In the celebratory spirit, I thought it might be appropriate to talk about keeping an uncluttered liquor cabinet. Similar to traditional food pantries and linen closets, most liquor cabinets have a bad habit of things going into them faster than items coming out. Before you know it, you’ll find you have three open bottles of vermouth, two dripping bottles of Rose’s lime juice and another of the grenadine, and five bottles of the exact same type of gin. (Well, at least this is what I found lingering in my liquor cabinet.)

Start by pulling everything out of your liquor cabinet and setting it on your dining table. Group like items together — shakers with shakers, vodka with vodka, etc.

Now, evaluate what you have. Unless you are a serious socialite, you probably don’t need to own three martini shakers or nine bottles of rum. Pull out any excess or expired pieces. (Expired? Remember that vermouth is made with wine, so after a few months lingering open in your cabinet it starts to taste “off.” I haven’t found evidence that it’s actually bad for you, but its flavor is definitely shot by the time it’s been open for a year. Bailey’s can curdle, and some sweet liqueurs will fade.)

Pour down the drain any liquor past its prime. Freecycle or Craigslist extra bar utensils (now is a great time to do this as other people are gearing up for their NYE gatherings). And, start calling your friends throwing end of the year parties to see if they might want to take extra bottles off your hands. Either that or decide to throw a party yourself to work through the extras.

When putting bottles of liquor back in your cabinet, consider these storage tips from the article “What is the Shelf Life of Distilled Spirits?“:

Tips for increasing liquor shelf life:

• Keep opened bottles sealed tightly. Use the original cap, a replacement cork or the wine corks that also take the air out of the bottle.
• Never store liquor with speed pourers unless you’re using them, these allow air to get inside the bottle.
• Avoid exposure to extreme heat or cold. Also, keep your liquor cabinet away from an exterior wall.
• Avoid bright, direct light.

Similar to how you sorted items on your dining table, return items to your cabinet storing like things with like things. Put shorter bottles in front and taller bottles in back so that you can always see what you’re storing.

Also, check out the fun book Ultimate Guide to Spirits and Cocktails. Have fun starting the new year with an uncluttered liquor cabinet!

***

Don’t forget! If you’re in the Chicago area, join Erin and some of the Unclutterer staff at The Book Cellar on Monday, December 28, any time between 4:00 and 7:00 p.m.

Before sleep deprivation, when I would throw a dinner party of any kind, I kept three principles in mind:

1. The gathering is about creating joyful memories with guests.
2. Going overboard typically makes people uncomfortable.
3. Simplicity=sanity

Regarding the first principle, good conversations are often all it takes to create joyful memories with guests. If you’re in a kitchen, removed from your guests while you cook and work the party, you’re not creating memories with anything other than your oven. Plan and prepare your meals ahead of time, have a bakery or restaurant fix the most time-intensive items, or invite people over for only one part of the meal (like appetizers or dessert).

The second principle is true in most situations. If you are stressed out and things are “too perfect,” usually your guests pick up on the tension and never feel welcome in your space. Invite people fully into your home, let them see that you’re human and that you care more about them being comfortable than recreating an idyllic scene from a movie or magazine.

The third and final principle is also true in most aspects of life. You can’t drive yourself to the point of exhaustion when you keep things simple. Only having a few, important tasks on your to-do list will keep stress levels low and your priorities (the first principle) in check.

Good luck, and I hope your holiday gatherings are a success!

“This card expires January 2, 2010, at which time it should be recycled.”

Scott got the idea from Jill Revitsky, a professional organizer from Pittsburgh, who produces a line of greeting cards for organizers. On the inside cover of each of her Clearly Noted cards she includes the phrase:

“This card is good for one week — Then you have my permission to toss it!”

Unfortunately, I’ve already mailed my holiday cards, so I can’t do something comparable this year. However, I’m definitely going to add a similar sentence to my cards in years to come:

“You should immediately recycle this card or run the risk of it turning into a monster that will eat your arm.”

Okay, so maybe not exactly that, but you get the idea.

One of the reasons I have committed myself to living an uncluttered, simple life is because I want to be able to enjoy time with those I love. Being able to invite friends and family over to the house on a moment’s notice is important to me, and an uncluttered home makes this stress-free and simple. Having an organized party pantry makes these surprise events even easier — and so I’m working to create one in my kitchen.

In addition to the obvious tableware, Karen suggests having snacks and condiments with long shelf lives in your party pantry. I’ve always struggled with knowing which types of snacks work well as appetizers or finger foods, so I found this list extremely helpful (from page 23):

• Packaged plain breadsticks
• Jars of olives, pickled jalapenos, stuffed grape leaves, and roasted sweet peppers
• Pistachios and mixed nuts or trail mixes
• Dill pickles
• Bottles of my favorite pasta sauce and a few types of past
• Boxes of crispbreads and crackers
• A variety of unusual chips (root vegetable, pita, tortilla, and others)
• Dried fruits (apricots, cranberries, cherries, and golden raisins)
• Plain microwave popcorn
• Dried Italian sausages and salami
• Biscotti and other cookies

Obviously, you wouldn’t need to keep all of these items in your party pantry. Rather, this is a list of possibilities for things that are good to store and serve. It is also fun to finish the rest of the jar or box of snacks after your guests leave. My mouth is watering just thinking about this list.

What snacks and supplies do you have on hand for unexpected guests? How do you organize your party pantry? Tell us about your setup in the comments.

During the fall and winter, I often nest. Stuff comes into my house, but it’s difficult for me to get equal amounts of stuff out of it. My solution is to throw a holiday wine and cheese party every year. I have to clean out the refrigerator to make space for the hors d’oeuvres, I purge all the clutter in the house, and I make sure that everything I own has a “home.” I also call in a service a few days in advance to help me get all of the nooks and crannies that usually get overlooked a good cleaning. Then, after all of my hard work, I get to celebrate my orderly space with my friends.

When I worked in a traditional office, I would set up a meeting time with my boss and invite him/her to my space. The day before the meeting I would dust, go through what was on my bulletin boards, and get my office into its best state. Sure, my boss came by my office every day, but he/she didn’t usually spend more than a few seconds relaying information to me. The sit-down meetings were motivation to really improve my office.

If you’re looking for a push to get you uncluttering and organizing, check your calendar and send an invitation.

E-vite has been the standard electronic invitation system that people adopted. There are a lot of color and theme options, people feel comfortable clicking on an e-vite link from their e-mail, and it doesn’t take a computer programmer to figure out how to use the service. But, I’ve never looked at an e-vite and been impressed from a design perspective:

It’s busy. Everything on the page is competing for my attention. (Although, I do like this new Clothing Swap Party invitation template. A great idea for a party.)

A new player has jumped into the electronic invitation market, and it is MyPunchbowl. It has all the same features as Evite, and the added benefit of the invitations actually looking like invitations.

There is less clutter on the invitation page, it’s obvious where to find information about the party, and it integrates with a number of electronic calendar systems. There are other features, like potluck planning and gift registry information, that are nice. But, to be honest, I just like the uncluttered look of the invitations. (And no, I didn’t really have a botox party.)

Both Evite and MyPunchbowl can save you time and money when you want to invite people to a casual event.

(Thanks to Erin Kane at RealSimple.com for introducing me to MyPunchbowl.)

Why buy many cards for different occasions if you can have an “One Card for All Occasions Stamp”? It saves time, money and headache.

I wholeheartedly agree that it saves time, money and headache, but I don’t know how my specific group of loved ones would respond. I think they would laugh the first time they received a card from me, but on second and third mailings it would start to wear thin. Utilitarian? Yes. Solution for everyone? No.

Still, I like it’s practical nature and that Ji Lee was thinking of ways to reduce clutter. What are your thoughts? Uncluttered and cool, or over-the-top minimalist?

(via NotCot)

Apartment Therapy recently posted a question from one of their readers about displaying holiday cards. They feature a couple of options from Pottery Barn. These options cost $50 while my wife’s only cost under $6. The option my wife implemented displays the cards while keeping them out of the way. It is also cheap and, most importantly, simple.

How do you display holiday cards in your home? Feel free to add your ideas in the comments.

Unclutterer’s article “Six Stress Busting Holiday Tips” is today’s entry for the series. All of the posts have tips and tricks to help you survive the season, and here are a few of my favorites:

Contact the people on your long or short list and ask how they might feel about putting a cap on holiday spending this year. — SavvySugar

My Rubbermaid containers play double duty as an ever-so-clever hiding spot for presents. Picture this … you bring out all the bins, decorate like crazy, then place them back in the garage in an easy-to-reach location. When you get home from holiday shopping you quietly and quickly transfer the gifts to the empty bins (so sneaky). — Krista Colvin

Give the gift of yourself this year. Create a gift certificate that entitles the recipient to quality time with you. Make Grandma dinner. Give your kids a movie night with Mom. Promise your husband a date. — Kimberly Petro

Explore the tips and feel free to add your own in the comments section:

• Replace everyday items: When decorating your home make sure you remove everyday items that are being replaced by holiday decorations. It is a good idea to place your everyday items in the boxes that usually hold your decorations. That way you know right where they are and you can easily put them back when removing you decorations after the holidays.
• Don’t put all the presents under the tree: If you have family or friends that don’t come to visit, you should probably keep their presents in a bag in storage. So when you go to visit them you can simply grab the bag and head out the door to play Santa.
• Donate or discard unused or broken decorations: Reader John sent us this suggestion last year. If a decoration isn’t being used, then it shouldn’t be stored for another year.
• Beware of over decorating: Decorating for the holidays can go a bit far. If you go too crazy, then the decorations will lose their appeal and clutter up your space. Sensory overload is not a good thing when it comes to decorating.

1. Clean off your dining table today! I don’t mean the night before, do it today (or at least start). Start finding a permanent home for each item that has accumulated on your dining room table. Chances are the same items end up there again and again because they don’t have a permanent home within your home. Involve the whole family as most of the time, clutter on the dining table belongs to more than just one person. Once you have the table cleaned off, put a centerpiece on it, or something out of the ordinary to make sure it does not accumulate stuff before your dinner party.
2. Get the dishes ready. If you need to borrow or use special serving dishes or holiday dishes, start taking them out now or borrowing them and get them washed. Use the dining room table as a staging ground to keep them until the holiday.
3. Clean the house room by room. Pick a room each day or a few rooms each week. Or schedule a special session with your normal cleaning service.
   Don’t wait until the night before everyone arrives to start cleaning.
4. Take inventory of your guest spaces. Can your guests sleep on your pull out couch or in your spare room comfortably? Does the room need to be cleaned? This is a great time to get your guest items organized, and to throw out and donate any unnecessary items that have found their way into your guest spaces.
5. Create a friendly environment for your guests. Lay out guest towels, bathrobes, magazines, mints, maps (for your out of town guests), and water for your guests. Provide your guests with enough information so that they can enjoy your geographic area without assistance from you. Make sure they are familiar with phone and Internet access at your home as well.
6. Be prepared to spend time with your relatives. Do your cleaning and preparation ahead of time so you can spend time relaxing and visiting, and not in the kitchen. If your relatives will be around for a number of days, consider making dinner reservations at a local restaurant so you can take a night and all relax together.
7. Ask your guests if they have any special dietary needs before they arrive. This will help you avid any last minute trips to the grocery store.
8. Have any gifts wrapped and ready to distribute before your guests arrive. They are lots of fun to shake and look at for the kids in your family. This will also allow you to spend time with your family instead of locked up in your bedroom wrapping presents.
9. Remember to enjoy your company. Sharing your home can be stressful, but by cleaning and organizing in advance, you can have a relaxing time visiting with those you love!

Bonnie Joy Dewkett is the owner and operator of The Joyful Organizer. She offers professional organization services to help you organize your home and your life.

While you clear out the space in your refrigerator it is freeing up valuable real estate for the turkey along with the side dishes that will reside in there while they wait to be prepared. This also allows for room in your refrigerator for the all important leftovers. 

With just a little more than a week to go, get cleaning and avoid having to play refrigerator Tetris on the big day. Let us know about some of your favorite “creative cooking” recipes in the comments. One of my favorites is a good ol’ fashion stew using up meat and savory vegetables.

Our Thanksgiving dinners are usually served in a buffet style. This makes the whole process run smoothly and keeps the table free of serving dishes. The table is set with utensils and glasses, but the plates and food are stationed at the the buffet. It is an efficient way to serve your guests, especially if you are hosting a larger party. 

Martha Stewart has some helpful tips on setting up a Thanksgiving buffet. Some of the tips:

2. Position the buffet table away from the wall, so that guests have access from all sides. 

6. Lay out food in a logical order: entrees before side dishes.

7. Save space for food by displaying low arrangements.

If you’re having a party of six or more this year, a Thanksgiving buffet may be something to consider for your meal.

Freeing the barbeque from the backyard, the Notebook Portable Grill (2005) folds up into a slender, nine-pound notebook-shape with a carrying handle. Included are two chrome-plated grill surfaces that sit at different heights within the frame (and can be folded into the grill when it’s shut for carrying). Measuring only 1.25″ thick when folded, this little grill goes from patio to park to poolside and can pack into a backpack for camping trips or beach visits.

Has anyone tried this cute, little grill? For the price, it looks like a decent solution if you like to grill outdoors, but live in a small space.

These items played an insignificant role in our wedding day, and even less of a role in our basement. So why did we feel the need to hold onto them for almost nine years? We couldn’t come to any sort of logical reason, so we took photographs of it and got rid of it. None of it made it to our new home.

My wife still has her wedding dress and veil, and they did make the cut. They’re currently residing in our daughter’s closet. I’m trying to persuade my wife to trash her dress, but she is holding out hope that our daughter will eventually wear the dress. Maybe she will, but I think it might become a dress-up gown first.

Rather than holding onto anything and everything that has to do with your wedding day, pick and choose what you keep wisely. If you choose to keep things, limit the keepsakes to a small box that can only hold a few items. Or, if you’re ready to part with all of it, photograph your wedding mementos and make space in your home for your life together now.

My fiance and I just moved into a two bed, two bath condo and basically have nothing in terms of home items. We have a wedding registry at a couple of the typical stores (Crate and Barrel, Macy’s, etc.) and I would like your advice on how to build an Uncluttered Wedding Registry. There are a lot of items “they” at the stores suggest for a registry that are true unitaskers (e.g. salad spinners). What items would you definitely put on your wedding registry and what items would you definitely leave off?

Kirsten, this is a HUGE topic, so I want to just look at the subtopic of the kitchen right now. You’ve said that you don’t have a lot of home items, which makes setting up a registry a good plan for you.

I would keep two things in mind when heading to the stores: 1. The employees at the store want you to have people buy, Buy, BUY!! gifts and don’t care a whole lot about helping you get your home in order, and 2. Your goal is to set up your kitchen in the way that you and your spouse will use it.

Simply put, if you don’t eat salads or a lot of vegetables, the salad spinner the sales rep at the store is promoting probably isn’t for you. To help you decide the items that you should put on your list, I recommend getting your hands on a copy of Alton Brown’s book Gear For Your Kitchen. You can go through the book, learn about the items he reviews, and make decisions as to if they’re good matches for your kitchen. I recommend Alton Brown because he has a hatred for unitaskers, similar to ours.

Speaking of unitaskers, you also might benefit from reading this article from the Chow blog called “Common appliances, uncommon uses.” It’s a great piece to get you thinking about ways to be creative with the appliances you have in your kitchen. Oh, how I love when unitaskers can become multi-taskers! I feel much better about owning my ice cream maker after reading this article.

Good luck, Kirsten! Keep us posted on how the registry turns out for you. Also, I know that Kirsten would love to hear additional ideas about a kitchen registry in the comments — so please offer up your advice in the comments section.

I mention this back story because I felt it would be hypocritical not to. I’m about to dispense advice for how to plan a simple wedding when ours wasn’t. Most of the advice listed below we followed (1, 2, 5, 8, 9, 10), but not all of it. I loved our wedding day and don’t regret the choices we made at that time, but if we were getting married now, we would certainly do some things differently. For starters, I would ditch my 12′ veil and the heavy, wet, velvet rose, flower-ball bouquet nightmare our flower girl carried.

Ten tips for planning a simple wedding:

1. Set your budget with money that you already have in a bank account. No one, under any circumstance, should go into debt for a wedding. If you only have $500 to spend on a wedding, then plan a $500 wedding. If your parents are paying for the wedding and say that they have $5,000 for your wedding, then plan a $5,000 wedding. Best case scenario, spend less than you have budgeted.
2. When choosing bridesmaids dresses, remember that the dresses will only be worn the day of the wedding. (No matter how many times a bride tries to convince her bridesmaids otherwise.) Asking your bridesmaids to spend hundreds of dollars on a dress and matching shoes might not be the best way to treat your friends. Consider letting them choose their own dresses, or buy them matching floor length skirts and ask them to buy coordinating tops in any style they want.
3. When hiring a photographer, work with someone who will shoot your wedding digitally. You won’t have to pay for printing proofs.
4. When choosing groomsmen tuxedos, consider letting them wear their own if they have them instead of forcing them to rent.
5. Be sure to ask your wedding venue their policy on flowers and musicians. Many churches require that you leave altar flowers after your ceremony and pay for their staff musicians even if you don’t use them. We coordinated with the other couples who were getting married on the same day at our venue and the three of us split the costs of two large arrangements that worked with all of our flowers.
6. Be willing to think outside the box. You and your future spouse are unique individuals and your wedding should reflect that. Just because everyone else has their wedding a certain way, doesn’t mean that you have to. Be sure to manage guest expectations, however. If you’re getting married on the side of a mountain in ski gear, your guests won’t appreciate it if you forget to provide this information. No one likes to ride a ski lift in a dress.
7. Consider having flowers that are locally grown and in season — you’ll save a lot of money if they don’t have to be flown in from the tropics.
8. Remember that your marriage is what is most important, not your wedding day. Keeping this in perspective will save you time and stress when it comes to making decisions about minute details.
9. If you choose to have party favors, consider something edible or consumable.
10. Keep in mind that even if your cake is destroyed or your friends start a fight or your organist doesn’t show up and everyone has to sing a cappella that at the end of the day, you’re still married.

The points I’ve made barely cover the tip of the iceberg on the topic of planning a simple wedding. I’d like to open up the comments to everyone to share your tips on how to plan a simple celebration!

Regardless of the reason, my gifts are often received with a strange facial expression and the question, “What is it?” I’ll never forget the gift I got for my sister-in-law that drew the response, “This is such an interesting … uh … watering can?” It was a purse.

When I give a gift, I want the gift to be exactly what the recipient wants. I want it to be loved. I also want the gift to not end up as clutter or to cause stress. To avoid giving the imperfect gift or to cause stress, I’ve decided to follow David Seah’s suggestion in his post “Print Your Own ‘Re-Gift Receipts’” and create my own re-gift receipts to accompany my future gifts.

I’m not going to write mine up exactly like he has, but the principle is the same: a guilt-free return policy. It seems to be such a nice way to let people know that you will in no way be offended if they decide to return your gift.

Be sure to check out Seah’s template at the bottom of the post to save yourself time creating your re-gift receipts.

When I take the ornaments off the tree, I hang them on my wooden drying rack which is placed over a towel. Then, I use compressed air to clean the ornaments so they are ready for next year!

Great idea, Kerry!

Generating the resolution and committing it to paper or a hard drive is a terrific way to start the process. Unfortunately, though, the resolution won’t become a reality unless more work is done. (Wouldn’t it be great if just writing it down was really all it took?!)

If you don’t set a course of action and stick to it, then your resolution will be nothing more than words on paper. I want to walk through my process attack, which is loosely based on David Allen’s Getting Things Done method, to help you see how lofty goals can easily become experienced reality.

1. Commit your resolution to writing. It doesn’t matter if you write your resolution on an index card, in a Moleskine notebook, or on a web page like 43 Things. Formulating your idea into concrete words helps you define your purpose and gets you started on your path to change.
2. Reflect on your resolution and identify your motivation for change and where you see yourself once the resolution is complete. If you can’t see where you’re headed or why you want to get there, your resolution is pretty much destined for failure. There is no need to establish any other form of reward system, because you’ll see yourself succeeding! In my case, I need to imagine the calm I will have from not having piles of laundry cluttering up the floor of my laundry room.
3. Brainstorm methods for completing your resolution. Even if the ideas seem ridiculous, write them down anyway. What are all of the ways that you could possibly reach your goal? What steps could you take? What is currently standing in your way? What resources could you obtain to help you get what you want? Empty all of your thoughts on the matter onto a piece of paper.
4. Evaluate your brainstormed ideas and create what Allen calls “keys” to organization. “Identify the significant pieces. Sort by (one or more): components, sequences, priorities. Detail to the required degree.” This is the stage where you create your plan.
5. Once your plan is set, make decisions as to the exact steps you will follow to achieve your goal. Without these concrete steps, you won’t know how to move forward. For my laundry resolution, my exact steps involve a lot of removing current barriers to success. (Buy light bulbs on Saturday morning at the grocery store to replace burned out bulbs in the laundry room.) If you’ve never written an exact step, or what Allen names “next actions,” you may want to read the entry on this topic on Merlin Mann’s 43 Folders GTDwiki here.
6. Start!

Good luck to everyone with their organization resolutions! Feel welcome to tell us about your process for success in the comments section to this post.