Storage on the Cheap

I've been buying lots of blueberries at my local farmers market - the season is short, and they're so good - and good for me, too. Last week I bought two crates, since it was the last chance to buy this season.




And then I realized what wonderful storage containers these stacking crates make.




As you can see, they are holding some of my spare office supplies. These stay in cabinets in the garage, so I sure don't need anything fancy.

Related Post: Budget-Minded Organizing Products

Create an Art Gallery on the Inside of Your Cabinet Doors

Have some art - drawings, photos, postcards, greeting card covers - that you really like, but that isn't exactly framing material? What about cards with inspirational sayings?




Yes, you could put these items up on a bulletin board, or on your refrigerator door. But an idea I stole from my friend Helen is to put them on the inside of your cabinet doors.




All the pictures on this post are from the inside of own my kitchen cabinet doors. The bunny picture was drawn by the very same Helen. The picture immediately above is a hand-drawn enlargement of a postcard by Ashleigh Brilliant.

Paper Planners That (Almost) Make Me Wish I Used a Paper Planner

Want a paper planner, but you're not the Day-Timer type? Little Otsu makes some amazing planners that just might suit you. They are all undated, so you can start using them any time.




The first one that caught my eye was the Little Otsu Vol. 1 Weekly Planners (the mini version and the standard version). The web site (unlike many) provides nice pictures of both the cover and the internal pages, so check the site for more pictures, including pages to list books to be read and movies to be watched

Not only are they lovely; they're made in collaboration with a talented artist and "printed locally by a family-owned press with vegetable-based inks on 100% post-consumer recycled paper." [via Better Living Through Design]




But Little Otsu has more notable planners - including the Come Along Weekly Planner.




Then there's the Aquatic Adventure Weekly Planner.




And I just love the cover on this Chris Duncan 18-Month Planner. The subtitle says Little Otsu Presents A Book to Help You Plan and Organize Your Life for the Next 18 Months Starting Now! or Later or Whenever You Want.


Related Posts:
Slingshot Organizer
Paper Tools Can Be Perfectly Fine

Renting Things You Never Knew Could Be Rented

One way to avoid clutter is to avoid buying things you need very infrequently, or only for a limited time. Sometimes you can borrow these things from someone you know - but renting is another option.

Certain things have been rented for quite some time, and many people know about them: tuxedos and party/event supplies come to mind. And then there's NetFlix, which lets us rent movies.

But did you ever think about renting textbooks? You can do that through Chegg or BookRenter. [via WebUpon and SpringWise]

What about baby toys? You can rent them from BabyPlays. [via Msnbc.com; thanks to professional organizer Ilene Drexler for the pointer]

And then there's baby clothes, which you can rent from Lütte-Leihen in Germany. [via Springwise]

A new service called Transitional Sizes is starting to provide rentals of adult clothing, for those who are changing sizes and don't want to buy a new wardrobe in the new size just yet For those who are losing weight and don't want to buy a wardrobe in each new size, this could be helpful. They also rent maternity clothes. [via Springwise]

Maternity clothes rental is also provided by Changes With Style in Ottawa, Canada and Maternity Exchange in Singapore - and others.

Libraries are sources of free rentals of books, music CDs, and movies - but some of them also lend out tools. In my part of the world, there are tool lending libraries at the Berkeley Public Library and the Oakland Public Library. And there's also the San Francisco Tool Lending Center. For others, you can try the list on Wikipedia. (Update on June 28, 2008: A reader points out that the San Francisco Tool Lending Center is not currently in operation.)

As I've written about before, you can even rent moving boxes.

And then there's NuvoRent, which "intends to put renters and owners together in financial harmony by becoming the premier destination on the web for individuals who want to post anything they own for rent." Zilok seems to provide a similar service. And the New York Times lists more online rental communities. [pointer to Zilok via Apartment Therapy]

Related Post: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: The Reduce Part

[photo by nogoodreason / Daniel Grosvenor - and it's the bikes that were for rent, not the cats!)

Two Cool Chalkboards

Has Apartment Therapy found the best chalkboards? They do indeed have a nice collection - but there are some wonderful options they missed.

First, take a look at the chalkboard stickers from Cocobohème. They come in a range of sizes, shapes, and colors (a pink pig, a yellow chicken, a green leaf, and much more) and you can buy them from Absolutement Design. [via Babyccino] You can also find the ostrich from a couple Australian sites, here and here.




The other chalkboards that stole my heart are the chalkboard chickens, available from Annyx Gallery.

Related posts:
Chalk Storage Jars
Have It Your Way: Use Paint to Create a Message Board
Bulletin Boards Don't Have to Be Boring

Garden Stores Help You Get Organized

Organizing products are everywhere - including garden stores, and the souvenir shops from botanical gardens. Here are some of the products I've noticed lately.

Smith & Hawken sells the chalkboard trugs shown above - and a number of other storage products. Update on July 10, 2009: Smith & Hawken is going out of business, and is no longer taking internet orders - so the original link to this product no longer works. You may still be able to buy products at the stores.




And The Gardeners Shop sells Sussex trugs in five sizes. (For those who don't know what a trug is - like me, until 5 minutes ago - it's a broad, shallow wooden gardener's basket, per my Webster's dictionary.)




The Gardener has this lovely bentwood basket.




And the same store has these bird feet bookends made of cast iron.




Podington Garden Cetre provide this carry mate.




The New York Botanical Garden Shop sells this Metamorphosis porcelain box.




Their finch box is equally noteworthy.




The Brooklyn Botanic Garden sells dragonfly hooks.




Portland's Rose Garden Store sells this cherry wood pencil box engraved with - big surprise - roses.




Finally, the National Tropical Botanic Garden has orchid stem baskets in three sizes.

Don't Cheat Yourself of Sleep

Sleep beckons. Also waves. Also makes threatening gestures and hops up and down until I notice. -- Neil Gaiman

I've gone through too many days on too little sleep; I'm through with doing that! Last night I went to sleep instead of staying up to write a blog post - I don't write well when I'm tired, anyway - and I woke up all full of energy this morning. It felt wonderful.

If you tend to fit more into your day by ignoring your need for sufficient sleep time, here are some readings to inspire you to make a change.

The More You Sleep, The Longer You Live. Sleep will also help you stick to a diet and have more productive workouts. Other benefits include "greater mental alertness, improved concentration, better mood - even lower risk of car accidents."

Lack of sleep linked to emotional imbalance. "It's no secret that the sleep-deprived are usually grumpy, miserable and not much fun to be around."

Here’s a quick, easy, free way to boost your happiness: get more SLEEP. "Studies show that people get accustomed to being sleep-deprived. At first, they notice the effect on their mood and alertness, but before long, they adjust to that state as normal. So even if you insist that you feel fine, if you got more sleep, you might feel a lot better."

Drowsy America. "For too many Americans, sleep has become a luxury that can be sacrificed or a nuisance that must be endured."

[Nightshirt from Bas Bleu]

11 Alluring Laundry Bags

I've written about laundry hampers before - but what if you'd prefer to use a laundry bag? Here are some of the more unusual options out there.

1. The White Devil laundry bags from India Rose, shown above, are the ones that inspired this post. [via the now-defunct Blueprint magazine, and write on and more]




2. Here's a lady's laundry bag.




3. And here's a laundry bag featuring somewhat different apparel.




4. This embroidered laundry bag is a replica of one found in an antique shop.




5. Amy Forster has a number of laundry bags, with designs ranging from polka dots or flowers to the surfboards-and-palm-trees design shown here.




6. Annie G makes some pretty floral laundry bags.




7. The Laundry has bags with spots or zinnias.




8. I'm not sure how practical this silk laundry bag from Aroma Home is - but it sure is pretty. The bags come in four colors, and each one comes with a scented sachet.



9. This lovely French linen/laundry bag comes from Maris Sharp in Brittany.




10. And this tapestry laundry bag comes from Australia, and has quite a story behind it.




11. Finally, here's a simple elegant laundry bag from Josephine Home; you have 12 choices of colors for the embroidery and matching ribbon. (And you can have something other than "laundry" as the embroidered word.)

Related Posts:
Bamboo Laundry Hampers
7 Special Laundry Hampers

3 Perspectives: Not All Books Are Keepers

For those who love books, deciding to tackle the overflowing bookcases can be a bit traumatic. Here are the accounts of three people who have done their own weeding.

Seth Godin recently wrote about the Kindle, but the post also included this:

I just got rid of 3,000 books in preparation for an office move. That's two decades worth of reference books. I realized that most of the books I bought I didn't use any more (thanks to wikipedia and google) and that buying books in anticipation of giving them to someone else was generous but not actually happening in practice.

On A Strange Attractor, the writer decides to get rid of some books - and goes through them carefully in the process. The whole post is fun to read; here's an excerpt.

For the first time, I became aware that I have literally hundreds of mediocre fantasy novels. I have scores of books that I have not the slightest intention of ever reading again, old course books, books that I bought on impulse because they were on special offer, random non-fiction books that caught my eye in second hand bookshops, and an entire collection of Teach Yourself language books for which the only justification is that I once used them in an essay on linguistics. So really, the question is not “which books should I get rid of?”, but “which books are worth keeping?”.

So which books are worth keeping? Well, reference books, for a start, but really, in the age of the internet, the only reference book I regularly use is a good dictionary. And a road atlas every now and then. The rest can pretty much go. But can I really bring myself to get rid of a perfectly good dictionary of languages? A guide to English usage? One of those delightful Victorian books that profess to contain information on just about everything? Who’s who in British history?

And then there's Luc Sante, writing in the Wall Street Journal. Again, I recommend the entire article; this is just a small sample:

Now that I have moved again -- into a house that's not necessarily smaller but that I am determined to keep from being choked with books like kudzu -- I have just weeded out 30 boxes worth: books I won't read and don't need, duplicates, pointless souvenirs.

I discovered that I owned no fewer than five copies of André Breton's "Nadja," not even all in different editions. I owned two copies of St. Clair McKelway's "True Tales from the Annals of Crime & Rascality," identical down to the mylar around the dust jacket. I had books in three languages I don't actually read. ... I also had no need for books with funny titles, books acquired only because everybody else was reading them, books with no value except as objects, and books that inspired a vague sense of dread whenever they caught my eye -- possible cornerstones of culture that nevertheless only solitary confinement would ever compel me to read.

Related Post: Clearing Out the Bookshelves

[photo by Jaydot]

Lacquer Boxes from Around the World

Lacquer boxes - a lovely storage option - range widely in design and price. The one above comes from Russia and is quite expensive - but stunning. But the Tradestone Gallery has many boxes in a huge range of styles and prices - along with a nice guide to Russian lacquer boxes.




Lacquerware is also found in many parts of Asia; I have a small box I got in Vietnam. Gumps sells these square eggshell lacquer boxes from Japan.




The lacquer jar shown above was made by artist Subin Tositarat of Thailand. He also has an eggshell lacquer box.




And here's a lacquered box from Mexico.




I don't know where these Mondrian-inspired boxes were made, but they sure are eye-catching! [via Apartment Therapy]

How to Handle the Receipts: One Person's Answer

I've gone through home offices overflowing with receipts, most of them pretty useless. If you struggle with receipts, you might want to follow Scott Crawford's very sensible system. (Posted to the Getting Things Done Yahoo group, and quoted by permission.)

If you're stuck on the idea of paper receipts because of returns, you may want to consider a variation of how I deal with that issue.

When I enter a receipt in Quicken, if it's for a consumable like groceries or gasoline I toss it immediately into my "to shred" bucket. If it's something that I think could possibly need to be returned, I put the receipt in a manila envelope I keep in my desk drawer. In fact, I have 3 manila envelopes:
- This Month,
- Last Month, and
- The Month Before That.

Around the first of every month, I take the oldest envelope and dump it into my "to shred" bucket. (If I haven't needed to dig up the receipt in 90 days, I don't need to keep it.) That envelope becomes the new "This Month" and the other two envelopes shift back one slot.

That way, I always keep a rotating set of 90 days worth of receipts, with a very minimal time investment. (Of course, any receipts that I need to keep for tax reasons are scanned and/or filed immediately and don't fall into the 90-day waiting-for-the-shred-bucket queue.)

I find that only a couple of times per year do I need to dig through a month's receipt folder to find a specific receipt. The time savings of not filing any of those receipts more than makes up for the occasional dig through the envelope.

Pretty low tech (and I tend to be a high tech kind of guy), but I'm quite certain I'm saving time in the long run.

[photo by red5standingby / simon]

Got Books? Get Bookcases!

Assuming you've gone through your books and decided which ones to keep, the next step would be to get some bookcases to hold them. I've seen too many books get damaged by being shoved into boxes or otherwise poorly cared for; if you treasure your books, please store them well.

While there are many places to get bookcases, I thought I'd point out some especially lovely options made by some talented woodworkers - mostly individuals and small companies.

The bookcase above is one of many designs available from McKinnon Furniture.




Brian Miles makes this oak bookcase.




This bookcase comes from Michael Colca.




Monk Furniture in the UK makes this bookcase; you can get the same style in a taller version.




And this is one of many options from Pomponoosuc Mills.




Hardwood Artisans has many lovely bookcase options.




Ben Barclay of Ben Barclay Woodworking makes each piece himself; this is one of three bookcase designs.




David Buckingham makes bookcases from imported recycled teak; they are sold by M.J. Higgins Fine Art & Furnishings.




This beauty comes from David Salmon in the UK.




This revolving bookcase comes from Richard Bissell Fine Woodworking; Richard makes non-revolving bookcases, too.




Dylan Pym in the UK made this impressive piece.




And this amazing piece comes from Trail Mix Studio.

Related Posts:
Bookshelves from Reclaimed Lumber
A Bookcase Called Book
Rowboat Bookcase

Procrastination and Making Decisions

Mark Forster has written three books on time management and personal organization; he recently shared the following thoughts on the Do It Tomorrow Yahoo group. [quoted with permission]

You have correctly identified difficulty in making decisions as one of the characteristics of procrastination. Making decisions is a behaviour which can be learned, just like any other behaviour. You can train yourself to make big decisions by practising making small decisions.

Before you do that, a couple of principles:

1. There are no right or wrong decisions, only decisions with different consequences. You need to train yourself to stop looking for the perfect decision. Instead your attitude needs to be that you take decisions and deal with the consequences.

2. Doing nothing is a decision in itself. You need to train yourself to think that the choice is not between A and B, but between A, B and C where C is doing nothing.

Update, June 19, 2008: Mark now has his whole reply up on his own blog.

Related Post: The Importance of Making Decisions

[illustration by Richard Scott 33]

I'll Use it Someday - Or Maybe Not

From my local Freecycle group

OFFER: Scrap wood

For a couple years now, every time I came across some good scrap wood or had wood left over from another project, it went in the "bird house pile." Now we're moving and I only got one bird house made. ... Please take all and please take it soon.


Related Post: Saving Things, Just In Case

[photo by Cathy G]

Medical Records at Your Fingertips

Are you helping an elderly relative manage his or her medical care? Can you quickly and easily get your hands on your own key medical information: immunizations, surgeries, medications being taken, any allergies to medications, doctors, blood type, etc.?

Trust me: This is important. You don't want to be sitting in a hospital emergency room filling in an admitting form for your sick relative and trying to remember what surgeries she had; was it the right or left hip that got replaced? What's that medication that triggered a bad reaction a year ago?

You certainly don't need a special product to manage this information. My brother and I kept track of my mother's information in simple text documents and spreadsheets that we e-mailed back and forth, and printed off as necessary.

But for some people a special product is helpful - so here are some options.


Paper-Based Products



The HandiRecords Classic gives you a nice compact form for tracking medications, surgeries and other procedures, test results, contacts - and more. Ann Blanchard, who created HandiRecords, is offering readers of this blog a $2 off coupon; use code I17MGS on checkout.




The Jakoter Health Organizer comes in a 3-ring binder.




The So Tell Me... Medical Organizers come in five different editions (including a senior one with bigger print) and three different binders.


On-Line Options



Online health records are a Big Thing now; there's Microsoft's HealthVault and Google Health (shown above), and also options like VitalChart [via Web Worker Daily].


USB Drives



You can also use a number of different products to store your medical history on a USB drive. ICE Packet is one such option - it has an application to create your medical history stored on the drive, and the software is both Mac and PC compatible.

Update: ICE Packet is providing readers of this blog a 10% discount by using the coupon code "jdorganizer" (valid through the end of June 2008).

Jakoter has its own Health Tag and also offers the MedicTag (which requires Windows XP or Vista). Other options include the Medistick, which is multilingual. A simple Google search will show you many other options.

Don't Lose Your Computer Files: Do Your Backups

As more and more critical information gets stored on our computers rather than in paper files, computer backups become increasingly important.

The following is a guest post by Jeannie Shea, owner of Bay To Bay Technical Solutions, LLC. Jeannie helps small business owners all over the San Francisco Bay Area protect and organize their technology.

What is the most important technology problem small business owners face? Recovering from a hardware failure or other disaster that brings down your computer.

The easiest, most painless way to keep your business going when your computer fails you is to have an up-to-date backup of your digital data.

Don’t have a complete data backup? You’re not alone! A typical small business owner will have the following types of files stored on his or her computer, most of them not backed up:
- e-mail correspondence
- contact list or address book
- task list
- financial and tax records
- PDA database
- spreadsheets
- word processing documents
- industry-specific database
- music files
- digital photographs
- “favorite” web site links
- PDFs

What does it mean to "back up" your data? It means all of the important information on your computer gets copied to another physical location: from your computer hard drive to some other device.

This backup device could be:
- an external hard drive plugged in to your computer
- a CD, DVD or old-fashioned Zip drive
- another computer in your office
- a "flash" drive or "thumb" drive that gets plugged into your computer, but is much smaller than an external hard drive
- another computer in a different location, accessed over the Internet (a remote back-up service)

Not every small business's back-up needs are the same. How much data you have will determine the best back-up option for you. Does your computer travel with you during the day? If so, it may not be plugged in when your pre-scheduled back-up tries to start – but there are ways around this usually overlooked problem.

There are many good software applications available now to help you figure out exactly how much data you have to back up; some even figure out where all that data is. (For example, would you know how to find your e-mail signature files to include in a back-up?) And most applications have a trial period, so you can "try before you buy."

I recommend the following three products.

1. Eazy Backup

This software "finds" the data for you (check it carefully though!) and backs it up to a device connected to your computer or network. You’ll have to configure the scheduler yourself, and whether each backup is "full" or "incremental," meaning only files changed since the last back-up get copied.

2. Mozy

This is one of the most popular "remote" backup programs there is, recently featured on Time Magazine’s Top 50 Websites of 2007. You’ll need a fast Internet connection though – no dial-up. The first backup takes hours or even days; after that it only backs up changes – done in minutes. The program runs every few hours at an interval you control – but only when your computer is "idle."

3. Norton Ghost

This isn’t strictly a data backup program, but is designed to take a picture of your computer, called an "image." This is useful when your hard drive crashes, and you want applications and data all back just the way it was, lickety split. You can perform a partial "restore" to find data files included in the image.


Related Post: Backup Your Data: Avoid Heartache and Pain

More good reading on back-ups:
Back Up Your Computer
Why You Should Buy a Backup Harddrive
Surviving Data Disaster: What's Your Backup Plan?

A Different Perspectives on Mozy:
Everybody like Mozy - except me

And just for the Mac users out there:
SuperDuper Mac Backup Utility Now Leopard-Ready
Mozy Mac Client Final Release Available

[Photo from Topato / John, who writes: "This server was destroyed in the Choteau fire in NE Oklahoma on 11/27. This is why I stress to my clients the need for off-site backups. That's a telephone on top.

Any small business owners out there should ask themselves 'What would I do tomorrow if none of my data was retrievable'. The answer in many cases is 'I'd go out of business'. Backups are cheap insurance, and if you don't store them off-site, you will regret it one day."]

Update: File With Style - Five More File Cabinets (and File Trolleys) to Ogle

Hate those ugly metal file cabinets? While I listed lots of lovely file cabinet options back in February, I've since found even more.

1. Alsto sells the Mission-style file trolley shown above, which can be used for letter- or legal-size files. Update on July 12, 2009: The Alsto web site has been discontinued.




2. This stunning file cabinet is made by Samuel S. Case Cabinetmakers. That's a false drawer; the lid lifts up. Inside are two rows of letter-size files.




3. Hardwood Artisans provides a range of file cabinets: 2-drawer, 3-drawer, 4-drawer, and lateral. They comes in five different styles (Shaker, modular, contemporary, Craftsman and classic) and six different woods. All of their products are "produced locally by highly skilled craftspeople in Northern Virginia."




4. Here's a different style of file cabinet, available in three finishes.




5. For a greener option, Plow & Hearth sells these bamboo stacking file cabinets.

Stretching the Definition of Organizing Tools

Does anyone else wonder what hammocks and grill baskets have to do with getting organized? Organize.com has a nice selection of true organizing products - and a lot of stuff that doesn't seem to fit.

An Organizer Opens Her Purse

I just bought a new purse - shown above with one of my cats, the 20+ pound Moonshadow. It was super-easy to move the contents from my prior purse to this one, because I've minimized what I carry, and because I use containers to organize things in my purse.



You can sort of see the containers when I open the zipper.




But here are my purse contents laid out so you can really see them.

1. Two mesh sacs carrying medical/first-aid types of things: bandages, Advil, eyeglass cleaner, lip balm, allergy meds, etc.

2. One plastic bag with three Luna bars - a Luna bar being my staple meal-on-the-run for those every-three-hour meals that pop up at inconvenient times.

3. One small plastic bag with fabric samples in my colors - because if I stumble on something while I'm out and about, I want to check and make sure it's a match.

4. A Levenger pocket briefcase, for taking notes.

5. My wallet

6. A comb

7. My camera - that's the case for it; the camera was in my hands!

8. A small external hard drive, one of my computer back-ups.

9. A printout of the next two months of my calendar (maintained in iCal on my Mac).

10. A business card holder with cards of wonderful people I often recommend.

Not shown in this picture are the pens and Kleenex carried in an internal pocket, and the business card holder with my own cards carried in an external side pocket. Oh, and my cell phone - sometimes in the other external side pocket, right now in the car where I was recharging it.

While simple containers (mesh sacs and plastic bags) work for me, here are two other products others have recommended for organizing your purse:




1. The purseket purse organizer.



2. The Butler Bag with its built-in compartments, highly recommended by organizer Monica Ricci.

Hooks to Hold Your Hat - Or Coat, or Towel, or Whatever

Hooks are such great organizing products - so I'm delighted to have found another batch worth sharing. The one above is a hand-painted metal Caribbean house; other designs and colors are available.




This hook comes from Live Laugh Love in the U.K.




Having shown you some cats, I ought to give equal time to a dog.




It was hard to pick just one wrought iron hook from Iron Arboretum to show you.




Tin Woodsman Pewter Company also has a number of hooks, both lightweight and heavy.




Jethro Macey's flying duck hooks come in a variety of colors.




Although I've mentioned Metalmorphosis before, it's worth another mention.




The stones that serve as hooks on this coat rack comes from New England beaches. (For a similar item, see Uncommon Goods.)

Related Posts:
Globo Wall Coat Hanger from Magis
A-Z Hooks from Sundance
Dart Coat Hooks
Four Fanciful Hooks
Four More Fanciful Hooks
Not Your Ordinary Children's Hooks
The Hook Box Hits the U.S.

Six Perspectives on Perfectionism

As a recovering perfectionist - and someone who sees how excess perfectionism sometimes leads to clutter and disorganization - I'm always interested in writings on the subject. Here are a few.

From Pitfalls of Perfectionism, an article in Psychology Today, by Hara Estroff Marano (via New Leaf News by Margaret Lukens):

You could say that perfectionism is a crime against humanity. ... Perfectionists, experts now know, are made and not born, commonly at an early age.

From the book Refuse to Choose, by Barbara Sher:

Perfectionist need to admit the source of their conflict. ... Be honest. You're not working to your own high standards; you're working for someone's approval. It could be your parents, your high school English teacher, your boss - even your nosy neighbor. It could very well be a voice from your past. Wherever you find a perfectionist, a critic is not far away. But you can waste a perfectly good life trying to meet the standards of someone who thinks you're not good enough because they can't understand who you are.

From the New York Times article Unhappy? Self-Critical? Maybe You're Just a Perfectionist by Benedict Carey:

"It’s natural for people to want to be perfect in a few things, say in their job — being a good editor or surgeon depends on not making mistakes," said Gordon L. Flett, a psychology professor at York University and an author of many of the studies. "It’s when it generalizes to other areas of life, home life, appearance, hobbies, that you begin to see real problems."

From time management author Mark Forster:

Remember that procrastination is often caused by perfectionism. We make tasks unnecessarily large because we can’t accept that we are going to do them anything less than perfectly. The result is that we often don’t do them at all! Counteract this by asking yourself "What’s the minimum I can do here that’s good enough?"

From the article Breaking the Perfection Habit, by Penelope Trunk:

Once I stopped worrying about doing something perfectly, I didn't have nearly as much reason for procrastination. It's easy to start something if you tell yourself that getting it done 70 percent perfect (as opposed to 100 percent) is OK.

From Neil Gaiman, author of (among many things) the hugely popular comic book series The Sandman:

I just learned that my old friend Steve Whitaker is dead. Steve was a terrific artist and a good guy, kind, helpful, generous, all that -- he's best known in the US for his work colouring V for Vendetta.

He would have been the colourist on Sandman but he never turned in the sample pages he was given to colour, because they weren't quite perfect yet, and by the time he was nearly satisfied with them someone else already had the job. I learned a lot from that. I learned a lot about comics, about the history of comics, about strip cartoons, from Steve. I wish he'd been willing to draw more, to let it go, to feel more comfortable making mistakes in public. Mostly I wish he'd done more comics.

Related Posts:
Selective Perfectionism
Going For Good Enough
The Six Styles of Procrastination

[image by Léoo™ / Leonard Cillo]

Craft Stores Sell Storage - for More Than Just Crafts

Not being the slightest bit of a craft-project person myself, I hadn't thought to explore craft stores to see what storage options they supply. I'd check them out on-line for specific things (storing scrapbook paper, for example), but never thought to explore them in more depth.

But fellow organizer Geralin Thomas just mentioned A.C. Moore, so I went to their web site - and I'm glad I did.

The first product that caught my eye was the ArtBin Table Top Caddy, shown above. (There's a floor version, too.) ArtBin makes a number of interesting storage products - ones that could easily be used beyond the crafts world they were designed for.




And the I saw the seeyourstuff bags, available in various colors and sizes. These were designed and assembled by Lyle's Fabrics, Crafts & Gifts. Again, I can imagine all sorts of uses for these.




Checking out other craft-oriented stores, I found these Snap 'n Stack organizers at Jo-Ann Fabric & Crafts - and then I found that A.C. Moore has them, too.

So now craft stores are definitely on my radar screen as a place to look for certain types of organizing supplies.

Nine Coat Racks That Caught My Eye

Has Apartment Therapy really found the best freestanding coat racks? Their list does indeed have some wonderful options, such as the one shown above - but there are many more worth a look.




1. This coat rack will look back at you!




2. And here's a coat tree made from wooden skis!




3. Staying on the reuse theme, the top of this coat rack is made from pitchforks! This comes from The Artful Home, which has many interesting coat racks.




4. Here's a lovely hand-painted coat rack.




5. And here's a wrought iron coat rack (more wrought iron here and here).




6. This simple coat stand caught my attention a couple years ago, and I still like it.




7. Bonaldo makes this coat/clothes tree designed by Mario Mazzer. You can buy it here.




8. VivaTerra sells an entwined root tree stand; no two are alike. [Via GreenUPGRADER]




9. Woodworker David Holzapfel made this coat tree; it's been sold, but he could make you a custom piece for $1,600 and up. David and wife Michelle make there lovely wood items from "forgotten hardwoods that are left behind in the forest after logging." [Via Great Green Goods]

Related Post: Coat Racks With a Difference

Clearing Clutter: Beyond the Stuff

Clutter - the word brings to mind the overstuffed closets, the boxes of stuff sitting in the garage, the paper that seems to be everywhere.

But as Peter Walsh's latest newsletter points out, there are more types of clutter to consider. To quote just a bit of that newsletter:

Clutter can also be the way we constantly think about something that routinely trips us up; or the way we speak to a partner or friend that we know we should change but just can’t seem to do; or the bad choices we make, and make, and make again. Our bad habits and repeated negative behavior that we’d love to change (but can’t or don’t) is a form of clutter that we all experience and find tough to get rid of.

When it comes to RELATIONSHIPS there is a ton of clutter that needs clearing out.

- our bad attitudes.

- our past experience that we can’t forget.

- our unreal expectations that our partner can never meet.

Other writers touch on the same subject. Katherine Gibson, in Unclutter Your Life, writes about emotional clutter: "Unfulfilling activities and the self-defeating thoughts and feelings that keep us from our highest potential."

And the ARTrepreneur wrote about different types of clutter, including mental clutter, emotional clutter, relationship clutter and health clutter. To quote just a couple choice parts:

MENTAL CLUTTER: Sometimes the chatter in our minds is constant and difficult to decipher. Other times there are the same boorish and loud messages over and over again - messages like "You can't do it!", or, "You're no good!". ...

EMOTIONAL CLUTTER: Emotional clutter stems from the same pack-rat habit of not wanting to let go. Instead of hanging onto an old sweater missing a button, it's hanging onto an old emotion. Once an emotion is over, it's over, unless we choose to hang onto it. That's a powerful ability we have - to either stay enraged, sad or anxious over something that happened three days ago, or three YEARS ago, or let go and give ourselves the freedom.

I'm not an expert on clearing the clutter of unhelpful thoughts, attitudes, and expectations (although I do know some wonderful people who are). But it seems that working on the physical clutter and working on the non-physical clutter sometimes go hand in hand; make progress on one and it's easier to make progress on the other.

Related Post: Letting Go of Spiritual or Emotional Clutter

[t-shirt from OneHorseShy]

Five Options for Wonderful Wall Shelves

Sometimes the right storage solution is something as basic as a shelf. But, of course, I'm going to show you some not-so-basic shelving options.

1. The shelves above are made from reclaimed pine - and look at those brackets! They come from Cocopa, whose furniture is made entirely with reclaimed and sustainable wood.




2. The steamship upper deck bookshelf is made with riveted metal, and has a hardwood rail and floor.




3. This driftwood shelf (topped with reclaimed plywood) has a fascinating history; read about it on DaWanda, a site I've seen described as a Euro-Etsy. [via Apartment Therapy]




4. Speaking of Etsy, this shelf by A. Drauglis is one of many he has for sale on Etsy.




5. What can I say about the rear bumper wall shelf?

Related Post: Shelving Genre: Surfboard Wall Shelves

Recipe Deal Breakers, from an Organizing Perspective

What keeps you from deciding to try a recipe? Apartment Therapy: The Kitchen has a discussion of the New York Times piece on this subject, and some of the common themes have an organizing component.

1. Recipe calls for ingredients you wouldn't use for anything else.

Most of us won't want to clutter up our pantries with ingredients specific to one recipe - although there could certainly be exceptions.

As mh330 writes: "Anything with more than 1 obscure ingredient that I don't already own. I hate 'investing' in an unproven recipe, only to have a cabinet full of spices that I don't know what to do with after the dish is cooked."


2. Recipe calls for pots, pans, or utensils you don't have.

You probably don't want to buy and store a special pan just for one recipe - although again, there will certainly be some exceptions.

As SisterRae writes about her deal breakers: "Equipment I don't have - ice cream makers, tart pans, charcoal grill, pressure cooker, slow cooker."

And as the Times article says: "Unusual equipment is a common deal breaker, too. How many times has a couscous recipe been cast aside because there is no couscousière in the house?"


3. Recipe takes too much time.

As Tazer writes: "Deal breaker is always time. If there are overnight or several hour wait times or it just looks like there are enough steps to keep me in the kitchen for more than three hours then forget it."

And Kathryn Hill writes: "These days, anything that's got more than 6 ingredients and will take hours to make, and requires me to make some special stock or sauce from scratch to accompany it, is a deal breaker because I do not have time."

Related newsletter article: Organizing the Recipes

[photo of tajine/couscousier from Unica Home]

Defining a Room's Purpose

When we think of containers, we tend to think of plastic bins, pretty baskets, file cabinets, and such. But in a larger sense, the rooms in our homes are containers, too. And while we don't usually label them with physical labels, we do label them in our minds.

Sometimes we need to changes those labels. For example, quite some time ago "my guest bedroom/office" became just "my office," with the guest bedroom moving elsewhere. I've seen clients struggling for space when they had a room getting very little use; re-labeling this room mentally allowed them to see all sorts of other possibilities.

How we use (and label) the rooms affects what we store in them. My guest bedroom is also my room to dry clothing that needs to lie flat - and it's the staging room for projects, mostly projects to dispose of things (mine or my clients', at their request) on Freecycle or on craigslist. I'm in a heavy dispose-of-things mode right now, so the bed has piles of stuff being picked up later in the week, and things I still need to list.

Once I labeled the room this way, I made sure all my pending Freecycling went on that bed, instead of on my office floor, in the hallway, etc. - and now I can have the piles and still not feel cluttered.




My living room is a place the cats and I hang out - so it has furniture for both of us. But it's also my exercise room, so at both ends of my comfy curl-up-and-read sofa is the exercise equipment. One side has my foam roller (with another half-roller on the way), in a great new hamper I got at The Container Store.




The other side has my exercise ball and various other items; the hand weights sit on a bookshelf (in the shadows, under the basket) which also does have some books.

OK, it may not be an elegant look - but it supports my day-to-day living and I can easily put the exercise equipment (and the scratching post) elsewhere if I want to fancy it up for company.

Update: On Goodie Bags and Book Chairs

Your kids bring home goodie bags filled with less-than-wonderful little toys; what do you do with them? This suggestion came in anonymously in response to my prior post about goodie bags and I thought it was worth sharing; you may not have all seen it buried in the comments.

All those little cute tchotchkas that kids bring home in goody bags, happy meals, doctor's office etc. etc. can be tossed into a big plastic cauldron to use instead of candy for Trick or Treaters. New owners of this detritus [your children, as they get the items throughout the year] can be offered a perk to toss it in the cauldron. Works for us and by Halloween the cauldron is usually full, with a bag of wrapped candy in the mix.

Thanks to the anonymous commenter for this idea! [Picture from It's Time to Party]




A while ago I wrote about three chairs with built-in book storage, none of which looked very comfortable. Well, I've found yet another one. This one is called the Bookseat, and it comes from Fishbol (which has an annoying web site). [via Designspotter]

June 2008 Organizing Tips and More

My June newsletter is now available.

Tip of the Month: Decluttering and Organizing Aren't One-Time Projects

Product of the Month: Buckets from polkadots & moonbeams

Selling Your Stuff Suggestion of the Month: Ex-Boyfriend Jewelry

Also included: Quotes of the Month, Statistic of the Month