Survey #258—Full Response from Sandra
| What useful decluttering or organizing strategies or methods did you take away from the book? | I regret this book was not available to me when my children were little. No, I did not declutter back then, and I had more stuff that I could manage. I also organized the invisible spaces first, thinking I would make room to store the overflow, which I did but more was coming in constantly. Total waste of my time! |
|---|---|
| What parts or aspects of the book did you find difficult to grasp or challenging to apply to your home or situation? | A bit too much emphasis on trash, something at least we did right. |
| Please share your favorite quotations or key ideas and concepts from this book. | A heartwarming quote in chapter 23: Decluttering isn't easy. It's heart-wrenching, takes time, and requires changing the way you've done things in the past and the way you view your stuff. Also, in chapter 25: Don't start with the stuff that makes you feel like you're donating a piece of your soul. |
| White suggests a decluttering process that requires making a final decision about each item (keep, trash, or donate) and placing the item in its appropriate home right away rather than into a “keep pile” or “keep box” for later organizing. If you’ve used her method, how has the “take it there right now” approach worked for you? What are the pros and cons of her suggested strategy? | Cons - Hers is a very hands-on approach. It takes a lot of time to see results. Pros - I fully agree with the "take it there right now" approach. My personal variation: when our children were little and I didn't have enough time or energy to tidy up, my goal was to have any random items taken to the right floor (we have 3 floors we use). Then it progressed to all items going to their proper room, and nowadays I store things right where they belong almost "right now". |
| A big part of White’s decluttering philosophy is the “container concept”—the idea of setting firm limits on the containers you use to hold your stuff, where “containers” are understood to mean the boxes, bins, racks, baskets, drawers, cabinets, shelves, etc., that you use to hold stuff, as well as the rooms that must contain the containers—and then decluttering to fit those limits. If you’ve used her method, how has the “container concept” helped or hindered your decluttering? What are the pros and cons of her methodology? Are there areas or categories of stuff for which it works better than others? | Just one comment: the container method is very good for clothes. When you start keeping clothing items away from their "normal" storage, then you lose track of what you have. Non-transparent containers are the graveyard of storage, even with labels. |
| White suggests following the “visibility rule”: Start every session of decluttering in the most visible places in your home. If you’ve used her method, how has the “visibility rule” helped or hindered your decluttering? What are the pros and cons of her suggested approach? | I found this method counterintuitive as I answered earlier, but now I know it makes sense. When I started to enjoy a decluttered space on a daily basis, I kept decluttering instead of trying to free up storage space in the depths of my house. |
| Here’s your chance to ask Gayle and Ed any question you’re curious about. It need not be related to this survey’s topic(s). If we think that your question—and our answer—might be useful or instructive to The Clutter Fairy Weekly audience, we’ll share them in an upcoming episode. | What will be the next reading assignment ? |
Be the first to comment!
Comment on this survey response
Please use the form below to share a comment on this survey response. We ask that you keep your comments courteous and respectful. Polite disagreement is fine, but abusive language won’t be tolerated. Your comment will be held briefly for moderation after submission.
"*" indicates required fields
