It’s easy. Learn how to de-clutter your home with these ingenious storage solutions and tips.

One thing I cannot tolerate in my home is clutter. My home can be spic and span clean, but if there are piles of clutter needing my attention, it drives me crazy. You know what I’m talking about–piles of magazines, new and old mail mixed together, that abandoned crafting project, recyclables, your children’s homework, etc.  I’d rather skip the house cleaning and attack those piles of clutter any day. Clutter keeps me from relaxing in my own home–and I know I’m not the only who feels this way. While I do have some friends who seem to not mind the everyday clutter, I think most of are bothered by clutter and want to eradicate if from the world.

I’ve found clutter’s kryptonite is to not let it develop in the first place. In my house, everything has a home–even if that home is the junk drawer. I try to deal with clutter as it happens, so I’m not left facing a bunch of stuff to clean up and put away before I can even start on cleaning the house.

Part of learning how to declutter as it happens is having storage solutions in place beforehand. When the mail comes in, it should have a home that’s not the kitchen counter. Planning ahead of time and having storage solutions in place can save you and your home from the dreaded clutter monster.

How to declutter:

1. Don’t forget about closet and cabinet doors. Installing hanging storage here, can double your storage space.

Image: jfiess

2. Pegboard can be your friend. While you might not want to hang peg board in your living room, pegboard isn’t just for the garage. Painted pegboard can be a lifesaver in the laundry room, craft room and office.

3. Think outside the box with your storage solutions, like this clever idea for storing spools of ribbon on a skirt hanger. Ingenius.

Image: ReillyButler

4. Large mason jars make great catchalls for those little items we all seem to collect–leftover buttons, old keys, stray matchbox cars and what have you. If you need to declutter quickly, just toss those stray little bits into a mason jar. Cleaning them out can be a rainy day project.

5. It’s a must that you have labeled storage by the door you use to come in and out of the house. Whether it’s a bookshelf with baskets or a table with bins, find a storage solution that works for you. This is where you will sort your mail and other items that need your attention when you are coming and going.

Image: supershoppertoo

6. You need copious amounts of baskets and boxes. I use these everywhere in my home. There’s a basket in every room to collect magazines. I also use stackable decorative boxes to store craft projects I am working on…that way there are hidden away, but I can also easily carry them around the house.

7. Have labeled storage for toys and games in your kids’ room and playroom. Wooden crates turned on their side and hung on the wall are a great solution. Label each with the child’s name or  the type of toy that is stored there. Use pictographs for young children.

Top image: Xoyos.com

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Clutter is a constant threat to sanity and comfort, creeping into our homes, offices, and vehicles with alarming certainty. Apps may not be able to clean the kitchen for you, but the right online assistance can get you back on track to a clutter-free life.

I love my dining room table, but I rarely get to see it. Pick a random day of the week and you’re likely to find it covered in things that definitely belong somewhere else. Unopened mail, phone chargers, books I swear I’m going to read, and my favorite, coats and scarves slung over the chair backs.

Although we most often complain about physical clutter in our homes and vehicles, mental and electronic clutter can be just as frustrating. A million unorganized bookmarks, hundreds of notes to yourself about articles you want to read or errands that need to be run. These are all what a good friend of mine calls “mental parachutes”–digital clutter that’s only slowing you down.

Even though it’s only February, it’s never too soon to think about spring cleaning, and the first step is releasing yourself from the clutter tentacles spread all throughout your life. Here are five tech tools, including mobile apps and online services, that can help you get organized and energized in time for Spring.

Image via yerdle

1. Swap ‘Till You Drop

My partner and I have this rule when we do really serious cleaning: if we haven’t used or appreciated something in the last 12 months, it’s out. The question is, where’s out? Donating is OK but impersonal, and the landfill is just downright wasteful for things that aren’t at the end of their life cycle. Enter the swapping service. Companies like yerdle exist to turn your “trash” into treasure. Their mobile app makes it possible to snap a picture and list items in a matter of seconds. Other local users can then “want” your item and a pickup arranged. Still seem like too much effort? Try Swap.com’s Valet Service. Simply box up all your unwanted goods, and ship them to the company. They’ll take care of photographing, storing, and listing the items on their vast website. You set the price and then decide whether to trade or sell.

Image via iGo

2. Universal Chargers

There is nothing more frustrating than fighting with a tangle of charger wires when trying to stave off a low battery alert. The more gadgets we acquire, the more cords we add to the cluster. iGo’s Everywhere Universal Wall and Auto Charger offers a path out of the madness. This gadget features a five-foot retractable cord and can be fitting with a variety of interchangeable power tips that make it possible to juice up a  laptop, smartphone, and e-reader all from the same charger.

Image via Instapaper

3. Instapaper

I’m a reckless bookmarker. Spending at least six hours a day working on the internet, I come across (or am sent) links to dozens of articles I’d like to read. Or companies I’d like to check out. Or recipes I’d like to make. All of these are dumped unceremoniously in my “other bookmarks” folder, which is now so out of control, I’m afraid to open it. Developed by Marco Arment, who also helped create Tumblr, Instapaper is a clean, simple and straightforward way to save online articles to read later. Simply install the Instapaper app and download (and organize) your unread articles when you have Wi-Fi or 3G coverage, then you can read them anytime: on the train, on the bus, in an airplane, at the bank, or in your favorite chair.

Image via Captio

4. Captio for Business Receipts

If you’re an entrepreneur or freelancer, you know that retaining proof of your business expenses is extremely important, still it can be hard to keep all those nondescript receipts and other bit of paper straight, especially when you’re working on the go. Available for Apple products, Androids and Blackberry, Captio lets you capture an image of your receipts wherever you are, using your smartphone. Pertinent information is then automatically stored for later analysis and can be used to generate expense claims.

Image via Stylebook

5. Control Your Closet

Disorganized closets mean most of us only wear 20 percent of our wardrobe, sometimes re-buying things we already have! The Stylebook iPhone app offers more than 90 features to help you get the most out of your closet. Import images of your actual clothes, create magazine-style outfits, plan what to wear and track your style inspirations with this totally customizable app. Can be of immense help if you’re a fashionista who’s having a hard time deciding what should stay and what should go. If you uncover designer clothes, bags or accessories that haven’t been in the regular rotation for awhile, consider selling them to Rent the Runway, or Bag, Borrow or Steal.

Top Image: smashmedia

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A place for everything and everything in its place…really?

An interesting tidbit: not only is containerize a verb (to pack in containers or ship by containerization, of course) but it’s a mid-century word possibly invented to meet the growing popularity of the suburban Tupperware party.

Many promises were made during the heyday of the Tupperware business model of the 50s and 60s: airtight freshness, careers for women, organization for life. In subsequent decades, though, two factors burst Tupperware’s hermetically burpable seal: first, the party scheme was responsible for ushering in the Mary Kay get-together and Amway pyramid (for some, everything is for sale…even friendship); secondly, the myth that the key to familial bliss was an organized cupboard.

The myth is not dead, of course, even in light of today’s marriage statistics. Rather, it has evolved (and multiplied) – out of the cupboard and into our living rooms, bedrooms, bathrooms, closets, medicine cabinets, underwear drawers, and beyond. Perpetuated by the likes of HGTV, the Container Store and Peter Walsh, here are seven myths we’ve come to believe about a containerized lifestyle.

Are you drinking the Kool-Aid? More importantly, is it labeled and color-coordinated?

Myth #1: A New Bin Will Fix…Everything!

Clear plastic or neon bins carry with them the prospect of an organized life, one in which the bills are always paid on time and days unfold in containable, sterilized batches of predictability. If only our sanity could be containerized like storage.

Remember: acquiring more bins than you need will leave you “Bin Laden” and we all know how that story ends.

Myth #2: I Don’t Have Enough Room

Now you’re just being negative. Before overpopulating the housing market in a bid to acquire even more storage space, source out underused nooks and crannys in the house you’ve already got.

Plastic bins aren’t always the answer; consider shelving in your future.

Myth #3: Storage $olutions Don’t Come Cheap

This is why you spend so much money at Target. You could look for cheaper storage solutions at the dollar store (the threat of becoming Bin Laden lurks here too). Or containerize responsibly with reused containers and baskets.

Who says storage has to be transparent, neon or pretty? It just has to function.

Myth #4: My Space is Too Full

So…what: you need more storage?

This brand of optimism is best reserved for glasses of water. When your physical environs spill over into “full” that’s probably because you have too much stuff. Being the optimist that you are, you might have purchased this excess stuff optimistically from HSN.

A garlic dicer will not simplify your life, it will clutter it. The same goes for more storage.

Myth #5: Containerizing Will Lead to a Debt Free Lifestyle

This is related to #4 above, except that you either learned this on a morning talk show or read it in the grocery check-out line. Did you notice the advertisements between the pages and during the commercial breaks?

Avoiding the Container Store will lead to a debt free lifestyle. Buying less stuff will guarantee it.

Myth #6: I’ll Become More Efficient if I Containerize

Stores like Staples and Office Depot exist solely for the purpose of perpetuating this myth. The reason you haven’t written your first novel is not for lack of desktop organization. It’s because Office Max is selling you too many writing blocks (and paperweights, pencil holders, folders, etc.).

Myth #7: Containerizing Will Make My Space a Cleaner Place

Au contraire: containerizing according to any of the myths above will not make your life more organized, efficient, successful, full – not even clean and/or sterilized.

Instead it will turn you into your worst nightmare: a hoarder.

Images: Rubbermaid Products; Baby Center; Krissy Venosdale; Matthew Moss

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Why do we really need so little?

I sat down to write an article titled, The Dark Side of Minimalism. My “beware of minimalism” sermon was so ready to pour forth. It was gonna go like so:

I stand in my very strong values of minimalism, anti-consumerism, and simplicity. These movements fuel my faith in human consciousness. Increasingly, we are voting with our dollars, ceasing to fill the holes in our souls with plastic stuff, and living more lightly on a highly-burdened eco-system. Uncluttering, vigilante consumerism, and simplification are outbursts of enlightenment. Howevah…

Fear n’ loathing can lurk beneath “right action.” We can use beautiful concepts to reinforce ugly lies about our esteem and self worth. We can use austerity to punish ourselves, and frugality to keep abundance at bay.

So…that’s how I would have kicked ‘er off. But I came across a post from Lianne Raymond, who is like, the Majesty of Questioning Just About Everything: Red Winkle Picker Regret and The Dark Side of Decluttering. And well, I just can’t top this:

Now decluttering has gone mega mainstream. It’s almost religious. It’s rarely questioned. There are gurus and gospels to follow. Salvation shall be yours through decluttering. …

There are some other really obvious reasons why the declutter cult has taken off –

1. Control – In a world that seems out of control, decluttering and organizing can provide an illusion of control. (This is my hall closet).

2. Guilt – as the world continues to shrink, we can more and more see how our unconscious consumption is linked with developing world living conditions and climate change. To purge our possessions can feel like a cleansing confession. (Go in peace and sin no more – and throw in three Hail Marys for good measure.)

3. Perfection/Salvation – all my problems will be solved, my life will be perfect and I will find eternal happiness when I get rid of all my clutter and get organized. (This is a variation on “I will be happy when I am skinny.”)

4. Freedom – getting rid of stuff can give us a temporary hit of feeling free. When our lives feel full of obligation, this is alluring.

When you dig deeper into any of these, you will likely find fear. And if you do have a lot of junk in your life and dig into why you ended up with it in the first place – guess who’s coming to dinner? – fear. So if you are purging from the same mindset that you had while procuring – well, that’s just the other side of the same coin, honey.

Lianne’s lucid, provocative piece goes as deep as asserting that our urge to purge is “pathologizing the feminine in favour of celebrating the masculine” Uhhuh. Like I said, I can’t top that.

Dig it yourself: Red Winkle Picker Regret and The Dark Side of Decluttering

Yours in self-love and the kind of minimalism that affirms your goodness, not your lack.

. . . . . . .

Danielle LaPorte is the author of The Fire Starter Sessions: A Soulful + Practical Guide for Creating Success on Your Own Terms (from Random House/Crown). An inspirational speaker, former think tank exec and business strategist, she is the creator of the online program The Spark Kit: A Digital Experience for Entrepreneurs and co-author of Your Big Beautiful Book Plan. Over a million visitors have gone for her straight-up advice on DanielleLaPorte.com, a site that has been deemed “the best place on-line for kick-ass spirituality.”

You can find her on Facebook and on Twitter @daniellelaporte

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The time has come to take a searching and fearless inventory of your clutter situation. First stop? Naming your addiction.

The first step out of twelve in a recovery program is admitting that you are powerless over your affliction. If you’re one of these types of clutterers, that means your mountain of hoarding has become insurmountable for you and the people who bravely venture into your messy environs.

The step before the first step of real recovery, of course, is hitting rock hard, linoleum bottom. It might be millions of boxes of junk away, but clutter control is just an oosouji away.

Consider yourself a social clutterer? Sorry, there’s no such thing. If you’ve got a problem, you likely fit into one of these categories.

Deep in the Closet
You hide your habit behind french doors, possibly even the dorm room tapestry you’ve been dragging around since college. If one were to peak behind the curtain though, it would reveal a very dire situation, indeed.

The Bargain Basement Hoarder
You’ve never met a bargain you couldn’t resist. Take care. Your post holiday shopping euphoria could be obscuring a very troubling mold problem in your basement, behind all those boxes from Amazon.

The Bulker
There’s nothing wrong with buying in bulk. Most discerning and conscious shoppers do. But remember that you’re not the only one at the co-op with a hankering for organic carob-dipped chestnuts.

The Techie
Your wire and plug collection would make Wall-E swoon.

The Bill Cultivator
Do you think the IRS is out to get you? File right, and it’s very unlikely that you will ever be audited. Go paperless, get a scanner, get thy receipts to a paper mill.

The Wishful Thinker
Your optimism is to be admired, but you will never be young enough to wear stirrup pants ever again.

The Book Hoarder
Your single-handed efforts to keep your local bookshop afloat is appreciated, but the county library could use some love, too.

The Free Table Watchdog
There are many truisms about working in media depicted in shows like Ugly Betty, one of them being all the free junk that gets hurled your way. It all goes to a place called the free table. Every magazine or major website has one, but it is not a blessing. It is a curse.

The Product Fiend
The solution to perfect anything does not come in a bottle, even if it is greenwashed to within an inch of its molecular structure. Liberate yourself: liberate your medicine cabinet!

The Sentimentalist

Little Johnny and Julie have to grow up sometime and hoarding their roughly drawn sketches of cats and rainbows and those essays about George Washington need to find a home in the recycling box. They will still love you in adulthood without them.

The Upcycler
Just as you don’t want to become known as the crazy cat lady for taking in every stray you come across, you also don’t want to become the crazy driftwood one for stockpiling every piece you find. Some things are left better off drifting.

The Jar Collector
Good for you for committing to lead a zero waste year. But if you don’t have an immediate use for that empty jar, fear not the recycling bin. It is still your friend.

Images: Howard.hall, lamont_cranston, the urban mermaid, clark maxwell, Mr. Mio, Uljana Egli, Henry…, noocar, Shira Goldig, AbigailPhotography, eva the weaver, Katherine A, puukibeach

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The Japanese consider it inauspicious to drag old business – including clutter and dust – into a new year. You should, too.

“Just one last cigarette,” you inhaled on New Year’s Eve. “And I’m through,” you exhaled, blowing your promise in the wee hours of New Year’s Day. Sorry, 3 a.m. is technically tomorrow.

With the New Year comes the same old promises either made in the throws of drunkenness or the penance of a hangover. You promise to save money, get fit, lose weight, gain weight, get laid, go celibate, sober up, de-clutter. As far as the cigarettes are concerned, seriously, it’s 2012, quit already!

The rest of it – the money, love, body, and (especially) clutter woes – just might resolve themselves on their own if you start the year off by observing Oosouji.

“Big Cleaning”

Oosouji literally translates as, “ooo” (big) + “souji” (cleaning). It’s how the Japanese ring in the New Year. It’s a tradition that’s on par with the spring cleaning westerners reserve for cherry-blossom season – long past the expiration date of one of the top fifteen resolutions Americans make (and break) year after year: getting organized. Also at the top of that should’a, could’a, ah f*ck it list: finishing home improvement projects.

Japanese homes get a top-to-bottom scrub at this time of year as well as business offices and lots of school desks. The concept is that by eliminating the dirt from the old year, it creates a clean emotional slate with which to plan ahead for the next year.

The Japanese also plunge into the Big O as a way of showing the gods that they care, that they wouldn’t be embarrassed to have Toshigami over for a cup of tea come January. Gods don’t like clutter. They find it sloppy and lowly; humans tend to view it as a distracting and pretty major productivity killer.

Cultivate Minimalism

There’s a reason the Japanese are revered for their minimalism. It’s reflected in their architecture and design. Considering it in the cultural context of Oosouji, though, minimalism is something that is culled and cultivated, an art borne out of self-discipline.

Get 1, Toss 2

Follow the Zen Habits method of managing your stuff.

“The rule: whenever you bring in an item, you have to throw away two other items. First you cheat, by throwing out two pieces of paper, but soon you will have to move to big stuff.”

Welcome to self-discipline 101.

Take the Holiday Box Challenge

Care of the clutter experts at Organized Home, challenge yourself to: “Fill every seasonal mailing box [you received] with items suitable for donation to Goodwill…and deliver them to charity before year’s end.”

Except don’t wait until then. Do it now.

Turn Trash into Cash

Hold a stoop sale or, if your front door greets grass instead of concrete, a yard sale following the same tenets of New York’s finest.

Coming Out of the Closet

We store our past, present and future selves in our closets. Unless you’re in possession of a Bravo-scale closet, you only have enough room in there for the here and now. Even if you do have more shelf space than Oprah, a dress that you barely fit into then, kind of aren’t sure about now, and might possibly wear at some point down the line does not belong in there. It’s just not healthy to cling to that size zero past. You’ve got hips now. Move on.

Another juicy tidbit from Home Organizing:

“Behind the hangers and shelves and boxes lies a second reality. To declutter a clothing closet, you can’t stop with the clothes. You have to move on to the clutter of the psyche that lies behind the possessions.”

Therein lies the lesson, grasshopper.

The fastest way to sabotage a weight-loss, money-saving, or otherwise-self-improving plan is dragging all that dust and dirt and grime and mess with you from the year before. Start by chasing the dust bunnies out from underneath the bed and then deal with the personality crisis in your closet. After that, you can resolve to do just about anything.

Images: And Done; Tonomagokoro; Kibogaoka; K. Barker; Noukka Signe

The post Before You Commit to Anything in 2012, Do Oosouji appeared first on EcoSalon.

Clever solutions for stylish clutter control.

Estimates show that we use about 20% of our objects 80% of the time. Why, then, are our lives so cluttered? It could be that we have an overabundance of stuff – here’s a hint: we do. Or perhaps we haven’t yet discerned the fine art of fitting all those bits and pieces seamlessly into our personal sanctuaries.

A word of caution: I’m a proponent of downsizing – even purging – to get to a minimal way of being. But there is a better way, a cleaner and prettier way to selling off that 80% horde. Indeed, these clutter solutions prove that there is a sexy way to stick your stuff where the sun don’t shine.

Hidden compartments behind expensive works of art are typically reserved for grand houses under investigation by Sherlock Holmes. Now thanks to iBride, you can bring some of that nineteenth-century style and mystery to your own abode.

From the series “Les Dandys,” these hidden bookshelves depict a trio of Baudelaire-era gentlemen in immaculate dress and rams’ heads. Sexy beasts, if I do say so myself.

These mile-high bookshelves are deceptively tall. Designed by London and Germany based architecture team Kraus Schoenberg, this integrated and stylish book cranny is one of the main storage features in an affordable, prefabricated low-energy house.

Repurposing staircases as storage drawers was, I’ve read, invented by Japanese cabinet makers. They called them kaidan tansu; I call them very cool.

Another variation on staircase storage, this serves both form and function.

If you’re lucky enough to land an antique mail sorting cabinet, turn it into a gorgeous storage opportunity. It’s an enviable solution for shoes, hats, and scarves.

Had I grown up with this cloakroom under the staircase, I’d be a much more organized person today. Certainly our most family-friendly clutter solution.

Yet another inventive use for our trusty friend, the mirror. It’s a logical arrangement: jewelry, makeup and other flair tucked tidily inside a sturdy floor-length.

Try as we may to meld the modern television set with the wall, it nevertheless detracts from the quiet simplicity of our homes. Perhaps by tucking it discretely behind the stairs, we’ll forget it’s even there. Out of sight, out of mind…until it’s time for True Blood.

Now that the clutter’s sorted, how about a therapeutic purge?

Images: Storage Geek; iBride; Kraus Schoenberg; The Lennoxx; Spoon & Tamago; House to Home Pinterest; Department of the Interior via Kim Ficaro; HB

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Stuff – we all have it. But sometimes, all of the miscellany of life can add up until it feels like a physical weight. After eight moves in eight years, I managed to accumulate a basement full of storage bins that I unquestioningly brought with me to every new home. I found myself buying more and more bins to fill with more and more stuff.

But eventually, all of this stuff became a burden. I began to see myself as a turtle with an obscenely oversized shell that threatened to topple over at any moment. An extra coffee maker, art supplies that I might use “someday”, an unused ironing board, a stereo gathering dust. It’s all too easy to fill a house with things that we use once in a blue moon, if ever – but it’s not so easy to get rid of it.

I didn’t have much choice – I’m downsizing my life dramatically, and all this stuff had to go. Today, half of my belongings are gone and let me tell you, it feels amazing. Here’s how I did it.

1. Make a list of the items you actually use at least once a month. These things are your core possessions, the things you need to live a comfortable and happy life.
2. As you assess each of the items you have left (and there will be many), ask yourself, “Does this contribute to my life in a meaningful way?” Do you love it or need it? Does it have real sentimental value or a legitimate function in your life, or is it just taking up space?
3. Create a “maybe” box and a “no” box. At first, your “maybe” box will be overflowing, but that’s okay. Later on, you’ll get a bit more brutal about deciding what stays and what goes.
4. Let go of your fears about the expectations of others. So Great Aunt Edna gave you a set of tacky gold angel figurines for your birthday five years go, and you think she’s going to be hurt if she doesn’t see it displayed in your home. You know what? Accepting a gift does not mean agreeing to hang on to it for a lifetime.
5. Don’t use stuff as an investment – it’s only worth what other people will pay for it, and you’re paying to store it. A neighbor of mine once had an entire room in his home devoted to Beanie Babies, which were hot sellers in the late ’90s. You know what they’re worth now? Nothing. Only keep stuff like this if it’s in pristine condition and you’re positive that it has collectible value, and in that case, get it appraised and insured. Otherwise, invest your cash and save precious storage space.
6. Analyze your wardrobe. Anything you haven’t worn in at least a year is a goner. If a color or print sticks out like a sore thumb, don’t keep on searching for something that will match. It’s much simpler to stick to a smaller wardrobe of high-quality essentials that can be mixed and matched.
7. Consider whether you will need to use each item at least once a year. Some things, like seasonal décor, make sense to keep – but others can be rented or borrowed on those rare occasions when they’re actually called into action. If you’re on the fence about an item that you feel might be useful at some mythical future date, think about giving it to someone who would get more use out of it.
8. On the other hand, don’t get rid of so much stuff that you’re forced to re-buy most of it within months. It’s easy for some people to get caught up in the spirit of de-cluttering, but you don’t want to merely re-enter the cycle of consumption and cost yourself more money in the long run.
9. Now, divide your cast-offs into four piles: sell, donate, recycle and toss. Your trash box should only contain things that have truly outlived their usefulness and can’t be recycled. Sell items that could fetch any cash on eBay, Craigslist or at a yard sale. Drop off whatever is left at your local charity drive, or find new homes for it at Freecycle.org.
10. Learn from this experience. After witnessing the pitiful pennies that many of my like-new possessions brought in at my yard sale, I now think twice about every new purchase. If you don’t truly need it, it’s a waste of money.

Image: MelvinSchlubman

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