Archives for Books

Assorted items for July 14, 2010

Some interesting things to share:

  • I’m recording an interview about uncluttering for Renew You that should be available this Friday through next Tuesday. Renew You 2010 was a conference that occurred earlier this summer, and every few weeks the organizer of the conference sends out links to new interviews to conference attendees and people who register for the mailing list. The interviews are targeted toward women, but the information I’ll be giving is applicable for anyone. The e-mail list is free, but there are pay-to-listen areas of the site that have some cost associated with them. You shouldn’t have to pay anything to hear my piece on uncluttering. The interview should be about an hour long, so sign up if you’re interested in hearing my talk.
  • “TV business kisses HDMI goodbye” on the THINQ site leaves me with mixed feelings. I’m glad multiple manufacturers are coming together and establishing a standard cable, but it means we will all have to buy new cables. Not sure it’s simplifying anything.
  • Author Harlan Ellison decided to purge and auction off the majority of his book collection, including a signed birthday present from Neil Gaiman. The following link includes a profane word or two, but is still an interesting read about uncluttering your bookshelves: “The Great Ellison Book Purge” on the AV Club.
  • Have many errands to run at once? Lorie Marrero recommends the “optimal route planner” Route4me to determine the shortest route to take.
  • The website FreelanceSwitch offers terrific project management advice in its post “The Swiss Cheese Method of Project Scheduling.” The article is geared toward freelance programmers, but is applicable to anyone budgeting her time.

Posted by Erin on Jul 14, 2010 | 6 Comments | Tweet This

Moleskine notebooks for Kindles

Moleskine has introduced a great new product for Kindle owners — the Moleskine Kindle Cover with Reporter-Style Notebook:

I like it because it’s a terrific theft deterrent. While a Kindle is enticing to would-be thieves, a scribbled-in journal holds much less appeal. Since its exterior is identical to that of a regular Moleskine notebook, it doesn’t call attention to itself the way other Kindle covers do:

My guess is that the Moleskine company will go on to create similar products like this one for the Apple iPad and maybe the Nook and Sony Ebook Reader. At least, I hope they do. Electronic book readers are fantastic ways to reduce clutter on bookshelves. I also recommend audio books to anyone looking for ways to reduce the number of books taking up shelf space in your home.

Until Moleskine comes out with other book-reader notebooks, check out this hack for creating your own and other cool things to do with a Moleskine notebook, via Treehugger.

Posted by Erin on Jun 21, 2010 | 24 Comments | Tweet This

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.

Posted by Erin on Jun 10, 2010 | 37 Comments | Tweet This

Book review: Stuff

Hoarding specialists Randy Frost and Gail Steketee recently published Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things that explores the psychological world of hoarding. In the book, the components of the hoarding disorder are explained through case studies, and the authors also provide many examples to illustrate where a hoarder’s actions diverge from those of a healthy individual.

The book is written in a positive and conversational tone that shows compassion for the subjects who are described in the case studies. The authors refrain from using judgmental language and shock-and-awe descriptions, which I find very refreshing, and instead focus on accurately portraying the complex world of hoarding.

Since the book was released, the authors have been interviewed quite a bit in the media, and these interviews cover a general sense of the text of the book. I recommend reading the Time article “Hoarding: How Collecting Stuff Can Destroy Your Life” and the transcript of the author’s NPR interview to get a big-picture view of the book’s content.

At Unclutterer, we are very open about our posts not being targeted toward people who are hoarders, but rather toward mentally healthy individuals who struggle with disorganization and want to learn more about simple living. Stuff does an excellent job of defining hoarding and describing the disorder, and I wanted to share some examples from the text with you –

From pg. 21: “The sense of emotional attachment that Irene [a hoarder profiled in chapter 1] felt for her possessions has been shared with us [the authors] over and over by people seeking help with their hoarding problems. These sentiments are really not that different from what most of us feel about keepsakes or souvenirs — the abnormality lies not in the nature of the attachments, but in their intensity and extremely broad scope. I find many articles of interest in the newspaper, but their value to me is reduced when piles of newspapers begin to impinge on my living space and overwhelm my ability to read what I have collected. For Irene, the value of these things seem unaffected by the trouble they caused.”

From pgs. 31-32: “Hoarding appeared to result, at least in part, from deficits in processing information. Making decisions about whether to keep and how to organize objects requires categorization skills, confidence in one’s ability to remember, and sustained attention. To maintain order, one also needs the ability to efficiently assess the value or utility of an object.”

From pg. 101: “Sentimentalizing objects — giving them emotional significance because of their association with important people or events — is not unusual. We all do it — ticket stubs from a favorite concert, pieces of a long ago wedding cake, a scrap of paper with a child’s first drawing. In this respect, what happens in hoarding is not out of the ordinary. The difference for Irene and Debra [two hoarders featured in the book], as for many hoarders, is that intense emotional meaning is attached to so many of their possessions, even otherwise ordinary things, even trash. Their special ability to see uniqueness and value where others don’t may stem from inquisitive and creative minds and contribute to this attachment. The desire to ‘experience everything’ may expand the range of attachments hoarders enjoy.”

From pg. 93: “Hoarding affords many of its sufferers the illusion of control and replaces fear with a feeling of safety.”

From pgs. 147-148: “While some hoarders, such as Ralph [a hoarder profiled in the text], become captivated by the possibilities in things, others are trapped by the fear of wasting them. Both types would save [a] rusty bucket with [a] hole in it, but for different reasons. For Ralph, imagining uses for the rusty bucket brought him joy. Anita, a participant in one of our treatment studies, spent little time thinking about possibilities, but a great deal of time worrying and feeling guilty about waste. For her the bucket would bring pain as she thought about what a wasteful person she would be if she discarded it.”

From pg. 155: “In one of our recent studies of people with hoarding problems, we found … hoarders were unusually sensitive to even small amounts of anxiety.”

From pg. 157: “Anxiety is not the only emotion hoarders seek to avoid. Most people, hoarders and non-hoarders alike, attempt to alleviate or preempt grief and sadness. Anyone who has stayed in a bad relationship or a bad job or has delayed breaking bad news to a friend can understand the urge. The difference with hoarders is a matter of scope: the number of sources for these feelings and the intensity of the feelings themselves, as well as the lengths to which they’ll go to protect themselves, are unusually great.”

From pgs. 214-215: “At this point, geneticists are betting that hoarding has at least some significant genetic cause, but exactly what is inherited is not clear. One possibility is that hoarders inherit deficits or different ways of processing information. Perhaps they inherit an intense perceptual sensitivity to visual details, such as the shapes and colors of Irene’s bottle caps. These visual details (overlooked by the rest of us) give objects special meaning and value to them. Or perhaps they inherit a tendency for the brain to store and retrieve memories differently. If visual cues (i.e., objects) are necessary for hoarders’ retrieval of memories, then getting rid of those cues is the same as losing their memories. Whatever is inherited, it is likely that some kind of emotional vulnerability must accompany this tendency in order for full-blown hoarding to develop.”

If you are interested in learning more about hoarding, I greatly recommend picking up Stuff.

Posted by Erin on May 10, 2010 | 9 Comments | Tweet This

Review of Your Money: The missing manual

J.D. Roth, who writes the educational and extremely valuable personal finance blog GetRichSlowly.org, just published Your Money: The missing manual with O’Reilly books. The book is filled with charts, graphs, checklists, guides, and explanations that explore the basics and advanced methods of personal finance — all with Roth’s simple ease and charm.

The book begins with a quote from George Mallory that aptly reflects the focus of the text:

“We do not live to eat and make money. We eat and make money to be able to live. That is what life means and what life is for.”

Roth’s financial philosophy is based on the premise that you have to spend less than you earn. Regular readers of this website know that this is also a fundamental rule of being an Unclutterer. If you spend more than you earn, your thoughts will consistently be focused on anxieties (clutter) about money instead of on what matters to you most. Roth details how to get out of debt, spend less than you earn, and save money for the future (saving also means that you alleviate worries about your financial future).

One of the highlights for me is on page 95 of Your Money: The missing manual. Here, Roth presents a flowchart created by April Dykman that she “created to help her stay on track while shopping.” I think all Unclutterers should have this chart tattooed on their forearms (I jest. Please don’t get a tattoo of this.):

I’m also fond of the section titled “The Tyranny of Stuff,” which is perfectly suited for Unclutterers. In short, Roth’s premise in this section is if you “own less stuff” you will spend less on new acquisitions as well as maintaining the stuff you choose to own — less clutter, less storage space, less to clean, and less wasted money on unnecessary purchases.

In addition to the book, if you aren’t familiar with Roth’s blog GetRichSlowly.org, I also recommend you check it out. Money Magazine named it one of the top two financial advice sites on the internet. Roth knows very well how to get rid of cluttered finances. I give his new book two thumbs up.

Posted by Erin on Mar 29, 2010 | 13 Comments | Tweet This

Kindle software available for Mac users

I know that not everyone is on board with reading electronic books as a way to control over-flowing bookshelves, but if you are, you might be happy to know that Kindle software is now available for Mac.

Just like it is on the iPhone, the software is free to download. It provides easy access to Amazon’s more than 450,000 digital books. If you already have a Kindle device, you can now synchronize your account between it and your Mac. Or, instead of using a Kindle to read books digitally, you can use your Mac and avoid purchasing a Kindle completely.

My guess is that Amazon released this product in an effort to thwart a competing service that Apple might have for its iPad. I also expect the price of the Kindle to drop after the release of the iPad to be more competitive — so if you’ve been waiting to buy a Kindle, you might wait until after April 3 to see what happens.

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

Design Public’s Organization Blog Fest: Bookshelves

The website Design Public is hosting an Organization Blog Fest for a week, and they asked me to be a part of the advice-wielding group for the second year in a row.

Unclutterer’s topic this year is “Clear the Clutter from Your Bookshelves,” and the five tips come from Unclutter Your Life in One Week. The first two tips:

  1. Give away any books that you don’t plan on reading or referencing again, are in the public domain, and can be found in their entirety online.
  2. Keep the leather-bound copy of The Scarlet Letter that your grandmother gave you on her deathbed.

Check out the article to learn the other three tips!

Posted by Erin on Feb 25, 2010 | 27 Comments | Tweet This

Review: The Happiness Project

Today is the release of Gretchen Rubin’s book The Happiness Project. I’ve made no secret about being a fan of Gretchen’s blog of the same name, and so I was elated when she sent me an advance copy of the book to review. I spent the weekend reading it (devouring it may be more accurate), and really enjoyed the 292 pages of insights and advice on happiness.

Let me begin by saying I have never created a deliberate plan to increase my happiness. “Be happier” has never made it onto my to-do or resolutions lists, and I’ve never read any books (before this one) directly related to happiness. Happiness is something that matters greatly to me, but I have always thought of it as a side effect rather than an end itself. After reading The Happiness Project, I’ve come to see that happiness can be an action item the same as any other goal.

In short, Gretchen took a year implementing all of the major theories on happiness and wrote about her experience from a first-hand perspective. The eleven areas she chose to focus on were boosting energy (a resolution I’m tackling this year), her marriage, her work, parenting, being serious about play, her friendships, money, eternity, pursing a passion, being mindful, and altering her attitude. Each area of focus included one to five specific action items — remember birthdays, launch a blog, ask for help — that helped her achieve her overall happiness ideal. She used a chart, similar to the one Ben Franklin describes in his Autobiography, to track her progress.

I was surprised by how honest Gretchen is about her personal failings in the text. I think this honesty adds to the practical nature of the book. The reader is able to see what concrete steps worked, and which ones didn’t, in helping her achieve her resolutions. For example, she started keeping a gratitude journal, only to give up on the journal a couple months later. It didn’t make her feel more grateful, and she had found other activities that actually did. Also, it took just one Laughter Yoga class before she knew it wasn’t a class for her.

Starting on page 25 of the book, Gretchen discusses her resolution to “Toss, Restore, Organize”:

Household disorder was a constant drain on my energy; the minute I walked through the apartment door, I felt as if I needed to start putting clothes in the hamper and gathering loose toys.

She spends a good chunk of the month of January getting rid of clutter and organizing her home and office. On page 26, she even mentions the Unclutterer blog as being an inspiration to her. (A totally unexpected shout out!) She experiences such a boost in her happiness level from clearing the clutter that many other times in the book she talks about lending friends a hand when they take on their uncluttering projects.

I have always been of the opinion that when you take on an uncluttering project of any kind, before you empty a single drawer or pull a piece of sports equipment out of your garage, you need to have a clear vision of why you want to make a change. What is your motivation? What is it that matters most to you? The Happiness Project is an incredible resource for helping to identify these motivations. Even though many of the things that matter most to me aren’t what matter most to Gretchen, my brain was constantly spinning about the things that would be part of my happiness project. It helped me to formulate my 2010 resolutions list, and I think I’ll even keep a chart like the one she and Benjamin Franklin used.

If you are interested in clarifying your reasons to become uncluttered, are looking to be happier, or simply enjoy the genre of “a year in the life” style books, I recommend checking out The Happiness Project. It’s a great reminder for not letting the joys of life pass you by.

Posted by Erin on Dec 29, 2009 | 15 Comments | Tweet This

O’Reilly wants to help with your computer book clutter

cover-scalaAs one of the programmers here at Unclutterer, I spend quite a bit of time educating myself on new technologies. My bookshelf is pretty crowded, mostly with books that I’ve already read, and now only need to refer to once in awhile.

I’ve been looking for a good way to unclutter my programming bookshelf, so I was excited to find out that O’Reilly, one of the foremost publishers of technology books, is currently running a promotion to allow owners of paper versions of their books to buy ebook versions at a substantial discount of only $4.99 per book.

While many people prefer paper versions of books for readability, ebook versions have a few notable advantages that make them particularly useful when it comes to technology books.

  • Tech books are typically big and take up a lot of shelf space. Ebook versions are quite a bit smaller, and take up approximately zero shelf space.
  • Code samples cannot be cut and pasted from paper books. Some books include an additional DVD, or link to a website, that contains sample code. This is unnecessary with an ebook, and can save a lot of time when trying to learn new concepts quickly.
  • Ebook text can be searched much more easily than paper text. Especially across multiple books at once.
  • Ebooks make it possible to take your bookshelf with you on the road, and nobody wants to be anchored to an office just because that’s where his books are.

To take advantage of this offer:

  • Visit oreilly.com and log in to your account, or create a new one.
  • Register each book you own using its 13 digit ISBN number.
  • Find one of your registered books in the O’Reilly store and add the ebook version to your shopping cart.
  • Enter the discount code 499UP during checkout.

The promotion runs through the month of October.

Posted by Brian on Oct 20, 2009 | 17 Comments | Tweet This

Link week

This week on Unclutterer has been filled with numerous links to helpful articles on other sites. I’ll be honest, the first part of next week is going to be the same. Lots and lots of links — good links, hopefully — but lots of links.

Why all the links? On Monday, my husband and I became parents to a beautiful baby boy.

Our little man is an excellent sleeper, so I’ve been able to find great things around the internet to share with you and comment on while he has been napping, but my mind is a bit overwhelmed and original content isn’t flowing. Since we are adoptive parents, parenthood caught us (pleasantly) a bit off guard.

My first link of the day is to a book review professional organizer Julie Bestry wrote about Everything I Know About Perfectionism I Learned from My Breasts. This book, written by the talented organizer Debbie Jordan Kravitz, has been on my to-read list for months but I haven’t yet reached it in the pile. Julie’s review of Debbie’s book, however, has convinced me to jump it ahead on my list. And, since it persuaded me to read the book, I thought it was a review you might wish to read as well.

From Julie’s review:


As a breast cancer survivor, Debbie’s revelations about the necessity of overcoming her perfectionist tendencies (for her own sake as well as her family’s), informed her desire to write this book. But, to be honest, until I had a copy in my hands, I think I was expecting a memoir, even a breasts’ eye view, as it were, of how her cancer and recovery brought Debbie to some sort of epiphany about the challenges of fighting perfectionism.

In fact, while Debbie does share her own story, this book offers much more, both to those of us who struggle with the ideals of perfection and those of us who have friends, family and co-workers whose perfectionism drives their own behaviors. Everything I Know is informative (indeed, eye-opening) about perfectionism, but also offers practical guidance and motivation to those seeking to become recovering perfectionists.

The subtitle of the book, Secrets and Solutions for Overpowering Perfectionism, explains the direction of the text — and shows that this isn’t a book just for women.

Posted by Erin on Aug 27, 2009 | 69 Comments | Tweet This

Clear bad book clutter from your life and bookshelves

Economist Tyler Cowen talks about the sunk cost fallacy and why continuing to read a bad book is unproductive and a waste of time in the article “Closing the book on a bad read” in the July 24 Washington Times:

“People have this innate view — it comes from friendship and marriage — that commitment is good. Which I agree with,” he says. That view shouldn’t, he says, carry over to inanimate objects.

It’s not that he’s not a voracious reader — he finishes more than a book a day, not including the “partials.” He just wants to make the most of his time.

“We should treat books a little more like we treat TV channels,” he argues. No one has trouble flipping away from a boring series.

Do you have a pile of books on your nightstand that have been lingering for months or years because you can’t seem to bring yourself to finish them? Are your bookshelves filled with books that you plan to get to one day but just can’t muster the energy to slog through them? If so, I vote to abandon the books. Say farewell to the bad to make room for the good.

Posted by Erin on Aug 6, 2009 | 61 Comments | Tweet This

Resources for designing a custom tool cabinet

There’s something intensely pleasing about seeing a box of fetishistically organized woodworking tools arranged perfectly in a custom-made wooden cabinet.

The Toolbox Book: A Craftsman’s Guide to Tool Chests, Cabinets, and Storage Systems by Jim Tolpin is a fantastic resource for any woodworker looking for ideas on how to store and organize woodworking tools. In addition to providing a number of designs for a variety of different tool cabinets and totes, it also provides helpful tips to efficiently store tools.

If you want to lose the next hour of your life looking at some amazing pictures of custom-made tool cabinets online, check out the entries that have already been posted in Fine Woodworking’s Tool Chest Contest. We particularly like the inside of this hanging cabinet, submitted by one of their community members:

Posted by PJ on Jun 9, 2009 | 9 Comments | Tweet This

Piegato One shelves

Whenever I see a piece of furniture that is brilliantly simple, my first thought is, “I want to share that with the Unclutterer readers.”

This week, I learned about the Piegato One shelves and instantly wanted to share them with you. They’re designed by Matthias Ries and will be manufactured by his company MRDO Products. The shelves ship flat and then you bend the metal into place with very little effort:

A short video shows how to setup and install them.

I know that the industrial look isn’t everyone’s favorite style, but you can still appreciate that such a beautifully engineered product exists. This shelving system is simple, streamlined, and wholly uncluttered.

(via Dwell)

Posted by Erin on Jun 4, 2009 | 16 Comments | Tweet This

Barnes and Noble now selling audio books online

Barnes and Noble has announced that it is jumping into the online audio book market with its launch of Barnes and Noble Audiobooks.

Most of the books are between $10 and $20 per download, and they already have more than 10,000 titles for sale. The new service will compete with Audible, iTunes, and Kindle.

If you’re looking for ways to expand your book collection but without bringing more physical books into your home, be sure to give audio books a try.

(via Publishers Weekly)

Posted by Erin on May 4, 2009 | 14 Comments | Tweet This

Kindle application now on iPhone

Kindle device, the Kindle iPhone application gives you access to digital books sold on Amazon. I’ve been a big fan of Stanza, so I was interested in seeing how the Kindle application compares.

Immediately, I noticed that there were a few advantages to the Kindle app:

  1. With a library of more than 240,000 books, all organized in one central location, the shopping experience is vastly superior with the Kindle app.
  2. If you have a Kindle, you can access a book you purchased for it on your iPhone, and vice versa. The program will even tell you what page you were on in the other system. This feature is called “Whispersync.
  3. One advantage it has over an actual Kindle is that you can see a book’s cover in full color, instead of 13 shades of gray.
  4. You don’t have to carry two electronic devices with you when you go somewhere — put your iPhone in your pocket and leave your Kindle device at home.

Noting these benefits, I think I should also note some of its weaknesses.

  1. To buy a book, you have to go out of the Kindle app and into Safari. Once your book is purchased, you then log out of Amazon on Safari, and log back into the Kindle app. Most other programs don’t require that you leave the application.
  2. The screen is much brighter than other reading applications and may eat away at battery life more quickly (tried to do a timing, but my service kept changing between Edge and 3G, so I’m not certain the power issue was fully the fault of the application). To read many chapters in a book will definitely require turning your iPhone into Airplane Mode to conserve power.
  3. The application wipes out the clock at the top of the screen, which some might think is good, but I found to be annoying. You have to tap the screen to see what time it is.
  4. There isn’t a landscape mode. You have to read the text vertically.

Almost all of the other features in the Kindle app are identical to features in Stanza (font size adjustment, scroll through pages, the application itself is free, etc.). I will definitely use the Kindle app for reading newly released texts and books not yet in the public domain. For classics, though, I’m sticking with Stanza.

And, don’t forget the benefits of audio books and how you can buy them from Audible or even download them for free from your public library. Have you tried the new Kindle app for the iPhone? What are your thoughts?

Posted by Erin on Mar 5, 2009 | 20 Comments | Tweet This

A supplement to a child’s book collection

Books are an important developmental tool for children. My daughter has quite a collection so far and I’m sure the collection will continue to expand. It is always advisable to keep the collection under control. There is no reason to hold onto some of the lower level books when your child loses interest in them as she grows. Try to give the books to friends or donate them whenever possible.

My wife and I recently discovered the website One More Story. It is a great way to supplement your child’s book collection while increasing her reading comprehension and basic computing skills. The site has the equivalent of books on tape with highlighted words. The site also includes illustrations, sound effects, and music with certain stories. A demonstration is available for preview. 

onemorestory

One More Story currently has over 50 children’s books available. A year-long subscription costs $44, which is less than $4 per month. My wife and I didn’t hesitate to subscribe and we have enjoyed using this site with our daughter. Instead of packing up a handful of books when we travel, we simply log on to One More Story and have access to their library from any computer with internet access.

Posted by Matt on Mar 2, 2009 | 21 Comments | Tweet This

Digital books for your mobile device

We’ve written in the past about the Amazon Kindle and the Sony E-Book Reader being great devices to help you reduce book clutter in your home. We’ve also talked about the benefits of audio books and how you can buy them from Audible or even download them for free from your public library. All of these digital options are fantastic ways to acquire literature in non-physical forms.

Over the course of the past few months, more electronic reading options have hit the market and we wanted to bring them to your attention.

If you have an iPhone, you may be interested in checking out the application Stanza. I’ve become a fan of this program, especially when I find myself in a line and I have forgotten to pack my earphones in my purse. I can be entertained by a book and instantly have another to begin reading if I finish one.

A book on Stanza:

If you have any type of smart mobile device, you can access more than 1.5 million books from the public domain at http://books.google.com/googlebooks/mobile/. Additionally, Google has struck deals with many publishers to provide current books and magazines to readers.

A book on Google Mobile:

Additionally, Amazon recently told The New York Times:

“We are excited to make Kindle books available on a range of mobile phones,” said Drew Herdener, a spokesman for Amazon. “We are working on that now.”

No date has been set for when Amazon will make digital books available for purchase to any smart mobile device, but we’re looking forward to it.

Please let us know in the comments of additional electronic services or applications that you’ve found useful for your mobile devices.

Posted by Erin on Feb 21, 2009 | 24 Comments | Tweet This

Coming in 2009: An Unclutterer book

I wanted to let everyone know about an exciting adventure I’m undertaking.

In late November, I signed a contract with Simon Spotlight Entertainment, an imprint of Simon and Schuster, to write an Unclutterer book. The book is slated to be released this fall and will cover home and office organizing, time management, productivity, clutter clearing, and many additional simple living issues.

The book is currently untitled, does not yet have a cover, and will spend the next two months in editing before I even turn over my first draft to my publisher. However, since things are progressing as they should, I wanted to share with you this happy news.

Thank you to everyone for your continued support and inspiration. If it weren’t for you, our Unclutterer readers, this opportunity never would have arisen. You are sincerely the best readers on the internet.

Also, I want you to know that the book isn’t a reprinting of the website — it’s new content for a new medium. I want it to be useful to new and continued readers alike. That being said, however, it is definitely written in the same spirit as the website. You should expect to laugh and have a good time while reading it, as well as learning a great deal about uncluttering. There also will be an audio version of the book, but I know even fewer details about its production and release.

There shouldn’t be any service interruptions on Unclutterer.com while I finish my work on the book. My proposal writing started more than six months ago and I have been putting in long hours since to ensure that the quality content you’ve come to expect on the site continues.

Thank you, again, and I’m so glad that I can share the news of this adventure with you!

Posted by Erin on Feb 7, 2009 | 41 Comments | Tweet This

The Kindle saves space, but can it save you money

A ZDNet article that ran on November 16 asked the question “Is the Kindle electronic book reader worth its current price of $359.00?” The article explores the answer to this question for college students and average readers.

For students in college and graduate school, ZDNet concludes that a Kindle is worth the expense:

However, a more realistic scenario [of student textbook purchasing] would be a blended cost, with half new and half used [textbooks], at $366.00 per semester. If they had purchased all of the books on the Kindle, they would have spent $234.00, or a savings of $132.00 per semester. Over a period of 8 semesters, that’s $1056.00, which if you subtract the cost of the Kindle at current prices, we’re talking about a net savings of $700.86 over four years, which is not insignificant. To put this another way, if college students had the ability to buy all their textbooks on Kindles, they could wipe out the cost of a Kindle with their savings over printed books in 3 semesters, or a year and a half.

However, the the article states that for the average reader, a Kindle is not a wise economic choice:

… we took a look at twelve New York Times best sellers, and totaled up the prices, assuming mostly hardcover with some paperbacks — this came to $168.15 if we bought them on Amazon. The Kindle cost would have been $109.11. In other words, if you read one book per month, and you subtract the cost of the Kindle, your net savings per year is approximately $59.04. To wipe out the cost of the Kindle completely, you have to buy and read six books per month to wipe out the Kindle’s cost over the course of one year. That’s a pretty voracious reading schedule — and if you’re reading that many books, you’re probably spending most of your time in a library and not purchasing them on Amazon.

So it would seem that unless the convenience factor of the Kindle currently outweighs its costs, the Kindle is not a huge value proposition for your average consumer today. But if its cost were to drop approximately in half – say, between the 3 and 4 book per month level — at around $200 per unit – then we might start seeing greater e-book adoption by a larger segment of the population. At the two books per month level, it’s going to need to cost around $125.00 or $150.00 or so.

I agree that it would be nice if a Kindle reading device would be at least half its current price, but I still think that it is a good investment over the long term. Additionally, you don’t have to pay to store paper books, which shaves off a little bit more from the equation.

What do our readers who own Kindles think of the article? Is the author right about it being about convenience and not cost? Let us know your opinion in the comments.

Previously on Unclutterer:

Posted by Erin on Nov 24, 2008 | 69 Comments | Tweet This

Book review: The Experts’ Guide to Doing Things Faster

On Monday, I had my wisdom teeth pulled, and spent most of the day propped up in bed catching up on some reading. One of the books I read, The Experts’ Guide to Doing Things Faster created by Samantha Ettus, was a quick, fun, and informative read. The book is a series of 100 essays by professionals who are experts in their fields. Each essay focuses on how to be efficient at one aspect of living.

The first 16 essays address issues in the home, and the next 11 essays provide tips for work. Mind, body, love, pleasure, travel, and future round out the other subject areas of the book.

The following are some of my favorite essays and a tip or two from their content:

  • “Do Laundry” by Lucinda Ottusch: “Make laundry more tolerable by transforming your laundry room into a livable, productive workspace.” (pg. 25)
  • “Organize Your Closet” by John Trosko: “Successful closet organizing requires tough choices about what flatters your best assets and what doesn’t. Forecast what your life will hold for you in the next year. Everything in your closet should have a purpose for today and tomorrow, not yesterday.” (pg. 33)
  • “Sort Mail” by Peter Walsh: “Decrease the amount of mail coming into your home by getting your name off junk-mail lists. Phone 1-888-5OPT OUT (1-888-567-8688) to have your name removed from lists that send those annoying credit card offers. Likewise, log onto www.catalogchoice.org to remove your name from lists that stuff your mailbox with unwanted catalogs.” (pg. 37)
  • “Find a Lost Object” by Michael Solomon: “IT’S NOT LOST — YOU ARE. Accept that the problem is not with the object — it’s with you! For there are no lost objects — only unsystematic searchers.” (pg. 55).
  • “Bake a Cake” by Warren Brown: His advice is good, but the best part of this essay is that he includes his recipe for vanilla cake with chocolate glaze icing. Yum! (pg. 251)
  • “Holiday Shop” by Paco Underhill: “Make a list of people to buy for. Jot ideas or specific gifts on your list for easy reference. Don’t buy for anyone who isn’t on your list — there must be a reason why he or she didn’t make it on the first time.” (pg. 264)

I recommend checking out the book if you’re interested in reading something fun on efficiency. I certainly enjoyed this book.

Posted by Erin on Oct 29, 2008 | 10 Comments | Tweet This