The Clutter Diet Blog

Make More Money Donating Your Stuff

I have always been a fan of It's Deductible, when it was first a book, then software, then when it got acquired by Intuit and bundled with TurboTax. It's like the "Blue Book" for giving you the fair market value for your donated household items like clothing, toys, and decorating accessories. When people drop off their donations at their favorite charities and get a receipt, they almost always grossly undervalue the amount of their donations for tax deduction purposes. Taking just a few minutes to put your list of items through It's Deductible gives you the real dollar values for these items and allows you to take your deserved tax deduction with confidence (and even a guarantee).

The good news is that now this is FREE! My friend Ariane Benefit just pointed this out on her blog and I am grateful for the update! It used to be an annual fee to use the service, which I did find valuable because of all of the money I got back from using it on my taxes. It has a calculator that adds up your tax savings as you go, so you can really see the value.

Another wrinkle is that I met the man at conference in April who originally wrote the It's Deductible book. He is now selling another version of that if you do want to own it in book form, called "Money For Your Used Clothing." It may be more convenient to use the book format for some people who are not as comfortable doing everything on a keyboard.

It's not too early to start documenting your deductions for the next tax year!

What Are Your Emergency Plans?

Being organized means being prepared. This weekend in Austin we had some very severe weather, and last night I happened to catch a show on New Orleans and the upcoming hurricane season. Both things brought to mind the need for a family emergency plan... here are some questions to answer:

• How would you and your family communicate during a natural disaster?
• Do you have contacts lined up to pick up and care for your children in an emergency?
• Does your family know where would you go in your home for shelter during a tornado? Or earthquake?
• Do you have any supplies of food and water stored?

Ready.gov is a fantastic resource for planning. They have checklists and handy printable pocket guides you can fold up for your wallet. It's a great time to think through this, as tornado weather is definitely here, hurricane season is not far off, and I know some people who experienced the recent earthquakes in the midwest!

The photo shown here is of Hurricane Hortense, which I experienced when living in Puerto Rico in 1996 (photo is public domain, NOAA). I learned to make sure you have stocked up on diapers... Have you lived through a natural disaster? Share your stories and tips in our comments!

Label the Light Switches

Someone was visiting my home recently and commented on the light switch labels we have...I have always done this in every home we've lived in, because I get confused! So it's just a natural thing to label the things that confuse me so I won't make the same mistakes over and over. Here is a photo-- click it for a larger version.

It's like I am always saying-- I am organized because I am LAZY! I do not want to do things the hard way. I am always asking myself, "How can I do this better, how can I do this faster, how can I not do this at all?" Click here to read an article I wrote for Lifehack.org on this very subject.

Are there things in your home that confuse you? Are there mistakes you keep making? How could you eliminate the problem? Let us know here in the comments what you are doing to save yourself time and frustration.

Spring Cleaning Time

It's a blustery day here in Austin, and spring is here! Our trees are budding and we had the annual Zilker Park Kite Festival yesterday. 

People ask me a lot about "spring cleaning" this time of year, and I recently contributed an article to Connections for Women about just that. Click here to read the Spring Cleaning article, and be sure to check out their "Dear Alice" column this month that also mentions some advice from me.

Here are some other articles and previous posts to inspire you for your own spring rejuvenation:

• Lorie's Garage Floor Makeover
• How to Get More Storage Space for about $70
• 4 Tips for Organizing a Pantry
• Micro Vs. Macro-Organizing: First Things First!

Happy Spring!

Get Organized Modularly

Wow! Pottery Barn has come up with a very cool modular system for what we at Clutter Diet refer to as the "Communication Station" for your family. It's called the "Daily System," and it consists of a display rod that is mounted to your wall, with components that slide onto the rod as you see fit. Here are the components they have (photo from PB's website):

• A recharge station for your cell phones and iPods! Cool! It's combined half and half with a whiteboard.
• Corkboard
• Letter bins (not my favorite as these tend to become "nests"...but if you have a defined purpose for the bins they are great)
• Office organizer (ditto on having a defined purpose for these little compartments- Bonus: they have key hooks)
• Linen pinboard
• Magnetic chalkboard
• Magnetic whiteboard calendar
• Magnetic canister accessories for holding small push pins and the like

I actually bought these for my own house a while back, probably several years ago, but they did not have all of these components at that time. I have only the magnetic whiteboard calendar and the magnetic chalkboard.

What I learned: Don't buy the magnetic canisters if there is any chance you might possibly brush by them and knock them down. (Don't ask... argghh!!) And the magnetic whiteboard calendar works for our family really well, but if you want to have a "permanent record" of your family's calendar to refer back to later, erasing this whiteboard calendar could be a problem for you. Also know you'll have to write all the numbers in yourself each month.  And, as always, you need to measure carefully before buying so you'll know if you have enough wall space.

Here is a great tip for any magnetic whiteboard situation: You can glue small round magnets to the lids of your whiteboard markers with E6000 Glue--let it dry for a long time. Then your markers can just be magnetically stuck to your whiteboard and stay out of the way.

And by the way, I am not a paid endorser for Pottery Barn on this, if anyone is wondering. I just like it! Cheers!

What's For Dinner??

If you don't know about Dream Dinners, you should!  It's one of the best ways to save time and solve the classic "what's for dinner" problem.  You register for a session and go there about once a month to prepare your meals... they have salad-bar-like stations where you assemble the meals, such as Steak Gorgonzola (we just ate that tonight for dinner at my house) and Chicken Mirabella.  They provide zippered bags or foil pans to contain everything, along with cooking instruction labels.  You take all of the meals home in a cooler or laundry basket and stick them in your freezer.  They even give you a planning sheet with suggested side dishes and a tear-off grocery list.  DONE!

My husband and I were in the habit of going once a month like clockwork for a while, and then we got out of the routine... we just went back on Saturday and are wondering why we ever stopped!  It is so liberating to have food ready in the freezer, and it's delicious.  Here are our favorite tips for maximizing your Dream Dinners time:

1. Go with your spouse/partner/friend and you can get finished assembling the meals in half the time.  They give you a meal list of the items you've registered for as you arrive, and one of us takes the list from the top down and the other works from the bottom up.  We check in with each other to see where we are mid-way through.
2. Grab a few extra plastic zippered bags and put them in your apron pocket to save some steps.  You need them all during the session, so it's good to have a few handy.
3. Read the assembly instructions through quickly before starting.  Sometimes this avoids mistakes like mixing the "topping" of something in with the marinade, etc.
4. Bring your children to help if they are old enough (this policy varies per store).  If they participate they are much more likely to eat the food later at home, plus, it's fun!
5. Double up on the meals you really like.  It's good to have favorites around, and it's easier and faster to assemble two of the same things at once.
6. Bring some wine-- they do let you drink it while you're working.  ;)

I think this is such a great business for all of the busy people out there who are eating too much Taco Bell.  Half the battle is just having the decision made of what you're eating and having the purchasing done...the cooking part then becomes easy.  How could you streamline your mealtimes by doing some simple planning this week?

Filter Out the Clutter

One of the more bulky items in our homes is that stack of air filters we're supposed to replace, and how often was that again?  And what about all of those other filters we are supposed to change out, like our water purifiers, pitcher filters, faucet filters, and air purifier filters?  And when was the last time we did that?  Our Clutter Diet members can use our personalized e-mail reminder system to tell them when to change their filters, but there may be something better...

This great service recently contacted me to tell you about how they can help.  It's www.filtersontime.com, a service that mails you the right filters at the right time. Not only does it eliminate the need to store the filters, it triggers you to change them when they come in the mail.  I also know that many of our clients don't have an easy way to remember which type of filters to buy, either, so it helps with that too.  Great idea! Just wanted to pass it along! (logo graphic from FiltersOnTime)

Organizing Your Laundry- Update

Our previous laundry posts have spurred a number of comments... Here is a novel idea for organizing your laundry:  Have 6 small laundry baskets, stacked together as 2-2-2. This gives you 3 baskets to sort into different types, such as Darks, Lights, and Delicates.  When one is full, bring it to the laundry room to wash, while the basket underneath is still there to catch the latest dirty clothes.  When you bring back the clean clothes in the basket after being washed, put the clothes away and stack the empty basket underneath the other one.

Neat idea, huh?  This system comes not from an organizer but from my web developer and friend, CJ. 

Happy Mothers' Day!  May all of us mothers have a blessed break from laundry of all kinds. 

Where is Your Laundry Bottleneck?

When we are organizing clients' homes, a lot of clutter is related to laundry-- dirty laundry clutter on the floor, piles of laundry waiting to be washed or folded, and folded laundry waiting to be put away.  Laundry clutter is a HUGE problem for many families!  I was just explaining this to my children today as they complained about having to put their clothes away-- if there is one step in the process that is stopped, it bottlenecks the rest of the steps. 

Here is our Laundry Cycle diagram that shows clearly all of the steps of the laundry process.  Click the picture for a larger image.

Most people have never thought about this much before, and maybe you don't need to.  But if you have any of the laundry clutter I have described, give some thought to which steps in your process are bottlenecked and what you can do about them.  Is it an ownership problem (identifying whose responsibility to do it)?  Is it an infrastructure problem (not a good place or right equipment to do it)?  Or is it an execution problem (not doing it when you're supposed to-- like kids leaving clothes on the floor)?

Ultimately, the goal is to have clean clothes in your closet to wear when you want them.  Use this illustration to discuss the process with family members if you wish, and get some help to make the bottlenecks disappear!

I'll Spin You For It

"Whose turn is it to do the dishes?"  "I took out the trash last time!"  Getting your home organized definitely involves having morning and evening routines, as we often discuss with our Clutter Diet members.  Yesterday I was in a bookstore and ran across something that completely solves these little squabbles and gets the family organized with their chores-- and rewards.

It's called Spintastik by Jennifer Nolan, and it's a book similar to the "Klutz" series of craft books which has an actual large, colorful spinner built into the cover.  It comes with pie-wedge-shaped stickers that you use to customize the spinner with chores and rewards for your family's needs.

It makes the spinner the "bad guy" instead of mom or dad saying which chores have to be done.  I love this idea!  I noticed that you can get them used on Amazon for as little as $6.00 or so when I looked it up, so for that price, you certainly can't go wrong giving it a try.

Win the chores lottery!