Cut the Clutter

by Dorling Kindersley

  trash. Set the timer for 20 minutes. To make it easier of activities we do there leads to an

  to do a group declutter, double or triple the number of boxes used for Put Away. Limit the STOP clutter session explosion of clutter.

  to 20 minutes to shortcut the potential for argument.

  Divide and conquer

  1 Sort Start sorting. Assign each family member a small Clutter is like chickenpox: it spreads from person to person area to clear—a shelf, table, or corner—and a

  with only casual contact. One person’s ongoing craft project tight timeline to declutter it to make the job specific and becomes authorization for the next guy to spread his stuff short. Key targets: the choked video storage rack, the out, too. How to control family room clutter? With a family stacks of old magazines, the scattering of toys all over STOP clutter session. The communal nature of the room the carpet. Give the kids a Put Away box for far-flung means that any clutter solution will require everyone’s toys, the family crafter another box to collect his or her cooperation. By agreeing to divide and conquer, a STOP

  paints for return to the craft corner.

  clutter session can attack problem areas simultaneously.

  Tips to organize family rooms

  2 Toss Disagreement is a potential hazard when diving Try these tips to make the most of storage space in shared into a group STOP clutter session. Mom may be

  spaces and family rooms:

  perfectly happy to send a stack of old motocross

  magazines to recycling, but a teenage son objects. Limit

  ▪ Contain clutter. Practice containment policies to keep potential disagreements by assigning the interested

  clutter under control. Store the week’s newspapers in a parties—the motocross enthusiast himself—to sort

  low-sided metal tray; a knitting project in a wicker basket.

  and decide. A second tactic: use black plastic garbage

  ▪ Practice “cart and carry.” Establish a policy that, while bags to collect trash. If the clutterers across the room family members are welcome to do homework, work on

  can’t see the contents, they’re less likely to put up a crafts, or play with toys in the family room, their supplies fuss about the discards.

  must be carted and carried. Plastic laundry baskets, shopping bags, or flat-bottomed dishpans can be used to bring out the playthings—and collect them at the close of the

  3Organize and put away

  When the timer bell rings, toss the trash and

  evening, for return to the bedroom.

  return Put Away items to their homes in other

  ▪ Sweep it clean! Take time during the day for a “sweep.”

  rooms. Organize the remaining family-room residents—

  During a pause in a television program, announce that it’s DVDs, videos, and game equipment—into flat-bottomed

  time for a sweep, and ask all family members to pick up open containers for easy access.

  out-of-place items and put them away. Quick! The show will be back on the air in just minutes!

  ROOM TO LIVE

  211

  212

  CYCLES OF AN ORGANIZED HOME

  Organizing

  books and magazines

  Every household is rich if it is home to books, but for some of us, there’s such a thing as “too rich.” When household reading materials have swelled past the point where they can reasonably be termed a library, it’s time to prune the literary collection with a STOP clutter session.

  STOP clutter in the library

  Similarly, old school textbooks are dead weight on household Depending on the number of books you have, expect to devote bookshelves; find a more endearing souvenir of university days two to three STOP clutter sessions to the task. Gather your tools: to cherish, and free space on the shelves for titles that don’t a timer and a STOP clutter box marked Sell/Donate (you may bring the agony of calculus to mind.

  need more than one Sell/Donate box!). Set the timer for 20

  minutes. To help focus the STOP clutter decision-making process

  “Cookbooks and reference

  in the library, ask yourself these questions:

  works are the gym rats of any

  ▪ When was the last time I read this book?

  ▪

  library, and should be kept

  Will I read it again?

  ▪ If a reference book, is it current? If so, have I consulted only if they are exercised

  it in the last year?

  ▪ If it’s a cookbook, do I use it? Hint: the presence of food regularly.”

  stains indicates a keeper.

  ▪ Is this a textbook from my old school days?

  Be cautious in your approach to classic works; far too

  ▪ Is the book a classic?

  many families spend literal generations dusting old matched

  ▪ Does the book have intrinsic value—is it a signed copy, sets of “great books” for their imagined cachet. If you read first or collectible edition?

  the classics for enjoyment, hold on to them—but dead paper

  ▪ Is the book out-of-print or hard to replace?

  does nothing to promote knowledge or culture if it is simply

  ▪ Is this a book I’ve borrowed and need to return?

  sitting there as a status symbol. Pass unwanted classics on to a library or school, where the great minds can reach out and The answers to the above will point you to a decision. Books touch a rising generation.

  that have never been read don’t belong in an active library; Finally, don’t focus too closely on value when deciding release virgin books so that another reader may love them.

  whether to keep a book. A signed copy of a friend’s cookbook Similarly, you should pass along any read-it-once titles; there’s is a keeper, but a “first edition” of a widely distributed “Sex nothing so stale as reopening a whodunit when you already Among The Cavemen” bodice-ripper has negligible intrinsic know who did.

  value. Online auction sites are a great way to get a quick Cookbooks and reference works are the gym rats of any valuation of most books and can help you decide whether to library, and should be kept only if they are exercised regularly.

  keep so-called “valuable” titles.

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  Organizing a home library

  Even pared down, the household library needs to be organized Right-size

  Pare the library down with these ideas to

  so that you can find the book you want when you need it. Think declutter reading material:

  like a library, and sort your books by collection.

  Children’s titles belong in the children’s room or on a low

  ▪ Assess magazine subscriptions. Issues

  bookshelf in a family room where they’re convenient and that are devoured within a day of hitting the

  accessible for little readers ( see also page 207). Computer users mailbox are fine, but cancel subscriptions to

  or work-at-home professionals need their reference works periodicals that you don’t really read.

  r

  shelved close at hand. Don’t make the household’s computer eading materials

  ▪ Set limits. When a new catalog arrives,

  geek go too far from the keyboard to find his or her guide to recycle any older offerings from the same

  Linux operating systems, and shelve work titles in the home firm. Store magazines in magazine holders.

  office area. Keep cookbooks on a handy kitchen shelf where When the holder is full, recycle the oldest

  everyone knows where to find them.

  issue to make room for the newest one.

  Just as a library has a reference section, it’s best to group A roomy (but not too roomy) basket provides

  dictionaries, encyclopedias, and reference works together. If active storage for current magazines. Place

  you house them on shelves in a fa
mily area, they’ll be easy to unread issues in the basket; when it’s full,

  consult for questions over homework or arguments over the weed it of older editions.

  Scrabble board.

  ▪ Store where useful. Issues of “Threads”

  Separate novels and non-fiction titles to make it easier to are most usefully housed in the sewing area,

  find a good read on a rainy night. The library shelves novels while “Popular Mechanics” can be assigned

  alphabetically by author, and while that treatment causes those to the car repair area of the garage.

  of the decorating persuasion to shudder, you’ll get a hearty

  ▪ Say no to catalogs. In the US, register

  thumbs-up from the literati among us if you follow this system.

  with the Direct Mail Marketing Association’s

  Non-fiction titles work best grouped by subject matter.

  Mail Preference Service to remove your

  Sorting books into history, politics, biography, travels, and foreign address from mailing lists (for further

  language sections make it easy to prepare for a vacation trip information, visit http://dmaconsumers.org).

  or check your French spelling.

  In Canada, contact the Canadian Marketing

  Association at www.the-cma.org. Alternately,

  “To find the book you want

  call the catalog company directly and ask to

  be removed from the mailing list.

  when you need it, think like

  ▪ Borrow, not buy. Reduce book clutter

  the old-fashioned way: borrow reading

  a library, and sort your books

  materials from the local library.

  ▪ Sell online. Use online sales sites to

  by collection.”

  recoup your investment in hot titles that

  you’ve already read—somebody out there

  Shelving books according to size or color is a dead giveaway will pay a respectable price to read that

  of books bought by-the-foot to accessorize a model home, but blockbuster, so sell it after you’ve read it!

  shelving limitations may require a separate section for oversized books. Stack them on their sides so that they fit more easily on bookshelves.

  214

  CYCLES OF AN ORGANIZED HOME

  Declutter

  crafts and hobbies

  Few collections of objects provide as much clutter potential as craft materials and hobby supplies. The quilter’s fabric stash reproduces stealthily until closets and containers overflow. For the tole painter, model train builder, or scrapbook maker, supplies multiply like a population of rabbits. Add the tools required by each activity, and even the most organized home is overwhelmed.

  Storage solutions

  How do you meet the space-gobbling demands of all the materials and supplies, tools and gizmos involved in the family’s craft activities and hobbies? The answer is to get creative: check out these pointers to keep the necessities under control and maximize storage in your crafting area.

  Wallspace Look up and down the walls to find storage possibilities at the work area. Empty space above and below workstations can be tapped to store most-needed tools and equipment. Wall-mounted organizers keep tools and equipment close at hand. Thread racks, pegboards, and shelves inserted in the desk’s kneehole area corral small items and store manuals and idea books for easy reference.

  In the clear Clear-view organizers are a crafter’s best friends.

  Their see-through property allows crafters to locate needed items quickly without opening the box. Use mid-sized storage towers with clear drawers to sort and store rubber stamps, embellishments, paints, and adhesives.

  Because these larger units roll easily beneath tables or desks, they offer an added bonus: they provide handy access to much-used tools while crafting, then allow you to remove supplies from sight when you have finished with them.

  ◀ Recycle craft supplies. To control clutter in craft areas, recycle scraps for other purposes, rather than storing them away. Leftover fabrics are easy to stitch into totes or gift pouches.

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  215

  Smaller clear storage containers may be used to house eyelets and brads, beads, and sequins. Because their contents Culling

  For many of us, love of our craft transmutes are easily visible, the busy crafter can quickly pinpoint just the into an obsessive tendency to collect the

  right tiny embellishment, tool, or fastener.

  materials it uses. Problem is, after a certain

  point, the clutter interferes with our ability

  Off the peg They’re an oldie but a goody: pegboards. Fabric to pursue our avocation. Consider these

  craft supplies

  and craft stores use pegboards to organize and display notions.

  questions when deciding whether to declutter

  So should you. Construct pegboards on top of 1in (2.5cm) crafting supplies:

  wide spacers, and trim them with molding for a finished, built-in look. Prowl through the hardware store to find specialty

  ▪ Is the item high quality? Is a fabric

  hooks to add to the traditional selection of small, straight, and length a pure, natural fiber—or a stiff, low-curved hooks.

  quality blend or synthetic? Did that hank

  Use pegboards to store scissors and tools, hang hanks of of yarn fray when used for plastic canvas?

  yarn, or keep quilting supplies in view. Hang instruction sheets Crafting time is too precious to spend it

  from a document clip suspended from a spare hook to keep frustrated with low-quality materials.

  directions in front of your eyes but out of your way.

  ▪ Is the item dated? Craft projects,

  like fashions, come in waves. One year,

  A tisket, a tasket Flat-bottomed plastic storage baskets needlepoint is the crafter’s choice, the next,

  have many uses in the crafts room. Use them to create flip-file knitting needles flash from every corner. Give

  pattern storage, in which items are stored upright for easy dated craft kits and out-of-fashion materials

  access. Organized by category, you can find that special blouse to a crafter more in tune with retro styling.

  pattern in record time.

  ▪ Is the skill level appropriate?

  Covered plastic storage containers stack neatly beneath You’re a beginner at cross-stitch? No matter

  desks or tables. Load them up with works-in-progress. Pile them how beautiful it is, find a new home for

  in unused corners or on closet floors; they’re neat, light, and the kit marked “Advanced Stitchers Only.”

  easy to locate.

  Attempting a crafts project outside your skill

  level can bring a new hobby to a quick end.

  Count on closets Make the most of closets to store crafts Pass it along to the neighbor with the

  materials. Using commercial organizers, install shelf units to flashing needles, and find a simpler project.

  maximize usable space where clothing once hung.

  ▪ Do I love this item? Last and best test

  Short or long, fabric lengths can be hung from clothing rods for decluttering craft supplies: the love affair.

  in the closet. So can rotary cutting mats, if you pinch the mat Yes, when you bought it, every item in the

  into a hanger designed for skirts or trousers.

  crafts cache tugged at your heart in some

  Still more room on the clothing rod? Take some clean plastic way. But as with old lovers, has the magic

  grocery bags and slip both handles over the rod. The grocery moved on? Recycle everything that doesn’t

  bags will hold light, bulky items such as batting, pillow forms, make your heart pound and your fingers itch

  or yarn.

  to start crafting. Why waste precious time and

  Add rolli
ng drawer towers to closets for maximum use of energy working with something you don’t

  closet space. See-through drawers sort tools and notions.

  absolutely love?

  Stackable units let you squeeze out every cubic inch of crafting storage space.

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  CYCLES OF AN ORGANIZED HOME

  The rules

  of household storage

  In most homes, storing and retrieving household items involves a pitched battle.

  In one corner, we have family members who want only to find holiday decorations or seasonal clothing when they need it. In the opposite corner, crammed cabinets, cluttered basements, and inaccessible attics bursting with bags and boxes.

  For most of us, an efficient household storage system seems Within the Stuff List there’s another category: the “let’s like an impossible dream. The answer? A household storage negotiate” group. These are stored items that might appear to plan. Follow this battle plan to conquer storage clutter: be worthy of banishment, but which belong to another family member. This tricky category includes: collections of LPs and a

  ▪ Assess

  grown child’s childhood possessions; sentimental overload,

  ▪ Banish and box

  such as every school paper ever brought home by each child;

  ▪ Corral and control

  and tool-o-holic indulgences—unused tools and sewing and With a storage plan, you’ll find the kids’ summer clothes while craft supplies.

  it is yet summer. You’ll save money by using stored goods, For “let’s negotiate” items, a confab is in order with the instead of buying new (because you are able to find that box interested party. Goal: eliminate, reduce, or accept the necessity of sprinkler-system parts you bought last year). You’ll know of storing each class of item.

  what you have, where it is, and how to find it.

  1Assess.

  2Banish and box.

  This is the working phase of setting up efficient household Grab a notepad and pen and start with List One:

  storage. Shelf-by-shelf, room-by-room, rout out your Storage. Walk the house from attic to cellar, and list every storage areas. One at a time, pull out currently stored stuff, potential storage area, large or small. The hard-to-reach top sort it out, banish the rejects, and box everything that belongs shelves in children’s closet, the skinny space beneath the master elsewhere. Only then put away the designated stored items.