Home Organizing Workbook: Clearing Your Clutter, Step by Step [Spiral-bound]

Meryl Starr (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2003

Failing the Mary Poppins' snap-the-fingers approach to cleaning, here's the next best thing: an utterly practical handbook that offers lasting results for anyone looking to banish clutter from every room in the house. Home organizer par excellence Meryl Starr offers up her hardworking organizing solutions in The Home Organizing Workbook, a straightforward guide to getting organized. The room chapters begin with targeted questionnaires that help the reader identify specific organizational problems, followed by hundreds of hardworking solutions and strategic maintenance tips. Those itching to get started can dive right in with step-by-step organizing projects ranging from quick-and-easy weeknight jobs, like overhauling the spice cabinet, to more intensive endeavors such as reorganizing the bedroom closet. Accessory lists at the end of each chapter feature dozens of the best products available, from lazy susans to shelf dividers, and explain exactly how they can be used to optimum effect in each room, while the extensive resource list shows where to get them. It's a package as tidy as its solutions: concealed Wire-O lay-flat binding, tabbed chapters to take readers straight to their problem area du jour, and full-color, solution-oriented photographs sure to inspire action. Ready to clear that clutter and keep it that way? The Home Organizing Workbook is the ultimate guide to preserving open spaces.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starr, owner of Let's Get Organized, a personal organization business, gives readers the tools to organize each room of their home in this user-friendly guide. Divided into such categories as bedroom, bathroom, storage and utility, the book uses a clean layout with helpful full-color photos and convenient tab dividers. Each section begins with a list of questions (e.g., "Are piles of bills, lists, and mail kept in several locations scattered about the house?") and are answered by a series of solutions (e.g. "Dedicate a work surface"; "the importance of having a comfortable chair cannot be overstated"). Throughout, Starr poses potential problems and tips to solve them, as well as various projects to help create order. In the chapter on bedrooms, for instance, she instructs on "Cleaning Your Drawers": "Empty the contents of your drawers and put everything on the bed. For each item, ask yourself: Does it fit? Will I really wear it again? Is it in style? Is it in good condition?" In all, this is a simple, encouraging guide for reining in the chaos.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Meryl Starr , owner of Let's Get Organized, has done more than her fair share of tidying up, from humble apartments to the homes of Holly-wood celebrities. Her tips and ideas for home organizing have appeared in Woman s Day, Seventeen, In Style, and Rosie. She lives in New York.

Wendi Nordeck is a San Francisco based commercial photographer. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including Bon Appet t, Health, Oprah, Sunset, and Victoria.

Victoria Pearson is a Los Angeles based photographer. Her photographs have appeared in several books including Sangria (0-8118-4290-8), Party Appetizers (0-8118-4292-4), and The Cheese Course (0-8118-2541-8).

Product Details

• Spiral-bound: 176 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (November 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811837327
• ISBN-13: 978-0811837323
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 8.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #818,422 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

125 of 127 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Pretty to look at, but too simple for me., October 27, 2004

By 

C. Rigby (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Home Organizing Workbook: Clearing Your Clutter, Step by Step (Spiral-bound)

This book was beautiful to look at as most Chronicle Books tend to be. However as an organizing tool it was a bit too simple for me. I think it would be encouraging for those just getting started or feeling a bit intimidated by their clutter. The flip tabs are nice so you can jump to the room you want. The serene colors and pictures are soothing for the eyes. The short quizzes help you focus on problem areas and what to do about them. The short "clutter busting projects" take a few hours at most. The book does not have a whole lot of space for adding your own notes and does not provide LOTS of information, but it would be ok for those looking for something at the introductory level or easily overwhelmed.

For those more willing to just jump in but wanting similar "clutter projects" outlined for them, I think The Life Laundry: How to De-Junk Your Life by Dawn Walter, Mark Frank would be a better choice.

And then for those ready to take it all on and not needing a whole lot by way of "checklist" type cleaning, Donna Smallin's Organizing Plain and Simple: A Ready Reference Guide With Hundreds Of Solutions to Your Everyday Clutter Challenges is probably the way to go. It really does touch upon everything and gives several ways to solve problems.

76 of 80 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book can help you change your life!, December 3, 2003

By 

Elyse Furlong (Florida) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Home Organizing Workbook: Clearing Your Clutter, Step by Step (Spiral-bound)

This is an absolutely fabulous book. Getting and staying organized was a talent that I always assumed people were born with...this book outlines step by step systems that enable anyone to eliminate clutter and simplify their life.
Reading this book is the next best thing to having a professional organizer working side by side with you. Getting organized feels overwhelming. That's why this book is so perfect. It's user friendly. It's divided by rooms, and problems that the reader may face in each room. You don't have to read the whole book to get started. Just turn to the chapter that corresponds to your life, read the questionnaire and turn right to the page that outlines your problems and solutions. This system is efficient and extremely manageable. And you learn the principles that enable you to stay organized which can be even more challenging than getting organized in the first place!
This book is chock full of important tips that help you save time and reduce the frustration in your life. And the book is just beautiful. It's full of lovely photographs that inspire and motivate you to get organized. I highly recommend it. It's the best book on getting organized I've read.

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Home Organizing Workbook: Clearing Your Clutter, Step-By-Ste, February 19, 2004

By 

Teri Marks (Wilmington, Delaware) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Home Organizing Workbook: Clearing Your Clutter, Step by Step (Spiral-bound)

I am always in search of new ideas for organizing my home, office and life. When I was younger I would move to a new apartment or house almost every year and part of the appeal was that liberated feeling of having every object in my life sorted, dusted off and put away again. Now that I've settled down a little - one husband, two kids and ten years in one house - things have accumulated. I'm not actually a 'pack-rat' but I do have a difficult time letting go of 'sentimental stuff'.

Armed with Ms. Starr's workbook, I have reorganized my kitchen - I love her idea of boxing and labeling items that I don't use regularly, but don't want to part with. This idea made me re-examine the basement-which is now re-organized and stream-lined along with the kitchen.
The book is beautifully written - with dedicated individual attention to every area of your home. The author has provided a question/answer guide to give you a good launching point and sometimes this guide offers a new perspective of the room to be organized. Her ideas and visuals are motivating - even if you don't go out and buy another thing - once the organizing juices are flowing you will get creative and begin to see new uses for some of your old 'stuff'. The format of the book is user-friendly, offering step-by-step suggestions, and each room has it's own easy-to-access section.
Do yourself and your surroundings a good deed and buy this book -it's just as liberating as, but much more fun than, moving.