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1. Take the Starbucks coffee sampler you got last Xmas and put the remaining foil packs of coffee in the fridge.

2. Open up the book-type fold-out box and arrange eight eyeglasses cases in two neat rows.

3. Voila, no more rooting in the cat toy box when you want to find a particular pair. But you will need more boxes of that exact size.

How To Make A Bigger Earring Box

Materials: One obsessive-compulsive personality; one large Royce Collection tin; lots of earrings, including hoops

Procedure:

1. Cheer the fact that Royce the chocolate company has opened a store in Manila.

2. Get worried that you will spend a fortune on Royce chocolates and put on weight.

3. Head off the problem through aversion therapy. Buy the big sampler box with all the chocolates and finish it by yourself as quickly as possible. There, you feel woozy from having ingested so much chocolate and sugar. Naughty, naughty. You now associate chocolate with wooziness and guilt.

Congratulations, you have taken positive, drastic action. If you still have the overwhelming urge to consume Royce chocolates, you obviously need a stronger dose of aversion therapy. Repeat step 3.

4. Give the empty tins to your friend who has lots of earrings. Remember not to throw away the plastic dividers! See, the compartments are big enough for giant hoop earrings.

My worst subject was not high school Chemistry, but Work Education in grade school. I could not crochet a doily to save my life. I did not have the patience or the hand-to-eye coordination to make cute little household objects like potholders or coasters. However, I scored well in those tests where you figure out what stuff fits in which shape. It is a handy skill, especially if one is lazy.

Project #1 : How To Make An Earring Box

Materials: One 300g box of Ferrero Rocher chocolate-covered hazelnuts, or any similar candy packaging; 24 pairs of earrings

Procedure:

1. Eat all the chocolate-covered hazelnuts. Try not to finish them all in one sitting. Take one out of the box, then put the box back in the fridge. Eat the piece slowly. Then walk around and try to convince yourself not to have another piece. 

Congratulate yourself on your restraint. Eat another piece. Repeat process over the next few days. 

2. When the box is empty, put the earrings in the vacant cups where the candy used to be. Praise self for resourcefulness and for saving environment through recycling.

Earrings, L-R. Top row: Carnival masks from Venice, radioactive sign from Lourdes, unmatched dog earrings, cats from Bali, cross, miniature pencils from Barcelona, Imelda earrings with dangling shoes by Happy David, shells from New Delhi, handcuffs from Paris, Zeta Reticulans, bugs from NY Museum of Natural History, sunglasses from Amsterdam, pinwheels from Seoul, green globes on sticks from Prague, fishbones from Hong Kong, cameras from Bangkok, safety pins, razor blade from Divisoria, fish from Seoul, barbed wire and daggers from Rome, black globes with loops from Prague, square cutouts from Amsterdam, vaguely Isengardian silver earrings, assorted stones on chains. Most of them were given to me by friends. None of them cost more than $10, except the Isengardian pair that I bought myself one Xmas, and the barbed wire earrings.