Ep. 530: Very Special Episode: Hacks, Products, and Tips for Spring Clearing & Organizing

Summary

Happier with Gretchen Rubin

Episode: Ep. 530: Very Special Episode: Hacks, Products, and Tips for Spring Clearing & Organizing
Release Date: April 16, 2025

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Gretchen Rubin, the #1 bestselling author of The Happiness Project and Better Than Before, teams up with her sister, Elizabeth Craft, a TV writer and producer, in this milestone 530th episode of their lively and insightful podcast, Happier. This special episode delves into the art of spring clearing and organizing, offering a wealth of practical tips, product recommendations, and personal anecdotes to help listeners achieve a clutter-free and harmonious living space.

Introduction to Spring Clearing and Organizing

[02:18] Elizabeth Craft:
"Spring cleaning and organizing is definitely not one of my strengths. But all the better that we're having this episode."

Gretchen and Elizabeth kick off the episode by acknowledging that while spring cleaning may not be everyone's forte, it's a timely and essential practice for maintaining a happy and productive home environment. They set the stage for a comprehensive discussion on effective decluttering strategies and organizational hacks.

Essential Steps for Decluttering

[04:01] Elizabeth Craft:
"The first thing to do is get rid of the things that you do not need. You can donate them, give them away, throw them away, recycle them—whatever works."

The sisters emphasize the importance of starting with decluttering before diving into organizing. By removing unnecessary items, the process becomes more manageable and the goal of a tidy space is more achievable.

Key Points:

• Focus on "Low-Hanging Fruit":
  [04:36] Gretchen Rubin:
  "Cleaning out the fridge and freezer of things that have expired. I would also add to that the medicine cabinet."

• Identify and Clear Dump Zones:
  [05:44] Gretchen Rubin:
  "Sort through areas where items tend to accumulate, like the dining table or bathroom counters, to prevent clutter from building up."

• Manage "Closed Purgatory" Clothes:
  [06:50] Gretchen Rubin:
  "I call that closed purgatory, and I definitely have that right now."

Gretchen introduces the concept of "closed purgatory"—a space for clothes that are neither clean nor dirty—and discusses the importance of addressing these items to keep closets organized.

Tools and Products for Effective Organizing

[13:49] Gretchen Rubin:
"First off, your book, Outer Order Intercom, has many practical tips."

Elizabeth shares favorite tools and products that have revolutionized their organizing routines, underscoring that the right tools can significantly ease the clutter-clearing process.

Featured Tools:

1. Rolling Three-Tier Cart
   [15:20] Elizabeth Craft:
   "A rolling three-tier cart makes it easy to keep items accessible and quickly stow them away when needed."

2. Magic Erasers
   [15:25] Gretchen Rubin:
   "These things really are magic at making mess and grease disappear."

3. Command Hooks
   [16:22] Elizabeth Craft:
   "Command hooks are perfect for hanging items without damaging walls."

4. Packing Cubes
   [16:41] Gretchen Rubin:
   "Packing cubes make organizing luggage effortless and help separate clean from dirty clothes."

5. Shelf Spinners (Traditionally Lazy Susans)
   [17:02] Elizabeth Craft:
   "Shelf spinners make accessing items in corner cabinets much easier."

6. Swedish Dishcloths
   [18:38] Gretchen Rubin:
   "Reusable and absorbent, they’re a sustainable alternative to paper towels."

7. Label Makers
   [18:44] Elizabeth Craft:
   "Perfect for labeling boxes and keeping materials sorted."

8. Digital Scales
   [20:56] Elizabeth Craft:
   "Useful for weighing postage and ensuring accurate mailing without frequent trips to the post office."

Organizational Strategies and Hacks

The 1-Minute Rule
[32:19] Elizabeth Craft:
"If you can do something in less than a minute, do it without delay."

Implementing the 1-minute rule helps prevent clutter from accumulating by addressing small tasks immediately, such as hanging a coat or putting a book back on the shelf.

The 10-Minute Tidy Up
[32:54] Elizabeth Craft:
"Every evening when I leave my office, I try to take 10 minutes and just put pens in the pen cup... It makes coming back into my office in the morning so much easier."

Setting aside dedicated time each day for tidying ensures that clutter remains under control without overwhelming effort.

Digital Decluttering
[33:35] Elizabeth Craft:
"I never clean that stuff out. If I did it day by day, then when it came time to do my photo albums, it would be a lot less burdensome."

Regularly managing digital files and photos prevents digital clutter from becoming a significant issue.

Personal Anecdotes and Examples

Apothecary Jars for Keepsakes
[25:56] Elizabeth Craft:
"For Eliza and Eleanor, it was all the little items they wanted to keep. I put them in apothecary jars, and they look really cool on the shelf."

Using visually appealing containers like apothecary jars helps organize sentimental items while adding aesthetic value to the space.

Bank Boxes with Files
[27:42] Gretchen Rubin:
"This is a great way to keep paper artifacts organized, like party invitations or school photos."

Bank boxes provide a structured solution for maintaining organized keepsakes and important documents.

Enhancing Valuable Spaces

Protecting Valuable Real Estate in the Home
[29:46] Gretchen Rubin:
"I want to get some bins that I can put in my closet where I have some room and put things that are on my bathroom counter."

Prioritizing high-use areas like bathroom counters by relocating seldom-used items to less prominent storage ensures these spaces remain functional and clutter-free.

Final Tips and Encouragement

The episode wraps up with an invitation for listeners to implement the discussed hacks and share their experiences. Gretchen and Elizabeth encourage ongoing efforts to maintain an organized home, emphasizing that preventing clutter is as crucial as clearing it.

[34:03] Elizabeth Craft:
"If you want to do more listening, we have covered it several times in very fun ways..."

They also reference previous episodes that delve deeper into specific organizing strategies, providing additional resources for eager listeners.

Notable Quotes

• Elizabeth Craft:
  "If you can do something in less than a minute, do it without delay." [32:19]

• Gretchen Rubin:
  "Things that are clear tend to stay clear, and things that are cluttered tend to get more cluttered." [06:00]

• Elizabeth Craft:
  "Having a tool can make life much easier and save us a lot of convenience." [08:04]

Conclusion

In this special episode, Gretchen Rubin and Elizabeth Craft provide a treasure trove of insights and practical advice for anyone looking to embark on spring clearing and organizing. From essential decluttering steps to innovative tools and sustainable habits, their combined expertise offers listeners a comprehensive guide to creating a happier, more organized living space. Whether you're a seasoned organizer or just beginning your decluttering journey, this episode of Happier is packed with valuable strategies to help you achieve lasting order and peace in your home.

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Resources Mentioned:

• Outer Order Intercom by Elizabeth Craft
• Memento Keepsake Journal
• Various organizing tools and products discussed throughout the episode

Connect with Gretchen and Elizabeth:

• Instagram, TikTok, Facebook: Share your organizing successes and favorite hacks.
• Email: Drop your tips and experiences at podcastretchenmovin.com
• Show Notes: Visit @tapiercast.com FiveThirty for links to all discussed resources.

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Thank you to our executive producer Chuck Reed and everyone at Lemonada for making this episode possible. Don't forget to rate, review, and follow us on your favorite podcast platform. If you enjoyed the show, tell your friends and family to join the journey toward a happier life.

Transcript

[Gretchen Rubin]

Gretchen, we always on this podcast talk about the importance of getting good sleep. And part of good sleep is a great pillow. There are side sleepers, back sleepers, even starfishes. I'm a side sleeper. And Gretchen, I got a pillow from Coop Sleep Goods that is so perfect for me. I went from using like two pillows together that were not quite right to using my one coop pillow, which is perfect. I. I love it.

[Elizabeth Craft]

Visit coopsleepgoods.com happier to get 20% off your first order. That's C O O P sleepgoods.com happier@great.

[Gretchen Rubin]

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[Elizabeth Craft]

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[Gretchen Rubin]

Lemonada.

[Elizabeth Craft]

Hello and welcome to Happier, a podcast where we talk about how to make our lives happier, healthier, more productive, and more creative. This week, it's a very special episode because every 10th episode is a very special episode. And in honor of spring, we're going to be talking about products, habits, and hacks that have been most useful to us personally when it comes to clutter clearing and organizing. I'm Gretchen Rubin, a writer who studies happiness, good habits, utter inner calm, and secrets of adulthood. I'm in my little home office in New York City, and joining me today from Los Angeles is my sister, Elizabeth Craft. And Elizabeth, I think I enjoy this subject more than you do.

[Gretchen Rubin]

That's me, Elizabeth Craft, a TV writer and producer living in la. And yes, Gretch, spring cleaning and organizing is definitely not one of my strengths. But all the better that we're having this episode.

[Elizabeth Craft]

There are many things that have worked for you, so there'll be fun to share.

[Gretchen Rubin]

Yes.

[Elizabeth Craft]

Okay, the update. Before we jump in, I have to say, okay, my book is out in the world. Secrets of Adulthood. It is so fun. I love being out on tour. I love having my book out in the world. But, Elizabeth, I had this huge insight just the other day about my book. Okay, so this is Secrets of Adulthood, right? I love aphorisms, which is, you know, these short, powerful sentences that convey some deep insight into human nature. And I have this gigantic collection of aphorisms from other people that I've collected, as well as the ones that I've written, but I just made a connection. One of my favorite books of all time, a book that I have read and reread countless times, is Madeleine L'Engle's book A Wrinkle in Time.

[Gretchen Rubin]

Yes.

[Elizabeth Craft]

And I finally realized and remembered that in that novel, Mrs. Hu often quotes aphorisms. You know, these are kind of angelic creatures that are coming from another plane. And the point is made that she finds it hard to put her thoughts into words, and so she will often quote these famous aphorisms rather than formulate her own words. And even as a child, like, I remember this as being one of the first times where I was reading a novel or a book and understanding it as a writer, understanding this was a writerly choice to include this text and that it was affecting me as a reader. And I was super interested in it. And I loved this. It was one of my favorite aspects of the book. And it's only a day ago that I was like, boing. The connection is made in my mind to this book that I've loved ever since I was a little kid.

[Gretchen Rubin]

Here you are, Gretch. Full circle moment.

[Elizabeth Craft]

Full circle moment. But okay, now let's switch gears and let's talk about spring cleaning and organizing. And first up, this is the stage that a lot of people skip, but it is an essential step, which is the first thing to do is get rid of the things that you do not need. User love. You can donate them, you can give them away, you can throw them away, you can recycle them wherever they belong. You can just get rid of them. And then you will have less to clean and less to organize.

[Gretchen Rubin]

Yes, that is always the place to start.

[Elizabeth Craft]

Okay, so let's just point out the low hanging fruit for most of us.

[Gretchen Rubin]

Yes. Well, cleaning out the fridge and freezer of things and the pantry, et cetera, of things that have expired. I would also add to that the medicine cabinet. I have found medicine that expired, you know, in like 2017. So anything expired or just it's got freezer burned.

[Elizabeth Craft]

Yeah. So nobody's gonna eat it. It's a little hunk of something that. Yeah, nobody's gonna. Yeah. I have a friend who said to me, I finally cleaned out my fridge and now I know I can switch careers. And I'm like, I get it, I get it. Here's another thing. Look for things that are on the floor. For many of us, there's just stuff that's just on the floor because we don't know where else to put it. I remember I went over to Help a friend clear clutter. And we just got the stuff off the floor of his closet, and his apartment looked like it tripled in size. It was just bananas. And so just look around and be like. And I remember going to another friend of mine house, and she. Her whole hallway was lined with little piles of things, and it just made everything look very cluttered. And it's like, why is this stuff, like, just sitting on the floor in your hallway? And she was like, I don't really know. And we just put it all away.

[Gretchen Rubin]

Yeah, nice. And then sort of akin to that is looking for dump zones where stuff accumulates. This would be the dining room table for me. This would be my treadmill desk.

[Elizabeth Craft]

Kitchen counter.

[Gretchen Rubin]

Kitchen counter. Yes. We all have those spots.

[Elizabeth Craft]

Bedside table. There's like a chair in your bedroom where you just dump stuff. Yeah. And also, things that are clear tend to stay clear, and things that are cluttered tend to get more cluttered. And so sometimes if you clear off a dump zone, then you're more inclined to keep it all from accumulating again. And here's a question, Elizabeth. I remember we were astonished by how much this struck a chord with listeners when we first raised it years ago, which was this question of what do you do with clothes that are neither dirty nor clean? You've worn a sweatshirt a couple times, so it's not clean, but it's also not dirty. It's not ready to be washed yet. And for some people, they feel very uncomfortable putting these things next to things that are actually clean. And so maybe you need to create some kind of intermediate space, like hooks or a coat hook or some kind of bin where things go that are neither dirty nor clean.

[Gretchen Rubin]

Yes. I call that closed purgatory, and I definitely have that right now. Gretchen, in terms of clutter, I have 10 different items of clothes that are in closed purgatory. And here's what happens. First, I put it aside somewhere neatly because I'm deciding what to do with it. But then over time, it becomes a crumpled ball, at which point I have to have it clean. So the decision makes itself over time. And it may not be the decision I wanted to make, but if I go through and get all the clothes out of closed purgatory, then it does make my closet look a whole lot better.

[Elizabeth Craft]

Yeah. Well, I think for you, this is often about dry cleaning.

[Gretchen Rubin]

Yes, for me, it's often about dry cleaning and to a lesser extent, jeans. Do I wash them or do I wear them again? Because we all know that's the science to how Often you want to be washing your jeans.

[Elizabeth Craft]

Yes. Decision fatigue. Decision fatigue is the plague of life. Well, the next step is adding things. One of my secrets of adulthood is that the opposite of a profound truth is also true. So it's really important to, like, get rid of things. But sometimes you can get more organized by buying things. By buying something to help you get organized and you want to avoid the impulse to just run out and buy. Organizing stuff.

[Gretchen Rubin]

Yes.

[Elizabeth Craft]

You don't want to just cram more junk into the same amount of space using some newfangled bins. But it is true that sometimes a tool can make life much easier and that a purchase can actually buy us a lot of convenience and save time and saved effort. A friend of mine had been working remotely for well over a year, maybe two years, and she didn't have a printer. And I'm like, how do you print things if you need to print? She goes, oh, well, there's like a little store down the street from my house. And I'm like, I think you should spring for a printer. You work full time from home?

[Gretchen Rubin]

Yes.

[Elizabeth Craft]

I remember when I finally got a little bookshelf in my office because my office is really, really small. I didn't know if I had room for a bookshelf. But actually having a bookshelf made it so much easier to put things away and find things later that it was a really good thing to add.

[Gretchen Rubin]

Yeah, Gretch, Recently I realized I was soon gonna run out of three hole punch paper. So I went ahead and ordered three reams of it so that I would have it and I'd be more organized when I did need to print. Spe printing as opposed to waiting for it to run out.

[Elizabeth Craft]

I never get three hole punch paper. Why do you get that?

[Gretchen Rubin]

Oh, for scripts. So when we print scripts, we then put Brads in them, which are the little bendy things so that you can read it like a book.

[Elizabeth Craft]

Oh, yeah.

[Gretchen Rubin]

So that's how I print. Almost everything is on three hole punch paper.

[Elizabeth Craft]

Yes. I always forget about your whole relationship with Brads until I go to your office and I'm like, oh, there's so many Brads. Like, that's something that I just simply do not have. Here's something. Okay, this is an edge case, but I will suggest it because I do love it. I have a paper cutter now. You want to be careful of this if you have little kids around, because they really can be quite dangerous. I do not need it often, but when I do need it, it is exactly what I need it Cuts paper perfectly straight so easily. And now with my watercolor, I've been cutting watercolor paper into smaller pieces. Having the tool that does exactly what you need to do is so satisfying. If you're trying to trim a photograph, say, if you find yourself doing that thing frequently, it might be that this is a tool that would allow you to do it much more efficiently and effectively. And there's something kind of elevating about that. But it's the kind of thing that if you need it, you need it, and if you don't need it, don't get it.

[Gretchen Rubin]

Well, I always think of mom making really cool invitations and using her paper cutter to cut the sides of the invitation. Yeah, I'm realizing the spring cleaning, spring fresh thing has two elements. There's the getting rid of things and cleaning. But then there's also the just setting the stage so that you're ready for spring. Like my paper has me ready for spring.

[Elizabeth Craft]

Well, it's related to organizing and having this feeling of things being in the right place and things that they're ready and having that orderly household, which means things being put away, not having a bunch of junk you don't need, and also like having the supplies you need. It's all part of setting up that atmosphere.

[Gretchen Rubin]

All right, Gretch. Coming up, we're going to talk about some tools we both love for making clutter, clearing and organizing easier. But first, this break.

[Elizabeth Craft]

So, Elizabeth, you know that we have our lake house now. It is a dream come true. But that means that we have home projects. And for anyone who has a home project, Wayfair is the best kept secret for all things renovation. Wayfair has stylish and quality home improvement products for every budget. Now, one of the things I needed was stuff to get organized in the bathroom. But even if you want to do a major renovation at Wayfair, they have vanities, vanity lights, mirrors, toilets and tubs, sinks and faucets, backsplash, and everything you need for bathroom storage.

[Gretchen Rubin]

Yeah. Wayfair's huge selection of home improvement items makes it easy to find exactly what's right for you. And it is easy to shop on any budget. There's something for every style and every home, no matter your space or budget. Shop the best selection of home improvement online. Get renovating with wayfair. Head to wayfair.com right now. That's W-A-Y-F A I R.com Wayfair Every style, every home. Gretchen. We always on this podcast talk about the importance of getting good sleep and Part of good sleep is a great pillow. There are side sleepers, back sleepers, even starfishes. I'm a side sleeper and it really matters how your pillow fits with your head, whatever position you're in. Gretchen, I got a pillow from Coop Sleep Goods that is so perfect for me. I went from using like two pillows together that were not quite right to using my one coop pillow, which is perfect and it's for cool sleepers so I don't wake up all sweaty in the middle of the night. I love it.

[Elizabeth Craft]

And also with Coop Sleep goods, you get 100 night free trial. 86% of sleepers reported better sleep after switching their pillows to Coop. There are more than 100,000 five star reviews and over a million happy sleepers. Visit coopsleepgoods.com happier to get 20% off your first order. That's C-O-O-P sleepgoods.com happier. Okay, Elizabeth, let's talk about some of our favorite tools. Again, we don't wanna say that everybody should run out and buy stuff. Absolutely not. That is not what this is about. But sometimes the right tool can make a huge difference. And so here are some tools that have worked for us.

[Gretchen Rubin]

Yes. Well, first off, Gretch, I have to point out your book, which you mentioned, Outer Order Intercom, which has many, many very practical tips.

[Elizabeth Craft]

Yes. If you like this kind of thing, you will enjoy that book because it's crammed full of all of my favorite strategies. Love that. Now, here's something that I have to thank a listener for because a listener wrote in about using a rolling three tier cart. She uses it related to cleaning up after Thanksgiving. And it was a way to get dishes and stuff out of the way quickly and easily. But when I looked online at this cart, I was like, that looks like a really, really useful thing to have. And I now use this for my watercolors because I can have all my paints, my brushes. I use a hairdryer because sometimes I want to dry it faster. I have erasers, I have a spray bottle, I have a palette. I have all this sort of stuff. I leave it out all the time because, Elizabeth, one of our principles is if you want yourself to do something, you want to make it very, very convenient to do it. So I leave everything out, but then sometimes I need to put it away quickly or there's something I only use. It's a brush that I don't use that often, but I want to have it at the ready. And having this cart makes it easy to have everything very Accessible. And then if I need to gather everything up and get it out of the way, I can just quickly put it on the cart and roll the cart away. And it was super easy to put it together. So I really love this cart. I could imagine using this for, like, children's art supplies or making some elaborate project that has a lot of different stages. It's a way to be organized, but then also whisk things out of sight if you need to.

[Gretchen Rubin]

Yes. Very useful cartoon. Another thing is magic erasers.

[Elizabeth Craft]

Yes.

[Gretchen Rubin]

These things really are magic at making mess and grease and things disappear. Something you think can't work, but it does.

[Elizabeth Craft]

I mean, where has this been all my life? I only heard about this, like, a year ago, and everybody's like, how have you not heard about this? I'm like, I don't know. When did the memo go out? They are really, really handy things to have.

[Gretchen Rubin]

Yes. And they have one for deodorant. You know, when you get white deodorant on your black sleeveless shirt and it seems impossible to get out, there's a mag eraser for that.

[Elizabeth Craft]

And then we just mentioned command hooks. If Eleanor were here, she would be vehemently telling everybody about command hooks. When we interviewed her about her freshman experience and her advice, she talked about command hooks. And, I mean, I was flabbergasted by how many command hooks she was able to use. I don't understand how they work because they stick on the wall and they'll hold up something very heavy, but then you can just take them off. It's just like, how is that possible? I don't understand it. But if you want to hang something up in an easy way, command hooks.

[Gretchen Rubin]

Now, Gretch, here's a organizing item that. It's not really spring cleaning, but if you're going on a spring break trip, this would be useful, which is packing cubes. You know, I love packing cubes. Sarah introduced me to them. I have given them, I think, to almost everybody in the family.

[Elizabeth Craft]

You have.

[Gretchen Rubin]

One of my favorite gifts to give now, like, to a graduate is monogram packing cubes. And people go, why do they help? I don't know. They just do. They make packing easier. And also what I like about them is then when you have dirty clothes, you can put them in another packing cube so that you separate the clean from the dirty in your suitcase.

[Elizabeth Craft]

It's funny because Eliza and Eleanor are both constantly asking if we have more packing cubes than even the set that you gave them. It's like a set of packing cubes just simply isn't enough. I mean, how many packing cubes can one family use? A lot. So it is funny why those work so well. Okay, here's something that I recently got. And I love them. Now there's some controversy about what you call them. They are traditionally called lazy Susans, but people named Susan do not like this name for the Lazy Susan. So I will now refer to them as shelf spinners. But this is like this round thing that you put in a shelf and you spin it around. And the fact is, if this thing fits in a space, it's amazing. I had never really embraced the shelf spinner and now recently I bought three. And I love them. It just makes it so much easier to get access to something that otherwise you would be sort of trying to fumble around in the back of a cupboard.

[Gretchen Rubin]

And of course, Gretch, I. I have to mention when this comes up, our grandparents had lazy Susan in a corner cabinet in the kitchen and it always had the Pop Tarts on that.

[Elizabeth Craft]

Oh my gosh, shelf spinner. I should say nothing. Well, maybe that's why I have such affection for a shelf spinner, because we were very drawn to that in our grandparents kitchen. It was right in the corner. It had a very specific smell. Yeah. Happy memories. Swedish dishcloths or little cloths that you use instead of paper towels. If you're just wiping surfaces or cleaning something up, they're just reusable, they're absorbent. You just run through them and wash them. Those are really handy. Then you don't have to buy a ton of paper towels all the time.

[Gretchen Rubin]

And then again, sort of like the paper cutter. This is something you may or may not need. A label maker?

[Elizabeth Craft]

Yes, label makers. Well, this is also a good example of a principle of like, do you have duplicates of something where you really only need one? So it turned out I had two label makers. Why did I have two? I don't know. I wasn't using either one of them. So I got them out and I was sort of like, huh, I should like come to grips with my label maker situation. Well, Eleanor saw them and she swooped in and she took one. She's a total label maker type of person. And so she just took one. So that was good because I only need one. And now I'm like, oh, yes, now I realize I do have a label maker and if I wanted to use this, it could be very useful. But I only needed one. So it was great to just give away the one that isn't needed. But they are really handy if you want to label anything.

[Gretchen Rubin]

Yes, Gretchen, this is something Sarah gave me for Christmas this year. This year she gave me sort of all of her favorite things from 2024, which is such a great gift.

[Elizabeth Craft]

What a great gift.

[Gretchen Rubin]

Yes. Great idea. And one of the things was guardsman reusable watermark remover cloth. So I didn't know you could remove watermarks, but apparently you can. And this cloth, if somebody doesn't use a coaster, you can use this cloth to remove the watermarks. So super handy. Very small. Just something you can stick in drawer and have available.

[Elizabeth Craft]

Oh. Because that is one of those things like, ah, you feel like, oh, my gosh, I ruined this whole piece of furniture.

[Gretchen Rubin]

Yeah.

[Elizabeth Craft]

Elizabeth, I want to mention something you gave me for Christmas, I think two years ago. They're called wall pops and they're these sticky.

[Gretchen Rubin]

It's like a decal.

[Elizabeth Craft]

It's like a. Yeah, it's a decal that you stick, but it's dry erase. I'm constantly writing notes to myself or like, oh, look this up, or remember to do this, and I'll just scribble it down on all these notes that are just clutter everywhere. And this is a way I could just have it on the wall next to my desk and I can write, but I can imagine somebody putting it in the kitchen to add things to get from the grocery store or putting it near the door so that there's like, don't forget to take your library books to school tomorrow or whatever.

[Gretchen Rubin]

Yes.

[Elizabeth Craft]

And then you can just peel it right off. You could just put it exactly where you want it to be, but you can move it at any time. That's very handy.

[Gretchen Rubin]

Yes. And they do come in different colors, which is fun. I think I gave you white, but they do have lots of colors.

[Elizabeth Craft]

You gave me white and you gave me sort of an aqua. Oh, there you go.

[Gretchen Rubin]

And Gretchen, I know you love a digital scale.

[Elizabeth Craft]

Yeah, well, I end up having to mail a bunch of things. Let's say somebody requests book plates for their entire book group. And so it's like eight book plates. Of course, I'm very happy to do that, but then I need to know how much postage it is. Because if it's not just a regular first class envelope, do I need to add more stamps? Maybe I'm mailing somebody a copy of outer order. In our calm, if you have a digital scale, then you can figure out the postage yourself and you don't have to go to the post office to do it again. This is a kind of thing where a lot of people probably have no need for this at all. But if it's the kind of thing that comes up for you regularly or even just sort of occasionally, it's one of those things that can really save you a lot of time and energy. I just find that it's strangely handy to be able to weigh little things.

[Gretchen Rubin]

It's funny how there are those items that feel institutional, like we shouldn't even have access to them. And I feel like a digital scale is one of them. Like, wait, I can just get a digital scale. I think you mentioned like a countdown timer. When you're speaking your own countdown timer, there's things that would just feel like, how could I have access to this?

[Elizabeth Craft]

No, I know exactly. I kind of feel that way. I have a laminator. And it's like, yeah, you don't have to be a teacher to have a laminator. Just a regular person could have a laminator. It's like, oh, I didn't know that was possible. I thought you had to have a license to have this thing in your house.

[Gretchen Rubin]

All right, Gretch. Coming up, we're gonna talk about hacks for clearing and and staying organized this spring. But first, this break. Do you want to set your child up for success? Is your child asking questions on their homework you don't feel equipped to answer? IXL Learning is an online learning program for kids. It covers math, language arts, science, and social studies. IXL is designed to help them really understand and master topics in a fun way with positive feedback. Gretch, one of my favorite kids, Violet, uses IXL for middle school math. And let me tell you, her mom is very happy that she does well.

[Elizabeth Craft]

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[Gretchen Rubin]

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[Elizabeth Craft]

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[Gretchen Rubin]

Okay, Gretch, we are back with hacks. How can we stay organized and get organized?

[Elizabeth Craft]

Okay, this is something that I would say is perhaps not really relevant to our topic, but can I just say it anyway, which is if you're buying stamps. I was just talking about the digital scale. I do mail a lot of things. Always buy Forever Stamps. Forever Stamps will always be good. And even if the price of stamps change and it's very hard to keep abreast of when the price of stamps change. Yes, they're good Forever. I don't know why anybody wouldn't always buy Forever Stamps. People sometimes don't. Maybe they just sort of get that you can get Forever Stamps, but a Forever stamp is good Forever for like a first class mail or whatever. So I just ordered two rolls of Forever stamps this morning, and I was thinking, I really love the Forever Stamp. So I throw that out.

[Gretchen Rubin]

I highly recommend. Highly recommend, yes. Okay, Gretch, one way I know you love to organize things that are hard to organize and you can explain what kinds of things those are. Is apothecary jars.

[Elizabeth Craft]

Okay. This is something that I started when Eliza and Eleanor were little. And I still have them going to this day. And this is what do you do with little items that don't have a place to go and yet you want to keep? And for Eliza and Eleanor, it was all the things that we get sort of in gift bags or in their Christmas stocking or like a little fun gift that a grandparent got for them. Just for fun. It was like a miniature set of colored pencils or a Super Ball with a rose in it or a plastic daisy or something that was fun and that they wanted to keep. But where did you put it? There was no place to put it. So I got these jars. I put them in the jars. And what I love is that, first of all, they look really cool on the shelf.

[Gretchen Rubin]

Yes.

[Elizabeth Craft]

They're colorful, they're bright. They're, like, variegated. If you have little kids and they're really bored, you just dump out the stuff from the jars and say, like, well, just sort through the things in the jars. This will keep them occupied for hours, especially if you tell them, like, you can pick three things to keep from the jars. And then, of course, they're, like, very focused on what are they going to take. So I would do this sometimes when they're, like, a friend would come over and be bored. The one thing I would say is, I bought glass apothecary jars. And especially if you think a little kid would be using the jar, it's better to get something that's acrylic or plastic so that you don't have to worry about. The ones I got are, like, heavy glass, so they wouldn't break easily. But you always feel a little bit nervous when somebody's putting a lid on and off of a glass jar. So we still have these, and I still add things to them from time to time. Cause I'm like, this is a little thing that's fun. Let's keep it. But where does it go? Put it in a jar.

[Gretchen Rubin]

Yes, Gretch, I use an apothecary jar. I think I mentioned this to you recently in my bathroom for, like, hair clips and rollers and hair doodads.

[Elizabeth Craft]

You just instituted this recently, right?

[Gretchen Rubin]

Yes. Yes. It's a new day in my bathroom.

[Elizabeth Craft]

That's so great. Another thing that I do to keep things organized that are hard to organize is I use a bank box with files in it for my daughters. It was for every year they were in school. Then I have a big file at the back that's for college. And then Jamie and I have one for every year that we've been married. And so it's things like party invitations, our Valentine's Day card with our daughters. It was their school photo. Some kind of typical work that was particularly interesting or outstanding. They got, like, a certificate from a summer camp or something. And when you're like, oh, it's a paper artifact, and you're like, I want to keep this thing, but where does it go? And also, like, how do you keep it organized? Because it sort of flies all over the place. And now I'm really happy because if my daughters said to me, I would like to see every birthday party invitation for my whole life, or I would love my own collection of her Valentine's Day cards. They have that, you know, or like, what did I look like in third grade? Here is your class photo. Here's your photo. And it's just very satisfying to have a place to put those things so that they're organized.

[Gretchen Rubin]

Yes. It's nice that you each have one. That's smart.

[Elizabeth Craft]

Yeah.

[Gretchen Rubin]

Another thing, Gretchen, smaller than the bank box, but also good for organizing keepsakes, is your Memento Keepsake Journal. I use this for certain Jack stuff.

[Elizabeth Craft]

Yeah. Well, and it was inspired by sort of the same impulse, which is you have these things that you want to organize, but how do you organize them? And so with this, it's a book that has all these pockets in it. So you could have a pocket for every year of high school or every year of middle school, or you could have it for every concert that you've ever been to, or there's a lot of different ways you can use it.

[Gretchen Rubin]

Disneyland tickets.

[Elizabeth Craft]

Yeah. All that kind of thing. In fact, just because there's so many different ways you can use it, I now have a free guide that if you order the Memento Keepsake Journal, it comes with a little guide and thinking about ways to use it. That'[e-mail] shop. We'll put links for all this stuff in there. But, yeah, that was part of the inspiration for the Memento Keepsake Journal is just like, how do you organize these things that you want to keep, but they don't really have a place?

[Gretchen Rubin]

And then another thing we talked about, Gretchen, is protect your most valuable real estate in the house. So the way I'm looking at this is my bathroom counter, for instance, is very cluttered, packed with stuff, but that's.

[Elizabeth Craft]

Very, very valuable real estate. That's among the most valuable real estate in your home.

[Gretchen Rubin]

Yes. So what I realized I want to do, and this will be my action item coming out of today's podcast, is I want to get some bins that I can put actually in my closet where I have some room and put things that are on my bathroom counter that I'm not going to use all the time but that I want to keep. So this would be a duplicate face cream. Like, if I have an extra jar of the face cream, so I know I will use it in the future, but I'm using my. The one that I have open now, right now. Or masks or exfoliators. Or again, certain hair items that I do want to use, I will use, but right now, there's no need for them to be on the counter.

[Elizabeth Craft]

Now, the key to this is going to be. To remember what's in there so that you don't run out of the face cream. And then you buy another face cream because you forgot you already have a backup face cream. So you sort of have to just, like in the habit of every once in a while, just paw through that bin and remind yourself what's there.

[Gretchen Rubin]

Yes. But the good thing is, if I know this is where it goes, then I'll know to look there. I feel like sometimes, say I'm out of the face cream, I don't even know where to look, and I forget to scan. I don't look. So this is gonna be my solution to all of those problems, Gretch. We'll see how it goes.

[Elizabeth Craft]

That's a great idea. Because they're useful and you will use them and you want to keep them, but they don't need to be in that valuable real estate. This comes up with T shirts because sometimes people will say to me, oh, but these T shirts are so important to me. They hold so many happy memories. It's these concert T shirts. It's my T shirts from college, and I really, really want to keep them. And I'm like, okay, you can keep them, but you don't need to keep them in your active closet, because that is very, very valuable real estate. These aren't T shirts that you're wearing, probably. They really are keepsakes. So you can put them in a really nice box and put them in some shelf that's more out of the way. That isn't this day to day real estate where we really need the room for the clothes that we're actively wearing. Because these are just something that you're keeping because you love them, not because you wear them every day.

[Gretchen Rubin]

Yes, very good point.

[Elizabeth Craft]

And now for some quick ideas for how to keep clutter under control as we go. Because the best way to deal with clutter is never to have the clutter accumulate in the first place. And so all of that's way back. Was it in episode one, we talked about the one minute rule?

[Gretchen Rubin]

I think it was, yeah.

[Elizabeth Craft]

And this is something people still talk about. I wrote about it in outer order intercom. If you can do something in less than a minute, do it without delay. Hang up your coat instead of throwing it on a chair. Put a book back on the shelf instead of just leaving it on the coffee table, which is something that I often do. I don't reshelve things. I just put them close to the shelf. Put a dish in the dishwasher instead of putting it in the sink. That's another thing that I tend to do. It takes less than a minute. Go ahead and do it. And that gets rid of that scum of clutter on the surface of light life just a minute at a time.

[Gretchen Rubin]

And related to the 1 minute rule is the 10 minute tidy up.

[Elizabeth Craft]

See, I love this. Like every evening when I leave my office, I try to take 10 minutes and just put pens in the pen cup. And like, I have a place for everything that I'm gonna take out of my office, so nothing is accumulating there. I put books back on the shelf. I file things if things need to go in files. And then it's just so much easier to come back into my office in the morning. And then in my apartment, I do a 10 minute tidy up in the morning while I'm making coffee.

[Gretchen Rubin]

Ah, that's nice.

[Elizabeth Craft]

Cause I'm too tired at night. I don't like to clear clutter then. But then I'm like putting away dog toys or putting the pillow back on the sofa and just all that little stuff that is disorderly.

[Gretchen Rubin]

And Gretch, I know you have kind of an aspirational digital decluttering that you want to start.

[Elizabeth Craft]

Yeah. I mean, some people, like every single day they go through their photos and they are like, which of these do I not need? And they clear as they go. I think that's a really good idea. I tend to have. Have three photos of the same thing. Or I'll take a picture of something to remind myself, oh, this is what I want to get at the grocery store. Then I don't need it anymore. But I don't. I never clean that stuff out. And I think if I did it day by day, then when it came time to do my photo albums, it would be a lot less burdensome.

[Gretchen Rubin]

Yeah, I'm sure. I have dozens of photos of just parking space numbers on my phone.

[Elizabeth Craft]

Exactly, exactly. Now, if you want to do more listening, if this is the kind of thing that appeals to you, we have covered it several times and I think in very fun ways. So if you wanna hear the fun time that I was clearing Alyssa's closet with her, that was episode 10.

[Gretchen Rubin]

Yes. And then in episode 160, you came and helped clear my office.

[Elizabeth Craft]

Yeah. In episode 210, Elizabeth shared her favorite hacks from outer order Inner calm. She's not a naturally clutter cleary type of person. Like, those are the really valuable hacks.

[Gretchen Rubin]

And then we also have our Clear the decks episodes.

[Elizabeth Craft]

So 4:43 was the first clear the decks, which is like a basic one. And then sweep the Dec deck which is about getting ready for summer. That was the More happier of May 11, 2024. Those don't have episode numbers, but again we'll put links to all this in the Show Notes.

[Gretchen Rubin]

Yes, lots of clutter clearing in honor of Spring Gretch.

[Elizabeth Craft]

So let us know if you do try this at home and what hacks and habits and products work for you. What would you add? As is clear, we are always on the hunt for more. Let us know on Instagram threads, TikTok, Facebook. Drop us an [e-mail] or as always, go to the Show Notes. There's gonna be a lot of links for this [e-mail] FiveThirty for links to everything we talked about.

[Gretchen Rubin]

And what is our resource this week?

[Elizabeth Craft]

Well, I mentioned the Memento Keepsake Journal, so that's one. There's also the tackle box that's also really great for organizing. That's all about these sticky notes for getting organized. The Don't Break the Chain habit tracker. That's also something that I could imagine somebody wanting to use for getting ready for spring. It's [e-mail] shop and that's it for this episode of Happier. Remember to try this at home. Get ready for spring. Let us know what you tried and what worked for you.

[Gretchen Rubin]

Thank you to our executive producer Chuck Reed and everyone at Lemonada.

[Elizabeth Craft]

Rate us, review us, follow us, and if you like the show, tell others you know.

[Gretchen Rubin]

Until next week. I'm Elizabeth Craft.

[Elizabeth Craft]

And I'm Gretchen Rubin. Thanks for joining us. Yes. Onward and upward, Elizabeth. I have to stop myself from buying another three tier cart. I just feel like these are so useful. I love being able to just zip them out of sight.

[Gretchen Rubin]

Yeah, I feel like I need to get one even though I don't know what I'd use it for. I just want to have it Dangerous.

[Elizabeth Craft]

Us From the onward project.