Customer Reviews

Home Organizing Workbook: Clearing Your Clutter, Step by Step

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

When you come across the "Home Organizing Workbook" by Meryl Starr you would think what a pretty looking book must be great. But seriouly it's only a nice book, but that all it has going for. There not a lot substance to it. There are not many ideas to the book and it does cost a bit of money. So this is one those book that you want take a close look at before you buy.

I am sure this book was a labor of love for the author and I hate to critize her efforts. But like many Americans, I live in a house that is too small, with two teenagers that are too big, too many pets, too much sporting equipment, kitchen gadgets, bulk food boxes, magzines and junk mail, VCRs, tapes, DVD's, CD's, photographs, hobbies, computers... the list goes on. I also have a pack rat for a husband. I need a book that will help me purge, sort, store etc and tell me (and my family) where to get started step by step. I also have to contend with mildew, dust, spider webs, mice. I do not live in a modern model home like the one featured in the book and another pretty basket, stainless steel bin or colorful cardboard box is not going to help me. I tend to relocate clutter from one room to the next. I have spent the last 5 years dumping the contents of drawers on to beds to sort them, I have sorted thru our CDs and tapes, purged old photos, only to have the mess reappear 6 months later. I have tons of storage boxes, rubbermade plastic bins and I don't seem to get anywhere and while I may have been asking for a miracle from this book, there are millions of other Wives and Moms just like me and regretably this book is not going to offer them anything they haven't already heard and tried. I just wish someone would write a book on organizing and cleaning that featured a real home and family.

"Clearing your Clutter" as Meryl Starr so wonderfully says, is a great step by step method that enables a person to take the right approach without getting overwelmed by the task in sight. My husband and I decided to make our lives more organized so things would run a little more smoothly in our home. The book allows you to go to a chapter and empower you with great ideas and solutions. By having chapters at your fingertips this is making our task alot easier. I would highly recomend buying this well thought out and easy to read book.

I loved this book. I tend to be disorganized. I have piles of magazines, books, my babies things, clothing and anything else I can stack around my apartment. I live with my 18 month old daughter and my husband. My husband and I both own our own buisnesses so there is not a lot of time to clean and organize. My husband bought this book for me as a gift, hoping to inspire me. At first I was sceptical. I barley had time to organize, little less read a book about organization! Fortunately, he bought the perfect book. Meryl Starr's book is very easy to read and absorb. She offered so many helpful tips that I have easily used and to my surprise my apartment does look and feel much more orderly. Every section is broken down into a different part of the house. I started in my kitchen. Ms. Starr begins with questions, which I kind of skipped over, because I wanted to get to the solution part. This was perfect for me. Bullet pointed suggestions!!! Fast, easy and practical. now I love going into my kitchen. I implemented her idea for installing a pegboard with hooks so I could hang pots and pans and now I have more storage space. The author really opens your mind and gets very creative and practical with her suggestions. I also really loved that she had a section on a variety of different storage problems. I read the ones that applied to me and my home and then the book gave me several different solutions.

I really felt this book was user friendly, practical, pretty, sincere, helpful, and motivating. I highly recommend it. I just bought two more as gifts. One is for a friend of mine that is pregnant. I thought it would be a great gift for someone who needs to create room and that will have A LOT of new items coming into her home. The other book I bought was for a friend that is already very organized. She just moved. I am sure her new apartment is perfectly organized, but I know she will greatly appreciate it and she will surly get some new tips.

I think the "Martha Stewart Syndrome" affected this book. The author used too much space for artfully photographed household items (a whisk broom, a weathered painted box on a weathered painted chair) and full-page dividers leading into each section.
Each divider is followed by a page of generic comments on why you would want to organize that section of your house. Then take a quiz that shows you are a mess (if your cabinets are full to capacity or your table has clutter on it). That's a waste of time, because the answer is obviously "yes" or I wouldn't be reading this book.
Enough with the complaints, there are helpful hints in each section. Skip past the pretty photos, the so-so intro, and the unneeded quiz. Read the organizing solutions in each section and surely some will hit the spot. For that reason, I'm giving the book 3 stars. Any of us that are heavy-duty clutterers aren't going to be reformed by just one book anyway. Read all that you can get your hands on and apply as much as you can. If some of the advice overlaps, all the better to reinforce the lesson.

Really, this should be called "Organization for Dummies". It is a beautiful book, and of course I love that, but the information is VERY basic. Best to flip through at the bookstore and get something with more meat. We can all figure out how to put cotton balls in a jar. Too bad.

"The Home Organizing Workbook" by Meryl Starr is the type of book that is design to catch the reader attention of the shelve. But, once the reader takes a close look at it. The reader begins to realize that while it has some useful information there are better organizing books on the market. If you are interesting reading it, just check it out, and save your money.