Hasta La Ideas

Voici ce concept très original pour la dernière collection de vêtements, de la designer bosniaque Amila Hrustic. Entièrement fait à la main et en papier et textile, elle reprend le style géométrique et les décline avec élegance et style. Plus d’images dans la suite de l’article.

Previously on Fubiz

• Letter Paper Sculpture
• Recycling Clothing Art
• Perspective Sculptures

Reader Dawn submitted the following to Ask Unclutterer:

Do you have any thoughts on whether it’s best to have a safety deposit box vs. an at-home fire/water-proof safe?

We have a fire/water-proof safe mounted to the floor in our master bedroom closet that stores all of our super important documents, as well as some valuables. Maybe that’s not the best idea? Do you have any thoughts about which would be best for safety purposes? It is so convenient (and obviously cheaper) long-term to have these items stored at home, but maybe a financial institution safety deposit box is smarter storage.

There are positive and negative aspects of both options. Ultimately, it comes down to what works best for your family.

A safety deposit box at a bank is nice because it’s 1. fireproof, 2. waterproof, 3. not in your home (in case someone breaks in or a disaster destroys your home), 4. under tight security, and 5. its contents are legally protected in the case of death.

On the other hand, a safety deposit box isn’t all that great because 1. the bank isn’t open 24 hrs a day or on Sundays, 2. it’s easy to lose the key to it, 3. your bank is probably in the same part of the country you are (a natural disaster that wipes out your home likely would destroy the bank, too), 4. there is an annual fee, and 5. since the contents are legally protected, in case of death, typically your estate has to close before the executor of your estate can access the box.

An in-home safe is nice because it’s 1. locked, 2. easily accessible, 24 hours a day seven days a week, 3. when mounted to the floor a burglar can’t easily run off with it, and 4. it’s a one-time expense.

An in-home safe isn’t all that great because 1. based on its fire rating, what is stored inside of it isn’t protected from heat damage for very long, especially digital items, 2. almost all at-home safes are only water resistant, not waterproof, so a fire hose putting out a house fire can still damage the contents, 3. it’s contents are not protected in case of death (which could be either a pro or con), 4. if a natural disaster destroys your home your stuff is gone.

For more information on in-home safes, check out our article “Fireproof storage, part two” from 2007.

We use both an in-home safe and a safety deposit box. Our home safe stores things we might need access to in an emergency (mostly documents, like our Wills), and our safety deposit box stores hard drives and a few small items we would never need on a moment’s notice (like negatives of our wedding photographs, since we were married in ye olden days). Our home safe is only water resistant and not certified to protect digital data, which is why the safety deposit box is something we need.

I also recommend scanning all documents and photographing the valuable items you keep in either location, encrypting these files, and placing a copy securely online. Services like Carbonite and Backblaze are fine for this. Having a copy online is nice if your home or bank are ever destroyed in a disaster (assuming the online data storage facility is in a different part of the country), so you can at least report to an insurance company what was lost and be able to see what items you’ll need to replace.

Thank you, Dawn, for submitting your question for our Ask Unclutterer column. I hope my response was able to help you. Check the comments for more suggestions.

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.

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Without getting up from your chair, do you know exactly where:

• your keys are?
• your 2009 tax documents are?
• your car’s registration is? (If you own a car.)
• your winter gloves are?
• your social security card is?
• your flashlight is?
• your phone charger is?

How did you do? Were you able to answer at least five of the questions exactly? All seven? One?

Except for your keys and maybe your phone charger, you’re probably okay with not knowing exactly where the other items on this list are currently located. However, wouldn’t it be nice to not have to waste time hunting for these items the next time you need them?

What do you need to do to find a place for all your possessions and have everything in its place? Do you need to file your important papers? Switch out your winter and summer clothes? Set up a reception station in your home with a place to store your keys each evening and charge your phone? Clean out your bedside table and make a storage place for a flashlight?

If you know where all seven items on the list are located, is there anything in your home that doesn’t have a permanent home that should? What items are constantly out of place in your home and might need a new permanent place to live?

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Vienna Design Week 2010: London designer Philippe Malouin made bowls from rolls of till paper at Vienna Design Week Laboratory.

Called Thermal Till Paper Vessels, the pieces were created in the Kunsthalle Wien Project Space Karlsplatz as part of a project called Papermania! where designers took over the space and used it to create works out of paper in front of visitors.

Malouin’s process involved coiling the paper using an electric drill before pulling up the layers of paper to create dishes.

He blackened the paper by rubbing it with sandpaper, as the paper used for till receipts is sensitive to heat so responded to the friction.

Malouin worked in the space 6–9 October.

Watch movies of the process here and here.

See all our stories about Vienna Design Week »
See all our stories about Philippe Malouin »

Here’s some more information from the designer:

I decided to work with thermal receipt paper rolls. one thing that is important to say is that the results that we obtained are in no way a finished product, they are simply the results of my experimenting with a new manufacturing technique, and they are not objects with an assigned function. just vessels for the time being…

The final vessels that we chose for the pictures used no glue, and were the result of rolling rolls of paper and shaping the vessels by throwing the paper in a similar way to throwing a pot. What we had done was to mix a manufacturing technique and a material that we not meant to be used together… The vessels obtained the black colour patterns solely by sanding them with sandpaper. the heat generated then coloured the thermal paper.

I uploaded the photos and videos onto the press site in the folder : “thermal-till-paper-vessels”

there are quite a few videos that explain how the technique is made as well as how the materials change colour once subjected to heat using a heat gun, etc. have a look, and let me know if we should upload them to vimeo or something like that, I tried to upload the videos to youtube, but the quality is not great.

See also:

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Paper vessels by by Siba Sahabi	Paper vessels by Jo Meesters	Paper vessels by Debbie Wijskamp

One of the easiest ways to keep paper clutter from overwhelming your space is to set up a mail processing center immediately inside the door by your mailbox. In a buffet, chest, armoire, or another piece of furniture that matches the decor of your home, install a recycling bin, shredder, and trash can. Also, have mail cubbies for each person in your home so whoever sorts the mail can have a place to immediately store everyone else’s mail.

When you sort the mail, you have four options:

• Recycle. Most flyers, postcards, and papers can easily be recycled. If you don’t want or need the mail, and it doesn’t include any personal information, drop it straight into a recycling bin.
• Shred. Credit card applications, notifications, and other junk mail that includes your private information should be shredded to help prevent identity theft. A few seconds shredding these documents can save you hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars fixing a stolen identity.
• Trash. Not all mail can be recycled. Check with your local recycling center to know which types of papers and envelopes can be recycled and which ones can’t. For example, envelopes with the plastic window pane often have to be trashed.
• Process. Keep a pen in your mail center to write action items on the mail you choose to keep. “Pay by November 1.” “Send to lawyer by October 15.” Give yourself as much direction as possible so you don’t waste time re-reading the mail again.

The truly organized might also have a scanner in this location to immediately scan materials that don’t need to be kept in physical form, but can be retained digitally.

You can be proactive and reduce a good chunk of junk mail by opting out of direct marketing materials through DMAchoice.org. Additionally, call the customer service number on any catalog you don’t want and request to be removed from their mailing lists. You can also contact the three credit reporting agencies to opt out of credit card applications for five years at a time. (You will need to contact all three agencies — TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian.) There are also companies that do all of these mail reduction services for an annual fee, such as 41pounds.org and PreCycle.

A mail center is also a great place to empty clutter out your pockets, backpack, and/or briefcase. The less paper clutter that comes into your home, the less clutter you have to worry about getting rid of later.

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