Laws of Order

What to do with spices

I mentioned in a previous post that lazy susans are evil, so here are some ideas for what to do with your spices instead.

Solution 1:
If you have a drawer available, put all your spices in there upright. Take a permanent marker and label the lids if they aren't already labeled. You could use reusable stickers so that when you have to replace a spice you can just move the sticker to the new bottle. With this system you can open your drawer and see all of your spices all at once, with no hunting and no knocking things over to find what you need. If you don't have enough spices to fill the entire drawer, put them in a shoebox, a drawer organizer, or some other container with straight sides to keep them corralled, and use the leftover space for other kitchen essentials.

Solution 2:
If you don't have a drawer available, use the lowest shelf on your cabinets. Get a sturdy plastic basket and put all your spices in there, labelling the tops as I suggested in the first solution. If you have a lot of spices, it's probably better to use 2 or 3 smaller baskets rather than one big one so you are less likely to drop them. (No need to spend a lot on these; I get mine from the dollar store and they work great.) Since this basket will create some dead space in your cabinet, get a shelf like this or this to put the basket on, and then you can use the space underneath or on top for something else.

Solution 3:
If you don't have a lot of spices, you can try attaching a rack to the inside of your cabinet door like this or this, but make sure you have enough clearance so your cabinet doors can close properly.

Solution 4:
Put your spices on the wall. You can use a wall mounted rack, or you can transfer your spices to containers that stick to the wall. If you go for the containers with the clear tops, make sure you label the back so you don't confuse your oregano with parsley flakes.

Things NOT to do:

DON'T use one of those "handy" spice holders for drawers. They are a huge waste of space, almost as wasteful as the ever-popular expand-a-shelf type "organizers." (The amount of dead space that is wasted just makes me cringe!)

If you can help it, don't use a spice rack where you have to transfer spices into different bottles. It's a hassle to do that, and probably have better things to do with your time.

Also, wherever you keep your spices, try to keep them away from heat and moisture (so right above the stove or the dishwasher are out).

If you have a good spice storage solution, please share! At the very least we can all help you with the admiring. :)

Deciding whether to donate, sell, or toss

Someone over at savingadvice.com asked how you know whether to sell, donate or trash things you don't need any more, so here are some guidelines for getting rid of stuff.

First, sort out the real trash. If the item is damaged beyond reasonable repair, badly stained, or otherwise in bad shape, it's better to just recycle it into something more useful or throw it away. The guideline here: if you would be embarrassed to give it to someone in person, then it probably isn't going to be very useful to anyone.

Next, sort out the more valuable stuff. If you can imagine the item at a store with a price tag greater than, say, $20, it might be worth your time to try to sell it online or at a resale shop (see this post for more details on how to do this). The dollar amount here will vary from person to person, but considering that posting on eBay will probably take you nearly an hour, you should decide how much an hour of your free time is worth to you and set that as the cutoff.

Next, sort out the garage sale and donation items. This will also differ depending on how generous (and how lazy) you are, but if you'd like to get the most money out of the leftover items, then put everything in a garage sale and only donate the things that don't sell. This is a great way to go because the items sort themselves so it takes no extra time. If the idea of dealing with the hassle of a garage sale makes you break out in hives, then donating the entire lot is probably for you. I fall somewhere in between these extremes, so I keep a box in my closet for items to sell in garage sales, and when someone I know is having a sale I just bring over my box of stuff (donating whatever does not sell). How do I decide what to put in the box and what to donate? I ask myself if I would pay more than $5 for it. If yes, then it goes in the box, if not, then I donate it. Again, this number will vary from person to person, so you'll have to set your own cutoff point.

I'd be interested to hear if anyone has other ideas!

Pi R round, cornbread R square

And storage systems should be square also.

If you're ready to get some organizing products for your cabinets or shelves and you head out to your local super-store, you'll probably find a whole section full of organizing "stuff." I'm all for organization and storage, but not all products are created equal, and I'd hate for any newbies to get sucked in by the allure of some of those shiny "organizers" that are really space, money and time wasters.

Today's target: round or cylindrical storage. Chances are your cabinets and shelves are full of right angles, and to make the most of the space you have, your storage systems should have right angles also. Think about your kitchen cabinets, for example. If you put cylinders in there to hold your flour and sugar, there will be giant pockets of dead space around them since you just can't pack a lot of circles into a square footprint. It's far better to find containers with right angles (like this or this or this) that you can stack and pack into your cabinet to fill the entire volume of space. With a simple change like this you can almost double the efficiency of your cabinets.

"But what about spices?" you say. "Don't I need a lazy susan for those?" Absolutely not. Not only do you waste all that space in each of the corners of your cabinet, but you can only see what's on the outside edge, so you are basically shelling out $5-25 to showcase 10 spices while taking up an entire cabinet. And when you happen to need some fennel, you'll have to dig through all the stuff in the front to get to it. (I'll give you some better ideas to deal with spices in a future post.)

This "down with round" rule applies to every place where you store things: closets, bookshelves, basements, etc. Sometimes it's harder to find "right angle" storage, but it's worth the effort in the space you save!

Store it where you use it

This seems like an obvious rule, but a lot of people get the idea in their heads that certain things belong in certain places, regardless of where they are used. Nail care supplies are a common example. Ask 10 people where they keep nail clippers and files, and I bet 9 of them would say "the bathroom," but ask those same people where they use those supplies and the majority would tell you some other room.

If you have ever tried to get someone else to change their behavior you probably know this: it's a lot easier to change the environment to suit the behavior than it is to change the behavior. If you have been using your nail file in the living room and then just leaving it there because it's too much of a hassle to return it to the bathroom, why not just find a nice way to store it in the living room? If you have a drawer available, put a small tray or a mesh envelope in there to store your supplies. I don't have any drawer space in the living room, so I put everything in a nantucket basket which (IMHO) is nice to look at so it doesn't look like typical "storage."

Of course this goes for all kinds of other objects as well. Do you keep scissors in the kitchen but use them in the dining room? Do you keep pens in the office but use them in the living room? For the next few days just pay attention to where you are using things and where they are stored. If it makes more sense to change the "homes" of those things, go ahead and move them (and make sure to inform everyone who lives with you). Simple changes like this can go a long way toward making your home neater.

# in # out

Here's another easy way to make room in your closet and only keep the clothes you love:

Every time a new article of clothing comes in, make sure you also get rid of X number of clothes you already have. If your closet is stuffed to the gills, you might want to start out with getting rid of 2 or 3, or even more if you can stomach it. Then, once your wardrobe is down to a manageable size, you can stick to "1 in, 1 out" rule.

This rule not only helps you manage the size of your wardrobe, but it also helps you save money. The next time you are out shopping for clothes, you may think twice before buying something new if you know you will have to get rid of something at home.

Feeling the need to weed

Everyone needs to weed out their closet from time to time. If you don't do it, you'll end up with a closet overflowing with ridiculously out of date outfits, and the clothes you do wear will be all wrinkled (if you can even find them at all). Since it is starting to get hot now, it's a good time to do a seasonal "use it or lose it" campaign on your clothes:

Step 1:
Go into your closet and turn around all the hangers so the open part of the hook is in the front instead of the back. If you have things folded, turn them around or turn them inside out.

Step 2:
Whenever you wear something, put it back in the closet the way you normally would.

Step 3:
At the end of the season go back and look in your closet to see which hangers are still facing the wrong way. Think of how sad these clothes must feel to be unused for so long, and let them go to a new home where they can get more use (i.e. donate). You may not always use those special occasion clothes like long dresses or black suits, so you can hang onto those as long as you think you would still wear them.

This is a good way to weed out your closet and make more room for the clothes you love and wear a lot. In my last weeding session I even came across a sweater I thought I had lost, so it was like getting a prize for getting organized.

Buh-bye useless stuff

For the last few weeks I have been working seriously on getting rid of stuff I don't use because 1) we live in a tiny apartment, and 2) we are going to be moving in about a year. In doing so I have come up with a system that is working so well I plan to keep it up even after the move.

First, I made a nice empty spot about the size of a shoebox in my computer area, and then I made a bigger empty spot nearby (I use a storage ottoman, but a laundry basket in the closet would work great too). Now anytime I come across something in my home that needs to move on (i.e. be sold) I move it to the bigger empty spot. From there, I take just one thing and put it near my desk so I can work on selling it. This saves me the hassle of trying to sell a bunch of things at once, and I have the object right in front of me in case people email me with questions (as they inevitably do). The other advantage of this system is that I am ready for a garage sale at the drop of a hat!

The other system I like to use is the perpetual book giveaway. Once I finish a book I put it by the front door, and whenever guests are leaving I encourage them to take whatever books are there. You get to lighten your load, and as a bonus you get to feel good about giving your friends/family something they will enjoy. Everybody wins!

How to get started (in baby steps)

Most people want to get organized, but when they think about finally rolling up their sleeves and diving in they balk. "It's too much!" "I'm overwhelmed!" is the usual response. Everyone feels this way, which is why it's important to follow Law #3: make it easy on yourself.

Step 1: Pick a miniscule spot to start.
When you are starting from zero, make it easy on yourself by starting not just small, but tiny. Adopt the "think gloobally, act locally" approach and pick a teeny tiny area somewhere to start. Pick a place that doesn't get a lot of heavy use, and is not absolutely out of control. The laundry area is usually a good candidate; guests rooms and hall closets are also good places to start. Whatever you do, don't start with a junk drawer or some other chaotic spot. Sure, they may need the most attention, but really messy areas are for "advanced" organizers, and if you are just starting out you are going to need some easier tasks first. Trust me on this, if you bite off too much you will overwhelm yourself and end up worse off than when you started.

Step 2: Visualize how you'd like to use the space.
OK, so you've chosen your area, now pick a reasonably small spot within that area. If you're doing a closet, do one shelf; if you're doing the laundry room do one cabinet, for example. Now before you roll up your sleeves and dig in, think about how you would ideally like to use that space. Without looking at what is there now, think about what you would like to keep there. (Write it down if you need to.)

Step 3: Clean and replace.
NOW you can roll up your sleeves and take out everything that is in that spot now. Give the area a nice cleaning so you can start out fresh, and then put back just the things you imagined in step 2. (Ignore the other stuff for now.) Put things in neatly so you can adequately admire your work. (I'll discuss organizing products another time).

Step 4: Admire, admire, admire.
Take the time to appreciate how nice your freshly organized spot is. This is usually a good time to go get someone else who can admire your work also, and if they are nice they will stay around for step 5.

Step 5: Deal with the rejects.
You will undoubtedly have stuff left over from step 3. There is probably stuff in there that you never use, so either throw it away or give it a new home where it can make itself useful. Do NOT just stuff it back because "it fits" (that's how you got disorganized to begin with). If you don't use it, let it move on.

Step 6: Protect your shiny new organized oasis from encroaching chaos.
Once you have a clean spot with more than a millimeter between objects, you and everyone around you will want to put stuff there. Do not let this happen. If you find a stray object just casually wandering into your clean spot, put it where it belongs or get rid of it. Just focus on keeping that spot clean and tidy, and pretty soon you (and everyone else) will get used to it.

Once you have one tiny spot that you can manage to keep organized, you can move on to another spot, then another, then another. Just like the chaos that came before, organization can become infectious. It just takes a little effort and focus to get started, but it can be done! Good luck!

"But I paid so much for it!"

When you are trying to organized, the very best thing you can do is cut down on the amount of stuff you have that you don't use or love. The less you have, the less you need to organize, the happier you will be. Of course, that is way easier said than done. Everbody has excuses for why they hold onto stuff, and although those reasons are sometimes legitimate, usually they are just plain silly.

Today's plaintive wail: "But I paid so much for it!" (Just substitute the name of your item in place of "it.")

I'm sure it was very expensive and you don't want to "waste money" by getting rid of it, but how is getting rid of it going to waste money? By letting it go to someone else who could get some use out of it you would be getting more from the money you spent, and you might even be able to make a buck or two. If you keep it, you will just add to your already enormous pile of "stuff," and that "stuff" is probably causing you to consider either renting storage space or moving to a bigger space, both of which would be a bigger waste of money.

Even if you are thinking of just keeping the thing in the space you have, it is still taking up room and leaving less space for you and the things that are more important to you. Is the amount of money you spent so long ago really worth that unsettling crowded feeling you get when you have too much stuff around?

Even if you spent a million dollars on it, it is still going to waste just languishing under that layer of dust. It's painful to know that you spent your hard-earned money on it, but take it as a lesson learned and you will save yourself some money in the future by not making a similar purchase.

Does anyone else have more encouraging words?

Magnetic Tacks

I just found these tacks online and I am in love. You can just push them into your drywall and you have a place to hang all kinds of (metal) stuff! This lets you use your wall space for simple storage, but you don't have to install any shelving, and when you are not using them there is nothing there to take up visual space. You could even paint or wallpaper them to match your walls and make them truly invisible. These would be great for apartment living since you can't install shelves directly into the wall anyway. Others have suggested that this would be a good way to hang fabrics or prints without a frame by holding them up with a small piece of metal opposite the magnet.

If you are going to do this though, I would suggest keeping a bunch of magnets together in some kind of grouping. Otherwise, wouldn't it just look like your messy floor moved to the wall?