Peter Walsh has helped thousands of adults clear mental and physical clutter from their lives, and now he’s turning his focus to the unique issues teens face. The stresses of making important decisions and controlling personal finances for the first time can be overwhelming—but a little de-cluttering can go a long way. Walsh helps readers identify problem areas and outlines unique steps to streamline the process of clearing out the clutter and addressing everything from dealing with family to evaluating goals. At a time when teens are under more pressure than ever, this is the go-to guide for getting it all under control—and getting ahead!.
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Book Description
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About the Author
Peter Walsh is an organizational consultant and the author of How to Organize (Just About) Everything. His media exposure includes appearances on The Early Show and Fox News, as well as in such publications as USA Today, The New York Times, and Real Simple. He divides his time between Los Angeles and Melbourne, Australia. For more information about Peter visit www.peterwalshdesign.com.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Chapter 1
Getting Started
It's all too much! Have you ever heard someone say that phrase before? You probably have. Maybe you've even said it yourself. Maybe you even said it when you picked up this book: It's. All. Too. Much!
This is not a phrase you say while smiling. You don't say it relaxing in the park with a good book, or sipping hot chocolate in front of a roaring fireplace, or playing Frisbee at the beach, or going to see your favorite band, or while having a barbecue in your backyard with your friends.
When you say this phrase, it's because you are stressed. You are rigid and you are tense. Your shoulders and neck and back hurt. Maybe you feel not-so-great in the stomach. When you say this phrase, your face gets all scrunched up. And maybe it turns red. And maybe you wave your hands around. And maybe your hair stands up on end and little curls of smoke come out of your ears. (Okay, this last one is only in cartoons...but you get the picture.)
"It's all too much!" is not a happy phrase. It is, however, a pretty expressive phrase, because it means so many different things all rolled into one. It means:
• I feel frustrated.
• I feel anxious.
• I feel overwhelmed.
• I feel freaked out.
• I feel unhappy.
• I feel defeated.
• I feel stressed.
• I feel powerless and like I don't have control over my own life!
Anyone who says this phrase can mean any or all of these things. But this last sentence, I find, seems to apply especially to teens.
Why? Because when you're a teenager, that phrase can often feel, well, true. (Just because it feels true doesn't mean it is true, but more on that in a bit.)
"But These Are the Best Years of Your Life!"
Have you ever expressed unhappiness about some part of your life to a random adult -- maybe a parent or a grandparent or your friend's parent or a teacher at school -- only to have the grown-up get a sort of wistful, googly-eyed look on his or her face and respond with some version of the phrase "But these are the best years of your life!"? Well, if you ask me, that person probably doesn't have a very good memory of what being a teenager is actually like. Or that person is remembering only the good parts and forgetting about the bad. (Then again, maybe it's harder to be a teen these days than it was when he or she was growing up.)
But I remember a lot of it, which is one of the main reasons I wanted to write this book. I remember what it was like to be a teenager growing up in a small town near Melbourne, Australia, born smack-dab in the middle of seven children. With three brothers and three sisters. I loved my family (and still do), but I remember often feeling frustrated because I had the distinct feeling that I wasn't in control of my own life. That I was expected to behave a certain way, to think certain things, to want certain things. And that these expectations weren't always in line with what I actually believed or what I actually wanted.
The Clutter of Too Many Have-Tos
Being a teenager is hard, for a whole lot of reasons, not least of which is the fact that you are living in someone else's house. And that means you end up having to, for the most part, do what they say. (The perennial parental favorite, "While you live under my roof, you'll live by my rules!" is a favorite for a reason.)
Your life is full of too many have-tos. You have to wake up early, and you have to go to school; you have to spend all day going to a whole bunch of different classes, most of which you probably didn't get to pick. After school you might have to go to a sports practice or a meeting for a club or a rehearsal for a play. Or maybe you have to go to an after-school job. After that you have to come home, and you have to do homework. Then you have to help out around the house. Maybe you have to look after a little brother or sister. And it probably doesn't end there. It can often feel like a lot -- like all -- of your time is spent doing things that other people tell you to do. That your day is not your own. That you are powerless and don't have any control over your own life. But what I hope you might get from this book is the feeling, and the knowledge, that a lot more parts of your life are within your control than you might think.
And no, I'm not going to tell you that you don't actually have to go to school. And that you can blow off all your chores and forget about your homework. And that your five-year-old brother can just take care of himself. Don't try to get me in trouble, now!
What I'm saying is this:
You Can Do Anything You Set Your Mind To
"You can do anything you set your mind to" is probably a phrase you've heard before. Maybe you've heard it from many well-meaning adults. It's one of those phrases people love to toss around. Maybe you've heard it so much that you're sick of hearing it, or maybe you've heard it so much that as soon as you hear it (or read it), you tune it out. And you have forgotten that it means anything at all. What it means is this: You don't have to simply go through life waiting for your life to happen to you. You can make things happen. Things can change. You can change. And no matter how overwhelming your clutter situation might be right now, that can change too.
But when you're thinking about your goals, make sure they're your goals. Not society's goals, not your parents' goals, not your friends' goals. Your goals.
If you're five feet tall and the last time you dunked a basketball was when you were four (and it was one of those little Nerf basketballs and you walked right up to the hoop and put the ball directly in it), chances are you are not going to join the NBA. And if you can barely sing a note, and dogs start howling every time you try to, it's rather unlikely that you will be a professional opera singer. And if you put your mind to it, even if you really, really, really put your mind to it, you're probably not going to wake up one morning having sprouted wings with which you can fly around your room.
BUT if you put your mind to it, you can certainly get creative and, say, start a basketball league for the less tall, less hoops-shootingly gifted. Or produce a special silent opera where you open your mouth but don't sing out loud, or one where the audience listens to an iPod of someone else singing while you pretend to. And hey, if you end up inventing a pair of electric wings a person can use to fly around the house, well, I'd like to buy the first pair, please.
However, please keep in mind -- just because you might want to put your mind to packing every item of clothing you have ever owned since you were six years old into your dresser doesn't mean it's going to happen. And just because you might want to put your mind to keeping every issue of every magazine that has ever entered your house on one shelf of your bookcase does not mean they will fit. Putting your mind to things cannot change the laws of physics, or the laws of time and space, or the laws of thermodynamics, or the laws of probability.
Your mind is a powerful thing! But you have to know what you're up against.
So, back to my point: The phrase "You can do anything you put your mind to" means that you can and should have goals. And that you can and should believe in yourself. But when you set your mind to something, make sure it's your own goal, one that will serve the future you are trying to create. The future is wide open to you. And that is a very exciting thing! (But it can also be a scary thing too.)
Not Just the Future, but NOW!
But wait, what about now? Isn't now important too? Well, yes, in fact it is. It is quite important, actually. You, right now, sitting there reading this, have the power to not only change your situation in the future, but to change your situation starting at this very moment. The life you're trying to create is not just a life you'll be living in the future, but one you are living right now.
I know, I know -- it sounds like a bunch of self-help-booky, grown-ups-saying-stuff-that-they-think-is-nice-to-say-to-teens-but-that-no-one-really-believes crap. Hearing "inspiring" stuff without hearing any information to back it up can make a person, well, stop listening after a while.
What if it's not just a bunch of crap? Just for the length of time it takes you to read this book, I'm asking you to keep an open mind and accept the possibility that maybe, just maybe, things can change. And maybe this book can help.
"But wait!" you might be saying. "Isn't this a book on decluttering? And isn't 'decluttering' a fancy word for just cleaning your room? Because having a clean room is nice and all, but I really don't see how that's going to change my life."
Okay, I hear you. But the answers to your questions are: yes (among other things) and no! Just go with me here. Before we get into the nitty-gritty of decluttering, before we talk about your relationship with stuff and how it's affecting you, think about this question:
What do you want from your life right now?
Not what you want ten years from now, five years from now, or a year from now, but your vision for your own life today. Today. Weird as it might sound, this is the most important question to ask yourself in the decluttering process. Think about it just for a moment now, and we will discuss it again later.
When you're a teenager, there's a lot of emphasis on your future. Where are you going to college? What do you want to be when you grow up? I'm not trying to say you don't need to think about it at all; surely, some planning is important, and you need to do it. But with all the emphasis put on the future, it's easy to forget that you're alive right now and that what is going on now matters too. In fact it matters a whole lot.
And one of the main things that take people out of the mom...
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Same principles, but written for teens!,
By SisterZ (Wisconsin) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: It's All Too Much, So Get It Together (Paperback)
I love Peter's It's All Too Much: An Easy Plan for Living a Richer Life with Less Stuff and his It's All Too Much Workbook: The Tools You Need to Conquer Clutter and Create the Life You Want as well, and just purchased this edition for a teen in my family. It's pretty much all the same principles you'll find in his other books of the same name, but written to the teen audience. If you love Peter's books, this will likely be a good match for that teen in your life.
He takes the reader step by step through envisioning the life you want for yourself and assessing if the stuff you have is really a part of that, runs through common excuses for keeping too much stuff, and addresses specifics of various SWYKS (Spaces Where You Keep Your Stuff: bedroom, locker, car/trunk, backpack, etc.) rather than the typical "room" arrangement of his other books. The great think about Peter's philosophy, like his other "It's All Too Much" book, is that he deals with moving toward the life you want and letting the rest just fall away; it's not about organizing your clutter... although the person who follows his steps will no doubt have a much simpler, more organized and focused life. Some features include a number of chapters that begin with a 3-4 page glimpse into the clutter problems of various pretend teens ("Heather McHavoc" and "Caleb Clutterberg" and so on) and conclude with "chapter summary" and "what comes next" blurbs; he walks the reader through making a space function chart; includes specific examples that will resonate with teens; and also bulleted lists, self-assessment quizzes, and little drawings (single color) are sprinkled throughout. Peter's writing style is pleasantly conversational, as you'd expect. I might also add that I was surprised by the high quality of the book: while it is paperback, it has a nicer binding and feels a bit heavier than you'd expect for a PB as the pages are of a thicker quality. The only potentially negative thing I have to say about this book is that Peter does use the word "crap" a lot in the book. Now, this may be a nicer word than may pop into a teen's mind when looking at all the stuff in his/her bedroom, and I doubt it would be a problem for most readers, but I still thought it worth mentioning. (Example from page 157: "However, this process isn't just about making things look pretty, but about purging the crap out of your life so there's more room for what's really important.") At this point, Amazon does not have a "look inside" feature on this so I'll go ahead and list the chapters in hopes that it may help you with your decision: Introduction (pg1) PART 1: LET'S TALK ABOUT THE CLUTTER Chapter 1 - Getting Started (p21) Chapter 2 - Internal Clutter (p37) Chapter 3 - External Clutter (a.k.a. Stuff!) (p55) Chapter 4 - The Most Important Question When It Comes to Your Clutter (p73) Chapter 5 - Reimagine the SWYKS (p85) Chapter 6 - Taking Stock (p95) Chapter 7 - Hurdles! (p111) Chapter 8 - Your Clutter and the People in Your Life (p141) PART 2: A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO DECLUTTERING YOUR SPACE Chapter 9 - Kick Start (161) Chapter 10 - Hash it Out (175) Chapter 11 - Conquer the SWYKS (187) Chapter 12 - Keep It Up! (215) PART 3: APPLYING THESE SKILLS TO THE REST OF YOUR LIFE Chapter 13 - Your Everyday Life (225) Chapter 14 - Your School Life (243) Chapter 15 - Your Family Life (253) Chapter 16 - Your Future Life (265) Conclusion (p275)
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Courtesy of Teens Read Too,
By TeensReadToo "Eat. Drink. Read. Be Merrier." (All Over the US & Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: It's All Too Much, So Get It Together (Paperback)
The New Year is almost upon us, and the time to make resolutions has come. If one of your goals is to get organized, this could be the exact book you need.
Peter Walsh has created a great resource for teens who need to get organized. It's a quick read, and it's done in a way that's actually pretty fun. The book includes quizzes and stories, plus a bunch of drawings to keep things interesting. IT'S ALL TOO MUCH, SO GET IT TOGETHER is practical, as well. This book is very thorough. The first part of the book was particularly helpful because it helps explain why clutter exists in the first place. The explanation made a lot of sense. Prior to this book, I had never really given much thought to why clutter exists. The middle portion focuses on how to get of rid of all the clutter. The writing style is pretty hopeful but also realistic, which is something I appreciated a lot. The final portion of the book shows how de-cluttering can affect your life, as well as how to get your family involved. I walked away from this book with plenty of things to keep in mind as I begin my own de-cluttering process. Perhaps the most important thought is that my life is going on right now. Not when I graduate high school and finish college but now. And it's my job to make the most of it. Reviewed by: Melanie Foust
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fabulous Book for Teens!,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: It's All Too Much, So Get It Together (Paperback)
This offering from Peter Walsh lives up to the quality of his books for adults. Mr. Walsh "gets" the teen life and offers quizzes and other fun ways for teens to use the text. This is a lot less preach-y than most of the books out there for teens, such as those written by Dr. Phil's son. Peter Walsh's book is down-to-earth, pragmatic and practical. It helps teens understand themselves, their motivations and to discern their life goals. However, it does this through straightforward prose in a fun way, so that teens are not bored reading the text itself.
My son loved the book and gained a lot from it. He learned about himself and gained a wider perspective of his life. My daughter is reading it now, and she needs it more than he does, and she enjoys the format and the way this book is written. BUY THIS BOOK! It is valuable beyond just organization! It offers "life advice" without preaching it.
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