Archives for September 2009

Organizing for convenience

When putting items away in cupboards, closets, drawers, or cabinets, it’s best to put those things that you use the most often in the easiest places to reach. This seems obvious, but even in my kitchen I’ve recently found that I wasn’t following this principle in all of my cupboards.

I had wine glasses on the first shelf of my cupboard and coffee mugs on the third shelf. I might have wine a few nights a week with dinner, but every morning I have coffee without fail. I switched up the contents on the two shelves and love the convenience.

Check your linen closets, your drawers at work, and your clothes dressers to make sure you’ve organized your supplies for easy access. If you’re standing when you access these spaces, you want those things you need most often to be between shoulder and knee height. If you’re sitting when you access these spaces, you want those things you need most often to be reachable without standing up or bending over.

Posted by Erin on Sep 8, 2009 | 13 Comments | Tweet This

On holiday

The Unclutterer team is off celebrating Labor Day today. We’ll return tomorrow with regular postings. If you’re in the U.S., we hope that you’re also enjoying this day off from work.

Posted by Erin on Sep 7, 2009 | 4 Comments | Tweet This

A year ago on Unclutterer

2008

2007

Posted by PJ on Sep 6, 2009 | Comments Off | Tweet This

Handling change and being a little organized in the process

I am still on cloud nine since our little man joined our family last week. He is happy, healthy, and beautiful. We have spent most of the past two weeks in a hotel room half-way across the country from where we live. It took 10 days to receive permission through the ICPC to travel home, and on Thursday we were finally back to normal.

A lot has changed in the past two weeks — all of it very welcome change — but still a schedule upheaval. Students, teachers, and others going through major life changes are also experiencing similar schedule changes right now. Whenever these types of changes happen, I recommend the following to help handle the change but being (a bit) organized in the process:

  • Relax your standards, at least temporarily. While you’re adjusting to the new schedule, it’s okay to let things slide a bit. You don’t have to be at the top of your game from the word “go.”
  • Minimize. Get rid of the unnecessary things in your schedule and only focus on the most important tasks at hand. Many people also find that they go through an uncluttering of stuff during this time. Do whatever works best for you.
  • Sleep. Change of any kind can be physically and mentally taxing, so be sure to sleep.
  • Lean on others. You don’t have to go through this change without help. Whether it’s a supervisor at work who can provide guidance for a new job, a babysitter who can come over and watch your baby for a few hours while you sleep, or a therapist with whom you can talk through your situation, it’s okay to turn to others. You’re less likely to feel like you’re on a sinking ship if you turn to others for support.
  • Plan, as best as you can. You can’t predict everything, but mentally prepare for your new schedule. Even if what you predict is wrong, it’s fine. The simple act of envisioning the future will help you prepare for whatever does happen.
  • Learn from your failures. If something isn’t working, adapt, adjust, and tinker until you make it to smoother waters.

How do you plan for and handle change? Sound off in the comments.

Posted by Erin on Sep 5, 2009 | 18 Comments | Tweet This

Ask Unclutterer: Too much storage space

Reader Marci submitted the following to Ask Unclutterer:

I am a fanatic unclutterer. Our kitchen is very organized. But we actually have too much storage space (tons and tons of drawers and cabinets). What should I do with these empty drawers?

My first instinct is to tell you to leave them empty. Think of them as Drawers of Possibility. At some point in the future you may take up a new cooking hobby or decide to use them for things not cooking related at all — and you’ll have the room to grow.

Have you wanted to learn to can your own vegetables? If you have, now you have the space to store the equipment. Have you wanted to learn to make amazing cakes like Duff on Ace of Cakes? Now you have space to store your supplies.

You could use them for paper files or get a puppy and store dog food in them. The possibilities are endless, and you will know what to use them for when those opportunities arise. Enjoy them as simply Drawers of Possibility in the present.

By the way, I am really envious of your situation. My two kitchen drawers are not cutting it right now. Also, check out the comments where readers will give you even more ideas for your storage space.

Thank you, Marci, for submitting your question for our Ask Unclutterer column.

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 Sep 4, 2009 | 32 Comments | Tweet This

Workspace of the Week: Highly functional home office suite

This week’s Workspace of the Week is KatieScrapbookLady’s home office/craft room/homeschool room/scrapbook room/sewing room/creative space:

Katie wrote that she and her two children spend a great amount of time in this space, and it certainly looks to be extremely useful. The full set of office photos shows her highly organized closet storage system, her personal workspace in the office, and detailed photographs of the entire room. I’m impressed and inspired by how well this room functions. Thank you, KatieScrapbookLady, for submitting your amazing photograph to our pool.

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 Sep 4, 2009 | 32 Comments | Tweet This

Organized doesn’t have to be new and shiny

My friend Kendra has two children under the age of five. They have a lot of toys, and those toys have a lot of parts. Her daughter’s dolls have small shoes and hair accessories and her son’s LEGO bricks and toy cars easily get lost in a giant toy box. The smaller pieces sift like sand to the bottom of the toy box and are difficult to retrieve without pouring all the contents of the toy box onto the floor.

To solve this dilemma, Kendra repurposed an antique kitchen cupboard to fit her children’s modern toy storage needs. Using smaller boxes for specific types of toys, now the kids can keep all their doll items in one bin and all the LEGO bricks in another.

Kendra also has turned an antique dining room sideboard into a charging station by her front door. She drilled a hole in the back of one of the drawers using a 1/4″ drill bit, ran all of her charging adapters through the hole to a power strip underneath the sideboard, and now has one central drawer to charge her PDA and cell phone.

Using the same drill bit, she converted another antique sideboard into an entertainment center that hides all of the cables for her television, DVR, cable box, and DVD player.

To be organized in your home, you don’t have to purchase the latest piece of furniture from a current designer. Find the piece that suits your needs and work with it.

Posted by Erin on Sep 3, 2009 | 25 Comments | Tweet This

Are you prepared?

September is National Preparedness Month and it’s a great time to make sure you are organized for emergencies.

Do you have a first aid kit assembled? Are your favorite photographs digitized and saved securely online? Do you have a fire escape route for your home and office? Does your family have local and out-of-area meet-up plans in case you ever get separated in an evacuation? If not, now is the time to get organized.

The Homeland Security and FEMA website Ready.gov has additional tips for getting your home and business prepared for an emergency. Also, sound off in the comments about ways your family has prepared and organized for emergencies. The more information we share, the more prepared all of us can be.

Posted by Erin on Sep 3, 2009 | 13 Comments | Tweet This

Unitasker Wednesday: Thumbthing

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

It’s the Thumbthing! It does the same thing your thumb does, but with thin pink plastic!

Instead of bending your thumb so that the knuckle rests on the right-hand page and the tip of your thumb rests on the left-hand page (or vice versa if you’re left handed), now you just stick the Thumbthing on your thumb and it does the tedious work for you!

(Anyone else thinking Daffy Duck would be the perfect spokesduck for this product? No? Just me?)

The product’s FAQ page tells us all we need to know about the Thumbthing:

What is so great about the Thumbthing?
There is nothing else like it, it is beautifully designed, and it is so simple to use. It fits neatly onto your THUMB like a ring and does not clip onto the book at all! This means turning the page is as simple as ever. And of course it makes reading more comfortable and much much cooler!

That’s right, “much much cooler.” Thanks to reader Pippi for tipping us on to this week’s awesome unitasker.

Posted by Erin on Sep 2, 2009 | 57 Comments | Tweet This

A year ago on Unclutterer

2008

  • August 2008 wrap up
    These are the things that made August 2008 an incredible month at Unclutterer.
  • Do you have the messiest master bedroom in America?
    Are you the owner of the messiest master bedroom in America? If so, the Oprah Winfrey Show wants to help.
  • 8-in-1 mini tool
    The SwissTech Micro-Plus features the following eight tools: #1 flat screwdriver, #2 flat screwdriver, #1 phillips screwdriver, #2 phillips screwdriver, precision pliers, wire cutters, wire strippers, and a sheet shear.
  • Clean your inbox
    Stop using your inbox as a permanent folder and get moving with your action items.

2007

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

Are you shopping for chaos?

Professional organizer extraordinaire Monica Ricci returns to Unclutterer to offer us advice on curbing shopaholic practices. You can follow Monica on Twitter, Facebook, and her blog for more organizing tips.

Ahhhhh, the siren song of the mall. Doesn’t it feel nice at the mall? Isn’t it pretty in the mall? Doesn’t the mall smell all yummy and delicious, thanks to Auntie Anne’s Pretzels and Cinnabon? Doesn’t being at the mall just make you wanna get a Starbucks latte and go buy stuff? AAAARGGGHH STOP IT! That’s what got you in trouble in the first place!

If your clutter issues stem chiefly from shopping, here are a few helpful tips to change that reality so you can conquer your clutter once and for all.

  1. Be aware of how you feel. If you use shopping, and specifically BUYING to alter your mood, notice it! If buying something new gives you an emotional high that temporarily takes you away from your troubles, makes you feel safe, worthy, loved, or gives you some other rush, it’s important to be aware of it. Once you’re aware of why you’re buying, you can take other steps to make yourself feel better besides buying. I would recommend a few sessions with a counselor, a hypnotist, or therapist to get to the root of your buying.
  2. Imagine yourself at home. When you’re OUT of your cluttered home and inside the gorgeous four walls of Pottery Barn or Crate & Barrel, it’s easy to forget how stressed your home makes you. Again, that’s the idea. They WANT you to forget about your house and just open your wallet. And listen, when you really need something, great. Go buy it! But before you do, vividly imagine yourself back at your house with your new “thing”. Where in your already cluttered home will your new thing live? Who will clean it? How much space will it consume? What will it give you back? How long will it be valuable? Asking yourself these questions will help you make better buying decisions.
  3. Calculate the TIME cost. If money isn’t a motivator for you, and unnecessary spending doesn’t inspire you to reduce your shopping, think of how much TIME your new “thing” will cost you. Let’s say you make $20 per hour, and your new “thing” costs $100. In time currency, your new thing will cost you FIVE HOURS of your life. Thinking of new purchases in this way will help you decide if you REALLY need it or if you just want it to make yourself feel better.

The next time you’re out shopping, try these simple tips and see if it doesn’t help shift your shopping mindset so you can make better, more powerful choices and reduce the clutter in your life.

Posted by Monica on Sep 2, 2009 | 11 Comments | Tweet This

Setting goals when you don’t know what you want

Today, Ali Hale has a wonderful post on goal setting over on the blog Dumb Little Man. The post, “How to Set Goals When You Have No Idea What You Want,” talks about how to set goals for the less-ambitious things in life.

We’ve written in the past about how determining what matters to you most is an important aspect of uncluttering. Not only does focusing on what matters most to you keep up your motivation, but it also helps you to decide priorities for your time, energy, money, and space. “How to Set Goals When You Have No Idea What You Want” is a great resource for getting you thinking about the day-to-day things that are important to you.

A “goal” is simply something which you’d like to do or achieve. It could be buying a house or a car, yes, but it could also be something which might matter to no-one in the world except you — perhaps your goal is to learn to bake cakes as good as the ones your grandma used to make.

Goals aren’t things that you feel you “should” do, and any good life coach will steer you away from goals that have been imposed upon you by other people.

Spend 15, 20, or 60 minutes working on determining what matters most to you. Uncluttering will be easier and more productive when you know why you’re simplifying your life.

Posted by Erin on Sep 1, 2009 | 3 Comments | Tweet This

Letting go of sentimental clutter

Journalist Kara Morrison’s article “8 tips on how to declutter and let go of sentimental items” for The Arizona Republic on August 5 included great advice for people struggling with memorabilia clutter. A number of the tips really struck home with me and made me think, “why don’t I do that?”

One ah-ha tip from the article:

8. Correspondence and documents: There’s no way you can hang on to every Christmas card or letter. McGivney suggests treating holiday cards like kids’ art. Keep only the best. Then make a holiday album you store with the seasonal decor to remember great holidays past.

Morrison interviewed Julie Hall, author of The Boomer Burden: Dealing with Your Parents’ Lifetime Accumulation of Stuff, for the sixth decluttering tip. In this section, Hall provides a very practical definition for how to decide what is clutter and what isn’t:

“Keep the stuff that really, really means something to you, and let the rest go,” Hall said.

“Really, really means something to you” isn’t a scientific definition by any account, but it is one that all of us can relate to our lives. I call this the Cry Factor — if losing it in a disaster would make me cry, I don’t get rid of it.

Posted by Erin on Sep 1, 2009 | 40 Comments | Tweet This