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Célestine, l'héroïne de Le Journal d'une femme de chambre, Illustration by Octave Mirbeau (1848-1917). From the Wikimedia Commons.

It is the end of the month and time to give a quick summary of April at Ruly along with sharing some news updates and reviewing some of my favorite comments.

This month’s theme was design. We peeked in on Washington’s cherry blossoms and discussed what makes a great outdoor living space.

There was a great article in the New York Times recently discussing the Milan Furniture Fair and raising some interesting questions about modern design theory:

“There is one question that everyone should sensibly ask before designing or making something to show at the Milan Furniture Fair. Does the world need another chair?” . . .

“[D]esign’s intellectual focus has swung away from producing tangible things, like furniture, toward the abstract process of applying design thinking to ethical issues, such as social, environmental or humanitarian problems, and developing sexy new technologies, like data visualization.” . . .

“. . . [E]xplained Ilse Crawford, the British designer who co-curated the Eindhoven show as a department head there. “Design needs to be seen more as a critical process, and less about making things look good.”

–Alice Rawsthorn, “Furniture Designers Are Shifting Focus,” The New York Times, April 11, 2010.

We reviewed three major design styles: Colonial, Victorian and Contemporary, and gave suggestions for how to best use these styles in your own home.

We reviewed the design for the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial in Washington, D.C. and profiled the fundraising efforts of the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation, Inc.

The Foundation continues to be successful in their fundraising efforts. They have raised at least one million dollars in April and have received donations from some of America’s largest corporations, most recently a $300,000 donation from PEPCO. Their list of donors is starting to read like a who’s who of the corporate world. It is wonderful to see so many companies supporting this important monument to freedom and equality. The Foundation still has about $13 million to go so please download the free Yahoo! search toolbar that generates 5 cents per search.

I showed you my budget patio furniture makeover and gave tips on spray painting lawn furniture and an economical way to sew your own patio furniture cushions.

It is a good thing that I saved some money on my patio furniture because shortly thereafter our HVAC system failed and had to be replaced! Despite some wallet shock, in the long run, we will be saving money and energy and we fixed some previously unknown problems with our furnace installation.

I also told you about my countertop clearing project. Giving suggestions here and here for organizing tools to help get your stuff out of the way. I also showed you my own countertop makeover in progress and more creative suggestions to achieve a naked countertop.

For more horizontal surface decluttering ideas, check out the video interview with Peter Walsh at unclutterer.com.  You may recall that Peter Walsh is the author of “It’s All Too Much,” the first Ruly Bookshelf review.

Ruly Ruth discussed the delicate politics of decorating with your spouse, particularly male-female differences in home decor.

We saw how professional designers Lisa Quinn, Lauri Ward and the Designed to Sell team at HGTV work with limited budgets of $2,000, $500 and even nothing at all!

Diadia. emphasizing simplicity, commented that one of her budget decorating tips was to paint all the walls gloss white and use her art collection to add color. In another comment she also indicated that she was eliminating all of her grass in order to plant a low-maintenance groundcover.

We discussed spring cleaning rituals from the Victorian era and the 1950’s and reviewed a list of the most ambitious spring cleaning blog checklists. We also shared quick tips for spring cleaning your office space.

After we replaced our HVAC system, one of my spring cleaning tasks this month was to get our air vents vaccuumed. Each vent cover was removed and a long air hose with a rotating brush attachment was inserted far into the duct work to suck out any collected dust. Afterward, the cleaning company “fogged” all of the ductwork with a spray that kills any remaining mold or other health-impairing impurities.

As I went around the entire house clearing spaces around each of the numerous air vents, it became obvious that our home could use a deep spring cleaning! Dust collects in unusual places, particularly those you don’t visit very often. There is no way I can “purify” everything right away but I will gradually take it room by room and may perhaps have my “spring” cleaning done by the fall. I had to sympathize however, with my sister-in-law’s recent Facebook post:

My room is a disaster. The idea of cleaning it makes me want to cry.

We discussed principles of green design inspired by Earth Day Richmond.

There were many great comments and suggestions on this post.  Ruly Ruth pointed out the efforts of Terracycle to collect garbage like drink pouches and candy wrappers and turn them into products for sale, like backpacks and pencil cases. Lou suggested using vinegar and baking soda for cleaning before using harsher chemical products and Mary reminded us that if you toss in a few “extras” with your recycling you could jeopardize an entire recycling collection. Shelby commented to inform Ruly readers about an online book club discussing the book Greening Your Small Business by Jennifer Kaplan, a parter at Greenhance, an environmental consulting firm.

While pumping gas in my car this morning, I realized another easy green initiative. When you have the option whether to receive a printed receipt, unless you are really going to use it, decline.

I also have to cite my sister-in-law’s Facebook page for her tongue-in-cheek link to Moonpads, a washable menstrual pad. I am such an earth mother that I do think about the waste generated in this regard but have yet to do anything about it. Having gone the cloth diaper route for my children and finding that to be really no big deal I guess I would say I would be willing to at least try it but it does seem a bit daunting (or “gross” as my SIL’s friend commented).

We finished out the month with a wonderful Ruly Mix from Danny Stewart-Smith who also shared some great content and pictures on Japanese interior design. I love Dan’s mix and find it instantly relaxing and soothing.

Finally, I received a wonderful behind-the-scenes comment that made my month regarding last month’s post about budgeting:

“I wanted to tell you that I have been working with a homeless woman who has just gotten disability. For the first time in her life she has some money to manage. I printed off your budgeting sheet and shared it with her and we developed a budget from that.”

I am having a ball writing for you each month and I thank all of you for reading and commenting. On Monday I will be back to introduce a new theme for May. In the meantime, please enjoy these wonderful YouTube videos showcasing how to add some style to your spring cleaning routine by dancing.

Danny Stewart-Smith http://www.ddeprod.com

Danny Stewart-Smith is back this month with another great Ruly Mix! Download a great free track to keep you motivated in your organizing efforts. In line with this month’s focus on design, Danny’s mix this month is an Asian-inspired piece called “Insights” that is great for adding a little zen atmosphere to any situation.

Last month, Danny provided an introduction to his influences and musical training. This month, he gives us a little background on modern Japanese interior design and even lets us peek inside his gorgeous Tokyo apartment!

Tell us a little about the sound in “Insights.”

Koto

Insights features samples of Koto recorded at my old studio back in London. Koto is a wooden, Japanese harp that is played horizontally or flat on the floor. It is about 5 feet long and has a central sound hole in it much like a guitar does. The strings were traditionally made from gut, but nowadays are nylon, much like classical guitar strings.

There are also samples of Shakuhachi (a Bamboo flute) featured in there for atmospherics. The track was inspired by the juxtaposition of tradition, nature and modern urban design in Tokyo. Hence, the tranquil parks with their serene ponds, flora and fauna is represented by the quiet parts vs. the bustling central city, like Shibuya or Shinjuku, where you see some old temples and houses surrounded by modern high-rises, gaudy animated shop signage, and buzzing traffic represented by the busy beat. It all kind of blends together in Tokyo!

What are common features in a typical Japanese home?

The Japanese urban home is considerably small in comparison to western counterparts covering an average of about 80 square meters (~861 square feet) and containing 3 rooms and an LDK (living dining and kitchen in one larger room). Most urban buildings tend to be relatively new, usually 25 or 30 years old at most.

A typical Japanese genkan (entrance to the home).

The entrance to a Japanese home, known as the genkan (lobby), is by and large the most important part of the home as it receives visitors and is the point of departure and return, therefore it should be pleasantly decorated and arranged in a way that makes it seem as spacious as possible.

The genkan must contain a shoe cabinet in which all the family’s shoes are usually stored out of sight, (except for the guests). There is usually a linoleum or tile part for removing and leaving guests shoes, while the rest of the apartment / houses floor boards are raised at about 3 inches higher. So, in effect you step from the genkan up onto the main floor, usually lacquered wooden floor boards that are uniform throughout the whole apartment.

Japanese bathroom with soaking tub.

Another unique feature in Japanese homes is the unit bath/shower room, in which a very small but very deep bath is located (the Japanese sit in the bath rather than recline). The floor is all molded plastic or is tiled and there is a sealed door so that the whole room is water tight.

The third distinguishing feature is the Nihon Jooma or Japanese room, which is a traditional old style room that even most modern apartments have. The floor of this room is covered with Tatami mats which are made from special grass that is painstakingly woven into tight warp and weft resulting in a mat that is about an inch thick. Each mat is about 100cm x 50cm in size and a standard Nihon Jooma has about 6 or 7 of these mats. These mats start out as green but gradually fade to the color of straw over time. The walls in this room are usually covered with rough wallpaper

Nihon Jooma

that mimics plaster in a kind of olive green or beige. The ceiling is usually beech wood and the doors to the room are usually Shoji doors, constructed from a lattice of wood and paper. It is common for the family to sleep in the Nihon Jooma, on futons that during the day, are stored in a fitted Japanese cupboard, which is also adorned with Shoji doors.

Many Japanese enjoy western style furnishings, often favoring leather couches over the traditional wooden and cotton ones. Ikea is popular with Tokyoites and many Japanese furniture manufacturers mimic western design. Companies like Nissen provide functional space saving, stylish modern furniture at affordable prices, but the quality

Traditional Japanese dolls

is not so high. Many people keep at least one piece of traditional furniture. Usually there is a display cabinet kept in the Nihon Jooma which is used to display many festive ornaments throughout the year on the various festival dates. One of the most famous festivals is probably Hina Matsuri, or Dolls Day, which is to pray for the stable and healthy growth of all girls in the family. Small effigies of a Japanese girl in a Kimono and a boy in a Yukata are displayed on a special plinth atop the cabinet.

As there is little space for gardens, the Japanese usually take pride in adorning their balconies with plants and flowers. One can see a whole array of wonderful balconies in the residential enclaves of Tokyo. Fortunately for Tokyo residents, the city boasts many wonderful parks and gardens, so if you need some peace and quiet in natural surroundings you can escape to a Japanese garden cross its various ornate foot bridges and sit amidst the azaleas, chrysanthemums, wisteria and carp-filled, lotus-adorned ponds and enjoy the bubbling of landscaped streams, the gentle chirrups and humming of insects and the mysterious pose of twisted, gnarled pines and strategically placed granite outcrops. Such gardens and parks are so well planned that you soon forget you are in Tokyo and somehow they even manage to block most buildings from sight by strategic placement of camphor, cherry and pine trees.

Now that Danny has set the zen-like scene for us, download “Insights” to complete your Japanese escape. Click the picture below to play or right-click to download. (If the picture is not working for you, you can also download by clicking here.)

To respect the rights of the musician, please comply with the simple Ruly License terms below.

Ruly License: You may download and play any Ruly Mix song for your own personal use so long as you keep the voiceover tags intact indicating the name of the artist and that the song came from beruly.com. Businesses may also download this song to play as background music in their establishments so long as the voiceover tags remain intact. Any other uses of the song (such as in videos, etc.) must be pre-approved by the musician. Questions about license permissions can be addressed to info@beruly.com.

If you enjoy this mix, please comment, give a “like” on Facebook or share this link with others!

Have a great weekend!

Previous Ruly Mix artists: Danny Stewart-Smith feat. Evin Gibson, Joe Hanley, Jamie Smith, Rajiv Agarwal

I have been working on clearing off my countertops per my previous post. This has been an interesting and somewhat complex challenge because it forces me to address unresolved storage and organization problems. The countertop is the first place things go when they don’t have an assigned storage area.

Clearing the countertop in my kitchen also required some minor home improvements. I don’t know how to use power tools but I am great at coming up with projects where they are needed! My wonderful husband generously agreed to come to my rescue here. (It also gave him an excuse to buy a few new tools.)

The first area of the countertop clearing that was bothering me was the grouping of the knife block, toaster and microwave. Although these were pushed to one of the far corners of the kitchen counter, they took up almost 3 feet of counterspace and made the countertop hard to clean. After a little thought, I decided to reorganize the cabinets above the countertop and make an “appliance garage” on the first shelf of the cabinet. The knife block and toaster now live there. We don’t use the toaster as often as I remembered so it has not been a problem to take it out and plug it in as we need it. The rest of the time we get to enjoy all the extra space!

My knife block and toaster "garage" on the first shelf of my kitchen cabinetry.

Making the knife block fit on the shelf required that I readjust the shelf heights. Fortunately all of our cabinet shelves are adjustable so I moved the pegs as needed. There wasn’t a peg hole for the height I needed for the knife block, though, and my husband drilled some new ones.

Moving around the shelves gave me the opportunity to dust off the shelves and get rid of things that we weren’t using. I got rid of 3 boxes(!) of dishes, including one of the world’s largest collections of stainless steel company branded coffee mugs (crazy for two people who don’t drink coffee!) and insulated lunch sacks.

Getting the microwave off the countertop required a little creativity and more carpentry work. I made another “appliance garage” for the microwave in a little-used cabinet above our oven. First, I checked the owners manual for the microwave to make sure I wasn’t going to create a fire hazard. The owners manual said the microwave had to be placed at least 36 inches off the ground (anyone know why?) and that there be at least 3 inches clear on either side of the microwave. While the new cabinet space appeared at first to be more confining, it actually was safer than the previous countertop setup where there was no clearance on either side. I measured the cabinet I wanted to use and the dimensions were just right.

Cabinet surgery and wiring for the microwave.

In order to get power to the microwave, we had to purchase a 6 foot extension cord made for appliances and create holes for the cord to pass through the cabinetry to the outlet plug. My husband purchased a corded drill (the cordless drill we have did not have enough power to cut holes in the dense hardwood the cabinets are made of), and drilled some small holes for the cord. He then tacked the cord beneath the cabinet and attached velcro tape to the back of the plug so it hides out of sight when not in use.

Since the new microwave cabinet was especially tall, I wanted to add in another shelf above the microwave to store serving trays and other items. I measured the space and took my dimensions to our local Home Depot. I found a piece of 1/2” MDF and the nice guy in the hardware department cut it to fit. Back home, husband had to drill more small holes to fit in shelf pegs and the new shelf dropped right in. Voila! More counterspace AND more storage space! Fantastic!

Before: under-utilized cabinet.

After: Microwave "garage" and extra shelf.

Next, I noticed that our sink had an unused hole in it. I thought this could be used for a soap dispenser so that we could get rid of the ugly dishwashing detergent bottle. When I unscrewed the cover plate for the hole, however, I found that the existing hole was too small for a soap pump and was only about 1/2” wide! I consulted my handyman husband:

“Can you make that hole bigger?”

“I don’t know. Drilling through metal is a lot different than drilling through wood.”

(Disappointed) “Really? It is?”

Sure enough, it is. It can be done but it is tough to do it right. I thought we would have to abandon this project when I came across this video from Tim Carter of askthebuilder.com:

I consulted my expert:

“Yeah, that could work.”

The next problem was finding the wonderfully named “knockout punch.” At the first hardware store I checked, they didn’t have any but the nice older gentleman in the hardware department gave me his home telephone number and told me that if we couldn’t find one my husband could just come over and borrow one of his if he promised to bring it back. (There are still some wonderful small-town aspects to life here in Fredericksburg.) At the next hardware store I checked, the young male assistant was intrigued by my description of the tool but didn’t know if his store carried it. “Let me Google that,” he said. A few minutes later he called me over to a computer screen where he had roped in another assistant to help, “Is this what you are looking for?” “Yes, that’s it!” I said. “No, we don’t carry those.” But then they pointed out that in the comments on the website, it said that Harbor Freight Tools had a great kit for about $20. Off to Harbor Freight, where I found the kit in less than 5 minutes. “Wow! This is a really great store!” I commented to a fellow shopper. “Yes! But don’t let dad loose in here!” the shopper cautioned.

Found! The knockout punch set.

The knockout punch in action.

With my knock-out punch set in hand, my handyman had no excuses not to finish the job. It was actually pretty easy (at least from the observing perspective). A few twists of the wrench and out pops a disc of metal. He had to do it twice to gradually size up the hole to the 3/4” size we needed. It was a quick 10-minute project and the soap pump works great. Once we run out of the regular dishwashing soap, I plan to get a dishwashing soap that will also double as a hand soap so I don’t need a separate handwashing soap pump too.

Before: Available sink hole.

After: New soap dispenser.

Before: Sink with available slot.

After: Sink with soap dispenser.

Another countertop clearing task was to swap the countertop plant for a hanging plant. That required a ceiling hook. It took another visit to Harbor Freight to find one. They were sold in a boxed kit with several types of hooks, wall anchors and screws. When my husband drilled into the ceiling however, we found that our setup was two layers of drywall followed by a stud so the wall anchor wasn’t going to work and the screws weren’t long enough. Ugh! Back to yet another hardware store (Harbor Freight does not carry loose screws) where a nice assistant helped me find the “10-24 x 2 zinc hanger bolt” I needed.

So, as you can see, it has taken a bit of effort to get to a “countertop zero” status and I still have more counterspace to clear. It is not just about cleaning but about designing the space so that things can be put away properly and easily and resolving unresolved storage problems. My kitchen has never really felt “right” to me and it is finally starting to get to the state where I want it. The home improvement projects have made a big difference but another simple thing that had a big impact was just getting rid of all those unused dishes!

My goal for my kitchen is to get it to a stark, vacant, minimalist state with just countertops and appliances. This is not typically my style so this will be the one spot in the house where we adopt this approach. The areas we have cleared are already helping. When we bring in groceries, it is a snap to set them on the counter while we put them away. Visually, it is also easy to know that if there is ANYTHING on the counter that we need to clean up. When there is other stuff that permanently resides on the counter, it takes a little more mental work to figure out what belongs there and what doesn’t.

After: Uncluttered and organized cabinets.

After: Completely clear countertop space!

One other transformation success story for you comes from Ruly Ruth. After reading my patio furniture transformation post, she did a transformation of her own on a glider swing she was given by a neighbor. She used the Wal-Mart foam mattress pad trick to pad the seat, sewed it in place and then used an outdoor cotton rug as her cushion material and sewed that in place as well. Great work, Ruth!

Before: Ruth's porch swing with tattered cushion and cover.

After: Porch swing with new padding and a new cover made from an outdoor cotton rug.

I hope your home projects are bringing you joy as well. Please feel free to share your progress and success stories in the comments.

P.S. to my husband . . . Thank you for all your help with this project and for being supportive even when I suggested we drill holes in our cabinetry! You are amazing!

P.P.S. Many thanks to Abel Braaksma whose blog post on WordPress blank pages for long posts made this post possible.

View of Downtown Richmond and the James River. Viewing station at Earth Day Richmond 2010.

I am a big fan of taking care of the environment. I don’t always do everything right with regard to the earth but I try to take a few steps in the right direction and do what I can to ensure that my children will have clean air and water and nature to enjoy.

Environmentalism is relatively new to most Americans and we are still learning ways to become more environmentally conscious. Environmental problems are difficult to solve because they involve a lot of non-economic factors. For example, while it may be environmentally sound to recycle bottles and cans, it may actually be cheaper for the manufacturer to just produce new. It also requires a little sacrifice from all of us to change our habits or do a little more work.

Yesterday, I visited the Earth Day 2010 Festival in Richmond, Virginia. There were many wonderful events including art projects for kids using recycled materials, gardening and food information and exhibitions from solar power companies.

Inspired by my experience yesterday, I wanted to share some green ideas and some organizing hints to pull them off.

Reduce. Cutting down the amount of things you consume and/or throw away is a great way to help the earth and to stay organized as well. The less stuff you have to manage, the easier it is to keep things tidy. Below are some steps you can take to reduce:

1. Switch to e-delivery for as many of your mailings as you can. Almost all banks, investment firms, utilities, telephone companies, and even some medical providers, can email you your billing statement rather than sending a hard copy to you in the mail. If you scrutinize each bill as it comes in, you may prefer to have the paper copy for your records, but if you just give it a quick glance or don’t even look at it, then save a tree and switch to e-billing. One caution with e-billing, however, most companies store only a limited number of statements online and then delete them. If the statements are important to you, you need to download and save them to your own computer each month. Many social and civic organizations will also email you their newsletters and updates rather than hard copy mail them.
2. Look for energy savings opportunities in your home. This could be switching to compact fluorescent lightbulbs, upgrading to newer, more energy-efficient appliances and systems or adding insulation.
3. Be careful with bulk buying. In our house, the two companies that seem to contribute the most to our stuff problem are Costco and The Oriental Trading Company. I love both of these companies but I have to work hard to use all the things that I purchase from them. I am now more careful about what I am willing to buy in bulk.

Re-use. Switching from disposable to re-usable materials is another great way to save the earth. While disposable materials are convenient and have a cleaner appearance since you are getting a new one each time, you can often save money by re-using. Some re-usable ideas:

1. Re-usable thermos or drink containers. It is really convenient to purchase bottled water, soda cans or juice boxes for kids but these generate a lot of waste that has to be recycled or tossed. Consider buying your beverages in larger containers and switching to re-usable thermos or Tupperware portable drink containers. We have just started doing this and there is a little bit of extra work to wash out the containers but you quickly get used to it.
2. Diapers. Cloth diapers are making a comeback. We started using them almost five years ago and people thought we were nuts. With the latest developments in cloth diaper options, there are a variety of easy and convenient systems. They are really not that smelly or messy and you can save a fortune by laundering them at home and re-using them for additional children.
3. Rags. We have almost completely weaned ourselves from paper towels by cutting up my husband’s old undershirts and using them as rags. We wash the rags out and re-use them. Once you get used to cleaning with cloth, you start to prefer it. It doesn’t lint like paper towels and it is easier to use to scrub out tough stains.
4. Re-usable shopping bags. This is one I am still working on. I now have a few bags to use but I keep forgetting to bring them into the store! I am trying to store the bags in my car so that I won’t forget.

Recycle. Recycling is probably the biggest thing that each of us can do on an individual level to help the earth. I try to be conscious of how much we throw away in our household and cut it down as much as possible.

Recycling is easier in some communities than others. Some communities provide a recycling trash can where you just toss all your recyclables in and the community will pick it up at your curb and sort it out for you. In our community, there is no such service. If you want to recycle, you have to store and sort your own materials and haul them to the recycling center yourself. Many people consider this too much effort but we have been happy to see the number of people who are making the effort and how full the recycling collection bins usually are.

Recycling is a difficult organizational challenge, particularly for commercial establishments like restaurants and open places like parks and city sidewalks. Typically, most cities have a single trash can placed in various convenient locations. Recycling requires not just a single can but a minimum of two or more slots to put your materials. If you don’t put all the recycling options near each trash can, there is a good chance people will just toss everything in the trash. One of the sad moments of Earth Day 2010 in Richmond was when I asked the beverage vendor where I could recycle my plastic bottle and she replied that there was supposed to be recycling somewhere but she had no idea where it was!

If you use the simplest recycling solution (two containers, one for trash and one for mixed recylables) you have to have a company willing to sort all the recyclables for you (or sort them yourself if you are doing it at home). In many communities, it is easier to just focus on one or two recyclable materials that fetch a good price or that are clogging up the landfills and throw the rest of the recycling in the trash. In our community, you can recycle #1 and #2 plastics (clear only), aluminum, newspaper, white office paper, magazines, corrugated cardboard, phone books, clear, green and brown glass, motor oil and tires. Once or twice a year there is a hazardous waste disposal for computers, paint, etc. Everything else gets thrown away. If you want to know what you can recycle in your community, check earth911.org.

Creating a recycling collection and storage system is not that difficult but it does require a little trial and error to see what works for you. We first started out collecting our recyclables in baskets or boxes near our kitchen. I got tired of looking at the used bottles and moved the boxes to the garage. At first it was hard to get up the motivation to walk the recycling out to the garage as it accumulated and we tended to just leave it on the counter, but over time, we got in the habit to walk those few extra steps. It also took some trial and error to find a recycling storage system we liked and that took up the least amount of space. We finally found the IKEA Sortera recycling bins that stack vertically. We have about 5 of them stacked in a small previously unusable space next to the door leading to the garage. It is easy to just open the door and pitch the recycling in the right bin. I am still working on a cardboard recycling solution. We need to get in the habit of breaking down each box as it goes into the garage. Currently we just pitch the empty boxes in a stack. When the stack tumbles over, we know it is time to visit the recycling center.

Recycling at the office is a great idea but hard to implement. Often employees or customers need to request that the business start a recycling program because if there isn’t a law that requires it, the business views recycling as just another expense. In most offices, you need to contact your landlord or waste collection contractor to set up recycling for an additional charge. In a small business, you can just do it yourself. I loved this photo from the Flickr Creative Commons showing a recycling set up at Microsoft. Despite the dig at Google, what I like about this setup is that they just used plain trash cans and printed signs to organize their recycling. Nothing fancy. Also, it is interesting to see that they are using one bin to collect food scraps for composting.

"Trash, Compost, Recycling, Google Apps. Microsoft, Redmond Campus, Washington USA." Photo by wonderlane. From the Flickr Creative Commons.

I also liked this photo from the U.S. Army showing the recycling bins used at Tobyhanna Army Depot in Pennsylvania. The Army requires that the recycling bin itself be comprised of recycled plastics. Wouldn’t it be great if all waste and recycling containers were made of recycled materials?

"Recycling Container." Photo by U.S. Army Environmental Command. From the Flickr Creative Commons.

There are many other ways to design a green operation. At Earth Day Richmond, I spoke with Christaphora Robeers who has a green art studio! She is a self-described fifth generation artist and a native of Holland. Drawing from the environmentalism she learned as a child, she now requires that her students clean their oil painting brushes with baby oil rather than harsh solvents. Once a month they use citrus based cleaners or special vegetable oils as necessary. Her green art studio saves not only the earth but is also better for the health of her art students as well.

Christaphora Robeers demonstrating collage techniques at Earth Day Richmond 2010.

Hoping you take a moment today to implement one new earth-saving routine in your home or business.

What lessons have you learned about green design? What are the eco-friendly challenges you are wrestling with? Please share in the comments.

Local fishermen on the James River bridge.

“Happy Chairs.” Photograph by Lars Plougmann. From the Flickr Creative Commons.

If you are employed full-time outside of the home, your workplace may be more of a home to you than your house. While it is pretty standard that each spring we realize that our home life could use a little freshening up, rarely do we think about doing the same thing for our work life.

Sometimes, even when an employee wants to do a little “spring cleaning,” there simply isn’t time. Work responsibilities can be so overwhelming that it is hard to find time to eat lunch or use the restroom! If you manage to find time, you might bump up against office politics with your ideas for change or lack funding approval to make the changes you want.

A small change, however, can do a lot to boost your energy at work and stimulate your productivity and morale. What are some small, quick “spring cleaning” changes you might try at the office?

1. Bring a bottle of disinfecting solution (Lysol, bleach spray, etc.) or sanitizing wipes and wipe down your phone, keyboard, mouse, laptop, cell phone, door knob, drawer pulls, and other surfaces you are touching all the time. It will make the surfaces look “new” and feel like a small treat, plus it protects you from pesky springtime viruses.
2. An incredible amount of dust tends to accumulate in offices, particularly if you push a lot of paper. Dusting your desk is a really nice treat. If your desk is buried in paper, either dust around the piles or move them temporarily and put them back. If you are super-motivated, dust the other flat surfaces like the tops of bookcases, door frames and window sills.
3. Move some aspect of your office furniture or technology for a fresh change of perspective. You will be amazed at how something as simple as moving a computer monitor or telephone from one side of a desk to the other makes you react to your office a little differently and perks you up a bit.
4. Update personal photographs on your desk, walls or desktop image. I attended a book signing a few years back given by Cynthia Rowley and Ilene Rosenzweig for their “Swell” lifestyle books and one great tip they gave was to make sure that your office always had reminders in it of why you are working so hard.
5. Try to purge at least one recurring task from your to do list by thinking of someone else in your office who you could train to do it, a technological solution that lessens the amount of time needed for that task or a process change that eliminates the need for that task.
6. Experiment with a new time management or organizational technique. You might try Julie Morgenstern’s “Never Check E-mail in the Morning” approach and choose to work your first hour on pending projects or some of her other tips on to-do lists.   If you work with a lot of deadlines, you might set up a tickler file system.  You might download an iPhone app appropriate for your industry or set up Google Reader to track blogs you read regularly.
7. Stage an office yard sale/freecycle event encouraging people to declutter their offices. Collect donations and host a lunch party to let people “shop” from the collection. Donate or trash any unclaimed items.

For fun, below are great examples of real cubicles showing the amount of work and “stuff” the average office worker contends with.  I love how some of the occupants match creativity with business.

Have a great weekend!

Helping Mamma Wash. c. 1900. From the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

The theme this month is “spring cleaning with a design twist.”

So far, I have focused primarily on the “design” aspect. What about the “spring cleaning” aspect? Ugh! Who really does spring cleaning any more? Who has time? Who has the energy?

Realistically, “spring cleaning” for a lot of us means that we might expand our normal cleaning routine just a little to clear out a closet, get rid of excess stuff, give a fresh look to a room, or deep clean or fix up something that needs it (in my case patio furniture).

Today, I wanted to look at the evolution of spring cleaning rituals. I find them to be quite humorous actually.

1861: Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management

Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management. At amazon.com.

Mrs. Beeton (Isabella Mayson Beeton) was just 24 when she published “Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management,” providing cooking and household management hints to the Victorian middle class of her day. Many who purchased the popular tome assumed Mrs. Beeton was an elderly, stern woman with a lot of experience managing large households. It came as quite a surprise that the book was written by a very young woman, who was primarily a journalist and researched most of the information she published rather than experiencing it firsthand. Here is her exhausting prescription for spring cleaning, which I must note is published in the “Domestic Servants” chapter. It would be hard to motivate yourself to do this much cleaning in your own home without being paid to do so!

Periodical Cleanings – Besides the daily routine which we have described, there are portions of every house which can only be thoroughly cleaned occasionally; at which time the whole house undergoes a more thorough cleaning than is permitted in the general way. On these occasions, it is usual to begin at the top of the house and clean downwards; moving everything out of the room; washing the wainscoting or paint with soft soap and water; pulling down the beds and thoroughly cleansing all the joints; ‘scrubbing’ the floor, beating feather beds, mattress and paillasse, and thoroughly purifying every article of furniture before it is put back in its place.

This general cleaning usually takes place in the spring or early summer, when the warm curtains of winter are replaced by the light and cheerful muslin curtains. Carpets are at the same time taken up and beaten, except where the mistress of the house has been worried into an experiment by the often-reiterated question, ‘Why beat your carpets?’ In this case she will probably have made up her mind to try the cleaning process, and arranged with the company to send for them on the morning when cleaning commenced. It is hardly necessary to repeat, that on this occasion every article is to be gone over, the French-polished furniture well rubbed and polished. The same thorough system of cleaning should be done throughout the house: the walls cleaned where painted, and swept down with a soft broom or feather brush where papered; the window and bed curtains which have been replaced with muslin ones, carefully brushed, or, if they require it, cleaned; lamps not likely to be required, washed out with hot water, dried, and cleaned. The several grates are now to be furnished with their summer ornaments; and we know none prettier than the following, which the housemaid may provide at a small expense to her mistress: — Purchase two yards and a half or crinoline muslin, and tear it into small strips, the selvage way of the material, about an inch wide; strip this thread by thread on each side, leaving the four centre threats; this gives about six-and-thirty pieces, fringed on each side, which are tied together at one end, and fastened to the trap of the register, while the threads, unravelled, are spread gracefully about the grate, the lower part of which is filled with paper shavings. This makes a very elegant and very cheap ornament, which is much stronger, besides, than those usually purchased.

–Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management

1952: The Homemaker’s Encyclopedia: Housekeeping Made Simple

The Homemaker's Encyclopedia: Housekeeping Made Simple. Available used at amazon.com.

In her Introduction to Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management, English professor Nicola Humble notes that anti-Victorianism reached its zenith in the 1950s and early 1960s. A reaction against Mrs. Beeton’s household management techniques toward a more relaxed style was underway. In “The Homemaker’s Encyclopedia: Housekeeping Made Simple” (which I found a full 10-volume set at an estate sale a few years back) you can clearly see the shift in perspective:

Today, the trend is toward clean-as-you-go, which lets you look forward to, instead of dreading, the change of season. To some women, spring has never been the season of warmth and flowering. It has been the time when she brought herself to the verge of collapse turning the house upside down.

Before you get too excited about this relaxation of spring cleaning standards, wait until you read the list of “monthly” cleaning tasks. Amazingly, this list seems worse than Mrs. Beeton!

Monthly or at intervals

Bedrooms – Clean box springs with vacuum cleaner attachment, or brush well. Brush or wash curtains, as necessary. Clean ceiling and walls. (You may not be able to wash the ceiling, but a long-handled brush will help to keep the dirt away.) Wash windows, if necessary. Clean and wax venetian blinds or clean window shades. Clean out closets and drawers. Reline drawers. Wash woodwork. Clean lamp shades. Wash pictures and mirrors. Clean and polish wood furniture. Clean upholstery. Clean and polish floor. Clean rugs on both sides. . . .

If you live where summers are hottest, have rugs cleaned and stored for the summer. Have winter draperies cleaned and stored. Put away excess bric a brac. Put up summer curtains. Put down summer rugs. Slipcover furniture. Thoroughly clean porch and make ready for summer use. . . .

Thoroughly was floors and furniture. Have them given special professional care, if necessary. Have furnace cleaned and reconditioned. Have water heater drained and cleaned if necessary. Check household appliances for possible repair or reconditioning.

2010: The Modern Spring Cleaning Rituals

So where are we today? Do we still recognize the spring cleaning ritual? Personally, I have never met anyone who overturned their entire house in a spring cleaning binge. However, there are still those who think we all ought to. Who is the most aggressive spring cleaner today? Below is my list of 5 representative spring cleaning checklists, moving from easiest to hardest.

5.     Lysol has a pretty quick spring cleaning checklist emphasizing germ removal

4.     Casasugar’s checklist is two pages and includes tasks such as “dust ceilings” and washing out trash cans. I really like that page 2 of this checklist has a series of organizing tasks including items to donate, toss or recycle.

3.     HGTV’s spring cleaning checklist is a relatively reasonable 25 items, however, it does include some labor-intensive items like soaking your showerheads in vinegar, cleaning your window screens with kerosene and cleaning the oven.

2.      All Things Frugal has a relatively short list but some of the items are doozies: dust lightbulbs, beat sofa cushions with a broom to remove dust, remove and wash ceiling vents.

1.      Martha Stewart.  The mother of all spring cleaning checklists, of course, has to come from Martha Stewart. Martha Stewart’s Spring Cleaning Checklist, which you can download here, is 3 pages long and includes dusting your books and “resealing grout lines.”

How aggressive are you with your own spring cleaning rituals? Does spring cleaning strike you as critical or a bit obsessive compulsive?  What is the most extreme spring cleaning ritual you or someone else has done? Please share in the comments.

"The FSA (Farm Security Administration) home supervisor has helped this woman make her dress of flour sacks and decorate her curtain with splatter work. Osage Farms, Missouri." (1939) Photo by Arthur Rothstein. From the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

For my design research this month, I went to my local library and checked out a variety of books on home design. After paging through tons of gorgeous interiors, one thing that really struck me is how much we associate “design” with “wealth.” It is not that hard to have a gorgeous home if you have unlimited funds. There are tons of wonderful choices and you can hire any number of incredibly talented professionals to help you. The 2010 DC Design House, (which you can tour at the Washington Post website by clicking here) for example, boasts a $200,000 kitchen complete with 37” flat-screen TV above the stove, a $14,500 custom-quilted rug made of cowhide, and $40,000 worth of AV equipment in the “man cave.”

But what if you are like most of us and can’t afford any of these things? Are you destined to live in an unstylish and boring home? Not a chance!

If you need a little design inspiration for your home, without spending a lot of money, below are some fun choices from professional designers. See what the pros do on budgets ranging from $2,000 to $500 to nothing (yes, nothing!).

$2,000 Budget

HGTV’s Designed to Sell helps homeowners spruce up their homes on a tiny budget (generally less than $2,000) with the goal of helping the properties sell faster and for a higher price. Seasoned real estate agents tour the homes and give their brutally honest opinions about each room. The designer then addresses the problem areas and the sellers help to implement the changes with a little sweat equity. (I can’t imagine how enormously popular this show must be in today’s real estate market!)

Below is a sample before and after Designed to Sell makeover:

There is a companion book for the series called, Designed to Sell: Smart Ideas that Pay Off, that highlights examples from the series and intersperses designer and real estate agent tips. What are the top four things you need to do to make your house show better?

1. Finish any incomplete home improvement projects.
2. Paint walls.
3. Replace dirty or worn floors.
4. Green up the lawn and plant flowers in the landscaping.

I really love the concept of this show, the great host, Clive Pearse, and fun designers, especially Lisa LaPorta. The only issue I have, however, is with one aspect of their design philosophy:

“If there’s one thing the Designed to Sell team preaches, it’s that you have to make sacrifices in daily living to reap the biggest reward in selling. In this living room, for example, the new furniture arrangement wasn’t as conducive as it could be for watching TV. [The television is against the wall, blocked by two chairs in the way and practically impossible to watch from any angle.] It was, however, the best way to show off the room’s spaciousness while still making it seem cozy. What’s more important to you: being a couch potato or pocketing more money when you sell your house?”

–Designed to Sell: Smart Ideas that Pay Off

To me, excellent design is about matching the functional with the decorative. If you can no longer watch TV in the room designated for watching TV, I would say that is a design failure. Insulting the homeowner for wanting to watch TV occasionally doesn’t seem like a winning strategy here. The buyer may want to watch TV too, after all!

Nonetheless, the book is packed with numerous creative ideas, especially about furniture placement, that could make a huge difference for not a lot of money. Simple selling tips, like decluttering and making sure your house is a comfortable temperature, are also woven throughout the book.

$500 Budget

Lisa Quinn is the queen of the budget makeover. Her book, $500 Room Makeovers, showcases a variety of creative ideas to make dramatic and interesting rooms on a shoestring budget.  She uses a lot of IKEA furnishings in her designs and creatively uses materials for maximum impact. Some of her design projects include using children’s crowns from Burger King as a stencil for wall treatments or even spray painting them and gluing them to windows instead of curtains! If you are looking to stretch your decorating budget it is hard not to be inspired by this book. One of my favorite projects is a painted “slate” floor treatment she used on a patio. There is also a great first apartment makeover where she transforms the bedroom (which starts off as nothing more than two mattresses stacked on the floor) into an asian-inspired retreat with canopy hanging.

For an example of a typical Lisa Quinn project, see the video below.

One of the challenges of budget decorating, however, is that it tends to look, well, “budget.” What I like about Lisa Quinn’s approach, however, is that she doesn’t try to make her budget makeovers look like more expensive alternatives. She embraces the budget aspect and uses fun accents like wild colors, crazy lampshades and unusual homemade art, to make her rooms look fun. You don’t compare a Lisa Quinn room to a more expensive one because the concept is just completely different.

“[T]here’s a lot of fear and loathing out there concerning home decoration. In fact, many people are too full of dread to even start the process. And the ones who do take action are often tethered by the perceived expense, afraid to step outside the boundaries of cookie-cutter decor. I believe that living in a home that doesn’t reflect your personal style is like wearing someone else’s shoes: They may do the job, but they will never feel right. . . . I say go easy on the wallet until you’re more certain of your individual style. In the meantime, take some chances while the investment is small. . . . Eventually, you can create a home that truly represents you and the things you love.”

–Lisa Quinn, $500 Room Makeovers

$0 Budget

Lauri Ward pioneered the concept of interior design through re-using your existing furniture and objects.  Her first book was called Use What You Have Decorating. The book gives excellent before and after examples of how you can refresh a room often by improving furniture placement, swapping furniture from adjacent rooms or just removing excess stuff. In many of the makeovers she spends nothing to improve a room’s feel. The changes are not necessarily dramatic. The rooms look similar to where she started, except more elegant and more streamlined.

“My personal philosophy never encourages the sentiment, ‘Throw it all out and start over again!‘ If there is one fundamental precept that I would never abandon it it the notion that no one is a blank slate; we all have ideas about what we care for or what makes us feel uncomfortable. Your belongings define your own private world and their history merits respect. When you use what you have, your home truly mirrors who you are.”

–Lauri Ward, Use What You Have Decorating

Below is Lauri Ward’s list of the 10 Most Common Decorating Mistakes

1. Not defining your priorities.
2. An uncomfortable conversation area.
3. Poor furniture placement
4. A room that is off-balance.
5. Furniture of different heights.
6. A room that lacks a cohesive look.
7. Ignoring the room’s focal point.
8. Improper use of artwork.
9. Ineffective use of accessories.
10. Using lighting incorrectly.

There are some really great and simple tips in this book that are easy for all of us to understand and apply. Some examples,

• “Place your sofa against the longest wall.”
• “Create a U-shaped conversation area.”
• “The difference in height between sofas and chairs should be no more than 5”.
• The end tables should not be more than 2 1/2” higher or lower than the arms of the sofa or loveseat.”
• “No matter how much stuff you have, you need to have some surfaces free of objects. I strongly recommend that windowsills be kept clutter free.”

Lauri shares more of her decorating tips at her blog, redecorate.com/blog.

I hope these resources inspire you to achieve a design style in your own home that reflects your personal taste.  Even if you have champagne taste and abhor budget looks, these resources might provide the inspiration you are looking for about how to creatively stretch your budget to achieve a designer look.

Are you a fan of Designed to Sell, Lisa Quinn or Lauri Ward?  Who is your favorite budget designer?  Please share in the comments.

President Gerald Ford and First Lady Betty Ford in the living quarters of the White House, Washington, D.C. (1975). Photo by Marion S. Trikosko. From the Library of Congress prints and photographs division.

Home Sweet Home.  Our homes are one of the most personal statements about ourselves.  It is the haven we retreat to–our shelter from the big, wide world.  Ideally, your home is the place where you are the most authentic version of yourself, where you can let your hair down and relax.

When your home houses not only you but your mate or your children, there can be conflict over the home decor.   While stereotypes tell us that home is the province of the female and that only women care about home decor, experience tells us that men have very strong opinions too about what goes into a home and especially where money is spent.  Some of the common tensions found between men and women when it comes to home decoration are:

1. Masculine versus feminine designs.
2. Traditional versus modern.
3. Color.
4. Money.  Men and women have different ideas about what is worth spending money on.  While a woman might love an investment in expensive draperies, for example, a man might prefer to spend that money on a surround sound system for the TV or an automated sprinkler system.

This music video captures the universal male-female dynamic in a brilliant and humorous way.  My favorite line is, “So if relationship conversation slips into a discussion about silicone caulk,  that’s ok, it’s just the way that men and women talk!”

HGTV’s Designing for the Sexes is a decorating show where a professional designer is brought in to resolve decorating differences between couples.  The differences between couples when it comes to decorating style can be dramatic.  Take, for example, the titles of some of the episodes:

• “Moroccan versus Retro Backyard”
• “Sports Bar versus Elegant Family Room”
• “Warm and Cozy versus High-Tech Kitchen”

Who could possibly resolve these differences?  It takes a special designer to be sure, one who has a command of both masculine and feminine design preferences.  The first host of the show was Michael Payne, a man who is always impeccably dressed.  A short radio interview with Mr. Payne is below.  My favorite part of the interview is at the end when he describes his own home remodeling project with his wife as the “House of Payne.”

For a real-life (and somewhat unusual) example of how a husband and wife decorate as a team, we turn to our favorite social columnist, Ruly Ruth:

“Visual Spatial Orientation”–the art of arranging objects within a defined space. This applies to the physical organization of items in a 3-D environment…..aka interior design as well as the organization of physical clutter–i.e., papers, notebooks, books, toys, etc.

Some people are phenomenal at this art. I am not. This is one of my least perfectionist areas. To say the least….color selection, patterns, lines are not so important to me….no wonder I never took art classes.

Meet my husband and me. My husband is a USMC helicopter pilot–he is my polar opposite. He is EXCEPTIONAL at visual spatial orientation—he can easily picture and work in a 3-D environment. Visual concepts come very easily to him. In our family, he is the physical organizer of all things—furniture, toys, books. He HATES this part of his job and often gets very frustrated and wonders why I can’t do it like he can. He can look at something, and figure in less than 5 minutes the best way to place objects. I can try my best and mess around and won’t come close. Some military families are able to have the wife move the family and pre-arrange the house. I’m so bad at this that when my husband was gone and my kitchen was driving me crazy, I had to call a girlfriend to come redesign things for me. It was exactly what I wanted and I LOVED it! (Thanks, Amber!) She was paid in dinner and wine, by the way…the cheapest, best advice ever!

However, we seem to be more the exception than the rule. Traditionally, home design was marketed to women. We, the females, seemed to mainly choose the furniture, patterns, design of the home. The true home-makers. Although with HGTV and other such channels, we are seeing the influx of men in the design field and their expertise and insight added to the “female” point of view. We’ve even seen more masculine design stores pop up.

It took a few years and couple of moves to finally relinquish what I thought should always be the female’s job: interior design and organization. Once I accepted my downfall in this area, it made life much better in the sense that I could ask my husband in advance to do whatever the given task was. (The more advance planning given, the better the outcome I’ve decided.) Also with his wood-working and furniture-building skills, this has become a really good combination.

But then there are still the women that can decorate and choose interiors like no one else on earth. My friends Caryn and Cherie–mentioned only in alphabetical order since both are so phenomenal at this. They describe colors in words I use for food. They talk about couches and sizes and colors and lines of furniture as if they were couture clothing. And even “Look at this cute little guy! Love him!” (To describe a custom-designed chair.) And obviously in their relationships they are both (wisely) the dominating decorators. Hats off to them!

I suppose my Ruly Ruth challenge for the month of April is to get everyone to evaluate their personal decorating skills. And see if there’s truly a passion for this in their lives, or if you’re like me and have more of a fleeting interest. And for those like me whose interest needs a spark, I challenge us to keep reading Ruly and refresh ourselves with different decorating styles and ideas. Maybe even implement one!

Have you experienced design conflicts with your spouse?  How do you resolve them?  Please share in the comments.  Have a great weekend!

Continuing the countertop clearing discussion from the prior post, here are a few more suggestions for clearing your countertops in the kitchen and bathroom.

Appliances

Appliance Garage - 30" Wide. At amazon.com

What about the toaster, coffee maker, microwave, and other appliances? You might use these items all the time and it doesn’t make sense to keep hauling them in and out of the cabinets. Kitchen Bath Ideas has 18 suggestions on how to conceal your appliances, including “appliance garages.” In this design, Kitchen Bath Ideas stores the microwave on a shelf on a utility cart rather than taking up precious countertop space.

Paper

Mesh Mag Net Magnetic Organizer. At amazon.com.

Wall-Mounted Magazine Rack. At amazon.com.

As the nerve center of most houses, the kitchen tends to accumulate paper . . . quickly! While you can certainly decide that paper does not belong in your kitchen, the likely reality is that you will occasionally have paper (bills, school papers, appointment cards, mail, etc.) coming in to the kitchen and it is a good idea to have somewhere to store it at least temporarily.We have a small magnetized basket, like this one, mounted to our fridge that is great for storing receipts, coupons and other small items. Wall-mounted magazine racks or baskets can also serve as great places for storing mail and incoming papers.

In the Bathroom

Storage is very limited in most bathrooms and generally consists of the medicine cabinet and the under-the sink cabinetry storage.  If you are trying to unclutter the bathroom countertop, you have to have some place to put your stuff.  Here is where some organizing tools might help you maximize the limited space.

Maximizing the Medicine Cabinet

Acrylic Vanity Organizer with Drawer. At amazon.com.

The shelves of most medicine cabinets are so tiny and can’t hold all that much stuff. With the limited space you have, try to maximize it by stacking objects where you can or storing long products (like toothpaste or hairbrushes) vertically when possible.

Hair Dryer/Curling Irons

Stowaway Blow Dryer Storage. At amazon.com.

Cabinet Door Hair Care Center. At amazon.com.

Use the same trick we mentioned for storing sponges in the kitchen utilizing the false front drawer space under the sink to store your blow dryer or curling irons in the bathroom. The Stowaway system is a molded plastic insert that fits in that unused space beneath the sink and holds your styling tools.  If you are having trouble fitting your styling tools inside a drawer, how about storing them on the inside of your bathroom cabinet door?  With a hair care organizer, the tools are easier to access and put away.

Garbage

Axis Over the Cabinet Waste/Storage Basket. At amazon.com.

In our bathroom, we have to store the wastebasket on the counter as we have little scavengers who like to dig through it. (Yuck!) To clear our clutter, we might consider an over the cabinet trash mount like this one. It would give us a little more space than just putting the wastebasket underneath the sink.

Maximizing Cabinet Space

Under Sink Storage Shelf. At amazon.com.

The cramped bathroom cabinet spaces are hard to fully utilize. One problem is the lack of vertical shelving. Cabinet organizers like the slide out shelving and plastic shelving units here can be a big help if you are storing a lot of very small items. If you are storing large items, an organizer might end up wasting space.

I hope these ideas make you look at your kitchen and bathroom storage in a new light and encourage you to think creatively. How low can you go with your countertop storage? Join the adventure with me!

Now that I have my patio furniture project completed, I am moving on to some quicker spring cleaning/design projects in the home. The first project I have in mind is countertops, clearing them bare — particularly in the kitchen and bath.

Good design is not only beautiful but functional as well. Open up any picture in a magazine of a showcase home and what will strike you about the kitchens and bathrooms is that the counters are completely bare! Take these examples:

Kitchen Equipment Co. Kitchen by Kitchen Equipment Co. X. (c. 1920 - 1950) Photo by Theodor Horydczak. From the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Modern Kitchen from this_could_be_my_house. From the Flickr Creative Commons.

Baker estate. Bathroom in Baker house. (c. 1920 - 1950) Photo by Theodor Horydczak. From the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

8200 Wolf Pen Master Bathroom. Photo by Kairos Photography. From the Flickr Creative Commons.

Why are we so obsessed with minimalist countertops? There is something about flat, open space that appeals to all of us. Clean countertops give us subliminal messages about opportunity. “Hey, gather up the kids and make some cookies, there’s plenty of room here!” “Go ahead, try out that new makeup routine!” “There’s plenty of space to think here. Spread out that project!” Clear countertops are also a great visual trick to make us think the room is large enough (or has enough storage) that there is no need to put anything on the countertop.

There is also a functional aspect to minimalist countertops as well. It is far easier and faster to clean a countertop with nothing on it! Lifting and moving objects to clean underneath takes a surprising amount of time. Also, if the countertop is messy, chances are you have spatters on the objects that were on the counter as well, so you spend time cleaning those items too.

Is it possible for us mere mortals to live like the fictional, completely elegant people in these designs? I challenge you to find out. For the next several days, try clearing as much off of your countertops as you can. Take things out of the kitchen and bathroom that don’t belong there and store or dispose of them. Remove duplicates, broken items and things that just don’t seem to get used. Remove at least one item that you are convinced always has to stay out on the countertop and store it somewhere else.  With what’s left, think creatively about how you might get down to a completely clear (or almost completely clear) countertop.

For inspiration, I have provided some examples below of creative storage options for the most common countertop items.

In the Kitchen

Paper Towel Roll

Wall-Mounted Perfect Tear Chrome Paper Towel Holder. At amazon.com.

Real Simple suggests you get your paper towel holder off the counter by using a wall or cabinet-mounted dispenser. Kitchen Bath Ideas has one design where the paper towel roll hides in the kitchen island In our home, we solved the paper towel roll “problem” by not using paper towels. We have a bunch of rags we store in a kitchen drawer that we wash and reuse. Dirty rags go in a basket near the trash.

Dish Soap/Sponges/Dish Washing Utensils

Oxo Steel Soap Squirting Palm Brush. From amazon.com..

Oxo Good Grips Suction Sink Basket. At amazon.com.

The kitchn.com suggests you replace the bottle of dish washing soap with a soap-dispensing dish wand. Some people like to use suction-cup holders to mount the sponge in the sink, like this one. In our kitchen, the false drawer cabinet fronts beneath the sink are very small tilt-out drawers for holding sponges and dishwashing tools. GetSheila tells you how you can adapt your own cabinetry to use this trick.

Produce/Bananas

3 Tier Hanging Copper Baskets. At amazon.com.

The kitchn.com suggests you get your fruit bowl off the counter and into a stylish and retro hanging basket.  Keep it freshly stocked to encourage you to eat more and to add a little style and color to your kitchen.

Dish Drainer

Collapsible Over the Sink Dish Drainer. At amazon.com

We started using the top rack of the dishwasher as our dish drainer and eliminated the need for a dish drainer on the countertop. We also have almost no items in our kitchen that must be hand washed (thank goodness!). If you do a lot of hand-washing, what are your options? Perhaps a sink-mounted, collapsible drainboard?

Knife Block

Magnetic Kitchen Knife Holder At amazon.com

Wüsthof Under-Cabinet-Swinger Knife Storage Block. At amazon.com.

A knife block is certainly convenient and keeps your knives ready to use when you need them. If you aren’t doing a lot of cooking, however, the knife block is probably just in your way. If you are lucky, you might have a special cabinet drawer for knife storage that you could transfer the knives too. Real Simple suggests you mount your knives to the wall with a metal magnetic strip. (Not sure about this tip with small children in the home. The knife block is already tempting enough.) If you are a woodworker, eHow has instructions for building an under-cabinet knife block or you can buy one ready-made. The under-cabinet knife block might be a good childproofing idea as well. Kitchen Bath Ideas also proposes a side-mounting knife block for your kitchen island

Apparently, I am being too verbose and have hit the size limit for WordPress! I will finish up my countertop clearing suggestions in the next post.