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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.

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Speaker 1: This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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Speaker 1: tip is that if you often use a set of

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Speaker 1: items together, keep them together. These kits can help you

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Speaker 1: feel more organized and ready to go on any given project.

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Speaker 1: Today's tip comes from a listener named Carolyn, who heard

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Speaker 1: my recent advice that it makes sense to prepare a

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Speaker 1: check for mailing right after writing it so things don't

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Speaker 1: linger in limbo. Carolyn wrote me that she keeps her

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Speaker 1: check book in a little tub with stamps, envelopes, an

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Speaker 1: address book, and address labels. She called this her bill

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Speaker 1: paying kit. Carolyn also has a makeup kit, a cross

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Speaker 1: stitching supplies kit, a kit for her dog's pills that

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Speaker 1: also contains a soft treat to hide them in, and

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Speaker 1: even a kit to hold the three cereals she combines

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Speaker 1: each morning for her breakfast. I love this idea of

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Speaker 1: creating kits for things you use together. Some things in

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Speaker 1: life serve multiple purposes, but some really don't. And chances

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Speaker 1: are if you are putting on concealer, you are also

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Speaker 1: putting on your mascara, so it makes sense to store

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Speaker 1: them together. And if you ever move to a different

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Speaker 1: place to put on your makeup, You'll want to keep

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Speaker 1: those things together in the process of moving them. A

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Speaker 1: makeup kit serves that purpose. Likewise, if you cross stitch

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Speaker 1: like Carolyn, you're always going to use the same supplies

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Speaker 1: to gather. But you might want to cross ditch in

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Speaker 1: the living room or in your bedroom, or maybe on

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Speaker 1: the porch if weather is nice. So it makes sense

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Speaker 1: to keep everything together in one movable container. Maybe you

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Speaker 1: can think of other kits that would help keep you organized.

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Speaker 1: Before I hired a cleaning service, I had a little

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Speaker 1: caddy for a toilet brush, cleaning spray, and paper towels

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Speaker 1: that I carried around to my various bathrooms. Our dog

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Speaker 1: has a little overnight bag with a particular leash and

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Speaker 1: his special food that goes with him to the dog

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Speaker 1: sitters when he stays there. After a few unfortunate times

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Speaker 1: of dashing around the house to find athletic equipment, we

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Speaker 1: almost universally store the kid's stuff for each sport in

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Speaker 1: its own bag. If something leaves the bag to go

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Speaker 1: get washed, it must go back in immediately afterwards. Now

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Speaker 1: I am not saying that a bathroom cleaning kit makes

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Speaker 1: cleaning the bathrooms any more fun, but it does lower

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Speaker 1: the transaction costs of starting the project. That is particularly

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Speaker 1: helpful for fun projects that are less likely to happen

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Speaker 1: if you do have to do a lot of hunting.

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Speaker 1: If working on your cross stitch project involves finding the

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Speaker 1: floss in one drawer, a scissors somewhere else, and then

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Speaker 1: finding the pattern where you left it upstairs and hauling

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Speaker 1: all of this down to the first floor where the

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Speaker 1: light is better, you might give up or get distracted

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Speaker 1: somewhere in the middle. If everything is all together, the

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Speaker 1: fun is much more likely to happen. One last thing

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Speaker 1: you might have noticed. I mentioned scissors in that last kit,

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Speaker 1: and scissors have plenty of uses, so buy a few pairs,

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Speaker 1: keep one somewhere you can grab for lots of things.

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Speaker 1: But if you use scissors a lot for a specific project,

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Speaker 1: you might want to put it in its own kit.

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Speaker 1: The time and frustration you save in hunting will likely

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Speaker 1: pay for the extra expense. So what kind of kits

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Speaker 1: will you create? I'd love to hear about them. You

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Speaker 1: can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.

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Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening and

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Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for

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Speaker 1: listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,

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Speaker 1: you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.

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Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts

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Speaker 1: from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

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Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.