Archives for November 2009

Unitasker Wednesday: USB-Powered Hamster Wheel

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

The list of unitaskers available for your computer’s USB ports just got a little bit longer thanks to the extremely necessary USB-powered Hamster Wheel:

Now, you can waste away electrical energy by simply plugging in this “pet” to your computer. And, it’s not just a form of entertainment, it makes a political statement by telling your boss that you believe your work is like a hamster in a wheel, going nowhere. Wow, it’s not a unitasker after all!

Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that the Hamster Wheel is currently being sold in the U.S. Those of us in the states will simply have to settle for the AAA battery version. (A version, I might add, that specifically claims it is NOT safe for children.)

Thanks to reader Enestor19 for bringing this unitasker to our attention.

Posted by Erin on Nov 18, 2009 | 18 Comments | Tweet This

A year ago on Unclutterer

2008

  • The old new is the new old
    If you have furniture items in your home that are clutter because they’re not being used, think about transforming the piece yourself or maybe selling it to a company that transforms furniture — your clutter can become someone else’s treasure.
  • Thanksgiving buffet
    Our Thanksgiving dinners are usually served in a buffet style. This makes the whole process run smoothly and keeps the table free of serving dishes.
  • Unclutter your refrigerator before Thanksgiving
    My wife calls the process of clearing out the ingredients available in the refrigerator as “creative cooking.”
  • Remember the Milk: Now with iPhone and Gmail integration
    Remember the Milk now has integration with the iPhone, iTouch, and Gmail, in addition to its existing Twitter integration, makes this a go-to program for all GTD enthusiasts.

2007

Posted by PJ on Nov 18, 2009 | Comments Off | Tweet This

The reasons for lists

Italian author Umberto Eco was interviewed last week by the German publication Spiegel. The interview ‘We Like Lists Because We Don’t Want to Die’ discusses Eco’s recent involvement with curating an exhibition at the Louvre in Paris. The exhibition, as the title of the interview suggests, is all about lists.

I think that many unclutterers rely on lists — to-do lists, home inventories, calendars, project management timelines — to stay organized. Personally, lists keep me from worrying about forgetting things. I’d rather think about things I’m passionate about instead of having a constant stream of to-dos bouncing around in my brain.

Eco’s thoughts about lists are much more esoteric than mine. I found his interview on the subject matter to be thought-provoking and worth reading. From the interview:

Umberto Eco: The list is the origin of culture. It’s part of the history of art and literature. What does culture want? To make infinity comprehensible. It also wants to create order — not always, but often. And how, as a human being, does one face infinity? How does one attempt to grasp the incomprehensible? Through lists, through catalogs, through collections in museums and through encyclopedias and dictionaries. There is an allure to enumerating how many women Don Giovanni slept with: It was 2,063, at least according to Mozart’s librettist, Lorenzo da Ponte. We also have completely practical lists — the shopping list, the will, the menu — that are also cultural achievements in their own right.

From later in the interview:

Eco: … We have always been fascinated by infinite space, by the endless stars and by galaxies upon galaxies. How does a person feel when looking at the sky? He thinks that he doesn’t have enough tongues to describe what he sees. Nevertheless, people have never stopping describing the sky, simply listing what they see. Lovers are in the same position. They experience a deficiency of language, a lack of words to express their feelings. But do lovers ever stop trying to do so? They create lists: Your eyes are so beautiful, and so is your mouth, and your collarbone … One could go into great detail.

SPIEGEL: Why do we waste so much time trying to complete things that can’t be realistically completed?

Eco: We have a limit, a very discouraging, humiliating limit: death. That’s why we like all the things that we assume have no limits and, therefore, no end. It’s a way of escaping thoughts about death. We like lists because we don’t want to die.

What do you think of Eco’s thoughts on lists? Anyone else surprised by his statements or conclusions? Share your reactions in the comments.

(Thanks go to David Allen and Marginal Revolution for bringing this article to our attention. Image of Umberto Eco from the article.)

Posted by Erin on Nov 18, 2009 | 27 Comments | Tweet This

On the Forums: old t-shirts, personal information managers and childrens’ artwork

There’s already a few very interesting discussions underway on the new Unclutterer Forums that launched this morning:

Be sure to check it out. Remember, you can start your own thread (which our system calls a “topic”) by clicking the “Add New” link under Latest Discussions on the Forum homepage.

Posted by PJ on Nov 17, 2009 | 1 Comment | Tweet This

Introducing the Unclutterer Forums

Unclutterer ForumsDuring the period between when I had finished writing Unclutter Your Life in One Week and its printing, I came up with the idea of creating an online community for people to discuss their progress, share pictures and ideas, and respond to what they had read in the book. The Unclutterer team scheduled a planning meeting to put the idea into action — and then my husband and I got the call that we were becoming parents. Thoughts of this new community were replaced with everything baby, baby, baby.

Once life found a new “normal,” the Unclutterer team resumed talks of this new online community.

While we were taking a break from the project, PJ came up with the idea to expand the community to all Unclutterer readers. It was such an obvious idea that we were all instantly on board. So, instead of building a forum just for book readers, we made a new community for anyone interested in talking about uncluttering, organizing, and the book.

The Unclutterer Forums are now open to anyone who wants to register for them. We have created a few basic discussion categories, but we want you to feel welcome to start new discussions and go wherever the conversation leads you. Do you want to discuss the state of your garage but don’t see it as a topic? By all means, create a Garage topic under Living Spaces! We knew we could never predict all the things you would want to discuss, so please build on the basics we’ve started.

A good place to start is the “Welcome” discussion, where you can tell us about who you are and why you are uncluttering and organizing things in your life. Once you’ve said hello, check out the other discussions and become active in the community.

I want to specifically thank Brian and PJ for all of their hard work putting together the technical aspects of this project. I truly love how the Forums have the look and feel of the blog and appreciate all the work done by everyone on our team at Dancing Mammoth. They’re an amazing group of programmers and I highly recommend them to anyone looking for web developers.

Now, go register and join in the Unclutterer Forums fun!

Posted by Erin on Nov 17, 2009 | 21 Comments | Tweet This

Uncluttering a London museum

The University College London’s museums are purging most of their 250,000 items in their collection. They plan to donate a good portion of it to other museums, but they might also trash the objects not worth keeping.

To decide which objects to keep and which objects to purge, the museum is asking the public to weigh in on the process.

From a Time magazine article about the purge:

Consider the boring old picnic basket known as the “Agatha Christie basket,” which contains fragments of pottery of unknown origins. If it had belonged to the author, as its nickname would suggest, it would undoubtedly be a keeper; however, it turns out it belonged to her second husband’s second wife, and the university has no idea under what circumstances it was donated. Or what about a giant rhinoceros skull? Is that worth keeping? How about the samples of earth dug up from the English Channel, pre-Chunnel? Hundreds of beautiful hand-drawn lecture slides made by the scientist Sir Ambrose Fleming, inventor of the diode? Or the slides of microscopic fossils, which don’t seem to take up much space until you consider there’s a quarter million of them in storage?

Last month, the university put these items and many more together as part of an exhibition called Disposal? Visitors were asked which artifacts they’d pitch, and, more vitally, for what reasons. The collections reviewers are now poring through hundreds of visitor feedback forms to learn how the public would go about thinning the university’s collections. Armed with that information, they’ll soon start the lengthy process of deciding what will stay or go. (The Agatha Christie basket should get a reprieve — officials admit they’ve grown quite fond of it.)

Applying a similar process to items in your home and office would be a fun way to decide what to keep and what to purge. Throw a small party, display the items in question, set out response cards and pens, and let your friends tell you what they really think of your stuff. Uncluttering doesn’t have to be boring — keep it fun and follow the lead of UCL’s museums.

Posted by Erin on Nov 16, 2009 | 29 Comments | Tweet This

Listen up!

If you have access to a Sirius/XM radio, tune in Monday at 10:30 a.m. eastern to hear me live on Martha Stewart Living Radio (channel 157 on XM or channel 112 on Sirius). I’ll be the second guest on the show Whole Living with Terri Trespicio.

During the segment, I’ll be talking about my book Unclutter Your Life in One Week and dolling out advice on how to be uncluttered and organized for the holidays. Tune in!

Posted by Erin on Nov 16, 2009 | 9 Comments | Tweet This

A year ago on Unclutterer

2008

2007

Posted by PJ on Nov 15, 2009 | Comments Off | Tweet This

Happy birthday, Ms. Zeisel

It’s not uncommon for me to read a newspaper or magazine article and find myself shocked to learn that some writer or artist who did brilliant and groundbreaking work in the 1940s or ’50s (and whom I had long assumed to be dead) is still actually alive. When people stop doing what they’re known for, it’s easy to forget about them.

Yesterday Eva Zeisel, a Hungarian-born industrial designer known primarily for her elegant and minimalist ceramic designs, turned 103.

I was not at all surprised to hear that yesterday was Ms. Zeisel’s birthday. Even in recent years, it would have been nearly impossible for anyone who follows industrial design to have forgotten that she was still alive and still producing beautiful things.

In her eighties, she began designing furniture, like this coffee table:

Eva Zeisel Coffee Table

Two years ago, when she was 101 years old, she released a new range of dinnerware, cleverly named “One-O-One,” for Royal Stafford. The line is carried by sold by Bloomingdales and it includes some absolutely beautiful pieces like this pitcher:

Eva Zeisel Pitcher

Happy belated birthday, Ms. Zeisel.

Posted by PJ on Nov 14, 2009 | 4 Comments | Tweet This

Ask Unclutterer: Working with a messy colleague

Reader Laura submitted the following to Ask Unclutterer:

I know that several people have asked about living with a messy person but I have a question about working with one. I work in a fast paced coffee shop as an assistant manager with my direct boss that is completely disorganized. As a tidy person, I understand the benefits of cleaning and clearing on a daily basis, especially with paper work. She, however, seems so stressed out that everything gets lost. I am constantly amazed when she can meet a deadline because she is so all over the place. This work environment is starting to stress me out and break down our communication! How do I handle this, noting that it can be a tense work relationship? Is this something
that I should just get over and deal with?

Every employee brings something different to a business. In fact, the more diverse the employees at a company, the better the company is at responding to its needs. What your colleague lacks in organizing skills, she might make up for in people or management skills. For instance, I am bad at brainstorming, but amazing at follow through. If you want something to get done, you come to me. If you want someone to generate the next multi-million dollar idea, you talk to somebody else. You’re likely in the position you are at your company because your boss sees your organizing skills as highly valuable and complimentary to her skills. You have something she lacks, and she needs your organizing talents to do her job well.

Instead of being frustrated about her lack of skills, find ways to help her develop her organizing skills. Start by asking her if she wants some help in a nice, friendly “I genuinely want to help” manner. If she does, work together to find ways you might be able to streamline parts of her job to make things easier on both of you. If she doesn’t want your help, try your best to lead by example and maybe she’ll eventually change her mind. You can’t force her to become organized, but it never hurts to politely ask someone if they could use some help.

I’ve been the extremely disorganized employee in the past, and I would have loved for someone to have offered me help. I constantly felt like I was underwater and that I was letting down my co-workers. Your boss might feel the same way, and giving her a helping hand will likely make things better for her, you, and everyone else at your coffee shop.

Thank you, Laura, for submitting your question for our Ask Unclutterer column. Good luck!

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 Nov 13, 2009 | 20 Comments | Tweet This

Workspace of the Week: Standing desk conversion

This week’s Workspace of the Week is Chris Bowler’s home office:

Chris Bowler's Standing Desk

Chris wanted a standing desk. He considered making one, but then realized he could convert a desk he already owned by simply moving the raised shelf from the back to the front and remounting it.

If you look at the full photoset of Chris’s office on Flickr, you can see that he did a very thorough job of managing computer cables, even going so far as to secure most of the cables under his desk inside a Bluelounge Cablebox.

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 PJ on Nov 13, 2009 | 10 Comments | Tweet This

Keeping wanderlust and other daydreams from cluttering up all your thoughts

I currently have wanderlust.

It happens every November, and I know it has something to do with the weather. The skies turn gray, the chilly rains fall on D.C., and I wish I were somewhere with snow instead of puddles. I dream of heading to Canada or the Alps and strapping on a pair of skis and taking to the slopes. I’ve never been a big fan of the wet, Mid-Atlantic falls and winters. I’m of the opinion that if it’s going to be cold and blistery, I should at least have snow and skiing to enjoy.

Of course, a week of vacation to someplace truly cold reminds me that my desire to live on a snow-covered mountain is simply wanderlust. It’s nice to visit, but I don’t think I’m ready to experience it six months out of every year.

When wanderlust sets in, though, it’s difficult to ignore. I have to act on it, even if I don’t actually take a vacation. If I don’t, the wanderlust consumes my thoughts and I’m not able to think of much else. Here is how I handle wanderlust in an organized way so that if I do decide to take the vacation, all of my daydreaming was actually profitable:

  • Schedule time to plan the vacation. Instead of letting thoughts of wanderlust occupy a constant stream in my mind, I schedule time to plan the vacation on my schedule. If I find myself thinking about the trip when I should be doing something else, I remind myself I have set aside time to deal with it later and get back to focusing on the issue. Then, I only work on the trip during the scheduled time.
  • Create a wanderlust scrapbook. When I was younger, this was an actual scrapbook I could glue things into and carry with me. Now, I simply use Evernote and drop in digital files I can access from my phone or laptop.
  • Research travel details. When is the best time to travel to the location? What are the ideal places to stay? Where and when can deals be found? How much will the trip cost? What will the place look and feel liek? All of this information goes into the scrapbook or Evernote.
  • Save up money for the trip. Even if I don’t end up taking the trip, I still put aside money for it. If I don’t budget the money, taking the trip won’t ever be possible. If I eventually decide to use the money for something else, I at least know exactly what I’m giving up or delaying.

How do you organize things that fill your mind and distract you from other things you should be doing? Do you plan all of your vacations, regardless of if you take them? Do you plan for other things you dream about and want to do? Do you do the same things with worries? How do you keep your mind from wandering when it should be focused?

Posted by Erin on Nov 12, 2009 | 18 Comments | Tweet This

The Dymaxion Chronofile and our ever-expanding personal digital archives

In 1917, Buckminster Fuller began to catalog all of his personal documents into the “Dymaxion Chronofile,” a chronological filing system that included all correspondence, newspaper clippings, notes, sketches, itineraries, daily schedules and other documents relevant to his personal and professional life. By the time he died in 1983, the Chronofile occupied nearly 270 linear feet of space. This record of a human life divided into 15-minute increments is now the centerpiece of the Buckminster Fuller Archive at Stanford University.

Buckminster Fuller

Whenever I think about the Dymaxion Chronofile, I find myself wondering if there exists a small subset of compulsive hoarders who are both completely functional and meticulously organized.

Although this type of record-keeping may initially seem shocking when one considers the sheer amount of paper involved, many of us might be surprised to realize that we are unwittingly engaged in the same basic undertaking in the digital realm. Today I have 97,839 emails in the archive folder of my mail client. I can easily search through all of them with just a few keystrokes and they occupy just a small fraction of the space available on a laptop hard drive that is roughly half the size of a pack of cigarettes. In fact, it is completely reasonable for me to assume that my personal digital archives will one day surpass the size and scope of Fuller’s Chronofile.

As long as we have tools that enable us to easily organize and manage our ever-expanding personal digital records, should we really worry about the overall size? I’m interested in reading what you think about this question.

Posted by PJ on Nov 12, 2009 | 42 Comments | Tweet This

Unitasker Wednesday: The EZ Cracker

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

Reader Bri had me laughing aloud when I followed her link to this week’s unitasker. Just watch the failed attempts to crack an egg in the advertisement for the EZ Cracker. Seriously, who has this much trouble cracking an egg? And who tries to crack open an egg with a FORK?!

I also love that when you order the EZ Cracker you get not one, but two unitaskers with the bonus Bacon Wave. Truly fantastic.

I have to admit, though, that the EZ Cracker device looks a bit more useful than the last one we featured: The Egg Cracker. However, both devices are still completely useless once you master the simple skill of cracking an egg.

Posted by Erin on Nov 11, 2009 | 49 Comments | Tweet This

A year ago on Unclutterer

2008

2007

Posted by PJ on Nov 11, 2009 | Comments Off | Tweet This

Brilliant UK electrical plug concept saves space

I spent nearly twenty minutes wiping coffee off my computer monitor yesterday after performing a Danny Thomas spit-take while watching this amazing video of a proposed design for a United Kingdom 3-pin electrical plug for a laptop.

I really hope this product eventually makes it to the manufacturing stage, as it’s one of the best examples of space-saving industrial design that we’ve ever seen.

Posted by PJ on Nov 11, 2009 | 38 Comments | Tweet This

Soda bottle outdoor bird feeder converter kit

Being able to reuse things that would otherwise be trash is obviously good for the environment and keeps clutter out of your home, but it can also lead to some inspired, uncluttered design. Recently, I spotted the Soda Bottle Bird Feeder Converter and was impressed by its simplicity. And, with the cold weather settling in here in the Northern Hemisphere, now is the time to load up our feeders to help the birds through the winter.

Have you spotted any simple, uncluttered, green designs recently? Tell us about them in the comments.

Posted by Erin on Nov 10, 2009 | 20 Comments | Tweet This

Is your storage space clutter-free, organized, and protected?

No matter how few possessions a person has, there are always things we want to keep that we don’t want out on display. Underwear, out-of-season coats and jackets, not-current holiday decorations, cleaning supplies, and Band-aids instantly come to mind as things I don’t really want other people to see when they come into my home.

The items you decide to store should be well labeled and organized for simple and efficient retrieval. Additionally, the items should be reasonably protected so that they aren’t damaged or destroyed in the storage process. I’m also of the opinion that stored objects should be the exception, not the rule — meaning that very little of what you own should be stored out of sight in your home. Many people use storage as a way to ignore clutter, and experience has taught me that ignoring clutter doesn’t make it go away.

The company Hollinger Metal Edge has recently won my favor because of their vast supply of detailed and quality storage solutions. Whether you need a long-term storage solution for photographic slides or comic books, you can find it here. The storage supplies are predominantly archival grade, which helps to protect you materials, and usually has an area designated for labeling. (In the “troubling” and “bizarre” realm, they even have storage solutions for human remains. I’m really hoping these are only purchased by archeologists and scientists.)

What are you currently storing? Is it labeled and organized? Are you storing clutter in hopes that it magically disappears? Is what you’re storing contained in such a way as to best protect it for the future? Are you monitoring the quality of your storage space? What steps can you take to ensure that your storage areas are clutter free and the items you have in storage are protected and organized?

Posted by Erin on Nov 10, 2009 | 35 Comments | Tweet This

The fictional extreme-minimalist future

In George Lucas’ first film THX 1138, the future of the world is an ascetic’s paradise of monochromatic environments, clean lines, barren surfaces, and shaved heads. A similar future is portrayed in Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. In both movies, the future is sanitized, impersonal, and sterile.

Robert Duvall in THX 1138

These films highlight what life is like when uncluttering embraces the extreme and stops focusing on achieving a remarkable life and instead focuses on getting rid of clutter for no other reason that getting rid of clutter.

Over on the website Pop Matters, Bill Reagan talks today about these clutter-free, personality-free, generic futures in the article “Table Space: The Final Frontier“:

Realizing that no one else is making an effort to bring the junkless future to life, I reexamined Kubrick’s film, looking for clues for how our species was to conquer the ever-growing piles, drawers, and shelves of stuff. As I studied, I realized that the barren desktops and uncluttered counters resembled the austere interior landscapes featured in Dwell magazine, whose photo spreads show family living rooms with improbably bare coffee tables, the shelves in the children’s bedroom displaying one or two pristine toys like museum pieces.

What that magazine removes isn’t clutter – it’s life: the hoodie tossed lazily over the back of the chair, empty juice glasses accumulating on the kitchen counter, retired coffee cups stuffed with ball point pens, dog-eared catalogs accumulating in the corner. In the effort to portray simple, they err on the side of antiseptic.

The science fiction of my youth removed the same evidence of daily living, but went one step further: also gone are the photographs on mantles, preschooler paintings posted on refrigerator doors, handmade trinkets and cheap tchotchke mementos. It seems that as seen from 40 years ago, the world was to become increasingly efficient but decreasingly sentimental. Is that what we’ll be required to do to control our interior sprawl? Do we simply need to value the empty space more highly than the items currently occupying it?

If so, perhaps it’s better that the great minds of our generation remain focused on the jetpack.

Check out the article and then come back here and weigh in with your opinion in the comments. I certainly don’t agree with all of Reagan’s conclusions — dirty cups on a counter are an invitation for pests, not a reflection of someone’s personality. However, if you clear clutter to make way for what matter’s most to you, then photographs of loved ones are exactly what an unclutterer would likely want on his or her mantle. I’m interested in knowing if you wish the extreme-minimalist future would have become a reality, or if you think these depictions went too far.

Posted by Erin on Nov 9, 2009 | 49 Comments | Tweet This

Saying farewell to a hobby, part two

In the original “Saying farewell to a hobby” post, I talked about how to decide if you’re not really into your hobby. Letting go of a no-longer-active hobby can be difficult, especially if part of your identity is wrapped up in that activity. (I know I still think of myself as a tennis player even though I haven’t touched a tennis racket in more than 10 years because of a rotator cuff injury.) But, if you make the hard decision to break up with the stuff for a hobby you’re no longer doing, getting rid of the supplies can be emotionally difficult.

The following are five ways to let go of hobby supplies to make the purging process less traumatic:

  1. Call up local enthusiasts whom you know are still into the hobby and let them take what they want from your house. They are more likely to use the materials than you are, and they will truly appreciate your generosity. Plus, as you pass along your supplies you can tell them stories and talk about how and when you acquired or used the items. You’ll get another happy moment sharing the history with your friends.
  2. Sell the supplies on a website whose community is dedicated to the hobby. For instance, if you’re a knitter or crocheter looking to destash your yarn, the website Ravelry has a marketplace forum that is perfect for you. Be sure to include shipping costs in the price of your goods, though, so that you don’t go broke getting rid of your items.
  3. Have a yard sale, but be very specific in your advertising to point out what types of things you are selling. “Woodworking Supplies Yard Sale” “Sailing Supplies Yard Sale” If you place an advertisement for your sale, use similar language and target publications people interested in these hobbies would read.
  4. Often stores that sell new supplies for a hobby also will sell “gently used” items on consignment. Call your local stores and ask about their policies. If they won’t sell them, usually they know who will or clubs related to the activity that could use the supplies.
  5. Programs and/or schools that teach the hobby — rock climbing schools, your local YMCA or community center, the high school down the street, a Michaels or Hobby Lobby — typically need supplies to help teach others about the activity. Make a few phone calls and you’ll probably find a program that is elated to take the discount or free supplies off your hands.

Sites like eBay, Craigslist, and Freecycle are great for getting rid of items, but I’ve found that it’s harder for me to use these sites for hobby supplies that I have some sort of bizarre sentimental attachment to. Even though I’m no longer using the stuff, I still want to know that it’s going to someone who is enthusiastically going to use it. This is probably true for whomever buys or picks up the item from one of these three websites, but my mind doesn’t process it that way. Weird, right?

Good luck with the final step in purging your no-longer-active hobby supplies. And, most of all, enjoy the space for whatever new will take — or not take — its place.

Posted by Erin on Nov 9, 2009 | 20 Comments | Tweet This