Well, no flying cars yet (ahem, fellow scientists, get on that please), but a recent video from researchers at the University of California at Berkeley shows they programmed a robot to fold towels.

Check it out:

Pretty neat, eh? Of course, this video is shows at 50x speed. It actually takes about 25 minutes per towel. Heck, even I fold laundry faster than that!

The nifty part is the fact that the robot, PR2, had not previously seen those towels. It had to look at the jumbled pile, identify the objects as towels, pick them up, twist it around to find a corner to grasp, twist it around to find another corner to grasp, and the fold it on a table edge. PR2 is no Rosie yet, but I like where this science is going! Move over, Roomba!

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Towel Folding Robot

Photo from from This Old House

If you’ve got deep shelves, rather than trying to organize them in such a way that all items are accessible from the front, perhaps with a lazy Susan (that’s what I used to use in this big corner cupboard we had in an apartment. Without it, I couldn’t reach cans at the back of the shelf!) you can build the shelf itself to be more space efficient.

Here they have even gone a step further and put doors to cover the shelf and the microwave.

I like the concept, but I think they’ve got it backwards. I use spices a lot more than I use recipe books, so I’d personally put the spice jars in the front and the books in the back. Plus that way, it wouldn’t be so front-heavy when you slide it out.

What do you think? Do you have any hidden efficient storage space in your home?

via Apartment Therapy.

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Hidden Storage Idea

Photo by dno1967

I’ve decided to switch things up and focus on acquiring as many new things to cram into my house as possible.

It’ll be swell! Mo more cleaning, and loads of new toys! It’s spring now, that means there will be lots of garage sales where I can pick up stuff. No point in wasting money, after all. The cheaper I buy my stuff, the more I can get!

In addition to chronicling every new piece of junk I bring into my house, I’m also going to share exciting photos of the bunnies from my yard.

Look! Here he is, eating my new grass shoots! Isn’t he just adorable?

I hope you like him, there should be plenty more photos of him on this blog in the coming weeks! I just love little fluffy bunnies, don’t you?

Happy April 1st, everyone!

Psst – check out the first photo I used – it’s not real either! It’s a staged photo by a person who says he’s actually very organized.

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Messy is the New Clean

Photo by Luigi Anzivino

Ok, so I’ve only been blogging on schedule for about 4 months now, but still. I wish I was less of an “out of sight out of mind” type.

I wonder if that’s part of my clutter problem. I tend to keep things out so that I remember about them. Since I can’t leave my blog lying about on my desk, I forget about it sometimes. Or rather, it’s not so much that I forget it exists or anything, but more other things crowd into my head, and I don’t notice that I’m “missing” the blog in there.

I’ve always been terrible at remembering things, but this is getting ridiculous. I tend to get great ideas for blog posts while I’m putting on my coat, or driving, but by the time I actually get home, those thoughts are long gone.

I’m thinking of trying one of those little tiny voice recorders, but I’m worried it’ll just become another piece of clutter than I don’t use often. Even if I got an app instead, it’s not like I have my phone out while driving anyway. Maybe I should just wait until I can get a little USB port in the back of my neck and download all my great ideas directly. Good idea, Y/N?

What’s your best tip to declutter your brain and remember tasks while you’re busy doing something else?

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Brain Clutter

Some are about clutter, some are about decorating, some are about finances, business, food, and some are the personal blogs of friends.

I use Google Reader to keep track of them all via RSS. I don’t usually click through to a blog unless I want to leave a comment. I can read post from many different blogs in a short span of time, and they are all neatly sorted by category (would you believe it?).

Sometimes though, it just gets to be too much, especially if I go away for a day or two. When I logged in this morning, I had 219 unread blog posts. Yikes!

I’m going to declare RSS Bankruptcy. It’s almost the same as email bankruptcy, except no one will really notice if I don’t reply to a blog post.

I’m just going to hit the “mark all as read” button and be done with it.
I’m sure there are some terrific blog posts sitting unread in there. While I’m a tiny bit sad that I won’t read them, I know I won’t be able to read 219 blog posts in a reasonable amount of time. Some of you guys are quite prolific!

Now I can start fresh. My RSS reader is now clutter-free and I’ve saved the time I would have spent reading old posts.

Have you ever wiped all unread items in an attempt to clean up your inbox?

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RSS Clutter: Declaring Bankruptcy