About this title: Peter Walsh has won over millions of people, including Oprah, with his good humour and reassuring advice as he's coached viewers through the process of de-cluttering their homes and reclaiming their space and their lives. Now, in It's All Too Much, he challenges you to answer a very simple but scary question: Does the stuff you own contribute to ...
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Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Free Press
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780743292641ISBN:0743292642
Description: Very Good in Very Good jacket. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. Dustjacket has light shelf wear. Pages are clean and unmarked-no notes or highlighting. Binding is tight. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Free Press
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780743292641ISBN:0743292642
Description: New in new dust jacket. Has remainder mark; could have slight shelf wear; book is new, unread. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 230 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Free Press
Date Published: 2006-12-12
ISBN-13:9780743292641ISBN:0743292642
Description: Very Good. Text is clean and bright. No names, no remainder marks, no stickers. Binding is tight and square. One minor crease in D. Looks GREAT! Careful packaging and fast shipping. We recommend EXPEDITED MAIL for even faster delivery! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Free Press
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9780743292641ISBN:0743292642
Description: Very Good-Used in Very Good jacket. / 0743292642. Remainder mark on bottom. Light shelf wear to Dj.; Ships with confirming email. 100% money back guarantee. read more
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. back cover has tear. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 230 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: Fine. 0743292642 Very light shelf wear / edge wear cover / pages like new condition//"Buy with Confidence-Satisfaction Guaranteed! Customer Service Makes All the Difference. " read more
"This is the first thing I've read on organizing, simplifying, etc, so everything was new. And hopefully nothing was very novel because it all seemed pretty commonsensical. As with books on overeating, I appreciate it when they recognize and address a range of motivations. I read some of the negative reviews before starting the book and was then perplexed when he said the opposite. You're 'allowed' to keep pretty much everything. It's also nice he doesn't start with buying any file boxes, etc. The target market is very much your basic nuclear family in a suburban house, while I live alone in an apartment, but it was easy enough to skim past the irrelevant stuff and it doesn't seem there would be any missing advice specific to my scenario. I'm preparing to both move and combine households in about six months, and getting rid of a lot of things (especially things in storage) ahead of the move is the plan. This book contained some excellent motivators towards that end, especially in terms of rationale for throwing things out. The idea of mapping out your intended purpose for each room seems equally helpful when choosing a new home too, to make sure it will accommodate those goals in the first place. I also really liked the idea of bookmarking items on a retailer's website rather than keeping the catalogs. He's not a reader, though. Reading 3-4 books per week is hardly impossible. And I'm sorry but there are not millions of households in the U.S. that never throw away anything. Either 'millions' or 'never' was hyperbole."
"I'll start with some background. I consider myself a fairly organized person, and I throw a lot of stuff out. I don't buy a lot. It's common for me to walk through a store and come out without making a purchase. I do not feel the need to acquire lots of stuff to make my life whole. I can find my keys, my papers, and my wallet -- immediately.
Nonetheless, after reading just a few chapters into this book, I put it down and yanked some photos and papers off my shelf -- items I did not want but felt obligated to keep track of for various reasons -- and threw them in the recycling. Freedom!
I went through my clothes and threw out or donated everything I didn't wear (with, I admit, one exception -- but I'll get to it). I combed my bookshelf and recycled or donated whatever was not consistent with my life goals. Several of these "toss" books, I'll add, were titles I purchased years ago and never read. Looks like I need to think twice before I buy from Amazon! I pulled out everything from under the bed, recycled most of my old sketchbooks, donated things I didn't even know were under there.
I even dug into the dreaded "black hole" in the corner of my closet. A few items from there are still in my room, pending a usefulness check, but most of it is either in the trash or at Goodwill now. A few model horses that haven't seen the light of day for years went to neighbor girls who were happy to get them. Gone also are the cardboard boxes these things were stored in.
I continue to look for things I can throw out, and will think harder before bringing new stuff into my room. My purge showed me that some of my "must-have" purchases were really impulse buys. Others gave me pleasure at the time but have outlasted their usefulness to my situation. It was an eye-opening experience.
What really helped me see my possessions differently was the author's assertion, towards the beginning of the book, that de-cluttering is not about "the stuff." It's about envisioning the life you want to have, the ways you want to spend your time, and then going over your living space and eliminating everything that is not consistent with that vision. That's what I needed to hear before I could throw away certain items that were "owning me." If they were so important, why did I wish they would disappear and free me from having to keep track of them?
Since my big clean-up, I have been drawing and writing more freely. My mind is clearer. I feel better about myself and my surroundings. I hope to cut down on impulse spending on the future, and I'm sure having that clear vision for what I want to be and do will help me better evaluate purchases before I make them. I used to think I didn't have enough money, but now I see that I was spending a fair chunk of it on unneeded and ultimately unwanted items.
I also appreciated learning that "the space you have is all you have" and that clutter does not happen because your space is too small -- it happens because there's too much stuff for the space, and it's okay to live within your limits. In fact if you accept your limits instead of overstuffing a small space, you'll be much happier and accomplish more.
This book flies in the face of materialism, instant gratification, and other related pillars of popular culture. That's probably why it's so good at helping people de-"stuff" their homes.
Highly recommended. But really, you probably won't need to read it more than once, so get it from the library and avoid jamming up your bookshelf with more "once-reads" clutter."
"Viewers of TLC's Clean Sweep already know Peter Walsh, but he brings his guidance to the masses in an accessible, sensible book. All kinds of households - spouses, partners, roommates, families with kids, people with no kids - find themselves reflected in Walsh's scenarios, a refreshing change from many organizing books that assume the reader is a married woman with kids. He stresses that organization isn't really about the stuff being organized, it's about the life that the person wants to live. And then he tackles the house room by room, reminding the reader of his basic points at regular intervals. After a quick top-level decluttering and the in-depth organizing, he provides tips for maintaining a clutter-free house all year long, as well as how decluttering can affect a person's emotions, career, and relationships. While he does skirt around the fact that some people's hoarding may have serious roots that need the attention of a professional (remember, he's an organizer, not a doctor), this book serves as a great coach for those who want to clear out their stuff but just can't figure out where to start."
"This book was exactly what I needed, a comprehensive "how to de-clutter and take control of your stuff" book that actually spoke to me both about the how and the why. Walsh approaches it realistically with the knowledge that he's talking to pack rats (not neat freaks in a freak house cluttering accident), and acknowledges the fact that different people have different lifestyles and may need to attack things differently. Furthermore he presents things in a way that don't make you feel doomed from the start. Most importantly it gives some real reasons for clearing things out, well beyond "it certainly is a lot easier to find your keys" which I think is necessary to keep an inveterate collector (like myself) on task. There's some really insightful and helpful talk about what things represent to people and why they keep them which really brings home the fact that de-cluttering is not so much about finding your remote easily but living the life you envision for yourself. I highly recommend this book to anyone who feels even just a little bit that their stuff is taking on a life of its own."
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