Make a Worry List

Photo: 365 Health and Happiness Boosters by M.J. Ryan

Take a tip from M.J. Ryan, and boost your happiness by creating a worry list.  Just put your pen to paper and write down any and all worries that come to mind until you have flushed them all out.  It really is incredibly effective.

M.J. suggests rating your worries from a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the extreme so that you can gain perspective on your everyday worries.  I also found it helpful to write down what I could do to mitigate my concerns.  For example, one of my greatest worries is dying before I get to do all the big things I wanted to do in life so I created a Bucket List (i.e., a list of all the things I want to do before I die).  The years are still flying by and it does not change the fact that tomorrow is not guaranteed, but the bucket list does give me something to actively work on. 

Track Down Lost Money

You may have unclaimed property waiting to be returned to you!  Below are some sources to help you start your search:

State-held Money.  State treasuries hold unclaimed property from uncashed dividend checks, returned utility deposits, uncollected insurance benefits and more.  Visit the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA) at http://unclaimed.org/ and click on your state to start tracking down possible unclaimed money.

Old U.S. Savings Bonds.  Visit www.treasuryhunt.gov to start searching for old U.S. Savings bonds.  There are billions of dollars in old savings bonds that have stopped earning interest, but have not been cashed.

Missing IRS Tax Refunds.  If you have not received a tax refund check, you can search for it by using the IRS's Where's My Refund? tool at www.irs.gov.

Other.  For some other possible sources of unclaimed money, please check http://www.usa.gov/Citizen/Topics/Government-Unclaimed-Money.shtml.

DIY Cardboard Christmas Lights Organizer

Don't throw away those Christmas boxes just yet.  You can tear down a couple and turn them into inexpensive Christmas lights organizers.   

Materials:

• Scissors
• Pen or Marker
• Rectangles cut from cardboard boxes

Directions:

Fig. A

Fig. B

Fig. C

1. Use the scissors to cut the box along the creases.  You should end up with several rectangular pieces.
2. Then use the scissors to make about of 1 inch long cuts at points 1 and 2 (See Fig A).
3. Then insert one end of the wire in slot 1 (See Fig B).  Then start wrapping the Christmas lights around the cardboard working yourself from left to right.  Make sure you leave about 2 inches of space from the edge (See point 3 in Fig A).
4. After you are done hook the end in point 2 (See Fig A). 
5. Now label point number 2 with "Unwind Starting Here" and at point 4 you can label the Christmas light description.  For example, "Christmas Tree Lights, 1 of 2."
6. Store lights away in a container for next year!