Jessica's Friday Five: the shoe organizer that isn't for shoes

Hi Reader,

I hope you're headed into whatever kind of weekend you most need. I'm looking forward to watching football with my husband and kids (it's a big part of fall for us) and sneaking in some episodes of my daughter's and my favorite new show (Only Murders in the Building - thanks for the rec, Mariah!).

Before we get to your Friday Five - I know it isn’t the holiday season yet, but wouldn’t it be lovely to enter that time of year with family activities ready, gifts organized, and a few cozy moments already planned? If you answered “yes” to that, the Countdown to Cozy Bundle would be perfect for you (and in it you can get one of my normally paid products for free!).

1. Organizing your travel supplies: My husband had a brilliant idea a few years ago, and it's worked great for us ever since. He put a shoe organizer (this one, specifically) on the back of our hall closet door. Inside, it holds various things that we bring with us when we travel. So when we are packing up for a trip, we can easily see everything and grab what makes sense for that trip (we'll always grab things like our charging cables and portable sound machine, but only sometimes might we grab the plastic shoe covers we loved for wet rides at a theme park or the rechargeable hand warmers that are great if we'll be in a cold place outside for a length of time while on a given trip).
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2. Thrive Market’s September sale: Get 25% off their already amazing prices, but the sale ends tomorrow, so don't wait too long. I discovered this company this past spring, and I'm such a big fan because it saves us so much compared to regular grocery prices (which makes the membership at ~$5/month very worth it IMO). If you use my friend link to join Thrive Market today, you’ll get $30 off your first 2 orders + a free gift (and I confirmed that this stacks with the September sale)!
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3. Your local library might have free access to Ancestry.com: If you'd like to spend a few hours learning more about your roots, you may be able to use ancestry.com through your library to do so. A fellow Friday Fiver (thanks, Melinda!) shared that her library in Utah offers it, and I went and confirmed that my local library does too. Gosh, aren't libraries the best?!
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4. This is sure to put a smile on your kiddo’s face: I learned a few weekends ago on a trip with friends that there's a guy on Spotify who has made songs with hundreds of first names and then the word "poop". It's ridiculous. If you have any young people in your life, I recommend doing what I did - finding the song with their name + poop and then playing it without warning. Nearly guaranteed to generate a laugh.
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5. Magical Athlete game: This is the most fun family game we have ever played. We basically don't put it away anymore since we play it so often. If you want to hear about these little faves from me a bit more often, come join this special list where you'll get allllll the faves.

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Last Friday's Most-Clicked Link: My new fave shirt from Etsy.