Foot spa anyone?

This is another fabulous article from ZenHabits.net – he really does hit the nail on the head with this topic don’t you think?

You often see holiday gift guides and the like, but not often enough do we see guides on dealing with clutter during this most cluttered of seasons.

From gifts to wrapping to decorations to cardboard boxes from Amazon and more, the holidays can see more accumulation of clutter than any other time of the year.

How do we deal with it? It takes a multi-pronged approach.

Let’s dive in.

Clearing Existing Clutter

If your house isn’t free of clutter at this point, you can start to make a dent, even with a busier holiday schedule.

Some ideas:

1. Spend just 2-5 minutes at a time. Get a cardboard box for donations. When you’re in your bedroom, spend 2-5 minutes picking off a few things you definitely don’t need, and put them in the box. Later, when you’re in the kitchen, spend 2-5 minutes doing the same on your countertop. And on your dining table, on shelves when you walk past them, on your closet floor, all at various times as you’re walking through an area. Not all in one day, but in bits each day.
2. Carve out 30 minutes a few times a week. Put it on your calendar. Spend that time clearing out a closet — just take out as many things that you don’t need as you can in 30 minutes. Put them in the donate box or the trash.

You probably won’t have time to declutter your entire house during the holidays, but that’s OK. Just get the ball rolling, and tackle the rest in January.

Gift Expectations

Probably the biggest clutter problem during the holidays, for many people, is getting gifts you don’t need that will just clutter up your house.

The key here is to manage expectations:

1. Talk to your friends and family, or send out an email or Facebook post. Tell them you’d prefer not to get any gifts because you’re trying to reduce clutter.

Read more here: http://zenhabits.net/clutterfree-holiday/

...and if one Christmas present should accidently fall...

Are you stressing out about Christmas? Do you have 1001 things to buy, cook, clean, organise before the big day? I gave a talk last week to a networking group here in Brisbane on “How to get balanced and organised for Christmas” and thought I would share my top tips with all my readers:

1. Lower your standards
Make peace with imperfection. You are not Martha Stewart in the kitchen or Clark W Griswold from the movie “Christmas Vacation” when it comes to putting up the Christmas lights. Give yourself permission to buy a Christmas cake rather than making one. Trying to do every task perfectly is the easiest way to get bogged down and super stressed.

2. Make a list like Santa (& do a bit each day)
Rather than wait until Christmas Eve or when we have a “spare minute” have a schedule in place each day leading up to Christmas tackling tasks that need doing, and make sure you assign tasks to all members of the family – not just you! Kids are very good at cleaning silverware, putting up Christmas decorations (it doesn’t matter if they aren’t perfect – refer to point 1) or helping to make/write the Christmas cards.

3. Walk away from “bargains” at Christmas
Just because you can buy a new pair of jeans for $20 or 50 rolls of toilet paper for the price of ten doesn’t mean you should. Ask yourself “Where am I going to store it?” before making a purchase.

4. Ask for help. 
The organised person is willing to expose herself to short-term embarrassment and call for backup. Instead of that elaborate four course Christmas lunch, change it to “everyone please bring a dish to share.”

5. Declutter unnecessary items before buying new gifts
Help the kids to go through their toy boxes and wardrobes and let go of items that they have outgrown or no longer play with. Tell them about other children whose parents can’t afford presents or those who have been through hardships like the floods in January.

And this tips isn’t just for the kids – it applies to adults too! It is healthy to be attached to certain items: a vase you picked up in Paris, or your grandmother’s pearls. However are you still holding on to that holey concert t-shirt or scuffed shoes you wore to your first job interview? It’s time to let them go. This opens up space for more meaningful gifts to enter your life. New shoes anyone?

Read the rest of the Christmas issue of the Innovative Organising Ideas newsletter here: http://www.atcbiz.com.au/ems/archives.php?n=my1m5jfnr2&c=3tgsczjemf

Sing it with me "only 4 more weeks til Christmas..."

Although it isn’t even December as yet, you can feel it in the air – the silly season is coming! Parties, holidays, shopping, decorating – this is the time of year when our minds are thinking of everything else – except work!

Here are some fab tasks from Unclutterer.com that will help to get you through these last weeks before you can indulge and have some well earned rest.

1. File. Put on headphones (if they are acceptable in your workplace), and start putting papers away where they belong. If all your papers are filed, review your files to make sure you’re not keeping any information that doesn’t need to be archived. Organize your papers so that they help you do your job.
2. Review your bulletin board. How recent are all those items hanging on the walls of your cubicle or bulletin board? Can you easily see all of the most vital information? Is the calendar from two years ago? Is there anything that can come down or be replaced?
3. Clean your phone and work surface. When was the last time you scrubbed either? The dust bunnies behind your monitor aren’t going to clean themselves.
4. Enter information off business cards. If you’ve recently acquired business cards from important contacts, enter the data into your address book.
5. Backup your computer. If it’s not doneautomatically, now is a great time to backup the information off your computer’s hard drive. Be sure to follow your employer’s system for doing this task.
6. Unclutter your bookshelves. Do you have any out-dated manuals or irrelevant reading materials taking up space on your bookshelves? Now is a great time to recycle, shred, or remove these items from your office.
7. Equipment check. Are you using all of your equipment in your office? Is it in its best possible shape? Could you benefit more by knowing how to better operate the equipment you do have? Make a request to have the item serviced or take the time to read the operator’s manual or get rid of anything you don’t use.
8. Restock. Do you need more tape, more pens, more notepads, or any more office supplies? Go “shopping” in the supply closet if you do

To read more go here: http://unclutterer.com/2011/11/21/have-vacation-brain-at-work-try-some-of-these-mindless-but-productive-activities/

If only it could stay like this...

I have written on this topic before – in fact I have been on the TV demonstrating how you can salvage your fridge after a flood – but let’s hope you don’t have to go that far!

Unclutterer.com recently wrote a post which I thought was very timely – cleaning out your fridge so there is plenty of room to pop in a turkey or ham or two!  Here are some fab tips:

• Gather supplies. Two large trash bags nested one inside the other (food is heavy and a broken bag makes a huge mess) is a must. You’ll also want a bucket with fresh, warm (not hot) water and mild dish detergent with a sponge. Also, a roll of paper towels or a few clean hand towels are good to have with you to dry the shelves when you’re finished wiping them down, especially for the freezer. Finally, I recommend having a notepad and pen handy so you can create a shopping list as you work.

• Purge all food past its prime. Working from top to bottom, clear out all food from your refrigerator that is expired, rotten, and not good for eating. If you don’t know if something is edible, checkStillTasty.com. If a food is in a jar or bottle and you can’t find its expiration date, visit the company’s website. Many websites have sections where you can enter the item’s bar code and learn its shelf life information.

• Wipe it down. Give all the walls and shelves of your refrigerator a firm but gentle scrubbing. Clean up all spills, leaks, and general yuckiness that can dirty up the inside of your refrigerator.

• Organise. In addition to putting like items with like items (making it easier to retrieve foods, as well as remembering what items you have), consider employing some advanced organising techniques. Add stackable, removable shelves or under shelf baskets to better separate items. Use shelf liners to make it easier to clean up future messes and to keep round foods from rolling. If your crisper is where foods go to mold, try removing your drawers so you won’t forget about your produce (if you’re a visual processor, this may really help you). Also, learn what the recommended cooling temperatures for your food are so you know where the best place is inside your refrigerator to store each item.

To read the entire article click here: http://unclutterer.com/2011/11/14/clean-and-organize-your-refrigerator/

It’s the time of year when everyone is in a crazy rush: to shop to decorate to get ingredients to go to parties to travel to get last-minute work done to go to the kids’ Christmas pageants to go caroling to get those to-dos done.

There is a single answer to just about all your problems — Christmas or otherwise:

Simplify.

It’s the answer to your time-management problems: instead of trying to figure out how to manage your schedule try simplifying it. Do less. Say no to projects and meetings. Cut back on commitments. Have less on your schedule and you’ll eliminate the problem of trying to manage it all. You’ll also have less stress and love life more.

It’s the answer to your financial problems: instead of trying to manage all your bills and debts try simplifying. Spend less. Shop less. Do without for a bit. Reduce clutter. Have fewer credit accounts. http://zenhabits.net/always-simple/ and have less stress.

It’s also the answer to your storage problems: instead of trying to find more storage for all your stuff try simplifying. Reduce clutter. Having less stuff requires less storage (even a smaller home) and is less stressful. You’ll also save lots of money in storage and maintenance.

For more go to: http://zenhabits.net/always-simple/

Give gifts year round

On my side of our family, we don’t celebrate the holidays the way other people do. We usually end up buying presents for each other when needs arise, instead of waiting for the calendar to turn a specific date.

For example, when my mother’s computer bit the dust this summer, we celebrated Christmas in July by chipping in part of the purchase price for her to get a new laptop then. When the holiday catches up on the calendar, she’ll have an additional stocking stuffer gift to open, and will have been enjoying the big gift she really wanted for six extra months.

This doesn’t work extremely well with children, especially younger children who don’t yet have a full understanding of time. However, young children aren’t usually quiet about the things they want. Whether they’re writing letters to Santa Claus or screaming it at the top of their lungs, it’s not much of a secret. It’s easy to buy kids one or two things they want since you know exactly what those items are.

Figuring out what adults want, though, might be more complicated. So, I recommend doing what we do in our family and simply ask the person what they want or need. You may not choose to do this for everyone — surprises can be fun — but if you’re buying a large gift, it’s nice to get someone what they want or need.

On my husband’s side of the family, everyone keeps an Universal Wish List Button. We’ve all installed the Etsy, so we can include items on the Wish Lists from any online retailer, including individual sellers like those on Etsy.

For more go to www.unclutterer.com