Here are some things I do around the house to make life easier.

Plastic bags: Use plastic bags to organize small stuff like the cords, remote, and manual for the TV or VCR. Also good for holding all the software and backup discs for your computer together. I also have bags holding greeting cards to be sent, news clippings and mementos, and my receipts and documentation for the current tax year.

I use a lot of ziploc bags when I travel, not just the required quart size for the 3 oz liquids, but for socks and underwear, and stuff that might leak in my suitcase.

Gallon Ziploc bags are a good size, but sometimes they aren't big enough for a loaf of homemade bread or a batch of pan rolls. I ordered some bakery bags over the Internet that are a little larger and have side gussets so they expand. I find more uses for them every day, not just for breads, but to hold my balls of yarn sorted by color and I put all my stored linens in them in case mice get in the drawers as they sometimes do.

At the same time I ordered some plastic zipper seal bags that were less expensive than Ziplocs but about the same size. They are more economical for organizing stuff that doesn't require such heavy-duty protection.

Buying in Bulk: We buy 25 pound and 50 pound sacks of flour and sugar. The sugar is for the hummingbirds because they go through about a pound and a half of sugar a day. We pour it from the big bags into Tupperware containers. It's easiest to do if you put the container in the kitchen sink so any spills go in the sink and it's lower than the counter top so a little easier to hit the target.

I buy large economy-size packages of meat like hot dogs and pork chops. Once home I line a cookie sheet with plastic wrap and lay the meat out on it in a layer. Then I freeze it and put the pieces into Ziploc bags (for this I use the real Ziploc freezer bags) and take out just what I need for thawing. If you've got more than one layer, separate them with the plastic wrap.

Stuck on Food: Put some dishwasher powder in your warm soaking water and baked on cheese or grease will soak right off in a few hours or overnight. Also works for tea or coffee stains in your mugs.

Cooking Dried Beans: Soak in salt water, drain it off and rinse the beans before cooking in unsalted water. Don't add acid ingredients such as tomatoes and don't add more salt until the beans are tender, then add those ingredients.

Laundry: Shake your wet clothes out before putting them in the dryer; they'll dry faster.

Cleaning Walls: Oven cleaner works really well on most surfaces. It is the only thing we found to remove a thick coating of nicotine in a rental house. I'm not sure that I would use it on metal without testing first. Don't breathe it in, open the windows, but it sure works. Prevention is better than the cure: once you've cleaned and repainted don't let people smoke in your house.

Brown Paper Bags: They may be politically incorrect, but those heavy brown paper bags had a lot of uses. You would put your chicken pieces and seasoned flour in them to shake up and thereby distribute the flour evenly. To reheat rolls or biscuits you put them in a brown paper bag, sprinkled the outside with water, and stuck it in the oven. Apple pies get baked in the large brown bags for a certain even-ness of crust browning and the juices stay in the bag. You can take the bag apart and have a good sturdy wrapping paper for boxes to be mailed. To ripen green tomatoes, you put then in a brown bag, roll the top shut, and leave for a day or so. They are good for soaking up grease from fried foods, and make a sturdy protective cover for counters and tabletops for craft projects. They are handy for stacking old newspapers in or holding garbage or other trash, and most of all, cats love playing in them. Pretty soon we won't be able to get brown 'sacks' anywhere so I'm going to buy a bundle at Sam's Club while I still can.