kristinafh's Full Review: Donna Smallin - Unclutter Your Home: 7 Simple Step...
My sister Patty is 11 months younger than me. Even though we share the same mother and father, we are completely opposite in every way. She's got blonde hair (me reddish-brown). She's 5'5" (me 5'9"). She smokes (ummmm not me). She is a SAHM (that would drive me crazy!).
And one of the biggest differences between us is our habits. She's a neat freak. I'm the world's biggest slob. Patty's known this since birth. We shared a room. Her side would be immaculant while mine would look like a disaster. I remember the days where she used to sweep everything of mine into a pile, instruct me to pick out what I wanted, and then she would toss everything else in the garbage. I think that's the only way she was able to sleep at night :).
Fast forward many years. My house - disaster area. Her house - of Martha Stewart quality. I'm embarrassed to have anyone in my house - everyone but Patty. She's a great sister because as much as it bugs her to see my house this way, she is really nice about it. She knows I hate being criticized so she doesn't do that.
Oh no. See, she's much sneakier than that. How? Well, this year for my birthday, she purchased me this book, Unclutter Your Home - 7 Steps, 700 Tips & Ideas. I laughed when I saw it and naturally went to toss it aside but then I figured, I might as well flip through it so that she didn't think that I was snubbing her gift.
I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed the book. Most self-help books I've picked up are pretty pitiful. This one was actually useful.
The author, Donna Smallin, gave a little intro to her book. Reading it made me feel a sort of kinship to her. She was the type of person who felt like she needed to save things for many different reasons. What I have discovered is that it takes a certain amount of courage to let go of bits and pieces of our lives that we no longer need. But letting go can set you free in body, mind, and spirit.
Ah! Finally! Someone understood that the reason I hold on to stuff isn't because I'm totally lazy but because the stuff around me held some psychological value to me. We could pull out the couch now and I could spend several paragraphs telling you how this ties into childhood but we'll just skip that for now :).
Later on she goes on to say, Imagine for a moment what it must be like to have no clutter in your home. Nothing to step over or push aside. No mess. No chaos. Just beautiful, peaceful, serene order all around you.
And you know what? I did. And this sense of calmness came over me. Every weekend (starting around Friday at noon), I start my little stress spiral about all of the crap I have to do at home on the weekend. Everything seems so unconquerable. It can put me in a nasty mood all weekend which of course, doesn't sit well with the family.
At this point in the book (I'm like on the third page), she had me hooked. I wanted to experience this calm and peacefulness that she spoke of.
Her seven steps followed the logic that I'm used to (as a project manager):
Assess your situation
Plan for success
Lighten your load
Contain yourself
Revamp clutter zones
Simplify your systems
Ban clutter forever
For each step, there is a chapter that provides you with different approaches and tips. She covers some really good points like making sure that you reward yourself along the way and being patient because uncluttering your home won't happen overnight.
The best approach that she talked a lot about was to do things in small steps. For me, I have always felt that I had to swoop in and get everything done at this minute. She tells you to start out small - a sock drawer, a utensil drawer, and sort out what you want/need and get rid of what you can. Taking things in small chunks allows you to feel like you're accomplishing something without making you feel totally overwhelmed.
And guess what? That's exactly what I started doing two weeks ago. I started with my smaller bathroom. I went in and cleaned out all of my beauty products. Some things, I had had for over a year - shampoos, body washes, facial masks. I'm not sure why I kept them. They were definitely sub-par in performance but I think I was worried that I may need them someday in case I ran out of the brands that worked for me. In all, I ended filling up 1/2 of a garbage bag. I rearranged how all of the remaining stuff looked under the sink, and then I walked away. This process took me about 35 minutes. That day, I didn't feel like I accomplished much and I kept on beating myself up over that. But then, I didn't feel motivated to do anything else.
The next day, I went back into the bathroom and cleaned the tub, toilet, sink, and floor. That took about 30 minutes. On the third day, I redecorated using bits and pieces from things I had. That was also thirty minutes. By the end of that day, I was very pleased with myself and that bathroom. Two weeks later, my bathroom still looks great. and it's not cluttered. That's a big accomplishment for me.
Now that I felt like I had the "routine" down (small chunks - then walk away and do something fun), I started digging into some of her hints.
I love the way her hints are presented. She goes through each room of your home and gives you hints on how to deal with specific issues that we all seem to have. They're about 2-3 sentences and are separated by a cute little curly-q :). Admittedly, not every thing she presented as helpful tips was brain surgery. But there were a couple of things like Store packets of koolaid, gravy, seasoning packet in a file-like container. Easy to flip through and find. Keeps loose items in one place and Use rubber bands to keep together sets of things like chopsticks that made a small difference for me.
It's been a few weeks and although my home isn't exactly where I want it to be, it's looking so much better.
I like this book so much that I'm a little peeved that there isn't more to read! I'll have to find out if the author has written a sequel that goes into other ways to deal with stuff in the home.
This is one of those books that would make a great gift for a person who wants to get their house in order but feels overwhelmed at the prospect. If you know anyone like that well hey - now you know what to get them! My sister is thrilled that her idea of a cute joke has actually turned into something good for me.
This book offers readers hundreds of techniques and ideas for organizing the worthwhile, getting rid of the obsolete, and making time for things that ...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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