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Secrets Of An Organized Mom: How To Declutter And Streamline Your Home For A Happier Family (2013)

by Barbara Reich(Favorite Author)

3.65 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1451672853 (ISBN13: 9781451672855)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Atria Books

review 1: LOVED this book. This would be a good book to buy and reference over time. And, I want to be personal friends with the author. :)Several years ago, we moved from a 3,000 square foot suburban home to a 900 square foot home downtown. We had to do a lot of purging, but I am much happier with our lifestyle in the 900 square foot home! We have to be thoughtful about our possessions and almost everything we have, we love. There are a few exceptions to accommodate differences in opinion between my husband and I. ;-) Much of the advice in this book was an affirmation of practices we already had in place. However, there was about 20% that pushed me to grow in my organizational skills - which I loved!!I agreed with 95% of this book’s advice, which is pretty extraordinary. Here are... more the few points where I differ:-I’m not on the digital bandwagon. I have a smart phone and use the internet, but I want to keep paper copies of important documents. (We have just two file boxes of paper in our basement, so it isn’t like I’m a hoarder.) Keeping original paper documents instead of uploading information to the internet protects you from identity thieves and other cyber criminals. I know exactly who has access to my basement. I don’t know who can hack into my accounts. I’m also much more worried about my computer crashing than my house setting on fire. I know theoretically both could happen, but so far I’ve only experienced one of these problems.- Again, I like the feel of paper. I want to read real books, not a kindle. We use the local library frequently, so I’m not purchasing and storing books. But I’m an avid reader and I wouldn’t use an electronic reader if you paid me.- I keep (a few) old academic papers, textbooks and journals from college. The author recommends purging these, but I take great pleasure in revisiting them every year or two. I also keep old family records, which the author recommends purging. How cool is it to actually touch your grandmother’s high school diploma?! It is not the same thing as having a digital photo. At all. I think it is important to be able to touch and interact with actually pieces of history. Again, within moderation.- The author recommends keeping your child’s journal and creative writing/art project only. Toss math and science work. I understand the journal, but why the bias towards creative writing/art. Those are throw-away items to me, especially with young children. I find it much more interesting to see my child’s mind develop in meaningful ways (ie math and science).- Giftcards are not real gifs. They are a sign the gift giver is lazy or unable to actually pick out something for you (like in business situations where you don’t actually know each other). Giftcards show no consideration or thought. Giving a giftcard does not develop a relationship. I might not keep all the gifts I am given, but I appreciate the thought that went into them. They reveal something to me about the giver. Giftcards reveal that the giver can’t be bothered with me - they announce loudly that the giver felt obligated to give something, but didn’t care enough to invest the time to actually pick anything out.- Does the author send her children away to camp for months on end? Why does she need to buy them special underwear and socks for camp. Don’t they already have these items? Why is she discarding everything after camp or boxing it up for next year? This seems wasteful to me. Can’t these items be used away from camp too?- Towards the end of the book (when talking about camp and the holidays), the author talks about purchasing a lot of special-use items, which seems inconsistent with the rest of the book. Why are you purchasing the types of things that got purged in earlier chapters? It seemed really wasteful. Why not repurpose items and/or find ways to avoid purchasing items that will later need to be purged?-The author claims monogramming is evil. But, I love it!
review 2: Picked this up on a whim at the library, as I'm in the middle of reorganizing and cleaning out our basement right now. I don't think there's anything particularly earth-shattering or revolutionary here, but a good little book nonetheless with plenty of tips and ideas for organizing every area of your house. I particularly want to come back to her section on organizing the office and documents, as I am shocked to learn that our current filing system of tossing all important-looking documents in a shoebox is not ideal. As a ruthless purger, I of course loved her emphasis on getting rid of nearly everything. It's so much simpler to organize (and then maintain!) a house that isn't littered with junk and non-necessities. I absolutely agree with her that the space in your home is worth more than a lot of the junk taking up room there--for instance, I just got rid of a load of baby items that were cluttering up an entire closet. I'd rather have that closet space freed up for the next few years and possibly have to buy a few replacement items if we have another baby.Just a few annoyances: - I think she came across a little holier-than-thou/preachy/snobby. That got old real fast.- I disliked her emphasis on buying all sorts of organizational containers, and that everything must match. From a visual perspective, yes, it would be nice to see stacks of matching bins with items neatly sorted inside. But from a financial perspective, this is almost enough to put me off of organizing from the start. Really, who has the money to head over to the container store to buy dozens and dozens of matching boxes and bins and hangers? If money allowed, yes, that would be pretty awesome. But she seemed awfully insistent that everything must match (even down to the hangers in your closet), and this seems like an extremely minor detail to me. less

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