Have you spotted any simple, uncluttered, green designs recently? Tell us about them in the comments.

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.

From page six:

Since clutter is particularly toxic to small kitchen spaces, we’ll start with some purging (and even get a little touchy-feely about why it’s so hard to keep a kitchen clutter free), then move on to deep cleaning and organizing.

Clutter busting, cleaning and organizing — an unclutterer’s dream book!

Some of my favorite advice can be found in the first part of the book:

For Those Who Can’t Let Go:
Some Tips and Tricks for Kitchen Pack Rats

LETTING GO OF STUFF comes easier to some than to others. For those of us who have a really hard time getting rid of unused and unneeded kitchen stuff, here are some thoughts to keep in mind:

1. Rmember that much of the stuff you are now going to make a decision about was in fact given to you by someone who, however thrifty, secretly wanted to be rid of it–and finessed the job by giving it to you.
2. Console yourself that much of the stuff you are making decisions about was never meant to be held on to and has no great commercial value.
3. Beware of meaningless sentimental attachments.
4. Focus, whenever possible, on the possibility that by cleaning out your kitchen cabinets you will be giving some really good stuff to others. Your guilt about letting go of stuff (and your fear of unwittingly losing some really valuable stuff) can thus be vanquished through the reassurance that you are giving stuff to charity. Thrift shops that benefit specific charities are your best bet, since your stuff will find a good home, the proceeds from the sale will help a worth cause, and–hey!– you will even be getting a tax deduction.
5. Finally, and most important: remember that you are not so much getting rid of stuff as making room to live.

The second part of the book is full of recipes that are perfect for a small kitchen. Not necessarily that exciting for an unclutterer, but there are some tasty recipes in there regardless.

The book’s author currently lives in a small New York City apartment that has a 45-square-foot kitchen and grew up using a kitchen on a tiny family sailboat. His advice is practical and based on years of experience.

Now that the text of my book has been shipped off to the publisher, I’m back to reading books again for review. First up on my list was Peter Walsh’s It’s All Too Much Workbook, which apparently came out in April. (April? There was an April this year?!) His workbook is a companion to his popular narrative It’s All Too Much.

What little text is in the Workbook appears to be the same as in the original. Mostly, it includes lined pages where you can physically answer questions and complete charts. There are a few pull-out boxes that contain new text, and one of these boxes really caught my eye on page 39:

COMMUNICATION QUESTIONS

Here are some questions to help you make decisions about what to keep without starting arguments or passing judgment. The goal is to reframe the discussion away from the item itself to its significance in your lives.

EXAMPLES

1. Instead of “Why don’t you put your tools away?” ask “What is it that you want from this space?”
2. Instead of “Why do we have to keep your grandmother’s sewing kit?” ask “Why is that important to you? Does it have meaning?”
3. Instead of “There’s no room for all of your stuff in there,” say “Let’s see how we can share this space so that it works for all of us.”
4. Instead of “Why do you have to hold onto these ugly sweaters your dad gave you?” ask “What do these sweaters make you think of or remind you of?”
5. Instead of saying “I don’t understand how you can live with all of this junk,” ask “How do you feel when you have to spend time in this room?”

His tips here are right on the mark. They get to the heart of the matter without antagonizing or assigning blame.

If you haven’t read It’s All Too Much, you can benefit from getting both it and the new It’s All Too Much Workbook. (The original is one of my favorite books on organizing and uncluttering.) You definitely will want the original book, though, as the Workbook isn’t a stand-alone product.

The prices are comparable to what you might find in a big box store like Costco or Sam’s Club, but the products are sized like what you would buy in a grocery store or pharmacy. All with the added convenience of not having to go to a store (and there is no charge for shipping). You can set up a shopping list and reminders, so that every few weeks or a couple times a year (you set the schedule) you receive a notification from Alice.com telling you that you might be getting low on toilet paper or deodorant or shampoo.

I’ve gone shopping on Alice, paid for my order, and received a shipment. For as much as I ordered, I was genuinely surprised at how little packaging they used. It all fit in a reasonably sized box and the box broke down easily to go into our recycling bin. Everything about the process was convenient.

And I think that is why I liked it so much. It’s convenient. I’m incredibly busy and the last thing I want to do is have to run to the store to pick up toilet paper when we inevitably run out at 10:00 at night. Now, I get a notice once a month asking me if I need toilet paper, and if my supplies are low, I order more. I make a few clicks with my mouse in less than a minute and toilet paper appears two days later.

Right now, since they’re still in beta, they’re only carrying the major brands. But, they’re in negotiations with smaller manufacturers to increase their inventory. They actually carried my favorite brand of all of the supplies I ordered, so I didn’t notice that anything was missing. During testing, though, I noted one or two types of products that weren’t on their inventory and poof! after I suggested the product it appeared on the list a few days later. So, I know they’re listening to consumer requests. The interface is easy to use, too, and these cute little cartoon people guide you through the site:

I think about my friends who have infants at home and barely have time to shower, and how nice it would be for them if diapers just appeared on their doorsteps. I think about my friends who live in downtown New York who have to take 20 minute train rides to get to the closest big box store, and how much time it would save them if their dry good items could simply be delivered. Since I buy the vast majority of my food through our local farmer’s market, Alice.com saves me from having to make a second shopping trip to the grocery store. It’s extremely convenient for busy people. It removes an errand/chore from my weekly schedule and allows me to spend that time doing something that matters more to me. It’s simple and uncluttered, for my life.

Granted, this service isn’t for everyone. If you like going to the grocery store and smelling products and first touching what you’re going to buy, then you won’t like getting your dry goods delivered. It also takes 15 to 20 minutes to put together your initial order (at least that is what it took me) which isn’t much of a time saver on that first trip. Subsequent trips are just seconds, however, since you have an established shopping list. Also, if you buy a lot of small production goods, it might take a while for those to become available as contracts are negotiated between Alice and those manufacturers.

What do you think about dry goods being delivered to your door? To me, it’s a lot like Netflix or Amazon, just with the specific grocery angle. If you’re interested in trying it for yourself, you can sign up for a free account and be a beta tester, too, at Alice.com. Tell us your thoughts in the comments.

Smartphones are all the rage these days. From Palm’s earlier creations, through the Blackberry and the iPhone, I’ve managed to resist the urge to upgrade from my old Motorola RAZR. As my thinking went (and had for nearly a decade), all I needed was a phone that worked — not one that included the kitchen sink. All of that went away this past weekend when I finally upgraded to Palm’s newest creation: the Palm Pre.

The Palm Pre sports a veritable plethora of features found on many competing smartphones: a camera, integrated mail and contact management, an easily-accessible online store (called the App Catalog), media playback, and more. What set the Pre apart from the others in my mind were some distinctive features that promised to make life just that much easier: Synergy, multitasking, iTunes sync, turn-by-turn GPS, and a very sharp 3-megapixel camera with integrated LED flash.

Synergy, Palm’s contact management system, integrates and merges your contact lists from Gmail, Facebook, Instant Messaging, and Microsoft Exchange into one easy-to-manage profile for each contact. Merging my Facebook contacts with my AIM list was easy; out of approximately 175 contacts, only three wouldn’t automatically merge. Linking the remaining three unmerged AIM contacts with the profiles they belonged under took maybe two extra minutes.

One of the more quirky and unexpected features of the Pre is its ability to masquerade as an iPod and synchronize with your existing media library using iTunes. While it won’t allow you to listen to files containing Apple’s DRM, it will synchronize your non-DRM MP3 and MP4 video collection to its 8GB storage without a problem. One caveat: Apple may not look upon this feature so favorably in the future, so you may not want to exclusively depend on it.

With the Pre’s on-board 3-megapixel camera, I no longer find it necessary to bring my everyday point-and-shoot along with me. The pictures are more than acceptable in both well-lit and low-lit situations. The LED flash works well enough, providing just enough light to get the right shot in dim light. That said, if you’re a dedicated amateur photographer, you may want to stick with your higher-end camera because the configuration options are currently slim.

The on-board turn-by-turn GPS system, called “Sprint Navigation” by Telenav, could easily replace most in-car GPS systems — provided you’re in a coverage area. Looking for the nearest bank? Three button presses and your directions are already queued up. While Google Maps on the Pre also offers much the same functionality, the spoken directions of Telenav’s system make it a much safer proposition. Sprint Navigation is provided free on the Pre.

And now we come to multi-tasking, perhaps Palm’s biggest achievement with the Pre. WebOS, Palm’s new operating system, allows multiple applications to be opened and used at once in the form of “cards.” While the iPhone has unofficially supported minor multitasking in certain applications, Palm takes it to a whole new level, allowing a user to view a PDF (through either the included PDF Reader or the newly-available Shortcovers e-reader application), listen to Pandora, map out a route using Google Maps, write an email, and browse the web all at once without having to close out from any of them to access the other.

While the App catalog may be sparse until more developers get on-board, there’s already evidence the organization-minded will have even more to enjoy on the platform: Evernote and SplashID Secure Password Manager were both released last week, offering even more tools to keep everything in its place.

With the Pre, I’ve come to realize just how much the smartphone has to offer: an innovative OS just ripe for organizing multitaskers, and (most of all) I no longer have to keep a notepad, GPS, point-and-shoot camera, or iPod with me. While I’m not going to step into the inevitable “Is it better than the iPhone?” fray, I can at least tell you that Palm has most certainly made me a believer in keeping life organized using the Pre.

(The Palm Pre is currently available for $199 (after $100 mail-in rebate) with a 2 year contract through Sprint, but other Palm phones using the WebOS platform are expected to find their way to other carriers including AT&T as well as Verizon in the next 6-12 months.)

To my surprise, however, I liked the NeatDesk for Mac. Specifically, I really liked the NeatWorks software. (If you buy the scanner, the software comes with it. The software also sells as a stand-alone product.)

The physical scanner is basic. It was easy to assemble, simple to install, is speedy, and it has a streamlined, uncluttered design:

What I want to talk about more in-depth is the accompanying software. Like most other programs, it automatically straightens scans, has text OCR and a document feeder, can automatically generate PDFs, and has settings for color, black/white, and image-only. Where it stands apart from other programs is with its field mapping on business card scans (it generates a contact card in Address Book with the data populated straight from the scan), it supports third-party scanners (Fujitsu, Canon, HP), and it allows you to create custom field values (this is great if you scan both business and personal receipts on the same scanner, so you can have drop-down menus for different credit cards, etc.).

Additionally, I liked that I could create custom reports based on my scans. If I wanted to pull up only my receipts from May 2009, I can do that and have the cover page reflect that information. If it’s a nice receipt, the software will also map vendor, date, and amount fields, similar to how it does with business cards. However, I only got this to work twice out of 10 times because I usually crumple up my receipts when I stick them into my purse and the text wasn’t very clear on the receipt when I scanned it. (I think of this as user error, not the program’s failing.) Here is an example of a good scan:

My only real complaint is that color paper seems to throw off all field-mapping abilities. If a piece of paper, receipt or business card isn’t black and white, it won’t map the information well, if at all. Take for example, my business card:

My card is just white text on a green background, and the software program didn’t map any data off of it. Actually, the system initially thought it was an image, not a business card. I was able to type all of the accurate information in by hand, so it doesn’t completely mess up the system, but I still wish it were more accurate. That being said, a lot of document feed scanning software systems have the exact same problem. In my opinion, it’s not a reason to keep from buying the software.

I think the scanner is fine, but I strongly recommend the NeatWorks software for Mac to use with whatever scanner you own. The software was extremely convenient and performed very well. It is much better than the software that ships with the Fujitsu ScanSnap, is right around the same price as DevonThink Pro, NeatWorks is simple to use with Evernote, and it’s a great way to control paper clutter. It earns a big thumbs-up in my book.

And, my cat Charlie is a big fan of its storage box:

We admit this seems overpriced and ordinarily we would be tempted to find a simpler and less-expensive solution to the problem. That said, we’re hesitant to pile electrical cables inside anything not expressly designed for that intended purpose. So it’s worth considering, irrespective of the price. It’s also nice to have a more flexible alternative to the Belkin Concealed Surge Protecter, which requires you to use its own integrated power-strip.

This week, Filemaker released Bento for iPhone and iPod Touch, which can function as a standalone application, or sync with the latest version of Bento for the desktop. I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical of the idea of a database application on a smaller device such as the iPhone, so I decided to test it out for a couple of days to see if it was as usable as advertised.

My first impression was that it’s clear that Filemaker took great care in making Bento for iPhone as iPhone-like as possible. I’d almost say that it’s easier to use than its desktop counterpart. And, while it lacks some of the deeper functionality of the desktop version, what’s included is extremely simple to use.

As I browsed through Bento for iPhone’s default templates, I was delighted to find one for creating a home inventory, something that has been on my mind ever since reading Gary’s experience of losing everything in a fire.

Adding a new inventory item was intuitive, and about as quick as possible given the limitations of the iPhone keyboard. But, adding a photo was much easier than it could ever be on a desktop, because Bento for iPhone integrates core functionality such as the iPhone’s camera. You can also use data from Contacts, iCal, Maps, Mail and Safari. I found that it was faster to add the item name and photo on the iPhone, then sync with the desktop to add other information. I was able to add a few dozen items in a fairly short amount of time, and never encountered any problems syncing data.

Bento for iPhone will appeal to anyone who wants to stay organized and take their data with them. The portability makes it much more convenient for capturing many type of personal data. Whether you want to take your recipe collection with you while you shop, track the foods you eat during the day, or make sure you’re prepared with a home inventory.

Bento for iPhone is currently available for $4.99 through the iTunes App Store. It’s bit more expensive than the typical iPhone App, but for what it does I consider it a bargain.

She talks about how organizing can bring about a Zen work life. She states:

“It doesn’t require more energy to get organized. In fact, chaos is a demanding taskmaster and time waster. Getting organized requires a redirection of energy away from one type of experience to another.”

Leeds breaks her book down into manageable chunks by months. Each month has a “work habit of the month” and a “daily home habit of the month” (e.g., January: Start Fresh). I’ll admit that the pre-determined monthly habits stifle her Zen mantra that runs throughout the book. Having a choice in the monthly habit would make it more personal, individualized and productive in the event the habit is already in place. But, if you don’t yet have all of the habits, it could work for you.

In order to reap the benefits of Zen organizing, Leeds says that journaling is essential. She uses prompting questions to get the thought process started. In addition, there are lots of examples to help with writer’s block and encourage thoughtfulness.

By March, much of the physical work environment has been organized, and the remainder of the book covers new habits. There is little reflection upon maintenance of the newly organized space. There is a monthly summary to reinforce the new habit, but there is no reflecting on prior months.

Leeds expands upon the benefits of meditation, exercise, and diet, as well as a greater psychological awareness that will contribute to increasing one’s self confidence and positivity. This book may not be for everyone, especially if you are strictly interested in workplace organization. The personal journaling required to reach organization goals is a part of all 52 weeks. Also, her Zen connections strongly connect home and work, thus you’re just not overhauling your office, but your home and personal life as well. She may lose readers in the introduction with her ideas on diet, exercise, dream board, work life journal, etc. Leeds believes that all of these factors directly impact work organization.

The theme of the book is best summarized with a reminder from Leeds at the year’s end of “Keeping your home life balanced with your work obligations isn’t always easy. There is no question that being organized will take you to the finish line, but being organized isn’t a destination you reach. It’s a journey you take.”

Overall, Leeds’ book One Year to an Organized Work Life is a practical resource for those in need of a complete organizational overhaul and for others who could use improvement in a few problematic areas.

Since we wrote that article, we’ve thought a lot about how incompatible bicycles can be with small spaces. We’ve written about a handful of storage solutions that use vertical or wall space, instead of floor space. And, we’ve been on the lookout for even more solutions.

A couple weeks ago, I stumbled upon the article “Best Folding Bikes of 2009” on the OptimalRide website:

Folding bikes are useful for anyone interested in taking their bike on a bus, train or ferry. They can also be packed in a car, stowed on a plane, or stored indoors securely. Many owners bring their folding bikes into an apartment or store them under an office desk. Most folding bikes have 16? or 20? wheels, but you can also find 26? wheel bikes that fold (see the Dahon bikes below).

The reviews and descriptions of the folding bikes in OptimalRide’s article are exhaustive, and definitely worth a read. Make sure to check out the whole article, as the ads in the middle of the text can be a little confusing. I hope this can be helpful to those of you in small living spaces.

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?

One of my goals for 2009 is to have all of my old photographs scanned so that I can have digital copies of these pictures. We’ve talked previously about services that will scan your photographs (in addition to ScanMyPhotos, commenters also recommend ScanCafe and LifePreserver), and having my photos scanned is the first item on my to-do list for this project.

While I’m trying to decide which scanning service to use, I’m also deciding what to do with the photographs once they’re scanned. First up, I’ll be sure to backup the images; I’ll put copies of the digital image DVDs in my safety deposit box at the bank and I’ll upload the image files to my online storage system. I value these images enough to pay to have them scanned, so I should also pay to have them protected from fire and natural disaster.

I will want to organize the digital image files on my computer, but I haven’t yet decided which program to use. I currently use iPhoto, but with a hundred thousand more photographs, it will be overloaded. With the new version coming out in a couple weeks, I’m going to wait to see if it’s more capable and robust. If it won’t meet my needs, I’m considering the iPhoto Library Manager by Fat Cat Software for $20 as one option for improving my current system’s functionality. But, I expect I’m going to spend the $200 to buy Aperture 2 and revel in its powerful system. (If you’re on a PC, I hear that Google’s Picasa continues to be the most convenient photo manager.)

Finally, I plan to use Blurb to create a handful of albums that I want to store on the bookshelf for guests to peruse. I used Blurb in December to create four photo albums and was very impressed with their service. I’ve used the Apple system in the past, but the quality of the Blurb book is leaps and bounds ahead of Apple’s product.

The books I ordered from Blurb were hardcovers with glossy jackets, full color interior, and 100-pound silk-finish paper. With shipping, I paid less than $150 total for the four albums. It may sound like a lot, but their quality appropriately matches the price. Alternatively, if you decided to go with a paperback cover, no book jacket, and non-premium paper would significantly reduce the price per album.

(Off-topic tip: I’ve often thought that digital photo albums would be great for sentimental clutter photographs. Take images of sentimental items, ditch the actual item, and then create a photo album of all your sentimental things. Instead of a basement full of clutter, you can have a single book on your bookshelf taking up just inches of space.)

I will add that I do have one complaint about Blurb and that is if you use their templates you can’t move any elements around on the page or resize any objects. This isn’t an issue just with Blurb, though, a handful of other album printing companies have the same restrictions. You can import full pages from programs like InDesign (Mac and PC), but then you’re not able to use the templates. Inside sources have told me that there are some improvements coming down the pipeline, and I hope altering templates is one of them.

For those of you who have already gone through the process of scanning all of your old photographs, what have you done to manage the files? Please let us know your plan of action in the comments.

1. A career that you love with a deep passion, surrounded by great colleagues who support and believe in a similar vision, and that is an integral part and reflection of who you are
2. A job that has regular hours, no demands on your time beyond your scheduled work day, generates enough income for a comfortable lifestyle, great colleagues, and a positive corporate culture

The first type of career completely gels with who you are and provides you with significant happiness. Even though you may not like every aspect of your work, you find the reasons behind it invigorating and worth the effort. You have your dream job and reap the benefits of this match. In many ways, the line between work life and personal life are blurred with this type of career.

The second type of job is one that you can turn off when you leave the office. It allows you to take advantage of all of your free time and deeply explore happiness in the world beyond your job. Being surrounded by people you like is a key to this type of job because if you don’t like the people you work with, then a job like this will be loathsome.

If you’re in a job that doesn’t make you happy and is cluttering up your life, or have recently been downsized because of the rough economy, then I want to recommend you read Jonathan Fields’ new book Career Renegade. His book is filled with actual advice that gives you instructions for “how to make a great living doing what you love.”

Career Renegade is not a touchy-feely, discover-what-you-want-to-do type of book. The premise behind the text is that you are eager to have a career you love and want to know exactly how to make it a reality.

The majority of his advice is targeted toward carving out niche careers in markets that are already established. However, I really enjoyed his insight relating to careers in markets that don’t yet exist:

Real innovators usually have:

• A deep passion for the content, beyond the desire to make money.
• A clear picture of the gap in the market of the problem in need of a solution.
• A nearly unshakable commitment to solving a problem or doing something better than it’s been done before.
• A willingness to take risks and make decisions based on the best information available relatively quickly, even if it’s not all of the information that might be accessible over a longer period of time. Entrepreneurs refer to this as the ready-fire-aim mind-set.
• An ability to visualize a solution that does not exist or at least to see the possibility of the solution.

The people who have manifested these qualities and succeeded in creating solutions, businesses, products, or services that simply did not exist before are the ones you need to seek out.

If you’re ready to have a career you love, then Career Renegade is the book for you.

His advice is based on six principles, two of which are initially discussed on pages 5 and 6 of his book:

Principle 1: By setting limitations, we must choose the essential. So in everything you do, learn to set limitations.

Principle 2: By choosing the essential, we create great impact with minimal resources. Always choose the essential to maximize your time and energy.

He uses the analogy of the haiku to illustrate these principles:

The haiku, as you may know, is usually a nature-related poem of just seventeen syllables, written in three lines (five syllables, then seven, then five). A poet writing a haiku must work with those limitations, must express an entire idea or image in only that number of syllables … He can quickly whip out seventeen syllables and have a completed haiku in a short amount of time; or he can carefully choose only the essential words and images needed to convey his idea. And this second choice is what creates some of the most powerful poetry in such a limited form — choosing only the essential.

He has four other principles, but these first two are really the heart of his system. In my opinion, he accurately explains that if you are going to be productive and efficient in all that you do, you have to make choices. You cannot do everything that comes your way, and you have to make difficult decisions about what filters into your life and what doesn’t.

On page 23 he aptly summarizes why you would want to adopt his system:

Simplifying isn’t meant to leave your life empty — it’s meant to leave space in your life for what you really want to do.

I completely agree with his message, and I think it will resonate well with most Unclutterer readers. If you are looking for sound advice on how to improve your productivity, The Power of Less will help you to be more efficient in all your dealings.

You can also check out Leo’s free eBook Thriving on Less: Simplifying in a tough economy, his audio tips for focusing on one task at a time, and participate in his New Year’s Challenge forum. Finally, if you missed it, check out Leo’s guest post on Unclutterer “Creating a minimalist workspace.”

At that time, I was in a hate-hate relationship with my overnight bag. It was a multiple-pocket duffle bag that had the worst strap configuration known to man on it. When I got it, the bag was empty, and I had no idea how much pain the strap could inflict on my shoulder with even the smallest amount of weight in it.

I decided to check out a ZÜCA bag and see if it might be a nice alternative. I’m glad that I did, because the ZÜCA bag is my new best friend for when I need to travel for a week or less.

These are the reasons why I think the ZÜCA bag is great:

• The wheels. They maneuver better than any luggage with wheels that I’ve ever test driven. Plus, you can order customized ones that look like roller skate or skateboard wheels.
• The built-in chair. The aluminum frame on the bag allows you to be able to use the piece of luggage as a chair. Often times, at the airport, I find myself waiting in lines. Now, I just sit while I wait.
• The TSA-compliant zipper pouch. The pouch has a specialized pocket right inside the bag so that I can easily grab it when heading through security and then pop it back into place after putting on my shoes.
• The laptop pocket. Actually, I’m pretty sure ZÜCA didn’t imagine the side pocket to be a laptop pocket, but mine fits right inside of it. When going through security at the airport, I just slide it out of the pocket without having to unzip or unsnap anything. I have to be careful, however, if I store my bag in the overhead compartment to either take my laptop out of the pocket or store my bag laptop-side on top.
• The insert bags. I don’t always use each and every one of the insert bags, but I use most of them. I put my shoes and belts in one, my shirts in another, etc. They keep shoe crud from getting on my clothing.
• The washable exterior. If the ZÜCA bag gets dirty, you can remove the bag from the frame and wash it. It’s also water resistant, so if it rains, your stuff is nice and dry inside. Also, if you decide you want something snazzy, you can change the bag to a different pattern the company sells.

My only problem with the bag is that I have yet to find a way to store a suit coat without it getting wrinkled. My assumption is that this is a failing of mine, and not a problem with the bag design. However, if the bag had a suit pouch that would wrap around the insert bags, I wouldn’t have a concern at all.

Also, the bag isn’t cheap. It retails for close to $300. A quick search through some other luggage websites finds that the price is comparable to similar bags of its size. I believe the price is worth it, though, especially for people who travel a lot for business. If you’re in the market for a new piece of carry-on luggage that holds up to a week’s worth of clothes in an incredibly organized manner, you definitely need to check out the ZÜCA bag.

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:

• Amazon’s Kindle is in stock
• Kindle: Is it worth it?

RTM’s new native iPhone application (which requires a Pro account at RTM, which will set you back a scant $25 per year) is what got me to switch from my previous solution (OmniFocus on OSX + iPhone). The app is an excellent first release, much moreso than most of the other 1.0s that appear in the store. Launching and synching are both blazingly fast, unlike most local-storage-heavy iPhone apps. It also supports landscape mode for just about every view, which is a killer feature for me. It lets you fully manage the service, all from the comfort of, well, wherever you are with your iPhone.

The other new feature that really cinched it for me is the availability of an in-Gmail gadget where you can add/edit/complete todo list items without leaving Gmail (where many of my tasks and projects originate, which I’m sure is true for many of you). This is exactly the type of integration that really puts RTM a cut above the rest of the list management applications I’ve used. Couple this with the excellent Twitter integration, and RTM is never more than a few clicks/taps away, no matter where I am or what I’m doing.

One great OmniFocus feature that I’d truly love to see in RTM is the ability to incubate tasks or projects until a given date/time. For example, if I know I need to send a birthday card to my Mom in 3 weeks, OmniFocus would let me set a start date for the project, so that it (as well as any associated tasks) wouldn’t show up in my lists until that date. A consistent weekly review would make sure this type of thing doesn’t sit fallow in your task list for weeks before it is actionable, but I’m a lazy programmer who likes to let computers do the thinking that I don’t really feel I have to do.

Honestly, there isn’t much I’d change about RTM’s current set of features, other than perhaps some SMS integration, but that problem is solved easily enough with the Twitter integration. Otherwise, I find it to be quite useful – not to mention a total bargain, and well worth some investigation if you’re a productivity-minded technophile like myself.

Brett Kelly is a sometimes-independent writer, software developer and productivity nerd from California. You can read more about his unending adventures online at brettkelly.org, or you can just follow him on Twitter.

This new way of shipping products is very convenient. The amount of packaging that is reduced depends on the product, but judging from some of the items I’ve struggled to open up in the past, the Frustration-Free Packaging will surely be welcome. 

My first question upon hearing about this new packaging program was, “So what does Amazon do with the packaging?” Upon reading the helpful Q&A page, I was surprised to find out that Amazon is working directly with manufacturers to package their products in the new packaging right off of the assembly line.

I hope this new packaging program will catch on with other retailers.