Spring Cleaning

Every now and then I like to write a post that has nothing to do with the theme of the blog, but one of my resolutions was to get more organized and I wanted to show you some of the little things I've been doing to reach that goal.

To say I'm not the neatest person in the whole world, would be an understatement. My desk and room are in a perpetual state of "clutter" and I function on the system of "everything has a place - but I'm the only person who knows that that place is so don't bother to figure it out." But, still, I'm only human and the clutter gets to a point that I scream inside and need to figure out a better system. Now that I'm home a lot studying, this has happened more often so I wanted to share some of the things I've been doing to clean out my life a little and stay focused. You may call it procrastinating since I really should be studying but I like to borrow the words of my 9th grade English teacher and say "a cluttered space is a cluttered mind." So let's get rid of some clutter.

Do you really need it?
Sometimes it's good to get rid of things even if you're not replacing them. You just have to go through and think about if you're really going to use something. The next few tips are just some of my methods of getting rid of the things I don't really need.

One In, One Out
Lately I've been doing a lot of shopping. I recently changed jobs and I also just realized my wardrobe was a little out of date. After 3-4 years in the working world, it was time to replace some of the things that I've had since starting. I didn't strictly count piece by piece but after each shopping trip I would go through my closet and drawers and get rid of my older clothes. I've made bags and bags of things to give to Goodwill over the past couple of years. In all honesty, I've probably given more than I've purchased since I was the same size for a long time and kind of hoarded clothing. At some point, you need to face the facts that you're not actually going to wear that again and you don't need 25 similar t-shirts.

On the t-shirt note, I've had some friends make t-shirt quilts from shirts that we got for free or for fund raisers. I didn't have the patience for this product but I'm pretty jealous of the quilts they ended up with.

If you itemize your taxes, places like Goodwill also give receipts for your donations. I don't itemize and I usually like to be in and out so I just drop mine off.

Sell It
The hardest things for me to get rid of are movies, books, and games. One of my favorite childhood (and still) movies is Beauty and the Beast and I used to dream of have a floor to ceiling library in my future mansion. Because of that, I hoard books notoriously. I was always really skeptical of the e-book trend and was steadfast that I needed to save every book so that I could have my library. I don't think I'll ever let go of my childhood dream but right now, I live in a tiny San Francisco apartment so these things just aren't practical. I joined the Kindle bandwagon a couple of years ago, but I still have my old paper favorites. I've gone through my books and movies and games and decided to sell or donate the ones that I don't absolutely LOVE. Am I really going to read that chick lit book again? No. Am I really going to play that video game again when I have tons I haven't played? Probably not. Am I going to watch all of these movies when my Netflix queue has hundreds of movies and I usually just watch them when they're on TV? I think you know the answer.

On our way to a few local bookstores

The problem with trying to sell these things is that the re-sale value drops quickly. A lot of stores won't give you much but if you're willing to go through the time, you can get something. The internet is probably your best bet if you want to get every penny out of your goods. Glyde.com is my favorite for video games and movies. You can set your price and they will tell you how much you'll net out of that. When someone buys your item, they send you a pre-paid envelope so that you can ship it to them. I like how hassle-free it is but if you're willing to trek to the post office every now and then half.com, ebay.com, and amazon.com are all great options too. If you don't want to wait and don't mind getting a little less, there are plenty of stores that buy back too. A quick internet search should be able to guide you in the right direction.

Or do things the old fashioned way....
But when you do need paper, I find a filing cabinet is great. I can keep track of all my important paperwork this way. Even though it's a hassle to organize, it makes me feel safe knowing that I've held onto the paperwork for my car or medical records, etc. Since I'm one, young person I don't have a ton of paperwork so I use the bottom drawer of the cabinet as additional storage.

Keep the Same Items in Less Space
Actually, the more I think about it (this post was written over a period of time...), I really can't part with my DVDs. They were such a big investment at the time are worth so little now (thanks Netflix). Instead, I decided to get a giant CD case to put them all into so that I can get rid of the cases, take up less space but don't have to part with my costly collection.

Make the most of your space
I used to kind of just throw the things I wasn't using into my closet. However with a growing shoe collection (the one thing I seem to find impossible to purge) I realized I needed a better system so I decided to keep the shoe boxes for my newer shoes so that I could stack them easily. My older shoes don't have boxes so they just rest on my shoe rack. For flip flops, I keep them in a line on the floor of my closet.

Even though I have a ton of shoes, they only take up one side of my tiny closet. On the right side of my closet, I took an old crate I wasn't using anymore and put all my purses in it. Since I usually use the same bag for work, it keeps the others out of the way until I need one. On the floor of my closet, I have a small shelfing unit for extra storage. I keep printer paper and other computer supplies on one and my bedding on the other.

I also have a ton of bookshelves. Since I've been trying to donate or sell books and read more electronically, they have plenty of space for other items. Bookshelves can be a good way to display fun items you have, or for a little extra storage. For some of my shelves, I bought cute wicker baskets so that I could keep smaller items tucked away out of site.

Storage Solutions
If you really can't bear to part with something - find a place for it. I have a few puzzles that I've collected from some of my trips. It would be easy to say "you don't use them so trash them" but I really love them and the only reason I don't use them is because I don't have a big enough surface in my apartment. Since I know I won't be using them for a while I tucked them out of the way in some drawers and shelves that are harder to access. This way I can make use of storage but I don't have to worry about how hard to get to they are.

To organize my jewelry, I got a necklace tree and ring dish. After hanging up my jewelery, I realized the tree was looking very crowded and it was a good push for me to get rid of some cheaper old necklaces that I never wear.

And if all that fails...

Just Trash It!

Coverless, chewed up or out of date books

Sometimes there just isn't a place for something. I donate most of the things I get rid of but I know even Goodwill won't take something that's excessively damaged and there's no choice but to trash or recycle it. This is also just a good practice for things that come in. Junk mail? Straight to the recycling bin. Freebies? Just don't take them! That cute macaron box that you swear you're going to put things in? Put something in it or move on.

For a long time, I used to keep my magazines and swear that I was going to go through and cut out cool pictures for a collages. Well, after years of magazine hoarding I realized that I haven't made a collage in 7 years and finance magazines probably wouldn't be a good place to start so I went through the few magazines that probably would have fun clips or recipes and trashed the rest. I still don't look at those but it's a small comfort until I can work through everything else.

Making Things Pretty

The pair of these flowers cost me $20

So hopefully you have a ton of space now so make your home pretty. Since I have a ton of empty shelves, I've used them to display artwork or nick knacks that have sentimental value. Some shelves have some nicer glassware or souvenirs too.

It's also nice just to have open space. Keeping my counters clear has given me some room to display flowers so I've been trying to keep some at the apartment. You can get a nice bouquet at Safeway, Trader Joes or Costco for $4-$20 (depending on the type of flower) and they last a couple of weeks.

And most importantly.... KEEP THE JUNK OUT! Just because you have more space now doesn't mean you need to fill it up with the kind of stuff you just got rid of.

These are just some of the things that I've found helpful. Like I said, I'm far from the neatest person but in my effort to fix that, I've found some things that work. If you have any of your own tips feel free to share them! It may seem like a lot but I basically spent one evening/afternoon a week sorting through things and organizing.

In the weeks since writing this, I've seen some of the clutter sneak back out (mostly since I've been studying so much) but it's definitely been controlled by the fact that there is just less stuff around the apartment.

Week of July 11th 2011: San Francisco Zoo

Is it ok if I make up for missing weeks by doing two posts in one week? Can I just average 52 posts a year? Ironically, I tend to have a few "draft" posts but none of them were quite ready for publishing. In either case, my warning is that with studying, work, and some semblance of a life - I'm stretched a little thin for the next few weeks but I will definitely make it up to you. Anyways, enough of my excuses...

I love animals and so I really like zoos. Growing up in LA, I went to an amazing zoo fairly often. When I was in college, I decided to check out the Oakland zoo and was really disapointed. I'd heard bad things about the San Francisco Zoo as well so I was skeptical about going. However, my last job started having an annual volunteer day and one of the options was a day doing landscaping at the zoo. I don't mind manual labor and it was a chance to check out the zoo so I decided to sign up for it.

I got to pet you!

The morning at the zoo was really fun. Because there were a few different options for the volunteer day, it really split up our company and I got to interact with some people I don't get to talk to as much. Even though I knew I wouldn't be there much longer, it never hurts to be nice and get to know the people that you work with.

Since we had a pretty big group, we finished the area of the zoo that they had set out for us with plenty of time before we had to go back to work. In order to thank us for the hard work, the zoo gave us a special treat - we got to pet a Koala bear!!!

Koala bears aren't really what you'd expect... they fur is almost like petting a coarse poodle... very fluffy. The eucalyptus leaves make their fur smell amazing as well. The Koala we got to pet was "friendly" but you could tell he was still quite shy.

After the Koala bear petting, we got a brief tour of the zoo. I was really excited to get to see the tigers. Say what you will about tigers in San Francisco (if you don't know what I'm talking about, you're not going to learn here), they are my favorite animal. The SF zoo had several tigers and each had their own habitat, plenty of room to pace, and were easy to see. I feel like whenever I go to a zoo, the tigers are sleeping or hiding. In Oakland, the viewing areas were so small it was impossible to see anything. However, at the SF zoo, they were awake and almost eerily watching us. I made a little video of one of them pacing.

The rest of the tour was pretty brief. We saw a lot of the usual animals but there was one other stand out. The SF zoo had a few little penguins. Apparently they are a special breed that can handle warmer climates. I'd never seen those before so that was really cool.

Like I said, I really love animals and I really want to go back to the zoo some day. They actually have volunteer days some Saturdays and I've been meaning to go back. If anyone would like to join me, let me know and I send you the information.