Product Description

Organizing the home is one of those desirable and beneficial activities that remain elusive for many. This practical guide explains the many benefits - physical, emotional, and spiritual - of an organized home and shows how to attain them. Breaking down the process into 50 steps, the author uses her own experiences as a psychologist and professional home organizer to help readers clear away not only the physical clutter but the psychological blocks that encourage it and hinder organization. She tells where to start, encourages small steps, and explores the psychology of organizing. Next she addresses fundamental principles, including keeping tools where they will be used and making the most of active storage space. Finally, she shows how to get rid of excess stuff, including how to attack those never-ending piles and junk drawers, and stem the inflow of junk into the home. These easy exercises, tips, and stories will truly help readers organize their homes for efficiency, peacefulness, and well-being.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32864 in Books
• Published on: 2003-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 119 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781572243217
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Customer Reviews

One of the BEST books on the subject
As a psychologist, researcher and lecturer the author shares
that she has cleaned homes for money while in school and that she faced firsthand the downside of being disorganized after her second child was born. So she's been there done that and knows what works. I appreciate her honesty, or the whole 'been there done that' attitude.

Her 4 key principles for household organization are Start where you are and don't make change a prerequisite for organization. Start where you are and work with the strengths you have. Have what you need. As a culture, we are inundated with stuff. Yet often we don't have what we need to work well. Use Active Storage. Active storage she notes means keeping things you use frequently in accessible areas. And Get Rid of Clutter. Because clutter she notes creates stress and make every job more difficult.

She lays out some helpful and workable suggestions in Part 2 titled Organization Begins in Your Mind where she shows traps to avoid like Perfectionism. Because as she notes perfectionists put things off until they can do them 'perfectly,' but also perfect doesn't exist so things never get done. The All Or Nothing Thinking where one thinks that if they cannot do everything NOW then they wont even start. Or Feeling that domestic work is not worth our time, because its deemed beneath smart people. When in fact a smart person will see the value in being organized and how it brings order and more free time to our lives.

Chapters 13, 14 deal very well with having the simplest yet best cleaning tools for cleaning home and laundry. Chapter 15 and 16 deal with an efficient but rightly stocked kitchen and pantry. To some her advise will seem to common sense, but having watched my share of friends kitchens and television shows dedicated to getting organized I know that common sense is a lost art to many, and being reminded to only have a few knives that one uses for the right task, and dumping the rest is sage advise.

Personally I was surprised and pleased to see Chapter 19 Order to Go where she notes for women 'Women carry around a lot of junk and often end up with a purse the size of a battleship.' Few if ANY books on decluttering or getting organzied ever deal with the #1 (in my opinion) problem for women which is their purse.

Personally I have a small, very small purse that is more like a passport purse since it can carry my money, credit card, cell phone. Its my belief that when we allow ourselves to get trapped in a big purse that we send a message to our family members that they need not plan better, since Mom will probably have what they need. You can keep as the author notes, items like a first aid kit, Power Bars, tablet and pen etc in the car when you need them. No need to carry a mini home with you.

The book is choked full of valuable information, and as someone who owns dozens of books on downsizing, decluttering, simple living, I am picky about recommending books on the subject since the last need someone needs who is wanting to declutter is useless books on the subject.

Eating the Elephant
This book has become a permanent fixture at the breakfast spot on my kitchen table. It could easily be titled "How to Eat an Elephant." Every few days, I open to a different page and find out how to make my life sane. The author has done a great job of helping me approach very difficult household tasks and become good at them. This is after all another skill those of us who are not obsessively compulsive need to learn in order to survive life on the edge! So far her ideas have gone down better and have saved me real time and real money by not having to re-buy what I know I have already bought but can't couldn't find if you had a gun to my head! Her writing style is crisp and light and she approaches the negative emotion of why these tasks are so distasteful. As you read you feel she is right there at your kitchen table to help you through the tough spots. Enjoy!

I Can Do That!
I found Kathy Kendall-Tackett's book, The Well-Ordered Home an extremely helpful,easy-read book. I don't have hours of spare time to read lengthy diatribes that I can't remember five minutes after putting the book down. I prefer the two-pages-a-read kind of book, with common sense advice that I can apply the minute I stop reading, even at the midnight hour. This book is that kind of helpful tool. It's so much easier to follow someone who has been there and blazed the trail. Kathy leads me by the hand and gives me practical ways to get the job done in sprints as well as long distance runs. She anticipates my excuses for not tackling a job and addresses them before I whine them forth. As I finished each chapter, I said, "I can do that!" And I did . . . well, except for the garment groomer and lint roller. Think I can get it at Walmart? Thanks, Kathy!!