Clutter Control: Putting Your Home on a Diet

Clutter Control: Putting Your Home on a Diet
by Jeff Campbell

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Book Summary Information

Author: Jeff Campbell
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1992-04-01
ISBN: 0440503396
Number of pages: 176
Publisher: Dell

Book Reviews of Clutter Control: Putting Your Home on a Diet

Book Review: Needs to be updated for the 21st century
Summary: 2 Stars

I like Jeff Campbell. His Speed Cleaning system is used in my home weekly, and I would shout from rooftops that it's the bomb. His "Spring Cleaning" book was worth it's price alone for teaching me how to clean windows properly & quickly. I own the Ebook of "Clutter Control", and it's the third book by the author that I've read.

Pros:

1) Definitely gets to the point about letting things go. It is not a coddling book like, say, "Organizing From the Inside Out" by Julie Morgenstern. Campbell pulls no punches- if you aren't willing to de-clutter or stop being lazy & put stuff back when you're done with them, don't bother buying this book. You have to be willing to change, and make effort to keep on top of your home. (Though, often, the people reading the organizing & cleaning books aren't the lazy, disorganized ones in the household, but that's another topic entirely...)

2) Psychologically-speaking, the book actually delves quite deep into the clutterbug's problems (this was written before the phrase "hoarding" came into the vernacular, but that's who he's talking to in certain chapters). I was actually quite surprised at the depth of understanding the author showed about hoarding, and dealing with what's behind it. Impressive & the main reason I give the book two, not one, stars.

3) The methods are simple & will get someone started who is just absolutely overwhelmed & doesn't know where to start. He does delve into dealing with de-cluttering as a family, which is something a lot of books overlook- so kudos for that.

Cons:

1) This is EXTREMELY outdated in the paper, computer & modern organizing world, especially when it comes to those of us who virtually live online, and prefer to go paperless as often as possible. After all, most people now own digital cameras (i.e., lots of photos that end up on a computer), cell phones, personal computers, laptops & more. There's no need to keep all the actual printed photos, papers, etc. that we used to. This book would have applied well to a crowd living in 1992, when this was published- now, it's desperately out of touch with the technology at hand. Because the book is so outdated in this capacity, one doesn't learn how to manage computer maintenance, limit what papers to keep vs. what's okay to simply be stored on disk, how often a computer should be cleaned out, dealing w/ email clutter (the bane of many peoples' existence). Unless you live what would be, by today's standards, a technology-free life, you are unlikely to benefit a lot from the book in cleaning up your home or work office.

2) He makes an excellent case for the file cabinet. I agree with him 100%- when it works, it works well. I have a file cabinet at home & at work, with hanging file folders & manila folders that are neatly organized. They have saved my butt on many an occasion, and I thank the heavens frequently for knowing how to file properly. HOWEVER...the problem is that not everybody works well with file cabinets, especially people who are very visual, "out-of-sight, out-of-mind" kind of people. There are alternatives to a file cabinet- I highly suggest reading Hellen Buttigieg's book "Organizing Outside the Box" or watching her show, "Neat", for help on that. If you are someone with a good memory & prefer to keep things hidden away, you'll like Jeff's system just fine, though.

3) The suggestions for creating extra storage & where to place things is extremely basic & often, horribly limited. (Ex.- I know that I can add an extra hook to my bathroom door to hold my my robe. That's not what I need. I'm already organized- thanks. I need to know how to make what I DO have in my bathroom look good with the basics that I use all the time. No luck finding any such advice in this book. Campbell is not a decorator in any way, shape or form.) There is nothing here that the average person hasn't already thought of. There are no photos or anything in the book to show before & afters, for example- it is in black & white, what pictures they are, they're just diagrams, and it won't show you how to create a beautiful, organized space. You're pretty much on your own when it comes to storing & decorating what's left over after the junk's gone. And not all of us are allowed to hang up extra shelves or do home improvements on the scale the author refers to- some of us do rent, after all! It's all kind of disjointed, too, in the way it's written- no real plan comes from reading this book to create a pleasant, soothing home with what's left after the cleaning & de-cluttering is done. The book seems thrown together haphazardly & half-heartedly.

4) He promises that he will teach people how to prepare their home so it's cleaned up enough every day not to be embarassed by it, and thus the weekly cleaning will go more smoothly. Not by a long shot does he deliver on this promise. There are no chore checklists. No ideas on what needs to be done daily to create a home completely ready for that weekly cleaning every home needs. No concrete advice on creating habits that help, like cleaning up the kitchen every night after dinner or keeping the bathroom company-ready all the time. For this, FlyLady is probably your best bet. I know that I'd be very discouraged if I'd just read this book & didn't know what I already do from her on creating a home that's a DAILY haven. This book is very disappointing in this respect.

Overall, not a worthwhile book unless you are someone who has a ton of paper & non-techlogy-related clutter to go through & needs a psychological jolt. Even so, there are plenty of other, superior systems to follow than this one. Not a winner of a book.

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Summary of Clutter Control: Putting Your Home on a Diet

Learn how to make the most of available space, set up practical anti-clutter systems, organize hot spot storage and find storage space in places you never dreamed of.

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