Lorie Marrero makes the cogent point that a cluttered life is a reflection of a cluttered mind. Using the metaphor of a food diet for the process she recommends to organize your life is inspired since the two have much in common---eating junk food is the nutritional equivalent of a home cluttered with junk.
First, I really liked the graphic design of this book. It's paperback format is oversized and the pages have a spacious, inviting feel. The lines are spaced with extra leading so large sections of copy don't feel ponderous and overwhelming. Generous amounts of white space enhance the approachability of this 260 page book. In short, it's an easy read.
Another intelligent element of this book is the author's knowledge that any form of habit-breaking program needs outside support in order to succeed. Unless there are others providing some oversight to our efforts, it's human nature to back-slide. She accurately points out that 95% of people will likely achieve a goal if they have specific accountability with a person to whom they are committed (think Alcoholics Anonymous here). A website www.clutterdiet.com provides support and tools, including a free downloadabale companion workbook, to help keep your decluttering efforts on the straight and narrow.
Marrero spends a considerable portion of the book devoted to the psychological aspects of cluttering. Procrastination is, she says, the major reason why people clutter. Procrastination robs you of your energy (it's called the karm of incompletions). Specific exercises are provided to overcome the various mental barriers to leading an organized life.
Besides the obvious clutter---Beanie Baby collections, stacks of magazines, clothes you haven't fit in since college, that junky crap that you get for free---Marrero addresses other forms of "clutter" in our lives. Time clutter is a subject that could (and has) been the subject of a book all on its own. The author provides a 12-Step Program called Overdoers Anonymous to tackle the time clutter problem.
There's also the exponentially increasing problem of modern life she calls Communication Clutter---emails, junk mail, spam, telemarketers, and all that other inconsequential and unimportant online and telecommunications "stuff" that eats away at the time we have here on earth.
The back of the book includes room by room "recipes" with the "ingredients" for successful decluttering. There's a lot of meat here (to use the author's food analogies) and also requires the most actual physical work. So it's not an easy section to get through.
There's a lot of take-away in this book that more than justifies its price. I've read two other highly recommended books about getting rid of clutter in your life and learned a lot. But this is the best book on the subject by far, in my opinion. Start here before you look anywhere else.
