still holding on to doing some of my bill pay through snail mail, namely for our mortgage. I don't know why I stuck to this. I think it was partially because I didn't trust online bill pay for everything (but still did for most things), and partially because our mortgage company would charge an incredibly high fee for every mortgage paid through their site. It made no sense. Then Matt said, "Why don't you use our bank's Web site for online bill pay?" Why didn't I think of that? Setting it up takes about two minutes, and the payoff (in time) is huge.

Here's how our monthly bills work:

1) As teachers we get paid once a month, on the last work day of the month. Some of my non-teacher friends think this is outrageous and don't know how we cope. The answer is, it's very easy: your bills are due once a month.

2) I manage all the daily household finances. Matt knows way more than me about the stock market and the intricacies of loans, so I let him handle that, but I'm more type A and never miss a payment, so this is my strength.

3) The only paper bills we receive in the mail each month are: 1) mortgage statements, which I file into a special binder only for mortgage documents and 2) the water bill, which we get once every three months and the company will not do e-bill. I love e-bill. I try only to keep one copy of the most recent water bill on file and shred the rest.

4) We pay the following bills through these means each month:

• The mortgage is due the start of each month, so that's set up through online bill pay. I don't do automatic pay for this because it's such a huge amount and I want to see it go through (though I realize I could set up automatic pay).
• The credit card #1 is paid online through the card's site at the start of each month. I do this manually. Also, we charge almost all of our everyday expenses mostly to keep track of all purchases and our budget, but we pay the card off in full every month (and we save a lot of money each month, too).
• Homeowner's association dues are automatic bill pay at the start of each month.
• Auto and home insurance (one charge) is automatic bill pay at the start of each month.
• Electricity is automatic bill pay at the middle of each month.
• Gas is something I pay manually through the company's site at the middle of each month.
• TV/Internet/cell phone (one charge) is automatic bill pay at the end of each month.
• Water is every three months, and I pay this manually through bill pay.
• Credit card #2 has occasional small charges, so we pay that off through the company's site as needed.

5) For the smaller items that are not set up for automatic bill pay (gas, credit card #2, water) I pay those bills as soon as I receive the e-bill email notification. For the larger items that are not set up for automatic bill pay (mortgage, credit card #1), I pay those bills at the end of each month on pay day. It's fun to have (what seems like) a lot of money in our account for about 8 hours.

It may seem like a lot to manage, but it's actually not. Here's my formula: I see a lot of money in my bank account = sign it's time to hand some money over. I get an email notification = time to pay a smaller bill. Everything else is taken care of for me. If you're a control freak like me and you're worried your automatic bill pay won't go through on time, never fear: it is more reliable than you are.

Lastly, just the other day I experienced one of the negative side effects of having paper bills laying around. Because we always get paper copies of the water bill in the mail, and this month was water month, I was looking at this month's bill the other day and thought I had not paid it. Then I realized if I had not paid it, it was overdue. Then I logged onto bill pay and realized that I had, of course, paid it the day it arrived in the mail, but my heart raced a tiny bit when I thought I would have to pay a $3.50 late fee and tarnish my perfect record.

Even though junkmail and bills are yucky, there are some better sides to mail, too. Let's start looking at some of those tomorrow!

Tip 32: Stop the (junkmail) insanity!

Warning: While I am a believer in short-ish blog posts, today's has to go a little longer, because there is a lot to say about junkmail!

Tip 32: To keep most of your junkmail from ever reaching your door, sign up for one or several online mail removal services.

In early 2008 I signed up with a site called ProQuo to remove Matt and me from a seemingly endless mound of mailing lists. This free site took me off credit card offers, circular and value-pack (or ValPak, which is also online!) coupon mailings, and copious amounts of catalogs. By March 2008 I had reduced our junkmail from about eight pieces a day to about one or two a day. Even better news, those credit card offers that I loathe basically ceased to arrive. Then, oddly enough, in the last month I've noticed that we're starting to get more junkmail than we have in the last two years. I think it's because ProQuo took us off some lists for just two years.

So, I went back to the ProQuo site the other day. It looks like a generic "site under construction." Then I remembered getting an email from ProQuo about a year ago that said this:

The site I loved, that offered its services free of charge was now going to make me pay? No thank you. And now, apparently, the site hardly exists, at least at this moment.

Back to the drawing board! Without ProQuo, what options do I have to painlessly remove myself from junkmail lists for free?

Turns out, there are several:

DMAChoice.org -- this site is run by the Direct Marketing Association. It's free. Signing up only takes a moment, but unlike ProQuo, which used to remove me from many mailing lists with the click of just one button, DMAChoice makes me sort through contact information for lots of companies. This is useful for removing my name from auto insurance company lists, such as AllState and Geico that must send me at least an offer each week. So, it provides me with email, phone and mail contact info, and of course I choose the email option, open a new message and type a generic "To Whom It May Concern: Please remove me from your mailing list" message.

 OptOutPrescreen.com -- If you sign up for DMAChoice and you want to get your name removed from credit card offers, you'll be directed to this site. I was also directed to this site back in the day when I thrived from the wonder that was ProQuo. This site is a joint venture among the four major credit reporting agencies: Equifax, Experian, Innovis, and TransUnion. (When you get your credit report or you have a credit check run when you're applying for something like a home loan, you will get lots of numbers from these agencies, or all except for Innovis, which has never shown up in our reports.) The site says:

Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), Equifax, Experian, Innovis, and TransUnion, are permitted to include your name on lists used by creditors or insurers to make firm offers of credit or insurance. The FCRA also allows you the ability to "Opt-Out", which prevents Consumer Credit Reporting Companies from providing your credit file information for firm offers of credit or insurance that are not initiated by you.

Removing your name through the OptOutPrescreen site will take you about two minutes. Even if you have no plans to use DMAChoice, this small step is probably worth it.

DirectMail.com's National Do Not Mail List -- The name of this is slightly deceiving because I think it makes people link it to the National Do Not Call Registry, which is a government-run program. This Do Not Mail List is run by DirectMail.com, a direct marketing company. But, I will cut them some slack because this is yet another free site, and it's also exceptionally easy to use. Enter your contact information, receive an email, confirm an email, and then get another email in return. I just did this one today as an experiment, and I got this nice little email in return also encouraging me to add my name to the OptOutPrescreen site as well as the DMAChoice site. So, I think it's safe to say that I have pretty thoroughly covered my bases.

CatalogChoice.org -- This is another free site that used to link through ProQuo, and it has been amazing at reducing my catalog intake. I personally don't like to browse catalogs. I'd rather check store Web sites because by the time I scan a catalog the store has already sold out of my size anyway. Better to know what I'm getting into by going straight to the source and checking size/color availability for any clothing purchases. One word of caution: Even though CatalogChoice is awesome at keeping you off mailing lists, once you make an online purchase at certain stores (I'm talking to you, JCrew and Victoria's Secret) you will need to immediately remove yourself from their mailing list again because they will love to send you weekly catalogs. Returning to CatalogChoice or even sending a customer service email should do the trick.

41pounds.org -- Here's a site I have not and most likely will not try, but I thought I'd throw this one in here because it's often mentioned when it comes to junkmail removal. The site promises to reduce your junkmail intake by 80 to 95 percent, which is nice, but that's also what the free sites can accomplish. Additionally, the site promises to achieve these results for you for five years, eliminating your 41 points of junkmail, but it also costs 41 pounds. The site justifies this cost by saying that it equals 2 cents per day, but to me that's still $41 more than free. The site also claims in its FAQ section:

There are some companies that offer free services which might sound similar to 41pounds.org, but if you read the fine print you’ll find out that they do NOT provide the complete five-year service that 41pounds.org provides. Some services only stop catalogs, not the rest of your junk mail — like credit card offers which can lead to identity theft. Others only stop a portion of your junk mail — just from the companies that are part of their group. Some that claim to stop your junk mail actually make their money from direct mail companies who very much want to send you their marketing mail. 41pounds.org removes your name from the DMA (Direct Marketing Association) list, which applies to the companies that are members of this marketing trade association. You can contact DMA yourself, but you will find this is not a complete solution since they don’t stop credit card applications and many other forms of junk mail (such as PennySavers, ValPak, etc.)

Still, I just don't buy it (pun!). If you want to do it yourself and for free, you may have to visit two or three sites and spend a little more time, but I don't think what this site offers is $41 better than what I can achieve for free in about 5-10 minutes max.

Here are a couple quick recommendations for using these sites:

• Make sure they're free.
• Make sure they're easy to use. (This is part of my argument against DMAChoice; it seems needlessly complicated.)
• Avoid ones that expect you to send a letter in the mail because, let's face it, that's both: 1) annoying and 2) ironic, and you're never going to get around to putting that letter in the mail. I've been there.
• With his or her permission, also remove other people who share your address. Most likely they want you to anyway, so encouraging your friends and loved ones to go as green as possible and reduce clutter is always a good idea.
• As with so many things related to organization, be patient. It may take until May for you to really notice a reduction in your junkmail, but it will be worth it.

So, now I'm hoping that my junkmail purge round 2 will go well. I'll keep you posted on the results.

Tips 24 and 25: Movies and books

Bad news, ladies and gents: Today marks the start of National Public Radio's annual winter membership drive. This means it's time to change the station and consume other media this week. Time to focus on movies and books. Let's start with movies.

Tip 24: Use the Sunday paper to update your movie queue.

Here's how you can use the Sunday paper:

• Look at what's currently in theaters, and add the movies you're interested in to your queue. Yes, they won't be available for some time, but it's a nice surprise when they're ready.
• Look at the Best Buy circular (this one is all Matt's idea). See what is coming out this week on DVD. If there are movies you'd like to see that you haven't already added to your queue, add those there.
• Matt also reads Entertainment Weekly, and he'll update the queue based on his findings in there as well.

I have to explain this post by saying that Matt and I own two giant TVs, and we justified this purchase by deciding to rarely if ever go to the movies again. So, we broke that rule in December when we saw Avatar in 3D, but up until that point the last movie we had seen in the theater was Borat in 2006 (I guess we ended on a high note??). We're partial to our Blockbuster online account, mostly because we started our queue years ago, and the queue has been growing ever since. We used to take advantage of the option of having in-store returns and pick ups as well, but that was back when I was trying to get caught up on Lost and couldn't wait for the disc to arrive in the mail to satisfy my 12-hour TV marathons. Now, we're down to one rental at a time all through the mail, so we have to be picky about the queue.

Here are the movies we've most recently watched from the queue:

• The Hurt Locker -- we would both recommend this one for its intensity (with a girl-power nod to the female director).
• The Hangover -- funny, but not as funny as a movie we could keep watching over and over, like Forgetting Sarah Marshall.
• In the Loop -- witty political satire, ridiculous characters, and the resurrection of Anna Chlumsky of My Girl fame (but sadly no Thomas Jay).
• Star Trek -- I begrudgingly watched this one, but I actually really enjoyed it.
• Up -- hands down one of the best movies I've seen in a long time, and perhaps my favorite Pixar movie (at least tied with Wall-E).
• Away We Go -- sure to please the ladies who like Jim from The Office, or anyone who appreciates some dry humor

And, this ties in nicely with keeping track of books...

Tip 25: Make a spreadsheet of books you've read and books you want to read. Save that spreadsheet to your Google Docs.

In June 2007 I decided to start tracking my reading. I would read a book and then want to recommend it to a friend, but then I could never remember the title. I know there are plenty of Web sites that allow you to do this (and yes, I have the Facebook WeRead application) but I like a plain old spreadsheet. Much like the movie queue, I keep this updated when I hear about a new book on the radio, read a book review, or get a recommendation from a friend. I also do this so I can put books on reserve at the library rather than shell out big bucks for books, most of which I'll read only once. The bad news about my library's reservation system is that, unlike with Blockbuster, I can't reserve books in my account before they're in the library's system, so this does require more effort on my part in terms of visiting the library Web site more often than I'd like. (But the library is free, so I will accept it).

Here's how I've set up my books spreadsheet:

• Page 1 is titled Read It, and it's divided into Fiction and Nonfiction selections. I try to divide my time equally between both. I also keep track of authors.
• Page 2 is titled Want to Read, with the same fiction/nonfiction division and space for authors.
• I have a Page 3 titled People Who Have Borrowed Books. So yes, if you've "borrowed" a book from me, I know who you are, what book you borrowed and when you borrowed it. And while I assume I'll never see that book again, I like to know who I can blame for its loss. I'm still waiting for you to return my copy of Life of Pi. Grrrrr.

I like keeping this as a Google Doc because then I can access it anywhere and update it at any time. If you don't subscribe to a movie service such as Blockbuster or Netflix, a movie spreadsheet set up in a similar manner as this book spreadsheet would be a fun way to track your viewing, plan your future viewings and share suggestions with friends.

Here are some of my favorite books from my book spreadsheet:
Fiction:

• The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao -- Junot Diaz. About a geek from the Dominican Republic. Award-winning and deserving.
• People of the Book -- Geraldine Brooks (actually, I would recommend anything she has written). A rare-book expert uncovers mysteries layered in an antique Jewish text.
• The Art of Racing in the Rain -- Garth Stein. A book told from a dog's perspective. Even though I love animals, I hate books about them, but this one surprised me and has stuck with me.
• Digging to America -- Anne Tyler. Two families adopt children at the same time, and their lives keep intersecting.
• Let the Great World Spin -- Colum McCann. A post-9/11 book primarily set in New York before 9/11 (actually, in 1974 when the World Trade Center was being completed).

Nonfiction:

• One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding -- Rebecca Mead. Great if you're like me and amazed by the ridiculous nature of the American wedding industry.
• A Year of Living Biblically -- A.J. Jacobs. The author conducts an experiment to take the Bible 100 percent literally for one year. Hilarity ensues.
• One Nation Under Dog -- Michael Schaffer. Just like our weddings are out of control, so is our spending on our dogs (and other pets), but we love them anyway.
• Love is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time -- Rob Sheffield. Don't read this too close to Valentine's Day. A music enthusiast suddenly loses his young wife. Heartbreaking but still pretty.
• Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman -- Jon Krakauer (I would also recommend any of his other books, especially Under the Banner of Heaven). This is another heart-breaker about the pro football player who enlisted and died fighting in Afghanistan and the military cover up that followed.

Tip 23: Taxes and charity

I never dread tax time because we're still getting refunds. "But Stephanie, tax refunds are nothing more than interest-free loans to the government." Yes, I know. I suppose this is my nod to patriotism. I have no real secrets to tax filing except I'd say if you're married and filing jointly, do your taxes together by having one person read out numbers while the other enters them into the computer. This, of course, assumes you use Turbo Tax. I also love how Turbo Tax (we use Deluxe) saves your info from year to year (even though I clearly have the paper copies in my file). Matt and I hooked out this year's taxes in 35 minutes, and that's even with my tendency to triple check everything.

But when we did this year's taxes I made a new discovery...

Tip 23: Use Turbo Tax It's Deductible to determine the value of all your charitable donations.

I donate clothes at least twice a year to Goodwill. The nice Goodwill volunteer would give me a blank receipt, and even though I know exactly what I donated, I never could quite figure out its worth. How much for a pair of jeans? Boots? A T-shirt? That's why I love this ItsDeductible site. Enter your donated items and it automatically calculates their worth. And, believe it or not, it values the items at a higher dollar amount than I would have ever guessed. I suppose this is the classic case of one person's trash is another person's...well, you get the idea.

You can enter items by searching for them, or you can browse for them. I prefer the browse feature, in this case. Here's what the top portion of the Women's Clothing category screen looks like:

 

Once you've entered the number of donated items in each category that applies, it tallies the donation's Estimated Amount, and then it gives you a year-to-date Estimated Savings, or in other words how much you can expect back in your return. So if, for example, I donated one high-value jumper (I have no idea what that item would look like) and one high-value sundress, the Estimated Amount is $21 and the Estimated Savings from that donation is $5.25. Pretty cool, eh?

If you use Turbo Tax this information automatically imports into your account. Even if you choose not to use Turbo Tax when preparing your taxes, I still think this site could be great for tracking your charitable donations. Besides keeping track of donated items, you can also enter money, stock and mileage (driven in service of a charity).

Happy filing!

Mpix update: success!

Last week I posted that I was planning to take down some of the multitude of wedding photos blanketing our walls and replace them with some married-life photos. Using my newly-wed-friend Lindsay's recommendation after ordering her wedding pics, I figured I would give Mpix.com a shot. Here are the results:

Timeline:

• I placed an order on February 5.
• I received an e-mail on February 8 saying my order had shipped.
• I got my photos in the mail this afternoon, February 11 (but the speed of the mail is difficult to gauge right now thanks to the sporadic snow service).

Price:

• I ordered 37 4x6 photos on E-Surface paper at $0.29 each.
• I order 1 5x7 photo on E-Surface paper at $0.99 each.
• I opted for the cheapest shipping -- 1st Class Mail -- at $3.
• Total price: $14.72

The verdict:

• The default option for Mpix is matte finish, which I love -- none of those fingerprints that you get with glossy-finish photos.
• The crispness of the images is better than what I've gotten from Kodak Gallery and Snapfish, two companies I've used in the past.
• Even though Mpix is more expensive than Snapfish, it's significantly better quality. And, unlike Kodak, Mpix does not charge extra for black-and-white prints. I converted four photos into black-and-white using our iPhoto software, and these came out great in Mpix. If I had used Kodak those black-and-white prints would have cost $0.38 each.
• The site is exceptionally easy to use.
• The service and shipment was prompt.

I order photos only about once or twice a year, but even so, I think I have found my new site. I love the look of their gallery wraps, too, so sometime down the line when I take the perfect shot I'll have to order one and let you know how it goes!

Tip 18: Web site bookmarking

I used to bookmark all these great Web sites -- mostly sites about teaching journalism -- to my Internet Explorer on my work laptop. But then I have to turn in my work laptop for a few weeks each summer, the tech people clean out the memory, and my bookmarks are gone. One of my goals in life is to stop reinventing the wheel, particularly when it comes to my job as a teacher, so I had to come up with a new system. Then I discovered...

Tip 18: Save and categorize all your bookmarks by opening a delicious.com account.

Delicious.com is the organized, tech-savvy person's best friend. There are other sites out there, like digg.com, which I also signed up for, but in the end delicious.com won me over because I found it slightly more user-friendly. I was more concerned about bookmarking my own sites and not necessarily sharing my finds with others (not because I'm selfish, but because, frankly, not that many people would care about all my scholastic journalism bookmarks).

Why use delicious.com?

• Categorize your bookmarks -- One item can be placed into multiple categories, if needed. So far I have 509 bookmarks divided into 97 categories.
• Access your bookmarks anywhere -- Unlike bookmarking your favorite sites to your computer, you can access delicious.com from any computer or smartphone, and your bookmarks never go away, even when your computer inevitably does.
• Keep personal and professional sites in one place -- As a teacher, it's a great resource when I'm trying to find sites related to a certain lesson I'm preparing. I also use delicious.com when planning a trip or finding ideas for a home-improvement project. It seems like a great place to keep sites if you're looking for a house, planning a wedding,  getting ready for a baby, investigating jobs, adopting a pet...all kinds of life events for which you're no doubt seeking advice!

Next up...signing up for e-mail coupons.

Reader question: Online coupon organization

Sam raises a great question in response to my coupon filing post, and it seems particularly timely as we are in the midst of technology week: "What is your system for handling online coupons that you would use online (rather than print and use in store)? Do you use Gmail labels or some other system?"

Actually, I do not have a dedicated system for sorting online coupons. I like Sam's recommendation of Gmail labels. If you use Gmail and haven't gotten into Gmail labels, I highly recommend them. When I am planning a big trip (like the cross country 2008 trip) or an event (like a friend's shower) I make a Gmail label for that topic and sort all related e-mails accordingly.

But, I digress. I don't have a system for organizing online coupons because, quite honestly, most of my purchases are made in stores, unless I am making a purchase on Amazon (still, after all these years, a great one-stop shop). So, what I usually do is archive the e-mail with the coupon in Gmail, and then search for the e-mail if I wind up needing it later on. How did we all manage our e-mail before we could sort it and search it?

(And no, I do not work for Google, though this week it certainly sounds like it! Full disclosure: my brother used to work for Google, but that has little bearing on any of our lives now.)

What about you all? Do you have a system you can recommend?

Tip 13: Google Reader

I have to preface today's bonus post by saying that Technology Week here at Literally Organized is dedicated to my husband Matt, the go-to guy for any electronics/technology question. With that preface, let me express my excitement from this morning when I was keeping up with all my blogs on Google Reader and Matt asked, "What is Google Reader?" Wait, I know something about technology that Matt does not know? Who else does not know about this amazing tool?

Tip 13: Sign up for Google Reader, a one-stop shop for all your blog updates.

I was getting tired of visiting my top blogs and being disappointed when I didn't see any updates. (I mean, who doesn't update their blog every day?) So, rather than getting my hopes up, I launched Google Reader, yet another Google creation that has gotten me hooked.

Organizing a Google Reader subscription is about as easy as bookmarking something in your Web browser. Once you add a subscription, it will show up on your page. Each time you log on, you'll see your subscriptions, and the ones that have been updated since your last log in will be in bold. Then you've got your own little virtual book of blogs.

And, some time soon, I promise to link to all my favorite blogs here.

Next up...dealing with your digital photos.

Tip 11: Google calendar

I used to be a big proponent of the day planner or the hand-written calendar. I like tangible items, checklists, items to cross off. That is, I used to be, until I discovered...

Tip 11: Sign up for Google calendar

Most people I know already use Gmail as their primary personal e-mail program, so adding on the perks of Google calendar is a small endeavor with a lot of perks. Here's why I love it:

• Calendar views: You can see your day's agenda, one week, or one month.
• Calendar sharing options: This is probably the best aspect of this program. You can choose which users have access to your calendar and vice versa. So, Matt and I share calendars. All of his items are in blue and mine are in pink (cute, I know). When we want to make plans, it's great to see both his agenda and mine simultaneously. There are some communal calendars to choose from as well, such as one that gives you all US holidays.
• Scheduling events: You can create one-time events, but you can also create recurring events. So, our dogs get their monthly medicine each month on the 15th, so I set that up as a recurring event, or at work I have meetings that happen once a month, and I can schedule them accordingly. I love the "set it and forget it" concept.
• Importing events: The Google calendar program allows you to take invitations, such as Evites, and automatically plugs the event information into your calendar.
• Event reminders: Much like the Outlook calendar, the Google calendar sends you an alert when an event is about to take place.

Like all things organization, the trick to using Google calendar is to put in your upcoming events as soon as you find out about them. Thankfully, Matt is good about this as well. And, Droids come fully equipped with all Google programs, so it's easy to have my calendar on me at all times. Yes, Google is taking over the world and my life, but I am kind of OK with that.

Next up...organizing all your cords!

Tip 10: Mint.com

Big post...now we've hit the double-digit tips! Welcome to technology week!

Last Saturday I posted about Saturday routines. Another Saturday routine I did not share before has to do with checking in on all my finances. For this purpose, lately I've consolidated all my online finances into one site by following...

Tip 10: Use Mint.com to create a budget and track your spending.

When I tell my friends about this Web site, I get looks of skepticism. I know a lot of people are afraid of financial Web sites such as Mint.com, fearing breeches of security and whatnot, but if you already use online banking or online bill pay or view your credit card statements online, then this is same idea and same level of security. And this isn't just my opinion...I researched online newspapers to find out what financial experts had to say about this site. I have a healthy fear of identity theft (and healthy fear of a lot of other things, no doubt), but I feel as confident in Mint.com as I can in any web tool out there. Of course, do some research yourself and see what you dig up.

Why do I love Mint.com? It's got everything a super-organized person could want:

• Cost: It's free.
• Time: It takes little time to set up, and the payoff is significant. When you sign up, you link to your online accounts, and each time you log in the information from each account is automatically updated within minutes. It's one place to see your checking and savings accounts, credit card transactions, investments, loans, properties and whatever else you might like to add.
• Put everything in a category: After signing up, a Transactions tab allows you to categorize all your purchases. Mint already knows how to categorize most of the chains out there, so it will, for example, know that your credit card purchase from Gap was for Clothing. But, if you happened to buy that item as a Gift, you can manually change it to that category, too. For local and lesser-known establishments, you have to manually change the Transaction category once, but for every time after that, Mint changes it automatically. So, for example, the first time a charge from my favorite restaurant, Coastal Flats, appeared in Mint, it came up as Uncategorized, but after I labeled it as Restaurant, it has been automatically labeled for me ever since (and there have been quite a few trips to Coastal Flats in the past six months).
• Budgets: You can create a budget for anything and everything. In my Mint budget, I include fixed costs (mortgage, cable/Internet/cell phone bill, HOA dues, car insurance, gym dues, newspaper subscriptions) as well as more flexible costs (gas and electric bills, clothing, home goods, entertainment, restaurants, gifts, even groceries). After tracking our spending for a few months, I was able to make spending goals for our family that are fairly precise. When you look at the Planning tab on Mint, you see all your budgets. When your budget is colored green, it means you are in the clear; yellow means you are close to meeting the budget; and red means you have exceeded your budget for that month. Budgets can start fresh each month, or you can choose to roll them over into the next month. So, for example, I keep our grocery budget on a month-by-month basis, but I allow the clothing budget to roll over each month (this is good in months where I spend little on clothing, but bad in months like January when technically I won't be allowed to buy clothes again until March thanks to my incredible January spending!).
• Budget for less-frequent purchases: You can also budget for items you do not buy on a monthly basis. For example, though small, our water bill arrives once every three months. Even though I don't need to put money aside to pay that $80 seasonal bill (we will still be able to eat), I still have it set up in Mint because I like to remember what I need to pay and when. I also create budgets for pet medications which we buy one every few months (always more expensive than it should be), and car maintenance that we have to do a couple times a year.
• Sign up for e-mail or mobile alerts: When you first sign on to Mint, you get a list of alerts: your credit card bill is due next week, you exceeded your budget for clothing (sigh, again), your checking account is getting low...whatever. If you're the kind of person who might not sign in to Mint regularly, you can also opt to receive such alerts over e-mail or your mobile device. If you opt for it, Mint will also send you an e-mail weekly financial summary that highlights your biggest purchases that week.
• CHARTS! DIAGRAMS! GRAPHS! You can do all these things with a click of the button. Click on the Trends tab in Mint to see a pie chart showing you how your spending from that month breaks down in every category. You really get a sense of where your money is going. And that's just the start of all the visuals Mint provides....this is both exciting and at times scary.

So, if you want to create a budget, or you don't care about budgets but just want a quick, easy and free way to track your money, give this a try.

Next up...Google calendar.