2009 January | Unclutterer

Archives for January 2009

Unitasker Wednesday: Paw plunger

paw-plunger All Unitasker Wednesday posts are jokes — we don’t want you to buy these items, we want you to laugh at their ridiculousness. Enjoy!

Having a dog guarantees certain things in one’s home. Hair being vacuumed nearly every other day, collecting chew toys from around the house, and having to clean off paws before entering the house are among these guarantees.

Apparently, someone has become tired of only wiping their dog’s paws, so they decided to introduce the Paw Plunger to the dog-owning public. The “invention” looks like a coffee mug that you fill with water. It also employs the help of soft deep-cleaning bristles to clean off the dirty paws. And, since your dog’s paws are wet after being plunged into the device, you still have to wipe down your dog’s feet afterward to dry them.

For all the times that I used to wipe off my parent’s black lab’s paws with a towel, I never imagined a better way to do such a chore. It was hard enough to hold the black lab still long enough to wipe her paws. Wrestling with her to get each paw into a liquid-filled Paw Plunger probably would have been a nightmare.

Thanks to reader Christine for bringing this unitasker to our attention.

Posted by Matt on Jan 7, 2009 | 33 Comments | Tweet This

Book review: The Power of Less

Leo Babauta, who writes the inspiring blog ZenHabits.net, has taken his productivity and efficiency advice to the printed page in his new book The Power of Less. Published by Hyperion, it is a 170-page guide to shedding the non-essential elements from your life and work so that you can do and achieve more.

His advice is based on six principles, two of which are initially discussed on pages 5 and 6 of his book:

Principle 1: By setting limitations, we must choose the essential. So in everything you do, learn to set limitations.

Principle 2: By choosing the essential, we create great impact with minimal resources. Always choose the essential to maximize your time and energy.

He uses the analogy of the haiku to illustrate these principles:

The haiku, as you may know, is usually a nature-related poem of just seventeen syllables, written in three lines (five syllables, then seven, then five). A poet writing a haiku must work with those limitations, must express an entire idea or image in only that number of syllables … He can quickly whip out seventeen syllables and have a completed haiku in a short amount of time; or he can carefully choose only the essential words and images needed to convey his idea. And this second choice is what creates some of the most powerful poetry in such a limited form — choosing only the essential.

He has four other principles, but these first two are really the heart of his system. In my opinion, he accurately explains that if you are going to be productive and efficient in all that you do, you have to make choices. You cannot do everything that comes your way, and you have to make difficult decisions about what filters into your life and what doesn’t.

On page 23 he aptly summarizes why you would want to adopt his system:

Simplifying isn’t meant to leave your life empty — it’s meant to leave space in your life for what you really want to do.

I completely agree with his message, and I think it will resonate well with most Unclutterer readers. If you are looking for sound advice on how to improve your productivity, The Power of Less will help you to be more efficient in all your dealings.

You can also check out Leo’s free eBook Thriving on Less: Simplifying in a tough economy, his audio tips for focusing on one task at a time, and participate in his New Year’s Challenge forum. Finally, if you missed it, check out Leo’s guest post on Unclutterer “Creating a minimalist workspace.”

Posted by Erin on Jan 7, 2009 | 16 Comments | Tweet This

Winner announced for time management seminar with Julie Morgenstern

Thank you to EVERYONE who participated in the Julie Morgenstern online seminar giveaway. We never expected to have 270 entries for a time management seminar!!

At 10:00 EST this morning, I closed the comments and counted up the entries (and deleted 19 entries that were spam). Then, I headed over to the Random Integer Generator at random.org and entered in the data:

Out popped the following numbers:

#110: Michele
#40: Anita

I have contacted the winners and they will be receiving additional information from The Knowledge Economy about their participation in the online seminar. Congratulations to our winners!

If you were like me and weren’t one of the winners, you can still participate in the online seminar, you just need to pay the $20.00 admission fee. You can register for the event through the Knowledge Economy website. I’m pretty certain that I’m going to sign up, so we can be in the seminar together!

Posted by Erin on Jan 6, 2009 | 3 Comments | Tweet This

Happy birthday to us!

Today marks the second anniversary of the first Unclutterer post. On this day in 2007, all this uncluttered blogging began.

Thank you, to all of our readers, for making the past two years an incredible adventure. We look forward to the next year of Unclutterer!

Posted by Erin on Jan 6, 2009 | 15 Comments | Tweet This

Stay at My Home

The home without a guest room or sleeping arrangements for guests is a bit annoying when friends or family come to stay the night. What does one do? A sleeping bag isn’t the most welcoming solution, but the Stay at My Home by Designasyl can be a little more accommodating for your guests.

The Stay at My Home is the thesis project of graduates Designasyl so it isn’t available for purchase just yet. The compact sleeping solution includes a mattress, removable drawer, lamp, and carpet, and is stored in and around a side table when not in use. A similar “guest room” could be constructed with comparable items, using a small, rollable futon mattress.

For more photos of this great design go to Dezeen’s post on the Stay at My Home.

(via Dezeen)

Posted by Matt on Jan 6, 2009 | 17 Comments | Tweet This

Desk by Jarl Fernaeus

Here is an interesting prototype desk that was entered into the European design competition Prix Emile Hermés. The desk designed by Swedish designer Jarl Fernaeus includes an integrated lamp, charging station, and storage compartments.

The stool/desk combo features some very useful compartments that can cut down on wire clutter and it also has some great solutions for storage. Storage areas are tucked away in a sleek desk drawer and in the stool.

For final specs on the prototype see the Jarl Fernaeus website.

(via Apartment Therapy)

Posted by Matt on Jan 5, 2009 | 7 Comments | Tweet This

Win a time management seminar with Julie Morgenstern

On January 13, author and organizing guru Julie Morgenstern is going to be giving an online seminar through The Knowledge Economy website. The two-hour seminar, “Time Management for the New Year,” starts at 6:45 p.m. EST/3:45 p.m. PST and tickets are $20.00 if you wish to participate.

The Knowledge Economy knows that we are big fans of Julie Morgenstern, and they have kindly given us two free tickets to give away to Unclutterer readers for the event. If you are someone who could benefit from sage time management advice and are available to participate in the seminar on January 13, then you should definitely enter to win this contest!

To enter for a chance to win, simply leave a comment to this post indicating that you want to participate in the drawing. Tomorrow, January 6, 2009, at 10:00 a.m. EST, I will enter the number of comments into the Random Integer Generator at random.org and select a random winner. Good luck!

Warning: If you leave a comment to this post that isn’t an entry, I will delete it. Nothing personal, I just don’t want to select a winner for the seminar who isn’t interested in participating in the giveaway.

Posted by Erin on Jan 5, 2009 | 271 Comments | Tweet This

A year ago on Unclutterer

Posted by PJ on Jan 4, 2009 | 1 Comment | Tweet This

December 2008 wrap up

We’re a little late on this one, but let’s take a few moments to remember some of the things that made December 2008 a great month at Unclutterer.com.

December’s most popular posts:

Additional highlights:

Unclutterer participated in RealSimple.com’s Holiday Blogathon
Erin was interviewed on BBC Radio
We had another fun Unclutterer Gift Giving Guide that we hope helped some of you survive the season with your sanity intact
More than 1,760 people have joined our Unclutterer flickr group. There are 880 photos uploaded to the group, and we look forward to seeing your additions!

Posted by Erin on Jan 3, 2009 | 1 Comment | Tweet This

My 2009 New Year’s Resolution: E-mail

I fall into the camp of people who set one resolution a year. My idea is that if I only have one resolution it is a lot more likely to be achieved. I have other goals and projects in my life, a continuous stream of things to do, but really only one major change I want to make about myself.

When selecting a resolution, I start by identifying the things in my life that cause me the greatest amount of stress. Work is always on my stress list, but I enjoy (in a loose sense) the stress my work creates. I love my job — running Unclutterer.com is very rewarding — so the stress associated with it isn’t something I want to change. A few items also creep onto my stress list that I can’t control, which means I can’t make resolutions about them. These uncontrollable stresses include things like my 99-year-old grandmother’s ailing health.

At the top of my list of stressors that I can change is e-mail. No matter which system I implement to handle e-mail, it fails within two months of use. I’ve tried every system you’ve ever heard of to manage e-mail, and it doesn’t work for me over the long term. I’ll go on vacation or have to be away from my computer for a conference and that is always the point where the system starts to lose its edge. From that disturbance, the whole method breaks down and collapses.

This year, I resolve to get e-mail under control.

Now that I’ve decided on the resolution, I’ll review the post Making your resolutions a reality. These tips helped me achieve my 2008 Resolution: Laundry, and I know they’ll get me on track with e-mail this year.

What area of your life is the most cluttered or in need of organizing? Have you made a resolution to get it under control in 2009? Let us know about your plans in the comments section.

Posted by Erin on Jan 2, 2009 | 36 Comments | Tweet This

Workspace of the Week: Tidy twofer

This week’s Workspace of the Week is Seahill’s two-person office:

It isn’t easy to share an office with someone (I know, I do it), and it is even more difficult to keep a shared space clean and tidy. What I like about this office is that it is apparent two people use the desks on a regular basis and keep it orderly. If you study the images, you’ll see a number of great ideas for organizing an office. Also, be sure to check out the additional photos in the flickr set. Thank you, Seahill, for the submission.

Want to have your own workspace featured in Workspace of the Week? Submit a picture to the Unclutterer flickr pool. Check it out because we have a nice little community brewing there. Also, don’t forget that workspaces aren’t just desks. If you’re a cook, it’s a kitchen; if you’re a carpenter, it’s your workbench.

Posted by Erin on Jan 2, 2009 | 6 Comments | Tweet This

Unclutterer on BBC Radio

Earlier this week, in the hubbub of the holiday, I forgot to let all of you know that I would be appearing on BBC Radio. Do not fret, however! The show I was interviewed for, Pods and Blogs with Jamillah Knowles, on the Five Live station, still can be found online.

My segment is only a few minutes long and occurs just before the middle of the program. The whole show is terrific, so, if you have half an hour, I recommend giving it a listen. I talk about how I stopped being a clutterbug and give advice on how to backup sentimental data.

Enjoy!

Posted by Erin on Jan 1, 2009 | 5 Comments | Tweet This