Paper clutter around the house can feel impossible to control. It seems to appear out of nowhere—receipts, school papers, bills, party invitations, coupons— all piling up. This week we share practical ways we keep that paper under control and exactly where we store different types of documents so they don’t take over the house. We also recount a tile project at the beach house that didn’t go smoothly at first but was salvaged with a bit of steady work. Plus, there’s a short look at pricing psychology for selling items online, an easy trick to keep gallery frames straight, and a mention of a paint color trend for the year.
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What’s New
(The black tiles shown were later replaced with the blue tiles we preferred.)
- We included this imperfect photo to show the day after a behind-the-scenes tile and drain issue at the beach house. In the dark the night before we had set a few tiles poorly; the next morning those loose tiles were popped out and reset correctly.
- In the photo you can see a slightly darker thinset where we removed about a 20″ area around the drain. We originally used white thinset, but later reset the tiles with gray thinset so the final grout will hide the difference.
- If you examine closely, one decorative star tile in the top left is slightly misaligned. Because we haven’t grouted yet, that’s an easy fix: we’ll remove and reset it so the pattern lines up.
- Despite the hiccups, the drain was ultimately brought flush with the tile as needed. The next step is to grout the entire area and finish the job.
- If you missed the story about finding a dog’s owner over the winter, it’s shared at the start of an earlier episode and is a little slice of unexpected good karma from that season.
Quick Tip
- There’s interesting research and reporting about pricing strategies when you sell items: sometimes round-numbered pricing and other times precise, non-round prices can influence how fast or how well something sells. We reference a popular radio segment that summarizes the concept, and the original study if you want the academic details.
What’s Not
- One of the big paint brands released their trend report and named a Color of the Year, which sparked some conversation about popular palettes for home décor.
Listener Question: Paper Clutter
(Artwork and lighting shown in the photo are examples of items that complement a tidy entryway.)
- One of our earliest tips for managing paper clutter was a simple school-paper tray. It sits on top of our printer cabinet and becomes a drop zone for items that need to be reviewed. Instead of handling each piece immediately, we collect them and process them in bulk once a week or so.
- We keep a designated receipt and invoice drawer for tax-related paperwork. Each month we sort that drawer while updating our bookkeeping and then file the documents into an accordion folder labeled by year and divided into months. This small routine keeps receipts accessible for taxes without letting them pile up all over the house.
- We also recommend using tools that reduce junk mail and digitize coupons. There are apps that help unsubscribe from unwanted mailings and apps that let you store and redeem digital coupons instead of keeping paper versions.
We’re Digging
- To keep gallery walls straight and level, we use small adhesive velcro-style strips behind frames. They come in multipacks and different sizes; we sometimes cut larger strips vertically to get two pieces from one for a cleaner, more secure hold.
- We recently enjoyed a smart, funny indie romantic comedy that made for a great date night; it’s worth seeing while it’s available in theaters or when it reaches video-on-demand.
If you want a quick reference for things we’ve recommended in past episodes, we maintain a master list of favorite finds and resources so you can track down previous recommendations more easily.
Finally, thanks to Universal Furniture for sponsoring this episode. They ran a giveaway for living room furniture and furnished a notable country house project last year. We appreciate partners who help support the show.
Thanks for listening, everyone!
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