Tips for staying active while watching TV

Dear Heloise: Here are a few things I do while watching television when the commercials come on. I try to move around or do a few quick chores:

■ Stand up and march in place or walk around.

■ Complete a series of arm, body or leg exercises for each commercial.

■ Dust end tables and the bookshelf.

■ Sort clean laundry to fold or hang up.

■ Vacuum one area of the den thoroughly.

Bottom line is I try to be active during commercials, not just stay like a lump on the couch. Our den stays pretty clean, and it’s one less room I need to worry about.

Love it! I call this “TVCT,” or television cleaning time! It’s amazing how loooong some commercial breaks can be.

I can get a lot done just watching one movie. Dust, sort newspapers and magazines, vacuum the upholstery and drapes, pop into the kitchen and empty the dishwasher or load it, or pick up the dogs’ food bowls and clean them.

Hints for things you can use to store small items:

■ Pill bottles

■ Small breath- mint tins ■ Plastic film canisters ( if you can still find these.)

■ Small, plastic chocolate- candy containers

■ Small jars such as spice, mushroom or pimento.

Don’t throw out the silica- gel packs that are in products such as shoes, medicine bottles or anything else where moisture needs to be absorbed.

Use them near items that can be ruined by moisture. Place them in boxes holding photos or old letters.

Heloise Note: If you save them, be sure to place them in a sealed container and out of reach of “tiny” hands or pets.

Freeze small portions of soup in muffin tins. Place a freezer bag in a tin, then pour a serving in each bag and freeze. Once frozen, pull the soup out and store the frozen bags. Saves space. I needed insoles in a pinch. So I grabbed an old mouse pad. They are easy to trim to fit my shoes, and are comfortable and cushy. Rubber on the bottom means they don’t slip around. in Illinois

Dear Heloise: We are getting a new patio set, but the chair pads in the old set are in pretty decent shape — they just faded.

I thought that the dogs could use these cushions as beds when out on the patio. The outdoor fabric stands up to the weather, and the cushions are still fluffy.

All I had to do was snip off the ties so nobody would get tangled in them.

Fort Wayne, Ind.