Monthly Archives: July 2016

Getting motivated to unclutter and organize

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Starting and completing an organizing project can be hard — it takes time and continued focus on your goals. Some people get motivated when their frustrations become overwhelming. They are tired of not being able to find things, of feeling embarrassed by their homes, etc.

Sometimes people find their motivation in something they’ve read. Although organizers often find a collection of unused organizing books on people’s bookshelves, sometimes reading just the right book (Erin’s latest book, Marie Kondo’s book, etc.) at the right time can provide the inspiration needed.

Other people get motivated by images of organized spaces they see in magazines or on Pinterest. While these photos are often unrealistic — I’ve never met anyone whose home looks as picture-perfect as those shown in magazines — they can still inspire some people to imagine what their homes might look like and start taking steps in that direction.

For other people, the best way to stay motivated is to have a deadline. That can be a self-imposed deadline or one that comes from others: the IRS, family members, etc. I’ve seen people who had talked about getting organized for years, with no success, who became successful once they had deadlines they had to meet.

The following are some deadlines I’ve seen work for people:

  • I’m going to adopt, and the agency is coming to do a home visit.
  • My parents are coming to visit, and I want my home to look good when they get here.
  • I need to file my tax returns, so I have to get my papers organized.
  • My boss gave me a month to get more organized.
  • I’m replacing my broken garage door in a few weeks, and I have to clear out my packed garage before then.
  • I’m moving in a month, and I can’t take everything with me.
  • I’m going to be getting a roommate, so I need to unclutter the room she will be renting from me.
  • I’ve made an appointment for next month with someone who may want to buy some of my stuff.
  • I’ve told the storage facility that I plan to give up one of my three units next month.
  • I committed to my therapist/coach that I’d get going on this project before our next visit.
  • I want to participate in our neighborhood garage sale.
  • I promised my sister-in-law that I would send her the clothes my kids have outgrown, because they’ll be just the right sizes for her kids.

Note that if you are setting your own deadline, you can make sure it’s a realistic one for you. If you have multiple storage lockers, you can set a deadline for clearing out one of them at a time. You can set deadlines that are a month out, not next week.

And finally, many people are motivated by seeing progress. If you can find something that motivates you to begin the uncluttering and organizing process, you may find it easier to stay motivated to continue.

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Are digital Everything Buckets a good filing system?

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Services like Evernote and Pocket make a compelling case in favor of the Everything Bucket: capturing information is easy (simply save information and don’t spend time filing it into a topic-related folder) and finding what you need when you need it is easy with a powerful search engine (search with keywords instead of drilling through folders).

Meanwhile, the idea of all your stuff in a pile, be it digital or physical, makes some people itch. Everything is together! In one place! There is no order!

The choice to use an Everything Bucket versus filing data into subfolders is a personal one and there are advantages and disadvantages to the Bucket system when considering it. Knowing the strengths and weaknesses can help you make a decision for what filing system is right for YOU.

As mentioned above, adding new items to an Everything Bucket is a breeze. Evernote’s web clipper, for example, lets you quickly stash any page you like. You can even grab a specific snippet from a website, if a paragraph is all you need. Meanwhile, desktop shortcuts make it just as easy to add items as you work.

Tagging helps you find items later. Simply attaching a tag like “recipe” or “receipts” to an item, you can make it easy to find information later when you do your search. Speaking of search, that really is the marquee feature of programs like Evernote and Pocket. Simply open the “bucket app” of your choice, enter a word or phrase into its search bar and up pops what you need.

You also can go paperless and have access to your stuff virtually wherever you are, even on a mobile device. It sounds like a good deal, right? But there are downsides.

First up in the strikes against the Everything Bucket: they discourage the use of a structured file system. In exchange for ease and speed, you let the computer make sense of your collection. It will do just that, as computers are more effective with organized data. The program will build an index to make sense of that pile, which takes time and effort. If you’re a Mac owner and you have a slow machine pretty much immediately after updating the operating system, it’s likely because Spotlight is making a new index of your disorganized data.

In the case of an Everything Bucket, you’re inviting an application into your daily workflow that could possibly go out of business in the next couple years. If it does, hopefully you’ll be given notice so you can export your data or, at the very least, operate the existing app but not be able to add more information to it.

There is a middle ground, should these Everything Bucket concepts only partially make your skin crawl.

One thing you can do is use what I think of as dedicated or specialty buckets:

  • Evernote is for reference material I will one-day want but have no immediate need for. (I call this “cold storage.”)
  • Recipes I want to try are handled by Paprika.
  • Web links for things I want to go back and read are saved to Pocket.

Instead of filing into subfolders, it’s as if I’m filing into apps. Within those apps, however, there are no subfolders, only an Everything Bucket.

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Organizing gardening tools

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I spent the past weekend doing some serious weeding, planting, replanting, and general work in the yard. It looks great and that’s in part due to the tools I’ve organized for outdoors. It’s nothing fancy, but I thought I’d share with you the solutions I created. The following are what you can do in just a few minutes to make your gardening and yard care more efficient and organized.

The most important tool I have for use and organizing outdoors is the five-gallon bucket. My love affair with this incredible tool is well-documented. You can buy one for very little money at your local big-box home improvement store.

I improve the usefulness of my buckets with a TEHO Garden Organizer Caddy, which can be had for about 12 dollars. It fits snugly on a five-gallon bucket, so it’s not flopping around. The Garden Organizer also adds a little padding to the handle, which is nice, as well as pockets galore.

Speaking of pockets, I fill them with the tools I use most often:

  1. Shears
  2. Small handheld pruners
  3. Gloves
  4. A hat
  5. Sunscreen
  6. Spade
  7. Small weeding rake

I love that I can store my tools and tote them around with the same product. It’s quite convenient.

Some reviewers on Amazon have complained of the Garden Organizer not lining up with the handle on their buckets. That’s not been my experience, and I’ve used it on buckets I purchased at Home Depot as well as those from my local corner store.

The only complaint that I do have is that the liner pretty much negates the buckets use as a container for anything other than your tools. If you’re weeding, for example, you’ll want another receptacle for those weeds you’ve pulled. But really, the organizer is so useful otherwise, I’m willing to let that go.

If you’d rather not use a bucket, a carpenter’s belt will work fine (though hold fewer tools) or a good gardening tote.

Finally, get fun and practical with storage by filling a terra-cotta pot with builder’s sand that you’ve dampened with mineral oil. As Real Simple points out, the combination of sand and oil will prevent the tools from rusting.

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Staying safe while organizing with tall bookshelves, dressers, etc.

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Bookshelves, armoires, and dressers are some of the common furniture pieces we use to organize our possessions. But if they aren’t used properly, they can cause serious problems.

You may have read about the Ikea recall of a number of its chests and dressers, which are “unstable if they are not properly anchored to the wall, posing a tip-over and entrapment hazard that can result in death or injuries to children.” Two types of items are included in the recall:

  • Children’s chests and dressers taller than 23.5 inches
  • Adult chests and dressers taller than 29.5 inches that do not comply with the performance requirements of the U.S. voluntary industry standard, ASTM F2057-014.

The recall followed the death of three toddlers in three years. While the dressers and chests all shipped with wall anchoring kits, the items involved in these tragedies were not anchored.

While the Ikea recall got a lot of press attention, it’s certainly not the only product that has this kind of tip-over potential. Other recent recalls include Bestar Dream Dressers (juvenile five-drawer dressers) and a dresser and nightstand in Bernhardt’s Marquesa line.

How big a problem is this? The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a report in 2014 (PDF) that included the following statistics:

  • An estimated 38,000 emergency-department-treated tip-over injuries in 2011-2013. Of these, 56 percent involved only furniture falling, 41 percent involved televisions (or TVs plus furniture), and 4 percent involved appliances falling.
  • 430 reported fatalities related to tip-overs between 2000 and 2013. Of these, 37 percent involved TVs falling, 27 percent involved a TV plus furniture, 28 percent involved only furniture falling (with the largest category being chests, bureaus, and dressers), and 7 percent involved appliances falling. Children from 1 month through 10 years were the victims in 84 percent of the fatalities.

The CPSC launched an “Anchor It” campaign in June 2015 with a lot of common-sense advice, including the following:

  • Existing furniture can be anchored with inexpensive anti-tip brackets. New furniture, such as dressers, are sold with anti-tip devices. Install them right away.
  • Anti-tip devices are sold online and in-stores for prices ranging from $5 to $25. Consumers can visit their local home improvement, electronic or mass merchandise store to purchase anti-tip devices. An online search for “anti-tip strap” or “anti-tip kit” will result in a variety of purchase options. Install the anti-tip devices according to manufacturer instructions, and always double check the attachment points to make sure the device is secure.

The campaign also has a poster (PDF) showing how to anchor furniture.

While tip-over dangers are often associated with children, who like to climb on furniture, the CPSC report makes it clear that they aren’t the only ones who get hurt by tip-overs. And those of us in earthquake territory have an added incentive to secure our top-heavy furniture. The Earthquake Country Alliance provides good information on just how that can be done for filing cabinets and for bookcases, china hutches, armoires, etc.

As Rain Noe wrote on the website Core77:

If you live in a household with children and own tall furniture of any variety, PLEASE take the time to anchor them to your wall. If you have friends who are parents, please urge them to do the same. And if you or they don’t know how to do it, you’ll find plenty of videos on YouTube demonstrating the process. You might need to spend a few bucks on a drill, a studfinder and/or some wall anchors, but it’s money well spent.

And I’d add: If you don’t know how to do it and you aren’t horribly handy, you can always hire someone to do it for you. That’s what I did, and it was worth every penny.

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Gadgets to make yard work effective and fun

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One trick I learned years ago is that a fun toy, gadget, or tool can make a task I dislike more pleasant to do. My FitBit encourages me to walk, for instance. Likewise, a beautiful ledger helps me work on my family’s budget. With this in mind, I decided to tackle another chore I typically avoid: Yard work.

Yard work isn’t so bad in the spring and fall, when the weather is nice and it’s pleasant to be outdoors. But in the summer, ugh. Heat, humidity, and the ever-present, thin layer of sweat prompt me to procrastinate and then grumble the entire time I finally do it. To get past this frustration, I discovered three tools that I enjoy so much, I’m eagerly willing to push my way through the humidity and heat and do a little yard work.

An expandable hose is the first item. I’ll admit it, I thought this was a goofy gimmick. My sister sent me one of these as a Father’s Day gift. It was thoughtful, as the hose I had been using for many years had died. “Well,” I thought, “this thing looks weird but I’ll try it out.”

After one use I was a complete convert. This lightweight hose does in fact expand at an impressive rate, without sacrificing durability. It feels well-made. When you’re done, simply spray out any remaining water and watch it grow smaller and smaller. The result is lightweight and flexible enough to be stored away with ease.

The second item is The Handy Camel, which is a Chip Clip on steroids. I do a lot of planting, and I’m often hauling heavy bags of soil around. They’re awkward, floppy, and love to spill. Enter the Handy Camel. This thing does in fact behave like a Chip Clip. Just snap it over the opening of a 40-pound bag and use the handle to carry it around like a suitcase.

The third item puts an end to spilling gasoline when trying to fill your gas-powered lawn mower. The Surecan stops that mess. They’re made of sturdy plastic and the brilliant inverted design lets you fill a small-engine tank with the ease of a trigger. No more smelling like gas for the rest of the day or worse, accidentally splashing gas on hot parts of the mower.

I’m not usually one to recommend buying more stuff to stay productive, but if a tool or gadget makes a task so much more enjoyable that you actually do it and don’t hate it, I’m all for it. Simple living is about living free of distractions — and loathing an activity is certainly a distraction.

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Should you buy a commercial or a residential vacuum?

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Over the past week, I’ve been doing a lot of commercial cleaning. I’m using powerful chemicals and exceptional hardware, like vacuum cleaners and shop-vacs that are built to endure lots of use. This made me think: should I use commercial cleaning products at home? They’re effective and built to last forever. But are they appropriate for domestic cleaning?

The short answer is no, as commercial cleaners and domestic products are built to perform different jobs in different environments. A perfect illustration of this is the vacuum cleaner.

Should I buy a commercial [insert product you’re considering] for my home?

In the case of a commercial vacuum cleaner, it’s an attractive idea, isn’t it? Commercial vacuums are built to last and take more abuse than their residential counterparts. Let’s attack this question by looking at some pros and cons.

The pros

I struggled with putting cost in the pro vs. con column, but eventually pro won out. Yes, a commercial vacuum is expensive. For example, I’ve been using a Sebo 370 at work, which retails around $870. That’s not cheap, but Dyson makes home models that are in the same range. The idea here is that a commercial model will have a longer life than a residential machine, thereby costing less in the long run.

Readily-available parts. Big-box stores will infrequently stock parts for residential vacuums. If there’s an authorized retailer in your neighborhood you’re in luck (for example, I’m lucky enough to live near a Miele dealer). And you can often pick up parts for commercial units directly from the manufacturer or even a local distributor. So long as you’ve got that brand nearby, it isn’t an issue. If you don’t, this would move to the con column.

As I noted earlier, commercial vacuum cleaners are built to last and withstand abuse. They’re built of high-quality components and often have longer cords and heavier bodies. They’re designed with superior structural integrity to help them endure daily use as well as getting banged around a bit.

Lastly, they’re often more powerful than residential units. The first time I used a commercial machine I was amazed at what it picked up with a single pass.

The cons

They’re less comfortable. The Sebo I use at work is heavy. While it feels substantial and solid while pushing around, just haul it up a flight of stairs a few times and the bloom starts to come off the rose.

In general, home vacuums are designed to be lightweight and comfortable, while commercial units are meant to get a job done. This means a heavier machine, yes, but it also means that convenience items are missing like power control levels, that cool retractable cord, and tools for above-the-floor cleaning.

In addition, many commercial units have a reusable cloth bag instead of the disposable units your home machine has. No fun. You have to clean that bag.

I mentioned the power earlier and that sounds like a good thing, unless you have a delicate carpet. A commercial machine cares not about your precious carpets! It merely wants to get the job done. In fact, it can be too harsh for what you’ve got on the floor. Remember, these are meant for hotels, schools, and restaurants. In other words: industrial carpeting.

Lastly, they’re loud. As in, you turn it on and reflexively say, “Wow, that is loud.” Pets will run, birds will leap from the trees, and bunnies will cover their big, floppy ears.

Ultimately, when deciding between purchasing a commercial unit and a residential unit, it’s worth the time to weigh the actual pros and cons of the item before assuming the commercial unit is better for YOU. It might not actually be what you want, and you can end up creating clutter in your home and wasting money.

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Tackling major projects

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Your to-do lists probably include many small tasks, but it’s likely that you also have some big projects you would also like to get done: getting in better shape, organizing your home, writing a book, planning a vacation or a major event, etc.

For some people, staying on track to accomplish major tasks can be a real challenge. The following are some ways to make sure things get done:

Make a realistic plan

An unrealistic plan is discouraging — no one likes falling behind. And creating an unrealistic plan means you’ll spend a good amount of time re-planning.

To keep your plan realistic, break big tasks down into smaller ones where you can better estimate the time needed. A project called “organize the house” is hard to estimate, but estimating how long it takes to sort through a box of papers is much easier. (And if you have many boxes and haven’t yet gone through any of them, you may want to go through one before finalizing your plan.)

When coming up with a plan, it’s always wise to remember Hofstadter’s Law: “It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter’s Law.” People always tend to underestimate — forgetting some tasks, being too optimistic on how long certain tasks will take, and ignoring all the ways things might go wrong. Try for realistic estimates of each task, and then add some overall contingency time. The more this project differs from anything you’ve done before, the more contingency time you’ll want.

Schedule time to get the tasks done

Once you have a plan, you need to set aside the time to do the tasks on that plan. Some projects don’t even need a detailed plan — they just need dedicated time to accomplish the work. One example is writing a novel, and author Neil Gaiman explained how it’s done:

Set aside time to write that’s only writing time. Put away your phone. Turn off or disable your WiFi. Write in longhand if you wish. Put up a do not disturb sign. And make your writing time sacred and inviolable. 

And in that time, this is the deal. You can write, or you can not do anything. Not doing anything is allowed. (What not doing anything includes: staring at walls, staring out of windows, thinking broodily, staring at your hands. What not doing anything does not include: alphabetising the spice rack, checking Tumblr, taking your pen apart, playing solitaire or running a clean up program on your computer.) …

Doing nothing gets pretty dull. So you might as well write.

This idea extends well beyond a writing project. As Austin Kleon tweeted:

How to X more:

Set aside dedicated time for X.

The end.

Track your progress and celebrate your accomplishments along the way

Tracking your progress against your plan is crucial in case adjustments are necessary. If your plan isn’t working, the sooner you realize the problem, the better. You’ll have more time to work with others, if necessary, to change the deadline, the scope, or the budget to create a more workable plan. Also, keeping track of your estimated times vs. your actual times will let you make better estimates in the future.

Celebrating your progress can help keep you motivated. That can be something simple like a triumphant update on Facebook or Twitter, or (especially for major milestones) something more substantial — providing some sort of treat that’s meaningful to you.

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Organize digital lists with Google Keep

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Google Keep is the company’s note-taking app and to-do manager that works on nearly every device you throw at it: computer, iPhone, Andriod phone, or tablet. It gets the job done and is quite pleasant to use. If you’re looking for a digital list manager or to-do app, Keep is one to consider.

Keep didn’t get the recognition it deserved upon launch and that’s because of the inevitable, yet unfair comparison, to Evernote and Microsoft’s OneNote. I say unfair because it’s not meant to be the all-encompassing tool that other apps clearly are. Instead, Keep is a synching notepad for Google Drive that lets you quickly record notes, photos, voice memos, lists, and the like to Google Drive, all of which are then accessible via the devices I mentioned earlier. And that’s just the start.

Notes are color-coded and entirely searchable. That means you can search the entire body of a note, not just its title. Speaking of search, that works on notes you’ve deleted, too. That’s because, much like Gmail, notes aren’t deleted but archived out of sight. If you need information you thought you were done with, you can still find it.

Keep is also fast. My yardstick for speed for this type of app is in comparison to pen and paper. While not quite that good, Keep is speedy enough that it will “disappear” as you use it. That is to say, you’re not paying attention to/thinking about the app, you’re just writing down what you need to record.

You can set reminders, create labels, and re-arrange notes, so that similar ones — errands, home, shopping, etc. — are right next to each other.

After more than a week of playing around with Google Keep, I’ve moved it to my iPhone’s home screen (a coveted position). For its speed, simplicity, and cross-device sync, Keep is a keeper.

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What you might want to store in your car’s glove compartment

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Your car’s glove compartment, also called the glove box or “glovie,” was initially invented to store the driver’s gloves, as you’ve probably guessed. Years ago, when cars were new and open to the air, drivers wore gloves to keep their hands clean and to prevent them from going numb with cold.

Today most people don’t wear driving gloves and those compartments have evolved to include locks, internal lights, and special compartments for things like manuals and pens. Fancier models are even temperature controlled. One thing they all have in common is the tendency to collect junk, like hair bands, receipts, ketchup packets, and used Starbucks gift cards. These spaces are useful storage compartments, though, so if you use them what would be efficient to have in your glove compartment?

Crucial items

The most obvious answer is proof of auto insurance and your current registration. Protect these crucial documents by keeping them in a protective plastic sleeve. Not only will they be safe from the ketchup, they’ll be easy to find.

Also important is a list of crucial medication family members are taking. If you’re ever in a situation when you can’t convey this information to rescue workers, it’ll be important to have this stored somewhere. While you’re at it, you can store medical information on your phone, too.

Your owner’s manual and schedule of regular maintenance should also be in this space. Many people buy a car, acknowledge the manual’s existence, and then ignore it for the rest of their car’s life. However, when you want to reset the clock, connect a Bluetooth phone or figure out what that weird light means, you’ll be glad you have it. I also tick off when I get my scheduled maintenance done, so that there’s no question at the garage.

Less-crucial items

A pen and a pocket-sized notebook in the glove compartment can often come in handy. I also store a small pocket knife in the glove box. It’s great for opening packages at the post office and quick-fixes like tightening a screw or popping open your car’s fuse panel.

A small flashlight is also a good idea of something to store if you have the space in your glove box. The Coast HP1 Focusing 190 Lumen LED Flashlight is hands-down my favorite portable flashlight. It’s small, durable, water resistant, and produces a bright light with no dark spots.

I also keep some travel wet wipes in the car’s glove box. The first time you spill gas on your hands while filling up your tank, you’ll be very glad they’re there.

Finally, if you really want to keep things like hair bands or fast food napkins in your glove box, find an organized way to do so. A small zip-top bag or plastic container can keep these items from cluttering up the space.

Toss the junk and keep only useful items in your glove box for happy motoring.

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Avoiding uncluttering regrets

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Are you afraid that if you get rid of something you’ll find a use for it the next day? Douglas Adams and John Lloyd created a word that relates to this:

Nottage is the collective name for things which you find a use for immediately after you’ve thrown them away.

For instance, your greenhouse has been cluttered up for years with a huge piece of cardboard and great fronds of gardening string. You at last decide to clear all this stuff out, and you burn it. Within twenty-four hours you will urgently need to wrap a large parcel, and suddenly remember that luckily in your greenhouse there is some cardb…

But in reality, with all the clients I’ve worked with, I’ve never seen this happen. What sometimes happens is more like Josh Barro’s experience, which he wrote about on Twitter:

About a year after adopting Marie Kondo’s advice about throwing things away, today’s the first time I’m annoyed I don’t have something.

Of course, Kondo says if you discover you really do need something you threw out, you can buy another. So I ordered it from Amazon.

(It’s a book that’s not very interesting but is suddenly relevant for a story I’m working on.)

The following are some specific strategies you can use to ensure you don’t wind up with unclutterer’s remorse:

Treat easily replaceable items differently than others

Barro could easily replace the book he discarded. If I ever regret getting rid of my kitchen thermometer, I could easily get another one, inexpensively. I could even just borrow one from someone, if I had a one-time need.

But other items are less easily replaced. They may be handmade items, sentimental items from long ago, or expensive items where a replacement doesn’t easily fit into your budget. For these items, you’ll want to be more thoughtful about your discards. Be sure you’re making your decision when you’re at your best, not when you’ve been making a lot of other decisions and may be hitting decision fatigue. With sentimental items, you may want to take a photo of them before letting them go.

Respect your emotions

If the thought of getting rid of something brings you to tears, you probably aren’t ready to get rid of it, even if your logical side says to let it go.

Consider uncluttering in phases

Although Marie Kondo will tell you to do all your uncluttering in a single pass (all the books, all the clothes, etc.), you may find it’s easier to unclutter the easy, obvious things first: clothes that itch or never did fit quite right, for example. Then after you’ve built up your uncluttering muscles, and you’ve had time to appreciate the benefits of that first pass, you can go and do a second pass — tackling the things that you weren’t ready to deal with the first time through.

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Dealing with I-might-need-it-some-day thoughts

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If your thoughts while uncluttering often include the phrase, “I might need it some day,” it might be time to defeat this nefarious excuse, and finally let go of things you don’t need.

I hear you

I totally get it. Why get rid of something you might need? I’ve got a scrap wood pile in the basement. It spends the majority of its existence simply sitting there, taking up space, harboring insects. Every now and then I’ll remove one item for a project or quick fix, but that’s about it. I dislike the idea of getting rid of it. But what would happen if I did?

What happens when I get rid of something:

  1. I would have to buy or borrow the item if I ever wanted it.
  2. That’s it. There isn’t a second or third item.

If I got rid of that pile, there might come a day where I would have go to out and buy more wood. That will cost me both money and time. That’s true. What is the alternative?

What would those costs be? In my experience, pretty small. I’ve concisely demonstrated that I rarely need wood from the pile. So that’s not really a big deal. What is significant is the fact that keeping it costs me, too.

It costs me time in having to root through to find what I need. It costs me stress and guilt when I see it sitting there doing nothing. It costs useful storage space. It also makes me nervous because if the house were to catch on fire, that big pile of wood would be literal fuel for the fire. If I look at it honestly, I believe that these costs are worse than what I’d pay in cash and the time to run to the store.

Of course, it’s at this point in my thinking when my fear kicks in and I think, “What if it’s not available in an emergency?”

It’s possible that I’ll suddenly, urgently need something from that pile. If it’s gone, I’ll suffer a mild to major inconvenience. That stinks, but is it a huge problem?

Again, let’s look at the ongoing inconvenience of maintaining that horde. The trouble with finding things, and the stress/guilt of living with a pile that I ignore 99 percent of the time outweighs my ability to respond to a hypothetical situation. Also, I could keep two pieces in the backyard shed instead of hundreds of pieces indoors and completely alleviate all fears related to a hypothetical emergency situation.

Ask the right question

Instead of asking yourself, “Will I need this some day?” consider the alternative question: “Is this stuff affecting the organized life I want?” If the answer — the honest answer — is yes, it’s time to let it go.

We’ve written several articles on letting stuff go. Consider today’s conversation one you can have with yourself at the very beginning of that process. While giving up some items can be tough, the cost of keeping those things can be even worse.

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Create your own home maintenance manual

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Recently I recommended becoming your family’s technology manager. With a little forethought, you can be on top of backups, passwords, and your devices. This week, I’m expanding that notion to include general home maintenance by creating a DIY Home Owner’s Manual that will save you time and money.

The first project

I started my Home Owner’s Manual while repairing an old clothes dryer. Its drum had stopped turning, leaving a pile of warm, damp clothes. I grabbed the toolbox, unplugged the machine, and got to work.

After removing the rear panel, I saw its simple mechanics. A thin belt ran between the motor and the large drum. That belt had snapped in half, leaving the motor to chug along without disturbing the drum full of wet clothes. “Ha!” I thought. “I can fix this.”

I Googled the model number to find the right part, which I bought from the hardware store. At home, I took notes while making the repair.

I sketched the dryer, noting the screws that held the rear panel. I drew the interior, labeling the components. Next, I noted the model number and part number, and sketched out the process of replacing the rear panel. In a matter of minutes, the dryer was back in the clothes-drying business.

I’ve since made pages about replacing the furnace filter, changing the lawn mower’s oil, and wiring our smoke detectors. Today, I have a fantastic reference to our home, written by me, that’s fully annotated, and you can do the same.

Take your manual digital

You can very easily go digital with your manual, and make it tremendously easy to find just the page you need. First, get yourself an Evernote account, if you don’t already have one. Make photo notes of your manual, tagging the images as appropriate. Now, you’ve got a ubiquitous, digital home owner’s manual you can reference on your mobile device. But there’s one more cool trick you can pull off as part of this digitizing process.

You can create QR codes for one-tap retrieval of the project page you want. Every Evernote note has a unique URL. To find it, simply open the note in your Evernote app and select Copy Note Link from the Note menu. Then, make a QR Code with that URL, using a free QR Code generator like KAYWA QR Code Generator. Once that’s done, print the page on sticker paper, cut out the code and stick it to the side or back of your dryer, lawn mower, whatever. (You could also tape a regular sheet of paper to the device with a piece of packing tape.)

Whenever you need your notes for that device, all you need to do is scan the QR code and presto! Evernote will launch and open the exact manual pages for you.

A DIY Home Owner’s Manual can be an invaluable tool, and organizing one is easy. Take the time whenever you perform a home improvement or maintenance project to create the pages you’ll want again in the future. You’re creating a great reference that you can even pass on to others in your home or future homeowners if you sell your place.

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