Three Book Reviews, A Contest and Why Paper Doll Is As Green As The Grinch
Everybody loves a good book, and a good organizing book is worth a hundred times its weight in the clutter it inspires you to toss. However, it’s probably not the best choice as a holiday gift. No matter how well intentioned you might be, your recipient (unless he or she is a professional organizer), is likely to take as kindly to a book about organizing (and the implication that he or she needs to get organized) as one might be about a gift certificate for a gym, Weight Watchers or a teeth whitening service.
However, chances are good that you’ll receive some holiday goodies (cash or gift cards) that will give you flexibility to give yourself the gift of good reading. Thus, today’s post offers up three organizing books Paper Doll read and loved this year. (Suffice it to say, there are many other wonderful organizing books out there, and absence from this post implies absolutely nothing about the appeal, quality and value of any other books on organizing by my colleagues and other esteemed writers.)
First, up is Erin Doland’s Unclutter Your Life in One Week: A 7 Day Plan to Organize Your Home, Your Office and Your Life!
I’d like to hate Erin Doland. It would be easy to do. She’s everything that might inspire Grinchy, green-faced envy. She’s got a ridiculously successful organizing blog, Unclutterer, that has a loyal following. She’s quoted in national magazines and newspapers and interviewed on television. She’s got a column on RealSimple.com.
And, as if that weren’t enough, she’s a charming, wickedly funny person in real life.
Couldn’t you just hate her for that?
But Doland is also very real and down to earth, as evidence by her bestseller. From “Erin’s Story”, the prologue to Unclutter Your Life in One Week, the reader sees this is not your usual book about organizing. Doland admits to a scandalous past as someone who (eeek!) had real clutter issues. She confesses:
Doland’s tale of anxiety and chaos is brief but compelling. She builds a confidence with the reader that extends throughout the book. She, too, felt overwhelmed and powerless, but eventually figured out the solutions necessary so that she and her family could live what she calls “a remarkable life” — and then she shares the keys with her readers.
The practical yet funny book covers everything from creating effective laundry systems to organizing work presentations with equal aplomb. The days of the week are divided logically, with three elements of each “day”, one aspect of work life sandwiched between two areas of challenge in the home/personal area. Doland’s style is prescriptivist, but not pedantic. She lays out a simple, straightforward framework for how to achieve a goal (like decluttering the bedroom or developing e-mail strategies), but recognizes the depth and breadth of diversification in readers’ lives and offers themes and variations.
Doland understands what readers need in an organizing book — rules that explain and solve without turning you into an automaton. Unclutter offers up guidance and instruction with a lively soundtrack. References to pop culture blend seamlessly: The Flintstones (file nomenclature) and Star Trek (optimizing the number of household towels) share space with Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and “Groove is in the Heart” (a musical cue for achieving a decluttering mood).
In general, this is a book on streamlining — knowing how to purge the unnecessary and systematize what’s kept. It’s not, in general, a book heavy on the psychology behind how the clutter has come to be or a guide for the chronically disorganized or hoarders. (There are other books for that.) This is primarily a book for those who are situationally disorganized and though motivated, find themselves perplexed when it comes to creating a game plan.
Doland is not unmindful of the emotional pull of nesting in clutter, however. My favorite quote from the book, one which I find myself quoting often, is, “It’s important to remember the past, but an Unclutterer chooses not to live in it. Literally.”
Unclutter Your Life In One Week is due out in paperback (with a new cover) on December 28, 2010.
Our next book is Pretty Neat: The Buttoned Up Way to Get Organized And Let Go Of Perfection, by Alicia Rockmore and Sarah Welch, co-founders of Buttoned Up.
And if Doland’s book is one person’s approach to helping you achieve your “remarkable life” by getting past the clutter, the Buttoned Up gals have, through multitudes of interviews with “real” women, set the bar not just at organizing, but at restructuring attitudes towards yourself and the clutter that surrounds you.
From the get-go, Welch and Rockmore set their approach aside from the glossy fantasy of what they call “org porn”. In their introduction, they state:
They battle overwhelm, or “organizational inertia”, by refocusing on realistic standards, changing expectations and motivating readers to define their own organizational agendas. As the authors share conversations and tips, you can picture the them sitting with you at a table in a cafe, leaning in and saying “Oh, no, they DIDN’T!” when you divulge your own experiences with judgmental visitors, bursting closets or non-participating spouses or kids.
Each chapter, whether it tackles delegation, prioritizing, to-do lists, workspace clutter, email, meal-planning or household and toy clutter, shares the following elements:
-Motivational quotes that offer little extra kicks of inspiration
-Interviews with everyday women about how they “embraced their imperfection” and the skills they employ to handle the challenges that try to obstruct their progress
-Advice based on research and practice by Welch and Rockmore, as well as the sampled wisdom of various interviewees, to conquer the unavoidable tasks and get to the sweet spot in life.
-Pretty Neat Tips sidebars with gems of solutions ranging from RSS feeds to organizing a toy swap
While the messages of Pretty Neat are applicable to everyone, the target audience is assuredly the busy moms and professional women out there who are struggling with the demands of home and work, and frustrated by society’s images of aspirational perfection that don’t reflect modern life. The authors even organized chapters into smaller, bite-sized pieces, as they know that there’s no time to read a chapter in one sitting, so each practical (and sometimes revelatory) morsel can be consumed while in the carpool lane or waiting for a teleconference to begin.
The authors found that 80% of women reported feeling organizationally challenged but were nonetheless able to offer their life-tested strategies for everything from getting out the door in the morning to getting kids to take responsibility for their belongings. The Buttoned Up YouTube channel boasts more than one hundred interviewee-submitted tips on everything from taming the mail pile to organizing business cards.
In full disclosure, I might not have gotten around to reading, let alone reviewing, Pretty Neat had the Buttoned Up ladies not forwarded a review copy and sponsored a great contest of which you can be a part.
I know Paper Doll readers have great tips, tricks, life-hacks and secrets for getting past perfectionist procrastination and reflecting (even if not always believing) that “done is better than perfect”.
Share your favorite organizational tip or shortcut — not just about paper, but about organizing anything at home or at work — by adding a comment below any time between now and December 31st at Midnight. Other organizing bloggers are participating in this contest, too, and the reader who submits the best tip across all participating blogs will win $250. Rockmore and Welch will select the winning tip and announce the winner on January 10th. Nothing would make me happier than one of you getting some extra pocket money for the new year. Good luck!
By the way, the blogger with the most comments on his or her post will win $250, so please feel free to pass on this link: http://bit.ly/PaperDollWin250PN so anyone, no matter how organized they feel they are in general, can share their best organizing tips.
People learn skills in multitudes of ways: visually, auditorily/verbally, and kinesthetically or physically. Many of us gain our understanding and skills in combination — pictures, words, actions. Doland’s and Rockmore/Welch’s books are informative, but they are also text-laden (though Unclutter does have a few charts and illustrations).
Wilska, however, has developed a masterpiece, combining brisk description, clear and clever bullet points, and photographic illustration to delight the retinas and charm the intellect of visual learners. With over 450 color photographs and accompanying text, she delves into step-by-step alternatives for organizing the home (with an accent on storage), from public and family areas to functional spots like kitchens, mud rooms, garages and laundry rooms. Attic to basement, toys to technology, she covers the household spectrum.
As a professional organizer, it’s usually easy for me to develop a process or system for dealing with even the most intriguing organizational problems, but I admit I’m sometimes stumped when it comes to form rather than function. On more than a few occasions, a simple flip to the appropriate chapter of Organizing Your Home has given me the visual inspiration I need to tackle a client’s spatial challenges. Wilska’s book doesn’t just model smart (but realistic, non-“org porn”) systems; it inspires creativity. Organizing Your Home hosts an abundance of ideas rarely seen elsewhere.
If you’re a visual learner, or even if you’d just like to see other (possibly more efficient and attractive) ways of organizing and storing the stuff of life in your home, Wilska’s book delivers the (glorious) goods.
Whether you’ll be celebrating Christmas this weekend or, like Paper Doll, going to the movies and eating Chinese food, I wish you a happy, healthy and joyous week and one in which you have ample time to read. But first, please take a moment to leave a comment–enter the contest or just share your thoughts.
Happy Holidays! Be well!
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