The Clutter Diet Blog

Are You "High Maintenance"? Streamline Your Grooming Time

As the only female in a male household of two teenage boys and a husband (even the dog and the parakeet are male), I am frequently criticized and am the subject of exasperated sighs due to the waiting around for me to “get ready” when we are going out.

I have tried to explain to them how very low-maintenance I actually am, but they don’t seem to appreciate it because they have no basis for comparison. They don't know women who have long hair that requires elaborate conditioning, drying, curling and/or straightening with irons and other various medieval implements. And, they have no appreciation that we just went on a 2-week vacation overseas and all I packed was a carry-on!

I want to encourage my female readers to take a look at their grooming rituals and the time and storage needs that are involved. Here are some factors to consider:

• Your hairstyle. Are you fighting nature every day, straightening curly hair or curling straight hair? A simpler hairstyle could save some women up to 30 minutes a day and reduce their hairstyling tools and products storage needs by half. Personally I have a short haircut that requires only a hair dryer and some hairspray, and I can do my hair in as little as five minutes. Have a discussion with your hairdresser about how to reduce the complexity for yourself. One small tradeoff—with shorter hair you may need to get a haircut more often.
• Your makeup. Do you have one of those giant fishing tackle boxes, full of all colors of makeup for all occasions? Or maybe your makeup is not organized into a tackle box but thrown willy-nilly into a drawer instead. When is the last time you actually strayed from the 2-3 favorites you use 90% of the time? Most people have a regular daily routine and something else they reliably do for special occasions, and everything else perpetually sits there “just in case.” Get your “A”-level daily supplies together and simply them into an easily accessible drawer, pouch, caddy, or tray. The rest can either be discarded (it’s often expired anyway in terms of safety and effectiveness) or put away in a less-accessible location as back-stock. Get real about what you use and need and resist buying more until you’re clear on what you already have.
• Your nails. If you’ve been going to a nail salon for years, your stock of polishes probably is separated and old and needs to be thrown out. If you are someone who likes painting your nails regularly, consider the low-maintenance option of acrylic nails. I wish I had done that years ago. (Thanks to my friend Monica for the encouragement to try it!) I can be rough and tough with them and I don’t have to be fussing around worrying about broken nails and ruining my manicure—I just do what I need to do. They look good every day with only minimal monthly attention.
• Your wardrobe. An organized closet helps you pick out jewelry and clothing more easily and quickly, saving time every single day. Are you saving clothing that is too big or too small, because you’re in continuous transitions of weight gain or loss? Our Simple Division® Garment Organizers create sections of clothing to help you get them segregated from your everyday clothes that fit. You can also make sections for capri pants vs. regular pants, long sleeve, short sleeve, things that need ironing... It's kind of like filing your clothes-- everything has a place.

So, are you high maintenance? What could you do to streamline your "getting ready" routine? Share in the comments!

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The Closet Workout: Ten Essential Maintenance Habits

Last week a magazine editor asked me if there are little habits people can adopt to keep their closets under control. Here's my answer...The Ten Essential Closet Maintenance Habits:

1. Stop and hang things up regularly.
2. Put your shoes away each day.
3. Have a regular “hanger rotation process” back and forth to the utility room.
4. Fold and put away all of your clothing after washing.
5. Straighten and refold stacks as needed.
6. Straighten and arrange drawers as needed.
7. Have a designated place to collect items ready for donation.
8. Change out clothing seasonally (as needed for your climate).
9. Practice the "One-In-One-Out Rule:" For everything you buy, one old thing has to go.
10. Use our monthly project model to keep your wardrobe maintained ongoing. We suggest these monthly master closet projects to members in our Clutter Diet virtual consulting program, and the whole Closet Maintenance Calendar plan is enclosed in the packages of our Simple Division® Garment Organizers product. For example, one month we may focus on swimwear and exercise gear, and another month you would organize your jewelry. A little over time is better than a giant overhaul all at once!

Here at the Clutter Diet we talk about organizing in terms of Prevention, Reduction, and Maintenance. Think of these maintenance habits as your regular "Closet Workout" to keep the weight off!

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Simple Division® is Getting Famous!

Just wanted to celebrate-- our Simple Division® Garment Organizers product was featured in the August issue of Parents Magazine! (page 88) We are getting flooded with orders-- thank you so much! Click here to see this on our media page with a scan of the article.

I also wanted to mention the write-up our products received from Canadian journalist Stephanie Dickison on her product review blog, "The Knack." Thanks so much, Stephanie!

Since I am catching up on media stuff, we were also in Family Circle magazine and Small Room Decorating magazine in June. Click here for our full media coverage list on our site.

THANK YOU to everyone who helps get the word out about what we're doing. We're trying to revolutionize the organizing industry and we are hoping people will notice!

Gratefully,

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).

Don't Cook? Use Your Kitchen as a Closet

I saw a great Citi ad today in the two front pages of a magazine...I scanned the ad in here so you can click this thumbnail for a larger version. This woman says she lives in a tiny apartment and she doesn't cook, so instead she uses her kitchen as a walk-in closet. It shows her kitchen cupboards open and they are filled with shoes, handbags, sweaters, and the like. She talks about how great it was to use her credit card to stock up on wire baskets and other accessories to make this work for her. She also says that she did save some room for a few dishes and glasses and one drawer of take-out menus.

This is such a great example of doing what works for you! We talk all the time about A-B-C-D prioritization of your space and your things. She was not using the kitchen, so traditional kitchen items would have been "C" or "D" items for her housed in an "A" location in the tiny apartment. So she decided to put "A" items in it instead. Very good!

I have seen closets turned into office alcoves and dining rooms turned into playrooms. Make your living space fit you!  The only exception: Do carefully consider resale value before changing anything more permanent or costly. If for some reason you needed to sell your house, you want the most traditional use of the rooms to be apparent and easily utilized (i.e., don't yank out the stove!).

Share your stories of unconventional use of space here in our comments!  (See also our post on "Family Closets")

3 Approaches to Tackling Your Closet

The weekly "menu" plan that we provide to our paid Clutter Diet members is featuring Master Closets this week. It's a great New Year project, because it's one of the first and last places you see every day, with great potential for improvement and reduced stress. You can save so much time just having proper visibility to what you have and being able to choose from a selection of clothes that fit and flatter you today!

Here are 3 approaches to tackling your closet that may help you get started:

1. Call a closet installation company. This suggestion assumes that you already know the storage hardware in your closet is woefully inadequate and there is an inefficient use of space. Most closet companies will do a free in-home estimate, so why not schedule one to come out and see what they can do for you? Cost can be significant, but if this is something that will save you time and reduce stress, it really can be worth it and is a great home improvement. See my post on Lifehack.org on choosing a closet company for guidelines.

2. Clean out your closet all at once.  If your closet rods and shelving serve you well enough but you just have too much clothing, put on your iPod and sink into a few hours of going through your items and discarding what does not work. If you've not worn it in one year, chances are you never will... so stop kidding yourself about potential weight loss or gain and at least relocate those items elsewhere or donate them. The goal is that everything in your closet is something you can wear now and that is flattering and appropriate. You'll be surprised how much you can get done and how much better you'll feel! This approach could be great if you are a "batch processor." (See my previous post for more info on batch vs. continuous processing)

3. Use our month-by-month approach with the Clutter Diet to do a little bit all year long. Our weekly plans for members feature a small Master Closet project each month, so that one month tackles shoes, another month does workout gear and swimwear, and another does jewelry, etc. Along with getting this content in our member weekly plans, you can also get this monthly closet planning calendar as part of the instructions that come with our own Simple Division® Garment Organizers product, which is a great tool for organizing your clothing. If you must keep those "too big" or "too small" items, for example, you can use our dividers to separate those clothes so they are not part of your daily choices.

How will you make your mornings go more smoothly? Get your closet in shape with one of these approaches so you can dress, pack, and put away clothing more easily.

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.

What's a "Family Closet?"

A few days ago I posted about innovative ideas for handling the transport and efficient flow of laundry, including having two laundry rooms, two dryers, laundry chutes, and other thoughts. 

What if you turn this entire thing on its ear?  The whole struggle centers around carting laundry to and from bedrooms, right?  There is a concept called the "family closet," in which all clothing in the house is stored in one big wardrobe room/utility room together.  Yes, that's right, all the clothing is here, so when it's dried and folded, it's just two steps away to put it back where it goes.

I had heard of this concept in a magazine a long time ago, and recently found a post where someone is doing this-- she says it has cut her laundry time in half!

I guess everyone in the family just needs a really good bathrobe to go get dressed in there after their showers...?  Or maybe the policy is that you choose your outfit before bathing?  Very interesting!  What do you think?  Post a comment and let me know!

Closets are the new master baths

From the new 744-page Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook: The Essential Guide to Caring for Everything in Your Home:

"Talk to any Realtor and you will hear this over and over: Closets are the new master baths. Storage is now more important to home buyers than giant bathrooms. The closets need to be big, with sensible and useful design."

I am not the biggest Martha fan in the world, but this makes a lot of sense.  Americans have more stuff than ever, and they need the storage!  I think this is a very interesting observation.  I would also add that garages are more important now as well, for the same reason.  See my previous post called "Pimp my Garage."

Closet Confessions

According to an Oprah.com poll quoted in O Magazine's September 2006 issue (4034 respondents), here's what people confess about their closets, with my comments in blue:

The majority of respondents estimate they own 100 items of clothing.
This is WAY underestimated! My guess is 2-3 times that much.
60 percent say they have not seen the back of their closet for months.
The back? How about the floor?  One of my clients said that she knew there was a problem when she threw something in there and something threw it back.
10 percent purchase new clothing at least once a week.
This is probably about right. What bothers me is people buying things they already have (another black turtleneck, another white shirt) because they don't know they have it.
Jeans were ranked 1st as most difficult article to buy (by a landslide).
OK, what about swimsuits? :)
31 percent own approximately ten pairs of jeans.
Our experience shows some of these are "skinny jeans" and some are "fat jeans" and some were purchased and just did not work out.
12 percent own more than 50 pairs of shoes.
The Container Store says the average woman owns 40 pairs.
24 percent say they look in their closet every single morning and say, "I have nothing to wear."
69 percent wish and pray for more closet space.
Taking some time to get organized can help you find a lot more space and see what you have so you can choose outfits better and shop more effectively.  If you are a member, log into our Knowledge Base to get some guidelines on how to approach your closet!