Fridays are tip days at SimpleProductivity blog.

If you live with fur-bearing critters, you will have to deal with pet hair. And even though one of my co-workers claims that the best way to get rid of pet hair is to get rid of the pets, most of us prefer to keep our companion animals. So we have to deal with the hair.

I share my life with three animals: a long-haired gray/cream Maine Coon cat, a short-haired bad tempered black cat, and a tri-color (black/white/brown) beagle. Dealing with pet hair has become a way of life. Here are my best tips for dealing with it:

Clothing

When I first got my oldest cat, my strategy was to wear clothing that the hair wouldn’t show on. Now, with the animals I have, there is nothing that will camoflauge all the different colors of hair. So if choosing mono-chromatic pets to match a mono-chromatic wardrobe isn’t your thing, here is what you can use to get hair off the clothing:

• Brushes. Most stores sell a variety of pet-hair removal brushes. They all work differently, depending on what type of hair they are designed for.
• Rollers. Rollers are great big rolls of tape on handles that are used to run over your clothing and remove the hair (and lint).
• Packing tape. Since I normally notice the hair on my clothes while I am at work, I use packing tape to remove it. I rip off a piece, make a tube around my hand, sticky side out, and run it over my clothes. Packing tape, because it is so sticky, gets a lot of hair off, and is my preferred method, above the other two.

Furniture

Keeping dogs and cats off the furniture when you are not home is not an easy task. Everytime I get home I find a warm beagle-sized dent on my bed, for instance. There are a few ways to remove pet hair from furniture

• Vacuum. A strong vacuum can remove a lot of pet hair from furniture, but it may not get all of it.
• Water and a rubber glove. A light misting of water, then running over the surface with a rubber glove on your hand will remove quite a bit of hair.
• Scotch Fur Fighters I was skeptical of this device, but tried it when my mother sent me one. It really does work, and I use it on my dining room chairs. The cost of the refills is prohibitive, though, and I stretch mine by cleaning them with an old toothbrush.

Floors

Of course, pets don’t stay on the furniture all the time. They have to traverse the floors as they move from sofa to bed. So that means fur on the floors. Whether you have fabric or not on the floors, you can keep pet hair under control.

• Misted dust mop. If you have a good dust mop, lightly mist it with water and run it over your non-carpeted floors. This will pick up a large amount of hair. You may have to refresh the misting, depending on the size of the floor you are working with.
• Swiffer Sweeper. I am not a fan of flimsy, non-reusable things in general, but these dry Swiffers work like nothing else on the hair in my house.
• Vacuum. Of course, vacuuming will remove the hair, or at least chase it into big piles, but if you don’t feel like running the vacuum yourself, try
• The iRobot Roomba. Roombas are much more sturdy than they were a few years ago, and they are now able to be fixed by the average person, with plug-and-play replacement parts available from the manufacturer. Even better, they vacuum with minimal interference from humans.

A Word About Prevention

One of the best ways to limit the amount of hair your pets shed is to get it before it sticks to other stuff. Each of my pets has a preference, and a method that works best:

• KONG ZoomGroom. The beagle loves the Zoom Groom. For a rubbery brush, it picks up a lot of hair, and the hair sticks to the brush.
• Li’l Pals Bristle Brush for Kittens. The bad-tempered cat has extremely sensitive skin, so it is necessary to use a kitten brush on her. It takes longer to get the fur off, but this is the only brush that doesn’t make her hiss.
• FURminator This is the best tool, ever, for getting the Maine Coon. Maine Coons have longish hair, and a soft fluffy undercoat. When I am done brushing the cat, I have enough hair to assemble another cat, and the cat loves the pull on his coat.

There are many ways to handle pet shedding, from prevention to cleanup. Do you have any favorite methods? Share below.

Photo by Yukari*

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Fridays are tip days at SimpleProductivity blog.

Eating at home is one of the healthiest and inexpensive ways to eat. The problem with eating at home, though, is that there is usually some prep work to be done. If the prep work isn’t done, it can mean the difference between eating at home, or getting pizza delivered.

Here are some strategies on how I get around these things:

Use The Menu Planner

I have written before about how I constructed my menu planner. On the menu planner sheets, I use the first of the three boxes for the date, and any events going on that day. The big box in the middle is the food I have planned, and the right-most box is where I make notes of things that need to be done.

For instance, if I am going to serve split pea soup with fresh bread on Tuesday, I know that I cannot soak the peas and make the bread in the time between when I get home from work and dinner. Monday’s right-most box will hold a note to soak the peas and make the bread.

Using My Task List

I will be the first to confess that if I leave my reminders on my menu planner, I will still be in the “it’s one hour until dinner and I forgot to defrost” mode. So I use my task list to remind me of what I need to do.

Once my menu is planned, I take those right-most column items and enter them into Remember the Milk. They are set with a day, and a time. So I know that if I need to get the crockpot going before I leave for work, there will be an alarm to remind me to do so.

Using Make-Ahead Techniques

Another favorite of mine is to make it so I really don’t have to do much cooking on the weeknights. If I can do most of my cooking on the weekend, this eliminates the need to remember to prep. One of my favorite methods is following The Weeknight Survival Cookbook.

The methods in the The Weeknight Survival Cookbook have you prep most of your food on Sunday, and then working off the leftovers for the week. You might grill a half dozen chicken breasts, prepare two pounds of broccoli and three pounds of potatoes, then work with quick ingredients to make these into meals throughout the rest of the week. The cookbook lays out what you have to cook when, as well as gives you a shopping list. (Warning: these recipes make a ton of food, and even eating the leftovers as lunches for two adults, we still have extra)

Another method is to do this on a smaller scale. For instance, if I cook a whole chicken in the crockpot on Sunday, we will eat off of it that night, then I will have two meals worth of cooked chicken for the week. I can make this into chicken pot pie, or stir fry, or anything that is quick that calls for cooked chicken.

By thinking through what needs to be done, putting a few reminders up, and making food ahead of time, I am able to eat at home most of the time. This means we eat outside the home only when we want to, rather than as a product of unpreparedness.

Do you have any techniques that you use to make food prep easier? Share below.

Photo by yurilong

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This post was written by a guest author. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guest post guidelines.

The desire to achieve adequate security and practicality within one’s living quarters while maximizing comfort is nothing new. Mankind’s age-old attempts to convert homes into castles extends far into the remotest periods of time. Its pervasive presence is traceable from the primitive paintings displayed upon cave walls to the stylish contemporary furnishings and home interiors of today. Although seemingly superfluous at first blush, creating highly motivational interior areas is actually worthy of serious consideration and high placement as a personal priority for a number of very good reasons.

Motivational Interior Design Has Major Importance

Anyone who has ever experienced an extended mental “funk” or deep depression fully appreciates the importance of adequate motivational maintenance. In fact, motivation is the fundamental psychic force that ignites and fuels the fires of all human ambition and accomplishment. Absent its universal and ubiquitous presence in people’s lives, civilization as we know it would undergo a certain and painful demise. Like prompt plugging of tiny trickles caused by pinhole openings in a leaky dam, nipping emotional negativity created by non-motivation in the bud is essential to long-term emotional health, economic solvency, and personal productivity.

Start the Search

An ancient Chinese proverb posits that “Even the journey of 1,000 miles begins with one step.” Thus, simply beginning the task of interior re-design is a huge step forward, from desire to action!

Inspirational Interior Decorating Resources

The Internet is an ideal place to commence the quest for enhanced motivation via home interior innovation. A simple search engine query instantly yields an immense variety of motivational home interior themes and designs. It doesn’t take one long to realize that there really is something for everyone in this particular case. Modern motivational interior designs exist to suit the needs of everyone from students who seek compact, spartan furnishings to accomplished professionals who want to wake up to brighter surroundings each morning. Your personal sense of style will undoubtedly work its way into the design type you ultimately settle on.

The Home Field Advantage

Like charity, motivation begins at home. Not only does your abode provide a source of shelter, but it also serves as your personal base of operations. It is the point of origin and destination to and from a day of honest, hard work. It is also the scene of many fond memories and profound inspirations. Following are the major components of a motivational interior decor:

Color

The power of color to affect human emotion and cognition has been so concretely confirmed that it has become a standard tool of professional holistic healers. Strategic color integration has become a popular means of inciting motivational sparks that can emerge into full-blown inspirations.

Yellow surroundings have been scientifically proven to enhance brain activity and induce greater concentration and positive moods. Lemon yellow hues have been found to facilitate self-confidence and build motivation in addition to making folks feel “larger than life.” Such beneficial effects stem from muscular energy production yielded by yellow colors. This makes them a terrific choice for both home-based and traditional business offices. Assigned to the array of “warmer” colors, magenta is widely regarded as an emotional equalizer. Whenever feelings run too deeply or at very superficial levels, magenta’s notable properties help neutralize undue apathy and stress. When used sparingly, white is an excellent enhancer of individual strengths and promoter of virtue and purity. These results occur due to white’s service as a subconscious reminder of outstanding obligations and ongoing responsibilities. However, when dealing with white, don’t overdo it; the too-frequent absence of true color within interior areas can be emotionally debilitating – rather than mentally invigorating.

See Things in the Right Light

Mother Nature’s effervescent source of energy and illumination – better known as the Sun – is a much better motivator than mere human inventions! Increased sunlight exposure has been conclusively linked with mood and attitude elevation, in addition to new idea stimulation. Harnessing this inexhaustible resource has huge positive impacts on personal productivity and individual motivation. Abundant flow of natural light within interior spaces also alters overall ambiance. This benefit accrues from sunlight’s visual effect of bridging interior and exterior areas. Thus, in many cases the cure for whatever ails you could be no farther away than the nearest window.

Making Appropriate Internal Adjustments

All areas are not equally amenable to enhanced sunlight admittance. In such instances, brightened interior surfaces or skylight installation may be acceptable alternatives. Specialized paints and glosses can create reflective surfaces that keep light bouncing to and fro to brighten things up significantly. Stylish lamps, wall sconces and chandeliers can also fulfill this function in their own extravagant way.

Think Outside the Box

Perhaps the greatest example of prolific motivational enhancement via interior design is Google. Those who work within the gigantic search engine’s offices may take brief breaks to play pool or ride bikes. This is because case studies have found that conventional office environments are not sufficiently conducive to employee creativity and productivity. Getting away from it all for a quick ping-pong game is a great way to gain a new outlook on immediate tasks at hand, plus it makes the workday a bit more enjoyable!

It’s All in the Wrist

…And the back, and the eyes, and the arms and legs. Ergonomically designed desks, chairs, tables, keyboards, and other such components have high motivational value. Prolonged physical endurance preserves precious energy and mental acuity. Rather than feeling tired and worn out after a long day of work, ergonomically-designed interior furnishings help you feel gratified and satisfied with a job well done. Ergonomic interior furnishings also eliminate the familiar aches and pains associated with prolonged repose on rigid seats and beds. Begin awakening refreshed and relaxed by buying an ergonomically-correct computer station and mattress today. Not only will your days end on a much brighter note, but you’ll be in a much better frame of mind to begin a new one.

What do you think? Do you agree with the guest author? Share below.

This guest post is by Steve Shapiro. Having spent years in the interior design industry as the founder of the famed eRoomService modern furniture store, Steve has grown to appreciate the significant impact that design has on our daily lives. He lives with his family in the town of Bensalem, Pennsylvania.

Photo by rogue-designs

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Fridays are tip days at SimpleProductivity blog.

It’s almost that time of year again, when those of us in the US roll our clocks back an hour. I won’t even get into how pointless I think this exercise is, but the fact remains I have to do it or be hopelessly out of sync with the world around me.

The main reason I don’t care for the roll back/roll forward on the clocks is that I am miserable for a couple weeks while my body adjusts to the new schedule. So I thought I would share with you the tricks I have learned to make it less miserable.

Get Plenty of Rest

For me, the main thing the time change disrupts is my sleep patterns. If I get plenty of rest in the week preceding the time change, I find that the transition goes a bit easier. I also try to start rolling back my own bedtime a few days before so that it doesn’t come as a shock to my system.

Expect To Feel It

One of the worst wastes of energy I see around me after a time change is all the people complaining about how they feel out of it. Yes, we just mass-imposed a new scheduled on our bodies. It is going to take a while to adjust. Don’t spend your time and energy complaining about it.

Limit Sugar And Caffeine

One of the best ways to snap your body into a new routine is to make sure that you have the appropriate nutrition. Extra caffeine and sugar may make you feel better in the short term, but they will not sustain your energy.

Especially go easy on caffeine the day of the time change. The last thing you need is to have a sleep disturbance from caffeine pile on top of a sleep disturbance from the time change.

Get Some Air and Exercise

One of the quickest ways to reset your body clock is to get sunshine and fresh air. As soon as possible after the time change, get out and soak up some rays. It will go a long way in resetting your clock.

If you consistently have trouble getting up because of the lack of light, invest in an alarm clock that simulates the sunrise. I have been very happy with my Soleil Sunrise Alarm Clock.

A Word About SAD

No, I’m not talking about sad as the emotion. I’m talking about Seasonal Affective Disorder. If you suspect that you suffer from it, please investigate the issue. This can be a form of depression, or it can worsen symptoms if you are already depressed. Please talk to your doctor. Appropriate light therapy can really make a difference. Lights are no longer astronomically expensive, and some are even portable (yes, I use one, it’s the Philips goLITE BLU Light Therapy Device. And yes, it does work.)

With a little bit of preparation and effort, the time change can be easier to handle. Do you have any tips? Please share below.

Photo by Dave Stokes

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Wednesdays are simplicity days at SimpleProductivity blog.

One of the issues people ask me about often is how I manage to stay on top of birthdays. The truth is I don’t remember birthdays. My system does, and it reminds me at the appropriate times. I decided to share my system here so that others can take advantage of having a built in reminder for birthdays.

First: Why I Don’t Use The Birthday Field

Most contact management software has a place to store birthdays. I don’t use it. Why? Because it only tells me about someone’s birthday on the day itself. That is absolutely no good if I need to mail a card or pick up a gift. I do put repeating birthday into my calendar software, but that is mainly so that I have a reminder to call the person on their birthday.

Onto my birthday system….

The Components

The Task Software

The first major component you will need is a task system that allows you to automatically repeat tasks. Ideally it should be one where you can also store some text, and it needs to be in a place that you will see it.

I use Remember The Milk for this, as I do for the rest of my tasks. Since I am in RTM every single day, I see repeating tasks as they come up. Outlook would also work, because it allows you to have repeating tasks.

You could also do this manually as long as you have a way to manage repeating tasks.

The Birthday List

Sit down and compile a list of all the people whose birthdays you want to remember. Go through your various sources, such as past calendars, Facebook and email. Write them out, grouping them by month, and then ordering by day. If possible, note the year of birth so that you can do something special for milestone birthdays.

As a side note, you can also include anniversaries in here, and be reminded the same way.

Set Up The Reminder

You are going to enter one task into your system: Check Birthdays. It will be due during the second or third week of the month, on a day when you usually have enough time to look at it. Type in your list of birthdays into the memo part, and set it to repeat.

For me, my birthday task is the third Monday of the month. I am routinely doing desk work on Mondays, and this fits right in.

Why not the first of the month? It’s a valid question. The answer is that processing the birthdays two weeks before gives you plenty of preparation time for those people who are at the beginning of the month. I used to just check all the birthdays at the beginning of the next month, but I found it was better to just move the date I check all birthdays for a given month.

Processing the Birthdays

When your reminder comes up as due, look at the memos and decide what you want to do. You will make more entries into your task system based on what you find.

For cards: Make a note to buy the cards you need. Once you have bought them and addressed them, write the day they need to be mailed under where the stamp will go, and enter that date into your task list. For example for a birthday that occurs on the 26th where the card has to go halfway across the country, I write 19 in the stamp area and make a task of “mail John’s card” on the 19th.
For gifts: make an entry in your task system to shop for the gift. Do a spot of brainstorming as you do this so you have some idea of what you might like to give. If you have no idea, make an entry to “call Susan and ask for gift ideas”. Once you buy the gift, make a note in your task list for when it needs to be mailed.

Making It Really Easy

There are ways to make this process even easier.

Simple Cards

There are many websites (like American Greetings) and software that allow you to create your own cards. Get yourself some cards and envelopes (such as Avery Half-Fold Greeting Cards) from an office supply store, and do your own cards at home. This gives you the freedom to personalize a card as you wish, and you can make cards any time, day or night.

Simple Gifts

There are two types of easy gifts: one where the gift is sent from an online store right to the recipient, and gift cards. Whenever possible, use these two avenues for buying gifts. It will save you a lot of time, and often you get a better selection of gifts than when you venture into a store.

These tips are how I never miss a birthday. Do you have any to add? Share below.

Photo by Will Clayton

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Fridays are tip days at SimpleProductivity blog.

It’s that time of the year again. The seasonal switch is happening, calling for different clothes.

I’m lucky that I live in a place that has four seasons, but where the temperature difference between seasons is usually 50 degrees (F). Unlike the frozen tundra where I grew up, where the peak summer high to peak winter low, with wind chill, often spanned 150 degrees (F). But that’s another story, for another time…

So now it is time to do the task: bring out the clothes for the season. It doesn’t have to be a big deal, really. Just a little bit of preparation now and you will make it a snap the next time this happens.

Purge the Clothes

Now is the time to get rid of anything you didn’t wear this past season. Our tastes and bodies change. Look at everything you have worn, and try it on, if necessary. Ask yourself if it is worth storing, or if you are just not interested in it anymore. Put anything that doesn’t fit you (mentally or physically) into a pile to be given to charity.

Also look at your clothes for wear. If something is permanently stained, torn or otherwise ratty, do yourself a favor and get rid of it right now.

Clean and Mend

Make sure your clothes are clean, next. Remove stains, launder and mend as necessary. This will not only save time when you bring these clothes out again, but will also help prevent creepy-crawlies from moving into the clothing during the off-season.

Do this for your off-season shoes as well. Clean off dirt, polish and un-scuff. It is terrible pulling out flip-flops in the spring just to find them coated in mud. Ick.

Store Properly

Once you are ready to pack away the clothing, make sure you do it properly. Many dry-cleaning plastics and paper can transfer undesirable things to your clothing.

Pick bins, clothing bags or acid-free paper to store clothing away. If you are out of space, consider two old tricks for clothing storage: unused suitcases and space bags.

I also throw my out-of-season shoes into a big plastic bin and tuck them away at the back of the closet.

If you choose to leave clothes hanging, put something over them so they do not collect dust, or use a separate clothing rack with plastic covering. Watch out for hanger bumps, though!

Do you have any tricks for preparing and storing out-of-season clothes? Share below.

Photo by Thing Three

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Fridays are tip days at SimpleProductivity blog.

Outsourcing. It’s been a big buzzword in many productivity books in the past few years. The concept makes a whole lot of sense: put the low-return work out to someone else and concentrate on the work that returns the highest payout.

It makes perfect sense if you have a lot of research or clerical work to accomplish; and if you are one of those people, look into having a virtual assistant help you out.

But what if the stuff is more mundane?

Household Stuff?

Most of us are not in the position to outsource the mundane work that is low-return. In my life that includes things like housework, cooking, walking the dog and the various things that make life run smoothly. Sure, I could hire a housekeeper, cook and dog-walker, but my income doesn’t stretch to that. So what is an ordinary person to do?

Outsourcing on the Cheap

It is possible to outsource mundane tasks. All it takes is a little ingenuity and a definition of what outsourcing is.

What Is Outsourcing?

Outsourcing is simply getting necessary work done — but not by you. It doesn’t mean having to pay for work, or that the work has to be done by a human.

So by that definition, getting work done can include using machines, or trading work with someone who is more efficient at the task.

Here are examples from my life:

Outsourcing By Machine

I routinely turn over my cooking duties to my crockpot, breadmaker and rice cooker. I put in the ingredients and the machine takes over the rest.

My floor cleaning is also outsourced, in the form of a Roomba vacuum. I turn it on, and it cleans the area, returning to charge itself when it’s done.

My garden watering is outsourced by a set of timers attached to sprinklers.

In each of these cases I may have to be there at the start, but I can let the machine do the work for me. If I had outsourced this to a human, I would have to be there at some point anyway, so I figure it is about even.

Outsourcing By Trade

Not all of us have the same talents and interests. (Thank goodness, or it would be a really boring world! But I digress). We can put these differences to use.

My husband, as a result of years in the Navy, wants his clothes folded a certain way. As a result, he does the laundry in the house. I find it taxing to get the clothes folded (at all) and this was a natural outsourcing.

The opposite is true of the dusting. My husband, for whatever reason, doesn’t see furballs rolling across the floor or cobwebs, but is allergic to both. So I take care of those.

Since I am allergic to grass, he cuts the grass. I handle paperwork better, so I deal with permission slips.

We play to our strengths, and the tasks get done quickly and with less effort.

Outsourcing As Training

The third way I outsource is by having my daughter work. My mother, old-fashioned soul that she is, calls these “chores”. I prefer to call it outsourcing. By giving my daughter tasks to do, I get the work done, but it also provides her with skills she will need for the future.

Do you have any thoughts about outsourcing? Share below.

Photo by Justin Dolske

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Fridays are tip days at SimpleProductivity blog.

We all have experienced them: the people whose boorish behavior shows a callous disregard for everyone around them. They surround us everywhere.

I like to think that rather than being malicious, they are just clueless that their actions are affecting other people.

Can’t Change Them

I want to point out that even though the behavior infringes on me, there is nothing I can do to make them stop. So I choose to adapt my behavior to make my life flow a little bit easier.

Situation Dependent

It seems that different situations call for different actions. Here are five different types of clueless people and how I deal with them.

Desk Lurker

A desk lurker is a person who hangs around….or on….your desk. They generally have no sense of personal space. They may play with things on your desk while visiting, or (my personal pet peeve) reach over me to grab my mouse or keyboard.

I have a few ways to deal with this lurker. For the one who routinely lays her top half across my desktop, I make sure my files are out on my desk at the start of any meeting I have with her. For the one who makes a grab for my keyboard and mouse, I point out it is a left-handed mouse and a non-standard keyboard layout and it would be much faster if they let me drive my own computer.

Walker

The Walker is the person, who in an attempt to prolong a conversation, will accompany you when you leave a meeting or the break room.

My strategy is to lead them to a place where they do not want to go. If the person is a man, I head for the ladies room. If the person is a lady, I will head toward the front offices (where the bosses are), or out the back door. This is usually enough to break off the conversation and allow me a break when I can get back to work.

Noise Generator

The noise generator is the person who has decided for whatever reason that they do not want to use headphones or put their phone on vibrate. I know we all forget from time to time, but these are the habitual offenders.

The best way to deal with a noise generator is to block the noise. I use my Skullcandy headphones with an ambient noise track to get through the worst of these.

Inappropriate Behavior

One family who takes lessons from my daughter’s piano teacher has an extremely disruptive four year old. He will talk, and make noise through recitals, as if he was the only person in the room. This completely destroyed the videos I was trying to make for my daughter’s grandparents.

Since direct appeals to the child’s mother were not effective, I took a two-fold approach. I informed the piano teacher of my concerns, letting her know that perhaps the mother could be encouraged to leave the youngster with a sitter (or at least not feed him candy right before the recital); I also switched recital times so that we are not at the same time as the other family. It turns out this works better for us

Telephone Magician

Those of you who have older children of a pre-cellphone age know what this is like. The phone is tied up for hours at a time, and sometimes it disappears for days.

After joking to my husband that I miss the phones where the cord tied them to the wall, we replaced the main phone in the house with a corded version. Now we always know where the phone is, and it has the added benefit that I can remind my daughter to get off the phone after a reasonable amount of time.

What sort of clueless people have you encountered? And what did you do? Share below.

Photo byAlex E. Proimos

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Fridays are tip days at SimpleProductivity blog. I’m taking a week off, so please enjoy this post from the past!

Originally published on 26 June 2009.

For a long time, I felt that if a book had been published, it had merit. And if I wasn’t “getting it”, the fault was mine.

Not so anymore. I have decided, like Agatha Christie, that I could do better. Unlike her, I haven’t.

Yet. But I’m working on it.

But in the mean time, I have given myself permission to abort a book reading.

One of the benefits of dumping books mid-stream is that you are not wasting your time. You can move on to something that you can connect with, and will benefit from because of your enthusiasm. Or at least be entertained.

If you are reading a book, and find yourself not wanting to read more, but a voice inside your head says otherwise, here is how to counter the “stick it out”-itis.

“But X recommended it…” Ah, yes, peer pressure. Not everyone has the same tastes in books. If a personal friend recommended the book, go back to them and ask why they thought it would benefit you, or why they thought you would enjoy it. Ask for a summary of the book. Then decide if you really want to read it. A friend of mine has been grumbling at me for a few years after I got him hooked on a series that he finds profoundly disturbing (because all the characters seem to get killed off).

But it’s a bestseller…. Just because something sells well doesn’t mean it’s quality. Fast food jumps to mind. Just because a lot of people have bought a book doesn’t mean that they have read it. A Brief History of Time was a best seller, and everyone in one of my college classes bought it. Yet not a single person actually read it. Granted, that is circumstantial evidence, but this group was comprised of engineers who like this sort of thing. All attempted it, and couldn’t get through it.

But it has to get better… If you are half-way through the book and you continue to read it because you cannot believe anything could be that bad and not redeem itself, put it down and walk away. It won’t get better.

Inaccuracies are driving you nuts. We all have our areas of expertise. But some authors choose not to do enough research, or blatantly make things impossible, or errors are overlooked. I still remember the book I read where the main character changed names for no apparent reason on page 20…

If you want to give up a book (and you are not required to read it), do so. Don’t waste your time and energy when you could be enjoying something else.

Photo by zenera

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Wednesdays are simplicity days at SimpleProductivity blog.

A reader is facing a major move in her life, from a small attached house to a free-standing house, this time with a young child in tow. She asked me to write an article on how to simplify moving. So here it is!

Bear in mind, I haven’t moved in 8 years, but the last time I moved, my husband and I did it with the help of three other adults, and I had a 10 month old baby and 2 cats running around underfoot. The move was successful: everything ended up in the right place, and I had the kitchen in such order that by the second day after the move I made brownies. From scratch. (Yes, it can be done)

Plan Where Things Will Go

You know where things are now, and you know what the new layout of the house will be. Make a list of rooms in the new house, and decide where things will go from the old house.

When we moved from the condo to the house, items from various rooms were dispersed. We used to store extra blankets in the master bedroom; these were delegated to the new guest room. One and a half baths were put into two and a half; the extra storage for pantry items was moved from a closed bookshelf into the kitchen.

With a little thinking about where things will go, you will spend less time unpacking.

Have Materials On Hand

It is almost impossible to pack if you don’t have the right materials to do so. Make sure you have plenty of boxes, bubble wrap, paper (preferably the non-printed leftover newsprint paper), and lots of strong tape, in a dispenser.

We bought boxes for our last move: many packages of bankers boxes for heavy objects like books, wardrobe boxes to hold our hanging clothes without having to fold, compartment boxes for glasses and dishes, and bigger moving boxes for lighter items.

It is well worth it to pay for these boxes. You will have clean, strong boxes to work with, and suited to what you are packing. Uniformly sized boxes can help with packing a moving truck as well. If you absolutely have to go for free boxes, check with your local Freecycle to see if anyone has moving boxes they can give you. When you are done, Freecycle any boxes you don’t need.

Bubble wrap is essential to cushion breakable items. You can use things like towels, but towels don’t give the protection of bubble wrap.

Buy or borrow a packing tape dispenser that will not have you swearing. Nothing is worse than being ready to seal a box, and having to pick the ends of the tape off the roll.

With proper supplies on hand, the actual act of packing will go much quicker.

Label Each Box

After you are done packing and sealing each box, label on the top and one side the general contents of the box, and where it will go in the new house. This will allow the movers to put the boxes in the correct locations as they unload, and will allow you to find what box you may need to look in, as well as what order you may need to unpack things.

For example, we had books in our office that were going in two places: our new office upstairs and the built-in shelves in the living room. The books were split into boxes accordingly, and each box labeled with “books” and the location they needed to end up in. This also applied to my kitchen: I put all of the items I needed for feeding my daughter (bottles, spoons, bowls, baby food) in a box and labeled it “kitchen” and “baby food”. That way I found the box right away after we moved and unpacked it before littler used items like the blender.

Purge As You Go

As much as possible, get rid of anything you don’t need as you are packing. Old magazines, unused books, outgrown clothing should all be gotten rid of appropriately. Some charities will even send trucks to pick up discarded items, and the more you get rid of, the less you have to pack, move and unpack.

Cycle Through The House Multiple Times

Although it might feel like a great idea to fully pack each room at a time, you will still be living in the house as the packing is going on. Pack the least used items in each room, then cycle back through the various rooms as the moving gets closer to pack other items.

For instance, the first round of packing included the holiday decorations, the winter clothes, the clothes my daughter had yet to grow into, books not in use, and rarely used kitchen appliances. This went on, until the last week all that was left to pack was a skeleton kitchen setup (we were using paper plates at that point), my daughter’s necessities, a week of clothes for all of us, the cat food and the litter box.

Organize for the New House

As much as possibly, plan for where things will go specifically in the new house. This is really great if you can do this in the kitchen. Figure out where the silverware, glasses and plates will go. Decide what will be stored in the kitchen, and what will be stored elsewhere. Plan your pantry.

This may seem like a lot of effort, but it will make unpacking the kitchen a snap (and it was how I was able to bake the day after moving!)

Resist the Urge to Dump

At some point you will have the urge to run your arm over horizontal surfaces and dump everything in a box. Try to resist this as much as possible. It will only create chaos and confusion as you are unpacking.

Leave Other People’s Messes Until the End

If you live with another able-bodied adult who has packrat tendencies, leave his or her own mess alone. The urge to declutter will be great, and will not be well-received. This also applies to things that the person may value but for which you see no worth (such as a beer can collection or a large chunk of metal from an engine used as a toe-stubber doorstop).

You may end up packing some of these things in the end, but I recommend leaving other people’s messes for their own packing.

With just a bit of effort, you can streamline your packing and make your move go smoothly.

Do you have any tips for the reader? Share below.

Photo by haydnseek

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