Avoid front of store paper clutter: You know those obnoxious magazine racks at the front of stores – the ones filled with free home buyer pamphlets, coupon ads, car buying magazines, and more. Don’t go there. Walk right past them; don’t even look their way. You may see these at libraries too. Granted the library racks are more seductive than front of store racks, but unless you honestly need a booklet about community events, let it go.

Don’t order magazines on instant renewal: Every time you subscribe to a magazine, you should carefully think it over, which you can’t do if it’s on auto renewal. Tastes and free-time change all the time. Don’t order a magazine unless you really read it; that’s not eco-friendly PLUS creates unnecessary paper clutter.

Cut down on newspapers: If you only read the newspaper on the weekend, but they offered you all week for just $3.00 more per month, so you took the deal, cancel it. All that extra paper clutter is not worth $3.00 – is it? Also, don’t forget to cancel your whole subscription when you go on vacation, so you don’t come home to clutter.

Quit with the travel brochures: Whether you go somewhere near (the art museum) or far (Rome), there’s bound to be travel info brochures and leaflets galore. Leave them there. I swear, you won’t read them later, no matter how cool they look.

What lifestyle changes have you tried to cut out paper clutter? 

It’s the Blogtoberfest icon! Which means a super keen (and secret) prize is hidden behind this special blog post. If you want to win the great prize that I’m hiding, simply leave a comment on this post. A totally easy way to win a prize. Within a week, the winner of the hidden prize will be announced here at Declutter It, so check back often.

Other ways to win a prize! You have lots of chances to win great Blogtoberfest prizes? Today, October 6th, there are secret special prizes hiding at the following Lifestyles Channel blogs: A Child Chosen, Babylune, Baking Delights, Blog Fabulous, Chocolate Bytes, Inside Motherhood, Keeping the Castle, Mom Gadget, Simply Home Remedies, Tangled Thread, and Weary Parent. Visit all of these blogs, look for the blogtoberfest icon on a post, and leave a comment for your chance at another great prize. 

Good luck and happy blogtoberfest! 

Post from: Blisstree

Easy lifestyle changes to fight paper clutter

Crane & Co has a few colors available, including red (shown below), orange, and white. (I like the white).

Uncommon Goods has blue available.

The original designers of the Kubisphere; NuOp notes in their consumer catalog (pdf), that they have all six colors – lime, blue, pink, white, red, and orange available, but you’ll have to contact them about orders. Their contact info is available on the last page of their catalog.

The Kubisphere measures 12 inches high by about 8 inches across and comes with 4 small magnets and a dry erase marker. 

Post from: Blisstree

Add Some Pop Appeal to Your Message Center

1. Pay all your bills online: And why not move all your banking activity to online while you’re at it.

2. Ban stickies: I know, some are super cute. But good lord those stickies add up. Once you get some, you get stickie mad and use them everywhere.

3. Ban scratch pads: Also come in many adorable varietites, plus they’re small and mobile. They also create massive paper piles. But one tiny spiral notebook and write notes only in that. Recycle it when you use it up, and grab a new one.

4. Get a pda: I LOVE my pda. It keeps me organized, and I can jot down notes on it, which I later transfer to my computer. No paper notepads necessary if you have one of these babies. Don’t let the cost detour you. Add up the cost of years of notebooks, paper, and stickies, and you’ll feel a lot better. This is only a one-time cost.

5. Quit with the simultaneous projects: If you’re office is in paper shambles, it pays to look at how you do thing. Trying to stay on top of eight tasks at once seems sort of productive, but it’s easier to keep paper under control, and stay organized if you start one task, finish, and start another. 

6. Are you in serious paper trouble: Not willing to give up paper just yet? Try the Paper Tiger software system. It’s only goal is to tame paper insanity. 

7. Be bold – go totally paperless: Paperless technology is daunting to some, but imagine if you make it! There’s a Paperless Office Experiment, at Productivity501 going on. Although, it’s been happening for quite some time, it’s the best paperless office challenge I’ve ever seen, and will absolutely get you up to speed.

8. Use it – lose it: Use paper sure but recycle the second you’re done. To encourage this sort of behavior keep a shredder right by your desk. Don’t want a shredder? Keep a recycling bin instead. Paper is handy while you are officially using it. If you finish with something scan it if you can’t decide on keep or toss, then chuck it.

9. Cut coupons: Literally. This isn’t an idea to save you cash. You know how many homes I see with piles of uncut coupons? More than I should. If you aren’t gonna cut them, toss them. They expire soon anyhow.

10. Get a receipt system: Either one, scan them for saving, or two, create an envelope system. Grab one large manila envelope, and a bunch of letter size envelopes. Label the letter sized envelopes (gifts, kitchen, appliances, however), and store all receipts in one place. Three create your own system – the two above are just simple ones I use.

11. Scan pay stubs: They always put pay stubs on that super thick paper, and piles add up so quick. Scanning is the easiest way I’ve found to control pay stub clutter.

12. Put your taxes on disc: I keep my taxes scanned in pdf form and then I also make a back-up disc. Before I did this I had an obnoxious drawer of tax related paper clutter.

Add your own tip!  

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Blisstree

12 Ways to Cut Paper Clutter

First follow the steps I discussed in the previous warranty post:

“To get started you should have all your collected warranty info gathered together. Some people suggest stapling all the info together , which works well; it helps you to not lose anything. However, often a manual may come in a fold out poster style, or be too thick for staples. That said, I like clipping items together with Bulldog Clips better.”

You can still use small bulldog clips, even though we’re using envelopes, or you can staple.

Grab an empty drawer – preferably a large one OR a box like the one I mention in the current box post will work if it’s wide enough.

Decide how you want to organize. You’ll be putting your warranty info into envelopes, so in order to know how many envelopes you’ll need, you have some choices.

You can file warranty info by…

• Separately: Each item’s warranty info can be stored in one envelope – I don’t recommend this, becuase that’s a whole lot of envelopes. But, you can do it.
  
• Room: kitchen appliances all together, and so fourth.
• Type category: computer equipment, food related appliances, toys, electronic, and so on.
• Date: Date warranty expires.

After choosing your system, decide how many envelopes this warrants. Then pick up some 8 1/2 inch by 11 inch envelopes – but make sure they’re strong. If you want to store whole rooms together or whole categories together, one good choice, would be some 8 ½-inch x 11-inch Craft Keepers. They expand by an inch, so they’ll hold a lot. You may need say three for the kitchen, but in my opinion, that’s better than 15 separate envelopes.

8 ½-inch x 11-inch Craft Keepers

Two other nice envelope choices from Paper Direct include:

Multi-Colored Expandable Velcro Envelopes – hold up to 150 sheets of paper each.

Expandable Velcro Envelopes – hold up to 200 sheets of paper each.

You can also go with plain old 8×11 paper or manilla envelopes, but they won’t hold up as long. Then simply insert your warranties and store them all together in your drawer or box. Easy. I used to store mine like this until I got my new (and much beloved) file cabinet.

Also read:

• Organize Your Warranty Information – What You Should Keep
• File Drawer Storage for Warranty Information

Post from: Blisstree

Envelope Storage for Warranty Information

Your goal when desk or whole home office zoning is to organize in such a way, that you can be more productive, easily find items, and not kill yourself reaching said items.

The best way to zone is to place high need objects nearby, mid-use items semi-close, and items you use once a month far, far, away.

Examples from my home office:

I use my office for work (full-time blogging) and for home issues (paying bills). So I zone items together.

My high-use zone: This zone is the zone I can reach from my desk without getting up. Items in my high-use zone include; a small collection of research books, clips, and articles that relate to all my blog topics, pens, my paper schedule, chapstick, hair clips, highlighters, eye drops, thesaurus, calculator, Advil, extra checks, cell phone, idea folder, and envelopes. Plus my record player and some essential oils. I also have my current box on the floor next to my desk (which I’ll explain in another post).

I can reach all my high-use items with a simple turn of my chair. I have a bookcase next to my desk for my topic books, and the record player/stereo (plus records) is on a shelf right behind me. The point is that when I start working, I don’t have to stop and get up. I also don’t hurt my back or neck reaching because all these items are less than an arms reach away.

My mid-use zone: This zone is stuff I sometimes do need, but the clutter of having it nearby would surely slow me down. My mid-use zone is a bookshelf in another corner of my office, but it used to be in my closet. The only items in my mid-zone currently are extra topic books – books I sometimes use, but not every day, and CDs. I usually listen to vinyl, but sometimes want a CD.

My low-use zone: These are items stored in a file cabinet, that I almost never use like blogging, and other project contracts, home files related to warranties and bills, big mailing envelopes, taxes, paper invoices, and copies of my published work. All of this is important for my work and home, but why have it in my way if I barely use it.

A major problem I see when I take a look at people’s desks or home office spaces is that they think they need to see everything in plain view. Not true. My file cabinet isn’t even in my office, I keep it in the hallway. A lot of people I know do something like this when desk and office organizing:

1. Gather anything and everything office related.
2. Lay it out all over the office area to get a good look.
3. Attempt to fit all of it into that little area where they actually sit and work – usually the desk itself and all the desk’s shelves.

NO! Not every item you’ll ever possibly use belongs in your work area. If you don’t use an item daily, or at least three times a week, it doesn’t belong in the immediate area. It’s guaranteed to create clutter and slow you down.

Now, if you have a job that changes a lot (like me) then you may have some items that you use frequently one week, and then not at all the next. Later I’ll tell you what I do with those items.

How is your office or desk area zoned?

[Cartoon by Dave Walker]

Post from: Blisstree

Office Zoning Issues

Like their new Whenever stickies. These allow you to mark off desk papers as “Today,” “Soon,”  or the best one, “Someday.” The set also comes with some tiny stickies that say, “Now,  “Later,” and “Never.” Cool, because you can actually use them, and they’ll make you smile.

They also offer up neat mousepad / paper pads with chipboard backing and adhesive binding on top and left sides. You can surf on your notes with ease. I like their Information Central pad, but they come in other varieties as well. This is one great way to reduce desk clutter since the pad does double duty.

For those of us looking to put off those organizing tasks there’s “Dial-an-Excuse” which takes 36 everyday life scenarios and provides 180 corresponding excuses. Perfect for excuses on the fly. Dial when you don’t want to do the dishes, your boss wants you to stay late, your kids want dinner (wait, don’t do it then – kids should eat). This is a fun tool though.

Check out Knock Knock for more cool stuff than you can imagine. They have lots of organizing pads, notepads with built in check-off systems, and more.

Post from: Blisstree

Products for When You Don’t Feel Like Organizing, Cleaning, Working Hard, and More

It’s tax time again! Did I hear some groaning out there?

One question I get asked a lot is “What papers can I keep and what can I throw away?” There are certain papers that are crucial to have at tax time, some that you can eventually get rid of after a certain period of time and some that you can just shred and recycle.

Here’s a great list from the experts at The Container Store that will help you get started in dealing with all that paper. For more information, speak with a financial expert.

Documents to Keep Permanently

• Annual tax returns
• Year-end summaries from financial service companies
• Stock and bond certificates
• Deeds of property and ownership, auto titles, insurance policies
• Home improvement records
• Health records, wills and powers of attorney
• Birth certificates, adoption and custody records, death certificates

Documents to Keep Temporarily

• Paycheck stubs until reconciled with W-2 or 1099 forms
• Phone and utility bills for one year (or seven years if business-related)
• Monthly bank and credit card statements for one year
• Monthly mortgage statements for one year
• Brokerage or mutual fund statements until they’ve been reconciled at year end
• Year end statements from credit card companies for seven years
• W-2 and 1099 forms for seven years
• Cancelled checks and receipts for all tax-deductible expenses for seven years

Discard or Shred

• ATM, bank-deposit slips and credit card receipts after cleared on a statement
• Non-tax deductible receipts for minor purchases
• Old magazines and articles not read within the past six months
• Receipts, instructions and warranties for items you no longer own (or warranties that have expired)

Post from: Blisstree

Papers: To Keep or Not to Keep, That is the Question!

There are a couple of ways that you can keep these manuals organized in a way where you can find them exactly when you need them.

1. File them in a filing cabinet.

Have a section in your filing cabinet labeled manuals. Every time you buy something and it comes with a manual, file it away.

You can also break down that file into smaller ones by putting manila folders inside labeled toys, electronics, appliances, auto, etc. If you have a bunch of manuals, this will make it easier to find.

2. Put them in a 3 ring binder.

Every time you receive a manual, hold punch it and put it into a 3 ring binder. Keep them labeled and categorized with dividers. You can keep these manuals within arms reach and always know exactly where the dishwasher manual is when you need it.

If you think you don’t need to hold on to those manuals, then just wait until something breaks and you need the manufacturer number or instructions. Sure, you can find a lot of manuals online, but having these at hand and organized will save you loads of time!

Post from: Blisstree

Organizing Those Manuals – Find it Friday

You get a new magazine in the mail and the first thing you do is skim through it. You notice several articles that catch your eye and you want to read later. When you have a few minutes, you scan through the magazine again reading what you have time for. You then put the magazine aside and tell yourself you’ll look at it later because you really want to keep that article about buying name brand shoes at a discount. The next thing you know, your pile of magazines is out of control and you have no idea which magazine that article is in.

Yep, I do this too. I used to be really good at tearing out the articles I wanted to keep and I had a special file box where I would put them. Well, life happened and I haven’t don this in awhile.

A comment from one of my readers named Peg, inspired me to get going again and organize my magazine articles:

I’m a sucker for magazines and subscribe to a jillion of them — Organize (of course), knitting, quilting, travel, news, etc, etc.

I’ve found one method for dealing with them that works the best for me: I sit down with a magazine THE DAY IT COMES and quickly go through each page, tearing them off as I go. When I come to something that I want to keep (like a pattern) or to read later, I put it to the side. I DON’T READ IT AT THAT TIME. The goal is to get through it quickly and get it off my desk.

When I’ve gone through the entire thing, I find I usually only have a dozen or so pages left to deal with. The patterns/reference articles go in the appropriate file folders and the “read later” articles go in my “Take to work and read at lunch” envelope. I also keep an “Internet” file folder for those articles that reference something I want to check out on the Web.

If I don’t follow this method, I find that I am soon overwhelmed in back issues and it takes almost an entire Sunday to plow through them.

Great tip Peg! Follow this simple method and you will know exactly where all your favorite articles are. Now doesn’t that sound nice?

Post from: Blisstree

Reader Tip: Dealing with Magazines

The first thing I am doing is creating a better filing system for everyday papers, which I am using a product that I will tell you about in a few days. The next thing I am planning on doing is creating a bulletin board on the inside of one of the kitchen cabinets. It will still be easily accessible, but it will keep those papers out of plain sight.

Here’s an example:

Now these papers and cards appear to be just taped to the inside of the cabinet, which will work just fine, but I saw an example in my new issue of Domino magazine which explains a couple of ways to make one yourself and it looks good.

They suggested hanging cork tiles with double sided tape, which would be a fast and cheap way to create a bulletin board.

Another option was to cover the cork tile with fabric using a glue gun or staple gun to fasten it to the back before you hang it. You could choose a fabric pattern that compliments your kitchen decor and have a bulletin board that is not only out of sight and functional, but also one that you like to look at when you do use it.

Many times our kitchen counters end up as sort of a desk area. Keeping our kitchen counters as clutter-free as possible, will make it easier to keep those surfaces clean. I also believe you will enjoy your kitchen better and you won’t be embarrassed when those unexpected guests arrive.

[Picture Source]

Post from: Blisstree

DIY Bulletin Board – Where’s My Desk Wednesday