Archives for Home Organization
Less mess in the music room
My husband and I love music. We devote more space in our home to storing instruments and their supplies than to any other type of object (including books, clothes, and food). Add to that recording and listening equipment, and music-related stuff easily occupies half the space in our house. (Even on my computer, music files take up the majority of space.)
When music is such an integral part of your life, you constantly look for ways to store and minimize what you own. The following are some of our solutions:
Frozen Ape Tempo. We got rid of our metronomes recently after discovering this iPhone application. It’s actually better than all the metronomes we had in the house. My favorite feature of the program is that I can plug my earphones into the audio jack and have the beats pulse straight into my ear. The program is 99 cents. Yet again, my iPhone replaces a unitasker.
Storage boxes for strings. A few years ago, we noticed that a CD storage box is the perfect size for holding spare strings. We buy strings online at a discount, so it’s nice to have a permanent place for them to reside until we need them. And, since 10 of our instruments have strings, we regularly need them.
Self-binding sheet music. After years of having sheet music strewn around the house causing a mess, we reached our breaking point. We sorted the sheets of music into piles and then used a CombBind C55 at the office to bind it all into nicely bound books. We created an index for the front of each book and store the bound music on our bookshelves. No more loose papers, simple storage, and it took us less than half an hour to create. If you don’t have a binder in your office, they do the same service at Kinkos for a minimal fee.
Repurposed decorative items. On a table in our music area we have some candles and a decorative jar. We purposefully bought a decorative jar that has storage space inside of it so that it can have multipurposes. Now, this pretty little piece of art holds my harmonicas, castanets, and a case for guitar picks.
What tricks do you use in your music room to contain the numerous supplies that come with instruments? We’re always on the lookout for solutions, so please share your ideas in the comments.
Popularity: 12% [?]
Are you keeping duplicate items in your closet?
I’ve always heard that if you have two pairs of jeans (or any kind of clothes), that you’ll get longer life out of them by alternating them on a daily basis instead of wearing one pair until they wear out and then wearing the second pair. Many people make this claim when they’re justifying holding onto four of the exact same black shirt, or whatever multiple of a piece of clothing that is taking up space in their closet. Unfortunately, after many days researching this very topic, I have yet to find a single piece of scientific evidence to support the extended-life claim.
Each piece of clothing you own has a limited life cycle. Natural fabrics are made of predominantly short fibers (sheep fur, rabbit fur, flax shafts, cotton) that eventually break down and unwind over time (for example, pills on a sweater). Man-made fibers are longer and more durable (rayon is a single, long, silk-thread-like product), but they can and will eventually show damage. Wearing, washing, and drying fabrics damage fibers, plain and simple. (Even storing fabrics can damage fibers if under poor conditions.)
Think of it like a math equation:
Life Cycle = X wearings + Y washings + Z dryings
The Life Cycle is a set number that doesn’t change if the days come in succession or not. A cotton t-shirt is going to reach its Life Cycle after something like 200 wearings, washings, and dryings. It doesn’t matter if those 200 wearings, washings, and dryings happen over 200 days in a row or 200 days spread out over two years; you’re only going to be able to wear your t-shirt on 200 occasions before it reaches the end of its Life Cycle.
Hanging clothes on a drying line instead of putting them in the dryer can extend the length of your clothes because the fibers in your fabrics won’t get beat up going round and round in the metal drum (high heat also does damage to fibers). Hand-washing is also better on fabrics than machine washing, but not significantly (the enzymes in detergents still take a toll on fibers). And, you can get a little more life out of your clothes by wearing them more than once (I’m thinking jeans, not underwear) between launderings. But, bacteria, dirt, and mites damage clothes, too, so washing your clothes extends their life cycle (in comparison to not washing them ever).
Ultimately, a piece of clothing has a set life cycle and alternating or rotating its wear doesn’t change that fact. Knowing this, do you feel more comfortable letting go of duplicate items of the exact same piece of clothing in your closet? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
P.S. As far as I can tell, the above information is also true for all shoe materials except for leather. For some biological reason, animal skins have a shrinkage period that can improve the life cycle of your leather shoes if given a day to dry out and rest. So, you might get a few more days or weeks of wear out of a pair of leather shoes if you wear them every other day instead of every day. Again, this only seems to be true for shoes made of real leather.
Popularity: 12% [?]
Illuminate your clutter hiding spaces
Clutter has a way of accumulating in poorly-lit spaces. If you can’t see it, you forget it’s there, and it’s easier to mindlessly add to the disorder. Deep drawers, basements, closets, lower cabinets, and garages are especially vulnerable to dark spaces where clutter can hide.
After you clear the clutter from an area, if it is poorly lit, I recommend putting in an adhesive LED Puck Light ($14 for a 3-pack). They require very little energy, can be used with rechargeable batteries, and help the spaces to stay clear of clutter going forward — just be sure to put the light in a place you can easily reach.
How has better lighting helped keep clutter out of your home? Is there a space where better lighting could help you? Tell us about your experiences in the comments.
Popularity: 17% [?]
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)
Popularity: 19% [?]
Surprise benefits of an uncluttered life
At 1:30 yesterday afternoon, my husband made an off-hand remark about his parents coming to visit from Chicago. I was in a zone, still focused on a phone call from that morning, and only really heard “my parents” and “dinner” and “arrival.”
About an hour later, I came to understand that he said, “My parents just called and they’re arriving around 8:00 tonight. I think we should take them out to dinner when they get here.” He meant 8:00 p.m., as in six and a half hours from when he first mentioned it to me. Surprise!
It’s exact moments like these when I am thankful that we live an uncluttered life. Instead of worrying about the state of the house or what we might feed our guests while they are here or anything hostess related, I simply nodded and told him, “good to know.”
The toilets and shower in the bathroom are clean, there is food in the kitchen cupboards, we have clean bed linens, and everything in the house is in its place. I ran the dishwasher a few hours earlier than normal so that it wouldn’t keep them awake (our “guest room” is a pull-out in our living room), but, except for having two wonderful guests, our schedule for the day was the same as a typical Wednesday.
It’s surprise situations like these that I like to focus my attentions to when I’m doing my 30 minutes of chores each evening. Being free from unnecessary stress is a powerful motivator when routinely taking care of the small things. A little bit of work each night means that there is never a big issue to solve, and house guests can show up for surprise visits without causing my stress levels to soar.
Now, I just need to be a detective and figure out how this visit never made it onto our family calendar.
What benefits have you found with leading an uncluttered life? Tell us about them in the comments.
Popularity: 16% [?]
Hanging coats
Since today is a national holiday in the U.S., we’re going to keep posting light this Monday. We’ll be back to our regular posting schedule tomorrow.
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If you don’t have a closet near the front door to your home, a free-standing coat rack might be a good way to keep your summer jackets from ending up on the back of every couch and chair in the adjacent room. Website Remodelista has a roundup of 13 pieces that might be useful in your home:
On the left: The Sprout Coat Tree for $99. On the right: 10 Degree Coat Rack for $49.95. Both available at CB2.
Check out the post “10 Easy Pieces: Free-Standing Coat Racks” for eleven more ideas.
Popularity: 20% [?]
Everyone can learn to be organized
Everyone begins life as a messy, disorganized, lump of a baby. No one is born in a starched shirt and polished shoes with a day planner in one hand and a vacuum cleaner in the other. (Our mothers, they are particularly happy about the vacuum cleaner part.) We scream. We drool. We poop. We cry some more. Everything about a baby is chaotic.
During the early years of life, some children are formally taught by their caregivers how to be organized. Others garner bits and pieces through observation, example, and trial and error. Finally, there are those who picked up very little during childhood and didn’t start learning about organizing until adulthood (I fall into this category).
The speed at which we acquire organizing skills is also varied. Some people learn a specific organizing skill the first time they encounter it. Others, it takes considerable practice.
How you learn or how quickly you learn is completely irrelevant; the point is that everyone can learn to be organized.
From this point forward, I want you to stop thinking about your disorganization as a state of being. Instead, think about the specific way that you’re not yet organized.
“My closet is a mess because I haven’t mastered the skills necessary to keep it free of clutter. I need to learn how to organize my closet and acquire the skills that it requires to maintain it well.”
“My big project at work is a mess because I don’t know what programs and systems are available to help me get it under control. I need to research and learn about what I can do to better manage my time and work of this project.”
When you stop identifying as someone who is disorganized, and start thinking about it as just a specific skill that you can learn, getting organized becomes an easier task.
Popularity: 20% [?]
Organizing from A to Z
Unclutterer and Erin are mentioned numerous times in the June 2009 issue of Real Simple magazine in the article “Get Organized. Stay Organized. How to control the clutter for good” by Liz Welch.
The article works through the letters of the alphabet, giving organized suggestions for everything from artwork to grills and propane tanks to zippers and sewing items.
The most efficient way to store recipes is to “scan them, then organize them with a software system, like eChef recipe software,” says Doland. The program, which also lets you save recipes found online, has an easy-to-use search function: Type in “asparagus” and find every one of your recipes that calls for it.
The June 2009 issue of Real Simple is currently available on newsstands. Unfortunately, only the products mentioned in the article that you can buy are online. However, once June 1 rolls around, I expect the full text of the article to be available digitally.
Popularity: 18% [?]
Furniture solution for music practice space
Often when I’m practicing on one of my instruments I wish that my music stand was better suited for organizing and storing all the things I use when engaged in that activity:
- a metronome
- an electronic tuner
- a pair of headphones
- a portable music player with variable speed functionality
- sheet music
In looking for a good solution, I came across an interesting organizational solution for the problem. It’s called the Musician’s Center and it’s built by Innovative Music Furniture, L.L.C.
It appears to be very well constructed and it seems to keep everything needed well organized and easily accessible. The build quality probably justifies the $2000 price, but it would also be easy enough to go the Ikeahacker route and convert a small bookshelf or nightstand by attaching the top of a music stand.
Popularity: 13% [?]
Hinge hooks
Back when I was a home renter instead of a home owner, I spent a lot of time trying to hunt down organizing and storage solutions that didn’t force me to change my space. I haven’t forgotten that frustration, and I like to keep an eye out for products that I can recommend that renters and home owners can use.
Recently, I learned about these simple hooks that fit over the pins of door hinges. You pull out your hinge’s pins, slip the hook onto the hinge, and then slide the hinge pin back into place. When it’s time to move, you remove it as easily as you installed it. No nail holes to fill or patches to paint. Plus, the hook is behind the door and out of sight when the door is open.
Popularity: 24% [?]
35 luxury notebooks to organize your life
I’m a list keeper. I used to keep lists on stray pieces of paper around my office. Whatever was within reach would get a list on it — backs of envelopes, stray receipts, post-it notes. After I got the iPhone, my random paper list-making decreased significantly. The Notes application and I become fast friends.
However, I’ve once again found myself looking to good ol’ pen and paper to write down some of my ideas. Instead of turning to scraps of paper that will eventually clutter up my desk, I’ve decided to buy a notebook.
In my pursuit of finding the perfect notebook, I have discovered that there is a gigantic market of luxury notebooks out there. I honestly had no concept of how large it is. So, if you’re in the market for a good notebook to keep your ideas in one organized location, these are the brands to explore:
- Awagami
- Alwych
- Apica
- Bienfang
- Canteo
- Cartesio
- Cavallini
- Ciak
- Clairefontaine
- Derwent
- Doane
- Eccolo
- Exacompa
- Fabriano
- Field Notes
- G. Lalo
- Guildhall
- HandBook
- Kunst and Papier
- Markings
- Maruman Hongasen
- Miquelrius
- Moleskine/Kikkerland
- Myndology
- Nomad
- Pen and Ink
- Pentalic
- Piccadilly
- Quo Vadis
- Rag and Bone
- Rite in the Rain
- Rhodia
- Smythson
- Whitelines
- Xonex Ru
I made my decision about which to buy based on reviews I came across on a couple of notebook blogs. The blog Black Cover has pictures and reviews of some of the little black notebooks. And the website Notebook Stories has reviewed 19 different brands.
Are you a traditional notebook aficionado? Is there a brand or style that didn’t make my list? Please let us know about it in the comments!
Popularity: 29% [?]
Disaster uncluttering: Looking back
Today we welcome back Unclutterer programmer, Gary DuVall. In the In the first, second, and third posts in this series, he discussed how to prepare yourself and your home in case of a disaster and what to do if it unfortunately happens. This is his final post in the series. He is writing for us based on his personal experience of losing everything he owned in a fire.
By January, life started to feel normal again. The fire, the struggles with the insurance company, and finding a new place to live were all behind us. We were rebuilding and moving on.
We realized we hadn’t given much thought to the loss of our things but had spent all of our time worrying about our general predicament (Where will we live? I can’t believe this happened. How do I go to work tomorrow?) We discovered just how little the material stuff meant to us. This realization presented us with the peculiar ability to remain positive (for the most part) during the process. We talked about this being an opportunity rather than a devastating blow. (Losing intimate, irreplaceable items from our families, friends, and shared experiences did, for a time, bother us; however, that also faded.)
Thumbing through the more than 30-page inventory that listed what we once owned made us realize just how much we had, and, perhaps more importantly, how much we didn’t want to replace. So far, we have only replaced 20 percent of what we previously owned. To be comfortable, we don’t need a lot of stuff. Everything we have repurchased, we have been very thoughtful about quality and where everything will live in our home. No clutter.
Did we make mistakes along the way? Sure we did. We didn’t have an inventory prepared ahead of time, despite telling ourselves we’d “get to it one day.” Receipts we had kept prior to the fire weren’t filed in our records box, resulting in their loss. We hadn’t read through and understood completely our insurance policy, which, had we lost it in the fire, could have left us at a vast disadvantage. Knowing what we do now, these aren’t mistakes we’ll repeat in the future.
When we look back at what happened on June 27, 2008, we look at it for what it is: an experience nobody should ever go through. But, at the same time, it was an experience that afforded us a rare “reboot” button. We were able to re-examine and take stock of what we had, and act decisively toward a new beginning.
As strange as it might be, considering the setbacks, inconveniences, angry phone calls and other problems I’ve written about during the course of this series, I like to think we ended up better for it in the end.
Popularity: 19% [?]
Time to toss expired makeup?
Marie Claire magazine has some helpful bathroom uncluttering tips in their article “Has Your Makeup Expired?“:
“Like food, makeup has an expiration date, and over time cosmetics can harbor harmful bacteria that can lead to infections,” states Dr. David Schlessinger, a board-certified oculoplastic surgeon and ophthalmologist, and medical director of Schlessinger Eye & Face. “The risks are multiplied when these products are shared among friends.”
Check out the dates below and find out when you should toss your makeup stash.
Expiration dates — beginning from the time you first open these products
- Powders and shadows: 2 years
- Cream shadows: 12 to 18 months
- Foundation: 1 year
- Lipstick & lipliner: 1 year
- Mascara & eyeliners: 3 months
- Makeup brushes: Clean weekly using a mild detergent
- Makeup sponges: Replace weekly, or when sponge becomes soiled
My makeup case is full of things that belong in the trash (eye shadows, especially). I’m going to go and immediately take care of this potential bacterial hazard.
Popularity: 24% [?]
Learning to love cleaning
Again, we welcome the phenomenal Monica Ricci as a guest author on Unclutterer. She’s the organizing adviser for Office Depot and Beazer Homes, and you may have seen her on HGTV’s Mission Organization. She’s a professional organizer hailing from Atlanta.
Creating an organized life means, among other things, taking control of your space. When did you last clean your toilets? How about your sinks? Mirrors? Floors? Whether you own or rent, live in a studio apartment or a large home, cleaning is a regular necessity. I’m willing to bet that with few exceptions you probably don’t look forward to cleaning? Yet, like it or not, housecleaning — like organizing — remains a lifelong maintenance task. In the spirit of enjoying your life as much as possible, how do you reconcile the fact that you have to do something you dislike over and over again for all of the foreseeable future? (Man, that sounds grim) The way I see it, you have only a few options…
- You can hire someone else to do it for you. This is a viable option for some people, but others either can’t justify the expense, or just plain can’t stomach the thought of paying someone to do something they can do for themselves.
- You can do it yourself and grumble and whine and dread every minute of it.
- You can do it yourself and enjoy it.
The first option is relatively easy. Ask for referrals from friends to find someone to clean for you who is reliable and trustworthy. The second option is the one a lot of people choose. They do clean their own homes, but only when it’s so bad they can’t stand it or when they’re expecting company. They dread thinking about it and dread doing it even more. Then when they do clean, they spend every minute wishing they were finished.
I’m all about option number three, and I want you to be too! So how do you take a task you hate and turn it around so you not only don’t dread it, but you actually begin to enjoy it? The secret is all in your mindset.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, living an organized life has a lot to do with taking control of your space. This means making sure the areas where you live and work are in a “positive state of readiness,” so they can support your life both mentally and physically. Cleanliness is part of that positive state of readiness, and here’s the secret to enjoying cleaning:
Look past the task and connect with the benefit it offers to your life.
Although housekeeping (and organizing) may seem like drudgery on the surface, if you can mentally and emotionally connect with the deeper benefit, the task becomes easier and feels more worthwhile in exchange for a larger future benefit. So, keeping your house clean and orderly is just like going to the gym, going to college, or anything with a long term benefit. You do what you must now in order to feel a certain way and have a specific result later.
Think of housekeeping as another expression of love for yourself and your family, rather than a necessary evil, and you’ll dread it less and enjoy it more.
Popularity: 15% [?]
Another option in space-saving ladders
A little over a year ago, I highlighted the telescoping ladder as a space-saving option. The other day, I found another collapsible ladder via Apartment Therapy. The 5-Foot Compact Ladder (pictured) collapses down to roughly the size of a 61″ long 2″ x 4″.
Apartment Therapy dubs this as the “world’s most compact ladder,” but I would argue that the telescoping ladder is a bit more compact. At a length of 61″, this would still be tough to carry through tight corners.
Either ladder would be a much better option than the traditional ladders that many of us own. The space saved by either of these is well worth the replacement of a clunky, old, space-hogging ladder.
Popularity: 11% [?]
