Where to 'recycle' old magazines

Dear Heloise: Need a home for all those magazines, calendars and wrapping paper sent as inducements to contribute to charities?

Once a week, I cut our address label off all the magazines and drop them off, along with any other little appropriate freebies, at a local assisted-living nursing home. This way, the residents have current magazines to read. Many of them or the staff also put the wrapping paper to good use. —Pat Dougherty, Dunnellon, Fla.

This is a nice way to recycle items that still have a good use, and it is a "heart hint" as well. Please call first to be sure a facility can use your gifts. —Heloise

Send a great hint to:

Heloise

P.O. Box 795000

San Antonio, TX 78279-5000

Fax: 210-HELOISE

E-mail: Heloise@Heloise.com

Small key chains are handy as zipper pulls — here are a couple of suggestions on what to use them for:

• purse

• luggage

• jacket

• light pull

Dear Heloise: I put a plastic foam cooler with a frozen block of ice substitute in my car for transporting frozen foods and meats home in the hot, hot summertime. —Mima of Missouri

Dear Heloise: Several months ago, I bought a throw rug for my hallway. When I went back to the same store to buy another one, I found that a rug with a similar pattern had been introduced, and I could not remember which one I had originally purchased.

Using my digital camera, I took a picture of my rug, printed it using my computer, took the picture to the store and matched it to the same rug. Fast, easy, accurate and very inexpensive. —Kathleen A. Pleasant, Washington, D.C.

Dear Heloise: My husband and I seem to always get a lot of business cards, and I don't like to throw them away. I like to have them handy and close by. I discovered that if you buy a three-ring binder and baseball-card sleeves, this works well to keep them organized and is very inexpensive. You can buy baseball-card sleeves where school supplies are sold, next to the dividers and page protectors, for only a couple of dollars. —Jen in Texas