Hasta La Ideas

Last summer, while sharing a bottle of wine with food columnist Kim O’Donnel, I professed that I wanted to learn to can. Kim didn’t skip a beat, she’s always game for whatever random schemes I hatch, and said that she would teach me. Then, before we could set a date, she decided to follow her husband to Seattle and skipped town (if I didn’t like her husband so much, I would have protested this decision much more vehemently — whisking my pal away to live on the other coast is usually grounds for a good fist shaking and finger waving).

So, this summer, I had to give this canning thing a try without her seasoned help. My belief is that canning is preferred to freezing because the power can’t go out on your pantry. Also, when done with friends, you get to divvy up the goods and everyone goes home with amazing treats. It’s wonderful in the middle of winter to open up a can of tomatoes picked from your own garden when they were at their peak. (And, even though I put fake flowers in my window boxes, I do have a garden. Growing food is a much different endeavor in my mind than frivolous ornamental plants required by the HOA.)

I decided to take a sweet route on my first foray into canning. My friend Krystal and I headed to the Chesterfield Berry Farm near Richmond, Virginia, with high hopes for making strawberry jam. In the fields, we picked more than 20 pounds of beautifully ripe strawberries and then made what can only be described as the world’s best jam. (Twenty pounds of strawberries was overkill, by the way — eight or nine pounds would have been enough.)

Over the next 12 months, in addition to consuming as much of it as my stomach will hold, I’ll be giving out the extra jars as gifts instead of the obligatory bottle of wine when I go to dinner parties at friends’ homes.

How is canning uncluttered? Well, I’m not sure that it is in the strictest of senses. It is, however, a great way to extend the fresh fruits and vegetables of summer throughout the whole of the year. It saves money (a lot cheaper to grow your own than it is to buy it in a store during the off-season) and it makes meal planning extremely simple. The New York Times ran an informative article this week on this very subject titled “Can It, Preserve It, Pickle It, Savor It” that provides many resources for new canners. Even if you don’t have a garden, you can head to your local farmer’s market and pick up the in-season foods you wish to can.

Do you can food? How does it help you with meal planning? Tell us about your experiences in the comments.

I was in sixth grade the first time I saw the movie Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. My friends latched onto the “I know you are but what am I” line from the film, and I quipped “Everyone I know has a big ‘But …’” no fewer than a thousand times.

Sure, the line I often quoted from Pee-wee’s Big Adventure was juvenile, but it was strangely accurate. Everyone I know actually has a big “But …” in their lives:

• I would get my office organized but [insert excuse].
• I would ask the kids to help with chores around the house but [insert excuse].
• I would start exercising but [insert excuse].
• I would finish this project but [insert excuse].

There are times when excuses are warranted, such as with health issues (I would eat a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup but I won’t since I’m allergic to peanuts). However, most “But …” excuses are purely a resistance to change.

We keep bad habits and clutter in our lives because they’re known quantities. We know what life is like when things are disorderly. Life after a change is different and unfamiliar. It might be better, but we don’t know that from where we are now.

As someone who went from a clutterbug to an unclutterer, I can vouch that life is really greener on the organized side. I have more time and less stress in my life than before. The change was worth it, but making the change was difficult and I know I said my fair share of “But …” excuses as I was going through the process.

So what is your big “But …”? What is keeping you from letting go of your clutter? The next time you catch yourself making an excuse, think about what you’re saying. Is your excuse warranted, or are you just voicing a fear of change?

Everyone begins life as a messy, disorganized, lump of a baby. No one is born in a starched shirt and polished shoes with a day planner in one hand and a vacuum cleaner in the other. (Our mothers, they are particularly happy about the vacuum cleaner part.) We scream. We drool. We poop. We cry some more. Everything about a baby is chaotic.

During the early years of life, some children are formally taught by their caregivers how to be organized. Others garner bits and pieces through observation, example, and trial and error. Finally, there are those who picked up very little during childhood and didn’t start learning about organizing until adulthood (I fall into this category).

The speed at which we acquire organizing skills is also varied. Some people learn a specific organizing skill the first time they encounter it. Others, it takes considerable practice.

How you learn or how quickly you learn is completely irrelevant; the point is that everyone can learn to be organized.

From this point forward, I want you to stop thinking about your disorganization as a state of being. Instead, think about the specific way that you’re not yet organized.

“My closet is a mess because I haven’t mastered the skills necessary to keep it free of clutter. I need to learn how to organize my closet and acquire the skills that it requires to maintain it well.”

“My big project at work is a mess because I don’t know what programs and systems are available to help me get it under control. I need to research and learn about what I can do to better manage my time and work of this project.”

When you stop identifying as someone who is disorganized, and start thinking about it as just a specific skill that you can learn, getting organized becomes an easier task.

When you constantly use keyboard shortcuts, it takes you less time at your computer to do the same amount of work as someone who is mouse dependent.

If you’re looking to improve your speed and productivity behind your keyboard, start by learning and practicing the basics:

• For Mac
• For Windows

Once you have these mastered, it’s time to give your productivity another boost.

• For Mac users, keep a list of the programs you typically open in a given day and create launch and program-specific action shortcuts by going into Settings –> Keyboard Shortcuts. Then, hit the + sign to create your own program actions.
• Windows users can download the program ActiveWords and create actions through it. (Free trial available, $30 for purchase.)

Then, stop typing the same words repeatedly by creating shortcuts for commonly typed symbols, code, and words.

• For Mac users, download TextExpander and paste limitless text into your documents, e-mails, and programs.
• For Windows users, keep using the program ActiveWords that I mentioned previously. In addition to creating program and action commands, it also inserts words with keyboard shortcuts.

I love TextExpander on my Mac and use it to enter Amazon links, the blurb at the beginning of every Unitasker Wednesday post, the templates for the Workplace of the Week and Ask Unclutterer posts, all five of my different e-mail signatures, our site’s submission guidelines, and hundreds of other paragraphs, sentences, and words that I type repeatedly.

How much time are you wasting by not using keyboard shortcuts? Take the time to learn, practice, and use keyboard commands to improve your productivity.

Thanks to the website How To Clean Stuff, I now know how to clean the terminals to my car battery and the 10 dirtiest places in my home (ew!).

If you are looking to clean anything in your home, check out this site for solid directions. The comments are extremely helpful, too. Something I’m going to do this coming weekend is take Casey’s advice:

Apply Rain – X (typically used for vehicle windows) to your shower doors and you won’t have the water spots/scum/build-up from your water. The water will just run off of the glass like it does in your vehicle. I’ve also applied a coat of car wax to my shower walls (not the floor) and it has the same effect. The water just beads up and runs off. Saves A LOT of time in cleaning and elbow grease.

My shower stall is the hardest place to clean in the house. I really hope the Rain-X helps. Check out How To Clean Stuff for more great articles and tips.

(via Lifehacker)