Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14772 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09-01
• Released on: 2004-08-12
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Amazon.com
It's about time! Julie Morgenstern has written an organizing book that covers a new way of looking at the task of organizing effectively without labeling or blaming the person behind the lack of organization. Rather, she says, people who don't organize just never learned how to organize, through no fault of their own--after all, it's not a skill that's taught in school. That said, she gets down to work helping you figure out an organizing system that will really work for you, not a system based on cookie-cutter filing concepts or special storage units.

Morgenstern's "from the inside out" system begins by laying out the possible reasons for a failure of organization: technical errors (like having a complex organizing system that breaks down), external realities (like not enough space for your belongings), and psychological obstacles (like fear of failure--or success). Then, her Analyze and Strategize steps help create a plan of action based on your needs and goals, and the brief chapter called "Attack: Getting the Job Done" offers basic ideas for making space. The largest section of the book, "Applying What You've Learned," addresses the specifics of organizing workspaces, home offices, living spaces, and storage areas. Each section has a "How Long Will It Take?" box that gives a realistic time estimate, and Morgenstern's "Julie's No-Brainer Toss List" for each area gives the permission and encouragement that most of us have been waiting for to get rid of things we'll never use again. The section at the end, "Tackling Time and Technology," is worth its weight in DayTimers and PalmPilots. Whatever your organizing issues are, you're not a hopeless case, and you don't need special equipment--just a little understanding of the problem and a willingness to plan before diving in.

From Publishers Weekly
Anyone who has ever felt overwhelmed by clutter and chaos will welcome this clear, easy-to-follow guide to organizing a room, home or officeAa companion to Morgenstern's bestselling paperback (Owl, 1998). Professional organizer Morgenstern warmly reassures listeners that organizing is a skill that can be learned and that any mess can be tamed. Most people make the mistake of simply diving in, which Morgenstern compares to driving cross-country without a map. Her strategy: first figure out your goals and how your space can best help you achieve them; determine what obstacles are holding you back (e.g., a subconscious psychological need to hang on to clutter); divide the space into "zones" of activity (a kitchen contains a cooking zone, a dish-washing zone, etc.); and organize the space so that all the supplies for each activity are stored in the appropriate zone. The tape offers quizzes to help listeners define their obstacles, and, as one would expect, the quizzes are well organized and audio friendly. Even better, listeners can grasp the author's solutions immediatelyAwithout having to refer back and forth to different parts of the tape or use a pencil and paper (problems often encountered with audio self-help books). Morgenstern's sense of humor and colorful examples of real-life client case studies make this tape as entertaining as it is helpful. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
As the creator of Task Masters, a full-service organizing company, Morgenstern has helped hundreds of clients overcome their failed attempts at managing their lives. She gives ways to overcome psychological obstacles that prevent us from maintaining an organization system and explains a plan called SPACE (sort, purge, assign a home, containerize, equalize). Covering the workplace and each room of the home, she provides sample time lines of how long the process will take and offers tips on what to toss and what storage products to use. A list of product catalogs is provided, as well as a section on how to organize time. A good book for public libraries.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

A Refreshing Approach to Organizing
Julie Morgenstern's "Organizing from the Inside Out" is such a fantastic and valuable book. Her approach to organizing, as the title suggests, is whatever you are organizing -- your work/family schedule, your office, your kitchen, or your basement -- needs to reflect you: what's important to you, who you are and your value and logic system. I found it so refreshing and exciting how the focus in the book is about getting interested in who you are and how you operate and then creating a system of organization based on that. This is a more organic, natural, effective and lasting approach than the one most of us have where we impose an outside system that will "fix" our disorder. Often, those outside systems do the opposite. Reading this book demystified and made accessible the topic of organizing, one that I often found daunting and overwhelming. Julie applies conventional wisdom to organizing in a way that makes it easy, logical and even fun. Her mottos are: "If it ain't broken, don't fix it"....and "You can't fix it till you know what's broken". Applying these ideas and without even thinking, I organized in 10 minutes, a whole section of my closet that had bothered me for about 10 months!

This approach of investigating and discovering who you are and how you operate is in line with two other authors who have made a huge impact in my life: Ariel and Shya Kane. Their books, Working on Yourself Doesn't Work: A Book About Instantaneous Transformation, How to Create a Magical Relationship and Being Here: Modern Day Tales of Enlightenment, are all based on a similar idea that you don't need to do anything to change or fix yourself in order for your life to be satisfying, less stressful, fun and enjoyable. If you are interested in getting the most out of all aspects of your life, I highly recommend all of these books!

Geared more toward beginning organizers.
I personally didn't get as much information out of this book as I would have preferred, although I did like the set up of her book. She takes the first section of the book to set up her basic organizing philosophy, and then repeats that philosophy in each different area of the house (kitchen, living room, bedroom, office, etc). She has several great ideas and practices that originate with each person's personal preferences in mind. She advocates a lot of common sense ideas like containerizing, labeling and filing as well as other unconventional and creative means of organization and storage (like setting up your home office where you will actually enjoy working).
The problem I ran into is that I would go to a certain section looking for a way to improve and find that I was already utilizing most of her suggestions, and really didn't have much left to organize.
I would recommend this book for anyone who honestly believe that they REALLY need help organizing, and are ready to start the process. If you're already pretty well organized for the most part it still might be a worthwhile read, but I would suggest looking for a more advanced book on organizing (and let me know if you find one).

Great book
I really liked both this and her other book Time Management from the inside out. Both books give you great steps to take to declutter your life.