Toluu : Unclutterer

Unclutterer

Daily tips on how to organize your home and office.

Yard Sales: An unclutterer’s ultimate, how-to guideYesterday

Today we welcome guest post author Geralin Thomas, the ideal professional organizer, and her amazing advice for a successful yard sale.

A pocketful of cash, a clutter-free home, and a lot of interaction between your stuff and passers-by all make yard sales hard to resist. Who hasn’t driven by a yard sale and wondered if there’s a too-good-to-be-true bargain hiding behind a used sewing machine, or if the perfect whatcha-ma-call-it at a to-die-for price is amidst all the other treasures?

Why have a yard sale?
We all want our homes to be clean and neat and to reflect who we are. A truly great home balances organization with comfort and style. Hosting a yard sale provides incentive to edit things from your house that no longer fit, work, come in handy, or relate to your lifestyle. Oh yes, and yard sales generate extra income. So, why not have a yard sale?

Choose the right day

Not every day is right for a yard sale. For example, don’t schedule your sale on a holiday weekend unless you live in a tourist town.
The best months for sales are April, May, June and September.
If possible, try to schedule your sale near the 1st or the 15th of the month because those are paydays for a lot of shoppers.
Saturdays are best.
Earlier

Workspace of the Week: Unconventional solutionsYesterday

This week’s Workspace of the Week is Graywood Farm’s scrapbooking desk:

I was drawn to this office space for two reasons. For starters, it’s a standing desk, which is a rare submission for our photo group. Secondly, I love the use of unconventional containers for storage. It is a good reminder that you can be creative and think outside the box when putting together your organized space. Go with what speaks to you. Thank you, Graywood Farm, for giving us this valuable reminder!

Want to have your own workspace featured in Workspace of the Week? Submit a picture to the Unclutterer flickr pool. Check it out because we have a nice little community brewing there. Also, don’t forget that workspaces aren’t just desks. If you’re a cook, it’s a kitchen; if you’re a carpenter, it’s your workbench.

10 tips to beat clutter in less than five minutesAugust 28

I’m happy to have Gretchen Rubin, the fabulous author of The Happiness Project, join us with a guest post today on Unclutterer. There just aren’t enough kind words in the English language to say about her. Welcome, Gretchen!

Having a clutter-filled house can make you feel overwhelmed and exhausted. Everywhere you look, you see little chores that should be done. No single task is particularly difficult, but together, they add up to a big headache and a big mess. Pretty quickly, it’s easier just to add to the piles than to try to attack the problem.

Here are ten easy, quick tips that, if followed regularly, will help keep your clutter under control. And none of them takes more than five minutes – if that.

Make your bed each morning.
Throw away the newspaper each night, even if you haven’t read it yet.
Follow the “one-minute rule” – push yourself to do any chore that takes less than one minute. Throw away the junk mail, close the cabinet door, put your dirty socks in the hamper, hang up your wet towel.
Identify an organization or person to whom you can give things you no longer need – it’s much easier to get rid of unneeded stuff if you can envision someone else getting good use from them. Also, figure out a place to store those things until you

Are mobiles necessary?August 28

Every child is unique. Some love to suck on pacifiers until they are well beyond three years old, while others never use them at all. Which causes me to wonder if anyone’s child got use out of their crib mobile?

Well, I’m not entirely sure about the need for a mobile. My daughter couldn’t have cared less about the mobile we had hanging over her crib. I don’t think we ever wound it up more than a handful of times. We ended up donating it way before we moved her into a bed. Are you depriving your child by foregoing a mobile? Are they going to miss out on early child development, because you failed to supply them with a spinning musical mobile? I doubt it.

Granted, some kids love their mobiles and they help them fall asleep. But, a one-size-fits-all guide to raising a baby is not realistic. I guess what I’m saying is, there is no magic toy that all babies need. Mobiles are a traditional product that parents have come to attach to their cribs with little or no hesitation. Maybe it’s time to pause before buying baby gear simply out of habit.

Is there a “can’t live without it” baby product that your son or daughter ended up not paying attention to? I have a fairly long list of things that my daughter easily lived without.

Unitasker Wednesday: GoateeSaverAugust 27

I’m not the best person to ask for advice when it comes to facial hair grooming. I only shave once a week because I don’t have a large amount of hair on my face, and I work from home. So, maybe my lack of expertise is the reason I don’t adequately understand the need for the GoateeSaver.

From the GoateeSaver site:

Tired of the constant struggle every morning trying to get your goatee to look perfect? GoateeSaver revolutionizes the way you shave and trim your goatee. GoateeSaver can be customized to your face in seconds, with three easy adjustments. Just slide it over your mouth and shave to get the perfect look that women will admire and men will respect.

Constant struggle? I had no idea that the goateed had to put up with such adversity to look good! Thankfully, the GoateeSaver is here to help. Just shove this thing in your mouth and shave around it. It sounds too good to be true. Check out the site for an informative video and I’m sure you’ll be sold. Now go forth, and be manly.

Thanks to reader Scott for bringing this unitasker to our attention.

**Each week, the Unitasker Wednesday column humorously pokes fun at the unnecessary, single-use items that manage to find their way into our homes.