I don't worry too much about the C/N ratio,(anymore) at least not as much on a small scale, I have composted cardboard all by it self and I have composted cardboard with coffee grounds as my nitrogen source and each seemed to take almost the same amount of time, I noticed that worms loved the little channels in corrugated cardboard so I set up my favorite compost bin: five pallets, one for a "breathable" base and four for the sides, then I loaded the bin with the card board making sure the corrugations were oriented north to south for drainage, this was really cool because the cardboard was a solid but porous mass that I could stand on without it denting under my weight (185 pounds) I topped it all off with approximately 20 gallons of used coffee grounds and watered the whole shabang until everything was uniformly moist, finally I added one five gallon bucket of "finished" compost that was peppered with worms and worm eggs. this was in August or September. My idea was that the corrugated air channels would act as convection vents for air to flow through as well as lil nesting spots for the worms to "live" in. I didn't turn or fluff or aerate this mass at all, I just watered from time to time, Around May or June I took one of the side pallets down and was disapointed when I saw the outermost sheet of cardboard was still intact, then I peeled that away and I saw black gold! I took my shovel and "cut" out a chunk, it had the consistency of peat, but as I tossed it onto my wife's garden it burst apart like brownie crumbs. The only evidence that was ever cardboard were a few "glue snakes" and some staples which were easy to spot and pick out. Don't worry too much about the C/N ratio, because IT ALL LEADS BACK TO COMPOST! IALBTC

I love the idea of using the hair conditioner for shaving legs. I need to try that one. My husband has used dryer sheets in his pockets when he is out camping and it does work to keep the mosquitoes away. Baby oil is great to remove the oil sludge from your skin that you sometimes get down at the beach (and most of us are avoiding many beaches along the Gulf for that very reason!) We found this out last summer when we were down by Corpus Christi and one of my boys had it on his legs. Brunettes - Use soy sauce as a rinse in your hair to enrich the natural color. Comb it through your hair and let it sit for a few minutes, then rinse. I need to add this list of helpful hints link to my favorites so I can pop back and refer to it later. Thanks everyone for posting these great ideas!

I believe that the Exposures catalog has some larger archival-quality boxes. Newspapers, unfortunately, aren't made for the long haul. They get brittle, depending on the ink they fade and I have suspicions about the new "recycled/greener" newsprint. So it's good that you're thinking about hot to store them better so that they'll hold up OK for 10-15 years (my sister puts her kids' stuff in a Staples printer-paper box; not good! LOL!) I think that if there are some very special clippings, you might want to laminate them. Being a journalist, I saved some of my work in the original form for years. And you generally want to keep the newspaper flat, not folded as you see it in the stacks at the store or in the newspaper-vending box. Eventually I got tired of keeping huge boxes under the bed, and having to shlep them in my car everytime I moved (those clips were my resume, so no way would I put them in a moving van!). So I had the clips professionally photocopied and laminated some of the better ones. Also: Have you considered having some of the paper memories scanned and turned into a book via Snapfish/Blurb/Shutterfly/Kodak, etc.? I think you'd LOVE to have one of those for yourself for when (gulp!) the kids are grown and out of the house!

kterlep - someone might have intentionally put that newspaper there. Growing up we used to make "time capsules" all over the house - under carpeting and in various nooks and crannies. There is a closet under the staircase, and when I was younger I realized that the back of the closet did not go all the way to the bottom of the stairs... it ended about halfway. I became obsessed with the idea of opening it up, realizing there was a hollow space there, and rather lenient parents allowed me too. (It was closed with boards, not lathe and plaster.) There were some weird old kitchen tools and some religious pamphlets in there. I don't know why they would have been closed up back there and I think they were intentionally put there. We took the tools to use for decoration in the kitchen but left the pamphlets, along with some newer items. I would wonder if someone found the old newspaper while doing work in your house and then decided to close it up under the carpet as a surprise to be discovered in the future.