Combat Clutter
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by Erin Doland on Dec 10, 2010 Reader Andrew submitted the following to Ask Unclutterer: I agree and aspire to be neat, minimalist, the epitome of uncluttered … but I have a couple of high priced items that I haven’t used in some time but feel I would regret if I didn’t have them … primarily because I feel my kids could one day use them. So I wonder: Have you ever regretted getting rid of something?
Ask Unclutterer: Regrets and legacy items
by Erin Doland on Dec 17, 2009 As the year winds down, my husband and I are embarking on The Great Paperwork Filing Project of 2009. It’s such an undertaking it feels appropriate we give it an official name with capital letters.
Sort, scan, and file your stacks of papers
Organizing your home and family with notebooks
by Erin Doland on Jun 14, 2010 On Friday, I wrote about creating an information notebook for every person in your family. Notebooks are great because they keep all of your important papers in one place and they are easily portable. In our home, we have a recipe notebook , appliance notebook (instruction manuals, purchase receipts, maintenance and repair receipts, and warranty information), and important information notebooks for all four of us (our cat even has one). We store these notebooks in a place where we can find them quickly, easily spot if someone hasn’t returned the notebook to its shelf after use, but in an area that has minimal guest traffic.
Organize
Discover your style to keep clutter out of your closet
by Erin Doland on Feb 9, 2010 On page 23 of Unclutter Your Life in One Week , I promote the idea of discovering your style to help you keep clutter out of your closets. If your closet is limited to clothes that fit, clothes you want to wear, and clothes that project your desired image, you’re less likely to find yourself overbuying or with a mess you can’t control: You may not know exactly what you want your clothes to say about you, but you probably have a good idea what you don’t want them to say. When I was in my twenties and leading a forum on school uniform policies, a group of high school students told me I dressed like a “frumpy pants.” It was a few seconds after that moment that I decided I didn’t want my clothes to say that I was a “frumpy pants.”
Parting with sentimental clutter
by Erin Doland on May 12, 2010 In the first few chapters of the book Stuff , which I reviewed on Monday , the authors talk in detail about sentimental clutter. We all struggle with this kind of clutter, not just hoarders, and the authors explain why on page 45:
by Erin Doland on Jan 26, 2009 My father, a photographer, put a camera in my hands at a very early age. I have taken hundreds, often thousands, of pictures a year for most of my life. And, as a result, I have boxes and boxes of print photographs taking up space in my closet.
Preserving digitized photographs
by Erin Doland on Jan 25, 2008 My 98-year-old paternal grandmother loves National Geographic magazine. When we helped move her into a one-bedroom apartment in a retirement community a few years ago, I was shocked to discover that she had been saving every issue of the magazine for more than 30 years. The collection (stored in dozens of cardboard boxes in her attic) contained somewhere between 400 and 500 monthly issues and special printings.
Stop hoarding magazines
by Erin Doland on Feb 8, 2010 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.