Book Review and Giveaway: Hot Mess by Laurie Palau

Looking to get organized? Looking to free yourself from all types of clutter? Then pick up Hot Mess: A Practical Guide to Getting Organized by Laurie Palau.

In this fun and practical book, readers learn how to get organized and stay organized. Palau helps you identify your dominate clutter and other types of clutter that keep you feeling overwhelmed and disorganized. She gives you ideas on how to uncover your clutter pitfalls. Then she provides you with overall solutions and tips on how to get organized by room (kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, etc.). Finally, she provides the reader with ideas on moving forward and a bunch of helpful resources to get organized and stay organized.

Organization has always been my thing. I credit it to those years in retail sorting clothes by sleeve length and colors. But life got hectic over the last few years and my house has become a jumbled mess of stuff. It doesn't help we are moving my mother-in-law in with us. Already, using just a few tips from Hot Mess, I have been able to make progress through cleaning up my in-laws house. With this book in hand, I'll be turning my attention to our house next to get it ready for her to move in.

What I appreciated most about Palau's approach is that she acknowledged our "emotional" clutter: our need to keep something because of our emotional connection to it. In my basement, there are boxes and boxes of projects my kids made and school work. Hot Mess made me realize I need to look at these things with a new strategy. The other highly motivating factor was admitting my "calendar" clutter: how I try to fit it in too many things. Isn't there a saying that if you want things done, ask a busy person? This busy person is eager to use Palau's tips for conquering calendar clutter to make life and all that other clutter more manageable.

For those of us struggling with clutter in any form, Hot Mess: A Practical Guide to Getting Organized by Laurie Palau may be the most important and helpful book we read all year.


Paperback: 232 pages
Publisher: zolopublishing (October 12, 2017)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0692921621
ISBN-13: 978-0692921623


I received a digital copy of this book from the author. This review contains my honest opinions, which I have not been compensated for in any way.

Excerpt:

We’ve talked a lot about organizing your stuff, but how about finding time in your day for you?  Calendar clutter, in my opinion, is the driving force behind so much of our daily stress, anxiety, and frustration.  So many of us run on autopilot, especially when the kids are small, or when we are busy taking care of ailing parents or building a career.  It’s easy to see how we can lose sight of making time for other things in our life that are important, like self-care.

As a society, we have a difficult time knowing how to unplug.  Life is filled with distractions, and unless you make a conscious effort to prioritize time for yourself, it will never happen.  Maybe you want time to exercise, join a book club, volunteer, or take up a hobby, but figuring out the logistics may seem impossible.

...Only when I took a step back to look at what my goals were, and actually wrote down what I had been doing, was I able to see where I needed to change. Note the key phrase: “I needed to change.”  I had to reclaim control over how I chose to spend my time.

GIVEAWAY 

Laurie Palau will be awarding a FREE 30 minute phone consultation to help address specific organizing challenges to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Mailbox Monday - March 5

Mailbox Monday is a meme started by Marcia of To Be Continued. Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. It now has a permanent home at the Mailbox Monday blog.

Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles, and humongous wish lists.

Hard to believe that Hawaii has come and gone. We had a great time. We did some exploring, shopping, walking on the beach, and horseback riding. We also ate at some neat local places.

Honolulu International Airport

Shopping in Wakiki

Pearl Harbor

Waimea Valley Falls

Walking the beach

Honolulu Zoo

Lava rock on beach in Oahu

Yummy chicken

Sunset cruise

Horseback riding at Kualoa Ranch

(Magnum P.I., Hawaii 5-0, Lost and Jurassic Park filmed here)

As for reading, I finished A Mother's Gift by Charlotte Hubbard.

I also finished Revision is a Process by Catherine E. McLean, which I reviewed here.

I started this book...

I'm currently reading...

As for items in my mailbox, I picked up this Kindle freebie while we were away...

What if the police suspect your best friend of murder?

There’s a body in the cathedral library, among the priceless books chained to the shelves, and it seems Libby Forest’s friend, Angela, could be the killer.

The last thing female sleuth Libby needs is another investigation into a mysterious sudden death. There’s enough on her plate already. The fast-growing cake and chocolate business takes all her time, her apprentice has problems, and even Bear, Libby’s beloved dog, is determined to create havoc.

She’d like to leave detection to the police, but when her friend becomes the prime suspect Libby once more takes on the role of amateur sleuth and finds herself entangled with the respectable ladies of the local Knitters' Guild, who plan to spring a surprise on the quiet cathedral city.

With a cast of indefatigable knitters, a lively Exham on Sea grapevine and a missing cat, the green fields, rolling hills, and sandy beaches of the West Country are a perfect setting for crime, intrigue and mystery, with a touch of mid-life romance.

If you love murder mysteries, cosy crime, dogs, craft and chocolate, you'll enjoy this instalment in the fun series of whodunnits set in a small English seaside town in Somerset, full of quirky charm and eccentric inhabitants, with a female protagonist torn between independence and a new, enticing career as a private investigator.

Download the story now to follow the trail and discover the killer.

When we arrived home, this book was waiting in my mailbox...

When Alice's dad moves out, leaving her with her troubled mother, she does the only thing that feels right: she retreats to her family's old Renaissance tent in the backyard, determined to live there until her dad comes home. In an attempt to keep at least one part of her summer from changing, Alice focuses on her quest to swim freestyle fast enough to get on her swim team's record board. But summers contain multitudes, and soon Alice meets an odd new friend, Harriet, whose obsession with the school's science fair is equal only to her conviction that Alice's best stroke is backstroke, not freestyle. Most unexpected of all is an unusual babysitting charge, Piper, who is mute—until Alice hears her speak. A funny and honest middle-grade novel, this sharply observed depiction of family, friendship, and Alice's determination to prove herself—as a babysitter, as a friend, as a daughter, as a person—rings loud and true.

That's it for me this week. How about you? What was in your mailbox?

Book Review: Organizing for Your Lifestyle by Jane Stoller

It has long been my dream to get more organized. I'm not bad at it, but over the years the family has collected more things than we can ever use and I'm at the point where I don't want to look at it anymore. I've also never liked our closet storage. So, when Jane Stoller's publicist asked me if I would like to review Organizing for Your Lifestyle: Adaptable Inspirations from Socks to Suitcases, I jumped at the chance.

An organizer from a very young age, Stoller has put together a book that will inspire you to get organized for good. Get ideas on how to design your closet, tips on how best to hang your clothes, learn how to keep the bathroom toiletries in order and keep your kitchen tidy, learn traveling tips and more.

Organizing for Your Lifestyle is just the right size for the busy mom because it provides the information you need in under 130 pages. You can slip it in your purse and read it a little at time--maybe take some notes--and put together a plan of action. The pictures are an added bonus.

There are two hard things about organization--getting organized and staying organized. Stoller helps you to do both. My plan of action is already in the works and I look forward to sharing the results with my readers in the future.

If you're tired of living the life of the eternally disorganized, pick up a copy of Organizing for Your Lifestyle by Jane Stoller. It will empower you to change your ways.


Paperback: 148 pages
Publisher: BookBaby (August 4, 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1483570959
ISBN-13: 978-1483570952

I received a free copy of this book from the author. This review contains my honest opinions, which I have not been compensated for in any way.