The Clutter Diet Blog

Lose Clutter, Gain Time, Reduce Stress

This blog is just a taste...if you like what you see here, check out the tons of multimedia content we have available on our flagship membership site at www.clutterdiet.com! We are the world's first team of "virtual" Professional Organizers, helping people anywhere with our affordable online consulting and our easy weekly project plans.

Here we have organizing tips and tricks for the public about 2-3x per week. We love your comments and participation, so please subscribe to our RSS feed and check out what we have to offer!  Welcome!

- Lorie Marrero, CPO®
Creator of The Clutter Diet

Be Prepared for US Postal Rate Increase Monday

We always say that being organized is about being prepared...so be ready for the US postal rate increase effective this Monday 5/12/08. A first class letter will be going up one penny from 41 cents to 42 cents.

You can still stock up tomorrow (Saturday) on the "Forever" stamps for 41 cents that will be good for first class no matter what future increases occur. The Dallas Morning News was saying these Forever stamps are really hot items this week. (image from www.usps.com)

The great news about the rate adjustments...if you are someone who uses Click-N-Ship for Priority and Express Mail packages, you will actually be saving money, an average of 3.5 percent! I am a HUGE fan of Click-N-Ship--see my previous post on Top Four Post Office Avoidance Tips to understand more about why! Even if you don't ship packages very often you should definitely know about how to buy postage with Click-N-Ship and have the mail carriers pick the packages up from your porch at no charge.

Just think, right before Mothers' Day, you can buy stamps in advance to save money on your Fathers' Day cards!

"No Faffing" Flair!

One of my readers thought it would be funny, given my previous post about "faffing," if I made a "NO FAFFING" button for Facebook's Pieces of Flair application!  So I did! If you are on Facebook, you can go here to install the "Pieces of Flair" application and then search for "faffing" to find this button. I just posted it, so it may not be in the Flair directory until an hour or two from now (Tuesday evening).

Related posts:

• What is "Faffing?"
• We Have a Piece of Flair on Facebook!

Been There, Done That, Got the T-Shirt

Are you a runner who has t-shirts from lots of races? Or a sorority sister with t-shirts from all of the parties and events from your college years? Many people have copious amounts of these t-shirts taking up space in their drawers and closets and they will never wear them again, but they are representing some great memories.

Why not make a t-shirt quilt? There are some services that will do it for you and there are some patterns online to make your own. As some of these sites point out, this can be a great graduation gift, actually! Here are a few resources:

Too Cool T-Shirt Quilts- they make them for you. It's about $300-600 depending on the size.
Keepsake Theme Quilts- also from $250-550, a little different design than above.
The Quilt Loft- priced per square.
T-Quilts- sells a pattern to make your own.
Easy T-Shirt Quilt- also sells a pattern to make your own, downloadable version available (photo shown here is from this website).

Make More Money Donating Your Stuff

I have always been a fan of It's Deductible, when it was first a book, then software, then when it got acquired by Intuit and bundled with TurboTax. It's like the "Blue Book" for giving you the fair market value for your donated household items like clothing, toys, and decorating accessories. When people drop off their donations at their favorite charities and get a receipt, they almost always grossly undervalue the amount of their donations for tax deduction purposes. Taking just a few minutes to put your list of items through It's Deductible gives you the real dollar values for these items and allows you to take your deserved tax deduction with confidence (and even a guarantee).

The good news is that now this is FREE! My friend Ariane Benefit just pointed this out on her blog and I am grateful for the update! It used to be an annual fee to use the service, which I did find valuable because of all of the money I got back from using it on my taxes. It has a calculator that adds up your tax savings as you go, so you can really see the value.

Another wrinkle is that I met the man at conference in April who originally wrote the It's Deductible book. He is now selling another version of that if you do want to own it in book form, called "Money For Your Used Clothing." It may be more convenient to use the book format for some people who are not as comfortable doing everything on a keyboard.

It's not too early to start documenting your deductions for the next tax year!

What Are Your Emergency Plans?

Being organized means being prepared. This weekend in Austin we had some very severe weather, and last night I happened to catch a show on New Orleans and the upcoming hurricane season. Both things brought to mind the need for a family emergency plan... here are some questions to answer:

• How would you and your family communicate during a natural disaster?
• Do you have contacts lined up to pick up and care for your children in an emergency?
• Does your family know where would you go in your home for shelter during a tornado? Or earthquake?
• Do you have any supplies of food and water stored?

Ready.gov is a fantastic resource for planning. They have checklists and handy printable pocket guides you can fold up for your wallet. It's a great time to think through this, as tornado weather is definitely here, hurricane season is not far off, and I know some people who experienced the recent earthquakes in the midwest!

The photo shown here is of Hurricane Hortense, which I experienced when living in Puerto Rico in 1996 (photo is public domain, NOAA). I learned to make sure you have stocked up on diapers... Have you lived through a natural disaster? Share your stories and tips in our comments!

Material World: What is Your Most Valued Possession?

What if you didn't have so much "stuff" to organize? What does "enough" look like? One of my favorite books "ever" is Material World: A Global Family Portrait, by Peter Menzel. During this time of Earth Day when everyone has been examining their wasteful ways, this book really brings things into perspective. (book cover photo from Amazon.com)

This project was done in collaboration with the United Nations. From the book jacket:

"In an unprecedented effort, 16 of the world's foremost photographers traveled to 30 nations around the globe to live for a week with families that are statistically average for that nation. At the end of each visit, photographer and family collaborated on a remarkable portrait of the family outside of their home, surrounded by all of their possessions-- a few jars and jugs for some, an explosion of electronic gadgetry for others..."

One of my favorite features is the special two-page spread of "Toilets of the World"-- it will make you feel very grateful! The most wealthy country shown? Kuwait... featuring a 45-foot-long sectional sofa from their basement, 4 luxury cars, antiques, carpets, you name it. This one had to be photographed with an aerial view to fit everything in the photo. In case you were wondering, the United States family chosen was from Pearland, Texas.

They also had each family name what were their most prized possessions. The USA family said their family Bible. In Uzbekistan it was a bicycle... in Ethiopia, oxen... in Bhutan, books and a jump rope.

This book helps you see how your possessions represent you, your country, and your priorities. Stunning!  What is your most valued possession? Please comment and let us know!

Organizing Expo Finds, Part 3

In our continuing series about cool stuff we saw at the NAPO conference, I wanted to talk this time about Unikeep binders. I love these! I saw them again at the expo, but have been a fan of theirs for a long time. (photo here from Unikeep's website)

The binders close up and snap shut to make a case, so that things cannot fall out of them when you carry them, and that also makes them STACKABLE! Regular 3-ring binders are very lopsided both trying to stack them and putting them on a shelf, so it's a real pleasure to see a bunch of these very neatly sitting in a row together without a problem. I like using these to hold computer disks and documentation, like when you buy a new computer. You can fit a lot of stuff into these and just not worry about it (even if you cheat and don't punch holes in the papers!).

I also have been meaning to write about the Vital Records PortaVault since I saw them February in Los Angeles at the 2008 NAPO LA Organizing Awards (click here for great YouTube video coverage of our red carpet event! I am in there around 4:50). The creator of the product, Sherie Dodsworth, made it because she saw a big need during Katrina-- people were seen standing on their roofs with their most important possessions. She thought it would be great to have one easily-carried bag with all of your important documents in it, ready to grab and go. It even has a shoulder strap!

I hope you've enjoyed our conference round-up!

Organizing Bloggers: Sharing the Link Love!

At the NAPO Conference, John Trosko, Monica Ricci and I organized a get-together for the organizer bloggers. I don't have a copy of the whole group photo, but you can see one here on Brandie Kajino's site. We had a great turnout of over 2 dozen of us from literally all over the world, and I am now inspired to re-do my "Blogs I Like" list! (See left sidebar of this page) Here's a photo of me, Monica, and John at the meeting:

Here is a sample of blog posts from a few of my new friends (Thanks for the inspiration, Brandie!):

Wendy Davie: Organising the Organisers (forgive her for the spelling, she is from New Zealand)
Megan Spears: Conference Update
Jeri Dansky: Roll-Out Shelves (Hey, I just wrote about that too! Great minds...)
Lissanne Oliver: More About NAPO conference
Emily Wilska: Every Possession is a Responsibility
Marilyn Bohn: Game Savers
Lauren Halagarda: Thoughts on the Reno shower curtains-- LOL!!
Aby Garvey: Earthquake!
Janine Adams: More earthquake reporting!
Julie Bestry: She says I am a fashion plate! <<blushing>> Great conference summary!

Organizing Expo Finds, Part 2

Quick- name the city in the US that most needs a non-smoking ordinance... if you said RENO, you're right! I am finally feeling better after recovering from a recurrence of a sinus infection brought on by being trapped in a Reno casino hotel for almost a week. It really knocked me out.

Now I can get back to telling you about the new things we saw there. I think the Shelfanator product is a really cool idea. The Shelfanator covers up wire shelving in pantries and closets and makes it much more functional. I have worked on pantries before with this problem... spices and packets and other small items falling through the cracks. A four foot length of Shelfanator is only about $20, so it's an affordable way to make your shelves work better. (photo below from Shelfanator's website)

A related favorite is Shelf Conversions. (Hi Allan!) They retrofit your cabinets with glide-out shelves, so you can make much better use of that silly half-shelf in the lower cabinets and avoid bending and stooping so much. (photo below from Shelf Conversions website) They come to your home and take measurements and give you an estimate, then they come back and install them for you.

More Expo Finds coming soon!

Organizing Expo Finds, Part 1

Yvette and I are back from Reno, where we attended the NAPO (National Association of Professional Organizers) conference last week. Where to even start? I want to share with you several finds of new and interesting products at the expo, for one thing.

My favorite new find was the Tote Trac system. (photo from Tote Trac's website, click it to enlarge) It's ceiling-mounted storage using a simple system of wire tracks and your own tote bins of the size you choose. You buy a set of bins (hopefully on sale somewhere) that are uniform in size for the space you need, and then you slide them onto the Tote Tracs on your ceiling. Piece of cake! This is really good in a garage, but you can also use them in closets with shallower bins. They offer accessories like hooks for bikes and ladders, as shown in this photo.

I will be sharing more throughout the week from the expo. The big deal for me this year was our 1st annual NAPO talent show! My friend Shawn and I planned it and nobody thought we were serious until it actually happened! We had a great time and I want to thank all of the volunteers and participants that made it so great. You can see photos here on Flickr of the show. Enjoy!