Archives for June 2010
Programs for reading online content off-line
Regular readers of Unclutterer and also of my book Unclutter Your Life in One Week know I am a huge fan of Evernote and Instapaper. Both programs allow you to save articles and pages you find on the web and access them later without returning to the original site or needing an active internet connection.
If something is part of an ongoing research project (like Unclutterer post ideas), I tend to save what I find to Evernote. If what I want to read later is interesting to me, but not necessarily related to a specific project, I’ll send it to Instapaper. I have both programs on my smart phone and laptop, so I can access all the documents on any device. When I know I’ll be traveling in the near future, I tend to “Read Later” a lot of documents to Instapaper so I’ll have many options to read on my journey.
This week, Lifehacker tipped me off to another program like Evernote and Instapaper, but “ToRead Sends Article Text Straight to Your [E-mail] Inbox.” I don’t like receiving e-mail, so this isn’t a program for me. However, I thought ToRead might appeal to those of you who are averse to using an unfamiliar third-party viewer.
Are you already a ToRead user? What’s your preference for reading online content when you’re without an internet connection? Tell us about your experiences in the comments.
Ask Unclutterer: Processing car clutter
Reader Ruth submitted the following to Ask Unclutterer:
As a mini-van driving mom (and unabashed unclutterer), I am stymied by trash that seems to accumulate in the car on a daily basis. Dirty kleenex, gum wrappers, parking stubs, crumpled notebook paper, empty water bottles – all mysterious appear in the back of the car when I am not looking. I spend about 10 minutes a day cleaning it all out into a recycled grocery bag but can’t help wonder if there are other ideas on how to hold/manage trash in a vehicle. Of course, I would prefer something that was aesthetically pleasing (ie. NOT a Hefty bag tied to the back of the driver’s seat).
I would really like a scientific study commissioned to look into the trash and stray paper breeding ground of the automobile. I truly believe it is one of the most fertile regions on the planet. Our car grows straw wrappers, toll receipts, and used handy wipes faster than a flash of lightning — the humidity and sun exposure must be ideal trash and paper growing conditions.
To try to reduce the over-population of these items, we use a reusable trash bag tied to the back of our passenger’s seat. It’s not beautiful, but it’s better than the lawn and leaf black plastic bag you mentioned in your question.
Granted, getting others to use the bag might be the most difficult task of all. It took my husband and me a few months to even remember we had installed it, but once we remembered we’ve been using it with regularity.
You’re doing a great job by taking a few minutes each day to clean the stray clutter out of the car. I recommend to everyone a simple uncluttering session each time you get out of the car at your home. If you have kids, put incentives in place for actually using the reusable trash bags or make a game out of using it. You also might find that a bag on the back of multiple seats increases the likelihood that the receptacles will be used.
Good luck to you on keeping the clutter out of your car. For additional car uncluttering information, check out “Cleaning out your cluttered car” and “Clutter creeps into the car.”
Thank you, Ruth, 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.
Workspace of the Week: Home office comfort
This week’s Workspace of the Week is Snidegrrl’s snazzy workspace:
I chose this office because it’s well organized, but more importantly that it has so much wonderful work surface. It’s great for handling home paperwork and as a place to retreat and curl up with a good book. Snidegrrl wrote about her guest bedroom, now office remodeling project on her blog, and there is also an alternate view of the desk in the Flickr pool. Thank you, Snidegrrl, for submitting your office to our group.
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.
Musings on children’s birthday parties
Next week is my son’s first birthday. To celebrate this event, I’m making him a Dinosaur Train cake and some homemade orange popsicle flavored ice cream, both treats my husband and I plan to consume in significantly larger quantities than what my son will. (He’ll likely wear a good portion of his servings.) We’re not having a traditional party, but we’ll video chat with grandparents and cousins when he opens (rather, when we open) the gifts they generously sent to him. We might go to a park or the zoo if the weather is nice.
My expectation is that his second birthday celebration will be similar to this and he won’t start having parties with friends until he’s at least three, four, or five years old — whenever he requests a more standard party. Until then, we’re keeping things as low key as possible.
Before I became a mom, I never understood the lavish parties parents in my area throw for their kids. I’ve heard of some events that easily cost parents thousands of dollars, and guests to the party end up leaving with bags of goodies more valuable than the toys they brought for the guest of honor. I know I won’t ever throw a party like this for my son (sorry, kiddo!), but I’m at least starting to understand why parents do.
As a parent, you want the world for your kid. You want your child to be liked by his classmates, you want your child to be happy, and you want to celebrate his life. A basic swimming party with hamburgers can easily cost a hundred dollars — spending 10 times more once a year on a birthday party wouldn’t seem like such a big deal, especially if you’ve got the disposable income to do it. Research even shows that experiences make you happier than physical possessions.
My parenting philosophy and budget don’t include renting elephants, night clubs, and cruise ships for my son and 100 of his acquaintances, though. I’m more interested in teaching him to appreciate adventures than extravagance. I want him to respect people more than glamor and glitz. And, I hope he learns that the things that matter most in life don’t usually come wrapped in shiny paper with bows.
I don’t judge the parents who go all out for their child’s birthdays — for all I know, they’re teaching their children the same values I’m hoping to teach mine, just with the addition of a really great party once a year. A simple party is what works for our family, however, and I hope my son won’t be an outcast or disappointed by our decision when he’s old enough to know what a party is. If we stay in this area of the country, his birthday might regularly fall on the last day of school, which he might even see as party enough.
The Papervore Coffee Table
I fell in love with the Papervore Coffee Table by Pigeontail Design the moment I spotted it on Design*Sponge last week. I’m now plotting “accidents” my current coffee table could suffer so I can replace it with this:

Simple, modern, multipurpose design — the Papervore Coffee Table makes my heart go pitter patter.
Unitasker Wednesday: The Krustbuster
All Unitasker Wednesday posts are jokes — we don’t want you to buy these items, we want you to laugh at their ridiculousness. Enjoy!
When did knives become too difficult to use? When did crust become something you don’t eat? When was using your fingers or a chopstick ineffective for pinching two pieces of bread together? When did we become a people demanding the production of the Krustbuster?
Next thing you know, there will be a device made just to dispose of the sandwich-crust border! Actually, my favorite part of this device is its packaging, which promotes the Krustbuster’s “multi-uses”:
So! Many! Sandwiches! But how in the world do they use it on s’mores’ crunchy graham crackers?? Maybe stale graham crackers? Where is a YouTube video when you actually want one?
Thanks to Erik for sharing this wonderful unitasker with us.
A year ago on Unclutterer
2009
- Your children can have toys and you can have an uncluttered home
Having children and being uncluttered are not mutually exclusive endeavors. - Cordotz clear cable confusion
Cord identifier buttons and straps are a colorful way to get rid of the mess of cables under your desk or behind your television.
2007
- Rid your shower of bottle clutter
You shouldn’t be distracted by a multitude of containers all over the walls and/or the floor of your shower. - Reader question: Procrastination ender
Big projects, like organizing a home or a business, often go undone because people feel paralyzed by the enormity of the undertaking.
Practicing simple living
I recently led a three-day workshop titled “The Practice of Simplicity.” When choosing the name for this program, I specifically chose the word practice for the title because of its broad meaning.
People who aspire to a life of simplicity often consider themselves practitioners — in the sense that a doctor might say she practices medicine, an unclutterer might say he practices simplicity.
At the same time, living simply requires practice. No one goes to bed one night in complete chaos and disorder and wakes up the next morning master of an organized and clutter-free wonderland. Transformation doesn’t happen over night, and achieving and maintaining it most definitely takes practice.
Along these lines, simplicity isn’t a goal or an end result. Simplicity is a means to an end, with the ultimate destination being a remarkable life focused on what matters most to you. You don’t practice simplicity for simplicity’s sake, you practice simplicity to clear the distractions that get in the way of the life you desire.
Before I practiced simplicity, I spent a lot of time practicing other, less helpful skill sets — lack of focus, stress, worry, poor time management, operating on auto-pilot, pack rattiness, bad sleep and eating habits, and frustration immediately come to my mind. I practiced these unproductive skill sets so often that I became an expert on these traits and have spent the past nine years training myself not to use them.
What are you practicing? Are you a practitioner of simple living? If you’re struggling with your uncluttering efforts, remind yourself that it takes practice, even for people with already streamlined homes and offices. Keep at it! You’ll get better each day you choose to practice simplicity.
Review: The Unclutterer comment policy
With the rising temperatures in the northern hemisphere, we’ve had a similar influx of spammers, trolls, link dumpers, and general negative attitudes in our comment section recently. Thankfully, it isn’t a large percentage of our comment traffic that is behaving this way. However, it’s significantly larger than what we’re accustom to and monitoring it is starting to interfere with our work flow.
As a result, we thought it might be nice to review our comment policy to help everyone play fairly in the comments for the rest of the summer:
- No nasty grams. Nasty grams are clutter, so we clean them off the server the same way we throw away junk mail in our homes. What is a nasty gram? Ad hominem attacks, filth, things you would never say to someone’s face or in front of your boss, and offensive statements all qualify as nasty grams.
- Broken link/spelling error notifications. We prefer that you e-mail us when we have broken links or spelling errors in our posts, but if you do tell us about our mistakes in the comments, we’ll delete your comment after the problem is fixed in our post.
- Advertisements. These are usually left by spam bots on old posts and we have a script that deletes these automatically.
- Link dumps promoting your site/product/brand. If you’re someone we know in the real world, we might keep up your links because we can vouch that they’re safe and reputable. If we don’t know you, your links might disappear because we can’t verify you’re not a spammer.
We love the vast majority of our commenters, our readers who share insights, suggestions, personal stories, and encouragement for the benefit of others. Our guess is that most of the spammers, trolls, link dumpers, and negative Nellies aren’t regular readers of the website — they’re people who swoop in once and then swoop out never to be heard from again. Reviewing our comment policy will hopefully discourage these folks from taking up root in our amazing community.
In short, this is a blog called Unclutterer. We’re people who obviously are not fond of having clutter in our homes, so we try our best to keep it off the site. We encourage an active and robust comment section where people can exchange ideas and insights while being respectful of others.
Assorted links for June 15, 2010
A number of really cool things have moved across my desk this past week, but none of them are necessarily large enough for a post all their own. Enjoy exploring these uncluttering and organizing tidbits:
- Much like the Lifehacker Pack of free downloads for Windows that we linked to on June 3, we now can link to the “Lifehacker Pack for Mac: Our List of the Best Free Mac Downloads.”
- Lifehacker also had a great post about a creative way to display a collection in a small space.
- ThinkGeek featured a Universal Network Cable to make patching for rolled, crossover, straight-through, ATM/loopback, and T1 as simple as turning the dial on a single cord. The select-a-cable idea is uncluttering genius.
- SwissMiss’s photo gallery of the amazing use of space 505 square foot apartment literally made my jaw drop.
- Also on SwissMiss, a pretty cool storage stool and coat rack in the article “Cutter Stool and Wardrobe.”
- I may end up writing a full post on this next item, but since I have yet to install it, I don’t feel qualified enough to do more than share a link right now. The program Papers for the Mac allows users to manage files and create groups similar to the way iTunes works. I’ve been looking for a document manager exactly like this, and am really excited to give it a try.
- We all know about reusable grocery bags, but did you know you can get reusable produce bags, too? Amanda at Metrocurean introduced me to the Produce Stand Collection of vegetable bags.
- More suggestions for how to get rid of relationship clutter post-breakup from the wonderful D. Allison Lee.
- After the “The mess he made: A life-long slob decides it’s time to get organized” article ran in The Washington Post, there was a live online discussion with Mike Rosenwald and Randy Frost “Hoarding intervention: A life-long slob gets organized.”
- Finally, after our controversial post on Simplified Spelling earlier this month, a reader sent us a link to a really fun YouTube video of Ed Rondthaler (he’s 102 in this video). It’s a lighthearted critique of English spellings, but maybe not safe for work in one short spot mid-way through the video. Best to watch it at home.
Streamlining your morning routines
To know me is to know my love of coffee. My entire morning routine is structured around brewing the perfect cup and drinking it before the busy-ness of the day begins. Hanging on the bulletin board above my computer screen is my mantra: “When in doubt, drink more coffee.”
I’m not really addicted to caffeine, I’m more addicted to the routine of crafting an ideal cup of joe. If there were a caffeine-free drink I savored more, I would be consumed with making it. However, except for a glass of whole milk minutes after coming out of the cow or a Batida from Ceiba restaurant in downtown, D.C., there aren’t any other drinks that capture my attention so strongly.
Why am I telling you all of this? First, it’s a way for me to talk about another of my passions. Second, and this is more applicable to you, I want to share with you my strategies for organizing morning routines.
When we wake up after a night’s sleep (or day’s sleep if you work the night shift), we go through the same steps every time. For most of us, these steps include showering, getting dressed, brushing teeth, eating breakfast, drinking coffee, and possibly helping a small human go through similar steps. Your routine might vary a little bit, but for the majority of days you do the same things over and over and over again.
How many of the things you use during your morning routine, though, aren’t convenient to access? Are your breakfast items strewn in multiple cabinets across the kitchen, bathroom supplies in five different drawers and cabinets, and clothing kept in three different places across a bedroom?
Think about all of the things you access each and every morning, and reorganize these things to better meet your needs and make your routines more efficient. For example, if your family eats breakfast cereal, put all of your cereal boxes into a basket so that putting the boxes on the table each morning is one simple movement. If you have a shaving routine, store all of your supplies in one container that you can pull out of the drawer, set on the counter, and then return to the drawer all at once. In your bedroom, consider arranging your furniture so that your dresser is next to your closet. Store all of your coffee-making supplies together with your coffee cups, above or next to where you prepare your coffee.
Keep the things you use together, in containers that you can pull out and use in the most convenient location, and store them in the easiest place to access.
It’s also a good idea to time yourself to see how long it actually takes you to get ready in the morning. Many of us are under the delusion that we’re faster at getting ready for the day than we actually are — especially families with children. If you have difficulty getting out the door in the morning, I recommend that parents get completely ready before children (especially young children) wake up and always padding your get-ready time by 15 minutes.
The more streamlined your morning routine, the more likely you are to have a smooth, stress-free morning. And, the more time you’ll have to enjoy that beautiful, rich, amazing cup of coffee.
Organizing your home and family with notebooks
On Friday, I wrote about creating an information notebook for every person in your family. Notebooks are great because they keep all of your important papers in one place and they are easily portable. In our home, we have a recipe notebook, appliance notebook (instruction manuals, purchase receipts, maintenance and repair receipts, and warranty information), and important information notebooks for all four of us (our cat even has one).
We store these notebooks in a place where we can find them quickly, easily spot if someone hasn’t returned the notebook to its shelf after use, but in an area that has minimal guest traffic. Our personal notebooks are valuable to us and we would be devastated if we lost them, so most of the information in them has also been scanned and then the files backed up online.
The appliance notebook lives with our house — we got it from the previous owner, who got it from the previous owner, who got it from the couple who first owned our home — and we plan to pass it along to the next resident whenever we move. We know what company and what person at that company has worked on our house and its appliances since it was built, and the second owner of the house even commented on every repair and if he felt the repair person did a good job.
As we’ve mentioned before, all you need to do to build a notebook is get a three-ring binder, a pack of sheet protectors, and you’re ready to go. If you want a more elaborate notebook, you can use tab dividers to separate types of documents, and a zipper pocket at the front of the notebook to hold sticky notes, pens, pencils, maybe scissors and a highlighter, and paper clips. The hardest part of the project is remembering to take out information as it becomes irrelevant. Otherwise, notebooks are a breeze to use.
We don’t currently use a system like this for our car, but I would think it would be simple to create one and use it. It’s uncomfortable to think about, but an emergency notebook that each person in the family creates in case of death or serious injury could be very helpful. Also, a notebook for chores and instructions and images explaining how to do those chores could be beneficial for families with young children just starting to help out around the house.
Do you use notebooks to keep your home and family organized? Tell us about the notebooks you have created and how you use them in the comments.
A year ago on Unclutterer
2009
- Thought experiment: How would you organize Hannah Montana’s closet?
Her closet is huge, how would you organize it? - Unitasker Wednesday: Rochambeau
This week’s Unitasker Wednesday is a plastic version of the Rock, Paper, Scissors game. - Get moving: A checklist for an organized move
Moving can be stressful, but it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Follow this advice if you’re planning a move.
You are not your stuff
I was recently captivated by the article “The mess he made: A life-long slob decides it’s time to get organized” by Michael Rosenwald in the June 7 issue of The Washington Post. As the title of the article references, the piece is a first-person narrative of a diagnosed hoarder who went to see Randy Frost for help to change his ways. During Rosenwald’s visits with Frost, he came to the following inspiring conclusion:
This didn’t feel as bad as I had thought it would. I kept telling myself, This stuff isn’t me. If it all disappeared in a fire, my body would not implode, my identity wouldn’t turn to ashes. I would emerge, walking out the front door with soot on my face, the same person I was before the flames, only without the stuff. The stuff was not me, the stuff was not me — it felt like some self-help mantra. The more I told myself that story, the easier the tossing became.
Rosenwald’s realization — that his things are not him — is one we all have to go through if we want to make the transition from a clutterer into an unclutterer. This change of mindset was essential for me when I started my transformation. I saw my vast collection of things as proof I had lived a fun and exciting life, when in fact my clutter was actually preventing me from having a good life. It wasn’t until I realized my unhealthy relationship with my things that I could finally let go of all the trinkets, papers, doodads, and memorabilia filling every inch of my space.
Unfortunately, Rosenwald reverts to his messy ways at the end of the article, but hopefully he’ll keep practicing his new unclutterering skills. He seems to have already made the hardest step — a change in his relationship with his things.
Ask Unclutterer: Organizing child-related documents
Reader Victoria submitted the following to Ask Unclutterer:
My husband and I our expecting our first child in July. Being the responsible adults we are (ha?), we took the child-birth and breastfeeding classes to prepare. Now I’m overwhelmed by all the handouts on everything from heartburn to pre-term labor to when to start feeding solids, etc. I’m at a lost at what to do with it all. Should I keep some of the handouts for future reference, or recycle them and look toward other resources for answers when needed? Help!
A giant congratulations to you on your expectant little one! The first thing to do is remember that thousands of years of women have given birth and raised children successfully without any of those pamphlets. So, if anything happens to them, you’ll be fine. I’m not saying you should get rid of them, but if you do, you’ll easily be able to ask your doctor, friends, and family for advice, as well as consult numerous books on these same topics once your child is born.
That being said, a nice resource guide is never a bad thing to keep around, especially if it provides advice you trust. I recommend getting a three-ring binder and filling it with sheet protectors. Sort through all the pamphlets and handouts you’ve received, and put those that you think are worthwhile into the sheet protectors. You might also want to store important numbers, track your child’s measurements, and keep any valuable papers related to your child in the same notebook. A three-ring binder is perfect to take with you to all those doctor’s visits you’ll make the first year and easy to use when you need the resources at 2:00 in the morning when your child is crying for no apparent reason.
I think you’ll be surprised, though, at how rarely you consult those resources. I really only looked at the chart I had about when to introduce certain foods and how to identify possible allergic reactions. The notebook was more of a security blanket for me. I’m glad I had it, but now that my son is about to turn one, I’ve already recycled the vast majority of papers in it.
If you’re worried that you’ll need something after you’ve recycled it, simply scan it and just keep the information digitally before dropping the handout into the recycling bin. Also, the notebooks are great to keep even after your child reaches his or her first birthday. They’re perfect for keeping track of your child’s sports schedules, preschool phone tree, and all those random papers your child will acquire. If you have another child, get a new three-ring binder for him or her, too.
Thank you, Victoria, for submitting your question for our Ask Unclutterer column. And, again, congratulations on becoming a parent! Be sure to check out the comments for more ideas from parents about how to organize your child-related documents.
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.
Workspace of the Week: Classrooms are workspaces, too
This week’s Workspace of the Week is MinsyMins’ kindergarten classroom:
As the school year comes to an end for most children here in the United States, we’ve decided to showcase this wonderfully organized kindergarten classroom. In particular, we were struck by the use of photographs as labels. As MinsyMins explains:
I took a digital photo of each group of manipulatives and then printed it out, laminated, and taped to the shelf. Now as the children replace the bins they look for the correct space. If you’re carrying bears you look for the bear photo. The best way to keep our items organized is for the kids to learn to do it themselves!
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.
Columbus gets creative with clutter recycling program
Anyone who has ever lived in a college town knows that the end of the school year is a trash scavenger’s dream. When students move out of their dorms and apartments, they put on the curb and in large dumpsters anything they don’t wish to take with them to the next chapter of their lives. Anything that isn’t looted, is piled into trash trucks and taken to the city dump.
A lot of these trashed items are in good working order and could be used by someone else. However, after partying it up in celebration of the end of finals, the last thing anyone wants to do is find good homes for their unwanted things.
The Ohio State University has a program that not only helps students responsibly get rid of their clutter at the end of the semester, but it is also available for residents of the Columbus area to use. The program is called “Dump and Run” and The Columbus Dispatch says that the donated items are evaluated, priced, and then sold at the beginning of the semester in a huge yard sale.
For the past six years, dump volunteers have collected hand-me-downs and sold them at thrifty prices to students and bargain-hungry adults in the greater Columbus area. “It’s a great way to reduce waste in landfills, and it has a lot of appeal for students and Columbus residents,” said Podrasky, a junior majoring in environmental policy and management.
Sue Kelly, 54, and husband, Scott Dagenfield, 56, donated her late father’s wooden office desk to make room for a new recliner in her mother’s home.
Nearly 30 years old, the desk is in mint condition.
To encourage students to donate, dump organizers placed bins in each of the college’s residence halls May14. That collection runs until Friday.
Last year, students collected nearly 7 tons of items, said Rachel Gapa, program co-chairwoman.
Thanks to reader Mary for letting us know about this program. Hopefully spreading the word about it will help other college towns learn about this terrific clutter-recycling program.
Once again, write in books that aren’t yours
Back in 2008, we wrote a raving review of 3M’s Sheer Colors Post-It Notes. These transparent sticky notes were amazing because they made it simple to write in books that aren’t yours or in books that you plan to sell or pass along to someone else. Unfortunately and unexpectedly, 3M pulled the clear Post-Its from the market and we haven’t been able to find them in years.
In a promotion for the Organization of Moms program Avery recently launched, they sent me a box full of their products that they think are useful for moms. I haven’t really had time to learn about the program yet, but I did look through the box of freebies and discovered that Avery now makes clear sticky notes! And, best of all, the Avery NoteTabs brand has tabs so I can quickly find where I’ve made notes in the text:
The longer 3″ x 7.5″ NoteTabs are perforated in four places so you can adjust the length to fit your needs. Shown in the image are the 3″ x 3.5″ ones, and I used a highlighter and Sharpie on them. Pencil also works well when writing on the NoteTabs, but ballpoint pens aren’t stellar.
I really like the Avery clear NoteTabs, and wanted to pass news of them along to other bibliophiles — especially bibliophiles who rely on marginalia and are therefore reluctant to check books out from the library, borrow them from friends, or get rid of books after they’ve read them. Three cheers for the return of clear sticky notes! It is weird how excited I am about them.
Unitasker Wednesday: The Pressto! tofu water extractor
All Unitasker Wednesday posts are jokes — we don’t want you to buy these items, we want you to laugh at their ridiculousness. Enjoy!
This week’s unitasker had to be explained to me because I didn’t know what it was — the Pressto! tofu water extractor:
Those of you, like me, who regularly consume tofu might be thinking that this is a device to make homemade tofu. It’s not. Well, at least, that’s not how it is being marketed. The purpose of the four-piece Pressto! appliance is to get as much water out of your store-bought tofu as possible. From the product description:
The Pressto! is a compact kitchen device that squeezes the water out of a block of tofu and lets you quickly dice the tofu into small, easy-to-cook cubes in just seconds. Out with the watery stir-fry, the wasted paper towels, and the messy kitchen counters … in with the Pressto! We’re talking less water, more flavor.
Unfortunately (fortunately?), this device hasn’t yet hit the market. So, those of us who regularly eat tofu will just have to continue removing water the easy way by setting the tofu down on a towel or cloth napkin. You can remove water from your tofu “like the pros,” too, without this device.
Thanks to reader Jacki for bringing this unitasker to our attention.
A year ago on Unclutterer
2009
- Illuminate your clutter hiding spaces
Clutter has a way of accumulating in poorly-lit spaces. If you can’t see it, you forget it’s there, and it’s easier to mindlessly add to the disorder. - Review: NeatDesk and NeatWorks for Mac
To my surprise, however, I liked the NeatDesk for Mac. Specifically, I really liked the NeatWorks software. - Unclutterer and smart consumerism
An Unclutterer is someone who decides to get rid of the distractions (clutter) that get in the way of a remarkable life. Our website is for people who are or want to become unclutterers. It’s a site for people who are interested in getting and staying organized. Our motto is: A place for everything, and everything in its place. - Resources for designing a custom tool cabinet
To get a perfectly organized tool chest, you might want to consider going the custom route.
2008
- Creating a multi-tasking wedding registry for your kitchen
Let Alton Brown help you discover which kitchen items are multi-tasking goodness for your wedding registry.
2007
- Stowaway cookware can save space in the kitchen
Consider a nesting set of cookware to save space in your kitchen. - Travel tip: Mail items home
Sending home no-longer needed items as your travels progress is a great way to keep your luggage clutter free.








