Survey #296—Full Response from CJ
| Pronouns | She/her |
|---|---|
| What useful decluttering or organizing strategies or methods did you take away from the book? | I didn’t take away any new strategies or methods that I hadn’t heard before. |
| What parts or aspects of the book did you find difficult to grasp or challenging to apply to your home or situation? | 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. |
| Please share your favorite quotations or key ideas and concepts from this book. | 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) |
| Wolf's “Rule for Purging” is that you must either use an item or “superduperlove” it. How does this differ from other decluttering methods you’ve tried, and does it make it easier or harder to purge stuff? | 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 |
| Wolf introduces the idea of a Triangle of Productivity—relying heavily on the combination of your email, calendar, and to-do list to manage your tasks and responsibilities. | 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. |
| Star Rating | 3 |
| 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. | Can you talk again about the mental blocks and challenges behind asking for help and paying a personal organizer, respectively? Like shame/embarassment or the cost vs value. |
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
