In Honor of My Mom: Organizing in Blue for 2023
Jeri’s Organizing & Decluttering News
by Jeri Dansky
11M ago
Sixteeen years ago today, my mom died of pancreatic cancer. Her favorite color was blue, so this has become my annual tribute to her. Since I'm retired I've not been updating this blog, but I couldn't skip this annual tribute. I'll begin with this charming birch veneer tray with its two chickadees; it comes from Blue Kite Press oin Boston. Moving from the sedate to the not-at-all-sedate, here's a serving platter/tray from Portugal, with two sardines rather than two birds. It comes in one other size, too. Staying on the fish theme, here are some very cool (and very expensive) fish magnets f ..read more
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Decluttering: All the Usual Suspects
Jeri’s Organizing & Decluttering News
by Jeri Dansky
2y ago
Photo entitled Muffin 9 by Flickr user George Boyce, licensed under Creative Commons After years of helping people with their decluttering, I’ve noticed certain categories of things show up time and again. So I grin when I see the same categories of stuff coming up in tweets, in a BuzzFeed article, and on other online sites. New Yorker magazines Friends, because of a twirling daughter/juice mishap, my pile of unread “New Yorker”s that I was totally going to read one of these days (nb I have not had a subscription for years) has had to be discarded. Please respect my privacy in this difficult ..read more
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Knife Storage, Revisited, Part 3: Four Solutions for the Space-Challenged
Jeri’s Organizing & Decluttering News
by Jeri Dansky
2y ago
I originally thought Part 3 of this series would cover drawer storage for knives; after all, that’s my personal choice. But I’m not seeing anything beyond the options you can readily find at places like The Container Store. So instead, let’s look at some knife storage solutions which go beyond the ones you usually see — and which might work well for the space-challenged. The photo above is The Drop Block, for under-cabinet storage. It comes in six different colors and a few different sizes. At first glance, this item might look like a normal wall-mounted knife rack. But no: It’s magnetized a ..read more
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Book: Steal Like an Artist
Jeri’s Organizing & Decluttering News
by Jeri Dansky
3y ago
During the past year, as I stayed home, I bought a number of books — many from authors who participated in the online Quarantine Book Club. I didn’t do such a great job of actually reading those books, though. Now that I finally am making my way through them, I thought I’d share any organizing-related gems I find. Steal Like an Artist is mostly directed at people such as musicians, illustrators and authors — and the message that all art builds on prior works is one I’ve heard before. But there’s a lot more than just that message, and this one point seemed especially relevant to almost everyo ..read more
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Knife Storage, Revisited, Part 2: Wall-Mounted Knife Racks
Jeri’s Organizing & Decluttering News
by Jeri Dansky
3y ago
If you don’t have room on your countertop for a knife block, a wall-mounted rack might be a good option. And there are so many cool ones to choose from! (Of course, there are purely utilitarian ones, too. You don’t need my help to find those.) This one comes from Norden Designs, which makes knife racks in various lengths and various woods. Like most wall-mounted racks, it uses strong embedded magnets to hold the knives in place. Unsurprisingly, some of the companies that make nice knife blocks also make nice knife racks. These come from Arbol Cuisine. And this one comes from Make Me Somet ..read more
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Knife Storage, Revisited, Part 1: Knife Blocks
Jeri’s Organizing & Decluttering News
by Jeri Dansky
3y ago
A friend was recently asking around for knife block recommendations, which made me realize I hadn’t written about knife storage since 2016. When I did some searching, I was delighted to find many products that are new to me — so many that they wouldn’t fit into a single post. So let’s start out with just the countertop knife blocks. When you hear the words “knife block” you probably think of those big chunky wood things with a bunch of slots. And of course you can still find plenty of those — but you have many other options, too. For example, look at these lovely knife blocks from Arbo ..read more
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In Honor of My Mom: Organizing in Blue for 2021
Jeri’s Organizing & Decluttering News
by Jeri Dansky
3y ago
Fourteen years ago today, my mom died of pancreatic cancer. Her favorite color was blue, so this has become my annual tribute to her. The kingfisher refrigerator magnet features the art of Matt Sewell and is sold to support Ashdown Forest in the UK; it’s printed on FSC wood. There are a number of other Sewell bird magnets which have some blue, but this is the one that really jumped out at me. Note: The image isn’t loading for me when I use Safari, but it’s fine in Firefox. And here’s another magnet featuring Miffy and two giraffes. How could I resist the eyes on this ceramic owl money box ..read more
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Children and Their Hair Clips, Bows, Headbands and Scrunchies — Revisited
Jeri’s Organizing & Decluttering News
by Jeri Dansky
3y ago
Last month a reader asked me about some of the products in my 2008 post about hair bow storage, and I had to inform them that the products are no longer available. (I also noticed that I assumed that only little girls would care about such adornments; yikes!) You certainly don’t need special products for these items; all sorts of random containers could work just fine. (I noted some ideas in the 2008 post.) But if you’d like something special, the good news is that I’m finding products I like better than those I listed last time. You’ll notice that some of these bow and hair clip holders look ..read more
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Dish Drying Racks, Revisited
Jeri’s Organizing & Decluttering News
by Jeri Dansky
3y ago
My friend Angela recently wrote, “I just washed some dishes just for the excitement of using my beautiful new dish drying rack.” Of course, I had to find out which rack that was; it’s the Yamazaki Tower, a two-tier customizable rack. That looks like a great drying rack: it’s attractive and it’s good for small spaces, like her Paris kitchen. The reviews are full of other extremely happy customers, too. And that made me think: It’s been a long time since I last wrote about dish drying racks. A lot changes in the product world in 11 years! I updated that old blog post to fix broken links and suc ..read more
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In Honor of My Mom: Organizing in Blue for 2020
Jeri’s Organizing & Decluttering News
by Jeri Dansky
4y ago
Thirteen years ago today, my mom died of pancreatic cancer. (Yes, it’s ironic that this anniversary happens to fall on Mother’s Day this year.) Her favorite color was blue, so this has become my annual tribute to her. Two years ago I led off with a tray from Jamida, with art by Emma J. Shipley, and this year I’m doing the same — with a new tray that’s as amazing as the prior one. It comes in two different sizes. But that’s not the only tray I have to show you. Here’s a very blue tray from Sweetgum Home, designed by Sandra Venus. And here’s the Ianthe tray from Liberty of London, wit ..read more
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