Reader Question: Organizing the Earrings, Part 1

How do you store a lot of earrings in a limited space? Let's look at two options - with more coming in the next post.

Option one: The hanging organizer, for a closet

The EarringMaster shown above has 3,582 perforations, and can be used to hold everything from posts to dangles.




Or you could use this 80-pocket jewelry organizer, which could be used for more than earrings.


Option 2: The mesh option

I've shown one of these before, and it's been noted that this is something you could make yourself, if you are handy. And the EarringMaster shown above fits into this category, too.




If you would like to buy one, here's a simple, attractive option from Paradise Hill Designs. And most of the products from this Etsy seller are made from "beautifully aged reclaimed pine."




This earring holder, the InView, comes from Hawaii. It has a see-through mesh screen and a mirror-backed shadow box. There are a number of framing options, and you can get it with a plain mirror or an "island design." This one is on a stand, but I imagine they would normally be hung on the wall.




Earring Holder Gallery has lots of designs, too.




This earring holder, from Glasswear Studio on Etsy, is sort of a scroll; it comes in white or black with different colored beads.




And in a variation on the theme, this woman uses a fabric placemat, tacked to the wall, as her earring holder.

Shredders: Getting a Good One

Looking for eye-catching office products? Sorry, this isn't the post for that. (Try here or here.) But if you could use a really good shredder, read on.

A good shredder can save you a lot of frustration, as Michele explains so well.

How do you pick a good shredder? Organizer Jamie Martin has this to say:

I recommend a Fellowes brand shredder. They are the market leader. ... Two things that separate many shredders from the rest are a quiet motor and how long you can shred before the motor overheats. Fellowes is known for having many models with a quiet motor and longer shredding time. [Quoted with permission.]

Jamie used to be the product manager of shredders at Fellowes and admits she may be a bit biased - but she also knows her shredders! Here's one medium-use shredder she's pointed her fellow organizers to; besides being a cross-cut shredder (a must) with a pull-out bin and credit card shredding capability, she notes that "it has the 'safe-sense' feature for added safety, especially needed if you have kids or pets in the house."

Personally, I've had a Fellowes shredder for years and it's worked well for me. Being older, mine doesn't have a pull-out bin; that's something I would certainly want if I were selecting a new one. I'm sure there are fine shredders made by other companies, too - but if you want to go with Fellowes, they have a shredder selector to help you find the one that's right for you. Even if you don't necessarily want a Fellowes brand, this selector may help you understand what features are available, so you can decide which ones matter to you.

You can read more recommendations at ConsumerSearch and Unclutterer.


Related Posts:
Shredders With Style
Serious Shredding
Staples MAILMATE Shredder
The Spoon Sisters
A Simple Shredder
Oddest Shredder Ever
Update: Six More Shredder Options

Storage Ottomans: Beyond the Basics

You can find storage ottomans all over the place; they're at Target, Stacks and Stacks, classic furniture stores like Thomasville, and many other places. But here are some more unusual options.

How about a moose storage ottoman? There's also a black Lab version.




Not a moose kind of person? Here's a very different storage ottoman.




Want something a bit more sedate? Here's an option from Neiman Marcus, at the kind of prices you might expect from them. [via CasaSugar]




Here's a storage ottoman designed specifically to hold shoes.




Ballard Designs has one designed specifically for file storage; there are many fabric options. Ottomanopia also has a file storage option.




And here's a storage ottoman designed to fit DVDs and other media.




Finally, this one is unusual in that it's a round storage ottoman in sea of square and rectangular options.

Swapping Stuff: Options Galore

Do you have:

- Books, CDs, DVDs or video games you no longer want?
- Gift cards to stores you don't patronize?
- Toys your children have outgrown, or simply gotten bored with?
- Clothes you haven't worn in years - and probably never will again?

You can certainly donate them, offer them up on Freecycle, or include them in a garage sale. But another option is to swap them on one of the many web sites set up for this purpose.

All sort of stuff seems to get swapped; the items I've listed above are just some of the most common.

I've written about swapping web sites before, but now I'd like to point you to Simple Living - SF South Bay/Peninsula, where the wonderful Kathryn Benedicto maintains a list of swapping networks on the web - along with a number of other useful lists. While this Yahoo group is targeted to those of us in the San Francisco Bay Area, the swapping web sites would be equally useful to those in other parts of the country - and in many cases, in other parts of the world. And you don't need to join the group to see the list - just follow that link above.

Related Post: Now It's 18 Ways to Swap Your Stuff

[Image: PaperBackSwap logo]

Stuff the Stuffed Animals Into a Cage

Do you suffer from stuffed animal clutter? Assuming you really do want to keep all the animals, The Zoo is a novel way to do that. It makes putting them away a snap, and they are all visible and easy to pull out, too. And I love that it comes from a family business; many thanks for John Chisholm for writing and telling me about his product.

The same folks make a mudroom organizer - not quite as unusual a product, but quite nice, none the less.

Two Rants Against Goodie Bags

1. Christopher Noxon is tired of overdone children's birthday parties. His three-step plan to improve things begins this way:

Step 1. Immediate and total ban on goodie bags.

There was a time, not so long ago, when kids got genuinely excited by those little sacks of toys and do-dads given on the way out of a birthday party. That time is long gone and all those sad little bags do for us now is inspire worry about sweat shop labor and toxic plastic fumes. Kids have taken to carting off their bags with nonchalance. A ban on goodie bags will not only reduce waste - it puts the emphasis back where it belongs: the kid celebrating the actual birthday.

2. San Francisco Bay Area columnist Jon Carroll wrote about attending a charity event where he ran the auction. Here's a snippet:

On the way out, I noticed a phalanx of black bags sitting on the lawn next to the driveway. I walked a little farther, and a woman offered me one of the bags. It was, she said, their way of thanking me. Now, I can remember when someone's way of saying "thank you" was to say "thank you," and I actually preferred that method.

Do I need more stuff? Did any of the people who attended the event - who were mostly rich people, because charity organizers, like Willie Sutton, go where the money is - need more stuff? I don't think so. And yet there were the burlap-like black bags - further investigation indicated that they were made in China - to say thank you to people who, quite probably, already felt adequately thanked.

This cultural ritual is not confined to high-end charity events; children (or, rather, the parents of children) now expect a goody bag at the end of every birthday party. It's like, we invited your kid, we entertained your kid, we gave your kid lunch and some cake, and now - here's a reward for your child having to endure all that. Stuff! Because your kid does not have enough stuff.

Want to know what was in those adult goodie bags? Read the rest of the article.

Related Post:
Suggestion: Stop Giving Goodie Bags

[photo by Steel Wool / Wynnie Kwok]

The Many Uses for Over-the-Door Shoe Organizers

Over-the-door shoe organizers are available everywhere, from The Container Store to Storables to the Martha Stewart version at Target to John Lewis in the UK, where it's called an over door shoe tidy. (That picture above comes from Storables.)

While they certainly work for shoes, they can also be used for many other purposes. Here are just a few places you can read about alternative uses. Note: The clear vinyl versions would probably work better than the prettier canvas versions for these uses.

Real Simple writes about using them for gloves, spices, and office supplies.

Apartment Therapy writes about using them in the bathroom.

Lifehacker writes about using them for gadgets, cables, and wires.

CasaSugar writes about using them for amenities for a house guest.

Image Source shows them being used for cuddly toys.

Momready writes about using them for tickets, invitations, coupons and other such stuff - as well as for wrapping paper. And there are pictures showing them being used for Barbies, racing cars, stuffed animals, train tracks, art and crafts supplies, socks and underwear - and more.

Parent Hacks writes about using them on the coat closet door for gloves, scarves,hats, dog leashes, and more - and also notes they could work for sun glasses, swim goggles and such.

AL on Associated Content writes about using them for hair supplies, bath supplies, computer items, office supplies, small toys, and more.

eHow writes about using them for winter stuff (such as hats and gloves), gift-wrapping supplies, cleaning supplies and more.

And Thrifty Fun has a wealth of ideas about what can be stores in these shoe organizers: beanie babies, dog supplies (sweaters, leashes, bandannas), socks, jewelry, and much more.

In Honor of My Mom: Organizing in Blue

My mom's favorite color was blue. I'd tease her sometimes, saying I'd give her a hint as to her birthday gift: It was blue. Mom died a year ago today, so I thought I'd share some blue organizing products in memory of her.

Let's start out with one my mom would have really liked: the keepsake box shown above.




Mom would have liked this handmade bird-shaped lacquer box, too. (But she wouldn't have approved of the price; Mom was frugal.)




Mom wasn't much of a cook, but she'd have liked the color on this utensil holder.




Staying in the kitchen for a minute, there's this enameled tin tea canister.




As with most moms, mine cherished her photographs. Here's an album in her favorite color. You can find another blue flowered photo album here.




And here's a photo storage box with a bit of blue for the accent color. Light Impressions also has a nice archival photo box in blue (and other colors).




I found some stunning blue baskets a while ago; here's another option, the first simple blue wicker basket I found.




Then I discovered that Longaberger has a blue basket, too.




Moving over to Etsy, always a fun place to look for containers, there's this blue and white fabric box from Storyshop.




If you live in the UK, you could get these hat boxes.




And then there's the blue furniture. Maine Cottage has many different cases and a large selection of colors available for all of them - so finding something blue is easy. Other places with lots of options are Sawdust City and A Colorful Place.




Moving beyond the wood furniture, there's this blue locker.




And coming back to wood with an ending flourish, take a look at this cabinet by Avner Zabari.

7 More Wastebaskets You Won't Find Just Anywhere

I've written about wastebaskets before, but it's time for an update. Want a wastebasket with some style? Here's one option, an Italian design.




Annie Modica makes a variety of decoupage wastebaskets; this one was my favorite.




Keeping with the ocean motif for a minute, here's a Talavera pottery wastebasket.




This willow wastepaper basket comes from the U.K.




This colorful Mexican wastepaper basket is sold by a shop in London. There are seven color choices.




And here's one of made from mango wood!




Want your wastebasket to perfectly match the room's decor? Cubbins & Co. will make a wastebasket covered in your own fabric. [via The New York Times]

Randy Pausch Teaches Us about Decluttering

You've got pancreatic cancer - and a collection of huge stuffed animals won at carnival games. Winning stuffed animals was one of your childhood dreams, but childhood is long gone and now they are leaking styrofoam beads - not good when you have an 18-month-old. What do you do with them?

If you're Randy Pausch, you give them away. Here's an excerpt from his book, The Last Lecture - talking about something he did during his last lecture at Carnegie Mellon.

I don't need these trophies anymore. And although I know my wife loved the stuffed bear I'd hung in her office when we were courting, three children later, she doesn't want an army of them cluttering up our new house. ...

I knew that if I kept the stuffed animals, someday Jai [his wife] would be calling Goodwill and saying, "Take them away!" ... or worse, feeling she couldn't! ...

And so once they were lined up on stage, I announced: "Anybody who would like a piece of me at the end of this, feel free to come up and take a bear. First come, first served."

[photo by smcgee / Sarah - not a picture of Randy Pausch]