HELPFUL HINTS

— DEAR HELOISE: Being a (now retired) military family, we always have kept a computer inventory and backup file, by room, withdigital photos and a scanned copy of the purchase price and date of all of our belongings in case of loss in a move, a house fire orburglary. Owners manuals and receipts were stored in a file cabinet.

Sounds pretty organized, doesn’t it? Well, our water heater died, and we had a heck of a time finding the owners manual (too many “filing systems”) with the actual receipt and warranty information.

As a result, I pulled all the file folders that could possibly contain this information, put the owners manuals, warranty information and receipts for each item in separate selfsealing plastic bags and taped them to the appropriate appliance in an inconspicuous but accessible location. I did the same for the lawn and garden equipment.

I always kept the boxes for my small appliances for storage and shipping, and the appropriate information is now safely bagged and stored with each small appliance.

- L.W., Colorado Springs, Colo.

DEAR HELOISE: My husband and I take several driving trips a year and have found the following hints very helpful:

Keep a list on your computer of everything you want to take with you and print it out when packing. Then check things off as you pack, and you won’t forget anything.

Take books that are on tapes or CDs to listen to. It’s amazing how much shorter the drive seems when listening to a good book.

My husband and I each take a different major credit card so that if I were to lose my purse or he should lose his wallet, we still would have a credit card.

- P.W. of Ohio Send a money- or time-saving hint to Heloise, P.O. Box 795000, San Antonio, Texas 78279-5000; fax to (210) 435-6473; or e-mail

[email protected]

MovieStyle, Pages 34 on 07/30/2010

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