Customer Reviews

Organizing for Life: Declutter Your Mind to Declutter Your World

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I thought I was getting a "how to" clean and organize your home.
I WAS DEAD WRONG!

I ordered this book, on CD, because my house and life were spinning out of control - and I didn't have time to read a book! I live surrounded by clutter in a home where finding the floor is like striking gold! I was working non-stop cleaning and trying to keep up - and achieving NOTHING!

Sandra Felton is a "former messy", and from that vantage point she explores why "messies", that's me, are messy. How they think, how hard they work while accomplishing nothing, and what habits/thought patterns keep them in this constant state of disarray. I could identify with nearly every point in the book.

This has been my inspiration to decluttering and cleaning my house room by room, which I have done many times in the past, but now I have the knowledge of how to keep it that way! I have also joined her online support group, "messies anonymous", and have ordered many of her "how to" books to help me in this process.

I will recover from my "messy" lifestyle, and I will live in a peaceful, harmonious home, thanks to this wonderful author's past struggles, current success, and her willingness to share with anyone in need.

I am a Sandra Felton fan. I have been for years. What sets her books apart from the other organizing books is the education you receive.

Sandra is a teacher, a researcher, a writer and a messie. She doesn't give you the proverbial fish so you can eat for the day, she instructs you and gives you insight into the heart and mind of a person who is struggling with clutter and disorganization. Her work is based on research from many areas of life so you can grow, change and live a full and healthy life!
This title has 2 parts. The first part deals with why we are messy. We can look at possible social, emotional, spiritual and physical reasons for the clutter and disorganization. After each chapter Sandra has questions to help us further evaluate our lives and what might need to be changed.
The 2nd part deals with ways we can over-come the problems we identified in the first half of the book. There are more questions to get us thinking and keep us motivated to change.

This book is really more than a book, it is a workbook too. Sandra's goal is not to just sell a book but to help people grow and change, to be the best they can be,in my mind the book should be listed under self improvement! ;-)

Another great feature of this book is that throughout the book and in the back she lists resources and support groups for getting further help or better understanding a problem.

As with most of Sandra's books, this is not a how to book or a follow me exactly and do exactly as I say and you will have a neat home book;there are no tips and tricks on how to store ketchup or toilet paper neatly.

These books are written to help you become you, to order you life your own way. And afterall who wants to do something just like everyone else? Especially if you are a creative messie like ME!

Sandra Felton spends the first part of her book defining the three types of messies and listing specific obstacles that hinder each type. They are the saver, the clutterer, and the time-waster. These three chapters helped me to identify why I can't ever get my home completely under control. This book does not give the hows as much as it gives the whys regarding the housekeeper's personality and preferences. Several chapters are devoted to detailing more serious causes of disorder such as depression, an alcoholic family background, adult ADD. Being on the lower end of the messie scale, many of these issues did not apply to me, and it sometimes felt as if she were insinuating that there is a serious reason behind why all messies have a disorganized home.

I have always known my problem-I'm lazy! Actually, she helped me define some of the causes of "laziness" or actually a lack of motivation, while giving steps to overcome them. While reading, I was inspired to go ahead and tackle some of the clutter in my home. I find that reading a book such as this one (or Don Aslett's Clutter's Last Stand: It's Time To De-junk Your Life!) helps to give me that additional motivation that I need to tackle a room or a closet that is in great need of being purged.

I picked this up hoping it would be different from the usual "How-to" books with anal retentive lists of tasks and 1000 ways to make household chores that much more complicated. And it was!

It's been such an eye-opener, and has helped me break through emotional blocks, and so many of my lifelong bad habits and misconceptions about neatness, messiness, etc. I had no idea how much of a perfectionist I was, and how THAT'S what was holding me back from being the organized, reasonably efficient person I was meant to be. That realization alone has touched and changed every aspect of my life for the better.

She's just very good at assessing the hows and whys of clutter, in a gentle, enlightening, and non-judgmental way. I can't recommend this book enough.

I have bought, and sometimes read, books about organizing and cleaning, and each one has given me a tip or two. This book is the one I needed to make the leap from being out of control to learning to change my lifestyle. Sandra Felton not only understands my psychological makeup as a person who could not accomplish simple housekeeping chores (yet I'm successful in all other areas of my life), but she also provided insights into my own thought processes that I have not come across before. You have to do the work yourself, but she provides the road map.

I can't believe that this book hasn't received more reviews. After seeing that's available on audio, I downloaded it from audible ($6..something as a member is all it cost me)and it feels like this book was written about me personally. Many self-helf books don't work on audio, but this one does!! No worksheets etc. to fill in, just good solid information to take in and absorb.

For me this is THE book that really speaks about the reasons for being a Messie and why the clutter keeps coming back like a boomerang. I've read (or tried to read....usually abandon them part way through) other books on the topic, but none so far has been able to keep my attention like this one. You can tell that this is someone that's been there and that makes all the difference...she truly understands what goes on in your head and has a sense of humor to boot.

I am determined to get organized and NOT to let the mess back this time around, though, and will read more of her books on the HOW to accomplish staying on track now that I know WHY I got here in the first place.

I love the part of creating beauty as the ultimate goal. Having an organized and functional home seemed to be the best thing to aim for, but realizing that this is only the beginning opens a whole new world :)

Good stuff!!

Organizing For Life
Declutter your mind to declutter your world
By Sandra Felton

As I sit here and write, there is a pile of clean laundry stacked about ten feet away form me on the living room floor, waiting to be folded and put away. It has been sitting there for almost a week now, and so it is probably so wrinkled I may have to iron some shirts.

There is also folded laundry in piles on the couch, and the hamper is overflowing with dirty clothes. There is a stack of shoes by my kitchen door, more than 2 pairs per kid, and toys scattered here and there.

Life with kids is messy. Life in general can be messy. We just keep accumulating stuff, and have no where good to put it.

We buy knick knacks only to dust them. Clothes we will never wear and trinkets for who knows what.

I will come clean. CLUTTER BOTHERS ME! I was born a neat knick and so all this mess is difficult for me to take most days. It stresses me out.

That's why I was intrigued to read Organizing Your Life by Sandra Felton. I want to declutter my life! I'd like to begin by decluttering my living room.

"Even the best cleaning methods are useless if you can't keep up and soon slip back into old habits;" states Sandra, "Stop struggling. You can overcome that old, unsuccessful mind-set and discover a new way of thinking that makes messiness a thing of the past."

Boy doesn't that sound fantastic!

In Organizing Your Life, Sandra begins with the myths we all believe. Myths like "Working harder will keep your house clean." WRONG - You already work hard enough - You have to uncover the underlying causes.

Organizing Your Life is an easy read for any busy mom. The chapters begin with "Accepting Yourself," and include organizing tips, advice, and practical ideas on how to get it together and keep it that way!

Any mom (and by any mom I mean EVERY mom) needs this book.

As soon as I am done writing this review, I am going to fold that laundry, and start by de-cluttering my living room! Start small. Keep it simple and practical. Sandra Felton will show you how in Organizing Your Life.

Organizing for Life is the first book I've read of it's type to really explain some of the thought patterns that chronically disorganized people have. When I first read it, I kept stopping to marvel at how accurate these observations were. It was as though Sandra had been living in my house, observing my wayward habits! I kept stopping to underline and write notes in the margins. It was three years ago that I first read this, and I have made definite progress in my housekeeping thanks to this book. Whenever I slide back into messie behavior, this is the book I pull of the shelf to correct it.

This book gives a lot of tips on decluttering, procrastination. I would recommend this book to anyone who needs help with organization, especially if you tend to procrastinate. I also prefer the audio version because by listening you learn more each time

I just got this book today and read it cover to cover -- never expected a book exploring why I'm so messy to be such a page turner! Seriously, this is an exceptional book. Not a Band-Aid but a guide to figuring out the complex emotional and psychological (and even chemical) reasons for disorganization and messy habits, and how to fix them. Felton feels the roots of messiness are in dysfunctional families as well as depression and ADD. "It is hard for Messies to know what to buy to improve the house," she writes. "They are so used to ignoring themselves that they are unaware of what they are getting along without." Reading this book feels like a weight off the heart. I've bought and borrowed so many books about organization but this is the last one I'll ever need. Instead of another cute binder or box or bookcase, I need acceptance of the root causes of this mess, and the stinking thinking that needs to be acknowledged before true change can happen. And the book actually makes me feel empowered to do something about it, for once. "Refuse to saddle yourself with all kinds of unnecessary junk because of fear," she writes. "You know that life is full of things for you; therefore you do not need to grasp every scrap to satisfy yourself."