Happy Friday the 13th!

Sales have been slooowww the last few weeks. Not inspiring me to post much. I've got a document where I save little ideas for blog posts that aren't really a whole post on their own so I thought I'd put together a few of those and cobble together a post.

First is sort of a shipping tip that I came up with the other day for using the free Priority boxes that the USPS provides. I sold a set of pictures a while back. There were six of them and they were to go Priority. Well there was no way all six would fit in the biggest Priority box I have so I thought I'd have to go down to my basement to see if I had a regular box that I could use. I have a friend who brings me a lot of boxes from his work place. Then suddenly I had a vision!!! Why couldn't I use several Priority boxes and tape them together? It worked like a charm. I put two well protected pictures in each Priority box and then very securely taped them all to each other to create one big box! The boxes themselves added an additional layer of protection between the pictures. This method could be used for all sorts of things that are in multiples as long as you make sure the boxes are very securely taped together. I used Scotch shipping/strapping tape which is one of my new loves. It has extra strong fibers in it so that it doesn't break. I purchased a six pack of the rolls like the one on the left below and they fit into a standard size dispenser. You can also buy it already in a disposable dispenser as on the right below. I love this stuff for packages that feel heavy for their size where you are afraid they might split open at the tape. Like a box of books.


     


Another tip that I discovered recently.

I've always used rubber eraser to clean prices off the bottoms of shoes when written in ink or marker. Recently though I realized that an eraser also works well for cleaning black marks off of the rest of the rubber areas on shoes. The toes, heels, sides etc. And for an especially hard to remove price I found that a fine grit sandpaper finally faded the price enough where you had to look really close to see it. I love discovering these cheap tips whether on my own or from reading other blogs. You can save lots of money not buying little specialty products that do the same thing. The erasers I use are just cheap 4/dollar erasers. Nothing fancy!

Lastly you all probably already know about this since it started a few years ago (cause you all are way more hip than me!) but I just read an article about it recently (an oldish article). So apparently the company Urban Outfitters has a line of clothes Urban Renewal where they take used clothing and sell it as is or just use the existing piece to create a new garment by refashioning it. I think it's good that big companies are thinking outside the box. In further reading I also read some negative opinions about the company which unfortunately I can't find again or I would add a link. Did you know about this trend already? What are your thoughts on the concept? Do you think it's wrong for big companies like Urban Outfitters, Restoration Hardware, Anthropolgie and others to cash in on the fads in clothing and furniture for that vintage, beat up look? Or are they creating the fad and we are cashing in on it? I guess it's really not a new concept. Shabby chic was the same thing in home decor. Just way more pastels. If nothing else these websites are great places to look at trends and mine some good keywords. Pinterest is a gold mine of ideas on how to create the same items yourself if you don't have $1000 to spend on a coffee table.

photos from pixabay