Laurie S. (LaurieS) reviewed Stop Clutter from Stealing Your Life: Discover Why You Clutter and How You Can Stop on + 504 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
This book is different from other decluttering books in that it focuses on finding balance in your life and helps you get to the root of problem. This way you begin to become healthy instead of just throwing your junk away and later accumulating more.
I've discovered my need to keep stuff around, particularly books, knitting supplies and old clothes, stems way back to my childhood when my mom threw away my stationary, sticker, toy & book collection. Often I'd come home from school to find my stuff gone, either given away to a cousin or friend or thrown in the trash, because she went on a crazed cleaning frenzy while I was away. This makes sense to me but I never put two and two together until reading this book. Fortunately this is one of the easier "causes" of cluttering to overcome (especially since I dealt with mom issues years ago), unlike compulsive shoppers or people with serious depression, anxiety or OCD conditions which I'm thinking this book won't do much in the way of helping without some therapy and medication.
This book gives me hope that if I can just do a little at a time, he recommends working in 15 minute increments, one day all of the junk will be gone and I will actually be able to park my car in the garage!
The one section that I disagreed with is the one about dealing with clutter you may one day inherit. The author recommends confronting your parents, grandma, etc. and pretty much forcing them into weeding through and getting rid of their junk (with your help, of course) so you don't have to deal with it later. To me that sounds so invasive if not insulting. Getting rid of your junk has to be a personal decision you make, not forced upon you by someone else and the author is a bit contradictory here. I'd rather hire one of those gotjunk places and have them haul it away instead of alienating and offending my relatives to save me some work when they die.
There's a bunch of info. here for businesses dealing with clutterbugs and home office clutter, etc. that I didn't find particularly useful because I am strangely organized at work but I'm sure it would be helpful for others.
A big bulk of the book focuses on the emotional issues which cause clutter and features true stories written by real people struggling with their clutter problem. I don't know about you but it sure makes me feel less strange to know there are others out there who have more clutter than me!
This book is jam packed with information and is a very helpful starting point for those just beginning their decluttering lifestyle change. And as the book states many times, it is a lifestyle change.
I've discovered my need to keep stuff around, particularly books, knitting supplies and old clothes, stems way back to my childhood when my mom threw away my stationary, sticker, toy & book collection. Often I'd come home from school to find my stuff gone, either given away to a cousin or friend or thrown in the trash, because she went on a crazed cleaning frenzy while I was away. This makes sense to me but I never put two and two together until reading this book. Fortunately this is one of the easier "causes" of cluttering to overcome (especially since I dealt with mom issues years ago), unlike compulsive shoppers or people with serious depression, anxiety or OCD conditions which I'm thinking this book won't do much in the way of helping without some therapy and medication.
This book gives me hope that if I can just do a little at a time, he recommends working in 15 minute increments, one day all of the junk will be gone and I will actually be able to park my car in the garage!
The one section that I disagreed with is the one about dealing with clutter you may one day inherit. The author recommends confronting your parents, grandma, etc. and pretty much forcing them into weeding through and getting rid of their junk (with your help, of course) so you don't have to deal with it later. To me that sounds so invasive if not insulting. Getting rid of your junk has to be a personal decision you make, not forced upon you by someone else and the author is a bit contradictory here. I'd rather hire one of those gotjunk places and have them haul it away instead of alienating and offending my relatives to save me some work when they die.
There's a bunch of info. here for businesses dealing with clutterbugs and home office clutter, etc. that I didn't find particularly useful because I am strangely organized at work but I'm sure it would be helpful for others.
A big bulk of the book focuses on the emotional issues which cause clutter and features true stories written by real people struggling with their clutter problem. I don't know about you but it sure makes me feel less strange to know there are others out there who have more clutter than me!
This book is jam packed with information and is a very helpful starting point for those just beginning their decluttering lifestyle change. And as the book states many times, it is a lifestyle change.
