Comments on: Cheater cheater

By: Christine

Christine — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 19:31:38 +0000

One of the things that visitors to my apartment love, and always remark on, is the ceramic-and-chrome “guest towel tray” I repurposed to collect an edited arrangement of skin care products and toiletries (glass bottles from Origins and little jars of Sephora make the cut; the less lovely things are hidden). It brings a seriously 1930s Hollywood starlet-style glam to the back of the toilet!

Another bathroom-shelf fixture is my little black box: a hinged leather storage box meant to hold 24 compact disks, but inside of which I actually keep, um, girl-supplies hidden in plain sight.

By: Alex Fayle | Someday Syndrome

Alex Fayle | Someday Syndrome — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 11:04:39 +0000

I think the point of the article is not to say “live a cluttered life and just make it look kinda pretty.” I think it was more about “if you need to tidy up quickly and you have too much stuff lying about in the moment, here are some ways to make it look intentional.” Over the long term stacks of books or overcrowded trays are impractical, but if you’re in a pinch, they’re great ideas.

Or at least that’s what I got out of it…

By: George

George — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 13:07:26 +0000

I’m loving the bathroom tray idea. I’ve always found that, if you also have to like to cheat like me (Husband is a hoarder) then hiding things in boxes on in trays automatically means it looker neater

By: Tania

Tania — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 04:27:16 +0000

I enjoyed that article and I do a few of the things it mentioned, including the stacked book/magazine trick. For some of us, neat does not equal minimal. I’m not so much with the Tray idea, tho. Random crap on surface areas is an issue button for me.

But OMG I am DEVASTATED (well, in that non-critical kind of devastation way) to hear that Domino is going under. Ugh!

By: Amanda @ www.kiddio.org

Amanda @ www.kiddio.org — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 20:34:30 +0000

As a bit of a cheater, I’m split on this. I’m awesome about rearranging my messy papers into piles, but they’re still not taken care of, are occupying space in my brain, and, when it comes down to it, are still an eyesore. Stacks of books, okay, I guess, but arranging on trays seems like a way to corral the clutter into a single, more clutter-filled space.

So sad about Domino. Blueprint, Domino, Wondertime. Sad.

Best,
Amanda

By: timgray

timgray — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 18:04:59 +0000

Ack yuck. Stacks = lazy. All those books and a simple run to the cost plus world market will give you a nice bookshelf that looks great and NOT CLUTTERED.

Trays full of junk also is not “neat” it’s busy, hard to find anything and your bathroom full of trays of stuff is no better than a counter full of stuff. you’re simply adding an extra item to the pile of stuff.

you cant fix a hole by digging another hole.

By: Sky

Sky — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 09:38:32 +0000

Just looks like neat piles of clutter to me

By: Sarah

Sarah — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 00:59:15 +0000

I do something similar with my desk at work, now that I come to think of it. I square up my pile of reports that I’m working on and put a very decorative paperweight or plant in a pretty cachepot on top. It’s only a moment’s work to page through the pile when I need a particular printout or memo, and my desk looks quite decorative.

By: hmr

hmr — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 21:29:51 +0000

Perhaps the upside down “Dali” book is from a European publishing company. I have noticed that some Euro companies title the bindings of their books in the exact opposite way of most American (and British) publishers. I have had a few of these books on my shelf, and it always looks a bit funny, but I can find the volume really fast.

That said, I think both of these tips are great. I do keep a pile of magazines in my living room. I tend to have the last three months of magazines in active rotation, so maybe a paperweight or other objet d’art could prove that the magazines are meant to be there, not just waiting for some further action.

By: chaotic kitten

chaotic kitten — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 18:51:31 +0000

I love those tips! Anything that can make piles look better is welcome

By: Ginger

Ginger — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 17:22:27 +0000

I think the commenters who have given these ideas a thumbs down overlooked the author’s intent. The article says they are for “tidying up in a hurry” and not permanent solutions. Shedding unneeded books is smart, but if you have a pile of them on the coffee table temporarily and company is coming, stacking them on a side table and topping the stacks with trinkets makes you look like less of a slob. Same with the bathroom tray idea–it takes less than a minute to take all the clutter you use on a daily basis and group it into something pleasant to look at instead of haphazardly cramming things into drawers that are probably already full.

By: Another Deb

Another Deb — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 17:09:01 +0000

If you have pets, the stacks of books are in danger of being tipped over, rubbed over or scaled and launched off.

To me, a stack of books gives me the same feeling of non-accomplishment as a pile of ungraded papers. It’s a sense of “what has to be done with these? I don’t even have time to shelve them, much less read them.”

By: RoaringSilence

RoaringSilence — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 15:34:18 +0000

Apart from not looking very pretty, the stacks of books are certainly very impractical when you’re trying to get to one of the books on the bottom.

This is more a solution for storing books you never read.

By: Jessica @ThriveYourTribe

Jessica @ThriveYourTribe — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 04:18:29 +0000

I think lots of books make a space look cozy and lived in, so I love the idea of stacking them intentionally. I tend to have multiple books I’m reading at once, so there’s always a pile of 2-3 books on the coffee table. I might just have to put something pretty on the stack and see if that makes it look more intentional . Then again, my coffee table is right by a bookcase–so I usually just move the books over quickly when I’m straightening up at the end of the day.

By: Karl B

Karl B — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 22:31:36 +0000

I think the large stacks of books looks cluttered and lazy. Go buy a bookshelf, or clean them up. They make a room visually busy and remove any opportunity for it to feel calm. Putting stuff on top of the pile makes it look more like a junk heap than before.

Plus, if you are too lazy to edit your books and magazines, how many other piles of junk are sitting around the house or office? Get rid of the stuff you don’t use. If you have that many books you need to hang on to, go get a Kindle.

Finally, go check out http://www.magazinedeathpool.com and keep up with which magazines are going out of print.