Most Helpful Customer Reviews
124 of 131 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Book for Everyone to Read Before Attempting To Declutter, March 6, 2007
***** What I found most valuable with this outstanding book was that it was about the motivation behind excess accumulation and cluttering. Unless you address this motivation, the clutter is bound to come back, even if you hire a professional organizer and everything in your home is perfect. All of the clutter will creep back. There are so many outstanding points in this book. For example, with sentimental-type clutter, the author says that the most important thing is to separate the memory from the item. Then the item can be dealt with appropriately. You are not discarding the memory, just the item. Thus, if you have an overabundance of momentos, you can divorce the memory from the item, pick a few items that you want to represent the memory and truly honor them by displaying them in your home (rather than storing them in boxes in your garage), and discard (or digitally scan and then discard) the rest. In my house, my husband has a wealth of pictures of his children when they were small. These pictures are filling boxes in the garage and our barn. We have all of their schoolwork and many personal items because he loves his children and feels as though throwing away one of their things is throwing away a part of them. They are now adults; however, until this underlying motivation for hanging onto things is addressed, all attempts at decluttering will be futile. For me, the whole book was profound. I'm great at organizing techniques, but the idea of looking at the feelings and problems sourcing the whole hoarding behavior was most helpful. I am getting ready to declutter my house, as we are bursting at the seams and can no longer function well in our home. This is the perfect book to read to understand the emotional work and the letting go that must go on so that the process of decluttering can take place. Then whatever vision and purpose you have for your home can be implemented, and you can enjoy the space you have in your home. The book targets a huge consumeristic flaw in our American culture, and gives solutions. I cannot imagine who would not benefit from this important book. Highly recommended. *****
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430 of 484 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very Helpful, January 24, 2007
I liked this book because it helps me, a not naturally organized person, have a lifestyle that is simpler, saner, nicer. I have many organizational books, and this one is pretty good. Some books want you to do so much work up front about why you got this way and how to not be this way (by spending a lot of money on organizing bins and products), that I am exhausted before I even begin the process. Clutter attracters need quick answers or they won't do the work required. At least, that's the way I am. Walsh organizes the book into two main parts: The Clutter Problem, where he talks about the issues and excuses and finally, the possibilities of how to live clutter-free. Part 2 is Putting Clutter in Its Place, where he starts with surface clutter, then moves on through different rooms in your house, one at a time. My favorite part of the book is the New Rituals part, where he tells you, month by month, how to keep up with this clutter-free lifestyle. Because, for me, the hardest part (after starting) is keeping the clutter out and the organization going. Other books you may want to look at are "Spiritual Housecleaning" (if you are into that) and The Flylady's new book(s) and web site. These have been extremely helpful to me and I no longer feel guilty that I can't have people over because of the state of my house. In fact, company is coming tomorrow and I'm ready! "It's All Too Much"
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107 of 118 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Conquering Clutter Conquered, March 9, 2007
As a lifelong "pack rat", I have a problem with clutter. I have bought many books on conquering clutter. Some of those books talk about buying more stuff to organize the stuff I already have too much of. Other books talk about handling your clutter in different ways, such as color coding everything as a solution to cleaning up clutter. I am sorry, I am not going to go there. Still, other books ask you to figure out why you have clutter in the first place, as in psychoanalyzing yourself. Personally, I have not had much success at reducing my clutter by focusing my attention on my dysfunctional childhood or personal frustrations. It just does not work for me. This breakthrough book, however, takes a truly novel approach to solving the problem of clutter and owning too much stuff. It does not talk about buying more stuff like organization systems or merely re-handling your clutter in different ways. Instead, the author of "It's All Too Much" asks you to look at the space you have and asks you what you want that space for? Simply, "wanting" less clutter in your life is too vague a goal. It reminds me of wanting to lose weight. Wanting and accomplishing are two different things as some wise person once said. In this short book, the author gets right to the point. The author asks you what do you want to do with the space you have. Once you establish what you want your space to do or be for you, you then have a clear path for reaching that goal. For example, is your home office accomplishing what you want it to do, or is it a storage area for things you either did not put away; cannot figure out somewhere else to put it, or; just cannot part with? Sounds too simple, I know. And it is. The author's advice reminds me of something a wise person once said about a sculptor. The sculptor sees a block of granite as a figure trying to get out instead of a just a block of granite. The sculptor removes all the granite that is not the figure they perceive. Simple, eh? Well, yes and no. This book is truly a breakthrough in helping you make that necessary paradigm shift in thinking to finally get your space to serve your needs. The author is a consultant on the cable television show "Clean Sweep", and shares his unique perspective on finally solving the problem of too much clutter. I highly recommended this book to anyone who has a problem with clutter.
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