Hasta La Ideas

Questo weekend da non perdersi l’ #electrovenice. Cancelli aperti domani dalle 13, se non avete ancora il biglietto ve lo potete fare direttamente alle casse ufficiali dalle 10 di mattina. Lineup composta da: Lele Sacchi, NT89, Andro, Reset!, Goose, Sven Väth, Afrojack, Deadmou5, Fatboy Slim. Qui il teaser.

Reader J submitted the following to Ask Unclutterer:

Boyfriend and I have been dating off and on for two decades and he moved in for good a few weeks ago. I’ve lived comfortably, and in fairly organized fashion, in 1000 square feet for years and years, and now his stuff is EVERYWHERE. I read over ALL of your articles on merging households, working with partners, gauging levels of clutter control, etc., but we both seem stuck in a tower of terrifying stacked boxes so completely overwhelming that even getting to the kitchen is problematic.

Due to outside demands–we both work full-time, and we both have families in need–we’ve only been able to give a couple of hours per day to this albatross of a project, and it devolved into him suggesting I just throw out a bunch of my stuff. I don’t want “his” and “mine” to dominate the conversation, but, honestly, where do we start? Clothing is everywhere, the closets are full, and he has four thousand CDs, five bass guitars, three computers … you get the idea.

Where would you start, short of calling A&E and volunteering to be on Hoarders? We just need a workable starting point and we both realize that Molly Maids can’t solve our organizational problems.

Thanks if you can answer this; if not, I’m calling in for outside reinforcements!!! Be well, and keep writing–I love this website.

For starters, thank you for loving this website. It’s really nice to hear.

From the way you describe it, I see three steps that will immediately help to reduce your stress:

1. Have a date night. Between your home stress, your family stress, and your job stress, the two of you need a night of relaxation. Make a reservation at your favorite place, put on some fancy clothes, and go out on the town with each other. Don’t talk about the apartment or any of the things that are causing you frustration. Just breathe and be reminded of why you love each other and are joining your lives and your stuff.
2. Call a professional organizer. The two of you are bright people who could work this out on your own — but you don’t need to. Hire an organizer to meet with you for a few hours on a Saturday morning to give you some suggestions for merging your stuff. Having an independent third party to give guidance is almost always a good idea, and organizers do this type of consulting all the time. If you were sick, you’d go to a doctor, so why not seek the help of a professional organizer when you could really use one? Check out the National Association of Professional Organizers or Angie’s List to find a well-respected professional organizer near you.
3. Start with your biggest frustration. Walk through your apartment with your boyfriend, don’t have a conversation, just let your eyes get a real look at the situation. Once you’ve gone through every room, examined every cabinet, and inspected under the bed, sit down and talk with each other about what one thing bugged you the most. Was it that your clothes are no longer in the closet? Was it that you can’t sit down at the dining table? Was it the giant stack of boxes right by the front door? Let him voice his biggest frustration, too. Those two areas need to be handled first, before any other projects in the apartment. Work together to find a lasting solution, try to keep from yelling (touching each other in a caring way repeatedly on the arm or hand while you’re working can help keep your tone and volume in check), and commit to getting just those two areas in order. Once they’re in order, your stress level will greatly improve, making the remainder of the work in front of you more manageable.

Right now, you probably feel like he’s trying to cram his stuff into your apartment. He probably feels like you’re not making room for him in your apartment. It’s a tough situation, and that is why I think a night out to relax and remember why you’re moving in together is so important. Heck, take many nights out on the town to remember why you’re together if you have to! Your relationship and your feelings for each other are far more important than battles over CDs, clothes, and computers.

Thank you, J, for submitting your question for our Ask Unclutterer column. I have faith that you’ll get through this without any long-term repercussions.

Do you have a question relating to organizing, cleaning, home and office projects, productivity, or any problems you think the Unclutterer team could help you solve? To submit your questions to Ask Unclutterer, go to our contact page and type your question in the content field. Please list the subject of your e-mail as “Ask Unclutterer.” If you feel comfortable sharing images of the spaces that trouble you, let us know about them. The more information we have about your specific issue, the better.

Like this site? Buy Erin Rooney Doland’s Unclutter Your Life in One Week from Amazon.com today.

Stanley Donwood has created a new print to celebrate this year’s Glastonbury Festival, which takes place next week…

The print, which follows Donwood’s limited edition screenprint for the festival’s 40th anniversary last year, comes in an edition of 250 lithographs. It is printed on uncoated 200gsm Edixion Challenger stock, retails at £88, and can be purchased at Donwood’s website, slowlydownward.com.

Those attending the festival should also look out for an official festival newspaper, the Glastonbury Fire Lighter, printed for the first time this year, which Donwood will also be contributing a daily column to.

CR in Print

Thanks for reading the CR Blog but if you’re not also reading Creative Review in print, you’re missing out.

The June issue of CR features a major retrospective on BBH and a profile piece on the agency’s founder, Sir John Hegarty. Plus, we have a beautiful photographic project from Jenny van Sommers, a discussion on how illustrators can maintain a long-term career, all the usual discussion and debate in Crit plus our Graduate Guide packed with advice for this year’s college leavers.

If you would like to buy this issue and are based in the UK, you can search for your nearest stockist here. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 292 3703 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30%.

There was a recent preview of the year-end show put on by postgrad design students at Central Saint Martins in London, and Chiara Montgomerie from BD Online’s “The Culture Blog” scored an invite. (If only I were London-based, invite or no I would’ve gladly pushed my way into that show and claimed to have been from a Core77 competitor if I got thrown out.)

Montgomerie wrote up her impressions of the show, and while several projects caught my eye, the standout was Bharat Bargava’s public bench and lamppost, above, which relies on your lazy ass rather than the city to provide the juice. “The piece invites users to cycle for fitness,” writes Montgomerie, “while being able to observe how their physical output can be transformed into electrical energy to power the street lamp.”

I love the idea even though, sadly, I know no New Yorker who could be bothered to engage it. Our homeless prefer to sleep on benches in the dark, and I’m guessing the last thing a bike messenger taking a break will want to do is keep pedaling.

Those of you in London range can see the MA Industrial Design show from June 20th to the 23rd. The rest of you can read the full articleand see more projects here.

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Wintercheck Factory’s space-saving take on a bathroom staple

Brooklyn’s Wintercheck Factory has made a name for itself by updating everything from sunglasses to swimsuits with their brand of locally-made and highly-functional chic. The latest to get the Wintercheck treatment is the humble shower curtain. Like all the design studio’s products, the simple yet intelligent concept improves on a standard necessity with a few key design features. This clever solution to cluttered shower floors has interior pockets large enough to stow eight shampoo and conditioner bottles in self-draining pockets, as well as a razor and toothbrush. On the exterior, two loops on either end of the curtain are perfect for hanging your towel to save even more space.

Taking into consideration the small and often windowless bathrooms that plague NYC apartments, Wintercheck constructed the shower curtain from machine washable nylon, making it great for any unventilated bathrooms where mold and mildew thrive and one less thing you have to routinely replace.

Swing on over to Wintercheck Factory’s online store where the utility shower curtain (available in five colors) sells for $48.