patty cakes, I have my stuff all over, but I plan on changing that when the weather gets warmer, I plan on putting a simple (but sturdy!!!)shelving system on my garage wall. I like having catagories stored together for example: all glass all crystal (crystal and china, WILL stay in the house though because of wild outdoor temperature fluxations) by color by object (vases, stands, decortive bowls etc) I keep different inexpensive flatware settings in clear shoe boxes- they stack nicely and I can see them thur the plastic Expensive flatware is in 2 wood, felt lined flatware "boxes" these stay in the house. Linens: Cloth napkins: store right now in a set of plastic drawers in closet, by color, I have alot of cloth napkins, they add greatly to the look, plus I DO actually use them for every meal. Table cloths: they are hung on hangers ment pants, not the clip type but the "fold over the bar type" Right now my good china is in part of my small linen closet in the hall way, but I need more room, I may retro fit a large sliding door closet in one of my extra bedrooms to incorporate them. A bunch of my crystal and glass small accessories is stored in an under the bed container, some is wrapped in tissue. TIP: wrap valuable christmas ornaments in Microwave Safe Bounty paper towels (I get mine at Walmart but I am sure they have it in other grocery stores), they are acid free, so they will not "outgas" and ruin your ornaments. If you are wrapping true linen (or any other valuable cloth), you will also want acid free tissue paper.. Storing dishes is easier, since they can be stacked to a point, never stack more than 8 china dishes on each other, you can stress the plates if you "overstack". Stemware does take up a lot of room, but because I love it and my particular "living situation" I can put it in more places than some of you. I find I don't have to buy as much as you would think, I own basic colors that are interchangeable for many "looks", but that's another Post.

I saw these on QVC. They are called BurglaBar 6-piece Silent Entry Security Set Item # V22466 They are for sliding glass doors as well as doublehung windows. You get a set of 6. Basically, a BurglaBar is a small rectangle of incredibly strong clear lucite plastic. It adheres to your window (or sliding glass door). It has a part that flips up or down. In the down position you can open your window. In the up position it blocks the window from moving. You can even place them on the window so that you can open your window only a few inches but no more than that (for people who want to have a little fresh air but don't want anyone to enter thru the window). It is hard to explain what they are and the photos on QVC. com don't really help, but you can go to QVC.com and read about the product. Read the reviews of it too. If you buy something from QVC and don't like it, you can send it back for a full refund within 30 days, no questions asked. I have done the drilling a hole for a nail thing too, as other posters have suggested. It works but is not very attractive. I even painted the nails white to match the window frame to try to improve the appearance of it. What I found was that you have to align both sashes perfectly while you are drilling the hole. SO if your sashes are kind of old and crooked like mine, have someone tightly hold the window closed while you are drilling.

Their food, like virtually every family-style chain: Chile's, Olive Garden, Boston Market, Red Lobster, TGI Fridays, Ruby Tuesday, Panera's etc., is almost absurdly over-salted even for people following the "normal" sodium levels , e.g 1500 mg/day. For those trying go lower for health reasons the pickings are pretty slim at Chili's. The salt is there to: a) increase profits from beverage sales, b) overcome/disguise the pre-mixed, pre-seasoned, highly processed "fresh"-ish cuisine and sauces, and c)to cater to the majority of people who have gotten accustomed to very high sodium levels in their food. Can't completely blame restaurants and the food industry for trying to follow their customers' preferences, except that it's sort of a chicken or egg thing. Processed food whether eaten at home or in restaurants needs extra salt to overcome flavor lost along the way, and to ameliorate condition and texture changes happening during the long food chain. But the result is that peoples' taste and tolerance for salty food is unfavorably altered and it reinforces itself, to no good health effect for anyone. Some of these chains are less willing to try and prepare, ad hoc, meals with low sodium on request. It's simple: re-rinsing the "fresh" cooked vegetables to remove pre-seasonings, including salt added to make them look greener longer during dinner service, and scraping grills to prepare specially rinsed chicken breasts, chops, fish, etc. and then grilling or broiling without seasonings or added fats. A few are grumpy, more than few almost make you sign a waiver that you know the food will be "tasteless" as one manager recently put it to us. But one chain stands out, and I want give a shout out to it because of that: Ruby Tuesday. If you go there you will find that it's apparently a corporate policy to accomodate, gracefully and cheerfuly, dietary requests to remove seasonings. Of course many menu items (soups, biscuits, pasta's with sauces, etc.) can not be prepared w/o added salt since they arrive processed at the restaurant. But they have always been very accomodating about veggies, chicken breasts, etc., and the salad bar offers many acceptable options. (I have no connection to RT other than gratitude when I spot one when traveling and hungry. I know we can get a predictably low sodium, heart-healthy meal, even if without high-foodie-chic, or even local cuisine.) L.

Timely topic! We live in a wooded area with lots of oaks and maples and stone walls and gardens. Consequently there are many chipmunks. They have nested in my car's cabin air filter and have even hung out in the cabin. Their scat resembles that of other small rodents, but the acorns in the nest is sort of a giveaway. I have cleaned the vehicle and replaced the air filter on more than one occasion. I recently did that, and the chipmunk/s is back again. I had saved a dead, dried out, cool, large benign insect (to photograph) in a small cup that I set in the center cup holder bin. It was very DEAD. A few days later when using my car, GONE! Mr. Chippy took it. So, once again I must go through the cleaning, sanitizing and replacement of the cabin air filter. Grrr. It goes without saying that rodent poop, like the scat of most wild animals, is nothing to mess around with. Rodents can harbor parasites and diseases. I spent a while perusing online for solutions to this common problem. I read about a lot of purported solutions, most of which are ineffective or problematic (dryer tissues, scents, gizmos and gadgets, and, heaven forbid, poisons -- NO!). There is no way to "exterminate" every chipmunk, even if I wanted to. Our home is in a conservation area, for one, and there are hundred of nut and seed producing trees. One year a small weasel showed up and had a talk with a lot of the chipmunks. Weasel was t seen this year. I am going to have to clean out the garage from inherited furniture, replace the rodent chewed garage door gasket, and keep the car or cars in the concrete bunker garage. Meanwhile, I will try to remember not to have any snacks, even food, taco wrappers in the car. No eating and no crumbs. No ketchup packets in the glove compartment. I will look into installing some wire mesh physical barrier around the air intake and the cabin air filter. Not as easy as it might sound. Here, below, is the only promising approach I can across online. It is from a viewer's comment on a YouTube video and I will include it here for the purpose of discussion. Seems like a lot of effort. (Note: anyone trying to install a mesh barrier wants to be sure that they don't end up choking off outside air supplie to their engine of something important.) ~~~~ The only way you can stop the mice from getting into the Cabin air filter in a Toyota Corolla is to place 1/4" square wire mesh (buy from Home Depot), in a small roll, ( its called "1/4 x 1/4 Welded Hardware Mesh" ) over the openings where the air goes into the car's cabin. I own a 2008 Corolla and I raised up the front hood, then removed the passenger side plastic cover that is at the base of the window, and that gave me access to the air intake holes. Guess what: Toyota made it all but impossible to actually get your hands into that space where the air intake is. They put another beam in front of the intake, about 1.5" in front of it. I cut 2 strips of mesh, each one 2.5" wide, (one set 5" long, another one 6.5" long), and I used 1/2' dia SUPER-MAGNETS to hold the wire mesh strips into place while I used 'Goop' glue (from Walmart) to glue those mesh strips securely into place. The magnets 'PUSH' the mesh onto the metal of the car itself, so the mesh has to be placed between the car and the magnets. I just left the magnets behind on the 2.5" wide mesh strips. For the 2 mesh strips on the left hole; I had to glue the magnets onto the strips first, then let the glue dry, and then push the strips in with the magnets securely fastened to the strips, because the magnet at the far end is so far into the body work of the car that its impossible to actually get your finger into that space to place the magnets once the screens are pushed into the proper place. As if this was not hard enough, Toyota placed a bar in the middle of the air intake hole, so you have to cut the screen covers into 2 halves, one half for the left hole (using 2 6.5" long strips) and one half for the right hole (using 2 5" long strips). Because the holes in the beam covering the air intake are only 2.5" high, that means the strips of mesh you insert cannot be more than 2.5" high. But what you REALLY need is a screen 4.5" high, the only problem is you cannot actually get a screen that wide into that space because the holes in the beam in front of the intake are smaller in size, that's why you have to insert 2 strips of screen, each 2.5" high. Yes, Toyota has really fu*ked up big time with this design ! First you place one 2.5" mesh strip over the hole, so it covers the lower half of the air intake hole. Then you take the second 2.5" mesh strip and place it over the hole, raising it upwards so it covers the upper half of the air intake hole. When you push it up it is pushed up and almost out of sight, so you have to do everything by feel, and using a small mirror to see what's happening. Doing all of this is an all-day job. But once you are finished there is no way in Hell any mouse is going to get through that wire mesh. The problem is that there are so many OTHER places around the car for those mice to build nests in, so just covering up the access to the ventilation system will just push them to build a nest somewhere else instead. But at least the insides of your car won't smell bad anymore. ---- Was a comment on the video below. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=O9JruyHm89g