Customer Reviews

One Thing At a Time: 100 Simple Ways to Live Clutter-Free Every Day

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you have clutter, this book is a must-have. The tips are practical and how-to without being just Band-Aids. They get at the root of the problem and show you how you'll feel afterward. Covers such things as preventing junk mail, shrinking a book collection, parting with coupons etc. that never get used, getting errands done in less time, and actually fixing the broken stuff that's been waiting for months or years. I can't say enough good things about this book--GET IT. And read it all.

Enjoyed ONE THING AT A TIME by Cindy Glovinsky . . . its subtitle says it all: 100 SIMPLE WAYS TO LIVE CLUTTER-FREE EVERY DAY.

There's nothing here that you may have not already thought and/or read about . . . yet to actually do as Glovinsky suggests is a whole separate matter if you're anything like me; i.e., prone to have papers accumulate . . . it seems that whenever I get rid of piles of them,
their friends return in even greater force!

Glovinsky presents each tip in the form of a short chapter that contains such sensible bit of advice as the following:

One thing at a time;
Stop perfecting, start bettering;
Make a list of minitasks;
Throw away coupons;
Put up pictures now;
Move from quality to quantity; and one I need to think some more about:
Break the clipping habit.

There were several memorable passages; among them:
Invest a little time and money that may save you trouble in the long run. Buy 100 stamped postcards. For the next month, each time you receive a piece of junk mail from an outfit that has frequently contacted you, send its employees a postcard pointing out that they're wasting money and asking to be removed from their mailing list. If the junkmail
contains a 1-800 number or an e-mail address, use these means to contact them as well. Some businesses will ignore your request and continue to send you unwanted mail, but others will get the message. Dump all junk mail into the recycle bin as soon as it comes in the door.

If they're on the floor, put them in the hamper. If they're in the hamper, put them in the laundry baskets. If they're in the laundry baskets, put them in the washer. If they're in the washer, put them in the dryer. If they're in the dryer, hang them on the line or fold them and put them back in the laundry baskets. If they're on the line or in the laundry baskets,
put them in the closets and the drawers. Clothes that get stuck somewhere
in the laundry cycle create big mounds of clothes clutter, all of which can be easily removed. Just keep the clothes moving until they're all back in the closets and drawers and watch the piles disappear.

When you're ready to sort, stand next to a recycle bin and toss everything useless into it. Don't bother to open envelopes if you're really sure they're junk mail. Then divide what's left into three piles: items to send or give to somebody else, action items and file items. Get rid of the Send/Give pile ASAP by mailing or handling papers over to their proper recipients. Meanwhile, put the File items--papers you want to put away--in a to-file box. Its size depends on how often you're able to file and how many papers you typically have. Schedule filing time in your planner within the next week to empty the box.

Read through in two evenings and began applying certain aspects of the book immediately. It gives you recommendations on how to live clutter free and then you can add to it to customize how you live. I have read a lot of these books on organizing. I liked this because you didn't have to start organizing a room -- you organized the way you do things. Very helpful. Will be reviewing the book several more times to learn to follow the suggestions.

I'm a professional organizer and I loved this book! It puts in writing much of the advice I give my clients to help them maintain the organizing systems we put in place. Plus I picked up a few new tips! I know a book is good when I take notes from it.

One of my and my client's favorites is to make our own "Container Store". I've found that people who struggle with organizing usually have so many organizing tools we rarely have to shop for more! We just empty everything and put it one place. After purging the unneeded stuff and sorting like with like, we then choose the appropriate container from our "store". This is a new concept for some people. Many people buy the storage first then try to figure out what to do with it. The best way is to know what you are going to store and THEN buy the container...or better yet, get it from your own container store! When we are done organizing, we create a home for all the unused containers in the garage or basement.

There are a few out of the 100 that are kinda odd or not what I would have written, but for the 10$ there are many other great ideas in the book that you can really use. Even if you are fairly well organized, you are likely to find a few tips you can use!

I usually find these types of books to be celebrations of the obvious, written by people who want to sell books. But this one is really different. Cindy really "gets it" and her expertise and experience in working with real people in the real world is obvious.

Instead of addressing the issue of disorganization and clutter by outlining 17 new, onerous systems to organize your life like some authors do (which everyone, including those authors, knows full well no one will ever follow), she gives a series of simple, practical tips that can actually be implemented - even in the lives of the busiest people.

The other thing she does that makes this book unique is that she offers brief, but insightful psychological observations for why we might save useless things, or why we don't clean up regularly, or why we get disorganized all over again right after we've just re-organized our lives.

Last, this is an easy read. She says what she has to say briefly, succinctly - and then moves on. No droning on and on for 27 pages about something that could be addressed in 5 paragraphs. A very easy read, but a wealth of great practical insights. Don't think about it - just buy this book. It's a gem.

This is just an "ok" book. It is a boook of lists although it is better than your typical list book. Many books will give a list of 100 things you can do but they list so many it becomes overwhelming. The positive aspect of this book is that it is not a huge list. It focuses on one idea and tells a little bit about it and how it might help you. If you are someone who has a serious clutter problem then you really need "Sink Reflections" by Marla Cilley aka Flylady. There really isn't going to be anything better than her book if you are suffering from a severe clutter problem. If, however, you are someone who wants some new ideas on decluttering this is a good way to go. I noticed the best ideas she had were already in Flylady's book.

All of the ideas you can find listed on websites. If anything I would check the book out from the library.

Has some good ideas that you can actually use. Kind of geared more toward women but clutter is genderless isnt it. Here are some other ideas I hope you find helpful.
First I have been working diligently on de cluttering my personal and business life. I have read so many simplifying and de-cluttering and efficiency books I almost have a clutter problem with all the books on the subject. (Cured that recently too with the Kindle 2.)
I run three business. One brick and morter and two online. I was getting over four hundred emails a day and was drowning in mail and spam. So I utilized ideas / suggestions from several sources to cure my problems. From the Four Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss we started using detailed faq's lists on our websites and an auto-responder that answered many questions so we would no longer have to reply to as many emails. For the ones we do answer the questions are predictable and we saved the answers as email drafts that way we just cut and paste and all done.
For the Spam we ran our eight email accounts into one google mail as they have the best spam filters and you can reply from the email address to which the mail was sent so they dont know that anything is happening. And suggestions from the life hacker Upgrade Your Life: The Lifehacker Guide to Working Smarter, Faster, Better by Gina Tripani has some interesting ideas for sure.
Keeping your inbox empty we use suggestions from Stress Less and Zen to Done by Leo Babauta and you would not believe how much better you feel when things are under control. But it is you who must Work the system or you will be overwhelmed again.
A much more detailed program is used in Getting Things Done David Allen book, but the above is kind of the simplified version that I currently prefer.
And for just getting rid of all the clutter in your life any of the books from Peter Walsh, How to Organize (Just About) Everything, and Enough Already, are great even though they tend to recover some of the material from his other books somewhat but thats not a big deal since the info is worth repeating. Another good author but she covers pretty much the same thing is Julie Morgenstern. The books by Koch on the 80/20 principle are also worth looking into. For the paper clutter in my life I have a digital sender scanner and have scanned over four full file cabinets into Adobe PDF computer files. I have done this with pictures too as you can also save them info Jpeg and Jiff files. While there are tons more books out there and I seem to have most of them, these are the best to get things under control and to get you the time to do the things that matter to you.

Reading this book, I got a picture of a certain kind of person who would love this book. Unfortunately, this
kind of person is not me! I was disappointed. But if you find ideas like these useful you will also like One Thing at a Time:
# 31 Keep a phone log
# 68. Label a cardboard box "office supplies" and put all your office supplies in it so you can find them.
# 24. Sweep and vacuum at least once a week.
# 61. Put things back, even when you're rushed.
# 9. Make your bed every day.
# 72. Put a trash container in every room.
Seems like these "tips" are things most everyone already knows. Don't they?

Other suggestions border on bizarre:
#11. Make a list of mini-tasks like: sort mail, make a phone call, write a check, wipe up something that's spilled,
take out the trash, check a web site, etc. Why make a list when you could just do the work?
# 5. Carry a clip board because "A clipboard puts you squarely in charge of Things in your life." It does?
#43. Create a list of items "almost anyone would throw away or recycle" including: used paper dishes, cups and napkins,
used tissues and toilet paper, empty cans, broken rubber bands, balls of hair, used dental floss, etc.!! Is the author joking?
If a person needs to make this list they also need much more help than this book can give!

I did find a few useful tried-and-true gems:
#1 One thing at a time.
#94 Leave it neater than you found it.

Finally, I recommend www.freecycle.org. Freecycle is an email list where people give away things that they no longer need
for free. Give your stuff to a good home!

This is a nice book. She does have some helpful suggestions. One of my favorites is....let the phone ring....the idea that you don't have to be a slave to the phone. That way of living is a lot less stressful! I do like the way the book is set up. You can pick and choose where you want to read.....you can jump around in the book...I like doing that if I can. You aren't required to read it from cover to cover to get something out of it.

I bought this book for a very unorganized friend, and he's already made progress. This was someone I never thought would clean up his desk. Now let's see how long it lasts. I think the key to this book is that it contains practical information that can be implemented gradually so that the reader is not overwhelmed.

NOTE: This reviewer is the author of "Never Be Late Again, 7 Cures for the Punctually Challenged."