TECHNOLOGY DOES PLASTIC SURGERY ON YOUR CLUTTER

When some women decide to get slimmer, they may post on the refrigerator a picture from their slim days.  There they are, looking confident.  And smaller.  (A few may put a picture of themselves at the chubbiest - and for them, it works.)

Some guys may put up movie posters of gym rat actors but deny it's their motivation.  Maybe that works for them.

But I've never, in the many homes I've seen, seen a woman on a diet decorate her fridge with pictures of other women!

So why, in a fit of anti-clutter determination, do we go on line for pictures of other people's cabinets and closets?  Or read publicity about famous stars' closets?  Or follow somebody's advice and start a clutter notebook?  Then we wonder why we don't have time to go to Goodwill or to get a bigger recycle barrel. 

Here's my radical suggestion for the day:  If your living room looks a little over-stuffed and needs a diet, take some pictures of the way it is now.  Then, here goes . . . 

PHOTOSHOP them. Or get a teenager to Photoshop them.  Photoshop can erase that file cabinet, can move Aunt Hepzibah's gifts of statuary to a dust-proof archive case in the closet.  Photoshop can even change the cardboard box of unused exercise weights into an elegant rolling baseket or an ultrasleek tilt-out drawer under a fabulous built-in desk!  And can make Old Fred's slippers look fit for a rock star (or swoop them into the garbage.  I mean into the bedroom.)  I have no advice on how to make Old Fred accept your projected changes to his recliner. 

All this is done without bending over!  Just bending fingers.  And this saves money.  You can change wall color on the screen, and repaint them free at once if you want to.  Or paint some shelves and things the wall color to make them look less irritating.  The only caution is that colors will look different in real life, so you'll need paint samples on the real wall eventually.

But the clutter will have disappeared.  Photoshop can even put in an attractive person (pretend) to haul the stuff off to Goodwill.  

 Do not tell the teen-tech to re-install stuff you do not love or need without a 24-hour cooling off period. 

Print screen and live your room makeover. 

One last thing, a good diet doesn't make us (or a home) thin in one weekend.