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Unclutterer

Daily tips on how to organize your home and office.

What clutter affects an unclutterer?Today

When I talk about struggles with clutter, I tend to speak in generalities — messy closets, disorganized desks, etc. My assumption is that the specific ways I fight with clutter in my life are different than other folks, and using generalities can make the advice applicable to more people.

However, I know there is value in concrete examples, and I believe our Friday Ask Unclutterer column is a great way to explore specific problems readers face. I received an e-mail from a reader recently, though, asking if I would talk about actual problems I face in my daily life. She wanted to know where clutter creeps into my schedule, home, and office.

I thought about it for a week and decided I would reveal one area where I completely fail at uncluttering. I’ve hinted at some of this in the past, but now I’ll share the whole story. It is, without a doubt, my Achilles heel:

Erin’s Failure: If something I rely upon breaks, stops working, or fails to do it’s job any longer, I have a tendency to ignore it instead of dealing with it. Last year, our washing machine was broken for two months and I responded by ignoring the problem. Out of necessity, I had to go to the Laundromat twice — spending more than $25 and hauling five hampers of clothes with me each time. Did I once research washing machines online to learn what might be wrong with our washer? No. Did I research replacement units, prices,

Why we hold on to sentimental clutterYesterday

Sentimental clutter plagues our attics, basements, closets, garages, and desks. These sentimental trinkets can keep us from moving forward with our lives physically and emotionally. If there is so much of the past taking up space in the present, there isn’t room to grow.

The article “What is nostalgia good for?” from BBC News discusses a recent report from the financial services firm Standard Life, the book Get It Together by Damian Barr, and research conducted by psychologist Clay Routledge at North Dakota State University that may provide insight into why we accumulate so many sentimental items and have even greater difficulty letting them go:

“Most of our days are often filled with with routine activities that aren’t particularly significant — shopping for groceries, commuting to work and so forth,” says Mr. Routledge.

“Nostalgia is a way for us to tap into the past experiences that we have that are quite meaningful — to remind us that our lives are worthwhile, that we are people of value, that we have good relationships, that we are happy and that life has some sense of purpose or meaning.”

Unfortunately, keeping everything from the past can have a negative impact on t

A year ago on UncluttererYesterday

2009

• Storing specialty hangers?
  How do you keep the non-standard hangers organized when they aren’t in use?
• Unitasker Wednesday: The snowman kit
  Snowman kits include everything except the snow!
• Flipside wallet
  I wanted to add the Flipside Wallet to the list of wallet alternatives due to the ease of use and cool design.
• ROO: Return on Organization
  A recent article in USA Today explores organization and how it can help keep expenses low in these tough economic times.
• Workspace of the Week: Crafts contained
  This week’s workspace of the week is Ali’s craft office.
• Ask Unclutterer: Corner kitchen cabinets
  The answer we discovered are storage systems that use the descriptive phrase “blind corner” in their names.
• Valentine’s day gift ideas
  Valentine’s day is here again and some of us are probably scrambling to find that pe
  

Moveable mudroomYesterday

Small spaces often lack utilitarian areas where people can hang hats and gloves, process mail, and store purses, backpacks, briefcases, and keys near their main entrances. It’s easy for mail and travel items to clutter up the inside of your home when there isn’t somewhere convenient to place these things when you immediately come indoors.

I don’t have a mudroom or even a simple coat closet in my home, so I’m always on the lookout for storage solutions to replace these conveniences. Late last week, my husband forwarded me a link to a beautiful storage solution from Hansen Family Furniture in Paris and told me to click on the “Collection” link at the top of the page, and then select “Trunk” from the items:

The Trunk was designed to be used as a wardrobe, but I think would be perfect in a foyer. The Trunk is the brain child of Scandinavian-born but now-living-in-Paris designer Gesa Hansen, and is made of solid oak. It is 27.5″ x 55.1″ x 27.5″ (700 mm x 1400 mm x 700 mm) and includes a hat tree, flip-up mirror, cubby holes for shoes or papers, two drawers, and two large shelves for additional storage (a shredder and trash can could easily fit on the lower one of these). The item has hinges and does close completely.

Ask Unclutterer: My mother may be a hoarderFebruary 5

Reader Anonymous submitted the following to Ask Unclutterer:

I am hoping that you can give my brother and I some advice. Our mom is getting worse each year and refuses to believe she has a problem. In addition to her bringing other people’s garbage into the house, she also has a number of cats who use the house as one large litter box. When my brother and I attempt to clean, she yells and screams, and takes the rubbish back in when we put it out for the garbage truck. Unless we physically rent a truck to take it to the dump ourselves, it never leaves the house. We are so worried because it’s getting worse and she is approaching 70 and are at our wit’s end. She won’t go to counseling and when we clean anything it just gets disgusting again. There is food rotting as she doesn’t have a working fridge anymore and when she buys food she forgets about it and it gets compacted with stuff she puts on top of it. The piles of garbage are growing and we can barely get the front door open now. We have threatened not to come and visit and she said fine don’t. Nothing seems to work or get through to her. What can we do as we don’t want to see her die in this. Please, can you help us? Please don’t publish my name.

Only a doctor can give an official diagnosis as someone being a hoarder, but, since your mother is re