Best Results Organizing

What are the best gifts to give to prevent clutter?

As a professional organizer, I think that the best gifts aren’t things at all. They’re experiences. There’s even academic research from various studies to back this up, including those funded by the National Science Foundation and one conducted by professors from Cornell University (my alma mater!) and the University of Colorado. The findings? That experiences (like vacations and concerts) are more likely to bring a sense of happiness, or at least satisfaction, than material possessions (like clothing and electronic gadgets).

Part of this stems from the fact that we can visually compare our possessions with those belonging to our friends, and feel that what we have is lacking. It’s much harder, however, to compare experiences, which are so much more personal, and the memories of our experiences gain value over time because they are all the more “ours” for that personalization.

Don’t buy it? Close your eyes and try to remember three tangible gifts you got last year. Or even one from the year before that. With few exceptions, the joy of receiving material goods fades from our memories…but each time we recall pleasant experiences, we tend to relive the action as if we had tiny TIVOs in our heads.

This year, give yourself and your loved ones the gift of a clutter-free holiday season. Instead of scavenging stores and wrapping oddly shaped boxes, give experiences that will never have to be stored, exchanged, dry-cleaned or dusted. Consider these clutter-free gift categories, excerpted from my ebook, Simplify the Season and Save Your Sanity.

Gifts of Entertainment — Buy your loved ones tickets to professional or college sporting events, concerts, or comedy clubs. Take them to the symphony or present them with tickets for a lecture series, winery tour or theater event. A booklet of movie vouchers, season’s tickets for the theater or even a weekend trip to see a Broadway or Vegas show will yield fond memories long after the big event.

Gifts of Pampering — For friends with too much stress or not enough money, give certificates for haircuts and styling, spa facials, or relaxing massages. (Yes, even macho men like “sportsmen” spa packages.)

Gifts of Adventure — For the thrill-lovers on your list, consider certificates for hot-air balloon rides, rock climbing or zip lines. Race fans might love the NASCAR Racing Experience or the Dale Jarrett Racing Adventure. Athletes will appreciate a week of baseball fantasy camp, pre-paid rounds of golf, or time in the batting cages. For the more casual (and loosely-defined) adventurer, bowling, miniature golf, or paintball work equally well.

Gifts of Practicality — Any driver would benefit from gift certificates for oil changes, car washes and detailing…even memberships in AAA or a similar auto club. Multiple months or even an annual subscription for internet service, Netflix, cable or satellite TV, or cellular service are practical but charmingly unexpected. For college students or those on a fixed income, comping these expenses can really lighten the load.

Gifts of Education — Knowledge is power, and skills, once learned, can last a lifetime. Consider cooking, music, or self-defense lessons. Pre-pay for a series of classes in ballroom dance, quilting, horseback riding, driver’s education, scrapbooking…whatever delights the people on your list who thirst for knowledge.

Gifts Of Whole New Year — Secure a fishing license, a U.S. National Parks pass, or a year of alumni or professional association dues. Memberships at local attractions like zoos, art galleries, science museums, and historical societies may even be reciprocated by sister organizations when your recipient is traveling nationwide.

Gifts of Organization — Such gifts aren’t just practical; they can be sanity-saving!

For a friend or colleague who is drowning in disorganization, paper shredders, fire safes, and label-makers are great clutter-reducing gifts. (Colleague Liz Jenkins reports that Staples has some super-low prices on label-makers this week, including a Brother PT-90 for $9.99 and a PT-2030 for $29.99!)

A year of off-site cloud-computing backups via Mozy, Carbonite or CrashPlan will keep someone’s digital files streamlined and the data safe and accessible, letting your recipient sleep better at night.

And, of course, you can give (or request) a personalized clutter-reducing option — a gift certificate for time with a professional organizer.

There are a variety of other great organizing-themed gifts. Paper Doll is no Oprah, but I’ve made a list of a few of my favorite things for the favorite people on your list.

1) The (Hardworking but Overwhelmed) Teacher — My colleague Helene Segura‘s new book, Less Stress For Teachers: More Time and an Organized Classroom, will help teachers tame the chaos so they can focus on what they do (and love) best.

2) The Traveling Tech Guru — Does someone in your life have a commute or a schlep with pockets and bags full of chargers and gadgets? Grid-It! from Cocoon Innovations was one the most popular of all of the items I reviewed from this year’s NAPO Conference and Expo. (I’m still moping that I got to the Grit-It table too late to get one of the giveaways, so I’ve put it on my own wish list!)

3) Your Favorite Iron Chef — Would your chance of getting your favorite dinner increase if the chef in your house could find the counter under all of those recipes? Consider a one-year gift subscription to Eat Your Books, as reviewed here just a few weeks ago.

4) The Super-Shoppers — You know those moms (and dads) who make sure that the household never runs out of toilet paper or graph paper or construction paper (yet always manage to stay under budget)? Those shoppers have special needs. For them, I have a few favorites:

• I never get over the simple utility and stylish presentation of the Card Cubby, suitable for gift cards, loyalty cards, and all forms of ID. (For background on this nifty item, see one of Paper Doll‘s 2010 NAPO expo reviews.)

• For all those treks to the grocery store, the pharmacy, the toy store, and the public library, your Super-Shopper has amassed a fine collection of re-usable tote bags which are threatening to take over the mud room, the kitchen, and the trunk of the car. The Tote Buddy, which I reviewed back in May, brings order to that chaos.

• Whether your Super-Shopper is set for a debut on Extreme Coupons or just likes to save a few shekels here and there, The Couponizer ensures that cents-off makes good sense.

5) Loved Ones At a Distance — Do you have a special someone who won’t make it back home for the holidays? Consider this eminently more practical version of a post card, the Postcup! Long after post cards yellow and fade, your message will live on in this customizable mug from Design Milk.

6) The Keepers of the Home (and Office) — Readers, you know how crazy it made Paper Doll to have to keep the Rubbermaid Bento Boxes a secret between April’s NAPO Expo sneak peak and October’s official launch. Now, this sublime line of gorgeous, practical storage can make any home or office more efficient and delightful. (Buy extras — you know you’ll want to keep a set for yourself.)

7) The Hostess With the Mostest — Do you know (or are you) a host or hostess with great party mojo but not the best culinary time management? If a little more kitchen time is necessary, the guests can be kept busy with Origami Napkins from Spinning Hat.

8) Fishy Friends — Truth be told, Paper Doll isn’t much of a pet person, but I imagine I might get along swimmingly (hee! swimmingly!) with the inhabitants of this not-remotely-paper-related gift. But there’s something terrifically nifty and organized about this Umbra Fish Hotel. The individual “suites” are stackable, in case you want to go condo!

Happy gifting, and when loved ones ask what you want for the holidays, tell them you’d like a clutter-free gift — either an experience you can remember always or a something that can add a little organization to your life.

Readers, last week we explored ways to keep all the wrapping paper, ribbons and supplies of the holiday season…under wraps. Today, we’re going to examine some alternatives to using traditional rolls of wrapping paper to help you accomplish multiple goals at once:

• Decorate your gifts with festive, attractive (or at least serviceable) wrapping without purchasing new paper.
• Save money.
• Reduce your carbon footprint and protect the environment a bit.
• Solve wrapping conundrums that formerly yielded messy, crumpled, adhesive-lumped blobs.

If that last benefit seems out of place, then you’re probably one of those people who generally wraps everything from lounge chairs to vacuum cleaners with equal and impressive aplomb. Paper Doll is pleased to have you as a reader, but will never give you a self-wrapped gift for fear of offending your aesthetic sensibilities. Let’s just say that I’m lucky my best friend’s little boy looked past my miserable attempt to wrap a stuffed lion. The circle of life was more a dodecahedron of Scotch tape and rough angles. Readers, it was not pretty.

Thankfully, we have other options.

FUROSHIKI

The coolest alternative to wrapping paper comes by way of Japan. Furoshiki, the Japanese art of gift wrapping, is stunning. Using techniques to fold cloth, much like origami involves folding paper, furoshiki allows one to turn any ample sized piece of material into a practical yet artistic creation. Wrap a gift (or packages for easier carrying) using basic techniques illustrated at Japan’s Ministry of the Environment furoshiki page.

The idea is to re-purpose (or invest in) beautiful, reusable cloths, such as those carried by Furoshiki.com, in any of a variety of designer or traditional patterns and multiple sizes. Longtime readers will not be surprised to find that Paper Doll is transfixed by not-so-December-esque options in pink, like this Sakura (Cherry Blossom) furoshiki design:

If you’re wondering how two wine (or sparkling cider) bottles like this

could be transformed into something softly, daintily wrapped as this:

pop over to this video from RecycleNow.

Without tape, ribbons or a glue gun, you can transform a present into a wrapped work of art — provided you’ve got the manual dexterity and the ability to transform the conceptual into the tangible. The web abounds with instructional help for taking your wrapping to the next level.

For example, while it’s not immediately apparent, you can click on each of the finished product pictures on the Furoshiki.com techniques page

to be guided by step-by-step IKEA-like directions. (That is, the descriptions refer to A and B…but there are no letter designations on the sketched diagrams.) And you can find more instructional videos on how to do furoshiki at WikiHow, Collection du Japon, WazukiShop.com, and Hizen-ya.co.uk.

But perhaps these instructions and videos made you feel as klutzy and all-thumbs as I did when I watched the popular Japanese viral video on how to fold T-shirts. If that’s the case, don’t worry, there are still many attractive, environmentally-friendly wrapping options for people like us.

RECYCLE

Sometimes, you need to wrap a gift in a hurry, and you may not have wrapping paper or a beautifully designed piece of cloth. When something is better than nothing, consider what you might already have on hand that could make an ordinary gift really stand out.

Go On a Map Quest

Do your recipients have wanderlust or are they only accidental tourists? Although companies sell recycled maps as wrapping paper, why not dig through your glove compartment, your travel bag and your I’m-going-to-scrapbook-it-someday pile of vacation memorabilia of subway maps

 

 

and recycle your own collection? Think big–old, scrolling road maps that predate the Eisenhower Highway System, or think small–maps of theme parks or museums that match the recipients’ tastes.

See You In The Funny Papers

At best, you were going to recycle those old Dilbert and Marmaduke comics anyway. Why not give them another life as holiday wrapping? Small children love brightly colored paper and aren’t going to be more impressed by high gloss, so why not give them some Sunday funnies with their fun? (If you’ve got pen pals on distant shores, consider making a comics trade at some point during the year. Wouldn’t it be neato for a kid who has newly discovered TinTin to receive the books wrapped in Belgian comics?

Read the Writing On The Wall

Or at least make use of the wallpaper. Do you have bits of wallpaper, shelf paper, Kraft or butcher paper or any other decorative or craft-oriented paper that’s going to waste? Call upon your arts & crafts skills, or let the kids paint, crayon or doodle a masterpiece for wrapping Grandma and Grandpa’s presents.

Deck the Halls with Aluminum Foil

It’s shiny. It’s smooth. You can make it crinkly if you want. It form-fits to whatever shape or size you’re wrapping, and you often don’t even need tape. Add a ribbon, colored twine, stickers, a blown-up balloon (or multiples) and you’ve got a surprise star from the drawers of your kitchen. (C’mon, they sell wrapping paper that looks just like aluminum foil. Why not go to the source?) When you’re all done, you can use the foil to scour your oven racks and perform other amazing tasks.

CONTAINMENT POLICY

When something is too oddly shaped to wrap the wrapping around it (like that aforementioned stuffed lion), contain it instead.

Bang the Drum

A clean coffee canister or cookie tin works great for hiding the true shape of a gift, and you’ve got a make-shift percussion instrument after the unwrapping is over. (OK, maybe you want to hide the latter fact.)

All-In-One

Depending on your choice of gift, the gift itself can be the container. Take a moment to envision what kinds of gifts are made complete by the container in which they come:

• Gardening bag filled with tools
• Bright plastic bucket with bath or beach toys
• Sports-themed bag loaded with the paraphernalia of choice — bowling ball in a bowling bag, a nine iron in a golf club travel bag, yoga togs, bricks and mat in a yoga duffel
• Glass jars or canisters filled with the fixings for a hearty soup or a favorite dessert

Put a Little Bounce In Your Step

Lidded, opaque Rubbermaid totes (Get it? Bounce? Rubbermaid?) are already

colorful, simple, and perfect for disguising the shape of large or unwieldy gifts. The more your present’s wrapping serves as a decoy, the more surprised and delighted the recipient will be!

SOFT SERVE

Sometimes, your containment policy needs a softer touch.

Don’t Lose Your Marbles: Fabric Gift Bags

Remember those nifty little bags for holding onto your marbles? If Home Ec didn’t put you at risk for ruining your permanent record, you might consider sewing your own treasure bags per the tutorial at Australian blog Threading My Way. Or, pretend you’ve time-traveled to the Little House on the Prairie era and use a decorative pillow case tied at the top with a ribbon. (Ma and Pa and Baby Carrie will be thrilled!) Conversely, you could buy the little bags. And don’t tell me you’ve never heard of people re-using those oh-so regal Crown Royal bags for

everything from masking the true shape of tiny presents to corralling Scrabble tiles. Drop it in, pull the drawstring and postpone learning those deft furoshiki methods for another year.

Don’t Forget Fabric GIFTS

Who says you can’t wrap a gift in a gift? Take your heavier, more solid gifts and wrap them them your choice of a second, fabric gift: a silk or wool scarf, pashmina, baby blanket, or colorful beach towel. If the main gift is big enough (think: bicycle or sled), consider wrapping it in (or perhaps draping it under) a gift of a comforter, fleece blanket or sleeping bag. (You could opt for a Snuggie or Slanket, but…don’t. Just don’t.)

RERUNS

Rejoice In Holiday Reruns

It works for It’s A Wonderful Life and Santa Claus is Coming To Town! You can always reuse the least-wrinkled wrapping paper, gift bags, tissue paper, bows and ribbons from last year. However, if you’ve got snooty recipients or your willingness to go green doesn’t extend as far as re-using wrapping paper from year to year, at least save the scraps for your nearest crafting pals to use for decoupage, paper mche, scrapbook page borders, or origami…which brings us back to where we started, with Japanese solutions to our wrapping paper conundrums.

Perhaps it can be easy being green. I think if he could take time away from his current film’s press junket, Kermit would be proud of what we’ve done here.

It’s a wrap!

When we talk about paper clutter, we’re usually discussing functional paper — files, coupons, contracts, insurance policies, and papers that trigger activities we have to perform. Rarely do we have a serious discussion about paper that, while serving a purpose, is mainly aesthetic in nature. Until the holidays, that is, and then all the rules change.

Do you find yourself searching under beds and in the backs of closets, trying to locate the right piece of wrapping paper to fit an oddly shaped box? Have you ever spent painstaking hours trying to get a present wrapped just right, with the side flaps (somewhat) even and the bows just where they ought to go, only to find your family had turned into paperniverous creatures of mayhem the minute the presents were unveiled?

Whether you’re talking about getting it all together to wrap the gifts, or dealing with the detritus after they’ve all been opened, this is the time of year to deal with wrapping paper clutter!

BE A SINGULAR SENSATION

Some people wear a signature scent or have a signature wardrobe color. Tiffany & Co. is known for those iconic blue boxes.

Why don’t you opt for a signature color for the holidays? Then, you’ll only have to buy rolls of one type of paper instead of searching for appropriate patterns and risking running out of paper at the last minute. And you won’t have to worry that your teenage nephew will take offense at teddy bear wrapping or that Uncle Joe will be teased about his Barbie-clad crime novel.

Pick a festive color or neutral pattern that works for everyone. Red and green are Christmas-specific and blue is considered a Hanukkah standard. Why not pick a shimmery gold or silver that covers all eventualities, and then add an elegant ribbon or bow? For kids’ gifts, take a page out of the Paper Mommy encyclopedia and affix small candies like Tootsie Rolls or colorful, cellophane-wrapped (American-style) Smarties all over the top of the package.

(Trust me, the kids will be much more careful about unwrapping their presents to ensure they don’t accidentally toss one precious candy.)

Experiment with having a signature wrapping paper color just for one season — it’ll save time and effort, and you may never go back to having dozens of rolls of oddly-sized, mismatched wrapping paper.

MAKE IT STICK

If you like the idea of a monochromatic wrapping style but still feel the need for a little more jazz, dress up your wrapping with some spectacular tape. Brooklyn-based designer Karl Zahn’s Oboiler has some smashing black and white lace tapes (50 yards per 2″ wide roll, $10 each)

that add elegance to any shipping container or wrapped package.

(Thanks to Dr. Joe Stirt of the blog Book of Joe for the excellent pointer to the lace tape, as well as to the yet again sold-out Marie-Hlne de Taillac jewel tape. Joe is not only “the world’s most popular blogging anesthesiologist,” but he’s the source of information on the niftiest of gadgets and doodads. What professional organizer Jeri Dansky is to stuff for organizing, Dr. Joe is to…everything else.)

Duck brand’s EZ Start printed packaging tape has exciting new designs for packing up a special gift with pizzazz, including a chipper Cinnamon Snowflake and a black and white Paisley.

The other designer colors and patterns range from peacenik Peace and psychedelic Tie-Dye, to Pink Zebra and Black Olives, to spooky Skulls and a festive Reindeer. They run about $4-$5 per roll.

Japanese washi paper tape is another impressive alternative to traditional tape. Washi, a handmade paper with adhesive backing, is used for decorating, crafting and scrapbooking, as well as for wrapping packages. It’s similar in consistency to masking tape, but is smoother and available in bright colors and appealing patterns.

It can be hard to find washi paper tape in brick-and-mortar stores, but the Texas-based Etsy shop Pretty Tape has a wide variety of washi to solve all your wrapping, decorating, scrapbooking and “oooh, pretty!” tape needs, including this cheery stars/bells/candy cane set ($8.50/set of 3).

Paper and soft goods distributor The Hach has a few love holiday samples including mTape’s 1.5 cm wide Reindeer set (gold, silver, and silver polka dot reindeer, and gold polka dot Santa):

and a 1.5 cm Angel set (gold angel, gold polka dot angel, green candlesticks, and red polka dot candlesticks). The Mistletoe set (green and red mistletoe, gold and red mistletoe, green/gold stripes and red/gold stripes) comes with two 7-mm rolls and two 3-cm rolls. Sets are $20, and individual tape rolls may also be purchased separately for $4-$6 each.

Happy Tape has numerous collections of Christmas-themed washi, including this vintage two-roll set (50′ rolls of 7 mm green and 30 mm red) for $9.75.

Cute Tape carries an adorable Knit Reindeer Christmas Tree pattern perfect for wrapping up those holiday sweaters ($7.50/10 m long, 20 mm wide roll).

Unfortunately, I’ve yet to find any washi tape suitable for Hanukkah or Kwanzaa (or Solstice or Festivus, for that matter). If you know of a purveyor of other winter holiday washi paper tape, please leave a note in the comments with the name of the company. (Reminder: As a protection against spam, the comments section doesn’t allow linking.)

HEY, MR. DJ! CREATE A WRAPPING STATION

Once you have the right paper, it helps to have a central location for all of your wrapping paraphernalia: wrapping paper, ribbons, tape, scissors (for cutting paper and curling ribbons), a straight edge or ruler (for cutting paper evenly), note cards and sparkly pens (if you’re into that kind of thing). You could invest in Martha Stewart Gift Wrap Hutch:

but I suspect that if that kind of finery were your style, you probably wouldn’t be reading Paper Doll.

Create your holiday wrapping station out of the way of heavy traffic areas of your household, like a guest-room closet or deep drawer. If you want your aesthetic paper aesthetically organized, select all-in-one containers like Rubbermaid’s under-bed appropriate Gift Wrap Organizer

 

or any of a variety of vertical wrapping paper & supply caddies, like the Gift Wrap Vertical Organizer or the Gift Wrap Work Station, both from The Container Store:

  

If you just want to stash your wrapping paper tidily and keep it somewhat portable, but don’t care as much about your style of containment, consider using a wide umbrella stand or clean liquor store “cell box” (with dividers) to stash your wrapping paper upright.

And, if you lack the floor space that even a typical vertical arrangement might provide, a hanging gift wrap organizer, like this one from Jokari works well inside a closet or bedroom door or even flush against one side of a coat or guest closet.

 

If you keep a lot of different kinds of supplies (ribbons and bows, pretty tapes, pinking shears and scrapbooking scissors) for your wrapping, keep them organized and all in one place in your wrapping station, even if that means owning extras of a few items. Running to the kitchen to get scissors and digging through your children’s backpacks for a straight-edge ruler will just waste time when speed and efficiency are at a premium. (You want to get things wrapped before everyone gets home/wakes up/wanders in, don’t you?)

A simple tool box (or a medium Bento Box) will keep stored wrapping supplies tidy. Similarly, the multi-layer Snapware Craft ‘N Stack Storage containers are superb for corralling all the accoutrements for your upcoming wrapping extravaganzas in one place.

WRAPPING RETHOUGHT

While wrapping paper is the traditional way to present gifts with flair, there are a variety of alternative (and planet-friendly) ways to decorate presents until the big reveal. Next week, we’ll unwrap a whole slew of surprising, attractive, eco-friendly and economical wrapping options.

Until then, I leave you in good hands by directing you to The Holidays Made Simple: Easy Gift Wrapping With Gift Bags and More, a post by my great friend and the afforementioned blogger extraordinaire, Jeri Dansky.

Dearest Readers:

Whether you’re heading to Grandma’s house for a traditional family holiday or jetting off to a hedonistic, sun-filled long weekend, don’t be so quick to run out the door. Before you step one foot into a plane, train or automobile, here are a few tips to keep you organized so that next Monday, you won’t feel quite as anxious Tom Turkey feels today.

DiGiorno, Not Delivery

Nothing alerts thieves that a house has been left unattended than a full mailbox and a pile of newspapers and packages on the welcome mat. It’s not only disorganized — it’s dangerous.

In the olden days, people had all sorts of things delivered to their homes…newspapers, milk and eggs…and then the process seemed to abate for a while. The sharply uniformed milk man had long since stopped making his appointed rounds. More and more traditional newspapers have folded, and digital versions have usurped the daily paper. And most of the mail seems to be junk.

Nonetheless, stopping deliveries is just as essential as ever. Many of us still subscribe to newspapers, even if only to the weekend (coupon-filled) editions. The popularity of organic foods and community farming means that people are getting milk and eggs, along with all variety of delicious produce, delivered once again. And, at least for now, the Post Office is still delivering mail.

Before heading out of town, call to put deliveries on hold. Are you still lucky enough to have a paper boy or paper girl riding that suburban route to deliver the daily news? Even if you suspend your newspaper delivery by calling the subscription office, consider speaking to your carrier directly (and maybe even your carrier’s mom or dad) to make sure the message gets from the subscription office to the actual carrier. Similarly, don’t just cancel this week’s organic food delivery; make sure your regular delivery person knows to skip you on the route.

Of course, if you have concerns about someone dropping the ball (or, y’know, the eggs), now is the time to ask a neighbor or close friend to keep an eye on your house and take in any wayward deliveries or unexpected packages.

As for mail, skip those yellow “hold mail” cards and take the modern route. Head over to the U.S. Postal Service’s Hold Mail link (under the Manage Your Mail menu) and arrange to have your mail held for anywhere from 3 to 30 days. You have the choice of picking up your held mail at the post office or having the backlog delivered on the day your mail service is resumed. If there’s any chance that inclement weather or airline travel will cause delays in your return, you might wish to opt for the former or add a buffer day and have mail resumed a day or two after your scheduled return.

Don’t Be a Technology Turkey

If you are headed out of town without your laptop — or even if you’re taking it, because a primary rule of technology is that it will eventually fail — make sure you have the following support systems in place.

• A complete and recent backup

Paper Doll doesn’t care whether you’re backed up to the cloud or to a secondary external drive (though both would be preferable). But your backup should be thorough — make sure every document, preference file and whoziwhatsit is backed up.

• A flash drive with your most important documents and templates

You never know when an ideal prospect or an important client will decide to call from a Thanksgiving retreat with a request that you respond by close-of-business on Friday. Sure, you probably want to make Thanksgiving a family-only weekend, but wouldn’t you prefer to at least have the option of taking advantage of a really good business opportunity? Wouldn’t the holidays be even more fun if you knew you had just what you needed to turn 30 minutes of effort into a money-maker for all of next year?

Sure, if you use cloud-based backup and storage, you might be able to access your essential files from afar, but you never know when your sister-in-law’s internet access will be on the fritz or your hometown public library inextricably has blocked access to the cloud support site you need.

• A cheat sheet (in code, if necessary) of your non-memorized passwords

If you’ve gotten in the habit of letting your browser remember your usernames and passwords, you may not have typed anything but a high-security bank or brokerage password in quite a while. Perhaps you don’t even bother to log out of some of your often-used low-security sites. Indeed, it’s the low-priority sites for which you’re least likely to recall your login data. Sure, it’s no big deal to have your password emailed to you, but when you’re on the road or using Grandma Bessie’s old computer, wouldn’t you like to make things as easy as pumpkin pie?

If you’re in business for yourself, make sure you have the login and FTP information for your web site’s control panel if there’s any chance you’ll need to make an update or correction while traveling. Even if your web designer is willing to make a quick fix over the holidays, you can’t expect that he or she will have your login information handy.

In lieu of an actual cheat sheet, I’m still a huge fan of the Internet Password Organizer™,

 

which I reviewed at length over three years ago. Stripped of the paper wrapper, it appears to be a traditional address book. Just tuck it in your carry-on or your inside jacket pocket — don’t tempt fate by storing it in your laptop bag.

• Instructions and codes to call your home, office and cell voicemail

Don’t laugh. Most of us check our cell phone voicemail from our cells and our home or office voicemail in person when we get back, and many of us have all of the codes programmed into our oh-so-smart phones such that we haven’t had to remember them in years, if ever. Assuming wherever you’re visiting isn’t so far over the river and into the woods that it hasn’t upgraded from rotary dial phones, you will be able to call in to your home, office and cell voicemail from any touch-tone phone, even if you can’t get service on your cell (or if it dropped to the cabin floor and got run over by the beverage cart).

Again, even if you’ve chosen to have a work-free holiday, you’ll stress less if you prepare for all eventualities.

• A list of essential phone numbers

The more we become dependent upon the web, the less we rely on our memories. Create a few emergency contact lists on your computer (so they’ll be easy to update in the future) and take the precaution of printing a few copies. Make sure you have:

—Travel-related numbers, including the priority/loyalty/miles contact numbers and your account numbers for the airline, the front desk at your hotel, the rental car agency and anyone who helped you make your travel plans.

—Emergency family contacts for your child’s school and any parents who count on you to drive carpool. If your Sunday morning flight runs into some delays and doesn’t get your family home until late Monday evening, you’ll want to be able to update anyone expecting you or your children.

—Client/Customer contact numbers. It never fails; whenever I go on vacation, I get a (staticky) voicemail from a client, begging for a return call, with no return phone number. In the age of Caller ID, many people assume it isn’t necessary to leave a phone number, and not everyone realizes that a crystal clear connection on their end of the line doesn’t mean their message can be understood.

Don’t Just Prepare For Takeoff — Prepare for (a Soft) Landing

It’s no joke that most people feel like they need a vacation when they return from vacation. Re-entry after a day of return travel and multiple days of unusual eating and sleeping patterns can cause stress. Consider taking the following steps to ensure a smooth return, for you, your family and for the people in your work/life who depend on you.

Set a reminder in your computer or task system or post a note on your calendar for Monday morning to revise your voicemail when you get back. If you’re setting a “Happy Thanksgiving” voicemail message or something that otherwise tells people you’ll be away and won’t return to the office until Monday, make sure the first thing you do on Monday is change back to your standard message. Otherwise, you return from lunch on Wednesday to find, “Um, I don’t know if you’re back yet or if you missed some flights, ‘cos your message says you’ll be back two days ago…and I really need someone this week, and maybe I should call somebody else…” Grrrr.

Similarly, make sure your autoresponder ends when it’s supposed to. Sometimes, missing one check box can mean you’re sending out “Gobble, Gobble” messages well into December. Send yourself a quick test email when you get back, just to make sure everything is working properly.

If you still have a landline, don’t be tempted to change your outgoing message to a jolly one letting everyone know you’re headed away for the holiday. Although most people calling you are friends and family, random callers and scallywags employed by companies with which you do business don’t need to know your house has been abandoned for the week.

Prepare your desk for your return. Before heading out the door, clear your desk of clutter. File away your reference files and put any papers reflecting tasks to do upon your return in your tickler file, or pile them in order of when they need to be accomplished (with the deadline date in the upper corner or on a sticky note). Make a list of your top three priorities for Monday and put it square in the middle of your desk. When you return, focus on those tasks for a few hours before being tempted by email.

Check your calendar for the week after the holiday. December sneaks up awfully quickly after Thanksgiving, so make sure you know what’s on your schedule for the next few weeks. Let your brain do some back-burner brainstorming while you’re playing front-yard, Kennedy-style touch football.

Finally, while flying or riding or just couch-surfing after too many carbohydrates, flip through your calendar pages of the past year to recall the people and events in your life and business worthy of gratitude. You may value some people because of the warmth they’ve brought into your life or the revenue or referrals they bring your way, but also take note of those whom you’ve helped the most. Hasn’t your hard (or inspired) work for them given you a particular sense of esteem and value for which you are thankful?

For more holiday-related organizing tips, please check out Simplify the Season & Save Your Sanity.

Happy Thanksgiving, dear readers. As always, I’m thankful for you. (And for Paper Mommy, without whom there would never be a Paper Doll.)

Last week, we looked at Eat Your Books, a recipe indexing web site designed to help you find the exact recipe you need amid the cookbook clutter in your household. That had me flipping through the Paper Doll archives in search of what we’ve discussed previously about organizing cookbooks and recipes. I was surprised to find that we haven’t touched on the issue since 2007.

So, it’s time to update our recipe for eliminating cookbook clutter and recipe rubbish! Today’s post combines traditional organizing advice with some modern alternatives.

Take a look around your kitchen. Does it practically snow indoors with the flutter of clipped and copied recipes every time someone creates a mild breeze by walking past the counter? Are you drowning in cooking magazines and cookbooks for holidays, special meal requirements and more?

It’s easy for kitchen clutter to become a sticky mess, preventing us from ever finding the perfect recipe when we want or need it. Of course, having something (like a recipe) and not knowing where to find it is no better than not possessing it in the first place.

NOW, THEN AND SOMEDAY

Years ago, I wrote Book ‘Em, Danno: Organizing Your Beloved Books, where I talked about the difference between NOW books (that represent the life you currently lead), THEN books (representing who you used to be, desire and care about) and SOMEDAY books (representing what you hope to become). These categories are applicable to cookbooks, and recipes in general.

NOW recipes include the cookbooks, magazines, clippings and bookmarked sites that fit your current life. They may be for improving a family member’s medical conditions or they might be the tried-and-true holiday recipes your family anticipates all year long. These are the recipes that belong in your collection.

THEN recipes come from outgrown cookbooks, diets and guidebooks that once fit our lifestyles but no longer do. Part amicably with Macrobiotic for a Groovy Life or 172 Ways To Lose Weight With Grapefruit. Trust that Feeding Your Picky Toddler won’t give you insight into solving the nutritional needs of your teen athletes.

SOMEDAY recipes are the cooking equivalent of Fluent In Urdu In 30 Easy Lessons. They’re harder than they seem and impractical for everyday life. If they’re collecting dust because you haven’t looked at the esoteric instructions and exotic ingredients since you acquired them, the cookbooks are rude patrons taking up space in your family restaurant, repeatedly asking for water refills and never ordering.

DECLUTTER YOUR COOKBOOKS

Ask yourself: Have I used a recipe from this cookbook in the past year?

If you use the cookbook heavily, even during just one season, keep it—it’s a NOW book. If you seek it out frequently but only for the same two or three recipes, scan or copy what you use and set the cookbooks free. And, if you can’t remember the last time you opened it, the book has become a stranger in your home—shoo it away. Your options are to:

• Donate the cookbook to your local library book sale or a book-related charity.
• Trade cookbooks with friends or use an online book-trading service.
• Sell it at a local used book store or online.
• Store it elsewhere, outside your kitchen. If you have ample shelf space and enjoy perusing cookbooks even if you don’t actually cook, store extraneous titles as you would history or reference books.

In the future, test-drive a cookbook to see if it’s a good fit by borrowing it from friends or the library before making a purchase.

DECLUTTER YOUR CLIPPINGS

Gather your piles of loose recipes clipped out of magazines or copied after tasting a friend’s culinary triumph. Select one recipe at a time and follow these simple rules:

1) Separate The Eggs

Divide reality (NOW recipes) from fantasy (SOMEDAY RECIPES) by asking yourself “Will I ever really cook this?”

We have to be honest with ourselves and realize that if the fanciest thing we cook is spaghetti, we’re not really going to be dabbling in egg drop soup or meringue flamb from scratch. If your lifestyle is such that you, your spouse and your kids aren’t home yet before stomachs start rumbling, recipes concentrating on dishes that require all-day loving attention just don’t fit your lifestyle.

If the photos with those recipes are truly dazzling but out of your reach, create a Dream Recipes folder to keep in your family file system along with dream vacations and dream decorating ideas. You can preserve the dream without cluttering your kitchen.

2) Publish Your Own Cookbook

This is simply a matter of divide and conquer. First, divide your clippings and index cards into piles. Pretend you’re a cookbook editor and come up with some major categories, and then add the ones that fit your family’s dining style:

• Appetizers
• Salads
• Entres
• Desserts
• Ethnic meals (sub-divided by region)
• Holiday food
• Picnic meals
• Special nutritional requirements (allergy-free recipes, diabetic-friendly, etc.)

Once you have a healthy stack for each category (and are certain you’re really going to attempt to cook each item), you’re ready for the final step.

Buy a fat three-ring notebook and a box of transparent, plastic sheet protectors and slide the recipes into the sheet protectors. If a recipe is continued on the back of a page, you’ll be able to see the front and reverse easily; if the recipe is continued on another page, place it back to back with the prior page. The sheet protectors keep the recipes from getting damaged or sticky and can be easily cleaned with a sponge. Use simple subject dividers to separate the categories.

If you don’t feel like making one from scratch, buy a mix — consider the pre-made Cookbook Binder Tabs Kit.

3) Go Digital

There are two routes for making your fluttering, crumbling recipes virtual. The first involves scanning your recipes to your hard drive or to cloud storage (Evernote and OneNote are popular options) and using note titles and tags to make it easy to search your database for recipes. (Don’t worry — you don’t need a scanner. In most cases, just snapping a photo with your smartphone and uploading it, just like you’d send a photo to Facebook, works fine.)

The biggest advantage of going digital is that you rid yourself of paper clutter in the kitchen. However, out of sight remains out of mind, whether a recipe is buried under the microwave or hiding in the kishkes of your digital recipe library. I encourage you to commit to trying any recipe before you store it digitally, assuring that you’ve got a reason to keep it.

There are a variety of recipe management websites available to help you input, upload and share your recipes. Some popular (free) sites include:

Kitchen Monki is designed to improve your kitchen productivity. Sign up through Facebook, then upload and organize your recipes, plan meals, share recipes with friends, and automate your grocery shopping list.

One Tsp. helps you collect, organize and manage all of your recipes online, in one central account, accessible from anywhere (via computer or mobile device). Enter your favorite recipes in the simple One Tsp. form, or use the browser bookmarklet to clip digital recipes, Evernote-style, and save them in your One Tsp. account.

Recipe Thing is a simple community-based site, still in beta, with over 30,000 recipes contributed by users. Search recipes by key word or recipe contributor, and use the interactive menu planner to prepare meals.

Taste Book features more than 100,000 tested recipes from professional and home chefs. Import your recipes or search the database by ingredient, dietary rules (kosher, low-fat, vegetarian, etc.), cooking method, seasons, convenience, ethnicity, brand names and sites of origin.

We Gotta Eat is an all-purpose recipe organizer. Search existing recipes by ingredients or tags, or upload, rate and tag your own recipes with key words. Share comments and recipes with other site users.

The other digital path involves giving up your clippings altogether. I know, that’s a scary proposition for some people, and this is only an option if you really, truly, don’t ever do anything with those recipes you clip besides tossing them wistfully in the trash when the piles get too high.

If the adventure of recipe discovery outweighs the quotidian act of actually cooking, consider turning your eyes to the internet. For example, sometimes you can just type a short list of ingredients into Google, and you’ll be led to various recipe options. You can also search for recipes at these helpful sites, often by recipe name, category or just ingredients:

Cooklet is an international cooking platform to help inspire cooks with new recipes. Browse the database, share your own recipes, interact with other members of the community, and create a shopping list you can print or send to your cell phone.

Foodista is a wiki-style recipe site where you can search for recipes and cooking techniques, contribute your own recipes or edit existing ones, add or remove ingredients and provide explanatory comments.

Man-Tested Recipes is a community of food-loving dudes. Search recipes by degree of difficulty, main ingredients, meal type, tools or cooking time. View photos, read and write reviews and choose to save, share and print recipes. (OK, please don’t print the recipes — that’s what we’re trying to avoid.)

My Fridge Food is a nifty database that lets you check off the ingredients you have in your own refrigerator (or pantry) to come up with recipes you can make without a shopping trip. Opt for the Quick Find list, or if you keep a well-stocked larder but merely lack culinary imagination, pick the detailed view.

They Draw And Cook presents recipes in an entertaining visual format. Browse by ingredient, meal type or illustration style, or register for an account to submit your own recipes.

Yummly is a shockingly powerful search engine that not only lets you search thousands of recipes by ethnicity or ingredient, but also by taste type (salty, sweet, sour, savory or bitter). Yummly provides a nutritional search scale so that you can select a maximum number of calories, carbohydrate or fat grams, or cholesterol amounts, and lets you refine your search to identify allergy-safe recipe options. You can even search by cooking time and recipe sources!

This is just a sample — consider it a tasting menu of the wide variety of recipe sites available. It may take a while for the inveterate “clippers” out there to give up clipping recipes they don’t actually use, but perhaps the searchability of web options will be a comfort.

Keep your recipe clutter to a minimum and you’ll have more space to cook and dine well, and more time to enjoy your meals and the company of your dining companions.

Bon appetit!

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