The Clutter Diet Blog

Hoarders and Wasters

Today I read an absolutely excellent article on clutter from AARP's magazine.  Here is a snip from the article, by David Dudley:

In Dante’s Inferno there is a circle of Hell reserved for two warring armies, the Hoarders and the Wasters, who spend eternity rolling enormous boulders at each other on a desolate sun-baked plain. The boulders are actually diamonds and represent the possessions they had such unhealthy relationships with during their lives. “Why do you hoard?” the Wasters shout. “Why do you waste?” the Hoarders scream back. This repeats, endlessly, joint punishment for their respective sins.

Dante's Inferno is one of those books you feel like you have already read but you never really got around to reading... and I had no idea this Hoarder/Waster thing was in there!  That is really interesting!

The article also talks about Mary Todd Lincoln's compulsive shopping habits being a problem in the Lincoln White House, and overall it is just one of the best summaries of the issue of clutter I have read in general.  I particularly liked its coverage of our industry's subspecialty group, the National Study Group for the Chronically Disorganized (NSGCD).  I hope you enjoy reading it.

How to Cheat at Cleaning

I saw this article in the Austin American-Statesman today about a new book called How to Cheat at Cleaning by Jeff Bredenberg.  I like how this guy thinks!  Like I am always saying, part of thinking like an organized person means asking yourself how you can do things faster or even not do them at all.

Among his advice is ten things to stop cleaning right now-- among them, sneakers (buy dark-colored ones), pillows (buy new ones frequently instead) and stove drip pans (keep a nice set for company and use the dirty ones everyday).  He even suggests not making the bed (!) because dust mites thrive on the moisture in your covers, and leaving it unmade lets things evaporate and become less hospitable to the mites.  This advice actually does jive somewhat with something I read in Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House (considered a Bible of housekeeping). It is recommended to air out your covers before making the bed.  So-- a compromise:  make the bed later in the morning after breakfast to give the covers an airing first.

Interestingly, he says in the interview that men's brains aren't wired to recognize clutter, and it's not a priority to them.  What do you think, guys?  Comments?

Best Things from the Home & Garden Show

On a personal note, I am today recovering from spending my weekend at the Austin Spring Home & Garden Show-- wow, that will wear a person out!  But it was very fun to meet a lot of people and tell them about the Clutter Diet.  We got a great response!  I spoke 4 times this weekend and then also co-presented with Susan Crenshaw of HGTV.  Thank you to everyone who attended and came up to say hello!  Many of you may be new subscribers to this blog-- thank you for signing up!

There are always interesting things to see at these shows.  My favorite new thing:  Wallapalooza.  Not an organizing product, but a decorating product.  Basically, any photo or anything you can dream up and create in Photoshop, they can make a wall mural out of it.  And, it's a fabric material that uses a Post-It-type adhesive that you really just can't make a mistake with-- you can just keep moving it around and smoothing it out.  I am just excited about the possibilities for decorating a kid's room with it.  You can put their whole soccer team on the wall, or make the kid look like they are in outer space, or whatever!  Anyway, it's a lot of fun and innovative and I appreciate that.

In the organizing realm, I enjoyed being booth-neighbors with Shelf Conversions.  They have some great solutions for retrofitting cabinets to be more usable with glide-out shelves.  Particularly great is their solution for dead corner space, where many times you'll see a lazy susan...The photo I linked to here is pretty good but you have to know that you first pull the front shelf out, and then the other shelf that is in the deep corner also slides up to the right so you can easily reach it.  They have a great product line.  I converted all of my lower kitchen cabinets to glide-outs several years ago and have absolutely loved it.

Protect Yourself from Identity Theft

My last post on junk mail prompted one of our team members, Helene, to show me this site she has found:  www.lifelock.com.  It not only claims to reduce your junk mail, but they guarantee to protect you from identity theft.  The interesting gimmick is that the CEO of the company posts his Social Security Number right on the home page (!!) to prove that he is completely confident in their protection. 

I have not tried this service, but I must say I am intrigued.  They do stop pre-approved credit card offers from coming in, so that is great-- that is what I spend most of my time shredding, and our clients all have the same problem too.

Anyway, see what you think.  Has anyone reading this tried the LifeLock service?  We would love to hear a comment from you.

The Junk Mail Cure!

A local friend just told me about www.41pounds.org, a service that claims to eliminate 80-95% of the junk mail you receive.  It is named for the fact that the average adult receives 41 pounds of junk mail per year!

You can pay them--guess how much?--41 dollars to use their service, and half the profits go to non-profit organizations such as environmental groups and schools.  I am going to try it myself.  It seems like a great resource and a very noble cause.

Here are some statistics from their site:

Each person will receive almost 560 pieces of junk mail this year.

The average person gets only 1.5 personal letters each week, compared to 10.8 pieces of junk mail.

More than 4 million tons (62,000,000,000 (billion) pieces) of junk mail are produced yearly.

The majority of household waste consists of unsolicited mail.

California’s state and local governments spend $500,000 each year collecting and disposing of AOL’s direct mail disks alone.

Individually, an average of 41 pounds of junk mail are sent to every adult each year. Approximately 44% goes to a landfill unopened.

Lists of names and addresses used in bulk mailings are in mass data-collection networks, compiled from phone books, warranty cards, and charity donations (to name a few).

Your name is typically worth 3 to 20 cents each time it is sold.

$320 million of local taxes are used to dispose of unsolicited mail each year.

It costs $550 million yearly to transport junk mail.

Shocking, isn't it?  Especially the one about the cost of disposal of AOL CDs. Did you know there is a grass roots campaign out there just to try and stop AOL from mailing out their free disks? NoMoreAOLCDs.com.  I love what the web can do. 

Quote from Dave Barry:  "I like to cheer myself up by pretending that my mail actually screams when I throw it into the wastebasket."

The 7 Biggest Paper and Information Mistakes

I thought you might like to read another article I wrote for ModernSage.com, called The 7 Biggest Paper and Information Mistakes.  Are you forgetting the vital protection step that only 1 in 4 people take?? 

On a side note, did everyone know that we are snowed in for the 3rd day in a row tomorrow here in AUSTIN?  Well, not exactly snowed in, but iced in.  We are just not prepared for this kind of winter storm.  It's very unusual!

Take care,

Ten Basic Home Organizing Concepts

I just wrote this article that I thought a lot of you might enjoy reading:  Ten Basic Home Organizing Concepts.  These are things we teach people every day in our work with clients.  I hope it helps you start your New Year off on the right foot!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Three Preventable Clutter Traps

Our little diet analogy is a lot of fun sometimes...one of the things I like to talk about is preventing clutter in the first place.  Think:  "A Moment on the Lips, a Lifetime on the Hips"-- Just like if you were going to stop yourself from eating a piece of candy!  Once the clutter comes into your house, it's much harder to get rid of it than if you had not brought it in at all.  Here are some of the traps people fall into:

Inappropriate buying:  You have been impulsive and purchased things that were not needed, or you have shopped to mask feelings of depression.  Sometimes this is even a more extreme problem of "binge shopping" or compulsive shopping.

Souvenirs:  You have acquired things simply so you could remember something or someone.  It's all about moderation-- everyone has some things like this, but it's when it becomes a problem.

Other People's Stuff:  Keeping things for other family members, inheriting things, saving gifts you don't want.

Click here to read an article I just wrote for Modern Sage which talks more extensively about ways to prevent clutter.  I hope you enjoy it! 

Spanish Organizing Lesson?

The Spanish word for "I see" is VEO.  Interesting that visibility is such a central goal of almost every organizing project!  In a closet, we're trying to help you see your clothing better to choose your outfits.  In a pantry, we're trying to help you see your food so you will know what you have and what you need to buy.  In designing an organizing system, it needs to be:

Visible-- you can see everything you have and easily make a selection.
Easy-- Avoid lids, doors, extra steps, and anything else that makes it take longer or require more effort to put things back.  Work with people's existing habits!
Obvious-- Use color-coding, labeling, and logical placement so everyone can quickly understand how to maintain the space.

VEO is a good thing to keep in mind when you are doing your projects and other people are involved and sharing the space.  Out of sight is out of mind, and human nature is on the lazy side, so if you make things Visible, Easy and Obvious your system will have a better chance at staying maintained.

What does it mean to be organized?

So many people have New Year's Resolutions to "get organized."  Just what exactly does that even mean?  Some people confuse being organized with being perfect.  Some people confuse being organized with being neat.  Neat people can be disorganized, believe me! What we teach people is that you should strive to be N.E.A.T.E.R.:

Not perfect, but...
Effective- doing what works best
Always improving
True to your style
Efficient- not wasting time
Ready for anything- being prepared

So many people's resolutions fail because they have set unrealistic goals.  One of the mistakes we see people make is that they treat being organized as some kind of destination, instead of the continuous journey that it is.   There is no "perfect" place somewhere over the rainbow where things will just stay organized by themselves.   Just like dieters know, there is no such thing as successful "crash dieting"-- you have to make permanent changes in your eating habits to keep the weight off.

Let us know how we can help you in your journey!   Check out our main website at www.clutterdiet.com to get online help from our team.