I use the business envie filing system (in 2 boxes, alphabetical, veggies are filed elsewhere) for the small amounts of seeds only (gathered, commercial or traded). Both things to trade, and my personal stash are mixed together in this...as my priorities change on what's personal and what's for trade. All types of morning glories in one envie, sunflowers in another, I subdivide when needed -- herbs are getting too full, and need to be seperated into Herbs-culinary and Herbs-medicinal/decorative soon. Along the side of one box there's extra space (it's running out this year -- need a wider box now, or a seperate one just for these). This is where I file the larger 3x5" bags of labeled/cleaned seed I've harvested. Also alphabetical. Before here, they live in coffee filters (a few thick) to dry well, then into a large bag to help sort out the chaff (involves a lot of shaking, and then scooping out the seed from the bottom), then into the 3x5's. From these, I package seed as I go, and check the stock before I offer it in a posting. I only write seed info down somewhere when I've either decided to add it to my trade list as a trade-out, or I'm compiling my "to sow" list with germination info (got to nick this one, soak this one, etc). I generally just have it in my head what I've got in the boxes. But I keep a detailed record of my trades on the computer (and backed up to disk), and can search that for any "where or who it came from" questions later.

Wow! You have lots of really good ideas. Some of you seem a little overwhelmed, like I am! Too many good ideas (and getting more every day), not enough time! Luvs, I never thought of actually sitting down with a cup of coffee and looking through my Christmas files (duh) prior to the Christmas shopping season (although most of what I buy is second-hand still there's more selection nearer to the holidays)... Karen--you can fit all your Decor ideas in ONE file???! Dreamgoddess--I love the idea of having all my jottings in one notebook--but once I turn the page the old ones are gone from my memory! You probably (undoubtedly) have more discipline than I have... OA--I do something like you do with the recipes but I use scrapbook software. I'm pleased with that because I can add text and the software treats it like a graphic--lets me move it around, put it on top of pictures, etc., but it still stays editable for when I spot a typo (very irritating to me) or want to rearrange the page. You can also add arrows or circle items in the photo or illustrations, and fancy them up if you want. I save the pages to .jpg files after I'm done. Then I can just view them with the Windows viewer. The disadvantage is there's no way to sort them or search them. I have to put them all in individual folders like Christmas, etc. If I want to have an index I have to make one in Excel or some such. I love the idea of putting all the things for each room in their own boxes. We will be moving into our new home this winter and as I unpack (my very disorganized) moving boxes I'll keep that in mind. Have to go get tons of plastic bins... Minnie tx--Yes. I've organized my articles like that in the past and there's nothing like thumbing through those nice page protectors--makes your pictures look even better. But I have SO MANY! Once I almost completed a system like that and I had 21 3-ring notebooks full and more coming all the time. I've weeded out since then (HAD TO!) and of course since I was younger there's many more formats--dvd's (stuff I recorded off HGTV, for example), Internet downloads, how-to videos on the Internet, of course digital pix that I sneak sometimes in stores, etc. So much mixed media! dd50- you've hit the nail on the head! That's me, wandering around the store, getting ideas, and wondering if I already have the stuff at home. After this over-budget house is finished, I'm not going to be able to afford buying (even something cheap) twice! neesie--DH uses a pencil and notepad for anything he wants to remember, and it works for him, but he's an engineer. They're BORN organized. lynn--I scan pix from magazines and catalogs too (they can sure mount up). But your system sounds so organized. I just finished culling about 300MB of graphics files duplicates that I had propagated all over the disk. BTW, make sure you all have backups. DH made us a little network with a big hard drive so we can back up to it. But if you don't have that, I like the little thumb drives--I got a 4 GB one for Christmas last year. That holds a lot of files! THANKS FOR ALL THE SUGGESTIONS! Seems nothing is perfect. As I mentioned, I'm using scrapbook software which makes graphics and text very easy to handle (OA--if you want "freeform" pages the scrapbooking software is better than a database like Filemaker. Databases usually require you to have your data in fixed format (which you define). For example, at least when I was using databases, you would have to define the number of pictures you could allow in each record. Of course, databases may be a lot fancier now, but their search-sort functions should require some rigidity in the format of each record.) What I really need to find to augment this is a calendar-shopping list-inventory program that takes all those ideas in my brain and makes them usable! - Magpie

I am not getting these follow-up posts emailed to me even though i checked to have emails sent - so I didn't know there was more. I hope they keep supporting version 3 - since we have 5 xp computers between home and work. I do have FF4 on dd's laptop - but not quite sure how it's going for her. She said she didn't like it - and I offered to try above suggestions to make it appear more like she's familiar with. She wants me to in theory - but in reality never wants to hand over the computer to have me do it. When I have more leisure to try again, am I recalling correctly that I can have 2 firefoxes installed - one version 3, and one version 4? And I can use xmarks to sync bookmarks, etc. That way I can get used to ff4 - but go back to 3 for the times I need things to go smoothly and not tinker? Any special instructions for doing 2 firefoxes? Thank you. Lynn. PS - still wonder if anyone else if having the issue where responses don't get emailed to them. This happens now for all my posts the last month - on this and the cooking forum.

For xp go to the link, scroll down to the Fixit, select the Fixit. Then be sure to lock the task bar in place as the directions instruct Here is a link that might be useful: Fixit link