SORTED! the ultimate guide to organising your life – once and for all

of of March 14th 2008, 17,113 copies have been sold.  Thanks to all who’ve purchased it and thanks to everyone who’s written to me with such positive feedback (all letters answered!)

Wendy Harmer’s ‘Stuff’

Premiering tonight on ABC TV (Australia) at 8pm is comedian Wendy Harmer’s four part series, Stuff. It examines our relationship with our physical stuff – tonight, “our stuff”, then “my stuff” “their stuff” and “stuffed”. More info here Love the ABC! (Thanks to everyone who called and emailed me to let me know it was on. I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but I’ve known about the series since it went into development 18 months ago!)
UPDATE Just watched the first ep – great stuff (no pun intended). Favourite bits – seeing Dr Michael Kyrios again, he was the keynote speaker at our first AAPO conference in 2006, and the golden comment from the environmentalist who quipped “the earth has to pay” for our consumerism. But the absolute highlight, hands down, was the beautiful comments from the blokes in jail… who all gave examples like “picking up my daughter from school” really bringing home what matters. Anyone who’s familiar with my philosophies knows that I don’t object to stuff – and am not a minimalist. I simply believe that there are times that our relationship with stuff is the real issue. What do you think? Did you see the show?

Need to declutter your office?

 

Here at SORTED! we’re big fans of Traveller’s Aid… they do some great work (check out www.travellersaid.org.au).  I am hoping you might have some furniture cluttering up your office that you need to donate…. check this out….  YOUR DONATION CAN ALSO BE A TAX DEDUCTION!

 

Scrapbooking – a waste of time?

I laughed out loud when I read this blog entry from John Trosko of OrganizingLA  The original article comes from Get Organized Now and is called “my son doesn’t want my scrapbooks!”  A woman writes to Marcia: 

Now my 12-year-old son, my only child, says he really doesn’t want to haul scrapbooks around after I’m gone and ‘couldn’t you just put all the photos on a thumb drive and hand it to me, Mom?’ Well, needless to say, that sort of took the wind out of my scrapbooking sails! 

 I think it’s cute, hilarious and ironic all at once.  For me, it raises two points. Firstly, scrappers primarily scrap for their own pleasure.  Scrapping is a lot of work…. probably the equivalent of running a marathon, or building a house I reckon.  There’s a lot of love in your albums (I know this because I scrap).  So what if no-one else actually wants your albums?  They probably don’t want your other stuff either.  At least when you’re dead, photo are respected, in order and there will be some clarity to your history (rather than dog-eared, dusty and damaged pics in a shoe box up the top of the wardrobe).  

 Secondly, I think decluttering and organising is about editing what you have… and that’s an ongoing process.  I talk about this on page 45 of my book, SORTED! the ultimate guide to organising your life – once and for all (extract below)

Editing    

Editing is a big part of organising. It’s about selecting the best and letting the not-so-good go. Professional photographers are skilled editors. They take a large volume of work and whittle it down to a few good shots. Let’s say they shoot 30 images: they might end up with only two or three stunning shots out of that much work.Film editors edit raw footage to make a stronger film. They snip 30 seconds here and 30 seconds there to create a better and tighter film. Less information (less stuff) means more clarity and a better end product.Life is like this. There’s lots of stuff that doesn’t matter: things you’re ‘going to do’; outdated, broken or not-so-good stuff. If you constantly edit the stuff in your life, you’ll stay organised. Give some thought to what’s truly special. Be an editor everyday. Constantly reassess and you’ll find that the things that don’t matter easily slip away.

 

So, to me, the mum scraps the photos by editing out the ones she feels has less value, and her son can continue on by chosing the specific images (scrap pages) that are meaningful *to him.*  He’s not going to value every page!  And yes, why not digitise some of the pages? She’s not wasting her time, but she might do well to consider scrapping as a team project  

clothes swapping – the new black!

I reckon clothes swapping is the new black!  Check out The Clothing Exchange (also called my sister’s wardrobe).  This is where I found out about super sensible and environmentally-friendly clothes hanger called green hanger.

Or, you might like to check out For Better or Purse. Reinventing your “house fill” (as The Clothing Exchange organisers describe it) means stuff in your wardrobe that you’re not wearing OUT and replaced item for item with more wearable stuff IN. 

swapstyle.com is like freecycle (no money changes hands).  Swapstyle is a Sydney-based international site where members post photographs of the clothes they don’t want and others can contact them to offer them with things they have to swap. ‘Buyers’ have to pay postage.