Customer Reviews

Checklists for Life: 104 Lists to Help You Get Organized, Save Time, and Unclutter Your Life

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Kirsten Lagatree is a wonderful writer, and in this handy little book she has put her writing talents to work again, compiling a highly useful household resource that can help anyone who's a pack rat like me get better organized around the house. I found her lists on getting organized around home, how to guarantee hassle-free travel, and on how to organize your social life to be particularly useful. This is also a fun book to read, nicely formatted, written in an easy, conversational style. Nice job!

Rick Koonce Arlington Virginia

I really appreciate the wide variety of lists here. Sure there are some no-brainers like how to clean up quickly or how do laundry (I wish my husband would read these!), but there are many much less obvious choices. How to shop for a funeral -- a real eye opener! -- is my favorite. The ones I've found particularly useful: 1) Which kinds of stationery to buy so I'll always be prepared to dash off a "correct" note. 2) How to choose a charity to donate to; 3) How to write various kinds of letters -- I recently had to write a condolence note to a friend and leaned gratefully on that "how-to" list.

Although I am a somewhat compulsive list-maker (inherited from a military family), my husband is completely anti-list. He somehow believes that making a list is giving in and admitting that he can't remember everything (which he can't, but why be logical?). I bought this for him as a starter, so he could see that someone besides his wife believes in lists, enough to publish a whole book about them! He is now warming up to the idea of lists, thanks to this book, and I am also thrilled because it had some lists that even I had never thought of.

I think this is a great gift for anyone starting out (in life, or just in getting organized) -- I've already given two copies away.

Like most guys I am not a list person. And I figured I knew how to do a lot. But this book filled in a lot of the gaps--the list on traffic court preparation was MOST helpful.Yeah, my kitchen is all set up--don't need that list. But Lagatree even helps you prepare for something truly unusual--a death in the home. Would you know what to do? I didn't until I read this book. List after list, I found lots of useful stuff here. It now sits next to my dictionary and phone books--all essentials for daily life.

For those of us for whom organization is a lifelong struggle this book is great. I can now throw away all those articles I have clipped that I might need some day. This book is a great reference tool. It is well written and delightful to read. I love Lagatree's writing style (check out her other books). She writes in a plain, easy to understand, yet very entertaining way. Even if you purchase her book for a particular section you will find your self referring to it again and again.

I like to run my life as simply as possible and love having all kinds of information in one place. The other day a friend of mine had a death in the family and called me up for help with making arrangements. I took this book down from the shelf and read her the advice about shopping for a funeral. Last night I took the book to Target and used it to shop for linens and kitchen equipment for my new apartment. This is what I call an amazingly useful book!

The advice in this book is the kind of thing you would formerly turn to your mom or dad for or other wise souls with a lot of living under their collective belt. The checklists offer a "how-to" guide to handling the kinds of situations that everyone runs into at one time or another. These minor dilemas -- choosing a health club, writing a thank you note, a complaint letter, planting a garden, etc. -- can generally be taken care of without too much aggravation, but it's sure nice to avoid the trial-and-error that can turn a simple task into a mess. Most of the checklists offer pretty basic advice and may seem simplistic and obvious, but a careful perusal and you'll find yourself saying, "Why didn't I think of that? " I plan to pack this book off with our college-age son when he leaves home next fall and gets himself settled into his first apartment; this will be his reference book. My wife and I recently moved back to California from Washington D.C. and I wish we would have had this book beforehand; the move would have gone more smoothly if we had had Lagatree's moving checklist! One caveat: on page 115, Lagatree writes in "The Well-Stocked Bar Section" that "unless you're making margaritas, there isn't much call for Tequila." She doesn't know OUR friends who always ask for margaritas, but then, this is California. All in all, my wife and I found it to be a great, handy book to have around. We read sections to one another over coffee one morning. She called it "a hip version of Heloise."

I bought this book a while back and have used it probably a dozen times over the past year -- including lending it to various friends who were clueless about how to do something (recently it was how to choose a mover). I'm just puzzled by some of the reviews here that are pretty nasty. In fact, a couple of these actually misrepresent what's in the book. What's up with that? Anyway...it's a good book and a great gift for anyone from a young person just starting out to a divorced man or woman, just starting over, to anybody who digs reading lists.

Inside, I'm a small, very neat and tidy person. Outside, I'm a large, messy, and disorganized person who has trouble keeping things clean -- let alone neat! Checklists For Life has helped me with my New Year's Resolution of cleaning up my act. I didn't think I needed help doing laundry, but I actually learned a lot from that list. I also got some help grocery shopping so there is something besides Twinkies and Little Debbies in my kitchen cupboards. And now that I've incorporated the shortcuts for housecleaning in "From Pigsty to Presentable in Six Steps," my friends won't be afraid to eat at my apartment anymore.

I'm a "whole picture" kind of guy who has a bad habit of being sloppy on details sometimes. This book is practical, logical, necessary, and sufficiently detailed to be very helpful. I found the lists of ways to declutter and get personal spaces organized particularly helpful. This is a fine reference tool that I know I will use again and again.