The Clutter Diet Blog

How to Choose a Custom Closet Company

Many people may have noticed the increasing advertising presence of large custom closet companies such as California Closets and Closets By Design.  There also seem to be more smaller local companies doing closets and garages than ever before.  If you are interested in getting a new closet designed, how do you make sense of which company to choose and why?

I wrote an article about this for Lifehack.org, in which there are 17 important questions you should ask when hiring a closet company, and the one important thing you should do first before ever calling one in the first place!  If you are currently in this market, I hope this article will help you clear a path through the cluttered confusion of closetry.

How to Get More Storage Space for about $70

If you have an attic, crawl space, basement or other area where there is potential storage but it's very hard to access, this new organizing product may solve your problems.  The Attic Trac system enables you to store items on a platform between rafters or in other narrow areas and simply slide them out when needed. This photo is a screenshot from their website. (FYI: Audio on their website is automatic-- you may need to mute your speakers if this is not desirable.)

The price is cheaper than putting in flooring in your attic space, and it is certainly cheaper than renting a storage unit!  Attic Trac won the NAPO Organizer's Choice Award for Best Residential Product at our recent conference in Minneapolis.

It's a great time of year to reorganize your attic space before it gets too terribly hot.  Hopefully this might help you make better use of that space and save you some money over other storage options.

Swap 'Til You Drop!

How do you take clutter and turn it into something valuable and useful for you?  By swapping it, of course!  We previously posted about a couple of sites for swapping gift cards, Plastic Jungle and Card Avenue, and there is one more that I've found lately:  SwapAGift.  Those are great for turning unused gift cards into cash or consolidating them into credit at a store you really want.

What if you want to swap other items?  You can swap designer clothing at SwapStyle and swap just about anything you want at SwapThing and SwapAce. Swap books at PaperBackSwap and TitleTrader, and even swap houses (temporarily) at HomeExchange and U-Exchange.

Caution:  Do not just use these services to get more clutter!  Make sure you're swapping for something you really want and can use right away.

Form Follows Function

Clutter aside, you just want your home to look good... once you've gotten organized you may also want to spend some energy prettying up the place!  Many of us don't need a full-on interior designer, so I am delighted to tell you about an emerging trend called "interior redesign," also referred to as "one-day decorating."

Interior Redesigners take what you already have, rearrange it and place it differently, and make it look great, without spending a whole bunch of money on new stuff.  They can take some old framed print that you have, put it in another room you've never considered, and who knew it would look so fabulous?  It is that incredibly valuable quality of OBJECTIVITY that helps so much-- you've been stuck in a decorating rut and they can come in and see lots of possibilities that you can't.  This objectivity is something we as organizers also provide abundantly when we work with our clients. 

If you want to find a redesign specialist in your area, you can visit the site of the Interior Redesign Industry Specialists (IRIS) and click on "Locate a Specialist."

Now, you need to get organized and clear the clutter before you call them, so let us help you do that part!  Our team at the Clutter Diet answers your questions and consults with you directly in our message boards at an extremely affordable cost-- it's the next best thing to having an organizer standing next to you!

I'm North, You're South--Where Should We Meet?

How many times have you had this conversation with someone about where to meet for coffee?  Someone lives in one part of the city and you live on the opposite side-- Where do you meet that is an equal distance and fair amount of driving for each of you, and then what place is there to meet in a less familiar part of town? 

Today on Lifehack.org I read about this website that uses Google Maps to allow you to settle this quickly and easily.  It's called A Place Between Us. What a time saver and decision making tool!

Put in your address and your friend's, and the default is "Coffee," but you can type in Breakfast or Dinner or something else.  The results were not as good for these, but I did try typing in Restaurant and it was better.  I am trying to figure out what the engine is for the results.  Anyway, using "Coffee" definitely will find the Starbucks in the area which is often the best choice.  I am sure they will make this better over time.

Who could you have coffee with tomorrow?  Try it out!

BLINK and It's Gone...

For busy moms, keeping your car organized and clean is a huge challenge.  You get the constant trash from soccer snacks, the spilled Skittles, the ketchup stains on the seats, and the handprints on the windows.  You take your car to get washed and the next day it's trashed once again!

I am intrigued by this new line of products designed to solve all of this-- they are called "Blink."  They have cleaning wipes for the windows ("Cleaners"), stain remover wipes ("Lifters"), trash bags ("Tossers"), spill absorbing cloths ("Grabbers"), and mesh tote bags ("Totes").  All of these are dispensed from small, easy to accommodate containers that can clip onto your seat back pockets or be easily stowed away.  Next trip to Target I am going to check them out in person and see if I like them.  Apparently they are selling them at all of the major discount stores.

My boys are now pre-teen age and they STILL get handprints all over the windows.  I am kind of jazzed about the window cleaning wipes.  And I do love the idea that if a drink spilled, you would have something to quickly mop it up.

This is really more about cleaning than organizing, but I think that my fellow mom readers of this blog will totally appreciate this!  I think the tote bags are a great idea to have around if you need a quick way to group a bunch of loose toys or shoes, etc., but I do wish I understood why this is better than a plastic grocery bag.  Those are free and they wad up into very small little bundles that you can also keep handy in your car.  Blink people, any comments? 

Make a "Tourist Binder"

Now is the time of year that you start anticipating summer travel and guests.  I thought I would share something that I like to do to make things easier when guests are coming-- having a "Tourist Binder." Recently my Productivity Café friend Susan Sabo visited me and it really came in handy to show her what all there is to do here in our fair city-- right, Suz?

I have a Word document that I keep on ideas for guests, and when I find a new favorite restaurant or tourist destination, I just open it and add to it.  It's printed out in a binder where I also keep things that I have saved from our local paper and magazines.  There are articles in the binder like "101 Things to Do in Austin." 

I also put into the binder's pockets things like extra tickets to the IMAX theater, free parking coupons for the museums, Six Flags Fiesta Texas coupons, etc.  So if you are having guests, now is a good time to start that Word document and gather your thoughts about what you like doing in your own town.

Funkify Your IKEA Stuff

Apologies-- something very strange happened to this post and it was duplicated and I had to fix it-- sorry if you have already read this!--

Getting organized is easier at IKEA... the prices are very affordable and their designs are amazing and innovative.  What's fun is that you can usually use their things in many different areas of the home or office for many different uses.  One of our organizers, Laura, found this great blog where they are showing different uses for the products along with modifications-- it's called IKEAHacker.  Here is a photo from their site where someone has used a wine rack for towels.

This past week my team and I went on a guided tour of our IKEA store here in the Austin area.  It's been open since November but I have seriously been afraid of going there until now because of the crowds!  When they opened, I kid you not, there were people camped out in the parking lot.  We have a lot of clients, both home and office, who are IKEA fanatics and they would drive to Houston (3+ hours) to shop there for years before this store finally opened.

If you have never been to an IKEA store, be prepared to spend some significant time.  You actually do need a map to get around, and I am pretty sure the place has its own zip code.   :)

Who Me? Organized?

One of our alert Clutter Diet members found this great calendar called the "Whomi," as in "Who me? Organized?"  It allows busy moms to organize the schedules of multiple family members in one place.

I love this idea!  It's color-coded and you can just see everyone's whereabouts at a glance.  It even has a special line between each section to note the sitter or carpool arrangements. You can click the picture here for a larger view.

Coordinating multiple schedules is one of the biggest challenges for some of our busy clients.  The Whomi can solve this problem-- and it comes in a wall calendar version too!!  Love it.

Check us out in American Way magazine

Just wanted to tell everyone that we were in American Way magazine this month (American Airlines inflight magazine)!  They interviewed me for tax tips to get ready for next year.

You can read the article here.

It was fun to travel last week with this magazine in all the seat pockets.  :)