Unclutterer

Workspace of the Week: Side-by-side desks

This week’s Workspace of the Week is Lady Reynolds’ his and her office:

I like how this office uses the vertical space to keep paperwork and projects off the desk tops. And, the way the projects are displayed is a great solution for visual processors. I think the desks and chairs are from Ikea and the notes on the picture say that all of the clipboards were picked up from a thrift store. The magazine racks on the wall that were repurposed for files are also a great way to free up workspace. Thank you, Lady Reynolds, for your submission to our flickr pool.

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

Popularity: 2% [?]

Nov 20, 2009 | 1 Comment | Tweet This

Ask Unclutterer: Selling something with an unknown value

Reader Allison submitted the following to Ask Unclutterer:

This question may be slightly outside the range of uncluttering, but I thought I’d give it a shot. I have a wooden chair that was designed around (his picture is painted on it) and autographed by a well-known rock musician. It’s a really cool piece, but having a piece of furniture I don’t use seems really silly to me now.

I purchased it at a charity auction several years ago. I am curious about trying to sell it. The problem I have is that I can no longer find the certificate of authenticity. I suspect I didn’t keep it as I didn’t think I would ever EVER want to get rid of the chair. I paid a fairly significant price and if I sell it, I would at least like to break even. Do you have any suggestions for how to go about selling such an item? I’m concerned that people won’t pay much without some guarantee that it’s authentic.

The charity that sponsored the auction seems to no longer exist, but I am still trying to make a few calls.

Thanks for any advice you can provide!

Allison, your question is a lot of fun — and its answer is relevant to more people than you might imagine.

Irrespective of if you have the paperwork or get in touch with someone from the original auction house, you should take the chair to an appraiser who can check it out and let you know it’s worth. If you don’t know an appraiser, I recommend checking out the American Society of Appraisers website’s Find an Appraiser search tool. Even if you aren’t in the US, they have resources beyond our borders.

Contacting a reputable appraiser is always a good idea. Many Unclutterer readers contact me about being responsible for sorting through a loved one’s things after a death and wonder how to handle the estate. The first thing to do, before neighbors and siblings and extended family members start loading things into a truck, is to have an appraiser come in and talk to you about what is there. Appraisers are good people to know.

Thank you, Allison, for submitting your question for our Ask Unclutterer column. I hope that you are successful in getting rid of your chair for a fair price. Also, I hope that in the future, you keep your hands on the paper documentation because the paperwork often improves the amount you can get for something and helps when having an object’s value determined for insurance coverage.

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.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Nov 6, 2009 | 13 Comments | Tweet This

Organizing medical billings and paperwork

Professional organizer Julie Bestry speaks from personal experience on how to organize medical billings and paperwork to avoid bankruptcy in her article “Don’t Let Hospital Billing Errors Bleed You Dry“:

Harvard University research indicates that approximately 62% of U.S. personal bankruptcies are caused by unaffordable medical bills. Given that, it’s vital to keep track of medical billing, particularly hospital billing, to make sure you are being charged a fair and accurate amount. In fact, some medical billing experts believe that up to 80% of all hospital and medical bills contain at least one error, underlining the importance of vigilance in scrutinizing your medical billing paperwork.

She discusses how to detect errors in your bills and also has a wonderful guide to how to organize this paperwork:

• Vital Signs: Organizing For A Medical Emergency, Part 1
• Vital Signs: Gathering Information During/After A Medical Emergency–Part 2
• Vital Signs: Maintaining Your Family’s Medical Records–Part 1 (Paper)
• Vital Signs: Maintaining Your Family’s Medical Records–Part 2 (Digital)

These five posts are a fantastic resource. Again, this is a time when I hope that you won’t ever have to use this information.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Oct 6, 2009 | 14 Comments | Tweet This

Workspace of the Week: Minimalist workstation duet

This week’s Workspace of the Week is hey.brad’s part-time pit stop:

Not every home office needs to be a dedicated room lined with bookshelves and large pieces of wood furniture. In fact, if you work at an office during the day, a small work station may completely meet your needs at home. This week’s selection is perfect for people who don’t have a lot of space, paperwork, and/or digital needs. In this office, you can pay the bills, answer a few e-mails, and leave the heavy office work at your job. Hey.brad built a space that does all that it needs to do. A setup like this would also be nice in an entryway to a home to get mail handled before it comes further into your home. Thank you, hey.brad, for your inventive addition 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.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Jun 5, 2009 | 17 Comments | Tweet This

Ability to delay gratification can help with routine maintenance

In the 1960s, 653 children were given a marshmallow by psychology researchers at Stanford University. The children were told that they could eat the marshmallow right away, or they could wait 15 minutes to eat it and receive a second marshmallow as a reward.

Based on how they performed in the experiment, they were rated on a scale from low delayers (kids who ate the marshmallow instantly) to high delayers (kids who waited the 15 minutes and received a second marshmallow). Over the next 40 years, these children have been tracked by Stanford researchers. And, to many people’s surprise, there has been significant correlation between rates of drug abuse, S.A.T. scores, body-mass index, stress management, career success, and ability to maintain friendships to how the children performed on this simple marshmallow experiment.

Children who were high delayers were the ones to achieve more success in life than their low delayer classmates. In fact, a child “who could wait fifteen minutes had an S.A.T. score that was, on average, two hundred and ten points higher than that of the kid who could wait only thirty seconds.” According to the article “Don’t! The secret of self-control” in the May 18 issue of The New Yorker:

For decades, psychologists have focussed on raw intelligence as the most important variable when it comes to predicting success in life. [Walter] Mischel [the Stanford professor of psychology in charge of the experiment] argues that intelligence is largely at the mercy of self-control: even the smartest kids still need to do their homework. “What we’re really measuring with the marshmallows isn’t will power or self-control,” Mischel says. “It’s much more important than that. This task forces kids to find a way to make the situation work for them. They want the second marshmallow, but how can they get it? We can’t control the world, but we can control how we think about it.”

The article and research does point out that there were some students in the study who transformed from low delayers into high delayers over the course of 40 years. The scientists have since concluded that delaying gratification is a skill that can be learned, simply by practicing specific techniques (some are described in the article).

So what does this have to do with uncluttering? Good question. An essential component to maintaining an uncluttered life is having routines in place that keep the clutter out of your home and office and the self control and diligence to systematically complete the routines. These are routines to process mail, do daily chores, create meal plans, and process paperwork and actions as they come across your desk. Doing these not-so-fun tasks everyday ultimately pay off because you have more time and less stress in your life overall. Thirty minutes of chores and routines each week night gives you two free days on the weekend. You delay gratification for an even larger reward.

If you have difficulty maintaining routines to keep clutter out of your life, I recommend that you check out this article. You can learn and practice these skills so that you, too, can live a remarkable, uncluttered life. If you’re already a master at self control, the article still makes for a very fascinating read.

Popularity: 10% [?]

May 26, 2009 | 17 Comments | Tweet This

Six tips for going paperless

Please welcome Mark W. Shead, who blogs once a week on the informative Productivity501.com. He is a business management consultant focusing on using technology to streamline businesses.

I have been moving toward a paperless office for two reasons. First the amount of paper in my life continues to grow each year and I’ve grown tired of spending so much effort just wrangling physical paper. Second I spend a lot of time on the road. It is nice to have access to all my files whether I’m in working in my office in Kansas or waiting for powder to fall in Colorado.

The move to paperless has been an interesting experiment and I’ve been amazed at just how attached I have become to the pieces of paper I have saved over the years. Here are some tips for people looking to make a similar transition.

1. Scan what makes sense – Go for the biggest bang for your buck. It doesn’t make sense to scan every single book you own, but it does make sense to scan in your bills, receipts and insurance paperwork.
2. Give yourself time to adjust – You are probably going to find yourself very attached to your papers. I got over this by creating a “to shred” set of files. I kept the paper around until I was comfortable with my electronic access to it and was ok with shredding it.
3. Backup, backup, backup – Make sure you have a reliable way of backing up your data. Not only do you need to back your data up, you have to test it as well. Also make sure you store your backups in a safe place. I keep one backup in my office and another encrypted on Amazon’s servers using Jungle Disk. That way if a flood or fire destroys my computer and backup hard drive, I can still get my data back.
4. Get some help – If you have a lot of paper to scan consider hiring someone to help. A high school or college student can go through quite a stack of papers in a few afternoons. The worst part of switching to paperless is when half of your data is on paper and the other half is digital. Getting a bit of help initially can make your system much more useful to you right away.
5. Think “Where will I look for this?” – There are many ways to file your scanned documents. When you are designing your system, make sure you don’t fall into the trap of thinking “Where should I put this?” You need design you system around the question “How will I look for this?”
6. Don’t skimp on your scanner – The ScanSnap is one of the best scanners for the money. You want to make sure you don’t get something that requires putting each page, one at a time, on a flat bed. If it is too much trouble to scan in a new piece of paper, you won’t do it.

Popularity: 12% [?]

Apr 15, 2009 | 23 Comments | Tweet This

Ask Unclutterer: Exhausted after work

Reader Juliana submitted the following to Ask Unclutterer:

How do you stay on top of your chores if both members of the household work demanding jobs all day? There’s no way we can afford a housekeeper and we are both exhausted at the end of the day. By the weekend, things have piled up to an overwhelming level and I feel like it’s too much to handle. Help!

Oh, Juliana, I know exactly how you’re feeling, and I’m sure a number of our readers do, too. After a long day of work the last thing you want to do are chores, and when the weekend arrives you want to do something more remarkable than clean. There have been many times when I have wished for a maid/house manager/fairy godmother.

• My first piece of advice is to set aside a weekend to simply catch up with all of the stuff around your house. In the days leading up to this weekend, tell everyone that you’re going out of town, stock up on groceries, and clear your entire schedule. Then, wake up early on Saturday morning and get down to business. Clean your place from top-to-bottom, inside-and-out, and do all of the big stuff that just has to get done. On Sunday evening, celebrate your efforts by going out to a dinner where someone else is responsible for doing the dishes.
• Once you have this clean slate, then you can get started on a daily maintenance routine that takes little effort and leaves your weekends free for your remarkable life.
• Your routine first needs to include a landing strip. You need an area where you can come in after a long day at work and immediately process items. Put a trash can and paper shredder in this space so that mail and paperwork are immediately handled (especially since you don’t want to sacrifice weekend time doing this). Have hooks for coats and hats, and designated spaces for your keys, bags, etc. Put all of your charging equipment for your cell phone in this space, and plug in your phone the minute you walk in the door. The landing strip provides a space for your things, and also makes it a breeze to leave your house in the morning for work.
• Next up, commit to doing exactly 30 minutes of cleanup a night. You may do best if you do this 30 minutes right when you get home, or it may work for you right after dinner. Yes, you’re exhausted, but if you remind yourself that 30 minutes now will save you two whole weekend days, it’s pretty easy to keep moving. I have a “cleaning” mix on my iPod that is 30 minutes of fast tempo songs. I play it while I clean to motivate me.
• Designate specific rooms for specific days, such as Mondays = Kitchen, Tuesdays = Bathrooms, Wednesdays = Bedroom, Thursdays = Living Room, and Fridays = Living/Family Room. Do a general 10 minute pick up around the house, but then spend 20 minutes really focusing on just one room. With both of you working together, you’ll be surprised by how much you accomplish. You’ll also reap the benefit of having your weekends free of chores.
• If you watch television as a way to relax, invest in a DVR. You can do the cleaning while a favorite show is recording, and then start it half-way into the program and watch the show without commercials.
• Finally, here are more time-saving tips and suggestions for establishing routines from our archives. And, remember to get ready for bed half-an-hour or an hour before you plan to go to sleep. Your clothes are more likely to hit the hamper, and shoes/belts/jackets are more likely to get put away properly.

Thank you, Juliana, for submitting your question for our Ask Unclutterer column. I hope we helped a little to solve your problem.

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.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Jan 16, 2009 | 43 Comments | Tweet This

Workspace of the Week: Wall writing

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

I chose this office because it does such a terrific job at putting the wall space behind the desk to functional use. The multi-month calendars, the magnetic chalk board, and the bulletin boards act as an information center for their user. The tickler file at the left of the desk is a great idea for organizing outgoing paperwork with time-sensitive information. The lack of a power cord for the laptop confuses me (where is the power source?), but overall it looks like a highly functional and organized space. Thank you, Hillary, for your submission to our flickr pool.

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

Popularity: 8% [?]

Jan 9, 2009 | 8 Comments | Tweet This

A year ago on Unclutterer

• Uncluttered ideas from the 2008 Ikea Catalog
  Many space-saving and organization products are contained in the pages of the most recent Ikea catalog.
• After the yard sale
  The most important thing we succeeded in doing was getting rid of a ton of stuff we don’t use anymore.
• Peter Walsh was in a barbershop Quartet® in Skokie, Illinois
  Uncluttering guru Peter Walsh visited the Niles Wal*Mart Monday as the first stop on his nine city “The Organized Home” tour
• Reader question: How should I store my fabric stash?
  Advice for how to store and keep a fabric stash organized.
• Unitasker Wednesday: Spinney the wind-up hopping desk sculpture
  I guess its “task” is hopping on your desk and entertaining you.
• Wall mounted system for storing fishing poles
  Fishing poles, fencing foils, and pool cues can find a home on your wall with this storage system.
• Managing collegiate paperwork
  How to manage the constant flow of paperwork associated with college life.
• iMuffs remove personal cable clutter
  I recently talked to an owner of a set of iMuffs and he seemed genuinely happy about his purchase. I am considering investing in a pair.
• Resource list for inherited clutter
  Provided is a resource list of books and an organization that may be of benefit when handling inherited clutter.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Aug 17, 2008 | Comment | Tweet This

Organized interior design advice from Decor8 editor Holly Becker

If you followed the link yesterday to the new Real Simple website, you saw that we have a partner in the Home and Organizing community. Holly Becker, author of the electrifying blog Decor8, writes about interior design and style on the days when we’re not discussing organizing. Since this is the month of sharing at Unclutterer and Decor8 is one of our favorite blogs, we asked Holly to share some of her gifted design advice with us on the topic of organization. Holly provides many incredible links in her interview, so be sure to follow them for artistic motivation. Our appreciation, too, goes to Holly for taking the time to talk with us!

Unclutterer: “Inspiring” is a word that often comes to mind when I read your site. The images and articles you present help me to imagine great things for my space. What are your favorite pieces of inspiration you’ve written about on your site?

Holly: I’m very curious and extroverted and I naturally enjoy meeting people, so I have to say interviewing creative men and women who are following their dreams (always inspiring!) along with shop and home tours of decor8 readers are the pieces I really enjoy writing. Mari Eriksson, YippieYeah, Enna, Nest Decorating, and Selina Lake are a few of my recent favorites. I also love to write random decor-related pieces, like Power Poufs, Doily Love, and I Dream of Cake. I like to mix things up, so I don’t adhere to strict schedules and run very few “regular columns” with the exception of Etsy: Take Five Tuesdays and Color Me Mondays. I don’t want to make things too formal, when I wake up in the morning it is then that I decide what I’ll write about. Very little is prepared in advance, it’s all on a whim just as I believe blogging for me should be – creative journaling. It’s a blog afterall, not a magazine.

Unclutterer: How can color be integrated into an organization system?

Holly: Through labeling! Adding fancy hang tags to storage boxes and labeling magazine files with colorful labels is pretty and helpful. (For fancy hang tags, shop Elfrida.) Some like to organize their book spines by color, not the best way to locate your books but it sure is pretty and all the rage right now! Use “day of the week” clips to organize your work, Susy Jack makes some great ones. You can also cover your boring corkboard with a favorite fabric or wrapping paper. Use canvas storage boxes with handles like these from Hable Construction for concealing and storing bottled water in the kitchen. Wire and clothes pegs help to organize photos and cards on a wall or add your favorite wallpaper to empty oatmeal containers to store odds and ends. Try chalkboard paint and colored chalk so you can write your schedule directly on the wall … The list goes on and on. Look at everything you own twice before you donate it to charity — see if it can be used for something other than what it was intended for.

Unclutterer: What is your favorite organization tool? (A tool can be anything that helps you to achieve a more organized life … it doesn’t have to be a tangible object.)

Holly: Finding a schedule that works for you and sticking with it. I am working on practicing what I preach! As fas as advice goes on getting organized, hire out for help if you’re in over your head. I’ve done this in the past and it saved me. Hire a cleaning lady or a personal organizer, even a decorator, if you need to clean the slate and start from scratch. Sometimes you just need another person to step into your space and give you some encouragement and advice. Once they leave, you can get started on maintaining things which, based on my own personal experience, is a lot easier than starting a project on your own.

Unclutterer: Images you post that are representations of the shabby chic even appear to be organized and purposefully dressed. Do you find that good design (of any style) and an uncluttered environment go hand-in-hand?

Holly: Not always, I have visited apartments in Paris that were over-the-top cluttered but somehow worked. I’ve also worked with some of the most brilliant executives in Boston who manage to work successfully despite the layers of endless paperwork and books in their office. They knew where everything was in their paper mountains and that’s all that seemed to matter! An uncluttered environment may not be for everyone, but it’s certainly the best for me. Shabby Chic, Eclectic Bohemian, Mid-Century Modern, Hollywood Regency, they are by no means minimalistic, but the key is that everything you see in photos from your favorite magazines is styled to perfection. All items are arranged well, so clutter isn’t termed clutter anymore if it’s pulled together according to a theme on a mantel or credenza. It’s only clutter if it’s thrown around without any thought put into its placement or has no practical reason for being there. Having less isn’t always the goal in some of these styles, having less clutter is.

Unclutterer: A lot of our readers are parents who are looking for ways to keep their kid clutter at bay, but still make their homes a place where their children feel comfortable. Do you have any suggestions for these readers?

Holly: I’m not a mother but I am a daughter and from experience as a child — please parents let the kids be kids. I can’t stress how important it is to allow them the space needed to be creative and explore their inner artist. It’s also important to train them to be organized, but not to be so concerned with perfection that it stomps out their creativity. Carve out spaces in the home where the kids can make a mess – a play area in a living room, a nook in the kitchen, or if you have space, an entire playroom. Of course, their bedroom should be where they play, so most of their toys and such should be kept in their bedroom. Make clean-up time fun — have mini contests (see who can clean up first), or create charts with chores and boxes where they can check off what they’ve done that week — the end of week the chart is reviewed and if all the chores were taken care of then the child is awarded with a trip to the zoo, park, or something else where the parent can spend time with them. When it was time to clean in my house, my mother made it fun. She’d play music and sing – just like Cinderella! It was so cute but it motivated me to get involved.

Unclutterer: Of all of the jobs that you could have, why have you chosen to blog about interior design? What is it you love about this subject?

Holly: I didn’t select blogging as a job, I think it selected me! I started blogging before design blogs were running ads and became a source of income or a hot new business. When I started blogging, I only knew about a few blogs (3 total) and that was it. It was an exciting way for me to catalog the finds I sourced for my design clients back then, and it grew into being a source for design aficionados all over the world to tap into. It’s exciting and though I earn a living through blogging now, I don’t consider it a job. It’s still my creative outlet where I can be myself and enjoy the company of other creative types online and for me, that’s all that matters.

Popularity: 14% [?]

Mar 5, 2008 | 3 Comments | Tweet This

Reader suggestion: Staying organized with binder clips

Reader Christine, author of the blog Compass and Coffee Spoons, has a terrific little suggestion for staying on top of paperwork. A traditional tickler file didn’t work for her, so she found a system that did. After learning about her process, I asked if she could write up a post for us explaining it. Thank you, Christine, for sharing your tip with us!

Like most people, I am constantly battling the paper monster. Though I am making strides in going digital, I had been struggling on how to organize the things I still receive as hard copies. Inevitably, there are things that need to be filed, paid, or acted upon in some way at some time that does not exactly coincide with the moment I first touch them. For me, letter sorters didn’t work — the papers would end up avalanching all over the place or would be sorted incorrectly. I had tried and failed to use a “to do” file folder; I personally benefit from visible reminders and would easily forget about them when I filed the papers.

After seeing small binder clips with “to do” and other similar words printed on them, I was inspired to create my own using regular large binder clips and a labelmaker. I printed labels on my labelmaker that read “To Do,” “To File,” and “To Pay,” placed them on the binder clips, and hung the clips on sleek aluminum pushpins on the inside of my coat closet door. The papers are out of sight when I want them to be, but serve as a visual reminder for all my “to dos” each time I open my closet door. The size of the clip also creates a limit to how long I can put off the inevitable.

This idea can be applied in various ways, of course. I can see it working on a bulletin board or wall in a home office, or inside of kitchen cabinets. (Magnetic spring clips could be substituted on a chalk board or other magnetic surface.) You might want to have one by the front door for papers you must bring with you when you travel. This would also be a good way to organize kids’ homework or household information you need to frequently access (for that application, I could see laminated sheets on a ring, with the clips as identifiers). You could also use color-coding — either painting them yourself on regular black binder clips or by purchasing clips in various colors. No matter where, why, or how, it’s a cheap and easy idea that can help you be a little less paper-crazed.

Popularity: 26% [?]

Feb 25, 2008 | 27 Comments | Tweet This

Weekend project

I want you to imagine your dining room table right now. Is it covered in paperwork? Piled high with homework? Stacked with mail or dirty dishes?

If you can’t see the top of your dining room table, what do you need to do to be able to see it?

Whatever it is, do it now. Clean the clutter off of your table and make it a place where you can sit down and eat your meal tonight (and tomorrow and the next …).

If your table is clear, are there other horizontal surfaces in your home cluttered to the point that they aren’t serving their functions? If this is the case, clean the clutter off of those surfaces instead for your weekend task.

When clearing the clutter, don’t just move stacks around, actually take the time to do the job right. Do the work, then enjoy the benefits of your effort!

Pictured is my dining room. The table is by sculptor Michael Sirvet.

Popularity: 25% [?]

Feb 15, 2008 | 34 Comments | Tweet This | Tags: dining, table

Reader question: What should I store in a fireproof box?

Reader Hunter sent us the following question:

I know you’ve dealt a bit with managing paperwork and paper in general, but I haven’t seen anything about what to keep in a fireproof box. I’ve decided I need one (hopefully a small one) and want to be sure that I keep the most important (and only the most important) things in it. Any suggestions? Keep up the good work.

Hunter, this topic is larger than you might imagine. In an attempt to answer your question, I’m going to break my response into two separate posts: 1. Contents for a fireproof box, and 2. Purchasing literal and digital fireproof boxes.

First, let’s address what should be stored in a fireproof box. My recommendations are based on what will be the most beneficial to have immediately following a home fire or in an emergency. Most of the items on this list can actually be replaced, but having to replace them will cause you significant time and unnecessary stress.

As a second component to the home fireproof box, I also recommend having a hard-drive stored at an off-site location. In my next post on this topic, I’ll discuss the reasoning behind the second system.

Items I recommend you store in a home fireproof box:

• Current passport
• Birth certificate
• Social security card
• Property titles
• Insurance policies
• A list of bank and credit card account numbers
• Copies of prescriptions for life-supporting medications
• Spare keys to your car

Items I recommend you store digitally on a hard drive at a secure, off-site location:

• Scans of photo negatives and videos that you would be devastated to lose (like wedding photos and videos)
• Scans of your titles and insurance policies
• Scan of your Last Will and Testament
• Scans of your passport, birth certificate, and social security card
• Scans of prescriptions for your life-supporting medications
• A text file containing your bank and credit card account numbers
• A recent backup of important computer documents
• Photos of the interior and exterior of your home taken within the last four months
• Recent photos of your pets

Stay tuned for my second post in this series where I’ll discuss preferred ratings and features of fireproof boxes and off-site digital hard drive storage.

Popularity: 17% [?]

Aug 23, 2007 | 14 Comments | Tweet This

Managing collegiate paperwork

Reader Cody wrote to us a few weeks ago asking if we had any back-to-school advice for college students. Matt started our response to this question by addressing ways to organize a dorm room. Now, I’m going to discuss managing the constant flow of paperwork associated with college life.

My first piece of advice is to get your hands on Captio’s CollegeCase or a similar product. I wish I would have had something like this back in my undergraduate days. In times of emergencies, being this organized would have really helped. If you’re ever burglarized, in a car wreck, curious as to which cafeterias your meal plan includes, you can find all of these answers in one well-designed notebook.

Continue reading this post »

Popularity: 9% [?]

Aug 16, 2007 | 21 Comments | Tweet This

Peter Walsh answers questions for Unclutterer.com

Peter Walsh is an organizational giant. His books It’s All Too Much! and How to Organize Just About Everything, his television show Clean Sweep on TLC, and his radio show every Friday on XM Satellite Radio (XM156) inspire people to live uncluttered lives. Walsh is an essential resource for anyone looking to bring more order and less chaos into their world, and he is a bit of a hero in these parts.

Peter Walsh recently took time out of his busy schedule to participate in an interview with Unclutterer.com. His answers are informative and motivational, and we hope that you find them as wonderfully inspiring as we do.

Unclutterer: In your book It’s All Too Much!, you indicate that you have walked away from projects when people value their possessions over their relationships. Isn’t this type of unhealthy prioritization at the root of most people’s clutter problems?

Peter Walsh: Clutter comes in many forms and the reasons why people hold onto it is similarly complex. There are two main types of clutter: Memory Clutter – which reminds one of an important person, or achievement or event from the past – and I-Might-Need-It-One-Day Clutter – this is the stuff held onto in preparation for all possible futures that one might encounter. Keeping things from the past or sensible planning for the future are great things – it’s when the objects take over that there’s a problem. With many of the people I encounter, their primary relationship is with their stuff. Instead of owning their stuff, their stuff owns them. This clearly is not only unhealthy but also a real stumbling block to happiness and a fulfilling life. If your stuff is causing problems in your life or relationships it’s time to do something about it!

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Popularity: 15% [?]

Jun 22, 2007 | 14 Comments | Tweet This

Use a good shredder to eliminate unnecessary paper

One of my favorite parts of decluttering is shredding unnecessary paper. In fact, I love to shred paper. I think my love affair with the paper shredder is held in the destructive power of one small button. I flip a switch, and my papers are torn into tiny little bits! Bwah hah ha …

Unfortunately, I can’t shred ALL papers. There are some papers in the filing cabinet that actually need to be kept. I have developed a list of these essential papers, and I would like to share it with you.

Before we get to the list, though, I need to start by saying that cross-cut shredders that are able to destroy credit cards and staples are the best for personal security reasons. As a result, I recommend the following: Fellowes PowerShredder PS-77Cs for higher-volume shredding households and the QuikFinish ShredderShark SH8CDCC for lower-volume shredding households.

Also, if a lawyer, accountant, or special circumstance directs you to retain more information or paperwork for a longer period of time, you need to follow that advice! What I have compiled is just a standard list that should be tailored to your specific situation.

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Popularity: 19% [?]

May 7, 2007 | 28 Comments | Tweet This