Clean up is only a click away
RILEY CHERVINSKI, ARTS COLUMNIST
After spending my reading week in a 500 sq. ft. trailer with four other people in sunny Arizona, I really began to resent clutter and appreciate space. Suddenly, the seven pairs of shorts I packed and the three pairs of heels I was so certain I would need felt heavy and unnecessary. Finding an open table or shelf space proved to be impossible, and fighting for a spot to charge our dozen electronics turned violent quickly.
Since returning home, where I’m surrounded by even more stuff, I’ve set out to minimize my junk and, consequentially, my stress. In 2016, de-cluttering doesn’t just mean pulling out the dustpan and bleach bucket — it means accessing the large pool of online resources and apps available to clear your space, your mind and your life.
Take Evernote Scannable for example. The app opens into a camera view and lets you scan any sort of document you place in front of it. This means your old forgotten Post-it notes, mixtape track lists and the brilliant Harry Potter-like novel you scribbled onto the back of a take-out menu can all be scanned quickly onto your phone. Imagine your desk clear of all those piles of paper, leaving you more room for procrastination and sending fan mail to Joe Jonas.
Best of all, Evernote Scannable lets you save your images as PDFs and JPEGs, and then email, Dropbox or message them to anyone in your contacts. It even recognizes names on business cards and will add them to your contacts on LinkedIn.
Spotify is also an essential app when sorting through your shoe closet or attempting to assemble that IKEA bookshelf. As a broke student, I will never pay more than $10 for a case of beer, but I’ll fork over the cash for Spotify Premium. The music app has some of the best playlists around, and you can follow your friends and see what they’re listening to. Sadly, that also means everyone knows I’m at home alone on Saturday night listening to Adele’s “Hello” on repeat.
There are tons of websites and blogs dedicated to simplifying your life, too. Darling Magazine just published a piece on their blog about textile waste and what really happens to donated clothing, and the guys over at theminimalists.com explain how to live happily with fewer than 100 items.
To start, I’m vowing to get rid of one item each day for a year in the hopes that 365 fewer items will make room for the more important things in my life — like my autographed Joe Jonas posters.
Riley Chervinski is a journalism student, soccer player and reader of cringe-worthy chick-lit. You can usually find her scrolling through Tumblr, scoping out recipe blogs or laughing at her own jokes @rileychervinski.
