Friday, January 30, 2015

Down with Chaos!!!

As long-time readers may know, I'm not a big fan of New Year's resolutions. In my experience they simply lead to anxiety and self-recrimination, not real change.

That being said, the plethora of "get your shit together" posts on the blogosphere this month did seem to rub off on me, so I've been on a mission of sorts to ban chaos from my life.


I started with the kitchen. For some reason the kitchen is the place where chaos seems to accumulate with great ease. It's a small kitchen and I cook everything from scratch so I suppose it's not surprising.

Anyhow, the stove area was a constant source of frustration for me. There's not much space or storage there to begin with, and part of the problem was that 2 of the stove burners were always occupied - one with the tea kettle, and one with the oft used but heavy and therefore a pain to "put away" cast iron deep pan/dutch oven.

Since the kettle was well over 30 years old and starting to develop some rust inside, I decided to replace it with an electric model which got it off of the stove and put it over on the other side of the kitchen.


Just that move made a HUGE difference because I was able to move my prep area for coffee, tea, oatmeal & cat food (I mix a bit of boiling water with the cat food to both add moisture and warm it) to the other side of the kitchen where the coffee, tea, oatmeal & cat food are actually stored, and where there's a bit more room to operate.

The result has been AMAZING! It lightened the load on the stove area and it's been soooo much easier to keep it clean. Seriously, I didn't even do any "pre-photo" cleanup before snapping this!


I'm not sure if you can see the little strip between the stove & counter top, but I found that thing on Amazon for about $4 and it's WONDERFUL! I knew I couldn't be the only person who had trouble with crumbs & spills falling down the gap between the stove & counter - so I went on a mission and found a "gap filler." It's made from rigid metal and has a magnetic strip which holds it in place.

Before I installed it I decided I really should do a thorough cleaning - which led to pulling out the cabinet, fridge & stove, which, in turn, led to the discovery of some seriously disgusting stuff. I'll spare you the details, but suffice it to say that cleaning back there is a job that perhaps should be done a tad bit more frequently than, say, once every 10-15 years!

Anyhow, I then moved on to the other side of the kitchen where I banished everything from the counter top that didn't get used multiple times per day. NO MORE HOMELESS ITEMS ON MY COUNTER!! And here's the result.


I realize this probably wouldn't be considered great by "neat freak" standards, but for me it's pretty darned incredible! And it's soooo much less stressful to cook when you've actually got counter space to work with!

So next I moved on to the desk. My desk is always a disaster because no matter how I try to resist the urge, it always seems to become a dumping ground for stuff that I don't know what to do with. So I dove into the piles of papers. I filed, I purged, I dealt with stuff I'd been avoiding... which led to a purging of the file cabinet as well - and here's the result:


Yup folks, I knew it was under there somewhere - my desk actually does have a surface! And after I took this I was inspired to scrub the wrist & mouse pads so they're nice and shiny clean now. (And what looks like debris hanging out on top of the computer isn't - it's a towel covering the fluids bag for Princess - I keep it there because the top of the computer is warm so it warms the fluids a bit, and the towel is there to keep the sunlight off the bag.)

And here's the box full of stuff to be shredded:


DOWN WITH PAPER DOCUMENTS!!! Some of the stuff in there actually dates back to the early 1990's... OY! I'm gonna redouble my efforts to get everything possible switched to paperless, and to consider closing the accounts from the places that won't do it.

Which brings me to this:


Yes, my friends... that is an EMPTY inbox! OMG, OMG, OMG!!!! Seriously, I haven't had an empty inbox since I first started using Outlook waaaaaay back in the mid-1990's. It took about a week, with numerous false starts and tweaking of systems, but with CatMan's help I was able to set up a bunch of folders for archiving important things, and rules to move incoming mail to appropriate folders.

I can't even describe the mental lift it has given me not to have thousands and thousands of emails hanging out in my inbox demanding my attention constantly! And yes, it was a bit like an archaeological dig since there was stuff over 10 years old in there. OY!


I've gotta say, this whole experience has led to a sense of peace & zen that is much more foreign to me than it should be.


And along the way I had a very interesting revelation...

The vast majority of my clutter problems have NOTHING to do with laziness!


Seriously, most of my problems stem from either systems that don't work and are difficult to maintain, or from an inability to make decisions about where to put things and/or what needs to be kept.

I'm not entirely sure what to do with this new revelation at the moment, but the idea that perhaps I'm not just genetically programmed for clutter & chaos is a new one for me.

Anyhow, I am determined to keep up my new systems, and to keep tweaking them as life changes so the systems don't become outdated and non-functional again.


So how about you? Have you done any organizing lately?

34 comments :

  1. Hooray for decluttering! I am looking around my office right now and noticing all the little knicknacks that need a place to live. Thanks for the nudge in the right direction.

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    1. Kinda ironic that I could ever provide a decluttering nudge as it isn't exactly my strong suit. But I'm really loving all of the surfaces in my home at the moment!

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  2. I physically can no longer get into my office. I can open the door, yup, but I actually cannot enter for huge piles of - stuff. It's an illness, I swear. Good for you ECL!

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    1. Oy! OK, you're making me feel like I'm at least not alone. I have to say it was incredibly satisfying to take that huge box of old documents to the shredder yesterday. GONE! Plus, there's now enough room in the filing cabinet that I could actually put away the pile of more recent stuff that I might "need" (she says, wondering if she shouldn't just shred them the instant they arrive.)

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  3. I have done various versions of your decluttering except I have never had an entirely clean Inbox. I am very impressed. I need to follow your lead and set up more folders and use the ones I have. The other thing I need to clean up on my computer is my pictures. I have a hard time deleting them unless they are blurry, but I'm going to try.

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    1. The inbox thing was HUGE. Not sure why, but of all my decluttering experiments, it's had the single biggest impact on me. The key for me was setting up rules so stuff goes into a folder as soon as it arrives. But I also had to make sure that the folder it went into was a "first tier" folder so I can see that there's an email in there, rather than something buried down several layers. So now when a bill or statement comes in it shows up in my "Financial" folder - where I can go look at it and archive it into a sub-folder for that particular account. I also set up a Personal folder for all those random emails from friends & family that I'm never sure if I should keep or not.

      Now photos... OY! Haven't tackled that yet but I literally have thousands upon thousands of them!

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  4. This is awesome!

    And it's like four posts in one! I only understand your new system for the stove area. The other three are just magic.

    Also, I like comparing your kitchen to my kitchen. Same era, different layout. And now I'm thinking about cabinets over the sink window. Yours look hinged on top so the open from the bottom. Interesting!

    And, why yes, I do also hang my potholders next to the stove, but in my case we have a gigantic metal exhaust blower (that doesn't work) from which we hang magnet hooks. And we also hang our strainer (and colander) on the cabinet next to the sink like you do.

    I have just one panel where you expect drawers to be under the sink but turned it into a thing you pull open on a hinge and there's a little room for sponges and scrubbers in there now (like a tiny but long potato bin).

    We have a clothes washer instead of a dishwasher. We have no cabinet next to our stove (I was surprised yours pulls out) so we have a trash can and a tiny cart. But we got one of those big old-timey ovens, so there's actually room to set some things on there, like our big pitcher of cooking implements.

    Our spices are further from the stove, on a wall rack that's made from a DVD rack, but the spices are still in the light of day, so we could do better.

    Fun!

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    1. Those cabinets over the sink are actually a total pain to use because they do open from below, but they don't stay open, so you have to hold them - and they're so high that I can barely reach them standing on my tippy toes, and I'm 5' 8"! So I'm not entirely sure of everything that's up there - because to see beyond what's right at the front I have to drag a chair or footstool into the kitchen, so I don't really use them.

      The cabinet next to the stove wasn't there when I bought the house - it was just an empty space. So I found a used cabinet and just stuck it in there - which is why it pulls out. I never got around to painting it to match the rest of the kitchen though. The whole kitchen could use a coat of paint though so maybe this time around I'll get it done. I'd love to have a cabinet above it where the spice shelves are. I'm also considering getting an above the stove microwave with a built in fan. We'll see...

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    2. Good to know. Sounds like it's better to have doors that swing open the usual way with handles near the bottom. I like barely reachable cabinets for stuff I don't use very often like party supplies--it's still more convenient than the garage!

      Cool, you could put wheels on your cabinet to make it even easier to move and clean behind.

      I don't think it has to match--it's not right next to your other cabinets. That could be the rustic part of your kitchen.

      One problem with stuff over the stove is that it tends to get covered with grease. (Or at least it does with the way I and/or my roommates have cooked.)

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    3. Well, there is the grease factor to consider. But the over the stove microwaves have a built-in fan that's supposed to help with that. It's not a fan that vents to the outside, just one that filters the air and recirculates it. I dunno. I'll have to read some reviews before I commit.

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    4. We did a major kitchen reno a year ago and installed an over-the-stove microwave with a built-in fan. Ours vents to the outside. We paid to have it installed professionally (it's a Whirlpool) and I LOVE it. It frees up 19 inches of counter space (yes, I measured). Like you, my kitchen is small and space is at a premium. I haven't noticed a grease problem, but I don't do a ton of stovetop-with-grease cooking. I mostly use my microwave to reheat stuff--if you use heavy dishes in your microwave, an overhead one would be a disadvantage, but for us, it works--hope that helps!

      I did the same thing you just did when we did our reno--I looked at how we use our space and made changes in regards to where I store things. There are a few items that I may reconsider storing differently, but overall, my kitchen functions soooo much more efficiently. We also have a back entryway with a coat closet--the closet is quite large so my hubby installed shelves in half of it and I store my big kitchen stuff (think: crockpots, stockpots ... ) there. It's right by the kitchen door so I don't have to go far to get anything I want, and it frees up space for smaller, more frequently used items to hang out closer to where I cook. Just a thought for if you have a similar space. :)

      I am SO with you on how much better you feel when a space is more organized and usable. Good for you!!! Hope it stays that way!

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    5. Ooooo thanks for the info! I didn't know they made them with outside vents. That might be the way to go!

      My kitchen is short on storage space too, so I try not to keep anything in there that doesn't get used regularly. Your shelves in the "mudroom" sound perfect! Unfortunately, there's no space nearby in my house, but the kitchen is right by the stairs to the basement, so I tend to store overflow (including pantry stuff) in a cabinet downstairs. Not as convenient as I'd like, but hey, I get some exercise running up and down the stairs!

      Here's hoping I can maintain my new found neatness! Fingers Crossed! :-)

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    6. Our installer said that the non-venting microwave/fans were (this is a paraphrase) pointless. We got ours from Lowe's. Seems like it cost around $200 ...

      From your pictures, your kitchen looks roughly about the size of mine--I think we cook differently than people did back-in-the-day (my house was built in 1960), with more appliances and whatnot--all of which take up valuable kitchen real estate. It definitely cuts into storage space. Oh, we used to have a countertop/stove strip, too, but ours wasn't magnetized and it drove me crazy, so someone who shops at Goodwill probably now has it in their home ...

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    7. Interesting... I wonder how hard it is to install the venting. If it can just vent into the attic it will be easy but if it has to go outside... well... that's more complicated!

      And I think the magnetic strip makes all the difference on the gap thing because otherwise I can see it slipping all over the place and making a bad situation worse!

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    8. I think you can vent either into the attic or outside--we chose outside--I'm not sure about this, but I think condensation can build up in your attic and find its way through your ceiling if you just vent into the attic. Worth investigating, for sure!

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    9. Makes sense. Of course, this is all in the "pipe dream" stage anyhow, since the chances of me getting my act together on such a scale seem remote at best, but I guess it would be good to have "well researched dreams!"

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  5. Good for you! For some reason I just love reading about people dealing with these kinds of things. Less clutter makes things so much easier, but currently I'm currently procrastinating on my own projects, lol. My wardrobe really is a tough nut to crack though, because I have SUCH a hard time finding clothes I like, so I can't just get rid of everything I don't love. I've actually decided to teach myself how to sow sometime in the not so distant future, so that I can make some of my own stuff. Hopefully it's not too hard. :p

    Maria

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    1. I'm not great with finding clothes I like either. But after I quit my job I decided I could pretty much ditch everything that I didn't like. Doesn't mean I love my current wardrobe, but anything that made me feel yucky when I put it on got the axe and I feel much better for it. These days I don't buy any clothes unless I really need them or really love them. Of course, not having to look presentable on a daily basis helps a LOT! :-)

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  6. Well, we have the same stove and the same sink!

    I am an inbox clearer -- you get used to it and just make use of folders. And there's a lot of stuff you really can delete! I have to remember to mark everything I move as "read." I had a boss whose pet peeve was the number of items that show in a folder as unread. So I took a page from his book and made sure to flag everything I moved as "read."

    My server doesn't clean up after it downloads to Outlook so every few days I have to go up there and delete. I get tons of useless email from my job search and although I try to block it, it invariably makes it through. Just too much noise!

    If you keep your inbox uncluttered, you will feel better.

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    1. I'm discovering that I have an irrational fear of tossing something that I might "need" later. At one point in this journey I had a stack of packing slips from stuff I'd bought online - mostly cat food, and I was in a total quandary about whether I needed to keep them or not. CatMan was dumbfounded as it would never even occur to him to keep something like that.

      So I'm learning to let go, and truly as soon as I tossed them, this big nagging feeling suddenly went away!

      With the inbox, I'm actually finding that it's easier to delete stuff when there's less in each folder to begin with - it's like there's an easily attainable goal of getting back to empty rather than a hopeless mountain that will never be conquered. And when you have all related things in one place it's kinda easy to see that there's no reason to keep a payment reminder from 8 years ago! :-)

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  7. I love having an empty inbox! Well, a nearly empty one- I keep things which are 'in progress' in my inbox- email receipts for orders that I've not yet received, etc. That means there are only ever a handful of emails in there. The rest gets filed or, more often, deleted. I also spent quite a bit of time hitting the 'unsubscribe' button on email newsletters to reduce the amount coming in.

    You're right about clutter and mess being due to unfunctional systems- I try and own as little as possible because I like things to be tidy, but am basically lazy- if there is too much stuff to fit in a space or the space is hard to reach or use for some reason, I just won't bother.

    My favourite recent change has been to take down the shelves we used to store our shoes on and replace them with plastic storage drawers. No more muddy shoes falling on my head!!

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    1. Oh yes... unsubscribe is your friend!!!

      It's really a new perspective for me that perhaps what I need is not a bigger bull whip to lash myself with, but a system that makes it easier to keep things orderly. Hmmm... perhaps I should try to apply this concept to other areas of my life!

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  8. Oh. My. Goodness! This post is seriously inspirational! I am so impressed at all your achievements, and feeling very motivated to do the same!

    First up - the oven magnetic strip things. Who knew you could get such a thing! I have exactly the same problem with food falling down the gaps, and it drives me crazy as there is no way to clean without removing the oven, and I am far too scared to do that. It was gross before we moved in, and I dread to think what's breeding there : /

    Next up - desk. I have far too many scraps of paper and I'm slowly (far too slowly) turning them into notes on the computer. I will keep at it!

    Thirdly - inbox - no way! I dream of sorting my inbox. I can believe it took you a week, but actually that isn't that long if I put my head down. I deleted a whole heap of things before I moved here 3 years ago and probably had 350 emails ... now I have well over 1000. Too many to find anything useful!

    Thanks for the inspiration : ) And congratulations on all your achievements!

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    1. Thanks Lindsay,

      It's kind of a hilarious thought that a person like me, who had a childhood nickname of 'miss mess' could ever provide inspiration on this front. I'm under no illusions that I won't succumb to my inner slob and fall off the wagon now and then, but one of the things I read on the internets this month talked about doing a weekly 'reset' where you revisit your clutter hot spots, putting things away, and tweaking the system as needed. So maybe I can tackle it before it gets out of control next time.

      And the gap filler thing totally rocks! Best four bucks I've spent in a long time!

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  9. Woohoo! Organizing and decluttering is one of the best feelings! We just got rid of a bunch of stuff from our third bedroom/office and I'm looking forward to spending another few hours in there with all the paperwork we're collecting for no reason.

    My kitchen looks a lot like yours - except my stove is where your sink is, and the sink is where your window/standing shelf is. All that empty counter space looks nice! I like how your cabinets go all the way to the ceiling. Ours stop about a foot away and it's such an annoying spot to clean.

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    1. Well, those cabinets are a mixed blessing because they're so tall that I can't really reach the top shelf without a step stool. But I'm totally loving my counter space! Good luck with your paperwork, it's one of the things I really struggle with... obviously!

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  10. "Seriously, most of my problems stem from either systems that don't work and are difficult to maintain, or from an inability to make decisions about where to put things and/or what needs to be kept." Yes and double yes! I am in the middle of cleaning out a large book case - I have put everything in boxes (in November!) but now I have to decide what to keep and what to give away and I can't seem to make myself start that process. Also, we had a new kitchen floor installed just before Christmas so I had to do a lot of kitchen decluttering and moving stuff into other rooms temporarily which meant I also had to do some cleaning and organizing in the other rooms as well to make space. So that worked out well all the way around. That was when I got to clean between the cabinet and the stove for the first time in years, and I think your little metal strip is fantastic.

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    1. The gap filler thing totally rocks! Good luck with your book case. I got much better at decluttering books years ago when I had a little business selling used books online. Somehow seeing how easy and cheap it would be to replace a book if I wanted to made it much easier to let them go.

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  11. Great job decluttering! Those are not small tasks. You are inspiring me to go even further in my Less is More project.

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    1. Thanks for the vote of confidence. I'm still trying to figure out how much stuff is the right amount for me, but if I can just get these areas where there's a constant influx under control I think I'll have better luck tackling some of the other areas.

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  12. I like to declutter and organize - but it doesn't mean I'm always on top of things. Today I decluttered the nooks and crannies of my SUV. I've been meaning to do it for a while and now I actually know what I have in the console! Since December, I've been working on decluttering my inbox, too. I've unsubscribed to numerous newsletters - I always felt guilty when I got the newsletters and they'd stay in my inbox for "some day" when I could read them. That resulted in a far too full inbox and made me miss a few important emails. Decluttering is always an ongoing process to keep chaos out!

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    1. I think I still need to wrap my brain around the idea that this isn't something I can do once and be done with - it's an ongoing process. I shudder to think of what's hanging out in the nooks & crannies of my 25 year old Honda! :-)

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  13. I love what you've done! As for the inbox, it's 2:30 in the morning and I"m trying to tackle all the saved messages in mine. One day I may get it finished.

    I do have one tip for you if you would like to have more light in your kitchen. Ignore this if you aren't interested and tell me to be quiet. That apron over your sink (the decorative wood piece) blocks much of the light coming in, I've found that most are easy to remove with a screw or two on either side and while it seems like such a little thing it will brighten your room an amazing amount.

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    1. Hmmm... now that's something I'd never thought of. That window is on the east side of the house, so, to be honest, I'm seldom up in time to benefit from the light that comes in there anyhow. Plus, there's a light fixture hidden behind that thing, and a big pine tree in the yard that blocks much of the light that would come through that window. But it's a very interesting idea.

      Of course, if I want to brighten the kitchen, the first thing to do would be to remove the insulated pad that's hiding behind the window with the curtain. That window is on the north side of the house and it just gets soooo cold in the kitchen (no heating vents in that room for some reason.) So at the moment the room is pretty dark to begin with.

      Anyhow, I'll certainly give it some serious thought when I eventually get around to doing something with the kitchen... you know, in the mythical "some day" times!

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Thanks, and have a fabulous day!