HOME SPRING 2014
A s u p p l e m e n t to t h e A p r i l 30, 2014 i s s u e o f T h e T r i b u n e
Lysford home on Howe Lake
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Straw bale gardens
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Kids’ Chore Chart
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For fun printouts go to www.dl-online.com Special Sections Spring Home Magazine
Beautiful Lysford home
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Publisher: Dennis Winskowski | dennisw@dlnewspapers.com Advertising Manager: Mary Brenk | mbrenk@dlnewspapers.com Spring Home Editor: Pippi Mayfield | pmayfield@dlnewspapers.com Circulation Manager: Viola Anderson | violaa@dlnewspapers.com Todd Rodeman
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An oasis of flowers
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Lysford lake home is a tribute to self-sufficiency Story BY PAULA QUAM
a
s Scott and Patti Lysford look out their big picture window at the melting ice that covers the Detroit Lakes area lake they live on, they get a sense of home very few people can claim. That is because Scott, who claims to get his relaxation from 12 hours of hard labor, built their picturesque home with his own two hands. The precise angles of and edges of cut pine that blankets the walls of their home and the clean, utilitarian design defies the fact that he is not a builder by trade, but a retired Air Force F-16 fighter pilot who now flies for United Airlines. For Lysford, it was quite a leap of faith in himself. “I lay in bed that first summer we had 50 mile an hour winds, and I thought, gosh, I hope I knew what I was doing,” he laughed.
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In fact, Lysford, a Tioga, N.D., native, was himself given a good, solid foundation to work with. “I grew up in a family where my dad was just like… you just do things; you figure it out and just do it,” said Lysford, who unofficially “apprenticed” under a carpenter who helped him in the family’s previous home on Big Detroit. Armed with some hands-on experience, Lysford first built a couple of cabins on an island they own in Canada before taking a stab at what would be their family home. The Lysfords chose some land on Howe Lake six miles east of Detroit Lakes because of Scott’s love of flying. “I wanted to fly a float plane on it,” he said, adding that the privacy of Howe Lake is exactly what he
Scott and Patti Lysford (above) get to live in a place built with TLC, as well as blood, sweat and tears. Scott, an airline pilot, nearly singlehandedly built their picturesque home on Howe Lake (right) east of Detroit Lakes. wanted. The couple admits it was Scott who took the reins when it came to design, and he knew exactly what he wanted. “I knew I wanted a for-real, no-kidding pantry and I wanted a theater that the house would be designed around,” said Lysford, who started work in the fall of 2005. “I got it buttoned up for winter so that I could continue working on it, and by spring we were living in it,” he said. The Lysfords knew from the start that they didn’t want the house to be overwhelming in size, given their children (who are
now a sophomore and senior in high school) would eventually be leaving it to just the two of them. That means out of the 3,500 square feet of living space, there are three-bedrooms and the in-house theater aptly named “Howe Lake Cinema” in a marquis above the door.
Eight plush, red recliners sit in two rows that drop down by two feet from the back to the front to give it a real theater affect. Tiny lights line the edges of the dark room that boasts a bar in the back and an eight-foot screen in the front. “We do spend a lot of time in spring HOME MAGAZINE 14’
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The Lysfords say one benefit of building your own home is getting to create it how you want, which for them included a game room and bathroom designed with a lot of tile and stone.
The Howe Lake Cinema (above) is a playful feature of the home, which includes eight red, plush movie seats and an eight-foot screen.
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here in the winter,” said Patti of the theater before walking toward the master bedroom. In there, a fireplace takes the chill out of the room, which makes it the perfect place to put a large Jacuzzi bathtub. “Some people were like… you’re putting a bathtub in your room?” said Scott, “but I like it.” The Lyfords say that’s what makes their home so special, is that it truly is them from floor ceiling. “And something kind of unique about this house is the floor,” said Lysford, pointing to the dark gray concrete that shines from the main level. “There’s in-floor heat here, but some folks from Nevis came and essentially did the floor the way they usually do it for commercial buildings, but we dyed it and polished it.” Three full days were spent just on polishing the floor alone, but according to the Lysfords, it was well worth it. “We haven’t had to do anything with it in the eight years we’ve lived here now — it’s totally maintenance-free,” said Scott.
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An outdoor boiler heats the house all winter, as the Lysfords live off their land in that respect, cutting wood off their own property for heat. The log home that sits on 32 acres of wooded lake land does have a secret though. “It’s not actually log — the house has cedar log siding on it on the inside and out,” said Lysford who wanted the log house look and feeling, but didn’t want the maintenance and the expense of it all. “And it would’ve been a lot more time to build, too,” said Lysford, who says while he did get help from a tile layer, a heavyequipment operator, a plumber and a cabinet maker, the rest was all him. Patti and the kids helped with painting, staining and miscellaneous projects as well, making it a real family project at times. With very few labor costs, the Lysfords knew they could splurge on the things they wanted to, which includes a state-ofthe art kitchen with high-end equipment and even a hanger for Scott’s float plane. “There’s a tremendous amount of satisfaction from building something like this on my own,” he said. “I wanted to know in my own head that I can do it… it was a great accomplishment.”
A state of art kitchen (left) is one luxury the Lysfords knew they wanted - a luxury made more affordable by Scott doing much of the work. himself.
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STRAW BALE TECHNIQUE TAKES GARDENING WORLD BY STORM Story BY PIPPI MAYFIELD
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Joel Karsten
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truggling with poor soil? Tired of stooping over to work in the garden? Sick of pulling weeds? Can’t afford to build a raised bed and haul in soil? There is a solution, and Joel Karsten has it. Straw bale gardening is the latest trend in gardening, one that Karsten has been practicing, perfecting and teaching for the last 20 years. His success started at a young age on the farm and has grown exponentially into his adult years. Karsten describes straw bale gardening as minimal work with bountiful results. “I tell people, ‘you better put a Post-It on the refrigerator so you remember to harvest your tomatoes because you’re going to forget you have a garden since you haven’t been out there all
Joel Karsten has revolutionized gardening with straw bales, producing beautiful veggies with less work and time involved. spring HOME MAGAZINE 14’
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Joel Karsten gets his straw bale garden ready for planting. All photos are courtesy of www.StrawBaleGardens.com, Tracy Walsh with PoserDesign. summer,’” he said with a laugh. “You really have a labor-free garden.” Living in Roseville, Karsten still maintains his 20-bale garden while he travels the world speaking to others about decomposing straw bales, planting vegetables and flowers in the bales and starting a whole new kind of natural gardening. How he got started “You know how everybody says necessity is the mother of invention, that’s very much the case with straw bale gardening,” he said. When he graduated from college with a degree in horticulture, he bought his first house and found he only had about one inch of top soil. At the time, he couldn’t afford to haul in loads of black dirt or build raised beds, but he remembered something
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from his childhood that would help him. Growing up on the farm, he said he remembered seeing old straw bales that would be up against the barn, decomposing. “Eventually, some great big thistles would grow out of those bales,” he said. “So, having an education, I knew it took the same nutrients to grow a nice big thistle as it does to grow really healthy, nice big tomatoes and peppers.” So he brought in some bales and started to perfect the method that would one day having him flying around the world, teaching others to grow the perfect gardens in straw bales. “I’ll be darned if it doesn’t work really, really well,” he said after spending a couple years tweaking his process. That was 21 years ago.
Leading the way Two decades ago when he bought his house and started researching straw bale gardening, Karsten said he did tons of library research and talked to several universities, and nothing on straw bale gardening was documented. “So I just decided to do my own experiments,” he said. He wrote his method down step-by-step and passed it along to interested family and friends. About 14 years later, a news reporter out of the Twin Cities called him up and asked about this gardening method the reporter had heard about and wanted to do a story for television. “After that, it just exploded,” Karsten said. “I turned that little five-page handout I had created into a little 68-page booklet.”
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Straw bales are lined up and veggies and flowers are planted in them, cuting down on stooping, weeding and watering. Wires are strung above the bales for covering them when it’s cold out and for any climbing plants.
Karsten got the idea for straw bale gardening after remembering how easily thistles could grow in decomposing straw bales on the farm. He also started a Facebook page, which now has 36,000 followers from around the world — “literally from the Arctic Circle in Alaska and Norway to all of Africa and South America and Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East in places like Abu Dhabi and Dubai and Egypt in the desert, they’re doing straw bale gardening.” From there, the book publishers started coming to him,
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asking to publish his next works on straw bale gardening. He went with Cool Springs Press because of the company’s experience with gardening method books, like square foot gardening, for example. Since 2013, his straw bale gardening book, “Straw Bale Gardens,” has been the No. 1 selling gardening book in the world. “It’s done really, really well,” he said. “And now it’s in 12 languages.” Farm to fame It’s fun to think that Karsten kind of fell into his fame. He said if he had money back when he was out of college, he would have built raised beds and filled them with soil and compost and never gone on to discover straw bale gardening. “I always tell people, from a little kid who would see these bales next to the barn growing thistles to now, 40 years later, to having a book out on that subject is strange but in a weird way, it’s a dream come true.” And with that success comes trips for speaking engagements. Last week he was in Orlando to speak at Disney’s Flower and Gardening Festival. He’s been flown to Paris to speak at a gar-
den festival — “trips from one corner of the country to the other, speaking at garden shows. “And I get to meet people who are gardeners, which to me is the best part of it because, by nature, people who plant vegetable gardens are just great people, salt of the earth.” And he’s excited to be able to teach them something new when it comes to gardening. DL Community Ed class Karsten will be hosting “Straw Bale Gardening — Breaking New Ground” on May 8 from 6:30-9:30 p.m. in Lincoln Education Center, room 108, in Detroit Lakes. Learn to grow a bountiful garden without using herbicides, insecticides, or fungicides. Learn to plant a wide variety of vegetables, root crops, vine crops, fruit crops, and even beautiful flowers, directly into your “conditioned” straw bales. Class fee is $25, or $22 for seniors ages 65 and above. Call 847-4418 to register. For more information on Karsten and his straw bale gardens, visit www.strawbalegardens.com. Follow Pippi Mayfield on Twitter at @PippiMayfield.
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TO SCHEDULE YOUR Modern Heating and Plumbing ANNUAL HVAC SERVICE! TO SCHEDULE YOUR ANNUAL HVAC SERVICE! 218-847-7459 • www.modernheatingandplumbing.com Modern Heating In keeping with its policy of continuous progress and product improvement, Ruud reserves the right to make changes without notice.
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218-847-7459 • www.modernheatingandplumbing.com In keeping with its policy of continuous progress and product improvement, Ruud reserves the right to make changes without notice.
In keeping with its policy of continuous progress and product improvement, Ruud reserves the right to make changes without notice.
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y M Chore Chart MY TASKS
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lake property IS AN OASIS OF FLOWERS in memory of her father Story BY PIPPI MAYFIELD
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v
icki Johnson-Gunness will argue that she is not a master gardener and doesn’t have the green thumb it takes to care for grand landscaping projects — but what she does have is a responsibility to her deceased father and the knack for “simple planting.” Her father, Floyd Johnson, died about 10 years ago of cancer, but before he died, he made her promise him two things. Or rather told her of two wishes she must carry out. “He said, ‘you will take care of your mother, and you will take care of the land at Lake Ida. By the way, plant some flowers,’” she said. And so she did — and continues to do so. “My father loved flowers. He was just a fabulous man.” She plants flowers here and there throughout the property, keeping it small and simple. “It’s to fulfill a promise to him and to remember him,” she said. She said it takes about an hour to water the various flowers on the property. There are small flowerbeds here and there, hanging pots filled with flowers, even little flowers planted in the small openings of paver bricks along the sidewalk. “I’m always looking for something I can put flowers in,” she said, noting that she’s gotten “the bug” to continue planting.
Above, Vicki Gunness doesn’t claim to be the best landscaper, but her dedication to flowers is for her father, Floyd Johnson, and she promised to keep up his flowers after he passed away. Right, she plants a variety of simple yet beautiful flowers all over the yard.
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Gunness also collects old bird cages in honor of her father’s love of birds, but she fills them with flowers instead of feathers. Right, the mailbox was specially painted in memory of Gunness’ father, Floyd Johnson.
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He father also loved watching birds, so Gunness has filled the yard with old bird cages she’s found at thrift stores and rummage sales. These cages are filled with flowers instead of birds. Gunness said her father owned Fargo Linoleum Company, and the family has owned the Lake Ida property for about 50 years. Her father purchased the land when there were very few houses on the lake. Now, there are neighbors everywhere you look. Johnson wanted to be able to take his children out of the city on the weekends to enjoy lake life. Mission accomplished. Gunness and her husband, Dick, still come to lake on a regular basis, as does her mother, LaVerne Johnson. Other family members spend time at the lake home as much as possible, too. Gunness said that while she and her husband own the lake property now, her mother “treats it like hers,” and that’s OK with them. “It’s a simple cottage we’ve added onto a few times but we love every inch of it,” she said. And while the flowers are planted out of respect for her father, Gunness said it’s about preserving the family history as well. Four generations spend time at the lake, and they all know about Floyd, the man who just wanted to get his family out of the city on the weekends. Walking around the property, Gunness insists she’s no landscape artist but rather maintaining a simple yet beautiful homage to her father. “I basically don’t know what I’m doing,” she said with a laugh. Her father would likely disagree. Follow Pippi Mayfield on Twitter at @PippiMayfield.
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using solar to heat homes Unusual nonprofit aims to help low-income beat high fuel costs Story BY NATHAN BOWE
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ere’s a different approach to fuel assistance —delivering solar air heat to low-income families. Jason Edens, director of the Pine River-based Rural Renewable Energy Alliance, aims to turn federal energy assistance (LIHEAP) funding into a lasting solution to what his group calls “fuel poverty.” He says solar assistance fosters ecological health, social equity and self-reliance while providing families with decades of renewable, domestic energy. The cost of home heating is volatile and has been rapidly rising for more than 30 years — much faster than most people’s incomes. The average cost of propane in Minnesota, for example, in early February was just under $4 per gallon. It was $4.60 in late January and $3.50 in early March, according to the U.S. Energy Information
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Administration. The price had hovered at about $1.60 per gallon through much of the previous winter. While home heating oil did not see the same year-over-year price doubling, it was still relatively expensive at about $3.50 a gallon average in Minnesota in January, February and March. Natural gas has been stable, at about $8 per thousand cubic feet. For expensive fuels, the payback for switching to solar is about 12 years in the Detroit Lakes area, according to a DNR solar calculator. Solar technologies offer a win-win scenario — freedom from those rising costs while at the same time eliminating toxic emissions from burning fossil fuels. Unfortunately, however, solar technology remains out of reach for many lower income house-
holds; the very people most impacted by rising heating costs. Enter RREAL’s flagship program, Solar Assistance, which fixes this problem by installing solar heating systems in partnership with low-income families that qualify for federal energy assistance. These solar systems provide several decades of relief from rising fuel costs while fostering ecological health, social equity and self-reliance. Government fuel assistance continues to remain a very important and valuable program, helping millions of families from being left in the cold every winter. But what keeps those same families from needing assistance again next winter? Edens argues that his non-profit organization provides a lasting solar solution to fuel-poverty with an environmentally, economically, and socially appropriate technology. A win-win-win scenario, if you will. The Rural Renewable Energy Alliance has licensed and certified installers for all solar energy systems. It designs and installs solar electric systems, solar hot water systems, and solar air heating systems for both residential and commercial sector clients. All proceeds support the Solar Assistance program. RREAL’s Solar Contracting Service offers: • Grid-tie solar electric, or photovoltaic (PV), systems. • Battery-based stand-alone solar electric systems. • Solar hot water systems for heating domestic hot water. • Solar water heater systems for radiant space heating. • Solar air heating systems for convective space heating. • The organization offers
Jason Edens, director of Rural Renewable Energy Alliance, talks to about 70 people at a recent gathering sponsored by Becker County. His organization is all about solar power. highly experienced and qualified solar installers. RREAL boasts 10 years of solar panel installation experience. It has NABCEP-certified solar thermal and solar electric installers, a licensed master electrician and a licensed general contractor. It has completed over a hundred solar installations, including small residential systems and very large commercial installations. REAL is passionate about its solar-assistance program because high energy costs can do a disproportionate amount of harm to low-income households. According to REAL’s website, when supplies are uncertain and energy prices spike, it is the poor who carry the vast majority of the burden. What does it mean for the economic burden of those in poverty to increase further? “It means a regression in societal goals to achieve a basic standard of living and opportunity for all global citizens. “It means the conflicting needs of food, medical care, housing, and warmth are in even
tighter competition. “It means a greater gap between suitable living conditions and actual living conditions. It means a widening of the gap between the haves and the havenots. It means a greater taxpayer burden to attempt to remediate some of these effects. “In short, it means an increase in the deterioration of the human condition for an ever-increasing portion of the human population.” In 2009, nearly 600,000 households that applied for fuel assistance and qualified were turned away in Minnesota because of lack of funding. As a result, lowincome households sacrificed necessities. All this boils down to the fact that Home Energy is a crippling financial burden for low-income Minnesotans, and that this burden is increasing every year. If you are considering adding solar heating or power to your home or business, consider RREAL — it has an experienced, professional staff and its profits go to provide low-income families with solar heat. spring HOME MAGAZINE 14’
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MEET OUR “SPRING IT FORWARD” WINNER Jane foltz of callaway! Congratulations Jane! Jane wins $100 in Chamber Bucks.
Jane Foltz standing by her garden shed. Before picture (left inset) of the shed before she painted it.
MY GARDEN SHED i HAVE A LOT OF FUN WITH MY OLDRECYCLED-NEW TO ME - GARDEN SHED!
I like to recycle, repurpose things, make old new again. I enjoy vegetable and flower gardening and when I became addicted to it, I needed a garden shed. I bought my old garden shed from my childhood neighbor west of Ogema. They had made it from the old wood of a grainery they tore down on their farm. I had my husband and family members help me move it 12 miles to my yard near Callaway. Through the years I made more raised beds all around the garden shed. I repainted it, made a window planter box out of scraps of lumber, bought shutters for it at a rummage sale, reshingled it and gave the old wood shingles to a man who makes bird houses. When my sister tore her old deck off her house, I hauld home 2 sections. I put 1 section in front of my garden shed and the other in front of my chicken coop. I’ve had many garden tours and friends and family over and they all comment on my “cute” garden shed. Each year I change out the colors of flowers I plant in the window box and planters around it. Best of all last summer my daughter’s wanted (requested) their engagement and wedding pictures taken in front of it.
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Save some green by planting some green
Seamless Gutter Systems
Trees and shrubs not only beautify your property, they also can help reduce your annual energy costs by up to 25 percent. To save some green, follow these tips: • Create a windbreak by planting dense evergreens to the north, west, and east of your home. • Plant trees close to your house on the east and west sides to keep out the hot summer sun and let the sun shine in during the winter. For more energy-saving tips, call our Idea Center at 800-493-3299.
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get organized SPRING IS A GOOD TIME FOR A FRESH START Story BY VICKI GERDES
Spring cleaning is a great time to de-clutter your home and get reorganized.
t
he local consultants for Clever Container are on a mission to help you de-clutter and reorganize your home this spring — and they’ve come up with some good tips for getting started. “I have a saying for when you’re starting to clean and you don’t know what to do with something,” says organizing consultant Donna Sauvageau of Detroit Lakes. “You either love it, you use it, or you lose it.” In other words, the item is either one for which you have an emotional attachment, it’s something you use regularly, or it’s something you don’t need and you should get rid of it. “De-clutter before you clean,” adds Beth Pridday, an executive consultant for Clever Container who has been with the home organization specialists since November 2010. “A lot of people try to do both simultaneously, and they get frustrated because neither project
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gets finished,” she added. “Part of what I preach is to clean your surfaces.” “There are things that you might only use seasonally,” Sauvageau said, such as holiday decorations and turkey basters. “Those are things that should not take up prime real estate (like storage spaces that get used frequently),” she added. “Have a box where you can store them in your garage or a high closet space.” But if you haven’t used something in a year or more, and it’s not a seasonal item, then “you just don’t need it,” Sauvageau said. Pridday says that vertical storage — stacking storage items vertically rather than horizontally — is “really critical” to keeping your home organized. “It just creates more space in closets and on shelves,” she explained. Another key to successful home organization, Pridday added, is to “tackle one project at a time,
and finish what you start.” “Start small, so you’re not overwhelmed,” Sauvageau said. “And once you’re done with a task, take pride in your accomplishments. “I set my timer for 15 minutes, do that one thing, and then I’m done for the day,” she said, adding, “just do your 15 minutes, and once you’re done, pat yourself on the back and say, ‘Good job.’ Give yourself permission to be done for the day. “Anyone can eat an elephant one bite at a time,” Sauvageau said, “but you can’t look at the whole project all at once, because it’s paralyzing.” Another great way to get organized is to bring in a friend or two to help, and “just have fun with it,” she added. Having a friend to help with organizing one’s clothes closets can be particularly beneficial, Sauvageau added. “Have them be brutally honest, and tell you whether something looks good on you or not.” Another tip for clothes organization that she uses is to put hangars into the closet with the hook facing backwards, toward the rear of the closet. “When you wear something, turn the hangar toward the front,” she said. “At the end of the season, if you don’t wear it, the hangar will still be back-
To reorganize your closet, put hangars in backwards, then as you use each clothing item, turn those hangars the right way. At the end of the season, check to see which hangars are still backwards. wards.” Many times people will hang onto certain items of clothing because they have sentimental value — but “if it’s stained, and can’t be cleaned, get rid of it,” Sauvageau said. In Minnesota, clothes can be divided into four
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Organization systems like these are only worth the time and money spent if you use them. distinct seasons, she continued. Once each season is over, the clothes for that season can be placed in storage boxes, and either stored under the bed or in high closet spaces, until they are needed again. Another important tip: “If you receive a gift that you know you’re never going to use. It’s OK to get rid of it.” An avid cook, Sauvageau said one of her biggest problem areas is keeping her kitchen free of clutter. “I love kitchen gadgets,” she said, “but I don’t have a lot of drawer space.” Her solution was to take all of those gadgets, put them in a box and store that box in the laundry room. “I didn’t put anything back into the drawers,” she said. “As I needed something, I would pull it out of that box, and after I used it, I could put it back in the (kitchen) drawer. After six months, if I hadn’t used something, I’d put it on a rummage sale.” For de-cluttering her bathroom, Sauvageau said she started taking those shampoos, lotions and other items that she never used and, rather than shoving them to the bottom of the closet, she would put them in a box for donation to the Lakes Crisis & Resource Center, or a similar organization. “The people who live in that shelter (Mary’s Place, located at the Crisis Center) come to them with nothing,” Sauvageau said. “And there are fire For All Your Land Surveying Needs
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victims who don’t even have a toothbrush. “So now I have one box in my house of things to donate, and one box of things for rummage sale.” Extra bath towels that are starting to look ragged, for instance, can be donated to the Humane Society, which uses them for bathing the dogs and cats that come to them. “Hanging on to things just because you might use them someday is not good,” Sauvageau said. Another tip: “When you use something, put it away afterwards. When it’s not in use, it should be stored somewhere. Clutter breeds clutter.” Sauvageau said that one thing she has found helpful is about five to 10 minutes before she goes to bed at night, she takes a clothes basket and walks through the house. “I gather things that aren’t where they should be, and put them away,” she added. “It’s amazing what you can get done in five minutes.” Sauvageau also said that she is happy to consult with anyone who is looking for a storage system to help them de-clutter and get organized. However, she added, “You can buy all the organizing systems in the world, but if you’re not using them, you’re just wasting your money.” Follow Vicki Gerdes on Twitter at @VickiLGerdes.
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