Survey #296 results
| Name (click to view full survey response and comments) | What useful decluttering or organizing strategies or methods did you take away from the book? | What parts or aspects of the book did you find difficult to grasp or challenging to apply to your home or situation? | Please share your favorite quotations or key ideas and concepts from this book. | How has Wolf’s Rule for Purging worked for you? What are the pros and cons of this approach? | How has applying the Triangle of Productivity helped you with time and task management? What are the pros and cons of this approach? | Star Rating |
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| CJ | I didn’t take away any new strategies or methods that I hadn’t heard before. | Just getting through reading the book. Her tone came off from the beginning like that snarky organized friend who tells you: “It’s easy. It’s mostly junk so just get rid of it. That’s all.” (see page 8 & 9). From then on, I struggled to get through the rest of her cliff notes of other organizers’ already published ideas. | Resist the urge to buy organizers first. Just start. Break it down into small chunks. Set a short timer. Aim for imperfectly better. “Your workspace = current projects and basic tools only.”(p32) | It’s the American version of the Marie Kondo idea and, in principle, it makes sense. In reality, if just knowing that concept alone worked for most of us, then we wouldn’t be reading yet another organizing book. Before that can work, often we need to get more clarity on the mental & emotional clutter. Two books that did this well for me are: —Andrew Mellen’s Unstuff Your Life —April Scott Tandy’s The Mindful Art of Space Making | It’s alright. David Allen explains more thoroughly how to actually do it. The pros are not losing track of anything due to relying on visual reminders alone. I’m still not keen on long to-do lists which backfires on my brain but if something is important it goes straight into my calendar or reminders. | 3 |
| Em | The Big Bucket Method was reinforced. | Electronic lists. I got inspired, opened the electronic list and organizing system that is native on my computer, couldn't understand how it worked, called Apple for help. After learning how to use it, I finally had to give it up, because the way I list jobs now is simpler and quicker. | Make new habits to make a change. This was not a new concept, but I think the book finally hit it home for me. | The things I superduperlove usually do not function as well as my old, junky items. The new space heater, for example, is neat and clean looking with a small footprint, but it doesn't heat as well as the clunky one that is at least 50 years old, rusty, and has a broken handle. In clothing, it may be the beautiful item I love that looks really good on me versus the one that is already beat up enough that I am not afraid to wear it (possibly from too many experiences around rowdy nieces with food). The list goes on. | I think it would work for people with a busy life. however, my calendar is usually empty. Empty days and weeks stretch ahead, making to-do lists seem irrelevant. When something is scheduled, I suddenly see what needs to be done and swing into action, but I usually have less than an hour warning for any activities involving others. | 3 |
| Jacqueline | I like that she has a huge collection of resources for how to pass on or recycle almost anything that you no longer want to keep in your house. | I felt like only a small part of the book was actually about decluttering, and the process of making decisions on what to keep and what to let go of. She does give a list of questions to ask about your items, but she kind of assumes that it will be easy to just rid of most of your things. | I think she is very practical when she talks about how and where to store items in your house. The things you use most often should be very easy to get to and to put away when you’re finished with it. | If I didn’t love it, I wouldn’t have brought it home. I think it can be helpful for some things, but I don’t think that it can be the only thing to consider, and still have a functional house. I think combining it with Dana K Whites container concept is more helpful because even though you may love all the things, some will be more favorite. If you put those in the container first, when it’s full the rest can go, not because you don’t love them, but because there’s no more room. | I thought the triangle of productivity was very similar to what David Allen talks about in his book Getting Things Done. I read that book a few months ago and have been using to do lists and my digital calendar more than I was before and it is working very well for me. I find that I am much more likely to do a thing and do it more quickly if it is written on a list than if I just tell myself to do the thing. | 4 |
| Sandra | She adds a lot of humor to decluttering and organizing. | It's best for US-based readers. | On page xix - Letting books go: "And you are still a smart person, even without a copy of The Catcher in the Rye." I still remember donating a book on Canadian history that I NEVER read but that made me think highly of myself 🙂 And I also liked on page 30: "Life changes. Change with it." | This is what I try to do because it makes letting go easier. The cons is that you feel a little guilty when you keep useful stuff you don't especially love. It takes a long time to replace some things with prettier or better quality items. For instance, it took me several years to find a new home for a futon before I could buy a better looking sofa-bed. | Her method works great. I don't use the apps she recommends but my email is no longer a giant to-do list and this year I finally decided to stop using a paper calendar, a big leap of faith for me. | 4 |
| Dawn | Having the two levels for TO TO items as well as FILE items. I liked her casual "when I have time." I've actually started it in one of my desk file drawers and added a couple more categories of my own. I appreciated the photo of the top of her desk. I'm working on getting my printer underneath my desk so I'll have more space on top of it. | Since I have a different way to file, I'm not sure if I totally buy her "all of the files at the same tab point." Mine would never look the way she suggested they might. For my filing, I have certain letters at certain tab points, so it will always make sense. I'll have to look into the digital parts of things she suggested, to see if they're even a possibility. I'm naturally such a paper person. | Her comments about perfection. It's always nice to be brought back to reality and consider it a work in progress until things get finalized. | It makes it hard to purge stuff because it's so drastic as if the goal is minimalism (DH wouldn't complain!). I HAVE gotten better about getting rid of things. Yesterday I got rid of a bedspread and blanket...took it to a vet to use. Both had emotional ties: the blanket from a dear aunt (she made it) and the bedspread was from when we got married almost 18 years ago. Even though I fixed the bedspread with a friend a couple of years ago, I had to look at it and the blanket and see the reality, that they were both getting to be threadbare. I'm also starting to get honest about some of my clothes, that since losing weight, they're actually too big and someone else can enjoy them. | I haven't got to that step yet...one thing at a time. Going through the paper part first. ***** FYI - At first I didn't like the book because there wasn't a heart identification with how fun it is to be creative and have all of these resources. 🙂 After I got over that, I started to read it more and gain an appreciation of it. | 5 |
| C | Allocate enough time to put things back when done. | Challenging at the moment is finding the best place for certain items. Because I avoid changing things for my husband. He doesn't do well when I do that, even if he agrees it would be more logical. | Haven't tried her program, though much makes a lot of sense. Yet, I'm glad I saved some things for a bit longer than I needed them; these are now being used and appreciated by others. | I have a general to do list on my phone, I also have a family calender, and i sometimes send myself emails as reminders, esp if I'm away from my desk. I need to set up an electronic based shopping list to which I can add to, but also my husband can see if he forgets paper list. Until now I've photographed list and sent it via WhatsApp. But an ongoing list would be better. | 3 | |
| Name (click to view full survey response and comments) | What useful decluttering or organizing strategies or methods did you take away from the book? | What parts or aspects of the book did you find difficult to grasp or challenging to apply to your home or situation? | Please share your favorite quotations or key ideas and concepts from this book. | How has Wolf’s Rule for Purging worked for you? What are the pros and cons of this approach? | How has applying the Triangle of Productivity helped you with time and task management? What are the pros and cons of this approach? | Star Rating |
