Well, no flying cars yet (ahem, fellow scientists, get on that please), but a recent video from researchers at the University of California at Berkeley shows they programmed a robot to fold towels.

Check it out:

Pretty neat, eh? Of course, this video is shows at 50x speed. It actually takes about 25 minutes per towel. Heck, even I fold laundry faster than that!

The nifty part is the fact that the robot, PR2, had not previously seen those towels. It had to look at the jumbled pile, identify the objects as towels, pick them up, twist it around to find a corner to grasp, twist it around to find another corner to grasp, and the fold it on a table edge. PR2 is no Rosie yet, but I like where this science is going! Move over, Roomba!

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Towel Folding Robot

Photo from from This Old House

If you’ve got deep shelves, rather than trying to organize them in such a way that all items are accessible from the front, perhaps with a lazy Susan (that’s what I used to use in this big corner cupboard we had in an apartment. Without it, I couldn’t reach cans at the back of the shelf!) you can build the shelf itself to be more space efficient.

Here they have even gone a step further and put doors to cover the shelf and the microwave.

I like the concept, but I think they’ve got it backwards. I use spices a lot more than I use recipe books, so I’d personally put the spice jars in the front and the books in the back. Plus that way, it wouldn’t be so front-heavy when you slide it out.

What do you think? Do you have any hidden efficient storage space in your home?

via Apartment Therapy.

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Hidden Storage Idea

Photo by Patrick Talbert

A woman in Australia found out she won the lottery when she cleaned up her desk and found a lottery ticket from last September. Taking a few minutes to tidy up netted her a sweet 2.5 million dollars! Talk about making decluttering worth it, eh?

Ito of Clutterbrained found $200 while cleaning up earlier this year.

I found a $50 Canadian Tire gift card that had fallen behind a table when I was decluttering this weekend.

Spring cleaning is a great time to declutter. Everyone talks about it, so there’s lots of encouragement to do it. Stores hold sales on traditional spring cleaning items (brooms, cleaning sprays, garbage/recycling bins, books about decluttering and cleaning, etc.) so you can get some good deals. Just be sure to watch that you don’t buy extra things just because they are on sale. Remember, you’re decluttering, not adding new things into your home.

What’s the most awesome thing you’ve found while cleaning up?

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Spring Cleaning Pays Off

Written by Everett Bogue | Follow him on Twitter.

We spend a lot of time talking, debating, thinking things over with our intellect, before we take actions.

But it’s important to remember that the actions are what actually speak.

With every object you choose not to buy, you are bringing about the salvation of the planet.

With every meaningless task you strike off your list of things you feel obligated to do, you are bringing about your own personal liberation.

None of this starts until you stop analyzing and start doing. Make a difference now, because every moment that slips by is bringing you one step farther away from your goals.

Here are 42 simple actions you can take now to bring about a little bit of freedom from the endless cycle of consumerism.

1. Stop doing something that means nothing to you.
2. Pay off a credit card, cancel it.
3. Move to a city that has decent public transportation.
4. Support an artist, instead of a corporation.
5. Up-cycle something into art.
6. Cook a dinner from local raw ingredients.
7. Write something positive about someone who you admire.
8. Share a dinner with friends.
9. Eat at a table.
10. Put 15 things in a box, get rid of it.
11. Explain to your family, friends, significant other that you plan to make a difference by becoming more minimalist.
12. Vow to make more time for your own projects.
13. Write a blog post about being minimalist.
14. Reclaim 15 minutes of your time.
15. Cancel one commitment
16. Donate all of the clothes you haven’t worn this year.
17. Donate all of the clothes you haven’t worn this week.
18. Think about the place you’ve always wanted to move to, but thought it was impossible.
19. Decide it’s not impossible.
20. Move.
21. Unfriend 15 people on Facebook that you don’t know.
22. Unfollow every person on Twitter who only tweet about themselves.
23. Put down the cellphone for one dinner.
24. Text someone you love them.
25. Unsubscribe to every newsletter from those non-profit you don’t care about that comes in your email.
26. Destroy your TV.
27. Turn off your Internet.
28. Write something about change.
29. Stop whining about what you can’t.
30. Spend 15 minutes in silence after you get off of work.
31. Instead of thrashing, smile.
32. Automate your bills.
33. Archive or trash all your unanswered emails.
34. Start something, finish it.
35. Research one way to automate a small amount of income.
36. Work towards putting that automation into effect.
37. Plant a tree.
38. Watch TED before bed instead of whatever is on TV.
39. Make a choice that makes you uncomfortable.
40. Turn off the lights.
41. Stop checking email.
42. Make a list of the 100 things that are most important to you, leave it in the comments.

You make your own decisions. You can choose to opt out of the perpetual cycle of busy consumption that is destroying our planet and your life.

You are the one who will save us.

Thank you for making a difference.

Everett Bogue blogs about living a simple minimalist existence at Far Beyond The Stars, he is the author of The Art of Being Minimalist. [full disclosure: affiliate link]

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42 Essential Ways to Take Action Against Your Clutter

I’ve been reading all the personal finance books and blogs I can get my hands on. Blogs are free, and can provide wonderful information, but I have always loved books, and when I’m learning I love to get as many different viewpoints as possible.
I’m proud to say I haven’t bought any books. I’ve borrowed from family, friends and the library.

Photo by Alex Watson

Ok, I lied a little bit, I bought a notebook from the dollar store to jot down notes while I read the finance books I’ve borrowed. Must be a holdover from school; I’ve always liked taking notes. I’m such a geek, but that’s awesome.

I love buying books, so this has actually been fairly difficult for me. I love the library, but I also love owning books. I love seeing them stacked neatly on my shelves, and (oops!) not so neatly once the shelves are filled up.
Every time I move I give away a huge box of books, but I always have more, more more.

When I daydream, my house always has one of those big libraries, with curving shelves that stretch from floor to ceiling and one of those nifty rolling ladders to reach the topmost tomes. *Swoon*

Since I don’t live in a place with a dedicated library, however, I’ve decided that I shouldn’t keep buying books as if I did. Since then, the public library has become my new best friend again. They have almost any book imaginable, and if they don’t have it it, odds are good that they can order it from another branch for you! Sometimes you do have to wait a few weeks if another patron has checked a book out, or if the library needs to order it for you, but it can be worth it for both the money you save and the fact that you’re not cluttering up your home with books you’ll likely only read once.

I’m still a fan of purchasing books when you know you’ll read them multiple times – reference material, old favourites, etc. For one-time reads, however, especially on subjects that I’m learning and taking notes on, I now (again) prefer to get them from the library.

If you regularly go to your local public library, you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t visited your local library in a while, go check it out this week! I bet you can find at least one book that you want to read, and you’ll be able to do so without adding to the clutter in your home! If you go, I’d love to hear what books you checked out from the library!

PS – Oh, and check this out. Minimalist blogger Everett Bogue is offering his new ebook The Art of Being Minimalist free to download for only 24 hours*! I got a free copy, and I’m really looking forward to reading this one and will write a review of it once I’m done. You may want to give it a try too.
* = the free download period is over, but you can still buy The Art of Being Minimalist for only $9.95 for the first 1000 people.

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The Library is Your Friend