The Best Tips From Professional Organizers – Life at Home – Trulia Blog

The Best Tips From Professional Organizers – Life at Home – Trulia Blog: ""

(Via.)

MacValleyites and the rest of us, too:

I have problems with clutter. When it comes to shoes, I bought a hanging shoe organizer at Target that hangs on the outside of my bathroom door. It got the shoes from my closet floor into some kind of organization. 

If you keep buying “just one more for a rainy day” of an electronics gadget-my vice is portable USB hard drives-you’ve got a problem. I’ve got a problem. So make sure every person who has asked you for computer advice has a backup drive. If they have Windows, use the Windows built-in backup tools. For Mac, use Time Machine if they use anything older than 10.5 Leopard. 

I don’t care if they just drag and drop their Users folder to an external drive’s folder they make regularly and name it something they won’t forget. Just have them do it and bug them about it. No one is sadder than someone who just lost several days/weeks/.months/years worth of work due to not backing up regularly. I speak from experience.

If you have old electronics you don’t want to toss in the dumpster, I can recommend the Randall Street S.A.F.E. Center at 11025 Randall Street off Glenoaks in Sun Valley.  They’re open 9am to 3pm Saturday and Sunday. The Valley has other electronics recycling facilities. Google them and tell us if you use them in the comments. 

So read the article that I linked to above and get ready to tackle decluttering with steely resolve and a better plan. (You don’t have to clear out a room in one afternoon. You’ll want to kill the person who made  you do it. See Hercules, 12 Labors, Augean Stables)

Tom Briant

Editor, MacValley Blog