Decluttering at the Speed of Life: Winning Your Never-Ending Battle with Stuff

Product Information

As the older generation needs to downsize, having some tips on how to help them through the process is welcomed.

I actually did this because I was so behind on reviewing books that I wanted something else to fill my listening time. Ask, "If you needed this _____ (hairbrush, spatula, bottle of paint), where would you look for it first? I have purchased so many decluttering books over the past few years trying to sort out my home once and for all, but not one of them spoke to me like this book!From the Sidetracked Home Executives to Peter Walsh's psychological approach to the Queen of Clean, everywhere you turn someone has advice for you. After the acknowledgments, there was an excerpt [2-chapters] from the author’s How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind.

And that totally logical thinking was how I ended up in a place where I couldn’t function in my own home. Take a photo, set a timer for five minutes, and start working; then take another photo when the timer goes off.If you are going to follow this process, it does seem like s much slower journey than if you followed the KonMari Method. It helps that I am not personally saying no to everything but the container itself becomes the limit! Even though the Konmari method has been very influential on my own decluttering journey, Decluttering At The Speed Of Life feels like its written by someone who actually has struggled with letting go of clutter. Start with the easy stuff--take out the garbage, do the recycling, move as many of the things as you can without having to make big decisions.

Her previous book, How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind: Dealing with Your House's Dirty Little Secrets is about how to deal with "the daily stuff," as she puts it. She approaches this as a mental state of being- a decision that change must take place- and warns of the hardships ahead of parting company with 'treasures', but then she leaves the esoteric behind to provide a solid winning formula. My takeaway is a sense of renewed motivation and plans for working at my goal smarter and not harder. However, I put this on hold last August, so when you wait that long for a book to come through on the Libby app….She helps identify procrasticlutter--the stuff that will get done eventually so it doesn't seem urgent--as well as how to make progress when there's no time to declutter. I'm making slow progress, astonishing my husband by suggesting we get rid of things he thought I considered "sacred". I also appreciated her suggestions about how to be an effective, non-jerk helper when you’re dealing with someone else’s clutter. In my tier list, this book might actually get placed at the top cheese tier of "Popular for a Reason". This was exactly what I needed this week--an inspirational book to spur me to get a few things done around the house.