[.ca] Lighten Up!: Free Yourself from Clutter (ISBN 0060952652)

You need this book:
This book is amazing. It walks you through every obstacle to clearing your clutter. I wouldn't part with it because you can pick it up again and jump back in when you are starting to slide back into your cluttering ways!

the best clutter book for hardcore clutter hounds:
This is the best clutter book I have ever seen for those of us who have intelligent, creative personalities that attract clutter. The author deals with some psychological reasons for clutter, and how to overcome clutter both practically and emotionally. This book is inspirational! Her "a path for everything and everything on its path" advice alone is worth the price of the book. This book will give you power over clutter! If your spouse is the clutter hound in the family, this is a good book to read and then give to your spouse, because it deals with clutter problems sympathetically, helps you understand clutter, and gives you techniques to deal with clutter.

The best clutter cleaning book out there!:
I have read all of Don Asslett's books on cleaning clutter, and many other clutter cleaning books by other authors. Although I find Don's "Clutter's Last Stand," "Not for Packrats Only," "Loose 200 lbs This Weekend" and "Clutter Free Finally and Forever" motivating and insightful, in terms of practical, hands on, lets-begin-cleaning, Michelle Passoff's "Lighten Up: Free Yourself From Clutter," is the best there is! No other book has given me such clear and precise methods to get to work and actually make changes-whether I'm motivated or not, and the results quickly become motivating. Passoff gives practical steps to follow such as "put like kind things together", "handle one thing at a time" and and "a path for everything and everything on it's path," that differ subltly, but in very important ways from the usual cleaning adages and, when memorized, can immediately help with that "Oh no, where do I start?" feeling. Add to this her exceptional advise for cleaning up the two biggies (paper and clothes), when applied diligently over time, these practices can induce real life-changing alternatives to living with the constant frustration of a disorganized and cluttered space. Furthermore, there is very little if anything that could be deemed mystical or New Age about the book other than the idea that objects have energy (which if I'm not mistaken is a scientific fact.) As far as the belief that cleaning clutter can change your life goes, one only needs to begin cleaning according to Passoff's methods to see that changes really do take place as a result of clearing out the clutter. For those readers who are so fundamental in their beliefs as to write the book off because Passoff's ideas are a little "out there," I say, 'Lighten up! Free yourself from close-mindedness.'

Long lasting results!:
I loved this book! It was both inspiring and practical. I used it on the main floor of my house with wonderful and - most important - LASTING results. ITs been one year since I purchased it and we are still clutter free. Check out her website too.

Karmic Cleaning Made Easy:
I love Michelle's attitude. She's very forgiving and compassionate at the same time she turns a clear eye on the reasons we acquire clutter (mostly unfinished business and fear). Her filing section is fab. My papers have never been so orderly and, when I slip back into the 'piling up' phase, I reread her words of wisdom to get back on track. She is realistic about different lifestyles (some of us are more cyclical with our cleaning up and she takes that into account) and very specific which helps when I'm feeling inadequate to the task. Her step by step approach makes it seem less overwhelming.