UsedEverywhere.com

Congratulations and Thank you!

OK – this will be my last mention of the Goodlife Fitness Marathon.  I just want to congratulate all of you who got involved - those who broke personal records, those who finished feeling on top of the world and those who finished in a world of hurt or tried and simply couldn’t finish.

I also want to thank all you who passed by the Used angels in our halos at Fisherman’s wharf and shared your joy, pride and enthusiasm with us.  It started as a stinky day for me, disappointed that I wasn’t able to run, but in no time I was caught up in your adrenaline and energy and it ended as a fantastic day.  We had so much fun cheering you all on – there were hugs, waves,  victory dances, kisses and even a couple of marriage proposals sent our way.  One older man pointed at his head (indicating my halo) and said “I’m not ready to go yet, but maybe you should  meet me at the finish”.  He made my day.  Check out this short video clip of us.

So I have been thinking about what to write about from now on and I have a new idea for the next few weeks.  For those of you who have been following my posts, you know I am putting my spare time to purging and organizing my house.  Well I’m going to take it a step further and put the money made from the sale of my old things to a good use and donate the proceeds to charity.  Leveraging the buying and selling of goods on-line to also support community and charity is an idea we have been kicking around at the Used office for sometime so here’s my plan to kick it off:

1. Collect up all the stuff I don’t want anymore – that goes for the whole family – kids included
2. Post everything on UsedVictoria for what I think is a fair and reasonable asking price.  Everyone who buys something from me and pays the asking price will get one of our highly sought after reusable shopping bags!
3. Give all money made from these sales to support Kidsport.  This is a fantastic charity that subsidises activities for kids who many not otherwise be able to play.  I got the opportunity to volunteer with the Victoria chapter at the kids’ run last weekend and I’m hooked.  Check out their website at http://www.kidsportvictoria.ca/index.shtml

I tried to sell items once before and donate proceeds to charity, but I wasn’t successful.  I posted my Grandmother’s wardrobe (as in clothes) on Used and I didn’t sell any.  I think this was because my ad read something like this

“My Grandmother’s entire wardrobe for sale - beautiful classic pieces in silks and wools.  All brand name and in excellent condition – some barely worn.  Would suit older petite lady.  All proceeds going to BC Cancer Society”

I think that people connected the dots that these clothes belonged to my now deceased grandmother and maybe were a little creeped out to wear a dead lady’s clothes.  Fair enough – no clothes of dead people this time…just household items that we don’t use anymore.

I’ll let you know if this experiment works and maybe we can start a trend.  I figure this is not only a good way to clear out my garage and cellar, but I also get to give money to a great cause and I’ll get to hand Canada Revenue a little thing called a tax receipt, which always gives me great pleasure.

So, I’ll be posting all my stuff at http://kidsportcharity.usedvictoria.com/ so keep checking back as I add more treasures to my list.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

6 Useful Steps to Make a Ballot Box

It seems that everyone likes to collect something. Politicians collect votes, businesses collect money, researches collect data, and old women collect cats*. So, there comes a time in everyone’s life when they accumulate enough of a particular collectible that a container is needed. Enter: this tutorial. I needed a box to collect donations for SingStar (think iTunes/Karaoke), but after following these useful steps, you will have a box that is perfect for collecting just about anything, from money to macadamia nuts.

*Do not attempt to place cats in this ballot box

Materials Needed:

• Starbucks Coffee Box
• 1 piece of cardboard or construction paper
• Ruler
• X-Acto Knife
• Adhesive Tape
• Slick design templates (courtesy of us) and a touch of creativity!

Step 1: Empy, Open and Prepare

If you acquired your coffee box through traditional channels (ie: purchased at your local Starbucks for $12) then there will likely still be a silver bag of joe inside. Open up your box, pull the bag out, and place it in the recycling. Also, before you do anything further, grab your piece of cardboard/construction paper and place it on your work surface. We don’t want track marks on our table now do we!

Step 2: Trim Around the Edges

Flip your box upside down and slice off the handles of the box on each side with your ruler and knife. Cut off an additional centimeter or two past the handles (you’ll see why in a second).

As demonstrated by Andrea, the talented UsedEverywhere.com graphic designer and hand model, the handles were cut off in such a way that they do not block the slits in the lid.

Step 3: The Closer

Fold in the handles first and then close the front and back flaps. Then, slap a few slabs of adhesive on there to prevent it from popping open. Don’t worry about what the box looks like yet, we’ll be covering this up later.

Step 4: Slice n’ Dice

Grab our design templates and have your way with them in your favorite image editor. Then print them off and slice them around the edges.

Step 5: The Tricky Part

Assuming you used our templates and printed on 8.5×11 paper, your design won’t quite reach the top of the box (see below: excess paper on left and not enough coverage on the right). Slice off a corner of the top left side. You will use this to fill the void space on the right uppermost corners. Check out the pictures for more on this process.

Make a few helpful tape loops and place them on the bottom corners of each side. Then, starting with the base of your designs, stick them to the box and fold the top of your design paper over the lid. Make sure to leave the lid design for last.

Step 6: Finishing Touches

Place your top design on the lid and grab that X-Acto Knife. Neatly slice down the center and your ballot box is complete!

Hope your lemonade stand is mega successful!

Thanksgiving wishes

Just a quick reminder that this weekend is the GoodLife Fitness Victoria Marathon so pull out your pom-poms and get out there and cheer everyone on!! Go to http://www.runvictoriamarathon.com/ to check out race routes or watch them cross the finish line on live streaming video on UsedVictoria.com.   The Used team will be there helping out at the kids’ race and cheering people on as they pass Fisherman’s Wharf.  Let’s hope the rain holds off!

I’ve had lots of time to think in the weeks spent on the couch icing my knee and feeling sorry for myself – wishing that I could run or garden or even get on my hands and knees and scrub the floor.  Never thought I’d be wishing I could scrub floors.  Everyone around me has been helping and doing the things that I can’t;  I am very thankful for that.  But I am most thankful that a bum knee is all I have to be sorry about.  So as Thanksgiving nears, I can’t help but get those warm and fuzzy feelings inside for all the things I’m thankful for and remind myself that I have everything.  Literally.  Yes, I know we all wish we had more money or less debt, thicker hair or thinner thighs.  But are those things really that important?

I have also come to the conclusion that I need to make more of a difference somehow, someway.  I’m not talking necessarily about acts of charity; I’m talking about acts of significance.  On the most basic level it’s about doing something that makes a positive difference in someone’s day, however small.  It’s so simple.  Hold the door open for someone.  Thank the person who holds the door open for you.  Help someone carry their groceries.  Give the 15 cents to the kid in line at the store who doesn’t have enough money for ice cream.  Kiss your kids.  Kiss your spouse.  Kiss your dog.  Call your Grandma.  And when the bank teller/grocery clerk/barista says “Hi. How are you today” ask her how she’s doing and mean it.   It’s easy and a kind word or a thoughtful act does make a difference.

And one more thing.  Even if you only do it because it’s Thanksgiving weekend, when you strike your next Used deal, ask yourself who needs the deal more.  Sell the kid your old used bike for $10 less than you want to because you know he can’t afford a penny more.  That $10 might not mean anything to you but that bike might mean the world to that kid.

The Useful Podcast #1

Take three avid UsedEverywhere users, who also happen to work for UsedEverywhere; throw them into a room together and what do you get? A lot of insight.

This will be the first of a monthly podcast series to talk about everything from buying to selling, and everything in between. We’ll be raising some of the questions you post in the comments below in our next podcast. Click on the purple play button below!

What’s Next? Sharing.

As of today, we’ve launch a small update. When you’ve completed the process and preview your ad, we’ve added a dialogue box that allows you to easily email your friends, share your ad on facebook or, tweet it out to your followers.

Here’s what it looks like:

Upcoming Events in October

Looking for something to do this month? How about a chance to get your hands (or head, rather) on a UsedEverywhere halo? Here’s your monthly reminder of community events in October that we’re interested in.

GoodLife Fitness Victoria Marathon

On Sunday, October 10th over 13,000 people from 20 countries around the world will flock to Victoria for 31st annual GoodLife Fitness Victoria Marathon! We’ll be at the Fisherman’s Wharf cheering station adorned in angel gear, giving out such swag, running behind the kiddies in the Thrifty Foods Kids Run & Marathon (our abilities to keep up in the adult marathon were vehemently doubted), and streaming the entire event LIVE! It is on Thanksgiving weekend, so if you can’t make it out we’ll be your eyes in the crowd. You can find the stream on www.runvictoriamarathon.com or on our very own UStream Channel. See you there!

VIREB Professional Development Day

UsedNanaimo.com staff will attend and sponsor the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board’s Professional Development Day from 9am to 3pm. We will be at the booth chatting with local Realtors and giving out free stuff!

UsedEverywhere.com Events Calendar (sneak peak!)

Shhh! We haven’t made a big deal about our new calendar page yet, but those interested in our upcoming events can keep an eye on it at www.usedeverywhere.com/events. All of the Used team’s antics will be posted there ahead of time, you can set your watch by it.