I’ve been listening to The Secret audiobook and thinking that this can so apply to keeping an organized, uncluttered home and life. If you’re not familiar with the secret, it’s a kind of self-help movie dealing in the idea of positive thinking, but with a seriously thought out strategic way to think and feel positive. I think I’m feeling a podcast brewing on applying the secret to our homes.

If you want to try it now, my best advice — short of watching the movie — is this. Ask for what you want. Ask the universe for a clean, uncluttered home. Ask only once and be specific about what you want. Use positive wording like “I want an organized basement” instead of negative wording like “I don’t want a messy basement.” Now, believe and feel that you already have a clean basement. Act as if it’s already come true, that you have a clean basement already, even if it’s still a mess.

The idea is that the universe acts as your genie, the “your wish is my command” guy, but the universe mirrors your thoughts and feelings exactly, giving you what you think and feel, but in the real physical world. It’s not up to you to figure out how your basement will get cleane, that’s the universe’s problem. Your job is just to think, feel and believe.

Yes, this process involves a leap of faith, but if you take that leap and believe it will work, then it will work.

Too many books cluttering up your bookshelf?  The future is e-books and Amazon’s come out with a way for you to read those e-books now on a device they call the Kindle.

It’s a little on the pricey side at the moment, about $400, but it should soon eventually start coming down in price.  Really all they need is a little competition from someone else to get a price war going.  I must admit, I haven’t yet had the opportunity to test it out, but I’ve heard from people who have and most seem to really like it.

There are other e-book readers, but this one seems to be the “latest and greatest.”  I sure would love to hear from you if you’ve tried it out, or if you use another type of e-book reader.

Show notes:

• 5 free tools to add to your Mac menu bar on MakeUseOf.com
• Podcasters4Hire.com
• dads.alltop.com at alltop.com.
• busydadblog.com
• Music (Springtime) graciously provided by: Grammy award winner Doug Smith

Show notes for Podcast #2.

• Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat by Peter Walsh (audiobook)
• Is neatness a sign of godlines, or compulsion
• Banish clutter by just letting go (Miami Herald)
• How to get your kids organized (koam tv)
• To 10 ways to unclutter your kitchen (pleasantnights.com)
• 10 ways to unclutter the kids room and keep it that way (pleasantnights.com)

If you liked this episode, please subscribe in iTunes, DIGG it and StumbleUpon it etc … and most importantly, tell your friends.

My experience was that once the kids saw the end result, a spotless uncluttered room, they did not want to spoil it with anything from the give away pile.

In my family’s quest to create a more peaceful, non-cluttered household we tackled the kids rooms this past weekend. It was a big task and was met with some resistance at first, but in the end everyone was happy with the results.

My kids are 7 (boy) and 9 (girl) and have their own rooms, which are on the small side. There’s room for a bed, desk and dresser and anything else is really too much. Before we began there were books and odds and ends piled high on their desks. Floors were full of toys, dolls, papers etc. Closets were full of clothes, games, dolls and toys. Over the past few months, when we told them to clean their rooms, it really meant clear a path from your door to the bed.

(more…)

Once I helped people de-clutter, people were phoning me, contacting me and saying, “Oh my God, a side effect is that I suddenly find I’m losing weight.”

I haven’t had the opportunity yet to read this book (it’s on my Audible Wish List I’ve now downloaded it) but it looks quite interesting. In the meantime, here’s a review by someone else.

If you’ve read it, please review it in the comments.

If you’re trying to keep your stuff out of sight and don’t have any drawers in your desk. Here’s a fancy schmancy idea. Stow your stuff inside your keyboard.

The BNI PC PS2 Keyboard and Desktop Organiser goes for about £25, which works out to about $38 $50 (according to XE.)

The Keyboard itself is no thicker than a standard keyboard, it has 18 multi-media hotkeys, PS/2 connection and is fully compatible with Windows 98/ME/2000/XP.

Wait, did he just say PS/2 connection? I thought everything was USB nowadays. Nevertheless, this will go a long way to reducing desktop clutter.

[via Lifehacker]

My kitchen is usually a total, disgusting, clutter-ful mess. No matter how hard I try, after a few days the pots and pans and old dirty dishes are again filling up the sink. The grocery bags, old apple juice containers and used, but uncleaned appliances sit, accusingly on my countertop.

I am revolted every time I go in there to cook dinner, or grab a bite to eat, yet I stand idly by as it happens, too lazy to wash that dish or throw out the empty container. Most of the backlog comes from the dishwasher which sits un-emptied. If nothing dirty can go in, then it must go somewhere. If it goes in the sink, then pretty soon that gets filled up and you can’t even wash the frying pan you need for supper, so you empty the sink and pile everything on the counter, next to the pots and other dirty dishes that aren’t in the dishwasher because no one emptied it.

It all comes back to the dishwasher. So here are the top 10 ways to keep your kitchen clean. I promise to start implementing them right now (I mean, tomorrow — after someone empties the damn dishwasher.)

1. Delegate dishwasher emptying. In my house, no one really likes to empty it, and we do a dishwash once a day, at least. If everyone has a day to empty it, then it will seem less of a chore. Of course, unless there are 7 people in the house, some people will have to double up. Make these double-up days, days that you usually go out for dinner.
2. Rinse pots as soon as they’re empty. Don’t let an empty pot sit on the stove. As soon as you’ve emptied it of its contents, fill it up with water. A pot that you can quickly wash out without scraping, is much more likely to get washed and put away, than one you have to spend minutes and elbow grease on.
3. Put dishes in dishwasher right away. Don’t leave them sitting on the table or counter top. If your dishawsher is emptied regularly (see #1) then it’s only a minimal extra effort to put them in the dishwasher as soon as you are done with them.
4. Get a clean-off-the-table system. Either delegate one family member to clean off the table all the time, or alternate as with dishwasher emptying (see #1.) If everyone knows their job, it’s much easier to get it done. And, make sure the dishes, when cleaned off the table, go into the dishwasher, not on the counter or in the sink.
5. Deal with leftovers and condiments immediately. After dinner, put the ketchup, mustard, mayo and pickles back in the fridge right away. The longer it sits out, the more it looks like furniture. The more it looks like furniture, the less likely you are to put them away. As for leftovers, they must go in the fridge or freezer as soon as you’re done dinner, otherwise they may not be edible come leftover night.
6. Keep non-food, non-cooking items out of the kitchen. This is a toughy. The kids do their homework on the kitchen table and you like to do the crossword there. The kids have desks in their rooms, right? Well, maybe they should use them for something other than stacking up their Webkinz and hockey cards. And, wouldn’t it be more comfortable to do the crossword in the living room anyway? If you must bring papers and other things in the kitchen — put them back in their place as soon as you are done with them.
7. Never leave anything in the sink. If it’s in the sink, wash it. Period. The only legitimate reason for leaving something in the sink is to let it soak. But, I’m only talking about baking dishes and things that would otherwise take long minutes of scraping. Everything else should either be washed right away, or put in the dishwasher.
8. Keep the drainboard empty. Nothing makes an otherwise clean kitchen look cluttered like a drainboard filled with pots, glasses and giant plastic popcorn bowls. If you don’t feel like drying right away, give your dishes an hour or two to drip-dry then put everything away.
9. Keep fridge art neat and to a minimum. Yes, I know how great your kids’ drawings are. They’re a bunch of little Picassos, I’m sure, but even Picasso’s mom had only so much room on the icebox. Allow one to two pieces of art per child and when they come home with a new masterpiece, take one of the old ones down. You can quietly toss it in the recycling bin, or keep it in a file to hand off to them when they move out, or have kids of their own. The art you do keep on the fridge should be all neatly aligned.
10. Keep counter appliances to a minimum. There are a handful of appliances we use everyday: the toaster, the coffeemaker and maybe the can opener. They can remain on the counter neatly aligned along a wall, but everything else: blender, food processor, breadmaker should be hidden away. A good rule of thumb. If you don’t use it at least twice a week, hide it away.

Note: Since I started writing this post, my family has embarked on a new chore system and so far (**fingers-crossed**) it appears to be working. The kitchen has survived two whole days without a return to clutter.

I used to spend a lot of my time trying to clear the icons off my desktop. I hate icons on my desktop, but I don’t want to get rid of them all, in case there’s something there I need. Some of the solutions I used to use:

• Create a new folder and place all my other desktop icons in there
• Place all icons in their proper places, wherever that might be (eg: pictures in picture folder, docs in documents folder)
• Never, ever allow any document, picture, download etc, to end up on the desktop.

These are all great ideas, but I’ve since found a great little freeware program (for Mac only) that hides all my icons, all the time, unless I want to see them. It’s called Camouflage. Install it today, for a cleaner desktop where you can actually see that beautiful zen garden wallpaper.

If you know of a similar program that works for Windows, let others know in the comments.