Archives for August 2009

5 ways Snow Leopard will help you unclutter your Mac

Snow LeopardDuring some down time in the office yesterday, PJ and I started talking about how excited we are about Snow Leopard’s release in September. From where we sit, it seems to be a major improvement to the Mac operating system. At the end of our talk, we concurred that there are:

5 ways Snow Leopard will help you unclutter your Mac

  1. Snow Leopard occupies roughly half as much disk space as Leopard, so upgrading will free up about 6GB on your hard drive.
  2. Because Snow Leopard supports Exchange right out-of-the-box, you won’t need to run Entourage if you need to access a company Exchange server for mail and calendaring.
  3. Snow Leopard integrates Exposé right into the dock, which lets you more easily keep track of and move between open windows in a particular open application.
  4. Stacks are scrollable in Snow Leopard. You can also navigate through folders in a stack to see the files inside them.
  5. Finder has been completely rewritten, and we’re particularly excited about customizable Spotlight search options, which should make finding files even easier.

Are you like us? Are you looking forward to Snow Leopard? We’re definitely interested in seeing if the reality will live up to the hype. Just a month to go …

The upgrade from Leopard is now available for pre-order from Amazon for only $29. Family upgrade packs for 5 users are also available for $49 if you want to save money and have several Macs in your home.

Posted by Erin on Aug 8, 2009 | 11 Comments | Tweet This

Ask Unclutterer: Mom the mailer

Reader Cate submitted the following to Ask Unclutterer:

My mom cuts articles out of my hometown newspaper and mails them to me. every. single. week! I read the clippings and then toss them into the recycling … She has a computer, internet connection, and email account, but she doesn’t use them. How can I encourage my mom to stop sending me clippings and email me links instead? I haven’t said anything to her. I don’t want to upset her but I hate that she is wasting money and energy mailing me clippings. Where do I start?

The first thing you should figure out is what would your mom do if she didn’t send you these newspaper clips. Would she continue to cut them out and keep them herself or for you the next time you visit? If so, I don’t know if I would put an end to the mailings. You might be a way for her to get rid of clutter from her home. She can justify sending you the clips, but she might not be able to throw them away if she doesn’t send them to you.

If she can easily get rid of clutter, I would have a talk and possible training session with her the next time you visit. Start by asking her why she sends you the clips. Maybe she enjoys the ritual of going to the post office once a week? Maybe her mother mailed her clips after she moved away from home? She’s obviously sending you these clips because she wants to share a part of her life with you, so let her share even more of her life with you.

Introduce the idea of e-mailing you links instead of sending clips and see how she responds. If she’s interested in learning how, sit down with her and show her how to do it. Explain how to search your hometown newspaper’s website, copy links, paste links into an e-mail, and e-mail you the clips.

After returning home, send her a couple of e-mails that contain links from your current city’s newspaper to encourage continued e-mail exchanges. Respond to her e-mails (either with an e-mail or by picking up the phone) so that there is more interaction online than what she was getting by mailing you clips.

Thank you, Cate, for submitting your question for our Ask Unclutterer column. Be sure to check out the comments to see if our readership has additional ideas.

Do you have a question relating to organizing, cleaning, home and office projects, productivity, or any problems you think the Unclutterer team could help you solve? To submit your questions to Ask Unclutterer, go to our contact page and type your question in the content field. Please list the subject of your e-mail as “Ask Unclutterer.” If you feel comfortable sharing images of the spaces that trouble you, let us know about them. The more information we have about your specific issue, the better.

Posted by Erin on Aug 7, 2009 | 77 Comments | Tweet This

Workspace of the Week: Hundevad Secretary

This week’s Workspace of the Week is HundevadFan’s Danish modern disguised desk:

First off, this week’s entry was submitted as a “private” photograph to the Unclutterer flickr pool. This means that I can see it when I’m logged in as the group’s administrator, but there isn’t a public link for me to share with you. I don’t usually link to the “private” photographs (there are hundreds of them, by the way), but this one was so amazing that I wanted to share it with you.

The piece is made of teak, was purchased off eBay, and beautifully hides an entire workspace. The owner stores paper files in the containers underneath the drawer, a printer, and office supplies behind the bottom two doors. The shelves at the top of the unit are adjustable, so the desk’s owner has put them at book and CD height. My only question is where does the Herman Miller chair live when the desk isn’t in use? I’m always curious about where people store the chairs.

Thank you, HundevadFan, for submitting your workspace.

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 Aug 7, 2009 | 16 Comments | Tweet This

Clear bad book clutter from your life and bookshelves

Economist Tyler Cowen talks about the sunk cost fallacy and why continuing to read a bad book is unproductive and a waste of time in the article “Closing the book on a bad read” in the July 24 Washington Times:

“People have this innate view — it comes from friendship and marriage — that commitment is good. Which I agree with,” he says. That view shouldn’t, he says, carry over to inanimate objects.

It’s not that he’s not a voracious reader — he finishes more than a book a day, not including the “partials.” He just wants to make the most of his time.

“We should treat books a little more like we treat TV channels,” he argues. No one has trouble flipping away from a boring series.

Do you have a pile of books on your nightstand that have been lingering for months or years because you can’t seem to bring yourself to finish them? Are your bookshelves filled with books that you plan to get to one day but just can’t muster the energy to slog through them? If so, I vote to abandon the books. Say farewell to the bad to make room for the good.

Posted by Erin on Aug 6, 2009 | 61 Comments | Tweet This

K is for Kittens

I thought you might want a bit of P for Precious motivation to help with your filing:

Thanks to Cute Overload and photographer Mae for spreading this adorable image to the web. Enjoy this soul melting gift as a belated-birthday present to you. Awwwww!

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

Unitasker Wednesday: Cooler Dry

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

Turning a cooler upside down to dry after washing it is so 2008. This is 2009, and you need Cooler Dry:

Sure, you could just flip the cooler’s top open if turning it upside down isn’t your style, but if you did that then you wouldn’t get to buy this unitasker!

Thanks to reader Longstride for introducing us to the Cooler Dry! I got a hearty laugh out of this product, which was a great birthday present.

Posted by Erin on Aug 5, 2009 | 32 Comments | Tweet This

A year ago on Unclutterer

2008

2007

Posted by PJ on Aug 5, 2009 | 6 Comments | Tweet This

Unitasker Wednesday: Perfect Brownie

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

Are you capable of baking brownies, but haven’t yet figured out how to use a knife? I understand. Electric mixers, rubber spatulas, and cracking eggs are easy, but cutting with a knife is unbelievably difficult! Lucky for you, there is now Perfect Brownie — the non-stick baking pan frame, pop-out bottom tray, metal slats, and metal slats guide to do the work for you!

Not convinced? Maybe this video will help:

Oh, hey, it’s my birthday, so you’re getting two Unitasker Wednesday posts today. My gift to you! And thanks to reader Sstasi for passing along this fabulous unitasker to us.

Posted by Erin on Aug 5, 2009 | 46 Comments | Tweet This

How people in the US spend their day

The New York Times has a fascinating set of graphics about how different groups of people in the U.S. spend their time.

The data for the graphics came from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ American Time Use Survey. The people surveyed were over the age of 15 and were asked to record what they did every minute of the day. I am a little surprised by some of the data, but mostly it is to be expected. I’m especially interested in the “household activities” category, as it is probably the most closely tied to uncluttering and cleaning activities.

Americans typically eat lunch between 12:10 and 12:20 p.m. and dinner at 6:10 to 6:40 p.m. What little socializing takes place happens between 5:50 and 8:00 p.m. (and people with advanced degrees appear to do the least amount of socializing in the evenings but the greatest amount of household activities). People without children work the least and socialize the least in comparison to people with children. And, women do more household activities than men.

To check out all the different sets of data, select the words in the chart above the graph:

And to see specific percentages, move your arrow on the top of the graph.

How do you compare to your peers? I definitely play more sports than others in my age bracket (you can only see “sports” labeled on the graph for the category Age 15-24). I think it would be extremely interesting to see how people in other countries spend their time.

(via Lifehacker)

Posted by Erin on Aug 4, 2009 | 20 Comments | Tweet This

In pursuit of the dream docking station

090804-dockMaggie Mason’s recent post on WePC.com “If I Were In Charge: A Docking Station Wishlist” has me thinking about charging stations for electronic devices. For the most part, PC laptop docking/charging stations are unattractive and cumbersome. It’s one of the reasons that I use a second monitor with numerous USB ports instead of a traditional docking station. Maggie describes what she would like to see in these devices in her article:

… I don’t want a mass tangle of wires — there should be individual drawers with gratifying slots for all my gadgets. And like GBear’s idea for a streamlined dockbook, my dream docking station would connect to my laptop via a single, elegant plug.

Simple and clutter-free to the eye, my docking station would also have muscle, with heavy peripherals like DVD burner/player or secondary processor all built directly into the station, which means my laptop can be ultra light, petite, and purse-friendly.

I agree with her ideas and would add that I would also love a back up hard drive dock. What would you like in your dream docking/charging station? Tell us your ideas in the comments.

Posted by Erin on Aug 4, 2009 | 12 Comments | Tweet This

You don’t have to be the best

When I was younger, I studied ballet. By the time high school rolled around, I was spending 16 hours a week at the ballet studio, and that number would easily double when we were getting ready for performances. I wanted to be a prima ballerina and I poured most of my free time into preparing for that goal.

Then one day, I looked in the studio mirror and realized I wasn’t the best dancer in my company. I was technically proficient and extremely graceful, but there were at least two other girls who made me look like I had never taken a dance class in my life. These girls were exquisite, and a part of me knew that I would never be the prima ballerina as long as they were dancing.

So, I quit.

After 13 years of eating, studying, training, and living the life of a ballerina, I walked away from all of it without any notice.

I rarely talk about my time studying ballet because I am embarrassed by how it all ended. I can’t believe that I was so arrogant as to believe that if I wasn’t the best, I wanted nothing to do with it.

What surprises me, though, is how often I turn to this flawed logic. Maybe you do the same thing? I didn’t take up running until my mid-30s because I knew I was a slow runner. It never crossed my mind that I might run for some reason other than winning a race. I never thought about the benefits of the exercise, how good I would feel while running, and that I might love running just for the sake of running. I missed out on decades of running because I wasn’t going to be the best runner. Ugh.

I run into this type of all-or-nothing absolutist thinking a great deal when talking to people about uncluttering. They see it as a dichotomy where a person will either be organized or disorganized. They don’t try to get even a little clutter out of their lives because they can’t get all clutter removed. They know that the prima Unclutterers will always be “better,” so they don’t try at all.

The humbling truth of the matter is that there will always be someone who is better at doing something than you are. Thankfully, uncluttering isn’t a competition and it doesn’t require you to be the best. It doesn’t matter if someone does it better than you do. You don’t get rid of clutter for someone else, you get rid of it for you. Comparing yourself to another person is unnecessary; you only need to look at your life and your needs to decide what is best for you.

Posted by Erin on Aug 3, 2009 | 77 Comments | Tweet This

Promoting simple living

On Friday, reader Martin asked for me to write about my ideas on how to promote simple living to friends, family and others, and I instantly fell in love with this topic. So, I moved a few things around in the schedule to write about it today.

(Before I get too far in, though, I want to say that this post concerns people who don’t live in your house and who are adults. We’ve talked in the past about spreading simple living concepts on to children and how to live with others who aren’t unclutterers. This post is about spreading simple living concepts to people outside your home.)

I wholeheartedly believe that there is only one way to introduce others to simple living:

Lead by example.

If other people see how relaxed you are, how stress-free your home and office are, how clear your life is of clutter, and how focused you are on what is important to you, they will ask you how you do it. When they ask, you can pass along the resources you have found helpful for your life.

You can recommend books, websites (Unclutterer!), workshops, listings for professional organizers (NAPO), and suggestions from your personal experience. Be helpful, but try not to be overwhelming. You don’t want to make the person feel even more stressed than she is already feeling.

In my mind, forcing someone to follow simple living practices is futile. I think that living an uncluttered life is amazing, but it’s a personal choice. As my Quaker friend often proclaims, “let your life speak.”

Posted by Erin on Aug 3, 2009 | 8 Comments | Tweet This

A year ago on Unclutterer

2008

2007

  • Yard sale preparation
    To get our home into order we have decided to have a yard sale.
  • Unclutterer joins the LifeRemix network
    Unclutterer is pleased to announce that it has joined LifeRemix, a network of personal enrichment blogs. LifeRemix blogs explore the topics of productivity, happiness, work and family balance, personal development, and, of course, home and office organization.
  • Bike storage solutions
    There are many storage solutions available that will keep your bike out of the way when it isn’t in use.

Posted by PJ on Aug 2, 2009 | Comments Off | Tweet This

Weekend Project: Your closet floors

This weekend’s project idea is more of a cleaning project than an uncluttering project, but you’ll likely end up doing a bit of uncluttering to be able to do the cleaning. To be able to vacuum and/or sweep the floors of my closets, I have to pull out storage containers and crawl on my hands and knees to reach back into some of the corners. Inevitably, I find something that I didn’t remember was there and I end up clearing a bit of clutter out of my home.

Cleaning the closet floors is not necessarily a fun project, so I only do it once or twice a year (most of my house guests aren’t inspecting the floors of my closets, thankfully). But, it helps to keep dust mites under control and reduce allergens.

If you’re looking for a weekend project that usually takes less than an hour, join me in cleaning your closet floors. They are definitely a forgotten space and can use some attention if it has been a while since you last attended to them. Happy sweeping!

Posted by Erin on Aug 1, 2009 | 6 Comments | Tweet This