Sandra Felton

Organizing for Life: Declutter Your Mind to Declutter Your World by Sandra Felton

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


"Say good-bye to the stress of mess -- for good!

"You can find the order, beauty, and peace you desire--and deserve--in your home. Organizing for Life reveals the secrets of keeping your house neat, clean, and organized without spending every minute of your life working on it.

"Finally a book that goes beyond the how-tos of cleaning and looks right at the heart of messiness so permanent change can take place. You'll learn why things are out of control so you can get them back in order and keep them that way. You'll uncover the mental and emotional roots of clutter--guilt, fear, rebellion, habit--so you can get rid of it.

"Even the best cleaning methods are useless if you can't keep up and soon slip back into old habits. Stop struggling. You can overcome that old, unsuccessful mind-set and discover a new way of thinking that makes messiness a thing of the past."
~~back cover

If I expected this book to solve all my clutter problems, in the rah-rah way the back cover promises, I would have been disappointed. Fortunately, I didn't expect a blueprint for instant unclutter.

The author has created a category of person whose house &/or life is in disarray: the messie. Evidently she started a Messies Anonymous program. I can see where that might be helpful -- there's always comfort in finding you're not the only oddity in the entire world with your problem. The group supports each other, perhaps holds each other accountable for following through on their commitments.

According to the book, I'm a Clutterer Messie. The two reasons that fit me best are:
No place to put things away: the house is small, storage space is scarce, and there is already too much stuff in the storage places. In short, the stuff is spilling over because there's too much of it. Messies find it difficult to know what storage spaces are needed, and they don't think of buying things like cabinets and shelves.
and
Executive Dysfunction: Our more organized sisters have a natural knack for organizing. When they look at a situation that needs organizing, the steps for doing the job form automatically in their brains. Those with executive dysfunction, an inborn inability to organize things easily, do not have that same experience. They have trouble knowing where to begin and how to proceed.

I'm also a Time-Waster Messie, with a poor sense of passing time and therefore no sense of how long it takes to do things.

The author also talks about clutter being a typical ADD trait, but holds out hope:"Knowing why we keep too much stuff, leave things around, and schedule our lives poorly is the first step towards change." The main emphasis of the book is learning to change your mind-set, and the ways to do that changing.

The author offers up many things that are helpful. I especially liked being told the idea that working harder will keep my house clean is a lie. Another way to say that is that doing the same thing, only harder, and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. It's the equivalent of yelling at a deaf person ... louder & harder just isn't going to make a difference.

I am continually frustrated by several physical problems which prevent me from diving in and just whirling through the clutter. The author does talk about doing a little bit on a consistent basis (the old how to eat an elephant theory), and that's what is working for me, slowly but surely.

Mostly I felt this book was a gloss -- highlighting the surface but not providing any real substance. Perhaps I just didn't give it enough of my attention, but I haven't changed what I'm doing to resolve the clutter since I read the book because nothing in the book grabbed me by the throat and impressed me enough to incorporate it in my life.