As you remove pockets of clutter from you life, I’d like you to snap a quick photo and send it to me. Your photo and story could be featured in a “Clutter Obituary” on the Useless Clutter website. I think it will be therapeutic for you and inspiring for the rest of us.

Just take a photo of the soon-to-be-removed clutter and email it to chris@uselessclutter.com. Please include an brief story explaining what is in the photo and the circumstances around it.

I can’t wait to see those clutter photos!

Chris

Good news for current Mint users or those that were on the fence about the online financial tracking service! Mint.com now allows the entry of cash transactions in addition to debit card, credit card, and check transactions that were already tracked.

I still recommend using your credit card or debit card whenever possible (since cash transactions will have to be entered manually), but it is nice to finally have this hole filled. Mint even allows you to check a box to automatically deduct your cash transactions from the last ATM withdrawal so that those withdrawals are properly accounted for (so to speak).

To utilize this feature, click on the “Transactions” tab, then click the “Add a Transaction” button. The transaction type defaults to “cash”, and the check-box to deduct this from your last ATM withdrawal is checked by default also. All in all, the new cash transaction process seems to work very well.

If you haven’t taken the plunge into Mint.com yet, I suggest you read my previous article on using Mint to automate your finances.

Originally posted at uselessclutter.com

Ah, the 80/20 rule… I wonder if Vilfredo Pareto could have begun to imagine the far reaching implications of his principle back in 1906 when he discovered that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. This rule has been shown to apply to all sorts of things since then, from peas in a garden to customers for a company. Today I am going to show you how to apply this rule to help you declutter your life.

For our purposes, the 80/20 rule will be used as a guide to identify that small number of things that have the biggest impact in our lives. It is likely that you wear 20% of your clothing 80% of the time. It is likely that you divine 80% of your pleasure from 20% of your activities. Is it also likely that you use 20% of your kitchen utensils to cook 80% of your meals. I think you get the point. Now, the percentages may vary for a given situation. It might be 90/10 or 60/40, but the idea remains the same.

The trick is to identify the relatively small percentage of things that you use the most, wear the most, or get the most enjoyment from and start weeding out the rest. Take clothes, for instance. Imagine how much less crowded your closet would be if you only kept those things you wore most often. Take a look at your kitchen and imagine what it would look like if you got rid of everything that was used either infrequently or not at all. How about television? What if you watched the small number of shows that have the most value or give you the most enjoyment and cut the rest of the shows from your schedule?

Keeping this rule of thumb in mind as you take inventory of your activities and possessions will lend a bit of clarity and help you trim the less valuable items. It’s a lofty goal, but if we could all get to the point where all we had left were those things that we used most and enjoy the most, imagine how much simpler our lives would be.

What are some other examples where this could be useful in your life?

Originally posted at uselessclutter.com

A Gadget-Cluttered Trip

Let me paint the picture for you… You are going on a trip with your family. You want to capture these moments you spend together, so you bring a still and video camera. The kids will need to be entertained so you bring a portable DVD player and maybe a portable game system. You throw in your trusty portable GPS system just in case you need it and maybe your laptop in case you need to get online. Oh, and we can’t forget about your cell phone. Now you’ve got to figure out how you’re going to carry all of this with you.

Whether you are traveling to another country or just down the street, clutter can plague you on the road, just as easily as at home. You’ll find many articles on packing light (which I highly recommend), but I have one thing that has greatly reduced the gadget clutter for me.

A Modern-Day Swiss Army Knife

I love my iPhone. It’s one of those things where once you use one, you can never be without one. My intent, however, is not to start another “iPhones are the greatest thing ever” vs “you bought an iPhone just to look cool” debate. There are enough of those going on right now all over the internet. My intent is to show how iPhones and other similar devices are really great at replacing many gadgets with one, thus reducing your travel clutter.

Let’s take a look at the poor soul above, who is about to venture out into the world with armfuls of electronics. In most cases, an iPhone, or similar device, could have replaced most, if not all, of these items.  Will it take shill photos and videos? Check. Will it play a movie to keep the kids occupied? Check. What if the kids want to play a game? Check. What if I get lost or need to find a nearby restaurant? Check. How about looking something up on Google or sending an email? Check and check.

The Best Camera is the One That’s With You

I can hear you all now, “But my camera phone can’t take photos that look as good as my dedicated camera.” Well you are right. And there may be times when you really need that dedicated camera to capture a special event or you bring the portable DVD player so the phone can be used at the same time a movie is being watched. Overall though, I found that I can do quite nicely with the camera on my iPhone. If you don’t believe me on this one, check out the book The Best Camera is the One That’s With You: iPhone Photography by Chase Jarvis. This simple book showcases what can be done with a camera phone. It really does prove that any camera can take great photos.

It used to be, that if I was rushing out the door towards whatever sporting event my son was about to participate in, I would just open the car door when my wife would yell to me that I needed to go get the cameras. I’d have to run inside the house grab the still camera from the counter, then run upstairs to grab the video camera. I would usually just about be to the car again when I would realize that I forgot to take the battery out of the charger.

Now, most of the time, I just walk out the door. My iPhone is always in my pocket anyway. If I need to take a photo or video, I pull my iPhone out and do it. When I’m done, back in my pocket it goes. It couldn’t be easier.

Originally posted at uselessclutter.com

There are MANY choices when it comes to media consumption these days. Hundreds of television shows, endless movies, infinite websites to visit, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, the list goes on. With so many choices where should we start? Where should we stop?

You will not hear me advocating that you get rid of your TV or stop using Facebook, far from it. I am way to much of a movie junkie to get rid of my TV and Facebook can be a great way to connect with people, but all things in moderation. The biggest thing I would ask you to do is to ask yourself, “Am I getting good time value from this?”

If you really enjoy watching Lost, watch it. But if you find yourself watching another episode of Law & Order just because it’s all that’s on, turn it off. I recently came to the conclusion that although I did enjoy watching Flash Forward, I had to cut it for now, because I had too many other things that I enjoy more. The time value that I was getting out of this show was not high enough to warrant my watching it.

The same holds true with websites, Twitter, Facebook, You Tube, etc., if you are just filling time, do something else. Try to pare down your media fire hose to the point where it is a garden hose. I think you’ll find that you will have a less cluttered mind and that those things you keep will bring you more enjoyment.

Another thing to consider is the delivery method. For example, being a movie buff, I found myself wasting time looking at schedules and setting my DVR to record various movies I hadn’t seen. I cut back on my cable channels and joined Netflix and now have gained back significant time (not to mention coming out slightly ahead financially). I also am able to spend time watching exactly what I want, so I have higher time value now.

Lastly, if you’re going to watch TV for two hours, why not do it while you’re on a treadmill or exercise bike. Multi-tasking can often be a productivity drain, but these two activities were made for each other. You can enjoy and good movie or TV show and get rid of those love handles at the same time. You can’t beat that.

The paperless office is a concept that has been around for quite a while. For most it has been largely unrealized. I have already talked about ways to reduce junk mail and paper bills in previous posts, but how do we get rid of those remaining pesky papers that still sneak into our home. For that matter, how do we handle those stacks of papers we already have?

The answer is the Scan ‘n Shed Method. This process requires scanning, shredding, and making searchable PDFs from any paper documents where a hard copy is not required.

Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500

The first piece of the puzzle, and the most critical, is the scanner. There are many scanners on the market but the only one that is worth looking at for this purpose is the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500 (S1500M for Mac). A flatbed scanner will not do. You may look at the price of this scanner and think, “$500!?! I can get by with the scanner I already have built into my all-in-one printer.” Forget it! Spend the money and ensure that you actually USE this system. I, personally, have a history of buying gadgets to solve a problem and not using them after the first month because they do not work as they should. This scanner exceeded my expectations. I’ve had this little workhorse for several years (I actually own the previous model S510M) and I still use it at least weekly because it works so well.

Here are six reasons why you owe it to yourself to buy this scanner. First this scanner has a small footprint (about the size of a piece of letter paper) when closed. It takes up very little desk real estate. Second, the ScanSnap S1500 has a 50 sheet feeder. Say good-bye to one-sheet-at-a-time scanning. Third, it automatically detects two-sided documents and scans both sides at once. Forth, it is fast. 20 pages per minute in color, more in black and white. Fifth, one-button-scanning. Load the paper, hit the button, scanning begins automatically. Finally, the sixth reason you need THIS scanner, is the automatic creation of searchable PDFs. This last one is HUGE! This scanner comes with great software including Adobe Acrobat Standard (which costs $300 by itself). The included software is almost worth the $500 by itself, plus you get this great scanner in the bargain.

Once the documents are scanned, they are run through OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software that allows later searching and saved as a PDF. Later I can search for “ABC Company” or a date or amount and find the document I’m looking for.

You have the option of saving the PDFs with a custom file name, but honestly, I just let it pick a name for me (usually a date with a serial number) and search the content of the files when I’m looking for something later. On my Mac, Spotlight works like a champ for this. I highly recommend this time-saving method of auto-naming files, especially if you are just starting and have large numbers of documents to scan.

Fellowes Powershred W-11C Cross-Cut Shredder

Once the documents are scanned, the next step is shredding them all so that your personal information doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. Make sure you get a shredder that is big enough to prevent constant emptying and that it has a large enough sheet capacity that you can shred things quickly.

The last step in the process is to make sure that these PDFs are getting backed up. You can either back them up to an external hard drive or do what I prefer and use an online backup service. I personally use Mozy.com for this. $5 per month for unlimited backup on a single computer.

Go out and buy yourself the ScanSnap S1500(M), get a decent shredder (if you don’t have one), and make sure your PDFs are getting backed up. Before you know it, you’ll have a single file drawer filled with original documents that you have to keep and the rest of your office will be paper free.

Originally posted at uselessclutter.com

If you’re like me, there are few things you hate more than paying bills and balancing your checkbook. I used to spend hours every week writing checks, balancing the checkbook, and driving to the post office. I had an elaborate system to make sure that bills were paid on time. I also hand typed all of these transactions into Quicken so I could keep track of spending. It truly sucked, but there is a better way!

Step one: Paper or plastic? …plastic.

Ditch the paper and start using the plastic. Paying by credit card or debit card not only cuts down on the amount of useless clutter you carry with you, but it will give you a means of more easily tracking your finances. (More on that later.) There are always going to be a few places where we have no choice but to pay by cash or check. But you should be able to switch to plastic for most transactions.

Step two: Stop paying your bills, your computer can handle it.

Once you have gotten rid of the cash and checks for the most part, it’s time to make a list of all of your recurring bills and figure out how to pay them automatically. Most companies have a link on their website that walks you through the process.

For those companies that don’t yet offer this service (get with the times people), you may have the option of using your bank or credit card company to set up a payment that is either electronically transferred or physically mailed. This will only work if you have a set amount that you pay each month (i.e. daycare is always paid x on the 1st and 15th of each month).

You may be saying to yourself, “This makes me nervous, I want to make sure I have enough money to pay my bills each month. How will I keep track of that if it just happens on its own?” This is where step three comes in.

Step three: Would you care for a Mint?

This last step is the most important. Run, don’t walk to Mint.com and set up a free account. Once you have a Mint account, you’ll need to enter your account information for each item that you need to track (checking, savings, credit cards, etc.). This may make some people nervous, but it is required for the magic to happen. I have been using Mint almost from the beginning and I can say that I have not had any issues with security, nor am I aware of any that others have had. Mint uses bank-level encryption and has over one million customers who have entered this information.

Once you have all of your accounts entered into Mint, your transactions and account balances will start flowing in. Mint has gotten pretty good at guessing which category to put your transactions into, but you’ll want to monitor this a bit and “train” Mint where things go at the beginning. The fact that you’ve started using credit cards and debit cards for most of your transactions will help, since they will have merchant information with them that aides in automatic categorizing. Checks will show up as “Check 2210″ and cash transactions don’t show up at all.

Now that all of your transactions are being categorized, you can use this to set budgets (Mint will ever do this for you based on historical information), view spending by category, etc. You can also set up alerts that are sent by text or email. These include high spending, low balances, over budget, and many others. Mint will also send you regular overviews. They can even notify you of fees (such as late fees) charged to your account or when your credit card rates go up.

You can also track investment accounts and see how much you owe on your mortgage. The result is a complete financial dashboard that gives you current information and shows you exactly where you stand at any point. You can see you current cash reserves (checking and savings minus credit cards) and your total net worth. The best part is that after initial setup, all you need to do is check in on it once in a while. No data entry!

All of this can be viewed securely online, on their mobile website, or from their free iPhone app. You can have this info with you anywhere. Mint is supported by companies whose products are recommended to you as ways to save. They may recommend a credit card with a lower APR or a savings account with a higher interest rate.

Act today! Follow these three steps and soon you’ll wonder how you ever did it any other way.

Originally posted at uselessclutter.com

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could open your mailbox everyday and only find the things that you really want or need, instead of a big stack of garbage that you need to spend thirty minutes sorting. Not only is it better for you, but you’re being kind to our planet as well.

Step One: Paperless Billing, Baby!

Get your bills and statements out of you mailbox and into you inbox. If you haven’t already signed up for paperless billing on all of your accounts that offer it, you should. Many companies advertise this service on the envelope or statement that they send you each month, because hey, it saves them money too. Right?

If they don’t advertise it on the mailer itself, go to their website and see if they have information about it there. Not all companies are doing this, but those who aren’t are becoming the minority.

This step will add to your email load a bit, but isn’t that better than having to sort through an endless stack of envelopes each month.

Step Two: Tell Those Unwanted Advertisers to Buzz Off!

Now that you’ve stopped most of your bills from coming in paper form it’s time to get rid of that dreaded direct mail. There are a number of different ways to stop unwanted direct mail from coming, but the easiest way that I’ve found is to go to DMAchoice.org. This free online service is run by the Direct Marketing Association and allows you to easily opt out of credit card offers, magazine subscription offers, catalogs, and other mail offers.

You may be asking yourself, “Why would a group, whose sole purpose is to promote and support the direct mail industry, want to offer consumers an easy way to stop receiving direct mail?” That is a very good question, one that I was asking myself also. The answer, though, is fairly simple I think. They are trying to cultivate goodwill with the general public.

The credit card offer opt-out will actually take you to a second site where you can either opt out for five years online or you can mail in a form for lifetime opt-out.

The sections of their site for magazine offers, catalogs and other mail offers each give you the choice of opting out by company or opting out of all offers of that type with a single click.

It may take a month or two for these items to stop showing up in your mail and there may be a few cases where you’ll need to contact the company directly, either by phone, mail, or online. Also keep in mind that if you have actually purchased something from a company, they may still send you some items unless you contact them directly.

If you haven’t already followed both of these steps, do it today. Your mailbox will thank you!

Originally posted at uselessclutter.com

Hello and welcome to Useless Clutter, where I will share with you what I’ve learned in my journey to remove the useless clutter from my own life. The useless clutter I’m referring to could be that pile of papers on your desk, or it could be something you waste time on every week. It could be that box of equipment for a hobby you no longer pursue, or maybe a required task that could be done in half the time.

We all have useless clutter that invades our life. Some of it was always useless. Some started out with a purpose, but the purpose faded and we still hold on to it. If we remove this useless clutter from our lives, piece by piece, our lives become fuller and what is left is much more enjoyable.

Thank you for joining me, I hope the material found here will help you to start removing the useless clutter from your life.