Beyond Folders : clutter

Tips for Taming Teen Clutter

Community Manager — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 14:43:00 GMT

Teen clutter seems to proliferate faster than a hot You-Tube video goes viral. Stop the runaway mess before it engulfs your home (or your teen's room) with a few simple steps.

Make your teen a partner in clutter control. Teens crave privacy and self-determination so consider letting them have more leeway in deciding how clean to keep their own rooms. For example, clutter may be off-limits in the family room, but permitted within reason in their bedrooms. When you enlist your teen as a partner, and respect their growing ability and need for self-determination, you better the odds of harmonious cohabitation.

Bedroom Boundaries: Determine your own clutter threshold for the household and lay down clear ground rules. Examples might include a "no food" policy for bedrooms, requiring a clear exit path between the bed and the door for safety reasons, and a rule that if any bad smells come from a bedroom, it then needs a thorough cleaning by the teen. If these conditions are all met, grit your teeth about the piles of laundry and other annoyances.

Everything in its Place: Take time to evaluate your teen's room to determine if they have the needed tools for neatness. Do they have adequate storage? If not, consider investing in inexpensive shelving such as Ikea's Expedit units which can easily hold files for school papers and baskets and bins for corralling small items and clothing. Work with, not against your teen: if they don't fold and store clothes neatly, buy bins to hold clothing piles and install a rack of pegs or hooks to easily capture garments.

Less is More: If the room is overstuffed with toys and clothes, encourage a purge. Donating or selling the unused items can net your teen some money and creates a more manageable set of belongings. Maintain order by doing a big purge at least twice a year. Good times for purging are after major gift events such as Christmas or birthdays.

House Rules: While teens may have leeway in their rooms, parents have every right to set conditions about how shared rooms are managed. Rather than nag constantly, assign every family member a chore that keeps order in shared rooms. And give family members a designated basket or bin to be kept in the mudroom or family room. Odds and ends can be tossed in the bins during nightly clean up and emptied on the weekends.

Toy to the World: Out with the Old, Before In with the New

Community Manager — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 18:13:00 GMT

'Twas the season for toys, toys, toys. Whether the eight days of Hanukah, Santa, or gifts from generous grandparents, your toy box is likely in overload.

Make room for the newest additions by getting rid of playthings that are no longer in use. Ideas for keeping toy chaos under control include:

Donating: Take a good look around your toy room or spare closets. Often we have brand new toys or art kits that simply don't get opened or used. Many local charities run toy drives this time of year: Goggle for drop-off spots and make another child happy.

While many charities require donations to be new, others accept gently used toys. SAFE (Stuffed Animals for Emergencies) accepts gently used stuffed animals for children in need. Look for a local chapter here. Another great place to donate items is Goodwill, a nationwide organization providing assistance and job training for needy families, funded in part by its network of retail outlets selling donated items.

Selling: Plan ahead to the spring for a toy yard sale. Find a spot in your attic or garage to store toys in a clean, dry area. Enlist your children in identifying items that are likely to move in a yard sale. A yard sale is a great way to teach valuable lessons about money; it can also be a great bonding activity for the whole family. Consider recruiting friends and neighbors to join the fun; multi-family yard sales are often more lucrative. For advice on throwing a great yard sale, read How Much for This Lamp? Tips from the Garage Sale Millionaire.

Repurposing: Saying good-bye to beloved toys can be hard. Consider saving a few special keepsakes by giving them new life. Small toys like Lego minifigures or a Barbie outfit can make excellent tree ornaments. Or use wooden blocks to create decorative signs for your home or as gifts. Other creative ideas for repurposing toys can be found in this wonderful article, 10 Simple Ways to Repurpose Old Toys.

Tame the Back-to-School Clutter Explosion

Community Manager — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 14:02:00 GMT

If back-to-school is adding up to a clutter explosion in your home, you'll love our easy-as-ABC lessons for taming the chaos.

Designate a Drop Spot: Backpacks and sports gear can easily engulf a home; pick a convenient drop spot for off-loading when the kids arrive home. Make it easy to make it stick: a simple hall bench; set of cubbies or even wall hooks can do the trick. Offer simple rewards when all items are stowed away regularly.

Kitchen Command Center: Deputize a bulletin board or white board to track all family commitments, sports schedules and major tests and projects. When invites and event notices come in, log the date on the calendar, then toss the paper.

Homework Helper: Corral pens, pencils, glue sticks and other homework supplies in a portable homework caddy. Keeping study tools close at hand will prevent students from wandering off in search of needed items and individual items from migrating all over the house. Consider color coding your kids so you can tell which child is leaving supplies scattered around the house.

A Look Ahead: Model good organizational habits for your kids by spending the end of the day planning for the next morning. By taking just 15 minutes to round up school supplies, paperwork and special items such as snow boots or umbrellas, you can minimize stress during the morning rush.

Weekly Clean Ups: Keep chaos at bay with weekly clean-ups. Update the family command center calendar, restore missing items to their rightful place and restock school supplies that are running low. Revisit your children's personal planners or calendars and provide feedback on how they managed their schedules and workloads for the week. Praise successes and offer suggestions for improvement where necessary.

What are your back-to-school clutter-busting tips? Share your thoughts here and on the Pendaflex Facebook and Twitter pages.

Got Clutter? Deciding What to Keep, What to Purge

Community Manager — Thu, 31 May 2012 13:45:00 GMT

Minimalists of the world, this post isn't for you. You already turn a steely eye on all items and paperwork, paring down your life to the strict essentials. This post is for anyone with a kitchen drawer full of doodads and closets that might generously be called...full.

If you crave a simple, streamlined home and work space, but are undone by deciding what to keep, what to toss, check out our round up of resources. You'll be clutter free in no time.

Paperwork: Piles of papers are a major source of stress. Figuring out what papers need to be kept, and which you can happily toss is easy using our past post File or Toss? A Handy Guide for Assessing Your Paperwork. You'll learn tips the time-frame for keeping certain documents, which papers need to be kept for a lifetime and which papers can be circular-filed immediately.

Kitchen: Is your pantry a repository of dusty canned goods and spices past their expiration date? Tame kitchen clutter with the useful tips here and here. While you're at it, consider organizing your kitchen with an eye towards wellness and healthy eating with the tips in our past post Organizing Your Kitchen for Wellness.

Closets: Are your closets full to bursting? Create breathing room with the tips in our past post Organizing Your Closet for Sweater Weather. Don't let the name fool you, this post has closet cleaning tips for more than just sweater season. So if you can't figure out where the heck your bathing suits and flip flops are in your avalanche of clothes, this post is for you as well.

How do you assess what to keep, what to toss? Share your thoughts here and on the Pendaflex Facebook page.

Empty the E-mail Inbox Once and for All

Community Manager — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 18:05:00 GMT

January resolutions are here. Put your chronically overflowing e-mail inbox on your 2012 resolution list: we have tips for getting to empty, and staying on top of e-mail, once and for all. Now that is a resolution worth sticking to!

Why Empty Works

An overflowing e-mail inbox is difficult to navigate; often important messages are overlooked or allowed to linger too long before a response. For many workers, an overflowing inbox creates stress and anxiety.

Tackling the in-box allows you to manage communications more effectively and creates a sense of optimism, rather than dread, when you open your e-mail each morning.

Getting to Empty

The first step in taming the e-mail beast is setting aside a block of time to triage all critical e-mails from the past two months. Next, move the ones that remain to an archive file. Archiving e-mails allows you to unearth an old message if the need arises while simultaneously freeing up your in-box for new mail.

Staying Empty

E-mails proliferate like after-Christmas holiday sales. Keep the madness at bay by adhering to a few simple techniques.

Unsubscribe: Use an e-mail for online shopping; this way spam and marketing e-mails that can clog an in-box are corralled at a rarely used address. Or reclaim an existing e-mail by unsubscribing from all e-mails from marketers, news outlets, etc.

Time Limits: Schedule your e-mail time and stick to it. Check e-mail no more than once or twice an hour; rare is the e-mail that cannot wait 30 minutes for an answer. Or schedule e-mail free Fridays (or mornings) where you carve out productive time free from the distractions of the incoming ping. When it's time to turn you attention to e-mail, answer it, then archive.

Action, Not Procrastination: Get into the habit of moving through your e-mail, then moving it out of the in-box. If possible, respond to an e-mail immediately, then archive. Often, e-mails require no more than a few words or lines in response. So make time to respond right off the bat if you can.

On Hold: E-mails that require a longer response time can be moved to a temporary folder and handled at a scheduled time. Try to discipline yourself not to let e-mails linger longer than a day.

Do you have tips for dealing with e-mail overload? Share your thoughts here and at the Pendaflex Facebook page.

Virtual Clutter: Get it Off Your Desktop

Community Manager — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:03:00 GMT

Clutter, even virtual clutter, has a way of taking over open spaces. Is your desktop clogged with icons? Are e-files haphazardly stored? If so, it's time to declutter your desktop.

The Urge to Purge

In past posts I've heralded the lowly waste basket as an extremely effective organizing tool. Tossing what isn't needed is Organization 101. So get ready to delete unused short cuts, icons and files. Ditto for those RSS feeds and e-mail newsletters that once seemed like must-reads and now serve as in-box dead-weight. Not sure if something should be consigned to the trash? Create a folder to store those items for a later review.

Tossing done? Now the fun!

Once you've tossed the unnecessary, it's time to streamline what remains. Be creative in tailoring a solution for your needs. You can opt to go icon free altogether (yes! it's possible!) or move to a system that uses folders delineating status to store and organize desktop functions.

In Desktop Zen: Reducing Visual Clutter on your Desktop the author advocates an icon free existence arguing that icons require minimizing and resizing that reduces productivity. Instead, users can elect to use the start menu and the quick launch toolbar for more effective navigating.

Another solution posits that a clutter-free state can be achieved by creating five "master folders" that sort items according to status. In How to Organize Your Cluttered Desktop and Regain Your Sanity the author outlines an organizing method based on principles espoused in the book Getting Things Done by productivity-guru David Allen.

Strive for Simple

Virtual clutter can be easier to deal with than physical piles (no need to worry about recycling or shredding) but taming clutter, virtual or otherwise, requires discipline. Once you've established a system to conquer clutter, set aside time to maintain it. Looking for inspiration to get started? Read the Zen of Tech: 12 Powerful Ways to Keep Your Online Life Simple and Peaceful for a reminder that hi-tech can be managed simply.

Declutter your desktop and unleash your inner Zen.

Is your desktop a clutter-free zone? Share your thoughts here and on the Beyond Folders Community's Facebook and Twitter pages.

by Carly Fadako

Workspace Design Inspiration

Community Manager — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 12:36:00 GMT

"The evolution of office spaces toward greater comfort and visual appeal has been taking place for about 15 years. Then why do so many workspaces remain devastatingly ugly?"

Christina Nunez poses this compelling question in her NPR article, When Bad Office Design Happens to Good People. Writing with empathy for cubicle dwellers everywhere, Nunez culls a list of suggestions for beautifying these workspaces - or, at least, for making them a bit less dreadful. Here is a sampling:

Add a task lamp to "counter a washed-out lighting scheme"
Bring in a plant or two
Change things around with some books from home, an inspiring quote display and/or some photos
Place cushions on low filing cabinets to brighten the area and provide seating for visitors

If you work at home as I do, or have a good amount of freedom when it comes to designing your workspace, you can take some creative direction from Smashing Magazine's gallery of inspirational workplaces. There's more inspiration on tap in this post offering 90+ Home Office Hacks and this one showcasing 10 Cool Items for Your Design Workspace.

But, you might want to temper your design impulses with these practical tips on setting up a healthy, usable workspace (courtesy of Lifehacker):

Keep things ergonomically-friendly (pay attention to your posture and the position of your computer's keyboard, mouse and monitor)
Take regular breaks
Keep your desk clutter-free and organized

Need some help with this last tip? Try taking the 3 Steps to a Permanently Clear Desk detailed in a post from zenhabits.

by Carly Fadako

Cutting Paper Clutter in Five Easy Steps

Community Manager — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:20:00 GMT

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Mountains. Stacks. Cascades. Whatever word you use to describe it, paper clutter can be overwhelming. Here are some practical paper management steps you can take to embrace the old adage everything in its proper place and regain control of your workspace.

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