clutter clearing in action

2008-06-17T19:42:00.000-07:00

Check it out! For the second year in a row members of the Home Based Business Association voted me the recipient of the Environmental Award for my efforts in keeping items out of the landfill.

2008-04-06T20:15:00.000-07:00

Check this out: my altar project is positioned on top of three boxes in front of a fireplace that we rarely use. When Angelo expressed an interest in moving his home office out of the spare bedroom and into our sunny living area, we realized that the space in front of the fireplace could be better utilized as a work space. To view my altar project go to alialtar.blogspot.com

2008-04-06T20:12:00.000-07:00

Notice how the filing cabinet becomes the 'leg' of the shelf and an old night stand becomes the other leg. This means that both pieces do double duty; they are functional braces to a fabulous work space and are storage units as well.

2008-04-06T20:05:00.000-07:00

Here is Angelo's new work space. We brought the table (desk) out from the spare bedroom and now his desk faces the backyard, which is awesome as it is a 'bird freeway' with lots of greenery and bird activity. Much better than looking at a wall or a co-worker or being stuck in a back room. Since we made use of the space in front of the fireplace to create the other part of the L shaped desk, the entire work area doesn't really infringe on our living space too much.

2007-09-22T18:54:00.000-07:00

CHECK IT OUT!! After searching for seven months my partner and I are the proud owners of a 1982 diesel Westfalia. And the best part: it runs on recycled vegetable oil. In one week we will set off on an 18-day northern BC book tour, with five stops in four cities. Stay tuned for more details... or check out www.ReduceYourFootprint.org

2007-09-22T18:40:00.000-07:00

This past year I teamed up another local organizer and together we helped the Comox Valley Hospice Society get their offices organized. Hospice provides an invaluable service to the community with a limited budget, a handful of staff and a whole lot of volunteers. The Executive Director later presented me with a rosemary plant and certificate at their AGM.

2007-06-17T21:03:00.000-07:00

Turn your clutter into cash with a well organized garage or yard sale! Follow the tips below to ensure a pleasing set up and hassle-free day.

Realistic pricing is essential as is doing this ahead of time to avoid more headaches on the day of the sale (you will have enough on your plate with the early birds!). Encourage multiple purchases by pairing items together or stating "4 for a dollar, two for a toonie" etc.

Stuffing the profits into your pockets is one way of storing your money but this way is much more organized, don't you think? Ask around to see if you can borrow a cash box for the day.

Everyone loves to get something for nothing! Consider having a 'free' section to move items and encourage happy feelings!

These wooden boxes will double as baskets as people browse the tables...

Books, books and more books...purge your shelves and let go of books that you never finished, didn't like or didn't start!

What would a garage sale be without mason jars? Canning is making a comeback so dust off those canning supplies that have been sitting in the basement and help make someone's day!

Having all the planters in one spot makes it easy to offer a discount for large purchases.

Group like-items together so that people can quickly browse items of interest.

Make use of large tables to display items. People will be more apt to browse if they can do so without getting a sore back in the process.

Be careful that someone doesn't walk away with the family pet!

Now that you have carefully sorted and priced your stuff, you can get ready to sell, sell, SELL!

And remember, any items which don't sell should be taken to the thrift store immediately.

If not, you run the risk of bringing them back into your house where they may remain indefinately.

2006-12-11T19:53:00.000-08:00

YANA (You Are Not Alone) is a non-profit agency that raises money for families that incur expenses while their child is undergoing medical treatment in Vancouver. Every November they hold their major fundraiser at the Driftwood Mall in Courtenay. This year I purchased a tree and decorated it with, you guessed it: clutter! Check out the tree to the right...

Anyone who has read my book, Clutter's Dirty Secret, will recognize this tree. It is decorated with dozens of old rosettes from my childhood (I competed in equestrian events across Southern Ontario for several years). Not wanting to throw them out, and with no room to display them, I 're-purposed' them and passed them along to another horsey-person.

2006-09-25T22:48:00.000-07:00

PAPERS, the bane of my existence. The challenge for many people, including myself, is knowing where to file them so that they can be retrieved at a later date. As a speaker, author and workshop facilitator, I am always clipping out articles and jotting down ideas. I was beginning to recognize that my system was outdated and it was hard for me to find specific information.
My task: to purge the drawer of my filing cabinet. I often say that organizers are not immune to the challenges of staying organized and that means every so often (at least once a year), I need to go through my files, paper by paper, and assess whether I want to hang on to the information or if it is outdated and can be recycled. A sign that this needs to be done is when it gets harder and harder to maneuver file folders and pull out papers.
Before you begin, make sure that you have all of the supplies you need. A place to sit and spread out your papers, a recycle bin and papers to make note of action items.
As you can see, things look worse before they get better. I took this opportunity to create new files that reflect my current interests and to group information in ways that make sense to me.
Almost done. The floor is clear and now I have two main piles to deal with.
The last pile. I have decided to free up space in my filing cabinet by creating a binder that holds all of my workshop materials. I will make use of dividers and plastic sleeves to better organize these materials.
Here it is. Don't be afraid to make use of colours to spice up your filing system. I have also taped an announcement about an inspiring speaker that I heard on the front of one of the dividers. People are more likely to file if they have personalized their tools and included motivational quotes.

Tadah: the workshop binder! Now, when I am planning a workshop, I can quickly pull this binder from the shelf and find handouts, materials and past outlines of workshops I have presented. The material is easy to access and I can quickly flip through it for ideas or reference. All together, this project took about 31/2 hours spread out over a five hour period. I took one 10 minute break after I had flipped through every piece of paper in the file cabinet, and then I took an hour off to walk the dog and enjoy the sunshine before returing to the task at hand. Breaks can be vital for mental clarity and creative ideas. Plus, getting out for some exercise meant that I wasn't resentful about missing a beautiful, sunny day. Don't be afraid to take breaks as required, just make sure you return to finish the job!

2006-08-17T21:44:00.000-07:00

OK, I confess, I am bragging...this is me winning the Environmental Award at the annual awards night for the Comox Valley Home Based Business Association. Given that so much of what people let go of is donated to charity, members recognized my work for keeping 'stuff'out of the landfill.
Remember: it is unusual for North Americans to actually wear something out; chances are, someone else will appreciate and make use of something that you know longer want, use or need.

2006-07-24T11:38:00.000-07:00

Home offices typically include a computer which the kids may also be using for homework, chatting and games. While the above picture doesn't quite capture the "before," the table you are looking at will be removed and replaced with a filing cabinet. Imagine that the chair and desk is rotated 45 degrees to the left.
We brought up the filing cabinet from a downstairs closet and turned the desk and chair so that it is now perpendicular from its orignial position. The filing cabinet ensures that bills and statements will be filed (instead of 'hoping' that they make it downstairs where the cabinet was originally found).
This is one of the bookshelves that sorely needed to be purged. A number of books were boxed up for donation and the remainder were sorted by size and type. The bags on top contained papers that were eventually filed.
Isn't this more pleasing to the eye? The tops of the shelves can now display family photos and there is a much greater chance of actually being able to find a book.
This is the bookcase beside the desk, before it was rotated. The shelf was also purged and loose CDs gathered up and stored in a CD holder. I find that most people have organizational tools (CD holders, plastic trays, filing cabinets); they simply aren't being used effectively. This is another reason to purge first instead of rushing out to buy more tools, as you may be surprsied at what tools you already own!
As you can see, the computer table and chair have been rotated 45 degrees and the active files are located on the top shelf of the bookcase, stacked neatly (and labelled!) in manilla folders. The floor is clear of debris and there are no loose items stuck in between the wall and the bookcase.

2006-07-24T10:50:00.000-07:00

I can honestly say that I was dreading this job. It was the first garage that I had done and it was simply overwhelming. But, like anything, you have to start and start we did. We removed items to the driveway so that we had room to think and plan out the space. With two of us working, and at times a third, we sorted through it all in about three hours. Even I was amazed at what we accomplished!

We did it! Hard to believe, isn't it? As always, items were grouped together for donation and we filled up a few garbage bags of, well, garbage. Plus, we removed a number of items into a second garden shed. I still can't believe that the floor is visible!
I don't think we could have cleaned up the garage without these shelves. As soon as we had cleared space along the wall we assembled the shelves and started putting things on them. And guess what? They were salvaged from an old department store. Remember, there are lots of options besides buying "brand new"...
In addition to the shelves, plastic trays and cardboard boxes allowed smaller items to be grouped together.

Hooks make a huge difference when it comes to keeping stuff up off the floor and encouraging kids to put things away.

2006-04-16T20:35:00.000-07:00

Clutter often accumulates because of habits that don't support being organized. As you can see from the state of this car, continuously tossing garbage into the back seat eventually leads to one messy vehicle!
The same goes for the back: the black crate makes for a perfect container, but it needs to be used properly.
Look what I found beneath all of the rubbish! Twelve, yes 12 coffee cups (and that doesn't include the take-out cups that were thrown away)!

Deodorant rolling around, mouthwash under the seat...a gym bag would easily solve this problem!
This is how much garbage was taken from the car - practically a full bag!

Gone are the fast food wrappers, coffee cups, wrapping paper and garbage.

Look: the black crate neatly houses the automotive supplies, and there is lots of room for...?

2006-04-16T20:20:00.000-07:00

What a mess! This storage closet had become a dumping ground; when company came over clothes were stuffed inside and in general, things were simply piled on top of one another.

Check out the difference! Gone are the miscellaneous clothes that were dumped in the closet and guess what I found? An extra shelf that was simply sitting on top of another one. By adding an additional shelf at the top, it is now possible to clearly separate objects by size. The result: a storage closet where most items can be seen at a glance.

2006-04-12T20:47:00.000-07:00

CHECK OUT THIS DESK! Paper is the bane of my existence so I can totally relate to the challenge that office workers face in our current knowledge economy. Papers, emails, phone messages...it never stops.

Can you relate to this? Just seeing the image muddles my thinking and makes me wonder what impact it has on productivity. Talk about visual clutter! Imagine facing this mess every morning at 9:00am...

What a difference! Clear working space, files neatly lined up along the right, just a few personal effects on the top shelf and loads of room in the filing cabinet for files.

"One person's trash is another person's treasure". Most people can donate unwanted items and sure enough, these treasures were left in the lunch room for co-workers to fight over. All but one was claimed (my partner couldn't believe that I didn't grab the yoda doll. Oops!).
Don't be distracted by action items. Group them into a pile or make a list but keep clearing! In this example, we cleared on a Saturday and the action items were staring him in the face Monday morning.
The key to tackling a specific area is to sort into boxes so that you don't create more of a mess. Garbage, Recycle, Action and Take Home are common categories. Shred, return to rightful owner and undecided are examples of other categories to sort into. In actuality, we emptied the recycle box about three times during the course of this clearing. Time required? Less than two hours. How long it stayed tidy? Only the co-workers know the answer to that question!

2006-04-11T20:39:00.000-07:00

AFTER: now you can actually walk up to the computer corner. Notice the lovely flooring?!
Three rubber totes remain which now house individual projects (photos and frames, children's memorabilia and papers). Now that they are secured in containers, they can remain in one place and be tackled at a future date.
Look at all this space! We moved the desk to the opposite wall and placed a decorative lamp on top. Now it can actually function as a workspace! The drawers are another story, but again, represent individual, managable projects that can be tackled in the future.

"How long did this take" you ask? Two people working steadily for just over two hours.
In the end there was a carload to go to the local thrift store, a car load to go to ReStore (which accepts donations of home renovation supplies) and two boxes of recycling/shredding.

2006-04-11T20:19:00.000-07:00

BEFORE: My client moved into her condo just over a year ago, and unfortunately one of the rooms in the basement became a dumping ground. Although the computer corner was functional (barely!), the rest was not.

There were several garbage bags of old clothing (I think 12 in total!), plus boxes of old videos, photo albums and the proverbial knick knacks (aka: dust collectors).

It is kind of hard to see but on the left hand side of this photo is an old fish tank sitting on a small bookshelf, and in addition to three ceiling fans (the condo was being retrofitted), there were three rubber totes full of STUFF!