The Clutter Diet Blog

Save Gas & Time with 3 Simple Household Objects

First of all, a grateful thank-you to everyone who made my blog #1 in the Amazon Kindle Blogs Home & Garden category (#13 of all blogs overall)!! I just found out--woo hoo!

I am inspired to write this post about saving gas & time because my good friends in Atlanta are struggling to find gasoline to buy... I wanted to make sure that everyone affected knows to go to http://search.twitter.com and search for #atlgas. I have seen some very fresh info there on which stations have gas for sale.

There are some simple and quietly effective objects you may have in your home that give you back an amazing ROI in reduced errands. Every time I use these items I get all smug about how I didn't have to drive anywhere! Here are these three unappreciated yet valuable items:

1. FOR SKIPPING THE POST OFFICE...a shipping scale. You can get these for $20 on up, with the average price for a good one being about $50. Having one of these means USA readers have virtually no reason to ever go to the post office again. Knowing the weight of your package enables you to use Click-N-Ship® from the US Postal Service, which allows you to print out shipping labels with paid postage from your own printer. They will bring you free mailing supplies for Priority Mail, so you don't even need to go out for boxes... and then you can put packages on your front porch and request a free pickup. I guess you'd have to go out for packing tape sometimes, but that's it. (More about this on my previous post, Top Four Post Office Avoidance Tips.) You can also use many other stamp purchasing services like Stamps.com. I like Endicia which has a great starter deal when you buy a label printer.
2. FOR SKIPPING THE DRY CLEANER...Dryel Home Dry Cleaning Kit. I am not a spokesperson for Dryel (but hey, call me!)-- I just really love it. Don't you always have those slacks where there is just one little tiny darned spot on them? Or you have clothes that smell like cigarette smoke from a party, but are otherwise fine? This kit allows you to take care of those dry-clean-only items that just need a little freshening up. I can stretch dry cleaning trips r-e-a-l-l-y far between with this kit!
3. FOR SKIPPING THE GROCERY STORE...the freezer. An oldie but a goodie...if you plan, buy, and cook well you can eat for quite a while from your freezer without having to go to the grocery store! We like to get Costco items for the freezer such as pot roast, quiches, and other main dishes, and of course it's great to store veggies in there too. We also use Dream Dinners for meal preparation and typically have many of those meals ready as well.

By the way, I also like to keep a thermal "cooler bag" in my car to carry quantities of frozen and cold items home in the Texas heat. With it I am able to spontaneously run more errands in one trip without worrying so much about spoilage. What are your errand-reducing objects? Share in the comments! (No fair saying "computers," by the way-- too easy!)

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Welcome, Amazon Kindle Readers!

Welcome to our new readers who have joined us via the Amazon Kindle device! (image here from Amazon's Kindle Photo Gallery) I am very excited because it takes a really long time to get listed on the Kindle-- our blog got approved almost a year ago! Kindle owners can subscribe to our blog for just 99 cents. Click here to read more about it on Amazon. The Kindle is a reading device that many consider the wave of the future-- you can buy books on it and instantly download them, and you can get popular blogs and major newspapers on it too.

For the benefit of all new readers, I would like to highlight some of our favorite posts from the last 2 years:

• Neat Does NOT Equal Organized
• Material World: What is Your Most Valued Possession?
• Gutter Ball Days
• Resign Yourself to the Inevitable
• Ode to Binder Clips
• How to Look Like a Model
• How to Choose a Custom Closet Company
• Three Approaches to Tackling Your Closet
• National Clean Out Your Computer Day (last February 12)
• Cooler Than Cool- Google SMS
• Sudden Hard Drive Crash!
• Organizing Your Passwords- Be Safe!
• Lorie's Garage Floor Makeover!
• Are You More Organized at Work than at Home?
• Wall-E is a Great Organizer

If you like my blog, please take just a moment (even if you are NOT a Kindle subscriber) and write a review of my blog on the Amazon page for me. I would truly appreciate the love!! Click here to see this blog's page on Amazon.

Thank you!

The Recipe Rule

Surprise-- this post is NOT about kitchens! I am always talking to people about how to think like an organized person. One of the questions organized people ask constantly is "How will I remember this later?" You should not be reinventing the wheel-- it wastes time. It struck me this week that we have this really well-ingrained concept already in our brains:  RECIPES!  What do you do when you make something in the kitchen and you want to make it again? You write it down. Recipes enable us to re-create what we have already created, and they enable us to share that creation with others.

Take this concept and spread it around a little in your life. Did you just figure out how to download pictures from your new camera?  Open up a document and write down exactly how you did it. Save it in a folder on your computer (call it "Recipes" if you want!). Did you just tell someone for the 18th time how to get to your house because it's not right on Google Maps?  Make a document that tells people once and for all and save that "recipe" too.

In business this is even more important, as capturing and communicating procedures is crucial to the growth and success of your company. Why not apply this in your personal life as well?

I am fairly extreme about capturing things as I learn them-- I have been known to annoy people who are helping me by stopping to write down everything they are saying, especially computer guys. And I try to get people's contact information into Outlook as soon as I have used it once.

What kind of "recipes" do you keep?

Worst Organizing Dilemmas

I was just asked in a press interview, "What is the worst organizing dilemma you've come across and how were you able to fix it?"  I thought long and hard about that. I can recall many projects that seemed difficult at first and then we figured it out with the right methods, products, and elbow grease. What stuck in my mind were the ones we weren't able to solve.  Here's what I said in the interview:

I have many successful stories of squeezing space out of nothing and creating amazing visible results. But the worst dilemmas were sometimes not solvable…not because we couldn’t fix it with good sorting, tools, and systems, but because the people involved were not willing or able to make the personal change necessary to be successful. It’s not about the physical items you own—it’s about your relationship to them. Sometimes it’s an issue of working with a couple who cannot agree on the direction of the project. Maybe the person is not ready to let go of the excess, or maybe the person is not willing to try something different. Sometimes there are even psychological issues involved. Remember, getting organized is truly about personal change.

I guess what I am trying to say is that there is rarely an organizing situation that is not solvable except for the people themselves getting in the way. Do you agree?  Are you holding yourself back? I will add that budget often is another factor...people sometimes need to buy certain products or change a closet to solve the problem and need to save up for that. But putting that aside, I find this to be true. I have seen people who wouldn't stop buying things they didn't need, couples who have rudely argued right in front of me all day long about their project, people who have hoarding disorders or other chronic disorganization issues, people who spoiled their children with too many toys, and the list goes on.

Here's what I am NOT saying, by the way-- I am not saying it's someone's own fault that they have a psychological disorder. I am not "blaming and shaming" people... I am merely stating that it's not the stuff, it's our relationship to the stuff. Pretty much anything can be sorted and solved. What do you think?

CNBC's Big Idea with Donny Deutsch Blog- Results from Atlanta

When I appeared on Donny Deutsch's show in August, you may remember that I was going to Atlanta to help my fellow guest, Britt Menzies of StinkyKids.com. Wait 'til you see what we did! Yesterday they posted my writeup of our results on The Big Idea Blog. You can read my description of our work there and see our video, or you can just watch the video here... This first video shows our appearance on the show, with some footage of Britt's house and everyday life of a mompreneur. They had her first talk to a stress expert and then talk to me toward the end. (click here if you can't see the embedded video player)

And now... the after! Britt and I documented our work and made a little video to show you our before & after. She no longer offices in her bedroom! I have to chuckle because on this video (at about 1:10) Britt accidentally almost says "...at night, go to bed in my office..." and then corrects herself to say bedroom! We rearranged her husband's large home office so that they could share it, and it worked out beautifully for their family. (Click here if you can't see the embedded video player)

I want to make sure to give public thanks to my fellow organizer Jaye Gennuso in Atlanta who worked with us side-by-side for a very long day and more! We could not have accomplished anything close to this without her help. Hope you enjoyed it!

Prevent Clutter Where It Starts! New Wallet Reminder Sleeves

I am so excited to share with you our new free "Wallet Reminder Sleeves!" They help you prevent clutter from coming in your door with a reminder of the five questions you should always ask before purchasing... Take a look at this one-minute video to see how they work: (click here if you can't see the embedded video player)

I was inspired by a similar design created by a nonprofit who encourages people to reduce consumption and spend less, and I asked their permission to use the basic layout of these wallet sleeves with my own content on them. They said yes, and when I offered to give them a link to credit them for the idea, they said they are not allowed to affiliate themselves in any way with a for-profit company. So, I offer them a secret nod right here and a thank you!

Everyone who is already on our newsletter list or is a paid Clutter Diet member will receive a link for these tomorrow in our Just A Bite newsletter. Sign up for our free tips today to get your own wallet reminder sleeves! Subscribers also get our 12-page report "30 Ways to Find Time to Get Organized."

Do you typically "think before you buy," or have impulsive purchases contributed to your clutter at home? Comment here and let us know!

Doing the Right Thing

A dear friend of mine (Hi, Barry!) showed me a very funny and timely editorial cartoon that combines the recent hurricanes in the news with getting organized. It's very clever! Wish I could show it to you!

I wanted to put it in my blog post right here, but in the interest of "doing the right thing," I did not do so without getting permission from the cartoonist to use his work.

When asking for permission to reprint, they ask you about the readership numbers you have as well as your budget. I said my budget was nothing because I am but a mere blogger with 1400 readers. Then I got a quote for $300... I absolutely, wholeheartedly respect the right of this cartoonist to charge whatever he likes for his work, but I make virtually no money from writing this blog. It's only an awareness-generating thing I do to draw attention to my flagship site, www.clutterdiet.com (where we offer an amazing membership program, by the way!). I think I would have paid $20 or so for the pleasure of showing you the cartoon, but alas, I cannot justify $300.

I have figured out a "workaround," which is that I can link to this cartoon if you want to see it here on someone else's site: http://gocomics.com/brucebeattie/2008/09/04/ But I am not posting the work here because I have not received permission to do so.

I am writing this today because our industry tends to have a problem with intellectual property rights not being properly understood or respected, and particularly people have issues with this on the internet-- just copying and pasting without permission or even attribution. This has happened to me numerous times and to many of my friends. So I am trying to be a good example and just make this subject something that gets discussed more often.

Yes, this is off-topic of organizing, but it's on-topic for blogging. So there you go. Have you had problems with this yourself, with people using your work without permission?  Discuss in the comments! 

Simplify Your Driving: Zip Around in a ZipCar

Events have converged to make me want to write about ZipCar. When visiting my sister in Seattle, she picked me up from the airport in a sparkly clean Honda Civic Hybrid ZipCar, and then someone coincidentally friended me on Facebook who works for ZipCar. Wow, it's just begging me to talk about it! What a smart way to simplify your life and expenses.

ZipCar is a service that allows you to dispense with owning a car all together and use one only when you need it. You avoid the time and costs involved with car payments, maintenance, parking fees, insurance, and even gas. It's all included. You make a reservation, go to the parking lot where your reserved car lives, and wave your "ZipCard" across the window sensor to open the door. You drive it around for the duration of your reserved time, then return it to the spot where you picked it up. You can have it for a couple of hours or even a few days. Click this map shown here for a larger version, showing what cities currently have this service. (Notice there is NO ZipCar service yet in Texas! Curses!)

We are always talking about simplifying, having fewer possessions that require maintenance, and saving time and money. This is a really cool option for people whose lifestyle and urban setting allow more walking and less driving. Bravo!

What are You Passionate About?

My latest article was just posted for Connections for Women... I wrote about how getting organized helps you make time for the things you are most passionate about in life. In the article I share the four questions that organized people are always asking themselves!

I am passionate about what I do, because I really like showing people new and better ways to get things done. I think Malcolm Gladwell calls that a "Maven," or an information specialist who loves to share. I guess I am a Professional Maven.  LOL!

I am also passionate about philanthropy. I always thought being a philanthropist meant that you were extremely wealthy and that your main job was giving your money away... and that can be true, but everyday people can be philanthropists too. I absolutely love my philanthropy group, Impact Austin, started by my friend Rebecca Powers. Rebecca has helped over 500 women see that we all can be philanthropists. Each of us give $1000 per year to join, which is nothing to sneeze at, but I just consolidate my giving this way instead of doing what I previously did, which was sending $25 here and there throughout the year. We pool our money to present grants in $100k increments. Together we've given over $1 million back to our community in just a few short years and absolutely have changed lives. (Previous post about Impact Austin: Organized Giving: $416,000 Worth!)

What are YOU passionate about? We'd love to hear in the comments!