SYNOPSIS
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, many of us 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.
What’s not to trust? The self described “slob comes clean” gives real advice on how to get rid of clutter while still living your everyday existence. from Goodreads
MY THOUGHTS
Recently, even Marie Kondo has admitted that she can’t keep her house as tidy as she would like. As a mother of two, she now chooses to spend her time with her kids rather than keeping her house as clean as she would like. I appreciate her saying this now, but would have loved a little more gentle message from her when the book was first published. It is hard to trust someone who can define any more than 20 books as too many.
Unlike Marie, Dana has waded through her own collections of things and come out the other side with an appreciation for making space for her life. If you can think of a way of amassing clutter work or an excuse to keep it around – Dana has tried it. Until finally, she accepted that she needs less.
“Decluttering is stuff you don’t need leaving your house.”
Dana K. White
I have a lot of hobbies. I also have a tremendous difficult letting go of things. Especially when people give things to me. I have fallen into every trap Dana mentions to keep things – especially the perfect donation trap. When I moved to Chicago I had to downsize and, under the pressure of having the pay to have things moved, I finally let a lot of things leave my control in a less than ideal way. I indiscriminately got rid of things. And it was very freeing.
I have been doing better for the past three and a half years. I try not to bring things into my home that are unnecessary. Not having a basement or attic to hid things in makes this more necessary and therefore easier. Even still, my clutter level has been rising.
This book was a great reminder of how to prioritize your space, your comfort, and your sanity over things. The first half, especially, helped remind me of how things pile up and how to let them go. The second half, where the author goes through each room, can be very (very) repetitive. Honestly, I am not sure that each room needed it’s own chapter. My recommendation would be to select the rooms that you need the most assistance with or use the book like a friend to guide you through the steps. It does not work as well to just read the whole book in one sitting.
If you would like a tidier house but cannot seem to get in front of your clutter, this is an excellent place to start!
Tell me, please! Are you super tidy or do you struggle with clutter?
Silver Button Books 
Lots of clutter here, I live with a man who keeps every cable he’s ever owned in case they come in useful – and once in a while they DO, which is very annoying. I am trying this year to put something in a better place or throw it out every day. Just one thing. Maybe it’ll help!
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Oh, the useful cable in the mess of cable is the precise reason I also have a giant bucket of cables. That moment when they go “seeeeeeee!” you have lost the declutter argument forever.
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