• Yesterday’s Washington, D.C. Express newspaper included the article “The Clean Season: Spring Cleaning Solutions,” which featured many wonderful organizers and myself. If you’re thinking about spring cleaning, be sure not to miss this item.
• If you’re in the D.C. area, check out the April issue of Washingtonian magazine. (It’s not yet online.) There is a wonderful section on home renovations, and the article “Making Space” on page 193 includes terrific advice from professional organizer Scott Roewer.
• I was fascinated by Monica Ricci’s post “700 Lines and Counting!” about itemizing. I’m afraid to take on such a project even in my relatively simple home.
• A great multitasker — the Screwpop 4-in-1 Keychain Tool featured on Lifehacker.
• Organize your next move with help from the Wall Street Journal’s article “Home Buyers Check Out Apps.” Even if you don’t use a smart phone, most of these applications can be accessed on the web.

Your advice on doing the laundry is fantastic. I’ve employed several tips with great success. In particular, I’m a fan of clothing items that need little care (e.g. no ironing, dry cleaning, etc.). However, I’m unable to find usable suggestions on HOW TO PUT THE LAUNDRY AWAY. One mantra of simple living systems is to touch things only once (mail directly from the mailbox into office without setting on kitchen counter first and while throwing away junk mail before you even bring it into the house), but I’m unable to find a laundry system that doesn’t result in piles and piles of clean laundry that needs to be put away. Getting it into the washer and dryer is easy — how can I get it to put itself away? My kids are 2 and 4 years old. I do one load of laundry a day. It ends up sitting in our enormous rolling laundry cart in the laundry room, where we all gather in our underwear looking for clean clothes. Please help.

I laughed aloud when I read your description of your family gathering in the laundry room looking for clean clothes because I have done exactly that on numerous occasions. My guess is that anyone with a washer and dryer at home has done this, but maybe around a couch, dining table, or wherever clothes are folded. And, I don’t know why, but I’m usually standing on my tippy toes, quickly shifting my weight from foot to foot, on a mission to locate clean socks. You’ve just described the human clean clothes hunting ritual!

To find a solution to this problem, start by making sure you don’t have more clothes than storage space. If drawers and closets are cramped, you might be avoiding putting clothes away because you can’t easily do it. You shouldn’t have to push down on clothes to shut drawers, and you shouldn’t have to use your elbows and exert upper body strength to cram clothes into a closet. Also, check out your closet and make sure that whatever method you’re using to organize your clothes is simple to maintain. If your closet organizing system is too convoluted, you might be avoiding the chore for this reason.

Although your rolling laundry cart is really cool, it might not be the best tool for your family. You may be better served by having four labeled, stackable, laundry baskets or a rolling, 4-bag, laundry sorter. Each night after dinner, you and your husband can take five minutes to put away the clothes in your designated bin or basket and then spend another five minutes helping your kids with theirs.

Challenge everyone to a race, play upbeat music, and/or make the new routine as much fun as possible. After a few months, it will become second nature and putting away laundry will no longer be an issue. As your children get older, they’ll be able to put away their clothes without help (around age 5 or 6) and eventually even do their own laundry (usually around age 10, 11, or 12). I’m definitely looking forward to these milestones in my house!

Be sure to check out the comments for even more suggestions from our readers for ways to help get clothes out of the laundry room and into their proper storage spaces.

Thank you, Kelly, for submitting your question for our Ask Unclutterer column.

Do you have a question relating to organizing, cleaning, home and office projects, productivity, or any problems you think the Unclutterer team could help you solve? To submit your questions to Ask Unclutterer, go to our contact page and type your question in the content field. Please list the subject of your e-mail as “Ask Unclutterer.” If you feel comfortable sharing images of the spaces that trouble you, let us know about them. The more information we have about your specific issue, the better.

I chose this office because its minimalist style is extremely calming. There isn’t anything here to distract the owner while he works. In the notes about the image, Johannes_G says that he deliberately got rid of an external monitor and chose to only use the laptop screen to keep the setup uncluttered. I prefer to work with two monitors for improved productivity, but I’m happy to read that careful thought went into the selection process for each of the desk’s items. So often people put items and equipment on their work surfaces out of habit instead of with intentional action. Seeing this desk made me pause and look at my desk to see if anything was on it out of habit instead of need. Thank you, Johannes_G, for your addition to our Flickr pool.

Want to have your own workspace featured in Workspace of the Week? Submit a picture to the Unclutterer flickr pool. Check it out because we have a nice little community brewing there. Also, don’t forget that workspaces aren’t just desks. If you’re a cook, it’s a kitchen; if you’re a carpenter, it’s your workbench.

A month and a half ago she was healthy, gregarious, and planning a baby shower for me; now she’s in Houston at the MD Anderson Cancer Treatment Center fighting for her life.

I hate this tumor, and I hate all of the fear it has caused.

I’m sharing this personal story with you for two reasons. First, as a reminder that life is short, even if you live to be 100. We are not immortals. Each moment is a gift, and you have a choice of how you spend that time. You can let it idly pass you by, being unaware of its rich possibilities and cluttering your days with unimportant stuff. Or, you can carpe vitam — seize life — and take advantage of all the valuable experiences this world has to offer.

Second, I’m sharing this story with you as a reminder that you never know what others are dealing with when you encounter them. The person who cut you off in traffic may be rushing to the hospital. The cell phone that rings during a movie may be an emergency. The person who didn’t return your e-mail may have more important matters in front of him. None of us can read minds or know what is going on in everyone’s life — cut people slack, and hopefully they’ll do the same when you need that favor.

Stop cluttering up your life with things that don’t matter to you. Take responsibility for your life and what you have chosen to include in it. Stop cluttering up your time assuming the worst in other people. And, treat everyone you encounter as if you know someone they love is undergoing brain surgery — unfortunately, it might be true.

Last July, Erin wrote “10 uncluttering things to do every day.” I was proudly doing a few things on her list, but as usual there were a couple I hadn’t considered. This got me thinking about what other things I could do daily to reduce the clutter around our home.

Here are 10 more uncluttering things you can do each day.

1. Reset your home each evening. This doesn’t have to take long, but it’s really effective. Spend 5 or 10 minutes on a quick run-through of your home. Straighten books and knickknacks, return dishes to the kitchen, and hang up jackets. Don’t strive for perfection, this is just a quick pick up.
2. Never leave a room empty handed. Look around you. Are there things that don’t belong? When you leave the room, for whatever reason, be sure to grab a glass and return it to the kitchen, or whatever the case may be.
3. When you’re done with something, put it away. Right away. Clutter arises when we take something out, use it for awhile and neglect to return it to its proper home. Remember the Unclutterer’s gospel, “A place for everything, and everything in its place.”
4. Hit the laundry basket. Every time. It may seem easier to simply let your clothes fall where they may, but this only creates clutter. Take 30 seconds to hang up your clothes or put them in the laundry basket. Erin recommends getting ready for bed an hour before you plan so you’re not exhausted when handling your clothes.
5. Take out the garbage. Perhaps garbage day occurs only once a week, but emptying the garbage nightly, even if not entirely full, is a great habit start. Over-flowing bins are not attractive.
6. Vacuum everyday. Vacuuming ensures everything is up off the floor. Essentially, you’re doing a nightly reset during the day making it even easier to keep on top of clutter.
7. Clear out your e-mail inbox. Hundreds of e-mail messages in your inbox can be incredibly overwhelming. Take time at the end of each day to clear out your inbox. When you come back in the morning, it’ll be a lot less daunting.
8. Cut out the non-essentials. Re-evaluate the necessity of your involvement in groups, clubs, committees or boards. Limit yourself to participating in things that are important to you and make you happy.
9. Do just one thing each day. Pick a drawer, closet, or shelf that’s driving you nuts. Focus on doing one little thing to move yourself closer to the clutter free state you’re Seeking. Ask yourself: Is this really important? Can I get this again relatively easily?
10. One thing out everyday. Walk through your home with a critical eye. Look for one thing you don’t need, use, or want. Keep a couple of boxes by the garage or front door for temporary storage.

I hope this inspires you to do a little bit every day to keep ahead of the clutter and move toward a calmer and simpler life.

When March rolls onto the calendar, I begin preparations for the coming warmer weather months. I plant seedlings for my garden, wipe down the patio furniture, and clean up the grill. Additionally, I bring out my vast collection of specialized steak branding irons.

What’s that? You don’t have a collection of steak branding irons? How is this possible?! Didn’t you rush out and buy one after we wrote about the monogrammed steak brand in our Unitasker column two and a half years ago? I can’t believe you didn’t! Shocking!!!

Well, now is the perfect time to jump on the steak branding iron bandwagon! Start your collection with a double heart branding iron, because nothing says “I love you” quite like a branded steak:

Or a Marine insignia branding iron — for your steaks, not new recruits:

Or your Christian fish branding iron, because (religious imagery aside) nothing is funnier than confusing your guests with a fish picture on a slab of beef:

Or your rocking dad branding iron, because we all know dads who brand their meat really do rock:

You can even buy the entire set of more than 20 specialized steak branding irons for just $524.

Join the fun, and let your meat speak!

(A special thanks to reader Alyson for introducing us to this very bizarre trend in grilling.)

• Can a person clutter up his time by constantly uncluttering?
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• Spherical minimalist living
  Could you take up residence in a minimalist sphere?
• RSS feeds: A primer
  If you don’t know what an RSS feed is, then this post is for you.
• Increase productivity with voice recognition software
  Dragon NaturallySpeaking claims to improve typing speeds from 35 words per minute to 120 words per dictated minute.

2008

• Brainwash your way to a clutter-free life?

How often do you hear people say they don’t have enough time? Like me, you may have used the “not enough time” excuse as a reason for not following your dream.

We all have goals, the problem is making time for them in our busy schedules.

For years, I wanted to write but didn’t. I often used the “not enough time” excuse and thought it was true. I didn’t have time to write because I was running a business and raising kids.

But my life was totally immersed in doing, not being, and the more I did, the more unhappy I became.

Until I decided to do something about it, accept the blame, and prioritize better.

First, I worked out where my time went.

I wrote down everything I did and noticed my days were cluttered. A typical entry would be: 10 minute personal call, 10 minutes planning meals, 20 minute business call, 15 minutes e-mailing.

By lunchtime I often felt so frazzled I just slumped in front of the TV with Dr. Phil and rejoiced that at least I wasn’t as messed up as his guests.

After a week, I made a pie chart showing where my time went, where I could save time, and what I could remove. I recommend doing this as a visual guide to see how your time is spent.

There were 10 main time traps I noted and what I needed to do to control them:

1. The Phone – I don’t have to answer it every time it rings.
2. The Internet – Log in an few times a day for specific purposes only.
3. Housework – Let some things slide. The state of my house is not an indication of my emotional well-being and it doesn’t have to be perfect.
4. Friends and Family – Manage them into times when I want to see them or socialize. Don’t let them encroach.
5. Cooking and Shopping – Streamline them, bulk buy and cook.
6. Sleep – Try cutting out one hour of sleep. I’ll probably function fine and gain an extra hour a day.
7. Commuting to work – Can I cut out the commute and work from home a few days a week?
8. Reading – Reading about writing, travel or starting a business is good unless it takes up time when I could have been doing them.
9. TV – Limit it to the shows I actually enjoy. Never channel hop.
10. Dreaming – At some point I have to stop dreaming about following my passion and start doing it.

Stop yearning for more time and work out how to create it with these four steps:

1. Make a pie chart that reflects your tracked time.
2. Work out which time traps are stopping you from following your dreams.
3. Write a weekly schedule for yourself and stick to it. Make sure you log at least three sessions for following your dream.
4. Schedule times in your calendar for the things you want to do and follow through.

No more “not enough time” excuses needed.

It is a decent tool bench and serves our purposes. Unfortunately, the workspace had become quite the dumping ground for whatever we thought belonged in the basement but didn’t yet have a permanent storage solution. After a couple hours of attention, the clutter was removed. All that remains are the tools that we use for guitar and furniture making and basic home improvements.

In addition to the great peg board for the most-accessed tools at the back of the bench, I also put to use a set of four plastic storage bins from Ikea (which I can’t seem to locate on their website, but Container Store appears to carry similar ones):

These bins will keep errant screws, nails, and other small materials from running rampant on the workspace. A significant improvement to our tool bench.

—
Other posts in this series:

• Project Basement: Day 1
• Project Basement: Day 2
• Project Basement: Day 3

Check out the full details:

I would only consider these if you regularly play your guitar. A case is the best storage option if you only play your guitar every once in awhile and prefer a long-term storage solution. For our household, though, these would be perfect for freeing up some floor space.

(Images from The Guitar Hanger website.)

1. Old hobbies. Most hobbies require equipment, supplies, and/or specialty tools that can easily be resold at near-cost prices. If you’re no longer participating in rock climbing, scrapbooking, or golf, consider selling the hobby’s accouterments. Sites like eBay and Craigslist are good options for selling the supplies, and so are sites where hobbyists visit (like Ravelry for knitters, crocheters, and spinners).
2. Collections. If you’ve lost interest in a collection, consider putting it up for sale on eBay. Sell things as a single lot if you don’t want to spend the next couple weeks at the post office mailing each piece of your collection to far-flung locations around the globe. Look at other sales of similar items to see what kind of a bid to expect.
3. Maintenance costs. The more stuff you have, the more you have to maintain — you have to pay for more square footage in your home, more money goes out to heat and cool your space, and even more is spent on things like painting, cleaning gutters, lawn mowing, etc. Typically, to get more square footage in a home, you also have to live further from your job, which increases commute times, travel expenses (fares, tolls, gasoline), and you have to service your car more often. All of it adds up, putting greater strain on your pocketbook. Living simply almost always means paying significantly less on maintenance costs.

Where have you found cash in your clutter? Share your suggestions in the comments.

In fact, even when we think we’re in charge of a project, we often are not. When we have to rely on others to supply information, supplies, or support, timelines (and budgets) can quickly be extended. After years of working across multiple professions and with clients, I have identified where projects typically go awry. From page 200 of Unclutter Your Life in One Week:

These are the universal truths for why projects are not completed on time:

• Clients are never as prepared as they say they will be.
• Clients always change their mind.
• People always underestimate the amount of time it will take to do something.

(The word clients in this list can easily be substituted with bosses, co-workers and also you.)

Clients are never as prepared as they say they will be. For most people, working on a project is more fun than planning it. As a result, clients don’t think through the entire process and its results before contacting a vendor. Putting in the research, collecting data, identifying the goal of the project, and envisioning it through to its completion before contacting a vendor will help enormously to preserve a timeline.

Clients always change their mind. I think it’s important for a project to have flexibility, but changing the scope of a project will extend timelines and/or costs. You need to be prepared for these changes and ready for when they happen. You can reduce the impact and costs of these changes simply by having a single decision-making liaison between the client and vendor. If a client or vendor is being contacted by more than one person, there are too many cooks in the kitchen. One person should act as the filter on both ends of a relationship to make sure that only approved changes that relate to the final outcome of the project are communicated.

People always underestimate the amount of time it will take to do something. Even though I have timed myself enough to know how long it actually takes me to do something, I still think I work faster than I do. We all think this way. In our minds, we have speed of pumas. Avoid this project pitfall by using the following:

A good rule of thumb is to double everything up to a day. If you think something will take you two hours, plan for it to take four. If you think something will take you eight hours, plan for it to take sixteen. After eight hours, the double rule stops being as accurate. For projects that I estimate will take between one and five days, I just tag on an additional day. If someone says it will take him two weeks to complete a portion of the project, I add three additional days into the schedule.

Your project’s timeline can be preserved or closely achieved with proper planning, organizing, improved communication, and realistic expectations for work completion. Remember the three universal truths for why projects are not completed on time, and do your best to avoid them.

• Make time for organizing work
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• Unitasker Wednesday: The Bra Dryer
  The Bra Dryer dries your bras.
• Kindle application now on iPhone
  Introducing the new Kindle application ebook reader to the iPhone.

A 2008 survey at Intel showed employees receive 350 emails per week on average; at Morgan Stanley, employees get 625 new messages per week. Executives’ incoming email volume was much higher. In some cases, workers spent 20 hours a week just dealing with email.

Trapani suggests in her article to create three folders to keep e-mail from cluttering up your time: To-do, Wait, and Reference. To use them:

If the message is a task you’ve got to complete–like a request from the boss–file it into your To-do folder, and add it to your to-do list. If the message is about something you’re waiting for–like a package shipment notification or a promise from a co-worker to get you something by next Tuesday–put it in your Wait folder, and maybe even on your calendar. Everything else–the CC’s, the FYI’s, the “just thought you should know”s–file these in Reference. That’s your library of email that you can search any time to look up information you might need later.

In my opinion, the most important parts of this system are “add it to your to-do list” and “put it … on your calendar.” Treat e-mail like regular mail or as if there is someone standing in your office making the request. This type of attention can go a long way in keeping e-mail under control. Be sure to check out the article for additional tips.

After too many episodes of struggling to find a top to match a Tupperware in my mother’s kitchen I’ve decided to buy her a new set of food storage containers. Can you recommend the best type of food storage containers? The requirements I’d like to fulfil are:

• a few different size containers all with the same interchangeable lids
• stackable
• high quality

I seems to be difficult to find all of these qualities in one product. Do you have any recommendations?

Food storage containers, until recently, were some of the most ridiculously designed items for the kitchen. Additionally, they easily stained, warped, and lost their lids like socks lose their mates in a dryer. Research now shows that some were even made of plastics that leeched chemicals into the food — yummy!

Thankfully, food storage containers have advanced quite a bit in recent years. Today, if I were replacing my food storage containers, I would buy Rubbermaid’s Easy Find Lid Containers. They’re BPA free, the lids all snap together and to the bottoms of the containers so you don’t have a giant mess in the cabinets, and many of the lids can be used for different-size bases. Plus, $11 for 24 pieces won’t be too painful on your pocketbook.

I know that not everyone loves plastic storage, but based on your qualifications it’s pretty much the only option available to you. There aren’t any glass or stainless steel brands right now that have interchangeable lids (at least not that I have found). Also, they’re not usually stackable. If any of our readers know of a brand of glass or stainless steel food storage containers that hasn’t yet made it onto my radar, please share that information in the comments.

Thank you, Carla, for submitting your question for our Ask Unclutterer column, and good luck taming the kitchen clutter!

Do you have a question relating to organizing, cleaning, home and office projects, productivity, or any problems you think the Unclutterer team could help you solve? To submit your questions to Ask Unclutterer, go to our contact page and type your question in the content field. Please list the subject of your e-mail as “Ask Unclutterer.” If you feel comfortable sharing images of the spaces that trouble you, let us know about them. The more information we have about your specific issue, the better.

I think it was the task lighting on and above the desk that initially caught my attention with this office. When you have multiple lighting options, you can adjust the illumination to fit your mood and keep you on task. After noticing the lighting, I realized I didn’t notice the cables, which is a great achievement with two monitors, two keyboards, and two computers. The cables are corralled wonderfully on the desk and also along the baseboards. Finally, I liked how VincentVega77 took advantage of the storage unit to keep the workspace clear of clutter. This is a terrific example of an uncluttered office.

Want to have your own workspace featured in Workspace of the Week? Submit a picture to the Unclutterer flickr pool. Check it out because we have a nice little community brewing there. Also, don’t forget that workspaces aren’t just desks. If you’re a cook, it’s a kitchen; if you’re a carpenter, it’s your workbench.

I can’t throw this away! I must keep it! I worked hard to make this stuff!

I told my husband I had changed my mind and I wasn’t going to let the six bins of teaching paperwork go. He laughed, and then realized I was serious.

PJ: You don’t need it.
Me: Yes I do!
PJ: Why do you need it? Have you looked at it a single time in the past four years?
Me: I looked at it today!
PJ: That doesn’t count.
Me: Sure it does.
PJ: Maybe you could scan the files?
Me: That will take a lot of time. It’s easier just to put this stuff back into the basement.
PJ: Wasn’t your goal to clear the clutter from the basement, not pull the clutter out and then put it back?
Me: I guess this is what I get for marrying a guy who pays attention to what I say.
PJ: Yes, dear.

Except for a couple hours this morning pulling out the washer and dryer, sweeping the floor where they had been, and doing a general cleanup in the laundry area of the basement, I’ve been sorting, scanning, and recycling a couple hundred pounds of paperwork. Truth be told, I’m missing the basement. Organizing tools and unearthing strange cleaning supplies is infinitely more fun than digitizing old papers.

Here’s how I’m tackling the paperwork portion of this project:

• Sort. I didn’t do a very good job of editing these files before I put them into storage. So, many of these papers are going straight into the recycling bin instead of being prepped for scanning.
• Scan. I’m using our ScanSnap, which has a multi-page document feeder and optical character recognition (OCR). After the pages are turned into searchable PDFs, I’m recycling or shredding the pages.
• File. As the final step in the process, I’m using DEVONthink to manage all of the digital files on my computer. Since the OCR process identifies the words in the documents, I’m primarily relying on the Google Desktop search function to find anything I might one day need.

Part of me thinks that digitizing these old papers is a complete waste of time. However, the sentimental part of me won’t let me get rid of the files any other way. I don’t know if I’m going to scan all six boxes of files, seeing as the activity is already starting to grate on my nerves. I’ve committed to sorting through everything, though, so I’ll at least know what I’m tossing. I don’t want to make the mistake again of blindly throwing away a box of items only to learn later that it included my social security card and passport — I’ve made that mistake, and replacing them was a nightmare.

—
Other posts in this series:

• Project Basement: Day 1
• Project Basement: Day 2

1. Open lines of communication
2. Gather data
3. Identify final outcome and deadline
4. Envision achievement of final outcome
5. Set small milestones on a realistic timeline
6. Do the work
7. Stay in communication with relevant parties
8. Finish project
9. Cleanup, review, and/or reflect

The first step in this process could be opening up lines of communication with your boss, client, or possibly a service provider like an electrician. With a project like a closet cleanup, the communication might simply be motivating yourself or letting your roommate know you’re going to be making a giant, but temporary, mess.

When you’re gathering data in the second step, you’re looking to learn as much as you can about the entire project. Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? Someone else might be giving you this data or you may need to seek it out yourself. How much clutter lurks in your attic? What is it? How should you handle it?

Steps three, four, five, and six are pretty straightforward — you want to know where you’re headed and how you’re going to get there, and then you need to take the steps to make that happen. Setting small milestones in addition to the overall large goal keeps you on track throughout the entire project.

The seventh step is often forgotten, but vitally important if you’re working with or coordinating others. When you provide status reports to everyone involved in the project you’re managing their expectations of your work and helping them to plan and complete their part of the work.

Step number eight is the best step, and may be worthy of a celebration.

The last step is important for getting you ready for the future. Cleaning up helps objects get returned to their storage space and ready for the next time you or someone else wants to use them. Reviewing the project after it’s completed helps you identify what worked and what didn’t, and reflecting on the entire project motivates you to take on more projects (or fewer) like it in the future. Completing this step, and even writing it down or logging it in some way, also gives you something to reflect on later for a performance review or even in your personal life.

I have never had a french fry made with this contraption, but supposedly it allows you to microwave fries purchased in your grocer’s freezer and turn them into treats that taste like ones from your favorite fast-food joint. I’m sincerely doubting this claim seeing as we all know it’s the fat and grease that makes fast food french fries so yummy. (Which is also why Cookie Monster would likely advise they be a “sometime snack.”) But, regardless if this device lives up to its claims or not, the Microwave French Fry Maker is still a unitasker:

The device looks relatively large and might be a hassle to store the 360 days a year you aren’t making fries at home. Additionally, I cannot imagine that sticking each individual french fry into a little square is worth the time and effort. When they come frozen, they’re all stuck together, and it means you would have to handle each and every fry. Ugh. If you’re worried about the calories and cholesterol that come from frying, simply bake them on a multitasking cookie sheet instead of spending money on this plastic doodad to use in your microwave. Or, splurge a few times a year and buy the real deal at McDonald’s and enjoy a “sometime snack” exception to your normally healthy lifestyle. I can’t even fathom another use for the Microwave French Fry Maker that might possibly make it a multitasker.

Thanks to reader Michelle for bringing this unitasker to our attention.

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• Xerox pushing services that eliminate machines and cut paper use
  According to a Wall Street Journal article, Xerox is pushing consulting services that show clients how they can save money by eliminating unnecessary machines and cutting down on paper use.