A year ago: Gifts, blogs and Clutter Busting

Last April I was celebrating the first anniversary of my blog with some awesome tips for getting the most out of registering for gifts for a special occasion. My favorite tip continues to be don't feel guilty about returning things. 

I shared with you how I came by my wonderful head shots. Since those were taken, I have cut my hair short, so I've been thinking about having them redone.

One of the unused head shots that shows me with long hair.

Earth Day was last Friday, but this round-up of earth-friendly blog posts is interesting anytime.

I reviewed Brooks Palmer's book Clutter Busting and found it to be refreshing and a must-read for people needing help detaching from their stuff. I still read Palmer's blog regular and it always has a thought-provoking take on clutter and our relationship to our possessions.

Finally, I introduced the concept of "A year ago" posts with this first one, detailing my posts from April of 2009. I'll keep using the format as a way for me to remember my past topics and for new readers to get a taste of my archives.

Photo by Sean Paul Franget.

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.

Blog anniversary and gift registry tips

Tomorrow marks a year since I started working on this blog. I find that really hard to wrap my head around, since I clearly remember writing my first tentative post, not sure that I would be able to sustain a blog solely about organizing for very long. Of course, soon after the list of potential blog posts grew exponentially, and I feel like I haven't even made a dent!

On another note, here are a few things I learned about registering for gifts during my recent experience getting married (besides the fact that I have very thoughtful and generous friends and family):

• Registering for gifts does not solve the problem of getting duplicate gifts, nor does it banish unwanted off-registry gifts from turning up. But it does help with the above. And returning duplicates for store credit is simple, just...
• Wait until you think the majority of the gifts have been given, then make a single trip to the store(s) where you registered and do all the returns in one go. You can then use the credit to buy things that haven't been bought off the registry: just make sure to remove them from the registry so late gift-givers won't send duplicates!
• Find out if the stores you want to register at have a registry completion program. For instance, Crate and Barrel sends a certificate for 10% off anything left in your registry.
• Avoid stores that don't have actual registries, but something similar, like a "wish list." Wish lists are a good way to get ideas for someone's birthday present, but for traditional events like weddings and showers, they confuse people.
• Only register for things you actual want and will use (not to mention have a home for). This is an obvious rule to guard against clutter, but when you're receiving lots of gifts at once, it is especially important that you truly want each one.
• Don't feel guilty about returning things. 
• Keep a detailed list of who gave what, including their address for thank you notes, if possible. I'm using Bento to track the gift giver, what the gift exactly was, what registry it was from, if any, and if I've written a thank you note yet or not.

Which reminds me, I'm off to write some thank you notes!

 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