The Clutter Diet Blog

Have I Lost My Mind? You Decide...

When people first started asking me to speak, I would tell them what kinds of information I could train people on with regard to tips and methods and other extremely practical organizing matters. "I'm not a motivational speaker," I would say. Boy, did I have a lot to learn!

What experience in this field has taught me is that motivation truly is half the battle. Many people read the magazines and books, hear the tips, and basically know what they need to do. They just can't get themselves to do it! In my book I talk about how almost all clutter is rooted in procrastination-- delayed actions and decisions.

When I wrote the motivational content for our Clutter Diet "Getting Motivated" tutorial series and workbook, I decided to share a little quirky thing about myself that really helps me take action. I hoped people would not think that I have lost my mind... but I figured if it helps one person, it's worth the ridicule! Here's what I do:

I imagine myself two different ways...as my Present Self, and as my Future Self. I think of my Present Self as the “best friend” of my Future Self.  My Present Self thinks about how to help the Future Self to have a better day.

For example, when I am tired and ready to go to bed, I may walk through the kitchen on my way.  If I see dirty dishes and crumbs on the counter, I stop and think: “What would my Future Self like to see in the morning when she gets up and comes into the kitchen?”  Somehow, I know it’s goofy, but thinking of my Future Self as another person motivates me to want to help her. She is going to be the judge of my behavior later. So I help her by cleaning up the kitchen, knowing that she will be so happy to start her morning that way.

When I walk through a room and see a book on the floor or papers on the counter, I think, “What is my Future Self going to think this afternoon when she walks through here and I haven’t picked that up?”  It takes me probably 5 seconds to do it, and she feels happy walking through there later.  Sometimes I even say Thank You to myself silently. Yes, I am a giant goofball. But this WORKS for me.

And since I have shared this Future Self concept with our Clutter Diet members, I have heard from many of them in our message boards that it works for them too! It's nice to know that my little dose of weirdness has been beneficial.

Now I have learned that there is actually something to this! Our newest member of the Clutter Diet team of organizing experts, Allison Carter of Atlanta, sent me this link to a rather brainy Psychology Today blog article called, "Affective Forecasting, Intention, and Why We Procrastinate," by Dr. Timothy Pychyl. He's saying often our procrastination relates to not understanding what we will feel like in the future when we've planned to do something. Here's a quote:

Unless we can get better at "mental time traveling" where we can set intentions with clearer knowledge about how we'll feel about taking action in the future, I think we'll continue to be predictably irrational in our procrastination.

Well, there you go! So I am not so weird. What are your favorite motivational tricks to get yourself to take action? Share in the comments!

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Be Aware of Your Clutter This Week!

Evidently the fourth week of March is National Clutter Awareness Week. (Not sure who makes these up, but thank you!) You're probably keenly aware of the clutter you already have, but this week let's focus on awareness of how to prevent accumulating more.

There are three kinds of preventable clutter that accumulate in your life: 

• Purchased Clutter. Obviously, this is stuff that you pay money to bring into your home. Slankets (or Snuggies), new boots, season 2 Lost DVDs, magazines, groceries, and all that you spend your hard-earned cash to enjoy. Whether you are standing at the checkout in the store or you are clicking the checkout button online, be mindful as you open your wallet that almost everything you purchase ends up in your home or car or workplace, and it requires some kind of maintenance or attention. You will need to read it, recycle it, replace the batteries in it, fold it, store it, clean it, repair it, or just add it to your piles.

• Acquired Clutter. Sometimes "clutter happens."This is physical stuff that you did not have to shell out cash to take home-- you either inherited it, received it as a gift or hand-me-down, got it in the mail, brought it home from school or work, or grabbed it as a freebie giveaway item.  Regardless of the source, remember you do have the choice of bringing in the door or not.

• Allowed Clutter. Time and communication clutter are invisible, not physically taking up space, but they are mentally cluttering your life and that can be just as bad. By not being a good steward of your time, you can allow too many commitments to burden you. (See previous post, "Overdoers Anonymous") And by not managing your emails and phone calls, you allow them to crowd out time from more important tasks you could be doing.

Here are a few tips to help prevent purchased, acquired, or allowed clutter:

• If you check your mail at a community block of mailboxes or a post office box and they already have a trash can there, stop right there and get rid of any unwanted junk mail before you take it home.
• We have our wallet reminder sleeves you can download as a bonus item when you get our weekly newsletter-- they have the five important Clutter Prevention Questions you should ask before purchasing anything. You can store your favorite credit or debit card in them as a first line of defense when you open your wallet to buy something!
• Consider alternative gift-giving arrangements in your family, especially in the holiday season. Just kids, no gifts, drawing names...be creative and don't just buy for everyone because you always have before.
• Remember that people make their entire life's work figuring out how to sell things to you, and they are VERY clever. Don't fall for traps like "free gift with minimum purchase," or "free shipping" if you were not already going to purchase the minimum number of items in the first place. Be a savvy shopper and be protective of your wallet.
• Along with ending telemarketing calls quickly and cleanly, be also aware of "friendly fire" phone calls--ones you actually enjoy but take up way too much of your time. If you must chat, get a headset and fold some laundry or clean something while you talk.

And finally, being organized is in itself a great way to prevent further clutter. If you have visibility and knowledge of what you already own, you are unlikely to purchase duplicate or similar items by mistake. I am glad we are having this "awareness" week because as they say, awareness of a problem is the first step in fixing it. If you can be more mindful of what you purchase, acquire, and allow and realize that you always have a choice... you are halfway there!

What purchased, acquired, or allowed clutter is haunting you? Share in the comments!

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Friends & Mementos

Someone once told me that people come into your life for either a reason, a season, or a lifetime. I have definitely found this to be true. (Read here for a beautiful writeup of this Reason, Season, Lifetime idea, author unknown.) Relationships for a reason teach you a brief important lesson and then end. Relationships for a season bring you joy, teach you something, give you a number of experiences, and then eventually fade away. And lifetime relationships are those that keep building and growing and appreciating.

I was thinking that our relationships with memorabilia are the same way. There are mementos you enjoy for a short amount of time, like a child's kindergarten scribble. Then there are mementos you keep displayed for a little while, like your homecoming mum in high school, which are discarded when the next stage of life begins. And then we have the photos and keepsakes that you'll keep for the rest of your life, like your wedding invitation or a lock of your baby's hair.

I do think that some people make these distinctions more easily than others. I know some of my clients see all of their memorabilia the same way, all of it with equal importance. We often advise people to use a "limiting container" to store your memorabilia, so that when the container is full, you are forced to prioritize what to continue to keep. So now when you're prioritizing the contents of that container, you can ask yourself, "Is this memento something I have enjoyed for a reason, a season, or a lifetime?"

Certainly we all have the odd mementos that are especially meaningful to us. My grandfather, Papa, was famous for offering you a stick of Wrigley's Doublemint gum, and then tearing the stick and giving you only half. I guess he wanted to stretch the pack of gum and save money, and when we were kids we'd whine to our mom about why we didn't get a whole stick! When he passed away, a bunch of us grandchildren each took a half a stick of Doublemint and put the other half in his suit pocket. I have that half-stick of gum still in my jewelry box-- it's there for a lifetime.

What are your most unusual keepsakes? Do they need to be around for a lifetime? Do you have trouble prioritizing your keepsakes?  Share your stories in the comments. (See also previous post, Letting Go of Sentimental Attachments)

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Eating Down the Fridge...and the Pantry and Freezer

I just got clued in by my Clutter Diet members in the message boards to a growing economic (and gastronomic!) trend... trying to use up what you already have in the fridge, freezer, and pantry to save money. I am so thrilled to weigh in on this topic, as I am of course a big believer in how being organized can help this process!

We always talk about how one of the main goals of any organizing project is VISIBILITY. If you can't see it, you probably don't know you have it, and if you don't know you have it, you are not going to use it. So the first step in "Eating Down the Fridge" is to organize it so you know exactly what you have and can easily reach items to use them.

Whether the fridge, freezer, or pantry, start with a big heavy duty garbage bag. Get rid of the deadwood... excess packaging from warehouse stores, expired items, dried up stuff, and things that are growing appendages. Group like items together and label shelves and bins if possible to help it stay organized long term. We like using small bins within the refrigerator to group items you're always getting out at the same time, like sandwich condiments or jams & jellies.

For the freezer, it's often helpful to make a list of what you have, since things tend to get packed tightly and visibility is more difficult. You can use a small write on/wipe off board on the freezer door and remove things from the list as they are used. You can also make lists of pantry and fridge items if you like, just to jog your memory about what you have.

We have seen many resources online for using up random ingredients. Here are a few places to go when you just have a jar of dijon mustard, some wasabi paste, and a clove of garlic and are trying to think what the heck to make out of it: http://allrecipes.com/Search/Ingredients.aspx, http://www.cheffy.com/recipefinder, and if you are a member of my friend Aviva's menu planning website, Six O'Clock Scramble, you can do these searches in their member area.

Read more about "Eating Down the Fridge" in this Washington Post article. And search Twitter for the hashtag #eatfridge to see what other people are doing. This is big, people! Great way to save money by getting organized.

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The Luxury of Too Much

In times of financial distress like these, sometimes we need some perspective to help us regain our positive outlook. Try this: The Global Rich List. Put in your annual income, select your currency, and see how you stack up against everyone else in the world. Let's try a few sample incomes, shall we?

• $25,000 per year means that you are in the top 10.8% richest people in the world.
• $50,000 per year means that you are in the top 0.98%.
• $75,000 per year puts you in the top 0.82%.

NOW how do you feel? :)  Those numbers are from the World Bank Development Research Group.

I have been helping people get organized professionally for 9 years, and through it all I have tried to keep perspective that we are LUCKY that we have the "problem" of too much stuff. We are so wealthy that we need advice on how to manage our abundant possessions. Next time you're facing a pile of stuff or even a pile of bills, you can use this perspective to help you appreciate how you got there. (See also previous post-- Material World: What is Your Most Valued Possession?)

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Someone Thinks I Have Superpowers!

I am doing a hundred different kinds of happy dances in every room of my house! The April issue of Good Housekeeping is hitting the newsstands, and I have been waiting for this for months... back in November/December I worked with contributing editor Kyran Pittman in her home, and she went on our Clutter Diet program online for six weeks. The result? A 7-page feature article entitled, "I Went On A Clutter Diet!" which is all about our program and how it helped their family.

My favorite thing about the article (and possibly my favorite thing EVER) is that on the last page Kyran describes a few of the things we did to transform her sons' room and mudroom, and she says, "Lorie Marrero has superpowers." Seeing that written there on the page is almost as good as actually having superpowers.

After working on this project, Good Housekeeping also asked me to appear in a one-hour TV special called "Change for Good." You can check www.budurl.com/ghtvspecial for a still-growing updated list of cities, stations, and airtimes--it's starting to air now through April all across the country. The special is hosted by lifestyle favorite Rebecca Kolls. (Hi Rebecca!!)

On the TV special, I tackled the home office and garage of Dawn Sandomeno, whom I am now so pleased to call a friend. She and her very cool business partner Beth have a brilliant alternative online for people who might have wanted to hire a party planner (you know, like Colin Cowie and those guys). They have PartyBluprints.com, where you can get their beautiful eParty Plans that are UNBELIEVABLY detailed. They even create playlists that you can download on iTunes of exactly the music to play during the party, and they provide an easy list to hand to the florist, etc. I am one of those "entertaining-challenged" people and I have always opted for the easiest way to have people over, something like pizza or potluck... I used one of their dinner party plans recently and it was SO lovely! I really enjoyed not having to make all of those decisions. Really key: cooking things that you make ahead of time so you can actually ENJOY the party you're giving. Dawn and Beth have a free budget party plan for you, our readers-- it's the Crazy Eights Italian Dinner Party: 8pm, 8 guests, costing less than $8.88 each! Let me know how you like Dawn & Beth's site!

I would like to thank our friends over at SafeRacks for donating the overhead garage racks in the show. And thanks to everyone for reading this far and sharing our jubilant springtime happiness!!

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The Buzz about ActiveWords

I am always saying that I am organized because I am lazy-- I don't want to do things the hard way! This week I got to catch up with my friend Buzz Bruggeman, the tireless evangelist for ActiveWords software. If ActiveWords was not around, I think I would have to invent it. It is basically software that allows you to make your own computer shortcuts, assigning them a word that you can easily remember. You can type your shortcut words from anywhere you happen to be on your computer, whether it's in an e-mail, in a Word document, or anywhere. Here are a few ways that I use ActiveWords:

• My book title is really long to type out, so I just type the word "booktitle" and it types this: The Clutter Diet: The Skinny on Organizing Your Home and Taking Control of Your Life.
• I type the word "mypics" to open the My Pictures folder.
• I type the word "clipart" to open the folder where I store clip art and stock photography.
• I have my address, phone number, and other frequently used phrases all set up with their own shortcut words so I never have to type them again.
• I can never remember my conference call line number and the PIN-- so now I write the word "conferenceline" and it pastes in my information wherever I am typing.
• I have written stock replies to frequently asked questions I get on e-mail, so I write "replyemp" to paste in a reply to employment inquiries.
• I can never remember my Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards number, but I just type "swrr" and it pastes the number right there for me.
• There is a large piece of HTML code that pastes in my signature graphic at the end of every blog post along with my Twitter information, and I just type "blogsig" and it pastes in the code for me.
• I type "cnn" and the CNN website opens up. 

You can set the words to trigger your actions automatically when you type them, or you can set each word to work only when you type it along with a trigger key (like F8 or double spacebar). I use double spacebar as the trigger for my words.

As Buzz says, being there is more fun than going there. It is really cool to be able to instantly go where you want to go and do what you want to do on your computer. You save a lot of steps!

What software do you find indispensable for your productivity? (aside from the obvious common software everyone has like QuickBooks and Microsoft Office) My list is ActiveWords, SnagIt, SplashID, Evernote, and TweetDeck. What are yours? (typing "blogsig "now to sign off!)

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Best Book Report Ever

OK, now I feel I have "arrived" as an author-- a 10-year-old did a school book report on my book! I think that is ADORABLE and I just had to share. One reason this means a lot to me is that it's the daughter of a college friend, and another reason is that I read MY first organizing book at age ten (It was Getting Organized by Stephanie Winston). Click the image for a full-size version to read it in her handwriting, or I have transcribed it below:

 

The Clutter Diet is a book on organization. My mother went to college with the author, Lorie Marrero. Lorie is a professional organizer. The Clutter Diet has recommendations on how to organize different rooms and spaces in your house such as closets, home offices, and bedrooms. Lorie recommends clear shelves for storing things like projects in progress and shoes. The Clutter Diet also tells you about spaces that would be good to have for your family. One of the spaces is the "Communication Station." In the "Communication Station" there would be a family calendar saying what everyone would be doing. There would also be a "Family Binder." In this binder there would be information like frequently called phone numbers, pet needs, birthdays, etc. I think The Clutter Diet is a very useful book. I also think that every family (or person) should own this book.

Well, I could not agree more!  :) My friend was so sweet to send me the original book report in the mail as a surprise. It's definitely a keeper and I am so honored!

In other news today... the Container Store has just announced an unprecedented additional Elfa sale! Due to the strange economic year we're all having, they are giving us all another block of time when we can get 30% off Elfa, including some pieces that are 50% off. You can get this deal now through May 10th. This is normally a once a year event in January, so take advantage of it if you can!

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