It's All Too Much: An Easy Plan for Living a Richer Life with Less Stuff
by Peter Walsh
from Free Press
When Peter Walsh, organizational guru of TLC's hit show Clean Sweep and a regular contributor to The Oprah Winfrey Show, appeared on national television shows and told people how they could reclaim their lives from the suffocating burden of their clutter, the response was overwhelming. People flooded Peter's website (www.peterwalshdesign.com) with success stories about how his book had changed their lives.
Peter's unique approach helped people everywhere learn to let go of the emotional and psychological clutter that was literally and figuratively choking the life out of their homes.
With his good humor and reassuring advice, Peter shows you how to face the really big question: What is the vision for the life you want to live? He then offers simple techniques and a step-by-step plan to assess the state of your home, prioritize your possessions, and let go of the clutter you have been holding on to that has kept you from living the life you imagine. The result is freed-up space, less stress, and more energy for living a happier, richer life every day.
Clear Your Clutter With Feng Shui
by Karen Kingston
from Broadway
Drawing on the success of her first book, Creating Sacred Space with Feng Shui, Karen Kingston has met popular demand by expanding on the indispensable activity of clearing clutter. There is very little of actual Feng Shui here, and certainly nothing you can't get elsewhere, but the clutter problem gets full and complete treatment. Kingston reminds us that clutter is stuck energy that keeps you stuck in undesirable life patterns. Therefore, you can "sort out your life by sorting out your junk." Kingston covers the reasons we keep things as well as the amazing stories of people who have cleared their clutter away. More than just junk, clutter is all those things that have negative symbology and that collect stagnant energy. This latter can also apply to bodily, emotional, and spiritual clutter, all of which Kingston describes with characteristic passion. In an age of accumulation, it's good to see a book that frees up life again.
Clear Your Clutter and Transform Your Life!
Clutter is trapped energy that has far-reaching effects physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. The simple act of clearing clutter can transform your life by releasing negative emotions, generating energy, and allowing you to create space in your life for the things you want to achieve. In Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui, Karen Kingston, pioneer of a branch of Feng Shui known as Space Clearing, expertly guides you through the liberating task of clutter clearing. You will learn:
Why you keep clutter
How to identify and clear clutter in your home or workplace
How to clear clutter from your body, mind, and spirit
How to stay clutter-free
Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook: The Essential Guide to Caring for Everything in Your Home
by Martha Stewart
from Clarkson Potter
Martha Stewart's new home reference book is a must-have for many reasons, not the least of which is the fact that it's gorgeous. Printed on thick, glossy pages covered with subtle sepia photos and that perfect Martha-blue as an accent color, Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook is a pretty and practical package for everyone: "all mothers and daughters, fathers and sons who have a room, an apartment, or a home to care for." Stewart's exhaustive handbook features a handy "how to use this book" introduction; a room by room guide with weekly, monthly, and seasonal checklists; tips for cleaning, creating a comfortable and safe home, and moving; and a guide for identifying and caring for materials in your home. Curious? Take a look at some excerpts below. You'll be sweeping and shelving your way to a happier home in no time. --Daphne Durham
How to Use This Book: An Excerpt
When the first issue of Martha Stewart Living was published in 1990, I could not have begun to anticipate how wide-ranging our readers' homekeeping concerns would be. Since then, we have discovered new solutions to age-old problems, brought in experts to advise us on very specific questions about very specific?c concerns, and experimented with all the new (and not so new) home-care products. Over the years, I've brought these lessons home with me, too, which has made me more organized and made my homes better cared for and maintained.Households are busy places, works in progress where there is always something needing immediate attention and always something more that can be done. With that in mind, I have organized this book to address the tasks at hand and also to address the "more that can be done" for when you have the time and the inclination go beyond the essentials.
It starts with the big picture--an examination of every room and everything you will find within each. The eleven chapters in the "Room by Room" section take you on a tour through the house, focusing on the surfaces and furnishings you might find in any room, and offering strategies for their care and maintenance. Starting with the kitchen, the central staging area in any home, these chapters open with practical space-planning advice, followed by the golden rules of organizing. This information is intended to help contain your belongings and make each room clutter-free and functional. Relevant homekeeping concerns particular to each room are explored in depth--so stain-removal basics appear in "Laundry Room," the best way to clean grout in "Bathroom," and easy sewing repairs in "Utility Spaces." The equipment essential to each room is also addressed, so if you are considering what kind of bathtub to install during a bathroom renovation or whether a gas or electric range would best suit your style of cooking, you will have the information necessary to make such an investment with confidence.
Organize Your Kitchen: Martha's Golden Rules
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A lifetime's worth of homekeeping know-how, this towering volume is sure to be one of the most comprehensive books on the subject. Let Martha show you around the home, teaching you everything you need to know in order to clean, care for and maintain it along the way.
One Year to an Organized Life: From Your Closets to Your Finances, the Week-by-Week Guide to Getting Completely Organized for Good
by Regina Leeds
from Da Capo Press
Sink Reflections
by Marla Cilley
from Bantam
Fly Out of CHAOS
(Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome)
Into Order--One BabyStep at a Time
With her special blend of housecleaning tips, humor, and musings about daily life, Marla Cilley, a.k.a. The FlyLady, shows you how to manage clutter and chaos and get your home--and your life--in order. Drawn from the lessons and tools used in her popular mentoring program, FlyLady helps you create doable housekeeping routines and break down overwhelming chores into manageable missions that will restore peace to your home--and your psyche. Soon you’ll be able to greet guests without fear, find your keys, locate your kids, and most of all, learn how to FLY: Finally Loving Yourself.
Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills, Third Edition (Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills)
from Skyhorse Publishing
"Voluntary simplicity" has become a catch phrase for what seems to be a yearning for a simpler, more self-sufficient and economical way of living in the late 20th century. This book, first published in 1981 and recently updated, was probably many folks' first in-depth exposure to the idea of a simpler life, making things by hand, and enjoying a stronger sense of control over personal budgets, home projects, and lifestyles. Hundreds of projects are listed, illustrated in step-by-step diagrams and instructions: growing and preserving your own food, converting trees to lumber and building a home from it, traditional crafts and homesteading skills, and having fun with recreational activities like camping, fishing, and folk dancing without spending a lot of money. This book will have you dreaming and planning from the first page! -- Mark A. Hetts
Over 100,000 sold! Now newly revised and up to date, with over 2,000 color photographs and illustrations.
Anyone who wants to learn basic living skills—the kind employed by our forefathers—and adapt them for a better life in the twenty-first century need look no further than this eminently useful, full-color guide. Countless readers have turned to Back to Basics for inspiration and instruction, escaping to an era before power saws and fast food restaurants and rediscovering the pleasures and challenges of a healthier, greener, and more self-sufficient lifestyle.
Now newly updated, the hundreds of projects, step-by-step sequences, photographs, charts, and illustrations in Back to Basics will help you dye your own wool with plant pigments, graft trees, raise chickens, craft a hutch table with hand tools, and make treats such as blueberry peach jam and cheddar cheese. The truly ambitious will find instructions on how to build a log cabin or an adobe brick homestead. More than just practical advice, this is also a book for dreamers—even if you live in a city apartment you will find your imagination sparked, and there's no reason why you can't, for example, make a loom and weave a rag rug. Complete with tips for old-fashioned fun (square dancing calls, homemade toys, and kayaking tips), this may be the most thorough book on voluntary simplicity available. 2,000 color photos, 200 b/w illustrations.
Shop Your Closet: The Ultimate Guide to Organizing Your Closet with Style
by Melanie Charlton Fascitelli
from Collins Living
Just when you feared your overstuffed, eyesore of a closet was a lost cause, here's the antidote to all your closet woes. Closet expert and style maven Melanie Charlton Fascitelli is here to help you whip your closet into shape, refreshing your wardrobe and saving you time along the way.
With this accessible, stylish guide, you'll find out how to redo your closet and organize your clothes so that you can, yes, go shopping there—sort through shirts, pants, skirts, dresses, scarves, and shoes, all in perfect condition and ready to go.
From the first closet face-off to long-term maintenance, Charlton Fascitelli takes you step by step through the entire process of turning your closet into a "safe haven" for your clothes.
Learn how to:
Face your inner packrat and clean out your closet
Shop for and pick items that flatter your body
Craft the best wardrobe for your lifestyle
Create space in your closet by reworking it logistically
Store your clothes and shoes so they last longer
Charlton Fascitelli also covers consigning or donating all your old stuff; keeping your closet clean and tidy; packing smartly and efficiently; storing your linens; and organizing other areas of your home, including your medicine cabinet, pantry, or CD collection.
Clearing clutter, organizing clothes, and remaking your wardrobe has never been so easy or attainable. Shop Your Closet is your go-to source for closet nirvana.
Easy Green Living: The Ultimate Guide to Simple, Eco-Friendly Choices for You and Your Home
by Renee Loux
from Rodale Books
We are what we eat, but we also are what we use to clean our homes, pamper our skin, and decorate our rooms, according to Renée Loux, accomplished raw food chef, award-winning author, and host of Fine Living TV's Easy Being Green. In her new book, Easy Green Living, she applies her whole-foods philosophy to home, garden, and beauty routines.
As recent special issues of Vanity Fair, Time, Newsweek, and other major publications have demonstrated, going green is an idea whose time has come. Whether addressing big-picture topics like renewable energy, or offering simple suggestions for everyday living, this complete lifestyle guide shows that healthier choices don't mean a radical or complicated life change--it is, after all, easy to be green.
Houseworks: Cut the Clutter, Speed Your Cleaning and Calm the Chaos
by Cynthia Townley Ewer
from DK ADULT
America's leading housekeeping expert shows you how to de-clutter, organize, and clean your home, with easy-to-remember tips for every job, from keeping your bathroom clean and doing the laundry to sorting out paperwork and organizing the family photo album. Where there is hope, there is help. You can win the chore wars!
- Author, founder, and editor of the top-ranked website OrganizedHome.com
- Introduces easy-to-remember tips for organizing the home
- Step-by-step photographs throughout show how easy it is to reach your goal
Eliminate Chaos: The 10-Step Process to Organize Your Home and Life
by Laura Leist
from Sasquatch Books
