Jeri’s Organizing & Decluttering News

Entryways: How to Stash Your Stuff

2013-05-20T23:15:00.002-07:00

With clutter it's often the small things that matter, and in the entryway they tend to defy efforts at neatness. That's why you need to turn to dedicated storage units to help keep little things from becoming big frustrations. — Merola Tahamtan [via Scott Roewer]

Merola goes on to note that we can often repurpose thing we already own — "decorative bowls, tins, boxes, and bins" — to store things by our entryways. But here are some wall-mounted products especially designed to help with entryways.

The combination coat hook and storage shelf shown above is called the Hang Up; it comes in white and black. It seems like a neat way to store jackets and such along with all the other stuff like mail and keys. [via Better Living Through Design]

Plank is a "small floating shelf with a magnetic underside" — good if you need a place for just your keys and something small, like your phone or your wallet. [via Shoebox Dwelling] If you like this idea but want a larger shelf, see the magnetic key ring holder and shelf from Meriwether of Montana. [via Better Living Through Design]

Another product that uses magnets to hold the keys is Elephant, from Board by Design. The company also has a rectangular-shaped product called Blokkey. You can buy these through YLiving or through Board By Design's Etsy store. [via Better Living Through Design]

And if you like the idea of a small shelf like the Plank, here's another design called the Key Shelf.

The Butler by Micklish is a pricier option than the others — but it sure is gorgeous. It's specifically designed to hold your smartphone, along with your glasses, keys, wallet, etc. "The backside includes a routed out section for your charging cord and extension cord in case your mounting area on the wall is not next to a outlet." [via Cool Mom Tech and Gizmodo]

And let's conclude with another product that provides a place to hang a coat as well as a place to stash some smaller items: the Wallter Slack Rack, available in four different colors. [via Uncrate]

Related Post:
Double-Duty Hooks Provide a Little Extra Storage

Support the Cause, Enjoy the Conference — and Avoid the Clutter

2013-05-14T00:30:00.002-07:00

My photo; posted with permission of their mom.

Sea Turtles confuse plastic bags with jellyfish and choke on them. Help save them and support the San Mateo County ban on plastics by buying a canvas bag with our amazing Oceans Week logo imprinted on it. — Farallone View Oceans Weeks 2013 flyer

When I went grocery shopping last Saturday, I came across these cute kids selling canvas bags for a good cause. But do I need another canvas bag? I certainly don't. So I donated money, and declined to take a bag.

It's the same concept as donating to your local public radio station during a pledge drive, and not taking one of the many thank-you gifts. Sure, if there's something being offered that you really want, then go for it! But otherwise, why not let all your money go to the cause, and get a larger tax dedication?

And here's a great idea from the annual conference of the National Association of Professional Organizers, as noted by organizer Debra Baida: a swag swap table. When you find that conference bag stuffed with items you don't want, it's nice to have a way to move them along to others who might appreciate them.

Related Posts:
Declining Free (but Useless) Stuff
Saying No to Free Hotel Toiletries

In Honor of My Mom: Organizing in Blue

2013-05-10T00:10:00.000-07:00

Six years ago — can it really be that long? — my mom died of pancreatic cancer. And as is my custom, I'm sharing some blue organizing products with you today — in honor of Mom, whose favorite color was blue. And let's start with the Multiples Pencil Holder from Anthropologie. [via Better Living Through Design]

I think Mom would have liked the ceramic magnets from Gusto Istanbul. This is one of three patterns currently in stock.

I've mentioned Susan Bradley's bookends before, but I hadn't noticed this design — a London typography bookend — until just now.

Swabdesign brings us this clip hook called Pince Alors; it comes in four colors, including blue. The hooks are like oversized clothespins, wall-mounted, with all sorts of potential uses; see the images on the websites for some ideas. [via Shoebox Dwelling]

This garden tote from Loll Designs comes in eight colors besides the lovely blue. [via Better Living Through Design]

And finally, I'm completely enchanted by this hamper from Papa Totoro. [via Apartment Therapy]

Related Posts:
In Honor of My Mom (2008)
In Honor of My Mom (2009)
In Honor of My Mom (2010)
In Honor of My Mom (2011)
In Honor of My Mom (2012)

Wine Enthusiasts: Those Corks Can Be Saved from Landfill

2013-05-06T03:12:00.000-07:00

Did you know corks can be recycled? I went wine tasting in Sonoma County a couple weeks ago as part of a "cousins" family reunion — lots of fun! — and I saw the collection boxes shown above. When I got back home, I decided to investigate more.

If you want to keep your natural corks out of landfill, you have a number of options.

1. Reuse them yourself.
This is great if you're into crafts; you'll find no shortage of ideas on the web.

2. Donate them to groups that collect craft supplies for others to use.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, both RAFT and SCRAP accept corks. Austin Creative Reuse is happy to get corks. There may be a similar program near you.

3. Give them to others through less formal channels.
Freecycle them. Give them to teachers you know who could use craft supplies.

4. Give them to a collection program that provides them to manufacturers for reuse.
A number of programs around the world collect corks so they can be reused to make footwear, cork flooring, cork tiles, bulletin boards and more.

Here are some of the programs available. If you know of others in your part of the world, please add a comment to this post!

- ReCORK by Amorin is the program whose boxes I saw. There are numerous drop-off locations throughout the United States and Canada; when I entered my city and state, I found there was even one in my little city! Amorin also has collection programs in Portugal, France and Italy.

- Cork Forest Conservation Alliance has its Cork ReHarvest program. There are drop-off locations throughout and U.S. and Canada — and at Whole Foods Markets in these countries and the U.K.

- SmartCork Recycling is a program in North Carolina.

- Yemm & Hart in Missouri has a recycling program, but it's only mail-in.

- Jelinek has three drop-off locations in Ontario, Canada.

- Put a Cork In It has numerous drop-off locations in Vancouver, British Columbia. The collected corks are sent to Jelinek.

5. Compost your corks.
You'll need to break them up into small pieces first. The reuse options sound more appealing to me!

Creating Short Daily To-Do Lists

2013-05-01T00:59:00.000-07:00

Each day, I write down the two things I *must* get done, take a picture, and make it my lock screen wallpaper. — Jake Lodwick, via Lori Gordon

That's not Jake's list; that's the lock screen I just created, using Jake's example. I also added my contact information using Contact Lockscreen. (And yes, I'm in the middle of moving my primary website to a new web hosting company.)

I'm not at all sure this in an approach I personally want to take; after I grabbed that image, I changed my lockscreen back to a cat photo. But I've found a number of people recommending short to-do lists, and I thought I'd share their ideas. This two-item list was the shortest one; let's more on to the slightly longer ones.

Philip Humbert has a process where each day you "thoughtfully select your TOP 3 TASKS consistent with your most important goals" and write them on an index card. These are three items you commit to doing before going to bed; you are allowed to list some other items, as long as they fit on the card. In his example, these range from "Call Mom for her birthday" to "Review and sign sales contract." [via SueBK]

James C Russell, who often goes by the name Botanicus, has his 3 + 2 rule: 3 big things and 2 small things. He says: "Every morning I sit down and write 3 main things I want to solve and 2 small ones. The main items should take from 2 to 3 hours, the minor ones no more than 20 minutes." [via Lifehacker]

Becky McCray — who refers to the same Charles Schwab story that Philip Humbert does — writes about creating a list of "the six most important things to be completed the next day." And she emphasizes: "Not thirty-six things. Not urgent things. The Six Most Important Things." [via Amber Naslund]

And finally, The Daily Muse writes about the 1-3-5 rule followed by Alex Cavoulacos: On any given day, assume that you can only accomplish one big thing, three medium things, and five small things, and narrow down your to-do list to those nine items.” [via Sam Spurlin and Peggy Dolane]

So whether they choose as few as two items or as many as nine, a number of people find it useful to narrow down their daily to-do lists to a manageable number of things. Maybe it's an approach you'll like, too.

How to Prune the Book Collection: Two Perspectives

2013-04-29T01:55:00.002-07:00

Photo by Timothy Valentine, found on Flickr, licensed via Creative Commons

The collective noun for a group of books is a "damn, I'm never going to get around to reading all of these." — Waterstones Oxford Street, via Deirdre

Sue in Australia is a book lover; her husband and daughter also have attachments to books. So, like many book lovers, her collection of books reached the point where there were more books than there was bookshelf space — and she's facing a possible move. So her family just did some culling, and I liked her approach.

Our process was very simple. All three of us were involved in a conveyor line process. There were no recriminations or discussion about what people wanted to keep. If an individual wanted to keep something, it got kept.

I cleaned out a shelf and took a book. If I wanted it, it went back on the empty shelf. If I didn't want it, it went down the line to hubby. If he wanted it, back it went; if not, it went to the Girl. If she didn't want it, it went on the pile to give away.

And here's the best part:

I expected it be a painful process. But because I knew I could keep anything I wanted I found it quite freeing and releasing.

Then there's the author of the blog Room for a Pony, who decided to say "Goodbye, all books that I do not love" — and explained what books fit in that unloved category. Here's a summary:

1. Nay to books that have been sitting on my shelf without a look for well over twenty years. ...

2. Away with books that are old, yellowed, brittle and musty. ... If I love a book that much, I’ll buy a better copy in hardback, because it’s no pleasure to read a book in that condition.

3. Another capital crime is if the print’s so small that only an insect can read it.

4. I’m discarding with great glee anything written in tedious, academic English. I hated it in college, and I hate it now.

That list makes sense to me; I've certainly rid my own shelves of books in all of those categories.

On the other hand, I fully recognize there are some books we will want to keep forever. For a delightful read, see Peter Hartlaub's list of children's books he can never part with.

Related Posts:
Clearing Out the Bookshelves
3 Perspectives: Not All Books Are Keepers
Books: Weeding the Collection
Letting Go of (Some of) the Books
Is It Time to Bid Adieu to Some of Your Books?
Loving Books and Letting Go
Weeding My Own Book Collection
Even Book Lovers Can Have Too Many Books

Lazy Susans: Versatile Organizing Tools

2013-04-23T08:16:00.001-07:00

Lazy Susans are a great tool for those pesky corner cabinets, but they can also be used in myriad other ways.

Organizer Geralin Thomas notes these uses on Twitter:

Double-decker Lazy Susans in mens' closets for tie stays, cuff links, coins, buttons, golf tees, pocket knives, phones, wallets.

I also use double-decker Lazy Susans on small desks [w/o drawers] for stapler, pencil cups, calculators, etc.

Organizer Aby Garvey shows how she uses a Lazy Susan for her scrapbooking tools, and also notes:

What I most love about a Lazy Susan is that it — or rather she — makes what would be unusable, invisible and hard-to-access storage space easy to reach and see. You can use a Lazy Susan on a deep shelf (such as in your refrigerator or in deep closet) and suddenly, the stuff in the back is no longer out of sight or out of mind.

Organizer Monica Ricci writes about six uses for a Lazy Susan, including this one:

Store small jars of bolts, nails, nuts, screws and other tiny pieces of hardware on your workbench in the garage.

And Martha Stewart tells us:

Refrigerator door space is prime kitchen real estate. Free it up by moving a few necessities to a turntable, where they’ll still be easy to grab.

Your basic Lazy Susan is easy to find — but if you want something beyond the basics, here are a few choices.

Jane Suzanne's Shop & Studio has the most eye-catching Lazy Susans I've seen. They're made of hand-painted wood.

French Bull has four different Lazy Susans, made of melamine. [via Mighty Goods]

This hand-painted sunflower Lazy Susan from Artstream Design also caught my eye.

This wine cork Lazy Susan kit allows you to make good use of all those corks that wine enthusiasts sometimes accumulate.

Prefer to have a lip on your Lazy Susan, to keep things from falling off? Take a look at this turntable platter from Sue Patrick Pottery.

And the wine barrel Lazy Susan from VivaTerra — made from wood "salvaged from an oak wine barrel end cap and carefully refurbished" — also has that sometimes-useful edge.

Here's another type of Lazy Susan — one that's made from a basket. Foxcreek Basket has these in two sizes — and it also has double-tiered versions.

This craft turntable comes with removable buckets. However, I'm only finding it in New Zealand and Australia, at stores including Peter's of Kensington, Green with Envy and UrbanBaby.

Finally, Bearcat Woodworks makes some lovely Lazy Susan craft caddies; you have nine wood choices.

The Sentimental Stuff You Just Can't Shed

2013-04-18T08:28:00.001-07:00

This is the dress my mother wore to my brother's wedding. It's hanging exactly where I put it when I brought it home after Mom's death, back in May 2007.

I hung it up in the garage as a temporary thing, fully intending to sell or donate it — but I've found I just can't let it go. That reaction isn't fully rational. When it comes to memorabilia, photos often stand in for physical items — and I have a great photo of Mom wearing that dress. Someone else could make good use of it.

But Mom loved that dress. And my brother's wedding was a very special day; he was just aglow with joy. And I adore my sister-in-law.

So I've given myself permission to keep that dress for as long as I feel compelled to. It's not like I kept many remembrances of my mom, beyond the memories; my house isn't overloaded with her stuff, by any means.

Sometimes we just need to hold onto a special item or two — and sometimes "just because" is reason enough.

The Clutter of Excess Words

2013-04-12T07:08:00.002-07:00

Writing entails getting down lots of words. Editing means removing at least half of them. — Lisa Barone

When I'm not working as an organizer, I'm working as an editor. And as an editor, a good part of what I do is uncluttering — removing words that actually weaken the text.

One of the many tributes to Roger Ebert that I read last week pointed me to his review of The Brown Bunny. In that review, he notes how different the version he's reviewing is from the one he saw earlier:

The Cannes version was a bad film, but now Gallo's editing has set free the good film inside.

Editing a text does the same thing; it sets free the good story buried inside the overly wordy version. In her article entitled How to Lose 30 Pounds of Word Flab Overnight, Sonia Simone notes that "all of us start with flabby first drafts." She then provides strategies for cutting that flab, including deleting the "junk words" and eliminating redundancy.

Here's an entry in the Guardian style guide that deals with one of those junk words:

very: usually very redundant. Mark Twain wrote: "Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very.' Your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be."

Something else I read recently is Calvin Trillin's delightful memoir about his years at Time magazine, which includes this anecdote:

At the end of the week (or “at week’s end,” as we would have put it, in order to save three words), the makeup people would invariably inform us that the story had to be shortened to fit into the section. Since words or passages cut for space were marked with a green pencil ... the process was called greening. The instructions were expressed as how many lines had to be greened — “Green seven” or “Green twelve.” I loved greening. I don’t have any interest in word games — I don’t think I’ve ever done a crossword or played Scrabble — but I found greening a thoroughly enjoyable puzzle. I was surprised that what I had thought of as a tightly constructed seventy-line story ... was unharmed, or even improved, by greening ten per cent of it.

Finally, here's the advice from Pauline Phillips (Dear Abby) to her sister, Eppie Lederer (Ann Landers), noted in The New York Times obituary for Phillips:

You’re writing too long.

And many of us are, too.

Related Post:
A Different Kind of Clutter

Image: Murder Your Darlings print by Chris Piascik. Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch famously said: “Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it – wholeheartedly – and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings.”

Organizing the Paper Receipts

2013-04-10T02:45:00.002-07:00

Of the 45 receipts going into my expense report for a 21-day trip, I go and lose the one for the $100 dinner. Of course. Well played, self. — Abby Aronofsky

Paper receipts are becoming less on an issue as we move more toward digital versions. If I buy something at the Apple Store, I get a receipt e-mailed to me. And The New York Times reports that many stores are now following Apple's lead: “Major retailers, including Whole Foods Market, Nordstrom, Gap Inc. (which owns Old Navy and Banana Republic), Anthropologie, Patagonia, Sears and Kmart, have begun offering electronic versions of receipts, either e-mailed or uploaded to password-protected Web sites.”

And even if you get a paper receipt, you might make a digital copy. I just got my latest version of Deduct It! from Nolo, and found this passage:

Because of fading problems, you should photocopy your receipts if you intend to rely on hard copies. Obviously, this is time consuming and annoying. But there is an easier alternative: Make digital copies and throw away the hard copies.

Making a digital copy of a receipt used to require a scanner, which could be cumbersome and inconvenient. This is no longer necessary. If you have an iPhone or other smartphone with a camera, you can use that to take digital photographs of your receipts.

I don't want to get into all the pros and cons of various ways of creating and managing digital receipts — that could be a whole separate post. Rather, I just want to acknowledge that for many people, the way to handle paper receipts is to replace them with digital versions.

But maybe you're someone who wants or needs to have paper receipts! You can keep them in all sorts of files, envelopes or boxes; you don't need a product specifically designed for receipts. But there are some interesting receipt organizers out there. The receipt tin at the top of this post sums up many people's relationship with receipts; it comes from Tottering By Gently.

Flight 001 sells this vinyl receipt file, which comes in orange, pink and yellow.

And finally, there's the Receipt.catcher from Buttoned Up. This is a discontinued product, but for now you can still find it at Uncommon Goods. Update on April 10, 2013: Uncommon Goods just told me they are out of the Receipt.catchers.

Remembering Roger Ebert with Some Email Advice

2013-04-04T20:29:00.000-07:00

Photo by Zol87, found on Flickr, licensed via Creative Commons

Amid all the tributes to Roger Ebert I read on Thursday afternoon, I found a gem which relates to decluttering! Way back in 1996, Roger wrote his Boulder Pledge; the second sentence provides good advice for avoiding cluttering up other people's email inboxes.

Under no circumstances will I ever purchase anything offered to me as the result of an unsolicited e-mail message. Nor will I forward chain letters, petitions, mass mailings, or virus warnings to large numbers of others. This is my contribution to the survival of the online community.

What can go wrong if we forward these messages?

1. We might share bad information. Over the years, friends have sent me a number of warnings that were easily found to be false just by checking Snopes.com.

2. We might just annoy our friends. Someone forwarded a recipe exchange email, and managed to irritate 19 friends. (Her mother was the only recipient who didn't refuse to continue the chain.) Things can get even worse if the message expresses political or religious beliefs that the recipient doesn't share.

And what about those emails with cute animal photos? Yes, they can be annoying, too — so we also need to be cautious about forwarding them, and choose our recipients carefully. As Carolyn Nicander Mohr explains:

The world seems to be composed of two sorts of people: those who love joke/cute/chain emails and those who don’t. One person’s junk is another person’s treasure, that’s why people have yard sales!

So let's remember Roger fondly — and avoid cluttering the email inboxes of our friends, colleagues, and family members.

Watches With a Dash of Color — and a Dose of Practicality

2013-04-02T00:54:00.000-07:00

"Stop using your phone as a pocket watch." — Simplify Your Life, via Becoming Minimalist

I know I'm not alone in finding that a good wristwatch is still an invaluable tool — no matter how much I love my iPhone. And I keep finding lovely, simple, easy-to-read watches that are awfully tempting.

This first one, which is sold by Daedalus Books, comes in eight different colors.

The Nixon Time Teller comes in women's and men's versions; the women's version has more color options.

And then there are the Taki watches; one place that sells a couple of them, including the one above, is Wink SF.

But as much as I like these eye-catching watches, I just ordered something much less exciting: a medical alert watch. I have a severe allergy to sulfa drugs, so it seems I ought to wear a medical alert bracelet — except I'm just not a bracelet person. So a medical alert watch seemed like a logical way to go.

Related Posts:
Watches - Because Some of Us Still Rely on Them to Keep Us on Track
Watches to Keep You On Time — In Style
Do You Wear a Watch?

Keeping the Cords and Cables Close At Hand

2013-03-28T23:59:00.000-07:00

You know all those cords you have on your desk, that aren't in use at the minute? The ones that tend to slip onto the floor? Here are some of the products that can help make sure those cords are always at hand when you need them. The one above is the Cord Catcher, from Dotz. It comes in black, red and white.

Oxo has the Cord Catch.

And BlueLounge has the Sumo.

Want something more beautifully designed? MOS — the Magnetic Organization System — began as a successful Kickstarter project. One place to buy it is Bite My Apple. It comes in white, black and aluminum — and it can be wall-mounted if you prefer. The magnetic cable ties hold any cords that wouldn't stay in place on their own. [via Shoebox Dwelling and Herman Miller]

And for a totally gorgeous product, there's OneLessDrop, from Heckler Design — "the elegant power cord anchor." It's a solid block of recycled aluminum. The OneLessDrop comes in red and silver.

Related Posts:
Controlling the Cables with Cable Ties
4 Ways to Control the LONG Cables and Cords
Controlling the Cables: 3 Novel Solutions

Self-Storage Units: Sometimes Useful, Often Wasteful

2013-03-25T02:13:00.000-07:00

Public Storage promotion

"We never anticipated having a storage unit for long but month after month (and 1 1/2 years later) we found we were still shelling out $77 every month for it (!). So we paid $1,386 to store our crap. Talk about a waste of money!" — Anna, from her blog entitled And Then We Saved, found via Donna Hoo

"You know you're going to use that practically new exercise equipment some day — you just don't have room for it right now. So, like one in 10 households, you cave and rent a storage unit. Next thing you know, you've paid $2,000 to keep a 10-year-old Soloflex." — Melody Warnick

Storage units are often a waste of money — but under certain circumstances, they can also be a worthwhile investment. I've recently read four articles about self-storage, and thought I'd share them with you.

Erin Doland of Unclutterer explains how her family made good use of a self-storage unit:

When we sold our last house, we rented a small, off-site, storage space for three months. We put all of our personal items into it — family photos, kid's artwork, etc. — so potential buyers could "see" themselves in the space. We also swapped out a few chandeliers and window coverings that we had purchased and wanted to take with us instead of leaving in the house (we bought new ones and installed them before anyone came through the house). Finally, we put into storage a few things that just didn't make the home look like a magazine — a chair that made a room look too crowded, our bikes and golf bags from the basement storage to make the room look bigger, etc.

Once the house was sold, we moved all the stuff into our new home and closed up the off-site storage space. For a temporary purpose, I think storage lockers can be a good idea. Our house sold in 10 days and we got the asking price, so the couple hundred we spent on the storage space was well worth it in our minds.

Here's another, very different story of storage unit use, from Julia Ann Miller writing in The New York Times, and found via Margaret Sullivan, the paper's public editor. This is just the beginning of the article; if you're interested, go read the whole thing. In this case, the need seems to be emotional rather than purely logical — and that can be OK, too.

I pay $189 a month ($2,268 a year) for my Single Girl’s Starter Kit. My Single Girl’s Starter Kit is a storage facility I keep in Brooklyn. I recently moved in with my boyfriend of seven years. Giving up my low-rent apartment in Park Slope is as serious a commitment as I’ve ever made to any human being.

In my starter kit, I have: one single girl’s bed, one set of flannel sheets, one pillow, my grandmother’s afghan, one each of various kitchen utensils, one tool kit, one ladder and one box of love letters from past admirers. Everything I’ll need in case my boyfriend and I ever break up. My Single Girl’s Starter Kit is the opposite of a hope chest.

Christine Bilger wrote an article on Consumerism Commentary that lists many reasons not to use self-storage lockers, and she notes the potential problem of unpaid bills:

It’s important to consider that there are many unfortunate circumstances which can easily lead to unpaid bills, and therefore, cause your items to be sold without your knowledge. If you become severely ill, for instance, you might not be able to get your stuff out before it’s too late. If you pass away, your loved ones may not even find out about the locker before the items are sold.

Note: If you do have a storage unit, make sure you note that that when you pull together your estate-related information for the person with your financial power of attorney, and for your executor.

And finally, here's an article positing an alternative to the traditional storage unit, from Rob Pitingolo, found via Unclutterer. Again, this is just the start of the article; if you're intrigued, go read the whole thing. (Added note: OK, the real point of his article is to ridicule local parking rules, not to suggest an alternative to a storage unit.)

Occasionally I joke on Twitter about my plan to buy an old, beat-up Chevy Astro Van, park it on the street near my house, and use it exclusively as storage space. It sounds ridiculous, but it's actually an interesting thought experiment.

Organizing the Flatware When You Don't Have Kitchen Drawers

2013-03-21T00:21:00.000-07:00

Most of us store our silverware in a kitchen drawer, using some sort of divider to separate knives, forks and spoons. But what do you do when you don't have a drawer?

1. Use a flatware chest.

There are all sorts of basic flatware chests, in colors like walnut and black, but of course my eye goes to the more unusual ones, like the gold butterfly flatware chest from Mikasa. Mikasa's birds flatware chest is also pretty wonderful.

I'm also totally taken by this blue and gold flatware chest, which fellow organizer John Trosko pointed me to.

2. Use a flatware caddy.

You've got lots of choices here; the caddy above comes from Pottery Barn. Many were intended for buffets or picnics, but there's no reason they can't be used for more permanent storage. And of course, anything with the right shape could be used, not just something specifically designed to be a flatware caddy.

But let's look at a few more caddies, anyway. This one comes from Totally Bamboo.

And here's the flatware caddy from Towle Silversmiths. It's sold a number of places; this photo comes from Solutions.

3. Use a kitchen rail system.

For example, the Ikea Grundtal rail system I wrote about before has a cutlery caddy as one of its options.

4. Use flatware that comes with its own rack.

There are a few sets like this, but the one that caught my eye is this one, from Cambridge SilverSmiths. This won't work if you already have flatware you like — but for some people, it might be the ideal solution. If you don't like the colored handles, here's another hanging flatware set.

The Joys of Renting Stuff: Saving Both Space and Money

2013-03-19T02:46:00.000-07:00

b

Biggest pitfall of the "sharing economy" is that "most people do not want to share." — Adam L. Penenberg, based on a story about what went wrong with Neighborrow

If you want to save money and/or space, it can make sense to borrow or rent infrequently used, expensive or space-hogging items, rather than owning them. And while Neighborrow found that many people seemed to prefer the convenience of owning, there are certainly other people who will deal with a bit of inconvenience just fine.

Although the Neighborrow website had its challenges, plenty of borrowing from neighbors, friends and family still goes on. And other sites are still trying to do something similar to what Neighborrow was doing: matching up people who have things with people who want to rent or borrow them. There's SnapGoods, which I heard about from Peter Shankman; the images above come from the SnapGoods website. NeighborGoods is one I heard about from Unclutterer and Lifehacker. Share Some Sugar is a site I read about on Springwise. And The New York Times pointed me to iRent2u.

In Australia, there's Open Shed, which I heard about from Lissanne Oliver. And in New Zealand, there's Hire Things, another find from The New York Times.

There are some very interesting specialized rentals going on, too. I've already written about all sorts of things you can rent — everything from cake pans to camera lenses — but I've found even interesting rentals recently.

If you're anywhere near Ware, England, take a look at Vintage Allsorts, where you can rent "beautiful vintage crockery" for your party or event. As the owner says: "My ever expanding collection of mismatched china and glass, personally sourced from my love of all things vintage, includes teacups & saucers, teapots, cake stands, sugar bowls and lots more; everything you need for a touch of elegance and glamour."

In France, you can use La Machine du Voisin to rent a neighbor's washing machine. [via Springwise, Good and David Lebovitz.]

And while we've talked before about renting maternity clothes and baby clothes, and even wedding gowns, I just now found there's a company in Colorado that will rent you a kilt.

Related Posts:
Renting Things You Never Knew Could Be Rented
Now Where Did I Put that R2D2 Cake Pan?
The Sharing Solution
1 Way to Avoid Future De-Cluttering Decisions: Rent the Wedding Gown
Renting or Borrowing vs. Owning

Having It All: 3 Perspectives on Work/Life Balance

2013-03-12T23:42:00.001-07:00

T-shirt from Life is Good

Work/life balance has been in the news a lot recently. I don't want to weigh in on whether or not Marissa Mayer made the right decision in ending work-at-home arrangements for Yahoo employees, for now; it's a complicated situation, and I can see both sides of the argument. Nor do I want to address whether Sheryl Sandberg's book is good; I haven't read it, so I can't have any worthwhile opinion.

Rather, I'd like to point you to some of the more interesting commentary that's come out of the discussion of these two news items. These are all brief excerpts; you may want to go read the full articles/blog posts.

The first is from the always-controversial Penelope Trunk, who supports Marissa Mayer. (Thanks for Vicki Brown for pointing me to this one.)

If you want to work at a company where people are doing big and important things, you have to give up everything. It’s okay to say that. ...

The workforce divides into two sides: people who try very hard to decrease the conflict in their life between work and home, and people who try very hard to get to the top of the work world. You can’t do both. ...

Once we get honest about what you need to do to get to the top, we can start having a real discussion about how to make choices in adult life. The reality of today’s workforce is that if you want to have a big job where you have prestige and money and power, you probably need a stay-at-home spouse. Or two full-time nannies. Which means most people don’t have the option to go on the fast track, because most people have not set their lives up this way.

Trunk also has a second post — this one focused on Sandberg — where she talks about the 100-hour workweeks she used to put in.

And then there's Sarah Lacy, who has a different reaction to Sandberg's book and the criticism it has received:

Work/life balance is just hard, and it’s hard for everyone who feels passionately about their careers and their children. Has been for a long time. Probably always will be. ...

Raising children is highly personal. It’s the nexus of everything unique about your life: your goals, your relationship with your spouse, your child’s needs, and even your religious beliefs. And yes, wealth plays a big role too, but it’s hardly the only determiner about whether or not a woman can “have it all.” Put another way, of course Sandberg can’t tell you how to have it all. But it’s not because she’s rich. It’s because you aren’t Sheryl Sandberg. ...

Every woman I know who feels like she “has it all” — and there are many — has done it in a unique way.

Finally, there's this reflection from Mary Louise Kelly, a former Pentagon correspondent for NPR:

My son needed me, and I was in a helicopter halfway around the world, gazing down over the snarled traffic of Baghdad. ...

That night in Baghdad, I crawled into the bunk bed where I’d been assigned to sleep, in a trailer parked behind one of Saddam Hussein’s abandoned palaces, and I cried for hours. It seemed suddenly, blindingly obvious that it was time for Plan B. ...

I wonder if there isn’t room for a more expansive definition of female professional success. So many of the women I know are blending work and family in ways our mothers and grandmothers never dreamed possible. This seems to me worth celebrating, not sniffing at.

Have Trouble Staying On Task? Try Using a Timer!

2013-03-10T23:27:00.000-07:00

Back to using my egg timer to keep me on task. Apologies to my officemates now if I scare the bejesus out of you when it goes off. — Lisa Barone

Sure, timers can be invaluable in the kitchen — but they can keep us on track when we're doing all sorts of things, not just cooking. Parent Hacks calls the kitchen timer the "multi-purpose tool of the gods." And Erin Doland of Unclutterer lists some of the many ways she uses a timer to improve her productivity:

I use a timer when writing to keep me from wandering around the web. I use a timer when doing chores around the house to see how much I can accomplish in a set amount of time. I use a timer when practicing the piano to make sure I get a good 30 minutes in every day. I use a timer when I’m at the gym, running on the treadmill. I also use a timer when I’m goofing off during work hours, to make sure I’m merely taking a break from my work and not wasting an entire afternoon.

If you don't want to use your smart phone as a timer, you have lots of other interesting choices.

Bengt Ek makes the egg timer shown at the top of this post — but also a cat timer, a rabbit timer, a Moomin timer and more. (Fans of the Moomin books by Tove Jansson will love this last one.) You can find these all at Scandinavian Design Center, and various other places on the web.

While we're on animals, I want to share this cow timer — which didn't do much for me until I read that it moos when the time is up.

And Kikkerland also makes a cow timer ― as well as a pig and a duck. They all make their respective animal sounds. One place that sells all three is Sur La Table.

And how ridiculously cute is the Alessi duck timer? The image above comes from Utility, but you'll find it many other places, too. [via The New York Times]

For a stylish timer that's not an animal, take a look at the Pie Timer from Joseph Joseph, which comes in four colors. The company also has a Clip Timer, with a clip to attach to an apron or other clothing, a cord to hang around your neck, and a magnet to attach to a refrigerator or other magnetic surface.

Another magnetic timer is this retro-looking one. In the U.S., you can get it from Kikkerland, in various colors. In the U.K., what seems to be the same product is sold under the Dulton name; you can find it here, here and here. You can also find this timer in Australia under the Dulton brand name.

If you don't care about fanciful or stylish, and just want a good solid timer that's easy to use and easy to read, take a look at the Extra Big Digit Timer from CDN. It's what chef and cookbook author David Lebovitz is using, and he's quite happy with it.

And finally, for a very different timer, here's the Time Out Timer Stool, sold by Wisteria; the sand will run for about five minutes. [via Freshome]

Related Posts:
6 Timers to Keep You on Track
January 2010 Organizing Tips and More

Organizing Finds from My Vacation in Florida

2013-03-08T01:10:00.000-08:00

No, this turtle has nothing to do with organizing. But I'm just back from a short vacation in Florida, visiting family and an old friend — and this was one of the many painted turtles and dolphins in Venice, FL. They're on display until Spring 2014 — then they'll be auctioned off.

But even on vacation, I can't help having an organizer's eye, and noticing products that provide interesting options for containerizing. So when my friend and I wandered into The Tabletop and saw this neoprene bowl, I pulled out my camera (after getting the shop's OK to take photos). The bowl is hand-knit in Italy, and the baskets come in various sizes — but it's the largest one that really caught my eye. Now that I'm looking, I'm finding neoprene baskets on the web — but usually in smaller sizes than this one.

And I also noted these bread bags by Stelton, which could certainly be used for more than just bread. They come in various colors and sizes.

Storing the Kids' Toys: The Bathtub Edition

2013-03-01T09:04:00.001-08:00

Right now, our bathtub is like another toy chest and ohmygod do I wish I was exaggerating about this. — Cool Mom Picks

Looking for containers to control the bath toys? My new favorites, just from their looks, are the bath storage products from 3 Sprouts. Besides the owl, there's a fox and a walrus. [via Cool Mom Picks]

The Oxo Whale Pail is another clever design. [via Furniture Fashion]

And the Tubby bath toy organizer from Skip Hop is another interesting option.

Related Posts:
Taming the Tub: 8 Bath Toy Organizers
Taming the Tub: 3 More Bath Toy Organizers

How to Organize a Small Space? Use the Walls!

2013-02-27T02:34:00.000-08:00

Using the walls is a great strategy any time storage space is limited —and there are many cool products to help you. This wall storage unit comes from House Doctor, and is sold at Bodie and Fou.

Urbio was designed as "the magically magnetic urban vertical garden" — but somewhere along the line, the company seems to have realized it had a wider use than just that. Now you can find Urbio in places like The Container Store and EQ3 — and the modular wall organizer at Uncommon Goods sure looks like Urbio.

And here's another kind of wall pocket, called Leaning, from Objekten. It's currently "Out of stock due to success" but it seems more are on the way. [via Better Living Through Design]

But pockets aren't the only way to use the walls. Here's something different, called the Hanging Line, designed by Josh Owen for Kontextür. It's intended for the bathroom, but there's no reason you couldn't use it elsewhere. [via Better Living Through Design]

And for another totally different approach, there are the magnetic stickers from Peleg Design, sold by Monkey Business and Design3000.de. [via Book of Joe]

Related Posts:
3 Unusual Ways to Use the Walls
Zid Zid Kids - Wall Panels
Cache-pyjama Hippo - Fun Storage from France
Your Mail Needs a Home (see option 4)
Small Space Organizing: Using the Walls
Small Space Organizing: Making the Most of the Walls

Bike Stands for Bikes with no Kickstands

2013-02-25T01:19:00.000-08:00

Want to just stand your bike up in your garage, or elsewhere in your home? When I was a kid, my bike had a kickstand, so that was easy. But many bikes no longer come with kickstands — although it seems you might be able to add one. And you could try using something like the Upstand, which is sort of a removable kickstand — or the Click-Stand, a folding portable kickstand.

But there are also plenty of stands available to hold your bike in place. For example, you can get one from Racor, Art of Storage or Gear Up.

And if you want one that's eye-catching as well as functional, you can get that, too. The bike stand at the top of this post comes from Dale Pedales, and it's "made out of oak from recycled beams that used to belong to past century buildings."

The Renovo bike stand is made from birch plywood. It comes in two colors, cherry and black.

Shadow, from Quarterre, is made from folded steel.

And finally, there's the Milestone from Love One. It sells for 78,000 yen; that's about $829. [via Shoebox Dwelling and Moco Loco]

Related Post:
When It IS About the Bike: Cool Storage Options

This Could Save a Life

2013-02-21T22:23:00.000-08:00

Many forms of multitasking might make you less productive — but multitasking while driving might make you (or someone else) dead.

I rarely share a video, and I rarely share a single item. And I very rarely share something produced by a corporate entity like AT&T. But I saw this video today, and it's a powerful message that cries out to be shared.

So please, take a look; it's not gory, just horribly sad. It's 10 minutes long, but well worth the time. And then please share this video with others. If we can get one person to change his or her habits, we've done a good thing. [via Scott Stratten of Unmarketing]

Fun with Felt: Baskets, Bowls and Bins

2013-02-18T22:24:00.000-08:00

For those who like at least some of their storage containers to be out of the ordinary — and soft — I've got an assortment of felt storage containers to show you.

Let's start with Amy Herbst, who mostly sells her patterns — but she also sells some wool felt nesting bowls she's made herself. I was also pleased to note she's from Santa Cruz, California, which is just about an hour's drive away from me. Hurray for local!

You can also get felted wool bowls — single bowls, or nesting bowls — from Hold of Vancouver, Canada.

And another source of felt bowls is Gräf & Lantz. The bowls are available in four different color combinations. You can also find them at Switch, which also has a couple additional felt storage products from the same company.

These felt bread baskets were designed by Norm; of course, they can be used for more than bread. They're sold in sets of three. You can also buy them from GSelect and Spark Living.

Manusmade has some felt baskets in luscious colors, as well as neutrals.

And finally there's Filzkraft, which makes a number of felt storage products, including this bin. [via Apartment Therapy and Cool Mom Picks]

Related Posts:
Soft Storage: Felt Baskets or Boxes
An Homage to Etsy: Felted Bowls, Incredible Baskets, and More
Fabulous Felt Boxes and Baskets
Organizing with Felt: Pails, Boxes and Baskets

This is Important: Organize Your Medical Information

2013-02-15T07:42:00.000-08:00

I still remember the difficulty of piecing together the medical histories and treatment plans of Hurricane Katrina victims back in 2005.

After our experience with Katrina victims, we understand the need for people to add a simple, one-page form to their evacuation kit. It’s just as important as water, flashlights and extra batteries. — Thomas Feeley, MD, on KevinMD.com

Hopefully, most of us will never need to experience an evacuation. But all of us should have key medical information — our medications, our doctors, our insurance, our immunizations, our medical history — at our fingertips. And fortunately, I've recently seen some helpful tips on just how to do that.

Seth Godin has created a simple form to fill out.

Lisa Bonchek Adams, who is dealing with metastatic breast cancer, writes about the must-have medical binder. This focuses on cancer patients, but it will also provide good ideas for anyone, especially those with complex medical issues.

If you'd prefer to just buy a binder that's already set up, and start filling in the information, you could consider the one from My Medical Matters.

And Jacki Hollywood Brown reminds us that we need similar information for our pets; she writes about organizing horse health records.

Related Post:
Medical Records at Your Fingertips