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5 Days to a Clutter-Free House: Quick, Easy Ways to Clear Up Your Space by Sandra Felton & Marsha Sims

Genres: General Non Fiction

97808007210775 Days to a Clutter-Free House: Quick, Easy Ways to Clear Up Your Space by ,
Genre: Christian Non-Fiction, Homemaking
Pages: Trade Paperback
Date Published:
Publisher: Revell Books

A clean, organized, and restful home is only 5 days away.

If you’ve picked up this book, you want to reduce the clutter in your home, organize what’s left, and keep it that way. But does the sheer scope of the project give you an anxiety attack? Don’t let fear stop you! Organizing and time management experts Sandra Felton and Marsha Sims show you how, with the right game plan and a healthy dose of adrenaline, you’re just 5 days from your goal.

With their proven team-based approach, even the most overwhelming de-cluttering job becomes doable. Section one shows you how to de-clutter, with each day of the week focused on one reachable goal. Section two shows you how to cultivate time-tested habits that keep your house in the clean, well-ordered state you’ve just achieved. You’ll even learn how to deal with common obstacles such as •filing •storage needs •health issues •space restrictions •the car •even family sabotage!

So what are you waiting for? The home of your dreams is just a week away.

The title of Sandra Felton and Marsha Sims new book, 5 Days to a Clutter-Free House, is enough to give one pause at first, and I will freely admit I doubted any plan’s success with clutter in just five days. However, upon reading the book I now understand the plan and am impressed that they do offer a solution that could make a big difference in less than a week. My clutter may not be to the extent that I need their full plan, dubbed Mt. Rushmore in this book, but it will be a wonderful resource after our next military move. I do intend to implement it in a smaller scale on several rooms as we get ready for the move from our current home. For me, the application will be more of a maintenance action than a total overhaul which the fully applied plan offers. The structure of the plan makes it very easy to remember and that allows more mental energy focused on getting it done and thus done faster.

The two core points of the plan’s success in such a short time are the assistance of friends and your opportunity to make the decisions on whether something stays or goes without pressure from those essential friends. I’d be most likely to request the assistance of family before friends so that they are vested in the effort it takes to clean up and would therefore understand why we’d want to maintain the home as clutter free as we could. The many examples in the book didn’t apply to our situation as much as someone on their own where the need for outside friends or acquaintances would make what appeared to be a near hopeless situation possible. I’d personally love to be on such a team to help implement this plan for someone in need of it so don’t discount being able to find friends willing to help if you aren’t in my situation with family members to help.

That second point, making the decisions on what to keep or give away or, yes, throw away (recycle, if possible), is what makes the plan appeal to me. I highly value the list of questions to ask yourself to deal with my own tension over making the decisions. I will be able to apply that part immediately. It was not as if they presented any radical insight, but they listed them clearly and succinctly in such a way I can remember and act on quickly.

Being a sailor’s wife, I must say I dislike the quote on “sailors running aground”–made it rather obvious they don’t have family in the Navy since that would be the end of a job and not just a try and try again situation. A few parts jumped around a bit such as the thoughts for the individual days which felt a bit like filler. I think I would have preferred that grouped together after the daily application or they could even use that information to enhance the second part regarding maintenance of your clutter free home. That second part was very welcomed and so critical for the clutter free atmosphere to be lasting.

Despite those few issues, this quick read may be the solution for someone who considers his or her situation impossible. Not only does this book hold a solution, but one that could show its success in less than a week and therefore give the individual the impetus to keep going on to live a mostly clutter free life. That is a quite an accomplishment for the reader and a welcomed gift from the authors who are able to present it in a personable manner of having overcome cluttered lives themselves.

*Thanks to Revell for providing a copy for review.*

“Available February 2013 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.”

The Authors

Sandra Felton

Sandra Felton, The Organizer Lady, is a pioneer in the field of organizing. She is the founder and president of Messies Anonymous and the author of many books including Organizing Magic. Sandra lives in Florida.

Marsha Sims

Marsha Sims is a national speaker who has taught seminars on time management and organization, managing the front desk, and projects and priorities. She has been a professional organizer for fifteen years as the founder and president of her Miami-based company, Sort-It-Out, Inc.

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Navy Wife and Catholic Mama homeschooling her ten year old son, eight & six year old daughters, and four year old son, not to be left out of the "cool" work as he calls it. Their three year old sister and two year old brother can be heard singing in the background on a daily basis as well with the newest addition, another son, who arrived at the beginning of Advent. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Tupperware Consultant Extraordinare http://my.tupperware.com/LBrons ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

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