Archives for April 2010

Unitasker Wednesday: The fire extinguisher

Most of our Unitasker Wednesday posts are jokes. This one is not.

First Alert FE3A40GR Fire ExtinguisherAlthough they are often used as impromptu weapons in movie fight scenes, a fire extinguisher has but one proper and intended use. In spite of this unfortunate limitation, you probably need more than one of them in your home. Consumer Reports recommends that you have one full-floor, multipurpose fire extinguisher on each level of your home and one in your garage. They also recommend that you have smaller supplemental units in your kitchen and car. Their recommended pick for for a full-floor unit is currently the First Alert FE3A40GR. If you need a supplemental unit, consider the Kidde FA110, which also fared well in their tests.

If you already have fire extinguishers placed at appropriate locations in your home, be sure to check the pressure indicator periodically. You should also know how to determine if your fire extinguisher needs to be replaced.

We’ve written about this in the past and we’ll probably write about it again in the future. Fire safety is worth repeating.

Posted by PJ on Apr 7, 2010 | 30 Comments | Tweet This

A year ago on Unclutterer

2009

2007

Posted by PJ on Apr 7, 2010 | 1 Comment | Tweet This

forScore app brings sheet music to the iPad

Although I’m still somewhat skeptical of the iPad, I can’t help but be very impressed by a small number of new and forthcoming applications being developed for the platform. In fact, the video demo for one soon-to-be-released app is weakening my resolve to wait out the first generation of the device.

forScore is a sheet-music management application that will allow the user to load his or her own PDF files, instead of relying on a proprietary format. The application also supports page specific annotations, which is particularly useful for marking up difficult passages. The developers were also quite clever to include an integrated metronome that can flash the border of the screen at a pre-set tempo.

The idea isn’t new. Electronic sheet-music displays have been around for a several years, but they’ve been even more expensive than an iPad. This seems like a good multitasking alternative, if you’ve already been considering such a device.

Posted by PJ on Apr 7, 2010 | 3 Comments | Tweet This

On the Forums: tupperware, old photo slides, and the ‘list of fifteen’

Some great discussions are currently underway on the Unclutterer Forums:

Be sure to check it out and add your thoughts to the mix. 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.

If you use an RSS reader to follow your favorite blogs, you can easily keep track of what’s going on in our new forums. Add the feed for latest topics or all the latest posts. You can even follow specific topics using the RSS link just below each topic’s title, or create an RSS feed of your own by adding topics as favorites.

Also, if you want to be entered to win a Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300 this Thursday, be sure to follow Unclutterer on Twitter.

Posted by PJ on Apr 6, 2010 | 1 Comment | Tweet This

Productive meetings when participants are in different locations

Video conferencing is a simple and cost effective way to “bring” many people together for a meeting without physically bringing people together. Unfortunately, many digital meetings end up wasting more time than traditional meetings — and most traditional meetings are less-than-stellar points of productive comparison.

Productivity501′s recent article “9 Tips for Effective Video Conferences” provides considerably more than nine tips for how to run productive digital meetings. I particularly enjoyed the advice:

Assume that the technology is going to be a problem and give yourself multiple options and enough time to get everything right … Reboot your computer ahead of time. If you occasionally need to reboot your computer to keep it from getting bogged down, do this ahead of the meeting. You don’t want to force everyone to wait while you reboot your machine.

One of my biggest pet peeves during video conferences is that many people don’t treat it like work. A spouse will come on screen and wave at everyone or one person will take a call on his cell phone or it becomes obvious that someone is surfing the web, checking e-mail, or playing a video game. A good rule of thumb is that if you wouldn’t conduct yourself that way during an in-person meeting, don’t do it while on a video conference.

What advice would you add to “9 Tips for Effective Video Conferences?” I’m eager to read your suggestions. I’m also interested in hearing which video conferencing programs people prefer to use. I’ve never organized a video conference, just participated on them, so I use whatever program the coordinator chooses. I’d like to hear if some of the systems are significantly better at helping users be more productive.

Posted by Erin on Apr 6, 2010 | 6 Comments | Tweet This

Stuff won’t make you happy, experiences will

A new study conducted at Cornell University and reported in the January 2010 issue of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that experiences bring greater happiness and satisfaction than buying and owning possessions. From “The Relative Relativity of Material and Experiential Purchases“:

No matter which wristwatch one buys, even if it is entirely satisfactory, it can still be compared to one in a store display — encouraging counterfactual thoughts about what it would be like with their positions reversed. After returning from vacation, in contrast, it is not so easy to compare a hypothetical Vail ski run with the waves actually ridden in Fiji.

The study revealed that people often feel buyer’s remorse, stress, and a sense that they may not have purchased the best or right product after shopping. In contrast, after a vacation, hike, bike ride, or game of softball in the park, there are rarely negative feelings or associations with these experiences.

… knowing about the features available on other cell phones is likely to influence one’s satisfaction with one’s own phone more than knowing about the bungalows available on other tropical beaches is likely to influence one’s satisfaction with one’s own tropical bungalow.

One of the points that interested me most in the study was the conclusion that:

… satisfaction with material purchases tends to decrease over time, whereas satisfaction with experiential purchases tends to increase.

Over one’s lifetime, it is his or her experiences that are more valuable than any product ever owned or purchased.

If you’re worried that getting rid of clutter will have a negative impact on your life, this study shows that it’s not likely to happen. Clearing the clutter will make room for you to have more experiences, which will ultimately make you happier.

From many angles, the pursuit of experiences over possessions seems to be the firmer path to happiness.

The full study is available for free from the APA.

Posted by Erin on Apr 5, 2010 | 37 Comments | Tweet This

XFit: The hidden home gym

If you don’t have a dedicated room for a home gym, you probably try to disguise your unattractive tread mill or weight bench as best as possible. Or, like me, you join a local gym so you don’t have to hide and store gym equipment in your home.

The Italian company Angelo Dall’Aglio has designed the XFit home gym — complete with 19″ LCD television, DVD player, tread mill, weight bench, and weights — that fits inside a custom wardrobe so hiding and storing unsightly gym equipment is simple. I think this piece is perfect for fitness enthusiasts who live in small spaces:

According to the website SocialWorkout.com, the XFit is currently retailing for 4,649 Euros (about $6,264). So, you would need to pay a pretty penny to have one in your home. However, I take this as a good sign that over the next couple years we might see some more reasonably priced competitors.

I love the idea of a place for everything, especially unattractive home gym equipment! Check out the XFit marketing video to learn about the construction of this unit.

Posted by Erin on Apr 5, 2010 | 23 Comments | Tweet This

A year ago on Unclutterer

2009

Posted by PJ on Apr 4, 2010 | Comments Off | Tweet This

Ask Unclutterer: Mental clutter

Reader Stefanie submitted the following to Ask Unclutterer:

I’m really good about things like keeping my email inbox almost empty and entering every little thing into my calendar or to-do list. I know exactly what I need to get done, but my problem is mental clutter. I’m a writer, so I’m always sending work out to various publications and presses. I’m also looking for a job right now, and I have applications out all over the place. I end up spending way too much time anxiously waiting to hear about work I’ve already done instead of producing something new. Do you have any tips about how to get out of this waiting loop?

Job hunting, dating, waiting for grade cards, negotiations — when you type these words onto a computer screen they look relatively harmless. However, the reality of these events can be stressful, filled with anxiety, and great causes of worry. When you become fixated on the outcomes of these events, your worries clutter up your ability to think or do much else the same way physical clutter can overwhelm your home and office.

If you’re like me, being told “don’t worry about it” just makes me want to give the stink eye to whomever said “don’t worry about it.” Obviously, if you could just turn off the anxiety by telling yourself not to worry about something, you would. So, you won’t hear that advice from me. Instead, I’ll offer up my strategies for handling mental clutter and you might find one or two will work for you.

Embrace the worry. Set a timer for an hour, and put your entire focus on worrying during that time. Imagine the worst case scenario and then write out how you would respond to each of these scenarios. You don’t get job X — How do you feel? What do you say to people who knew you applied for the job? What new jobs do you apply for? How will you change your budget? What would life be like if you had to move in with a friend/family member/your car? What is Plan B? I don’t know why it works, but focusing on the worst for an hour usually helps relieve the greatest amount of my anxiety. I typically find that I am prepared to handle all of the scenarios I imagined. Also, if the dark Cloud of Doom looming overhead reappears, I just remind myself of the solution I have planned and the fear subsides.

Gretchen Rubin, author of the blog The Happiness Project and a book by the same name, addressed fears she had about negative reviews of her book by writing, “Happiness Interview with an (Imaginary) Hostile Reader.” Her post is a perfect example of embracing the worry and it helped her to keep actual criticisms that came after her book’s release in perspective.

Do something else. Mental clutter has the power to immobilize, but that doesn’t mean you have to give in to its power. Acknowledge that you’re wasting time worrying about X, and do everything you can to do Y. When I get writer’s block, I’ll put on my running shoes and get in my exercise for the day. When I can’t sleep because anxious thoughts overwhelm my mind, I’ll get up and do chores or read light fiction or take the car to get gas or go grocery shopping (our store is open 24 hours). When I worked in a formal office and leaving wasn’t an option, I would fight these consuming thoughts by returning phone calls, refilling my co-worker’s coffee cups like I were a waitress in a diner, or temporarily relocating my work to a conference room (the change of scenery was often all it took). I learned how to knit when I was thinking about changing careers. I took up running when my mom was in a really bad car accident. I wrote my book when we were waiting to be matched for our adoption. Healthy diversions are fantastic ways to get out from under worry.

Talk to a professional. If either of the two strategies that I’ve mentioned aren’t enough to help you clear the mental clutter, pick up the phone and schedule an appointment with a mental health professional. When clutter is out of control in your physical space, you can turn to a professional organizer to help you get things in order — so why not turn to a professional to help you get rid of the mental clutter? Almost a decade ago, when I was considering changing careers, I met a few times with a therapist to sort through everything. I wanted the opinion and help of a neutral third party, and it worked great for me. Paying for four sessions with a therapist was worth the price of not worrying about my career-change decision for the rest of my life.

Thank you, Stefanie, for submitting your question for our Ask Unclutterer column. Be sure to check out the comments for even more strategies for handling mental clutter.

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 Apr 2, 2010 | 25 Comments | Tweet This

Workspace of the Week: Wonderful workshop

This week’s Workspace of the Week is Maida Vale’s luxury letter press workshop:

I am in awe of this workspace. The under the counter shelving (Ikea?) perfectly holds supplies for printing and for running the business. In the back left corner on the counter top, I also love the food serving tray that has been repurposed for small supply storage (binder clips, ink). Everything in this workshop has a place, and everything is in its place. Before, this entire area was an unfinished basement, and now it’s a gorgeous print shop. Check out Maida Vale’s photostream for product samples and more detailed images of the office before and after renovations — inspiring!

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 Apr 2, 2010 | 6 Comments | Tweet This

And the first winner in the Fujitsu ScanSnap giveaway is …

Thank you to EVERYONE (all 5,445 of you!) who are now following @Unclutterer on Twitter and who are participating in our Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300 giveaway. Now, let’s get on to the good stuff …

At 10:00 a.m. EDT, the random number generator picked the following number:

741

Which means, the winner of this week’s Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300 is:

@ValHutchins

I have direct messaged the winner of the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300 and he or she has 24 hours to respond.

Remember, there are still three more giveaways between now and April 22, so you can still sign up to follow @Unclutterer on Twitter. Also, sign up to follow @ScanSnapIT for tips and tricks about reducing your paper clutter. Big thanks continue to go to Fujitsu for doing such a generous giveaway for Unclutterer readers and our Twitter followers.

Is this the first you’ve heard of the giveaway? Learn more.

Posted by Erin on Apr 1, 2010 | 8 Comments | Tweet This

ThredUP clothing exchange service

Do you have clothes in your closet that have been there for months with their price tags still attached? Are there great clothes in your closet that you just never have occasion to wear? Are you ready to clear out some “like new” items that don’t fit you right to make way for pieces that do?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you might be interested in joining ThredUP. ThredUP is a clothes exchange service that helps you get new and like-new clothes you don’t wear out of your closet and clothes you would like to wear into your closet. From their website:

1. Tell us exactly what you like. We shop other people’s closets to find you hidden gems in your size that we think you’ll love.

2. Let us know the great items you’re no longer wearing. We find thredUP members who are interested in items like these.

3. We manage the peer-to-peer exchange. You send and receive items using our pre-paid envelopes [three envelopes for $12.50] — no trips to the Post Office, ever!

The company was started last year by three men who dislike spending lots of money on clothes and quickly grow bored of what they do buy. I like the program’s Golden Rule: “Send only what you’d be willing to receive.” And, I like that it gets rid of the clothes that you don’t wear that are taking up space in your closets. On the downside, it’s only available to U.S. residents.

Learn more about ThredUP on their FAQ page. Also, they plan to launch a ThredUP KIDS section in the near future. As a parent with a son who never fit into the newborn size, I could have definitely used this service to pass along an entire box of never-worn newborn clothes. (Thankfully, my friend is pregnant with a boy and she was very happy to take the box of clothes from me.)

Posted by Erin on Apr 1, 2010 | 9 Comments | Tweet This