Organizing for Life: Declutter Your Mind to Declutter ... (ISBN 0800731859)

True Help Indeed:
I thought I was getting a "how to" clean and organize your home. I WAS DEAD WRONG! I ordered this book, on CD, because my house and life were spinning out of control - and I didn't have time to read a book! I live surrounded by clutter in a home where finding the floor is like striking gold! I was working non-stop cleaning and trying to keep up - and achieving NOTHING! Sandra Felton is a "former messy", and from that vantage point she explores why "messies", that's me, are messy. How they think, how hard they work while accomplishing nothing, and what habits/thought patterns keep them in this constant state of disarray. I could identify with nearly every point in the book. This has been my inspiration to decluttering and cleaning my house room by room, which I have done many times in the past, but now I have the knowledge of how to keep it that way! I have also joined her online support group, "messies anonymous", and have ordered many of her "how to" books to help me in this process. I will recover from my "messy" lifestyle, and I will live in a peaceful, harmonious home, thanks to this wonderful author's past struggles, current success, and her willingness to share with anyone in need.

Inspiring:
Sandra Felton spends the first part of her book defining the three types of messies and listing specific obstacles that hinder each type. They are the saver, the clutterer, and the time-waster. These three chapters helped me to identify why I can't ever get my home completely under control. This book does not give the hows as much as it gives the whys regarding the housekeeper's personality and preferences. Several chapters are devoted to detailing more serious causes of disorder such as depression, an alcoholic family background, adult ADD. Being on the lower end of the messie scale, many of these issues did not apply to me, and it sometimes felt as if she were insinuating that there is a serious reason behind why all messies have a disorganized home. I have always known my problem-I'm lazy! Actually, she helped me define some of the causes of "laziness" or actually a lack of motivation, while giving steps to overcome them. While reading, I was inspired to go ahead and tackle some of the clutter in my home. I find that reading a book such as this one (or Don Aslett's Clutter's Last Stand: It's Time To De-junk Your Life!) helps to give me that additional motivation that I need to tackle a room or a closet that is in great need of being purged.

Mental declutter breakthrough!:
I picked this up hoping it would be different from the usual "How-to" books with anal retentive lists of tasks and 1000 ways to make household chores that much more complicated. And it was! It's been such an eye-opener, and has helped me break through emotional blocks, and so many of my lifelong bad habits and misconceptions about neatness, messiness, etc. I had no idea how much of a perfectionist I was, and how THAT'S what was holding me back from being the organized, reasonably efficient person I was meant to be. That realization alone has touched and changed every aspect of my life for the better. She's just very good at assessing the hows and whys of clutter, in a gentle, enlightening, and non-judgmental way. I can't recommend this book enough.

This is the book I have been looking for:
I have bought, and sometimes read, books about organizing and cleaning, and each one has given me a tip or two. This book is the one I needed to make the leap from being out of control to learning to change my lifestyle. Sandra Felton not only understands my psychological makeup as a person who could not accomplish simple housekeeping chores (yet I'm successful in all other areas of my life), but she also provided insights into my own thought processes that I have not come across before. You have to do the work yourself, but she provides the road map.

psychological approach to organising:
If you want a book that explains the psychology of clutter and messies (in a sometimes wordy way) then this is the book for you. Offers little in the way of practical, instructive organisation tips.