Archives for August 2010

Trend spotting: Tech-savvy minimalism

On Monday, the BBC published the article “Cult of less: Living out of a hard drive” about a group of 20-something hipsters who claim digital technologies have replaced all but a few of their possessions.

One of the men interviewed for the article says he only owns “his laptop, an iPad, an Amazon Kindle, two external hard drives, a ‘few’ articles of clothing and bed sheets.” Another says he only has “a backpack full of designer clothing, a laptop, an external hard drive, a small piano keyboard and a bicycle – an armful of goods that totals over $3,000 (£1,890) in value.”

Owning just a few electronics and pieces of fabric is an interesting take on extreme minimalism. In contrast to most ascetics who eschew the conveniences of the modern world, it’s current technologies that make these hyper-digital ascetics’ lifestyles possible.

[Kelly Sutton of Brooklyn, New York] … says he got rid of much of his clutter because he felt the ever-increasing number of available digital goods have provided adequate replacements for his former physical possessions.

“I think cutting down on physical commodities in general might be a trend of my generation – cutting down on physical commodities that can be replaced by digital counterparts will be a fact,” said Mr Sutton.

The tech-savvy Los Angeles “transplant” credits his external hard drives and online services like iTunes, Hulu, Flickr, Facebook, Skype and Google Maps for allowing him to lead a minimalist life.

However, the tech-savvy minimalists are quick to point out that their decisions have made some aspects of their lives difficult:

Mr Klein says the lifestyle can become loathsome because “you never know where you will sleep”. And Mr Yurista says he frequently worries he may lose his new digital life to a hard drive crash or downed server.

What do you think of these modern minimalists? Discuss your reactions in the comments.

Posted by Erin on Aug 18, 2010 | 39 Comments | Tweet This

On the Forums: Two challenges and a discussion on uncluttered vs minimalism

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.

Posted by Erin on Aug 17, 2010 | 5 Comments | Tweet This

Are you getting the Zzzzzzzzzzzz’s you need?

When your sleep schedule is disrupted and you don’t get the amount of sleep you need to function properly, you will instantly experience a drop in productivity and mental processing. If this sleep deprivation continues, you might experience something like this:

In case you can’t read my handwriting:
Lethargy and a decrease of energy leads to a loss of will power, which leads to poor food choices, which leads to stopping or reducing your daily exercise, which causes clutter to pile up at home and the office, which ultimately leads to complete disorganization.

In addition to tanking productivity, fatigue causes high blood pressure, reduced reaction times, a weakened immune system, and a slew of other nasty things that put one’s health in danger.

If you’re looking to be more productive at work and continue to have energy even after you get home in the evenings, sleep is a key component to making this happen. When you’re well rested, you’re also more likely to exercise and eat right, which help to give you more energy.

We each need different amounts of sleep to function at our best — I need nine hours of sleep, but my husband doesn’t require much more than seven — and these needs can change over time. Keep a sleep journal to learn how much sleep your body requires. Additionally, once you have the energy to unclutter and organize your space, your bedroom can be a great place to start. The less clutter in this room will improve your quality of sleep each night, giving you more energy to tackle other areas of your home and office.

Posted by Erin on Aug 17, 2010 | 37 Comments | Tweet This

Marketing to Unclutterers-In-Name-Only

The show Marketplace that aired on National Public Radio had a very poignant piece this past Friday about the hypocrisy surrounding the business, marketing, and branding of Eat, Pray, Love‘s “simplification” and “de-cluttering” merchandise.

You can listen to the segment or read the transcript on the NPR website.

My favorite excerpt from Stacey Vanek-Smith’s Marketplace piece:

[Andrew] Bennett [author of the book Consumed] says “Eat Pray Love” taps into something the whole culture has been moving towards.

Bennett: “It talks about finding your inner self and spirituality and a return to simplicity and enjoying life’s simple pleasures.”

Like drinking “Eat Pray Love” tea, out of an “Eat Pray Love” cup, in your “Eat Pray Love” tunic, on your “Eat Pray Love” Malay queen bed. What could be simpler?

I was also surprised to learn about the Home Shopping Network’s “three-day ‘Eat Pray Love’-a-palooza” with more than 400 simplification-themed products, Sony’s Eat Pray Love laptop, and the Eat Pray Love prayer beads. The marketing of thousands of products surrounding this stuff-won’t-make-you-happy themed movie makes Disney film merchandising look like literal child’s play. Unclutterers are smart consumers who are not wholly against buying things, but does the merchandising industry really believe that dedicated followers of simple living are going to rush out and buy ALL of this stuff? Does the world really need thousands of Eat, Pray, Love doodads?

Apparently, the strategy for product marketing to simple living followers is: “Buy, buy, buy, and then unclutter it all so you can buy some more.”

Posted by Erin on Aug 16, 2010 | 47 Comments | Tweet This

A year ago on Unclutterer

2009

Posted by PJ on Aug 15, 2010 | Comments Off | Tweet This

Guest information packets: Be organized before your house guests arrive

Lifehacker has had a series the past couple weeks on how to be a good host and house guest in today’s society. Contained in their post “How to Be the Perfect Host in the 21st Century” is a wonderful section on how to be organized before a guest arrives. One of their ideas is to create a Guest Information Packet with details about your home and your area:

Whether you’re filling out the packet we’ve provided for you or you’re building your own from scratch you’ll want to include information that helps your guest be autonomous. Our guest packet includes spots for useful information like informing your guests about household quirks. It takes a few minutes for the hot water to get all the way from the basement of your apartment building? Make a note that they should run the hot water while they brush their teeth to get it shower-ready. Have a dog with a delicate constitution? Make a note that table scraps will make everybody miserable. Militant parking regulations? Make sure your guest knows their rental car will get the boot if they park on the street after 2AM.

They provide a detailed Guest Information Packet you can download for free and then fill in the information specific to your home.

Posted by Erin on Aug 14, 2010 | 31 Comments | Tweet This

Ask Unclutterer: Trash or treasure old stuffed animals?

Reader Kay submitted the following to Ask Unclutterer:

I’m trying to figure out what to do about all my old plush toys stored in *mumble mumble* cardboard boxes in the *mumble mumble* basement. I know the Unclutterer idea of taking pictures of sentimental objects before taking the next step; what I don’t know is what the next step should *be*. I doubt that Goodwill wants them; I don’t want to pass them on to young relatives — I’m not convinced they’re still healthy. Is there another option I’m overlooking?

You can have them steam cleaned, which will kill viruses, mold, dust mites, and other creepy crawlies. If you know someone who works in a hotel, the enormous steamers they have there will definitely do the trick. Otherwise, check with your local dry cleaners, who may have one in their facilities. They’re giant machines, a lot like dryers, that blast the contents with heated steam while tumbling things around to make sure all surfaces are affected.

Once this is done, you could pass them along to your young relatives without worry.

However, if these are elderly stuffed animals, they may not survive the cleaning process. For the more delicate ones, the trash may be your best option.

Actually, unless your young relatives are clamoring to take the stuffed animals off your hands, I suggest throwing all of them in the trash. Even though you once loved them, there is no guarantee your nieces and nephews will enjoy playing with a worn-out toy. So instead of dealing with your clutter, you’ll just be passing the responsibility of getting rid of it along to someone else.

Peter Walsh, in his book It’s All Too Much, makes a point about donating worn-out clothing to charity that applies equally to your stuffed-animal situation:

Goodwill receives a billion pounds of clothing every year. Ultimately, they use less than half of the clothes they get. Clothing is cheap, and the cost of sorting, cleaning, storing, and transporting the clothes is higher than their value. If you wouldn’t give an article to a family member, it’s probably not good enough for charity. Sure, it’s great to get the tax deduction and it makes you feel like you didn’t waste money buying the clothes, but if you’re truly charitable, be sensitive to the needs of the organization. Charities aren’t dumping grounds for your trash.

If throwing them in the trash brings you to tears, contact a local professional puppet group. Maybe they could reuse the pelts? However, I think this is one of those situations where these items belong in the trash.

Thank you, Kay, 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 Aug 13, 2010 | 46 Comments | Tweet This

Workspace of the Week: Sewing storage in disguise

This week’s Workspace of the Week is Clara in Paradise’s whimsical sewing room storage.

But, to appreciate the After photograph, you should see what the area looked like before:

I like the idea of creating a closet — even with faux doors — to streamline a room and reduce visual clutter. I also like the fun Clara clearly had creating this storage space. Her closet door design is sewn on with a serger using blue thread, and the knobs are all blue felt. And, she states, the whole setup (curtain rod, fabric, thread, felt, etc.) was only $50. Check out her step-by-step process on her website. Thank you, Clara, for submitting your creative sewing storage solution to our Flickr 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.

Posted by Erin on Aug 13, 2010 | 9 Comments | Tweet This

The multitasking sleeper chair

The latest DWR catalog arrived in the mail yesterday, and the Soto sleeper chair instantly caught my attention:

After looking at the picture, I spotted the chair’s $3,300 price tag and quickly closed the catalog. No offense to the designers or the wonderful folks at DWR (it really is an attractive piece of furniture), but $3,300 is way above my price range.

Sleeper chairs are fantastic additions in small spaces because they work double duty as seating and guest accommodations. One of these multitaskers in a living room or office is perfect when you don’t have a guest room or space for a larger sofa sleeper. My husband and I have been considering getting one for my son’s bedroom so that when his cousins or friends spend the night they won’t have to sleep on the floor, and he’ll have a comfortable space to sit and read the rest of the time.

A little more in line with our price range are:

For $130, Target has a single sleeper:

For $20 more ($150), Target has a sleeper lounge chair:

JCPenny has the Sleepy sleeper chair for $500 that is available in nine different upholstery options:

And, for $1,000, is the sleek Vincent twin sleeper from CB2:

You don’t have to spend $3,300 or add a spare room onto your home to increase the number of sleeping accommodations you have to offer guests — a sleeper chair might be all you need for your small space.

Posted by Erin on Aug 12, 2010 | 35 Comments | Tweet This

Go big or go home?

Most children, if asked to draw the house they’ll live in as an adult, will sketch a home resembling a bloated Graceland or Cinderella’s castle. A rare child might draw something akin to Skylab, but rarely will you see a home that is an apartment or small cottage. Kids dream big, and they almost always want yards, trees, and all the amenities of a suburban mansion.

Many of us then have a difficult time altering that vision of our future home as we get older. We think that by the time we’re 30, we should have a house, a big yard, two cars, and a beautiful family to go along with all of it. So, we go to work and earn as much money as possible to make it all possible, but may never stop to ask our adult self if this childhood fantasy is really what we want.

These things might actually be what you desire. And, if you’ve taken the time to evaluate all your options and concluded this is the perfect path for you, then I think that is amazing.

It’s not such an amazing path, however, if you’re stumbling into this way of living because you’ve never questioned the dreams of eight-year-old you. It wasn’t until I was in my late 20s that I realized I didn’t want the big house and all of the responsibilities that go with it. And, even now, I occasionally find myself looking at the large, beautiful homes for sale in our neighborhood and fantasize about owning them.

But unless you make enough money to pay someone else to mow your lawn, a large house on a big lot means a minimum two hours of yard work each week during the spring, summer, and fall. Home ownership also means cleaning gutters, paying for home owner’s insurance, and replacing appliances when they die and windows when they break. The more square footage you have in a home, the more you have to pay in taxes, to clean, to heat and cool, and to protect from disasters and thieves.

Houses take considerable time and money to maintain, and choosing to buy one should be a truly soul-searching experience.

I’ve learned to look at the big, beautiful homes for sale in our neighborhood and appreciate that they exist, but know I don’t have the real desire to live in one and take care of it. I like that my tiny backyard is a brick patio. I like that I only have two toilets to clean. I also like that we never had to install a baby monitor because there isn’t anywhere in the house we can go and not hear our son cry (or sigh or giggle).

I’m not saying that one way of living is better than another, I’m simply saying that a big home and all of its responsibilities are not for me. I’d like to encourage you to take a few moments and decide if the dream home you’re pursuing or currently maintaining is really your dream. It might be. But if it’s not, I hope you are able to figure out what really is.

Posted by Erin on Aug 12, 2010 | 64 Comments | Tweet This

Unitasker Wednesday: The Mayo Knife — Spreader

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

For the past two years, I’ve been laughing about the Peanut Butter and Jelly Spreader. My laughs were elevated to a new level, however, when reader Adam sent me a link to this INGENIOUS piece of plastic — the Mayo Knife — Spreader:

I think my favorite part about this unitasker is how it mentions an alternative multitasking object that can do the job just as well in the product’s name. The name of the product reminds you about a knife! A knife you already own! A knife that makes this product completely unnecessary! And, my guess is that the word spreader even makes you think of a spatula made of rubber or silicone in your kitchen drawer that also does the exact same thing. I would have named this unitasker the Mayo Magic Wand because it uses magic to get you to spend money!

Posted by Erin on Aug 11, 2010 | 22 Comments | Tweet This

A year ago on Unclutterer

2009

2008

2007

  • Keyless entry = less keys
    Not sure keys bother me that much, but if they bother you, pair this tip with keyless entry in your car and you’re home free.
  • Porch and patio storage
    If you have an outdoor area where you spend a fair amount of time, there are sure to be items that permanently reside outside.

Posted by PJ on Aug 11, 2010 | Comments Off | Tweet This

New office products: Antimicrobial file folders and bookmark index cards

My friend and professional organizer Julie Bestry recently headed to Office Depot to see what is new in the back-to-school supplies section. Her recap of the adventure introduced me to two new types of organizing products I wanted to pass along to you.

First up are Pendaflex Antimicrobial File Folders, which protect “against the growth of mold, mildew and odors.”

Pendaflex and Smead makes a similar product. These folders are perfect for businesses and homes when you expect to store a file for decades. Any business that puts documents into long-term storage would also benefit from folders such as this. If you’re not planning to store copies of printed documents for 20 or 30 years, these are probably overkill. However, they’re perfect for birth certificates, marriage certificates, etc.

The last product I want to bring to your attention are index cards with small cut-outs in them to use as bookmarks:

Oxford makes these Book Mark Cards and sells them exclusively in Office Depot brick and mortar stores. Mead’s version of the product can be found online and in many non-Office Depot office supply stores.

These bookmark index cards are great for writing in books that aren’t yours without the fear of sticky residue being left in the book, like you might experience with Sheer Colors Post-It Notes.

Have you found any great new office products in the back-to-school aisles? If so, let us know about them in the comments.

Posted by Erin on Aug 11, 2010 | 17 Comments | Tweet This

US recession changes spending priorities, doesn’t reduce spending

Michael Mandel, former chief economist at Business Week and current editor of Visible Economy, wrote yesterday about US consumer spending trends in a post on his website titled “Where Americans Are Spending More.” The post explains that since the recession began in 2007, personal consumption expenditures have actually increased:

Right there up at the top is America’s love affair with mobile devices, where spending has soared almost 17% since the recession started. Also supporting my thesis of a communications boom-spending on wired, wireless, and cable services have risen by 5%.

In addition, Americans still care about their pets, their children, their hair, and their guns.

Mandel’s post has a couple charts that show the actual numbers and percentage increases in spending as reported by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, so I highly recommend checking out the original article. In contrast to the areas of growth, it is interesting to note what segments of the market have experienced decreases:

Americans are spending a little bit less on clothing and hotels; a lot less on foreign travel, video and audio equipment (think televisions), and furniture. The big drop, though, has come in motor vehicles and associated goods and services, like gasoline.

During this recession, it’s not that consumers have stopped buying, it’s that they have stopped buying large, conspicuous, luxury goods, and have instead bought smaller, less flashy items. As a nation, we’re not really cutting back, we’re just giving the outward impression we are.

From a simple living perspective, I have mixed feelings about this report. I’m encouraged that the personal consumption increases seem to be on things that bring people together — communication, food, and caring for the people you love (child care, education, health care). However, it’s still an increase in spending. The media speaks incessantly about American society tightening their belts, but that is not really the case. Instead, it appears our consumer priorities have merely changed to smaller, less obvious purchases.

Posted by Erin on Aug 10, 2010 | 23 Comments | Tweet This

Reader weigh-in: How do you organize your clothes dresser?

I prefer to organize my clothes in a five-drawer chest of drawers based on the order I put them on: undergarments in the top two drawers, then t-shirts, pants, and finally socks in the bottom drawer. Some clients I’ve worked with prefer to organize based on weight — light undergarments and socks in top drawers, and heavier pants and t-shirts in lower drawers.

If you had a chest of drawers that had drawers side-by-side, you could store clothing from left-to-right based on how you get dressed. Or, maybe you prefer to just stick clothes in whatever drawer has space at the time so that all of your clothes are mixed together.

How do you arrange clothes in your chest of drawers? What do you believe is the most efficient method for your lifestyle? We’re interested in learning how you arrange things in your home. Share your strategy in the comments.

Posted by Erin on Aug 10, 2010 | 74 Comments | Tweet This

Hide cables in rain gutters

Reader Geogriaberry tipped us off to a terrific cable clutter solution by Jonathan Crossman. Crossman reclaimed wood to build a desk, and then outfitted the desk to specifically hide cables. He drilled “access points” (notches) to feed cables through and then attached a rain gutter to hold the cables and feed them down toward the legs.

From Crossman’s website:

In the final photograph, you can see how he lined up the leg of the desk with the outlet so all of the cables are out of sight:

Rain gutters can be purchased at any home improvement store and most stores will even cut the gutters to your specified length. If you wish to match the color of the gutter to your desk, be sure to purchase paintable gutters and the appropriate spray paint. Finally, to drill notches into your desk, you can use either a jigsaw or a sharp speed bore bit or a hole saw.

Check out Crossman’s website for more pictures and a more detailed account of the work he did to complete his desk.

(Images by Jonathan Crossman.)

Posted by Erin on Aug 9, 2010 | 7 Comments | Tweet This

Hedonic adaptation: Why buying more won’t make you happy

A Sunday New York Times discussing the happiness benefits associated with simple living in its article titled “But Will It Make You Happy?” The main point of the article is that people can easily adapt to living with less, without suffering many negative consequences, but that when we are constantly pursuing more, we have to get even more to stay happy:

Another reason that scholars contend that experiences provide a bigger pop than things is that they can’t be absorbed in one gulp — it takes more time to adapt to them and engage with them than it does to put on a new leather jacket or turn on that shiny flat-screen TV.

“We buy a new house, we get accustomed to it,” says Professor Lyubomirsky, who studies what psychologists call “hedonic adaptation,” a phenomenon in which people quickly become used to changes, great or terrible, in order to maintain a stable level of happiness.

Over time, that means the buzz from a new purchase is pushed toward the emotional norm.

“We stop getting pleasure from it,” she says.

And then, of course, we buy new things.

The phrase “hedonic adaptation” was made popular by Shane Frederick and George Loewenstein in chapter 16 of Well-being: The foundations of hedonic psychology (the article begins on page 302). Much of their research focuses on prison inmates becoming comfortable in their confined prison cells — a process that surprisingly occurs quickly — but it also looks at the growth side, when people acquire new and larger things:

Although hedonic adaptation confers enormous benefits by reducing the subjective effects of adverse conditions, it has associated costs as well. The most obvious cost of hedonic adaption is that it occurs for goods as well as bads, creating what Brickman and Campbell (1971) have called the “hedonic treadmill” — the tendency for transitory satisfactions to eventually give way to indifference or even dissatisfaction. Scitovsky (1976) comments that “the attainment of a goal seems, when the moment of triumph is over, almost like a let-down” (62). Adaption to pleasurable experiences may also be responsible for destructive addictions, which are due in part to the decreasing pleasure from a given level of a good or activity and in part to the displeasure (craving) when consumption of the good or activity ceases (see, for example, Koob et al. 1989; Loewenstein 1996).

In short, if you are constantly in pursuit of keeping up with the Joneses and conspicuously buying, you’re more likely to become addicted to shopping and feel less pleasure and happiness each time you buy. Conversely, reducing your consumption, living more simply, and focusing instead on experiences will ultimately — as this research shows — make you happier.

What also exists in this research is an explanation for why it is difficult to see your clutter the more you have. You adapt to your cluttered surroundings and become immune to its presence. (Hoarders, for example, are often in denial that they’re hoarders because they don’t see the mess.) In the text, researchers Frederick and Loewenstein liken it to how your nose becomes numb to foul odors the longer you stay in a stinky environment.

Thanks to reader Tim for bringing the New York Times article to our attention.

Posted by Erin on Aug 9, 2010 | 22 Comments | Tweet This

A year ago on Unclutterer

2009

Posted by PJ on Aug 8, 2010 | Comments Off | Tweet This

Ask Unclutterer: What should I do with old awards?

Reader Shannon submitted the following to Ask Unclutterer:

Hello! Thanks to your great blog I have been working hard at decluttering my house. In sorting old memorabilia, I have found my large collection of award ribbons from the many fairs and shows that I competed in as a youth. There are some that I plan to keep that really meant a lot to me. But I literally have a large Sterilite container full of these. Do you have any suggestions on a nice way for me to store these or some sort of way to use them? I hate to just throw them out.

Start by going through all of your awards and setting aside the ones that don’t matter much to you — participation awards, awards you won for knowing the name of the person who won, 12th place. If you have a twinge of sentimentality about these lesser accolades, snap a photograph of them before getting them out of your home.

If you live near a medal and trophy shop, give the shop a call and find out if they recycle these items. Some stores will melt down the metal, affix a new nameplate and a different bowler to the top of a trophy, and repurpose old ribbons (fingernail polish remover takes off old text). I also know that the shop in my hometown donates refurbished medals and such to non-profit organizations for fundraising events — the shop sands off “3rd Place Best of Show” and replaces it with “1st Place 5K Walk/Run.”

If you don’t live near a medal and trophy shop, give a call to some of your favorite charities and teachers to see if they could use them. When I was a teacher, I gave away funny awards to my students on paper plates. Actual ribbons and medals would have been a lot of fun to distribute instead. (“I know it says ’2nd Place Rabbit’ on it, but that is teacher code for ‘Perfect Attendance.’”)

After sorting, you have numerous options for what to do with the ones you have chosen to keep. If most of them are ribbons and lightweight, you could put them in a scrapbook. A couple readers suggested in the comments to “Ask Unclutterer: What to do with diplomas” about creating fun fame walls. Hang up the diplomas alongside the 4-H awards and other blasts from the past. If you have children, frame up their school awards, too. A shadow box could work well if you want to keep all of your awards together.

Or, you could do what I did, and lump them all into a zip-top bag and toss them into a memorabilia box. As long as you limit yourself to one, relatively small box of trinkets, I think it’s fine to store such happy, nostalgic things. I think of this box as a scrapbook for someone who doesn’t scrapbook. Edit wisely before putting something into this box, though. It should only be for the best of the best. Being uncluttered doesn’t mean you have no objects of your past, but it should mean you only have the really great stuff with you in the present.

Thank you, Shannon, for submitting your question for our Ask Unclutterer column. Check out the comments for even more award storage suggestions.

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

Posted by Erin on Aug 6, 2010 | 24 Comments | Tweet This

Workspace of the Week: Homework helper

This week’s Workspace of the Week is ThatTrain’s simplified workspace. To give you an idea of the work invested in the transformation, start with the …

Before:

And now, the After:

The calm I feel looking at the second picture is noticeable, I can only imagine that serenity is tenfold for ThatTrain. An amazing improvement. From the description of the After photograph:

… compared to the atrocity it was before … it not only looks better, but it’s actually functional (doing homework on the keyboard tray just wasn’t cutting it for me).

My favourite part of the change is that I now actually have a place to do work. Slide the laptop over a little bit and all of a sudden I actually have a place to spread out my books and papers. Oh, and throwing in the new desktop with a new 23″ monitor doesn’t hurt either.

Thank you, ThatTrain, for submitting your office makeover to our Flickr group. The space looks wonderful.

Want to have your own workspace featured in Workspace of the Week? Submit a picture to the Unclutterer flickr pool. Check it out because we have a nice little community brewing there. Also, don’t forget that workspaces aren’t just desks. If you’re a cook, it’s a kitchen; if you’re a carpenter, it’s your workbench.

Posted by Erin on Aug 6, 2010 | 16 Comments | Tweet This