Quick tip: wash those reusable bags

The August issue of Better Homes and Gardens published the statistic that 85% of people don't regularly launder their reusable grocery bags. They recommend cleaning bags in hot soapy water at least once a week. Upon reading that, I promptly threw mine in the wash and in the future will look out for bags that are easy to clean. Some of my plastic-y ones aren't easy to just throw in the washing machine.

Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by PedalFreak

L.A. City Passes Bag Ban

Yesterday, the LA City Council voted to ban single-use plastic bags in retail stores. The decision has been a long time in coming. I'm all for reusable bags and hope that the ban will have its intended effect, to reduce waste and pollution. Here's the LAist coverage, and here's my blog post on refusing plastic bags from August of last year.

One of my reusable bags.

For those of us who have been bringing bags with us as a habit won't have too much of a change in store (no pun intended). But there are many who never got on the reusable bag bandwagon, and they will need to incorporate reusable bags into their lifestyle if they want to avoid paying 10 cents for a paper bag every time they shop.

Some tips for remembering your reusable bags:

• Get the kind that zip up or stuff up inside themselves and keep several at the bottom of your purse.
• Stash bulkier canvas or vinyl bags in your trunk.
• Create a place by the front door to hang bags (Command hooks are great for this) so you can grab recently emptied ones on your way out the door to replenish your car stock.
• Always bring more bags in to a store than you think you will need, just in case you underestimate how much you will be purchasing.

How to make grocery shopping less of a chore

I used to love grocery shopping. It was one of my favorite errands, making a list, checking things off, shopping smart with coupons and bringing my reusable bags. I used to live about a quarter of a mile from a big, shiny supermarket and a five minute drive from a Trader Joe's.

Now I live about an eighth of a mile from a medium-sized supermarket, five minutes from Trader Joe's, with a Whole Foods smack in between, and shopping threatens to become more of a chore than it should be. I still live by my list, but the problem is that I often have to go to at least two of those stores on any given trip in order to cross everything off. So I've tweaked my shopping style and have a few tips to help make the process more enjoyable:

• I keep a running list of items needed, then before I plan to go to the store, I check all the recipes I intend to make in the coming week and fill the list with needed items. I do a quick walkthrough of the house to make sure I'm not forgetting something like toothpaste. This cuts down on forgetting anything and decreases the frequency I need to shop.
• I've pretty much given up on coupons, unless I happen to come across one that is for something I already buy and use. I find that if it is for something I use, but a different brand, then the savings the coupon represents still don't make up for the price difference against the brand I usually buy, so I'm not really saving money. I also don't have to worry about remembering to take them with me or pull them out at checkout.
• Of course, I always bring my own bags. Remembering to do this every time is a point of pride with me, and I prefer my own sturdy and pretty bags to disposable ones anyway.
• I bring a bottle of water and stay hydrated. Especially if I'm going from store to store, I always get thirsty walking around with a cart, and drinking water helps me feel better and cuts down on impulse buys like expensive smoothie-type drinks.
• I try to time my shopping so when I arrive home laden with bags, my husband is home and available to help me unload. We live up two steep flights of stairs, and while the exercise is good, it's also nice to share the load.
• I stock up on dry staples wherever I can, so sometimes I can get away with a short, light shopping trip one week (fruits, veggies, milk) alternated with a staple-heavy trip the next.

Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by simiezzz

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.

Say no to every plastic bag

Local bans of plastic grocery bags have come into vogue. There's a good article in the Los Angeles Times on the plastic bag ban now being enacted in unincorporated parts of LA County. There are numerous reasons for avoiding the use of plastic bags, among them the environmental impact of manufacturing and distributing the bags, the problem of having such disposable products floating around our streets and waterways and the hazards these littered bags pose to animals. From an organizational perspective, plastic bags can quickly take over a pantry or closet. We see these convenient tools as being too good to throw away; they are usually strong and stand up to multiple uses, so we are loathe to trash them and we are uncertain about recycling them. In many places, they are not recyclable.

Tiny bag folded up.

Unfolded, it holds so much stuff, stylishly!

I am vehemently anti-plastic bags and I think the bans are a good thing. I always bring reusable bags when grocery shopping or even shopping at a mall. I never take a bag if the item I'm purchasing is small enough to stow in my purse or carry in my hand. I keep two collapsible bags in my purse at all times. If I must take a bag, I reuse it as many times as possible before recycling it.

To those who think they are incapable of remembering to bring bags with them, I say nonsense. Stash a few in your car, your glove box, your purse or backpack. Many businesses offer incentives for bringing your own bags - take advantage of this! Bulky canvas bags are super sturdy, but lightweight scrunch-style bags take up very little room. There's really no excuse. Get on the no-plastic-bag bandwagon!

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 

A year ago: Reviews and resolutions

February just zipped by, didn't it? Here's a selection of past posts from around this time last year.

A year ago today I reviewed Unclutter Your Life in One Week by Erin Rooney Doland of the blog Unclutterer. This book is out in paperback now, and a great, simple approach to restructuring your life in a more streamlined way.

I tend to use and reuse plastic bags. After my trip to the Burbank Recycle Center, I'm even more conscious about bringing stuff into my house that will ultimately end up in the garbage, no matter how many times I reuse it, so I've been buying less and less over time.

Last year, still in my old apartment, I undertook a major rearranging of furniture. It was sort of the last attempt to make a space that I had been slowly outgrowing work. Now in a new apartment, it's fun to look back at the pictures from this time, but I'm glad I made an even bigger change by moving.

And, belatedly, my Valentine's Day post from last year in which I talked about the things I love, including being a professional organizer. Awww. It's still true, and as I continue with my third year of organizing, I'm grateful that I'm able to grow along with my business.

Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by suavehouse113
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

Plastic storage bags: reuse and recycle

The Los Angeles Times has a blog for just about any topic you can think of. I love their entertainment coverage, but they also have great food, architecture and book content as well. Yesterday in the L.A. at Home blog (billed as covering "design, architecture, gardens, Southern California living") Rene Lynch aka "The Recyclist" posted on her propensity for reusable plastic food storage containers and how she's trying to be more conscious of her use of plastic zip-top bags which are incredible easy to use and even easier to throw away.

Of course, like most people who read articles on the Internet, I've heard about of all those hard to pronounce chemicals that make up the plastic containers and bags and theoretically leach into our food, especially when heated, and then do all sorts of imagined bad things to our bodies. Maybe it's a conspiracy, but I've never read any actual authoritative proof that says these plastics are bad for you. So I use, and reuse, plastic bags until they break.

I usually buy a small quantity of quart and gallon sized bags once every six to eight months, and use them for food, travel and other organizational purposes with thorough washing and dryings in between. These things are sturdy as well as incredibly useful.

Check out her post and the comments. For some reason this topic always raises a lot of opinions. What do you do about food storage and seductively handy zip-top bags?

Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by suavehouse113
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