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
