73 of 79 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ready to clear the clutter, February 25, 2009
This review is from: Enough Already!: Clearing Mental Clutter to Become the Best You (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
I had not read Peter Walsh's previous books, and honestly didn't realize that he was the host of TLC's "Clean Sweep" show. I've seen the show a few times before, and while my house and life are nowhere like the ones on the show, there is plenty of clutter I'd like to clear away (in both).
The book is a very easy read. I finished a cursory read in under an hour. That being said, I went back to fill out the numerous quizzes and questionnaires when I had more time to think about them. I considered them very valuable (instead of just a way to fill pages). For instance, in the Work section, he has quizzes like "Is your work life cluttered?" and activities like "Define your vision for your career" and "Quick Desk Purge." Unfortunately, as a consequence of all the clutter in our lives, we never quite get around to asking ourselves these questions or giving ourselves permission to take control...having it in front of me helped.
Because the author's background is actually in educational psychology (instead of just show business), he seems to understand how to make the information accessible to the reader. I also really appreciated that he didn't beat us over the head with the fact that he has a TV show (some books out there by TV personalities are so weak and really just marketing ploys). He does use letters he has received from listeners/fans/viewers to compliment the points he is making.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who feels overwhelmed with life at times. The books covers all possible parts of "life" like relationships, work, and health, so if you've got one or more area that is cluttered, it could really help. Based upon this book, I will also be seeking out his previous books he has written, to see how they may be useful.
Here's a breakdown of the chapters:
Introduction
The challenge
Look to yourself first
What does it take to make changes in your life?
Choice and change
1. Relationships
You can't make love in a pigsty
Imagine the relationship you want
Clear the clutter of unreal expectations
Watch out for obstacles
Declutter your relationship
And then there's the stuff...
2. Work
To-dos...or not to-dos? That is the question.
Imagine the career you want
Clear the clutter of unreal expectations
Watch out for obstacles
Declutter your career
And then there's the stuff...
3. Family
Learning to juggle
Imagine the family life you want
Clear the clutter of unreal expectations
Watch out for obstacles
Declutter your family
And then there's the stuff...
4. Money
Live for today and tomorrow
Imagine the financial life you want
Clear the clutter of unreal expectations
Watch out for obstacles
Declutter your finances
And then there's the stuff...
5. Health
The cluttered body
Imagine the body you want
Clear the clutter of unreal expectations
Watch out for obstacles
Declutter your health
And then there's the stuff...
6. Our Sense of Well-Being
What's so difficult about peace, love, and understanding?
Imagine the inner life you want
Clear the clutter of unreal expectations
Watch out for obstacles
Declutter your internal life
[note: I received this book prior to its release through Amazon Vine. The book and its cover appeared to be the final copy, so I do not anticipate much will change before the release.]
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37 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I LOVE this book!, April 12, 2009
This review is from: Enough Already!: Clearing Mental Clutter to Become the Best You (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
This book was mainly about mental clutter. It's the first book by Peter Walsh that I've read and it got me clearing out some of the physical clutter that I've been avoiding for at least 10 years. Seven years ago when I moved to the house I live in now, I just moved the clutter from the old house to the new one. Part of the reason was that we sold the old house sooner than we expected and I didn't have a lot of time to declutter, but there was also the mind clutter thing that just froze me whenever I thought about it. I work for a company on the other side of the country and have a home office, so not only do I have personal clutter, but I have work clutter as well.
I love reading books and articles on organization and it's big fun to order them on Amazon and then have an impressive pile of books to read. It puts off the process of actually doing anything because after you've received all the books, you have to decide which one to read first. Then, it takes time to actually read the book. Then you have to process in your mind what you've read and decide whether the author is another hack or if the advice is really doable. Or worth your while. (Usually it isn't and by then you've found something infinitely more fun to do). The next thing is to get motivated enough to actually go into the room and start to physically move, like opening a file folder full of outdated junk and deciding to make a pile of it to be shredded. Then, of course, the shredder can't handle two hours worth of constant shredding and burns out and you have to buy a new shredder. But you have to do a lot of research to know what shredder to buy, one that's going to last and can handle three hours or more of shredding once every 10 years and maybe 2-1/2 minutes worth every so often in between. (You procrastinators know what I'm talking about). So all the books I bought on organization usually fizzled somewhere between "Where do I start?" and "Why isn't this shredder making a shredding sound and what's that big clump of half shredded paper stuck to the roller?". This book was different. Peter Walsh isn't preachy and his ideas are all down to earth and not impossible for your average slacker to initiate.
Clearing clutter is more than a physical problem and this book convinced me of that. But it wasn't a big, long psychological dissertation on the subject. It was short, common sense, and to the point. It was also entertaining to read and not too long on any one point. It wasn't preachy (Don't you just hate preachy books?) and it got me moving. I guess I might have heard of Peter Walsh before, like from a Tivo'd Oprah show, but didn't really know him by name and hadn't read any of his other books. But now, I'm a believer. Anyone who can get me to actually go beyond good intentions to organize even a small amount of my office has to be a genius. (I'm not an easy person to motivate to clear out things that are perfectly well hidden in a drawer). I even ended up buying another one of his books,
Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat?: An Easy Plan for Losing Weight and Living More (Don't you just love that title?) that I thought might give me a little more detail and keep the motivation going. So far it looks like a keeper.
So two big thumbs up for this book and a big thanks to Peter Walsh for making my home office a less stressful and more fun place to spend time.
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53 of 64 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Applying de-cluttering principles to self-help, February 27, 2009
This review is from: Enough Already!: Clearing Mental Clutter to Become the Best You (Hardcover)
In "Enough Already," organizing expert Peter Walsh takes de-cluttering principles and applies them to many areas of life: relationships, work, family, money, health, and our sense of well-being.
I embraced the idea promised by the subtitle, "Clearing Mental Clutter to Become the Best You," but I was disappointed that Walsh separated mental and physical decluttering so thoroughly. He writes, "Getting rid of the physical clutter is, as they say, another story, and it's one I've already told in my book
'It's All Too Much: An Easy Plan for Living a Richer Life with Less Stuff'." So to get more than the barebones basics about dealing with physical clutter, you'll need to buy his other book. In my estimation, it would have been more effective to write a really great book about de-cluttering the physical environment, and include a solid, original chapter on the mental environment, rather than writing an entire book about mental de-cluttering, applying the same principles over and over to different aspects of life.
The chapters are presented in a set formula, which scores points for consistency but eventually becomes tiresome. The common elements are: "Imagine the life you want," "Clear the clutter of unreal expectations," "Watch out for Obstacles," "Declutter Your (family/money/health)," "And then there's the stuff..."
Walsh seems to believe that if you have physical clutter problems you'll have similar issues in all major areas of your life. This may be true of extreme hoarders, but I don't believe that is true for most functional people.
In the end, Walsh's advice about organizing and life comes across as valid, but broad and general, spread too thinly across such a wide range of topics.
Another book in this realm that I highly recommend is Marilyn Paul's
"It's Hard to Make a Difference When You Can't Find Your Keys: The Seven-Step Path to Becoming Truly Organized."
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