5 Days to a Clutter-Free House

I found this book (5 Days to a Clutter-Free House by Sandra Felton and Marsha Sims) on the North Carolina Digital Library, which is probably my new favorite thing.  All you need is the number off your regular library card and your 4-digit pin number (many libraries  recommend the last four digits of your phone number- so try that if you forgot yours).  The selection isn't amazing, but you can definitely find something to read!

I wasn't too impressed with this book.  I felt like the first half of it could be summarized in about a paragraph, but the second half of the book had a few good tips.

Basically, the authors recommend gathering together a group of people (2 people per room of your house if possible) and focus on clearing surfaces, using body benchmarks.  Day 1 is feet to knees, day 2 is knees to shoulders, day 3 is shoulders to the ceiling, day 4 is reserved for inside cupboards and cabinets, and day 5 is for storage areas like a garage or shed.  As you go through clearing surfaces, everything gets put into those neat little white cardboard storage boxes, labeled with where you found the stuff and where it goes.  For example, a box might be labeled "Papers from coffee table in living room- going to office" or "Shoes from dining room- going to master bedroom."  At the end of each day, you take the boxes to the room in which they ultimately belong and neatly stack them against the wall.  Later, the homeowner, will go through the boxes, either putting each item where it "lives" in the house, putting it in a pile to donate, or putting it in a "maybe" box.. which will have to be sorted through eventually.  When the initial work crew goes through the house, any obvious trash can be discarded, but "likely trash" stuff should be put in a box labeled trash for the homeowner to make ultimate decisions about.  So, obvious trash would be things like gum wrappers and used paper plates.  "Likely trash" might be something like a broken toy.

That's really the meat of the first half of the book, in a nutshell.  Most of the book was meant to be inspirational rather than strictly practical.  The second half of the book gives tips for sorting through those white boxes and keeping your house from getting cluttered again.

2016 Book Count: 6