Decluttering at the Speed of Life: Winning Your Never-Ending Battle with Stuff

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THE TRUE HOARDER'S GODSEND Empty your shelves of your decluttering books, this is the bible of decluttering Living for now became my new goal: living in the house we have, in the city where we are, and in the moment when we’re alive. The space you have is a container, if things don’t fit in your container, get rid of them! This is perfect, because I probably won’t (in the foreseeable future) be able to afford a bigger apartment, and definitely never an actual house 😝 (*cough* Vancouver BC) However, first you have to declutter what you have! Starting with the most visible areas, White goes through a series of simple steps, room by room, to help you achieve this. Some of her advice is familiar - the three different piles - one to keep, one to trash, one to donate. She makes it clear that decluttering is not organizing or "stuff shifting." Decluttering is simply getting rid of stuff starting first with the most visible spaces in your house. Even if you have your home "under control" and find it easy to declutter and organize I can guarantee you that reading this book and learning from Dana will give you new insights for yourself." - Gina W.

Decluttering at the Speed of Life Coaches Home - Decluttering at the Speed of Life Coaches

Often you hear about chronic clutter in terms of hoarding. But clutter can accumulate in your home when you have genuinely good intentions. Dana explains the clutter cycle succinctly as… Conversely, others form significant emotional bonds with their belongings, making the act of letting go more challenging. Recognize your tendencies and use this insight to develop personalized strategies to overcome clutter. I plan to read this book a second time as it inspired me to actually donate six bags and boxes of household items to a local charity. However, six bags and boxes are not even the tip of the iceberg in my house.

The steps are: 1. trash, 2. easy stuff, 3. the duhs, 4. asking the 2 questions (if I needed this item, where would I look for it? + if I needed this item, would I remember having it?), 5. make it fit into a container (shelf, box, cupboard, etc.). We moved into our 1,752-square-foot real home from the 960-square-foot apartment and purged huge amounts of excess that we’d never needed. And we still ended up with more stuff than space. You don't have to live overwhelmed by stuff-you can get rid of clutter for good! While the world seems to be in love with the idea of tiny houses and minimalism, real women with real families who are constantly growing and changing simply can't purge it all and start from nothing. Yet a home with too much stuff is a home that is difficult to maintain, so where do we begin? Add in paralyzing emotional attachments and constant life challenges, and it can feel almost impossible to make real decluttering progress. In Decluttering at the Speed of Life, decluttering expert and author Dana White identifies the mind-sets and emotional challenges that make it difficult to declutter. Then, in her signature humorous approach, she provides workable solutions to break through these struggles and get clutter out-for good! But more than simply offering strategies, Dana dives deep into how to implement them, no matter the reader's clutter level or emotional resistance to decluttering. She helps identify procrasticlutter-the stuff that will get done eventually so it doesn't seem urgent-as well as how to make progress when there's no time to declutter. Sections of the book include Why You Need This Book (You Know Why) Your Unique Home Decluttering in the Midst of Real Life Change Your Mind, Change Your Home Breaking Through Your Decluttering Delusions Working It Out Room by Room Helping Others Declutter Real Life Goes On (and On) As long as we're living and breathing, new clutter will appear. The good news is that decluttering can get easier, become more natural, and require significantly fewer hours, less emotional bandwidth, and little to no sweat to keep going. The tagline should read something like "The Best of Dana, in a concise, digestible, organized format," but "100 Realistic Strategies to Keep Any House Under Control" works also." - Gina W. That was pretty helpful, and a fun, easy read. Dana's humorous and down-to-earth and she's so brutally honest about the state of her pre-decluttering home, it made me feel like her tips were feasible in my home, too. My only complaint is that the second half or so of the book is just her repeating the same things over and over again, with very minor details changed to reflect a changing of rooms (kitchen instead of bedroom, friend's house instead of family member's house, etc.). She even states that she does it so the repetition gets driven home, but frankly, all it did was: 1) make me skim the last several chapters, and 2) make me happy I borrowed the book instead of buying it, because you're really only getting about half of what you're theoretically paying for.

Dana K. White (Author of Decluttering at the Speed of Life) Dana K. White (Author of Decluttering at the Speed of Life)

An amazing bargain that makes my life more difficult isn’t an amazing bargain at all. Dana K White, Decluttering At The Speed Of Life Decluttering Tips Room By Room If you feel like traditional cleaning and organizing advice is written in a language you never learned, you're exactly the person for whom I wrote this book. I didn't understand, either. Make sure every item has its own ‘home’ to return to after use, which will simplify tidying tasks, keep clutter to a minimum, and reduce your cleaning time. It’s essential to comprehend that everyone has a unique relationship with their possessions. Some individuals maintain a negligible quantity, attaching little sentimental value to physical items, making decluttering initiatives relatively straightforward.

Living now means I need a dining table that is consistently (or at least easily) clear of stuff. I am passionate about eating together as a family around the dinner table. It’s one of my core values, and it needs to happen now. If I put that off, my kids will be gone, and the opportunity will be gone as well. Her main idea is the Container Principle: seeing your closet, your refrigerator, your bookshelf, your bedroom, your pantry —hey, even your house—as a container. It is the size it is. After preliminary tidying, you decide which stays according to the limits of your "container."

Decluttering At The Speed Of Life Review - Organised Pretty Home

I mention 2009 because in August of that year, I set out on what I now call my deslobification journey. After ridiculous amounts of trial and error, I have figured out what was always a mystery to me. I have figured out how to manage my home without losing my mind. And all that time, all that thinking, all that analysis would let me get rid of eight to ten scarves—not even enough to make a visible dent in the piles. I absolutely LOVE this book. It is rare that a book actually changes your life but this has. If you are not just untidy but are a TRUE HOARDER, you will understand that it is more than a mindset, it is a way of life, almost an illness. You probably open a cupboard which is stuffed to the gunnels with every intention of emptying it and then move a few things around having found no reason to get rid of anything but six or seven reasons to keep each item.Released in February 2018, Decluttering at the Speed of Life spells out my decluttering strategies in thorough, step-by-step instructions to help you work through your clutter, no matter how overwhelmed you feel. While you can only take responsibility for your own clutter, there are times when you need to know what to do about other people’s clutter. Dana explains how to use her step by step process to respectfully and kindly, help family and friends sort through their stuff. procrasticlutter are clean laundry piled on the couch and clean dishes in the dish drainer or the dishwasher. If the dishes are clean and usable, the task feels finished pg.38 January 2021 :: Oh my, YES! This book came to me (thanks Robin!) exactly at the right time and mood. Dana White teaches her readers how to use five minutes or five hours to make a visible difference in clutter. This is NOT a take-everything-out-of-the-cupboard-and-make-a-big-mess method. She is not teaching how to organize your stuff, but how to get it out the door. Access to a private, four-week book club in March. We’ll do these through a private (though not secret, as I learned last time is way too much hassle) Facebook group where I’ll go live once each week in March, discussing sections of the book and answering your questions.