12/27/09

Use old egg cartons to keep delicate holiday ornaments protected and safely stashed away. Place one ornament in each compartment and close it up. Put the cartons into airtight storage boxes (along with your holiday lights) and nestle them away for next year's festivities.

12/26/09

The Day-After-Christmas Tip: Ripped-up gift-wrap can become useful gift filler for future gifts or when shipping fragile items in the mail. Just run sheets of gift wrap through a paper shredder (this might be an after-hours office project for you), and save it in a large, old shopping bag. Tip: Shred perfume advertisements found in magazines and add them to the mix to scent your shredded filler.

12/25/09

Toss your old candy canes and other holiday hard candy treats into a clean coffee grinder. Pulverize the candy until it becomes a powdered sugar; spoon it into coffee, hot chocolate or on top of vanilla ice cream for a yummy treat. Try butterscotch candies, too, for a delicious custom powdered sugar. Christmas may be coming to an end, but the sugary treats can live on.