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A dot a day keeps the clutter away

scottlawsonbc.com

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Re: A dot a day keeps the clutter away

#101

Post by fmajid »

flir wrote: post #88

As the article mentions using standardized clear bins, which really do help: In the UK I settled on Really Useful Boxes. Not their new cheaper range, the chunky straight-sided ones. Transparent, they don't go brittle in a few years (I guess they will eventually), the front-opening ones are handy if you're racking them, and you've got some guarantee you can go back and buy more in a couple of years. I wouldn't be surp…

Thanks for the Really Useful Boxes referral. I've been using made in the UK Wham Plastics organizers and IKEA boxes, but front-loading is what I really need.

Re: A dot a day keeps the clutter away

#102

Post by papa0101 »

tristramb wrote: post #97
flir wrote: post #88

As the article mentions using standardized clear bins, which really do help: In the UK I settled on Really Useful Boxes. Not their new cheaper range, the chunky straight-sided ones. Transparent, they don't go brittle in a few years (I guess they will eventually), the front-opening ones are handy if you're racking them, and you've got some guarantee you can go back and buy more in a couple of years. I wouldn't be surp…

Just behind me where I am sitting at the moment I have 21 RUBs containing my collection of about 42000 pinned out flies (mostly). The RUBs are stacked in and on top of bookshelves. I seem to remember that you could buy a rack to hold them but it looked too flimsy for what I wanted. The flies are pinned out onto plastic foam sheets in small clear plastic presentation boxes, 48 of which fit in each 12 litre RUB. I stil…

I initially read "42000 pinned out files" and sat there, processing, for a minute. Professional deformation at its finest.

Re: A dot a day keeps the clutter away

#103

Post by ghaff »

wccrawford wrote: post #90
stickfigure wrote: post #4

Interesting, but this seems to solve the wrong problem. I already know that the ice cream maker sitting on the shelf hasn't been used in 5 years. The problem is... what if I want to make ice cream?

This is exactly my problem. It's easy enough to say "give it away if you won't use it soon" but how do you know ? That urge might come on any time, and the act of giving it away is likely to reignite that passion. And for small things, like cables you don't often use... You never know when you'll need them. I've been telling myself I'm just going to throw them away after all, but then within a month of deciding that,…

At some point you may need some old cable but you probably end up buying one because you can’t find it.

I simplified a lot of things when I was moving back in. I’m sure I threw out some things I should have kept. For cables specifically I need a better system than going through a large plastic box. Probably some garage reorganization thing.

Re: A dot a day keeps the clutter away

#104

Post by kasey_junk »

wccrawford wrote: post #90
stickfigure wrote: post #4

Interesting, but this seems to solve the wrong problem. I already know that the ice cream maker sitting on the shelf hasn't been used in 5 years. The problem is... what if I want to make ice cream?

This is exactly my problem. It's easy enough to say "give it away if you won't use it soon" but how do you know ? That urge might come on any time, and the act of giving it away is likely to reignite that passion. And for small things, like cables you don't often use... You never know when you'll need them. I've been telling myself I'm just going to throw them away after all, but then within a month of deciding that,…

Pick a dollar amount and delivery time period you are comfortable with. Get rid of everything you haven’t used in a month that you can get cheaper than that amount and within that time period.

Dont justify after the fact just dumbly implement the rule.

Re: A dot a day keeps the clutter away

#105

Post by throw0101a »

stickfigure wrote: post #4

Interesting, but this seems to solve the wrong problem. I already know that the ice cream maker sitting on the shelf hasn't been used in 5 years. The problem is... what if I want to make ice cream?

> The problem is... what if I want to make ice cream?

The extreme form of this causes:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoarding#Anxiety

For ice cream specifically, America's Test Kitchen has you covered with "How to Make Homemade Ice Cream Without A Machine":

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72Ml3U39xqs

And their video on some of the science behind making good ice cream:

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St-8kZ7vmfI

Re: A dot a day keeps the clutter away

#106

Post by ghaff »

hencq wrote: post #72
QuantumNomad_ wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Clothes? maybe RFID patches that are unobtrusive. Decathlon and Zara both have RFID tags in their products. https://sustainability.decathlon.com/product-traceability-an... (Decathlon) https://www.inditex.com/itxcomweb/so/en/press/news-detail/7f... (Inditex is the parent company of Zara. Link is a press release from 2014.) So if one were to buy all their clothes at Decathlon (clothes for sports and other outdoor act…

A friend of mine used to once a year hang all his shirts with the open end of the cloth hangers' hooks facing forward. After wearing and washing them he'd hang them back with the hanger facing the other way. After a year he'd toss out any shirts that were still facing the original way and had thus not been worn.

I’ve gotten rid of a lot of clothing in the past 18 months. I bring a very limited amount of specific clothing traveling, don’t fuss much around the house, local hikes, the theater now and then etc. I just have no use for a lot of to the office clothing I wore into the office every day.

Re: A dot a day keeps the clutter away

#107

Post by ghaff »

AlotOfReading wrote: post #56
frantathefranta wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly I think kitchens have way less stuff than a lab like this and following Alton Brown's advice of avoiding "unitaskers" will basically guarantee you don't get overwhelmed.

Chefs tend to be gear addicts in my experience. The unitasker advice is also a bit difficult for inexperienced people to follow, from what I've seen. A stand mixer is a great multitasker on paper, whereas a speed peeler does exactly one thing. Yet the latter will be used massively more often than the former in most kitchens. Probably the most used tool in my kitchen (after knives and cutting boards) is the kettle, an…

I generally agree with that and there are some small kitchen appliances I don’t use often but when I need them I need them. Funnily an electric drip coffee maker is one of the things I somewhat regret replacing after a kitchen fire but I think insurance and may be handy for company at some point.

Re: A dot a day keeps the clutter away

#108

Post by ghaff »

throw0101a wrote: post #105
stickfigure wrote: post #4

Interesting, but this seems to solve the wrong problem. I already know that the ice cream maker sitting on the shelf hasn't been used in 5 years. The problem is... what if I want to make ice cream?

> The problem is... what if I want to make ice cream? The extreme form of this causes: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoarding#Anxiety For ice cream specifically, America's Test Kitchen has you covered with "How to Make Homemade Ice Cream Without A Machine": * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72Ml3U39xqs And their video on some of the science behind making good ice cream: * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St-8kZ7vmfI

And in my case, if I actually had a summer BBQ which I probably will this summer I’ll drive 5 minutes to the local excellent ice cream stand and pick some up. Fun activity for kids though.

Re: A dot a day keeps the clutter away

#109

Post by flir »

tristramb wrote: post #97
flir wrote: post #88

As the article mentions using standardized clear bins, which really do help: In the UK I settled on Really Useful Boxes. Not their new cheaper range, the chunky straight-sided ones. Transparent, they don't go brittle in a few years (I guess they will eventually), the front-opening ones are handy if you're racking them, and you've got some guarantee you can go back and buy more in a couple of years. I wouldn't be surp…

Just behind me where I am sitting at the moment I have 21 RUBs containing my collection of about 42000 pinned out flies (mostly). The RUBs are stacked in and on top of bookshelves. I seem to remember that you could buy a rack to hold them but it looked too flimsy for what I wanted. The flies are pinned out onto plastic foam sheets in small clear plastic presentation boxes, 48 of which fit in each 12 litre RUB. I stil…

Yeah, we have a similar setup for haberdashery - white Ikea Billys, a few extra shelves, and a lot of 9l RUBs. They're a couple of inches deeper than the shelf, but that's not really a problem. Larger projects and long-term storage go in 35l's or 64l's. The 84l's tend to be too big for us - we've got one, and I hate lugging it around.

That's a hell of a collection. Is there any risk of them degrading over time, as they're organic?

Re: A dot a day keeps the clutter away

#110

Post by flir »

tsak wrote: post #89
flir wrote: post #88

As the article mentions using standardized clear bins, which really do help: In the UK I settled on Really Useful Boxes. Not their new cheaper range, the chunky straight-sided ones. Transparent, they don't go brittle in a few years (I guess they will eventually), the front-opening ones are handy if you're racking them, and you've got some guarantee you can go back and buy more in a couple of years. I wouldn't be surp…

Second that. Our garage is full of their 50L boxes with the XL lid, perfectly fitting those industrial shelves. Very versatile and long lasting. Even after nearly ten years, they look pretty much the same, and we live in harsh climate near the coast.

My oldest ones (about a decade, same as you) are a touch more yellow than the ones I bought last year. I still think that, kept away from UV, they'll probably outlast me.
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