Happier at Home

Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project, has a new book coming out in September called Happier at Home. I'm super excited to read it, as The Happiness Project Blog and book are chock-full of amazingly simple but important thoughts on happiness, and Happier at Home seems like it is going to be a wonderful follow-up, and particularly applicable to me, as I am spending more time at home than ever with my almost four-month-old. Gretchen Rubin posted a link to an excerpt of the book, which I lapped right up. Here's a quote from it that is just too perfect not to share:

"Many aspects of my life contributed to my feeling of hurry. Time might seem to be a very separate issue from possessions, for example, but I'd noticed that after I tackled clutter, not only did our apartment seem more spacious and organized, I also felt less hurried, because I could find and stow things easily. Having more order in my cabinets and closets made me feel as though I had more time in my day. Instead of scrabbling away at high shelves in search of a flashlight, or jamming the heating pad into some odd corner, I had a place for everything, with nothing superfluous in my way, which gave me a feeling of unhurriedness and mastery of the space around me."

- Gretchen Rubin, Happier at Home

Get organized, save money

Getting organized really can save you money. I've decluttered many things in my own home as well as in client's homes that other people in the household were just about to go spend money on because they needed the item. No need, I'd declare, depositing the item into the hands of the person in need. Money, time and effort saved all in one go.

Do you want to save money by getting organized?

Call Lelah at 818.269.6671

or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

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Clutter Carnival

I'm so happy to be one of the participants in this month's Professional Organizers Blog Carnival, hosted by the very talented Janet Barclay of Organized Assistant. My classic post Common clutter areas and what to do about them is just one of two dozen helpful and insightful blog posts all on the topic of clutter presented in the carnival.

Read and enjoy!

Need a professional to help you clear your clutter?
Call Lelah at 818.269.6671
or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com
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Poll # 1 results

The numbers are in and it looks like my loyal blog readers and Facebook fans are in agreement: 66% of respondents said they dispose of their clutter by giving it to Goodwill or another charity. Just 20% said they use Freecycle, while 6% said they unload it on their friends and family or simply throw it away. No clutter-holics responded by saying that's what attics, garages and basements are for. What a thoughtful  group of declutterers you readers are!

To find your local Goodwill, use their store locator. Don't forget to get a receipt if you itemize your tax deductions!

Freecycle is a great resource, and I've blogged about it before. Find your local chapter here.

Please vote now in the next poll topic: Do books about organizing make you more organized?

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com. Sign up for Lelah's News, a once-monthly newsletter.

Poll # 1: Disposing of clutter

I'm starting a new feature on my blog today - the biweekly poll. Every couple of weeks there will a new topic in the sidebar at the right. I would love it if everyone who visited this blog participated! If you have poll topics that you'd like me to pose to the readers of Helping You Organize, just share in the comments. I'm looking forward to hearing the responses of my fabulous readers. Many thanks!

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com. Sign up for Lelah's News, a once-monthly newsletter.

Fear is weight

I was listening to The Story the other night and the host was interviewing a woman who did speed hiking. She hiked the Appalachian Trail at a rate of 38 miles a day for 57 days. That in itself is incredible, but this woman also said something that really resonated with me. She said that people on the trail say that fear is weight. If you're afraid you're going to be cold, you pack extra clothes. If you're afraid of going hungry, you pack too much food. The emotion of fear translates into a more difficult and strenuous experience on the trail because you carry more stuff than you need. The stuff assuages our fear but it makes life less enjoyable.

How do your fears translate into stuff that weighs you down?

Here's another way to look at it. If you believe that you will be fine regardless of what the world throws your way, if you believe in the universe's ability to provide what you need, then you don't need stuff. Without stuff, you're physically lighter, and without fear you're emotionally and mentally lighter. Belief in having your needs met is lightness. It's freedom. How much more enjoyable is it to travel down that amazing beautiful and interesting trail of life without fear and stuff weighing you down?

Creative Commons photo posted to flickr by Krug6
Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com. Sign up for Lelah's News, a once-monthly newsletter.

A year ago: Common clutter, calendaring and Martha

Last March I published one of my favorite posts. It's about what to do with three common kinds of clutter. They are electronic clutter (still one of the most common issues I see in my clients' offices), plastic shopping bags (please get in the habit of bringing your own reusable bags!), and used ink cartridges. Staples now offers just $2 in credit per cartridge, but you can recycle up to 10 a month, which adds up.

Last year's "mark your calendar" post is a bit out of date now, but still be aware that Daylight Saving Time starts this Sunday, March 13, and we will be moving our clocks forward an hour.

Martha Stewart is amazing, but sometimes the things she recommends can be overkill. In this post, I analyzed her video about closet organization. What do you think?

Creative Commons ink cartridge photo posted to Flickr by kennymatic
Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com 

How to fold a fitted sheet

One of the most clutter-heavy and messy parts of many people's homes is their linen closet. I avoid this clutter-trap in my own home by only having one set of sheets for each bed. You really need no more than two, so if you have more than that, consider donating some. You can save room by folding your sheets neatly and if you have no linen closet, you can store them between the mattress and box spring, just put your fitted sheet on one side and your top sheet and pillow cases on the other. I could never understand how to fold fitted sheets until I saw a demonstration of it. Here's a really good video that shows you how.



Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

Bathroom blitz

Inspired by a session I had with a client recently, I de-cluttered my toiletries and makeup. Going through the bathroom drawers and cabinets to toss old makeup and bath products is just as satisfying as going through the fridge and tossing out old food. It's also just as important. When you open your fridge, it's pretty obvious what items are past their prime, and you don't hesitate to throw them away because you know eating them could make you sick. The same thing goes for expired and old makeup. Germs abound in mascara, lipstick, anything you touch with your body parts, and the ingredients in lotions and makeups will go bad after a while.

Here are some guidelines about how long it's safe to keep and use these products, but it's really pretty simple: if it smells funny, throw it away. If you didn't remember owning it, throw it away. If it was your wedding makeup and you are no longer a newlywed, throw it away.

Tiny samples of expensive lotions that you've been saving up - either use them in the next week, or throw them away. If you find a bunch of travel-sized toiletries items, consider donating them. Here's my post about how to do that: Travel size toiletries donation.

Your bathroom will feel lighter, cleaner and you won't be worried that the next mascara you pick up is going to give you an eye infection!

Creative Commons photo posted to flickr by pawpaw67

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

Count and de-clutter

Sometimes when we accumulate a lot of stuff we get so used to seeing it that it doesn't seem like a lot anymore. We only notice our things when they start really getting in the way. Give yourself a wake-up call with this simple exercise. Let's say you're getting tired of having no place to put your books because your shelves are all filled, or the jar of kitchen utensils near the stove is jam packed. Take a moment and count how many you have of the item. Just count them. Do you have five wooden spoons? 12? 19? 30? How many can you use at one time? Maybe three if you're cooking something complicated. Pick your three favorites and let go of the rest.

Counting something like books takes longer, but it's an eye opener to realize you have hundreds, perhaps thousands of volumes. Are they all really serving your life?

Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by cogdogblog

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

ABDC

ABDC.

Always Be De-Cluttering.

A shirt falls off a hanger and when you pick it up you realize you haven't worn it in ages and it has a stain. Turn it into rags, or toss it. Now.

You get frustrated because you can't close the gadget drawer in your kitchen easily. Find three duplicate tools and put them on Freecycle. Now.

Your birthday comes and you get a stack of great new books. Make room for them on the shelf by taking a few you are done with to the used bookstore. Now.

It's simple. It's constant. You don't have to think about it very hard.

Always Be De-Cluttering.

ABDC.

Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by Emily Carlin

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

Video: Entryway organization

Here's another quick video I made to show off my entryway table and how I keep myself organized there. Please note - all the corner clutter has gone!



Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

Videos: My corner clutter

Even professional organizers have stuff they don't need in their homes. I went through my bookshelves a while back and have been steadily adding to a pile near the door other items that are no longer useful to me. Unfortunately, the pile is still there after several weeks.



Solution: Today, I'm taking the books to my local used bookstore and turning them in for credit. Any that they don't want, I will take to my nearest Goodwill drop of location along with the clothes and household items. I'll be sure to get a receipt that I can use if I decide to deduct to my donations on my taxes next year. That's it - two stops and I'll have my corner back, some books credit and a tax write-off. If I can do it, you can, too!

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com 

Reunion: thanks for the memories

I had a fabulous time in Connecticut over the weekend visiting my college, Wesleyan University. It's really special to be able to go back to a place where one has so many wonderful memories and bring back those experiences by having one's senses bombarded with the sights, smells and sounds of the past.

But as much as the campus was the same as I remembered, changes have taken place. New buildings have sprung up, some beloved professors have retired and other buildings are being torn down. Notably, the large McConaughy dining hall (nicknamed Mocon) has been defunct since 2007, when the new campus center opened, and is due to be demolished this year.

This particular change has struck the Wesleyan community fairly hard. Alumni and students are nostalgic for the flying-saucer shaped building that served as a dining hall for forty years. As such, during reunion, there was a farewell concert for the old building and cups from the dining hall were given away as souvenirs. Naturally, being suspicious of clutter and not needing a plastic cup, I didn't take one, but I did take a picture to remind me of the event, of the building, of my memories there.

 

We don't need things to remind us of the past. Just as Mocon had its day and new students will form new memories at the new dining hall, so do we move on every day, forming new memories that will live inside us, not in our kitchen cupboards.

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

A year ago: preventing clutter, organizing blogs and maintenance

This week last year I posted on one of my favorite topics: preventing clutter. Being organized is not going to become a permanent aspect of your life unless you commit to reducing the clutter than comes into your life before it can get there and start draining your energy, time and money.

I also talk about the set up and maintenance of organizational systems via a brilliant metaphor about brushing your teeth.

Finally, I posted my very first "organizer's blog digest" where I mentioned some of my favorite organizing blogs. These are still some of the best written blogs with the best content out there.

Enjoy and come back next week for another trip down memory lane!

Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by Martin Kingsley
Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com 

The best things in life aren't free

Of course, sometimes they are. Like love and taking walks and sleeping in on Sundays. But most free things aren't the best. They are usually that dreaded c-word, clutter. Even though something about our frugal natures thinks that if something is free we should take it home with us and love it, please don't. Most of the time it's not exactly right and you end up by paying for it over an over again with your valuable time and space, having to maintain and clean it, and then having to dispose of it eventually. Don't accept things that are "free." It's as simple as saying, "No, thanks."

Here's a partial list to help you recognize free clutter.

• Anything sitting on the side of the road.
• Conference freebies. These are just promotional items that you can live without.
• Stuff that people give away at fairs, from bookmarks to pamphlets to magazines to shopping bags.
• Things that your friends give you because they would rather give their clutter to someone they know than donate it, for some reason. 
• Free samples of cosmetics, cleaning products and food. (Slightly better because they are consumable, but still 9 times out of 10 clutter.)
• Free "gifts with purchase" at stores. Often these are inferior products that are not what you came into the store to buy in the first place.
• "Free" trial issues of magazines or subscription services that send you a bill when the trial period runs out.
• Promotional items like posters, pens and postcards you might pick up at a movie preview or book signing. Again, it's the company trying to get you to advertise their product, for free.

What other free junk examples can you think of?

Creative Commons free photo posted to Flickr by andrew steinmetz

Creative Commons free junk photo posted to Flickr by cogdogblog

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com 

Common clutter areas and what to do about them

Many of my clients have the same types of clutter in their spaces. There's something about the following areas that seem to stop people in their organizing tracks. These things are like rocks in a stream that stop up the flow and force you to navigate around them, all the time. Even if the rest of the room is fairly clutter free, having these problem areas can bring all the energy in the room down. Here are the three biggest ones:

Problem: Electronic accessories. Everyone somewhere in their house has a drawer or box with the little white piece of plastic that their iPod came with and black cords with colorful ends that most of us have no idea what function they have. There's the extra phone jack things that came when we installed our Internet service, and probably a few extra ethernet cables, disks that go to programs we never use, and sets of earbuds that may or may not still work. Somehow people, whether tech savvy or not, are afraid to get rid of anything that looks like a cable. But the problem is if  you throw all that stuff in a box, you come back and have cable soup. Everything is tangled, ugly and messy and you don't even want to look in the box when you need something out of it, so maybe you go buy a new on (one of the biggest inidcators of a clutter issue).

Solution: Only keep what you can identify and need. If you aren't sure what that plastic piece is for, look it up online, decide if you have a use for it, then recycle it. Cables, power cords, old modems and other electronic equipment need to be disposed of properly at an e-waste facility. You can usually get rid of most everything electronic at Best Buy or other local retailers, but do a serach for e-waste in your area to find out the most convenient location. If you decide to keep some of these items, store each cable and cord individually in a plastic zip-top bag, then label the bag with the contents. Then store all the bags in one drawer or box, leaving enough room to add future aquisitions. Alternately, use twist ties or rubber bands to contain cords and remember to label, label, label. That unidentified black cable is not going to ever get used if you haven't labeled it as belonging to your old digital camera. (Better yet, donate the camera and cord to someone in need.)

Problem: Plastic and paper grocery bags. Some people have entire closets bursting with grocery bags and shopping bags, even when they do the sensible thing and get most of their purchases with reusable bags. Kitchen and closet space is at a premium for most of us, and we can't afford to have bags taking up valuable space, yet we're terrified of getting rid of them because we're sure to need them. In a way, this is true. I use plastic grocery bags and paper bags nearly every day, to contain recycling before it goes down to the bin, to carry my lunch to my client's, to carry my library books when it's raining. But the amount of bags you could use in a day, or even a week, will never come close to the amount of bags that some people store. 


Solution: Recycle all but three plastic bags and two paper bags right now. Even those good, sturdy bags from the Apple store or whatever. The beauty to recycling these bags (and yes, even the small plastic grocery bags are recyclable nearly everywhere now) is that you're going to accumulate more. Quickly. Even if you are super diligent about bringing your own bags, somehow these things find themselves in your living space. Don't be afraid of running out, and don't keep more than a few on hand.



Problem: Used ink cartridges. Some people hang on to empty printer cartridges because they know they should recycle them but aren't sure how to go about it. Some think they might get them refilled and save a few dollars. 


Solution: I've never refilled my cartridges, but I have heard that they are not as effective and don't last as long as the real thing. So it might not be worth it. As far as recycling goes, you can take empty ink cartridges to Staples, where they will recycle them for you and give you a rewards credit to use to their store in the future. It's very simple. 


Creative Commons cable photo posted to Flickr by juhansonin
Creative Commons plastic bag photo posted to Flickr by evelynishere
Creative Commons ink cartridge photo posted to Flickr by kennymatic


Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

Wedding clutter

I'm getting married in a few short months. The wedding planning process has been a huge lesson in patience and teamwork. Over the weekend my fiance and I made a pilgrimage to a giant mall and registered for gifts. The entire concept of registering for gifts was very mentally and emotionally difficult for my fiance and I to come to terms with. We feel that the best gift people can give us is the help is celebrate our marriage by attending out wedding, but we know that people want to give a physical gift as part of the celebration process. And since we don't have a lot of space, we decided it would be better to help people figure out the kind of thing to get us versus leaving them in the dark. So, anyway, we tried incredibly hard to only register for things that we truly want, can use in our lives right now and that we have room to store and take care of in our one bedroom apartment. It was actually more fun than I thought it would be to pick out a silverware pattern and champagne flutes. We also got a lot of congratulations from perfect strangers who saw us walking around with the little barcode reader and knew exactly what modern rite of passage we were undergoing.

After the very simple process of selecting items we wanted from Crate and Barrel, as a thank you gift for registering there, they gave us a rather large, rather heavy glass dish in the shape of a heart. Ack! We didn't open it up until we left the store, but I really wish we had said thanks but no thanks. It's another example of how free stuff is usually just clutter. A glass heart shaped dish isn't something we love or something we need, and we don't have anyplace to put it. So it's leaving our home as soon as possible. The wedding clutter must be curbed!

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

No cluttering

Have you ever noticed how close the word clutter is to the word litter? When one thinks of litter, one imagines McDonald's cups and cigarette ends lying in gutters or along roadways. It isn't a pleasant image; littering went out of style a long time ago. While you can't always get out of your car and clean up a highway, clutter is a form of litter that you do have control over. Letting papers monopolize your desktop, books spill over from bookshelves onto tables and floors and unused kitchen doohickies take up all your counter space is as detrimental to your well being and productivity as garbage is to the environment's health and beauty.

Just as you wouldn't litter in a public space, don't clutter up your private space. Take pride in your surroundings and live in an environment you can thrive in.

Creative Commons photo posted to flickr by lylamerle

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

Christmas card containment

Often the best solutions are the simplest. I love getting mail, and Christmas cards are so cheerful and festive that they are warmly received in my household. People often have anxiety over how to display Christmas cards and what to do with them after the season is over. Here's my advice:

• Get a shallow bowl or basket and collect the cards inside. You can shuffle through them periodically throughout December and enjoy reading their messages.
• Use the opportunity to update your address book with the return addresses included on the envelopes and update any notes you may have about a particular person, such as an engagement, marriage or new baby in the family.
• Keep those cards that have particular special notes or are from particularly special people and feel free to recycle the rest or use them for art projects. Many people simply use store-bought cards and sign their name. No need to hang on to those past New Year's day.
• Don't feel anxiety about sending cards in return. If you have the time and inclination to send out cards to friends and relatives, go for it. Otherwise, there's no life rule that says you must send holiday cards or you are a bad person. If you do want to send someone a card but don't want to go to the expense of buying and posting it, consider an e-card, which is enjoyed once and then never becomes paper waste or clutter.

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com