Your advice on doing the laundry is fantastic. I’ve employed several tips with great success. In particular, I’m a fan of clothing items that need little care (e.g. no ironing, dry cleaning, etc.). However, I’m unable to find usable suggestions on HOW TO PUT THE LAUNDRY AWAY. One mantra of simple living systems is to touch things only once (mail directly from the mailbox into office without setting on kitchen counter first and while throwing away junk mail before you even bring it into the house), but I’m unable to find a laundry system that doesn’t result in piles and piles of clean laundry that needs to be put away. Getting it into the washer and dryer is easy — how can I get it to put itself away? My kids are 2 and 4 years old. I do one load of laundry a day. It ends up sitting in our enormous rolling laundry cart in the laundry room, where we all gather in our underwear looking for clean clothes. Please help.

I laughed aloud when I read your description of your family gathering in the laundry room looking for clean clothes because I have done exactly that on numerous occasions. My guess is that anyone with a washer and dryer at home has done this, but maybe around a couch, dining table, or wherever clothes are folded. And, I don’t know why, but I’m usually standing on my tippy toes, quickly shifting my weight from foot to foot, on a mission to locate clean socks. You’ve just described the human clean clothes hunting ritual!

To find a solution to this problem, start by making sure you don’t have more clothes than storage space. If drawers and closets are cramped, you might be avoiding putting clothes away because you can’t easily do it. You shouldn’t have to push down on clothes to shut drawers, and you shouldn’t have to use your elbows and exert upper body strength to cram clothes into a closet. Also, check out your closet and make sure that whatever method you’re using to organize your clothes is simple to maintain. If your closet organizing system is too convoluted, you might be avoiding the chore for this reason.

Although your rolling laundry cart is really cool, it might not be the best tool for your family. You may be better served by having four labeled, stackable, laundry baskets or a rolling, 4-bag, laundry sorter. Each night after dinner, you and your husband can take five minutes to put away the clothes in your designated bin or basket and then spend another five minutes helping your kids with theirs.

Challenge everyone to a race, play upbeat music, and/or make the new routine as much fun as possible. After a few months, it will become second nature and putting away laundry will no longer be an issue. As your children get older, they’ll be able to put away their clothes without help (around age 5 or 6) and eventually even do their own laundry (usually around age 10, 11, or 12). I’m definitely looking forward to these milestones in my house!

Be sure to check out the comments for even more suggestions from our readers for ways to help get clothes out of the laundry room and into their proper storage spaces.

Thank you, Kelly, for submitting your question for our Ask Unclutterer column.

Do you have a question relating to organizing, cleaning, home and office projects, productivity, or any problems you think the Unclutterer team could help you solve? To submit your questions to Ask Unclutterer, go to our contact page and type your question in the content field. Please list the subject of your e-mail as “Ask Unclutterer.” If you feel comfortable sharing images of the spaces that trouble you, let us know about them. The more information we have about your specific issue, the better.

How often do you hear people say they don’t have enough time? Like me, you may have used the “not enough time” excuse as a reason for not following your dream.

We all have goals, the problem is making time for them in our busy schedules.

For years, I wanted to write but didn’t. I often used the “not enough time” excuse and thought it was true. I didn’t have time to write because I was running a business and raising kids.

But my life was totally immersed in doing, not being, and the more I did, the more unhappy I became.

Until I decided to do something about it, accept the blame, and prioritize better.

First, I worked out where my time went.

I wrote down everything I did and noticed my days were cluttered. A typical entry would be: 10 minute personal call, 10 minutes planning meals, 20 minute business call, 15 minutes e-mailing.

By lunchtime I often felt so frazzled I just slumped in front of the TV with Dr. Phil and rejoiced that at least I wasn’t as messed up as his guests.

After a week, I made a pie chart showing where my time went, where I could save time, and what I could remove. I recommend doing this as a visual guide to see how your time is spent.

There were 10 main time traps I noted and what I needed to do to control them:

1. The Phone – I don’t have to answer it every time it rings.
2. The Internet – Log in an few times a day for specific purposes only.
3. Housework – Let some things slide. The state of my house is not an indication of my emotional well-being and it doesn’t have to be perfect.
4. Friends and Family – Manage them into times when I want to see them or socialize. Don’t let them encroach.
5. Cooking and Shopping – Streamline them, bulk buy and cook.
6. Sleep – Try cutting out one hour of sleep. I’ll probably function fine and gain an extra hour a day.
7. Commuting to work – Can I cut out the commute and work from home a few days a week?
8. Reading – Reading about writing, travel or starting a business is good unless it takes up time when I could have been doing them.
9. TV – Limit it to the shows I actually enjoy. Never channel hop.
10. Dreaming – At some point I have to stop dreaming about following my passion and start doing it.

Stop yearning for more time and work out how to create it with these four steps:

1. Make a pie chart that reflects your tracked time.
2. Work out which time traps are stopping you from following your dreams.
3. Write a weekly schedule for yourself and stick to it. Make sure you log at least three sessions for following your dream.
4. Schedule times in your calendar for the things you want to do and follow through.

No more “not enough time” excuses needed.

It is a decent tool bench and serves our purposes. Unfortunately, the workspace had become quite the dumping ground for whatever we thought belonged in the basement but didn’t yet have a permanent storage solution. After a couple hours of attention, the clutter was removed. All that remains are the tools that we use for guitar and furniture making and basic home improvements.

In addition to the great peg board for the most-accessed tools at the back of the bench, I also put to use a set of four plastic storage bins from Ikea (which I can’t seem to locate on their website, but Container Store appears to carry similar ones):

These bins will keep errant screws, nails, and other small materials from running rampant on the workspace. A significant improvement to our tool bench.

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Other posts in this series:

• Project Basement: Day 1
• Project Basement: Day 2
• Project Basement: Day 3

1. Old hobbies. Most hobbies require equipment, supplies, and/or specialty tools that can easily be resold at near-cost prices. If you’re no longer participating in rock climbing, scrapbooking, or golf, consider selling the hobby’s accouterments. Sites like eBay and Craigslist are good options for selling the supplies, and so are sites where hobbyists visit (like Ravelry for knitters, crocheters, and spinners).
2. Collections. If you’ve lost interest in a collection, consider putting it up for sale on eBay. Sell things as a single lot if you don’t want to spend the next couple weeks at the post office mailing each piece of your collection to far-flung locations around the globe. Look at other sales of similar items to see what kind of a bid to expect.
3. Maintenance costs. The more stuff you have, the more you have to maintain — you have to pay for more square footage in your home, more money goes out to heat and cool your space, and even more is spent on things like painting, cleaning gutters, lawn mowing, etc. Typically, to get more square footage in a home, you also have to live further from your job, which increases commute times, travel expenses (fares, tolls, gasoline), and you have to service your car more often. All of it adds up, putting greater strain on your pocketbook. Living simply almost always means paying significantly less on maintenance costs.

Where have you found cash in your clutter? Share your suggestions in the comments.

In fact, even when we think we’re in charge of a project, we often are not. When we have to rely on others to supply information, supplies, or support, timelines (and budgets) can quickly be extended. After years of working across multiple professions and with clients, I have identified where projects typically go awry. From page 200 of Unclutter Your Life in One Week:

These are the universal truths for why projects are not completed on time:

• Clients are never as prepared as they say they will be.
• Clients always change their mind.
• People always underestimate the amount of time it will take to do something.

(The word clients in this list can easily be substituted with bosses, co-workers and also you.)

Clients are never as prepared as they say they will be. For most people, working on a project is more fun than planning it. As a result, clients don’t think through the entire process and its results before contacting a vendor. Putting in the research, collecting data, identifying the goal of the project, and envisioning it through to its completion before contacting a vendor will help enormously to preserve a timeline.

Clients always change their mind. I think it’s important for a project to have flexibility, but changing the scope of a project will extend timelines and/or costs. You need to be prepared for these changes and ready for when they happen. You can reduce the impact and costs of these changes simply by having a single decision-making liaison between the client and vendor. If a client or vendor is being contacted by more than one person, there are too many cooks in the kitchen. One person should act as the filter on both ends of a relationship to make sure that only approved changes that relate to the final outcome of the project are communicated.

People always underestimate the amount of time it will take to do something. Even though I have timed myself enough to know how long it actually takes me to do something, I still think I work faster than I do. We all think this way. In our minds, we have speed of pumas. Avoid this project pitfall by using the following:

A good rule of thumb is to double everything up to a day. If you think something will take you two hours, plan for it to take four. If you think something will take you eight hours, plan for it to take sixteen. After eight hours, the double rule stops being as accurate. For projects that I estimate will take between one and five days, I just tag on an additional day. If someone says it will take him two weeks to complete a portion of the project, I add three additional days into the schedule.

Your project’s timeline can be preserved or closely achieved with proper planning, organizing, improved communication, and realistic expectations for work completion. Remember the three universal truths for why projects are not completed on time, and do your best to avoid them.

A 2008 survey at Intel showed employees receive 350 emails per week on average; at Morgan Stanley, employees get 625 new messages per week. Executives’ incoming email volume was much higher. In some cases, workers spent 20 hours a week just dealing with email.

Trapani suggests in her article to create three folders to keep e-mail from cluttering up your time: To-do, Wait, and Reference. To use them:

If the message is a task you’ve got to complete–like a request from the boss–file it into your To-do folder, and add it to your to-do list. If the message is about something you’re waiting for–like a package shipment notification or a promise from a co-worker to get you something by next Tuesday–put it in your Wait folder, and maybe even on your calendar. Everything else–the CC’s, the FYI’s, the “just thought you should know”s–file these in Reference. That’s your library of email that you can search any time to look up information you might need later.

In my opinion, the most important parts of this system are “add it to your to-do list” and “put it … on your calendar.” Treat e-mail like regular mail or as if there is someone standing in your office making the request. This type of attention can go a long way in keeping e-mail under control. Be sure to check out the article for additional tips.

I can’t throw this away! I must keep it! I worked hard to make this stuff!

I told my husband I had changed my mind and I wasn’t going to let the six bins of teaching paperwork go. He laughed, and then realized I was serious.

PJ: You don’t need it.
Me: Yes I do!
PJ: Why do you need it? Have you looked at it a single time in the past four years?
Me: I looked at it today!
PJ: That doesn’t count.
Me: Sure it does.
PJ: Maybe you could scan the files?
Me: That will take a lot of time. It’s easier just to put this stuff back into the basement.
PJ: Wasn’t your goal to clear the clutter from the basement, not pull the clutter out and then put it back?
Me: I guess this is what I get for marrying a guy who pays attention to what I say.
PJ: Yes, dear.

Except for a couple hours this morning pulling out the washer and dryer, sweeping the floor where they had been, and doing a general cleanup in the laundry area of the basement, I’ve been sorting, scanning, and recycling a couple hundred pounds of paperwork. Truth be told, I’m missing the basement. Organizing tools and unearthing strange cleaning supplies is infinitely more fun than digitizing old papers.

Here’s how I’m tackling the paperwork portion of this project:

• Sort. I didn’t do a very good job of editing these files before I put them into storage. So, many of these papers are going straight into the recycling bin instead of being prepped for scanning.
• Scan. I’m using our ScanSnap, which has a multi-page document feeder and optical character recognition (OCR). After the pages are turned into searchable PDFs, I’m recycling or shredding the pages.
• File. As the final step in the process, I’m using DEVONthink to manage all of the digital files on my computer. Since the OCR process identifies the words in the documents, I’m primarily relying on the Google Desktop search function to find anything I might one day need.

Part of me thinks that digitizing these old papers is a complete waste of time. However, the sentimental part of me won’t let me get rid of the files any other way. I don’t know if I’m going to scan all six boxes of files, seeing as the activity is already starting to grate on my nerves. I’ve committed to sorting through everything, though, so I’ll at least know what I’m tossing. I don’t want to make the mistake again of blindly throwing away a box of items only to learn later that it included my social security card and passport — I’ve made that mistake, and replacing them was a nightmare.

—
Other posts in this series:

• Project Basement: Day 1
• Project Basement: Day 2

1. Open lines of communication
2. Gather data
3. Identify final outcome and deadline
4. Envision achievement of final outcome
5. Set small milestones on a realistic timeline
6. Do the work
7. Stay in communication with relevant parties
8. Finish project
9. Cleanup, review, and/or reflect

The first step in this process could be opening up lines of communication with your boss, client, or possibly a service provider like an electrician. With a project like a closet cleanup, the communication might simply be motivating yourself or letting your roommate know you’re going to be making a giant, but temporary, mess.

When you’re gathering data in the second step, you’re looking to learn as much as you can about the entire project. Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? Someone else might be giving you this data or you may need to seek it out yourself. How much clutter lurks in your attic? What is it? How should you handle it?

Steps three, four, five, and six are pretty straightforward — you want to know where you’re headed and how you’re going to get there, and then you need to take the steps to make that happen. Setting small milestones in addition to the overall large goal keeps you on track throughout the entire project.

The seventh step is often forgotten, but vitally important if you’re working with or coordinating others. When you provide status reports to everyone involved in the project you’re managing their expectations of your work and helping them to plan and complete their part of the work.

Step number eight is the best step, and may be worthy of a celebration.

The last step is important for getting you ready for the future. Cleaning up helps objects get returned to their storage space and ready for the next time you or someone else wants to use them. Reviewing the project after it’s completed helps you identify what worked and what didn’t, and reflecting on the entire project motivates you to take on more projects (or fewer) like it in the future. Completing this step, and even writing it down or logging it in some way, also gives you something to reflect on later for a performance review or even in your personal life.

I didn’t find anything shocking in my first day of work, but I was confused as to how some things ended up in the basement. I discovered a set of dishes that I thought I’d given away before our last move. I learned the kickstand on my bike is longer than it should be, which is why my bike tips over whenever you pass by it to get to the tool bench. And, I realized that we have more screwdrivers and socket wrenches than we need (three complete sets).

Items like the dishes and tools can be donated to charity, sold, or Freecycled. However, I was unsure of what to do with a number of items I found on our shelving. Once I left the basement and made my way to the computer, I quickly discovered what to do with many of the items:

• Paint. I will need to sort these into two groups — good and bad. Good paints are those that match colors currently on our walls and that could still be used. Bad paints are those that don’t match anything in the house and/or those that were improperly sealed and are dried out. I will continue to store the good paints and write notes on their lids with a permanent marker (Living Room, North Wall). The bad paint, however, will need to be taken to my county hazardous waste facility. The latex paint isn’t necessarily hazardous to the environment, but our local facility still recommends bringing it in to them. To learn the location of your local hazardous waste facility, go to your city or county’s website and do a search for “hazardous waste disposal.”
• Caulk. We have three partially used tubes of caulk, and none of it looks like it could be used again. Since I don’t remember when or where this caulk was purchased, I also need to take it to the hazardous waste facility.
• Bug spray. I discovered that we have ant, roach, wasp, hornet, slug, and snail sprays. All of it has passed its expiration date, and all of it is poisonous. So, like the paint and caulk, this stuff will need to be taken to the hazardous waste facility.
• Weed spray. I’m pretty sure this bottle was here when we moved into the house. I’ll be taking it to the hazardous waste facility, too.
• Grout and tile cleaner. These cleaners were still good, and we have to use them from time-to-time if one of our cats gets sick on the kitchen or bathroom floors. (Yuck!) I have a metal box that I purchased from The Container Store many years ago that I’m going to label “Powerful Cleaners,” place on a high shelf, and fill with these cleaners and similar cleaning products. I want to keep these poisons out of the reach of my son, and so I want to make them as inaccessible as possible.
• Joint compound. This is still good and we use it to patch nail holes, so I’m keeping it. However, it is poisonous if consumed, which means that it will also be going on a high shelf for storage. If we don’t use all of it, our county also recommends taking it to the hazardous waste facility for proper disposal.
• Thorocoat. We’re required by our home owner’s association to cover all exposed concrete on our house with this product. It’s still usable, but since we repainted last year, we don’t currently have a need for it. I’m going to send an e-mail out to our neighborhood discussion group to see if anyone wants to buy it from us for their home.
• Wood glue. I discovered five bottles of dried-out wood glue on our tool bench. The wood glue is water based, so it can be disposed of in our regular trash. If it were solvent based, it would have needed to go to the hazardous waste facility.

The next step in the process (unfortunately) requires me to get my hands dirty and make a giant mess. I’ll be pulling everything out of the basement so that I can clean the cobwebs, dust, and mess that currently sits beneath the clutter. I’ll discuss this process in tomorrow’s Project Basement post.

—
Other posts in this series:

• Project Basement: Day 1

The third story Stillwater shares with Karl is called “A Heavy Load” and is about two traveling monks. During their journey, two monks come upon an awful woman who refuses to cross a river because she does not wish to get her silken robes wet or dirty. The older of the two monks quickly picks up the woman and carries her across the water. Many hours later, the younger monk is very upset and visibly angry about his friend helping someone so disdainful, and he feels obliged to share his frustration with the older monk:

“That woman back there was very selfish and rude, but you picked her up on your back and carried her! Then she didn’t even thank you!”

“I set the woman down hours ago,” the older monk replied. “Why are you still carrying her?”

I think of this story whenever I find a dirty cup in our television room or clothing on the floor instead of in the hamper or notice that a co-worker dropped the ball on a small task. I remind myself that I have two options — I can be like the young monk and throw a fit and be in a bad mood and let it annoy me for hours, or I can be like the older monk and take care of the problem myself and immediately let go of the frustration. I get to decide if I want the cup or errant sock or unfinished task to clutter up my mind and put me in a bad mood, and, since I’d rather not have that clutter wasting my time and energy, I usually choose to be like the older monk.

I’m not a maid — and I’m not suggesting you become one either — but I get to decide how I’m going to react to a situation. Remembering, too, that I don’t know the full story behind why the glass or sock are out of place or why a task at work was left unfinished. For all I know, my co-worker got an important call from a client and had to stop a project mid-way through completion to handle an emergency. By helping out, instead of getting frustrated and throwing a fit, I’m making the situation better for myself and others. I get to choose not to fill my time with more clutter than the small item I encountered.

That said, if there is a persistent habit of other people leaving messes in their wake, a conversation about that behavior is certainly in order. However, frustrations caused by occasional messes are usually not worth carrying around with you and cluttering up your mind, energy, and emotions.

From the CNN.com description of this office:

Mark Halliday of Franklin, Massachusetts, says he finished this office in one day at a cost of around $45. “We needed an office, but it didn’t make sense to use an entire room for it,” he said. He and his wife used hanging shelves and leftover paint from another project to create the work area.

I’m a big fan of the closet office, especially when living in a small space. For additional inspiration, check out the five closet offices we’ve featured in the past as Workspace of the Week features:

• Closet office
• Hidden in a closet
• Multi-functioning clothing and office closet
• More closet workspaces

(Image via CNN.com via Mark Halliday.)

I’ve been in enough concrete basements to know that ours is far from being the most cluttered one. However, I know what is stored in many of those boxes, on those shelves, and crammed into this space, and it is time for a lot of it to go. For instance, two of those black Rubbermaid bins are holding my classroom supplies from when I was a teacher. And, I was a teacher long enough ago that I have legally gone out drinking with my former students. It’s time for these supplies to find a new home.

To motivate myself to go down into this dark and dreary space and get rid of the clutter, I’m declaring this week Project Basement. Each day, I’ll report here about my progress and how the space is being transformed. If all goes well, by Friday I will have a basement that is much less cramped and scary — and my hope is to spend less than $100 on this project. Feel welcome to unclutter your basement along with me, as I will be providing information on where to recycle, donate and/or dispose of many of the items I’m sure to uncover. If your basement is in tip-top condition, but you might have another area of your home in need of some love and attention, create your own week-long project and tell us about your progress in the comments or over on the Unclutterer Forum.

My first task today is to get into my basement and really learn what I have. Once I know what is in all of those boxes, I will be able to plan my week accordingly. Additionally, I’ll know whom I need to call about disposing some of the chemicals that are unnecessarily being stored in this space. What I’ll need:

1. Pen and a pad of paper to record my findings.
2. Gardening gloves to wear since I have an irrational fear of touching a bug or tearing through a spider web.
3. Access to the internet and telephone to research recycling, donating, and/or disposing options after I’ve discovered what is in the space.

Costs involved in this first stage: $0

Wish me luck, and good luck to you if you choose to take on a similar project!

My wife uses her mini van as an office for her process serving business, and a shuttle bus for taking our children to and from various events plus all the household shopping. Her process serving business involves carrying multiple files that need served and ones that have been served. She also uses duct tape to post papers on doors, flashlight, mace, and a gps. She uses a plastic grocery bag over one of the arm rests for a garbage bag and she carries all the coupons in her van since she never knows when she will need one. All of these items are kept in between the front seats, door pockets and overhead visors. Needless to say the van can get cluttered quite quickly. This drives me crazy when we use her van for family trips. What suggestions or gadgets have you come across for organizing a vehicle? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

The same rules you use to keep your home uncluttered should apply to your car. Specifically, I’m thinking of the Unclutterer motto: “A place for everything and everything in its place.” The reason the car is becoming cluttered is because none of your wife’s items have a “place” in the car.

I recommend that you and your wife look into getting an automotive mobile office. There are many different options, so find the one that works best for her specific needs. I like the AutoDesk Standard Efficiency model because of the additional storage space behind the laptop surface:

The prices might initially seem a little steep (most are between $100 and $200), but when you compare them to the costs of traditional office furniture, they’re incredibly less expensive. And, it is her office. Just because she works in a car doesn’t mean she has to sacrifice all of the benefits of a conventional office.

A coupon organizer would be a great solution for her coupon collection and could be stored in the auto desk unit. And, a large litter bag would also be a nice addition to keep trash under control.

As far as posting papers around the car, you might consider using sticky tape to adhere a cork or metal strip to the front of the glove box. Then, either with thumb tacks or magnets she could hang the papers there instead of using duct tape throughout the car.

Thank you, Jim, for submitting your question for our Ask Unclutterer column.

Do you have a question relating to organizing, cleaning, home and office projects, productivity, or any problems you think the Unclutterer team could help you solve? To submit your questions to Ask Unclutterer, go to our contact page and type your question in the content field. Please list the subject of your e-mail as “Ask Unclutterer.” If you feel comfortable sharing images of the spaces that trouble you, let us know about them. The more information we have about your specific issue, the better.

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!

It is a sturdy design that would be a fantastic tool organization system in any garage or workroom. You can watch the tool cart in action on YouTube:

(Images from Instructables)

If you turn to page 158 of the issue, and search diligently, you can even spot a quote from me (hunting for it is like playing a game of Where’s Waldo?). This was my first time being quoted in O, and I was thrilled they thought of me for their big “De-Clutter Your Life!” issue.

For one of the uncluttering stories, Oprah let camera crews into her closet to see how much clutter she had stored on her rods and shelves. Her closet seemed to me to be in decent shape, but she talked frankly about her decisions to keep and purge items with Adam Glassman, O’s creative director:

OPRAH: “I bought a lot of little bags when I thought I was going to be a ‘lady who lunches.’ I’ve never been one, but I’ve always liked the idea and longed for that life. There’s something about dressing up and being ladies–it’s like playing house.”
ADAM: “Fashion can help you create an image, but be honest about your lifestyle. Do you really need yachting clothes when you never set foot on a boat? When buying an item, if you can answer ‘Where am I going in this?’ with at least four legitimate places, you have my blessing.”

One of my favorite features in the issue is a chart on page 153 “The 10 Habits of Highly Organized People.” From the list:

9. FORSEE (AND AVOID) PROBLEMS. You wouldn’t leave the house on a gray day without an umbrella, right? People who appear to sail through life unruffled apply this thinking to every scenario, says [Dorthy] Breininger [president of the Delphi Center for Organization]. Have a cabinet packed with leaning towers of Tupperware? Organized folks will take a few minutes to short-circuit an avalanche before it happens. (In other words, rearranging that cupboard now is easier than chasing after wayward lids as they scatter underneath the fridge.)

There are many great tips to be garnered from the March issue of O. Also, the items that Oprah decided to pitch from her closet are being auctioned on eBay starting March 1, and proceeds with benefit her Leadership Academy.

I’ve been on the Metro and had a similar experience. I’ve ridden past my stop because my mind was focused on something that had happened earlier or wasn’t focused on anything at all. I was absentminded because I wasn’t mindful of what I was currently doing.

When we operate on auto-pilot in our lives, we cease to be aware of what is happening right now. A man on the street will hand you a flier for a shoe sale, and you’ll put it into your pocket without thinking twice. Then, the flier clutters up your coat pocket for days, maybe weeks, because you don’t even remember it is there. Had you been mindful when you were on the street, you wouldn’t have taken the flier in the first place.

A significant amount of clutter in our homes could be eliminated simply by being more mindful in the present. Mindfulness helps you to make significantly fewer impulse buys, you throw out junk mail before bringing it into your house, and when you spot clutter already in your home you take care of it immediately (recycle it, trash it, put it in a donation box) instead of pushing it aside and letting it continue to bother you. I’ve also found that if I’m tired, I’m more likely to be absentminded. (There is a direct correlation between how many typos make it onto Unclutterer and how much sleep I had the night before I edited the article.) Keeping up energy levels helps a great deal with being mindful.

If you’re not in the practice of staying mindful, consider temporarily putting up post-it notes around your home or office that say “What are you doing right now?” A note on your computer monitor, one on your bathroom mirror, another near your mailbox, and another one on the door of your microwave are good places to start. A second idea might be setting a timer on your computer with a recorded voice saying “What are you doing?” to sound every 15 minutes. Also, keeping up your energy levels is a plus.

What do you do to help you stay mindful in the present? I’ve tried the post-it note idea and had decent success with that strategy. However, I found I needed to change the post-it note every few days (switch up my handwriting, change to a different color of paper, and move the location slightly) so that they continued to grab my attention.

1. Check the expiration dates on all the food in your refrigerator and freezer. Is anything past its prime? Has something been lingering for longer than it should? Check out StillTasty.com and/or call the manufacturer’s customer service line if you have any questions about a food stuff’s safety. Toss any food that could potentially poison you and your family.
2. Help your child to gather all the tiny parts of his toys that often get lost or fall to the bottom of their toy chests. Once you have the items collected, use zip-top bags to store these itty bitty pieces. Put doll shoes in one bag and single Lego Blocks in another. Label the bags with a permanent marker and store all the zip-top bags in a basket or bin.
3. Walk through your living or working space and return as many out-of-place objects as you can to their proper storage place. Set a timer and get moving. Any items that don’t belong or lack a permanent home, decide if you can get rid of them (trash, recycle, donate) or if you need to make room in your home and/or office for the object. When the timer sounds at the end of five minutes, return to your regular activities.

Were you surprised by how much you were able to accomplish in such a short amount of time? What uncluttering tasks do you tackle in five minutes? Tell us your ideas in the comments.

Colorado, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas State, and Missouri fans aren’t the only ones who want to see Kansas mess up their record in the last five games. Fans of the other ranked teams would be happy to see Kansas take a tumble, and, after watching some of the games this year, I’m pretty certain there are a few referees that would be glad to see Kansas lose, too.

In competitive sports like basketball, a game has to end with a winner and a loser. If you’re on top, it’s because you beat other teams to get there. You make enemies quickly when success after success stacks up beneath you. Other people don’t like to see you succeed when it was at their expense. In fact, other teams and fans watch you in hopes of experiencing schadenfreude.

In our work lives, however, very few things are like competitive sports. If someone does well, it’s usually not at the expense of someone else. Many people can do well at a time. Everyone on a project can be successful. Just because someone receives a promotion today doesn’t mean you won’t ever be promoted. Even though this is the fact, it is easy to lose sight of it. We quickly clutter up our minds with jealousy, envy, and hope for some schadenfreude in our immediate lives.

If you want to be productive and manage your time well at work, you need to let go of the belief that your workplace is a zero-sum game. If a colleague is praised for his or her work — even if you feel it is unwarranted — be genuinely happy for that person and then immediately return to your tasks. Getting caught up in office politics, sabotaging your colleagues, and focusing on anything other than your work is a waste of your time. Engaging in such negative behaviors causes people to believe you can’t be trusted, you’re a bad team member, and you’re only out for yourself. Even if you aren’t outwardly expressing your frustrations, obsessive negative thoughts can decrease your productivity. Believing that someone else’s win is your loss is clutter, it keeps you from being productive, and only damages you professionally in the long-run.

This exclusive club concept is how I think about most physical objects and obligations in my life. For something to come into my house or occupy my time, it has to pass the red velvet rope test. Your home and life aren’t places for junk, they are privileged places for the things you truly value.

If you have a difficult time thinking like a bouncer, ask yourself: “If I wouldn’t give an object to a friend or ask a friend to watch over it, do I really want it in my house?” For example, I wouldn’t give a friend my junk mail or a rusty potato peeler or a broken washing machine. My friends don’t deserve these objects in her house, and neither do I. Also, I wouldn’t ask a friend to keep track of early drafts of my book, but I would ask a friend to keep an eye on my cats if I were to go on vacation. Early drafts of my book are clutter, but my cats are prized possessions. Drafts should go, but cats can stay.

When we treat our homes and lives with respect, when we think of them as exclusive clubs instead of dumping grounds, it’s easy to determine what is clutter and what isn’t. Put a trash can, recycling bin, shredder, and donation box near the main entrance to you home to temporarily hold the things that shouldn’t be fully welcomed into your space. Then, as needed, trash, recycle, or donate to charity these collected items. You’re the gatekeeper to your life. Be a bouncer and ruthlessly decide what is exclusive enough to make it past the red velvet rope and into your life and your home.