The Next Two Books

You may recall our plan to each read one of the six decluttering books and then swap them. After doing that, we would each choose the next books to read and swap them.

While decluttering we have continued faithfully reading the books. The first two that I summarized previously were Decluttering at the Speed of Life by Dana K. White and The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo.

Both books were great and we used the knowledge to start the decluttering process I have been writing about.

We had realized that 4 of the books were directly about decluttering and the other two on topics related to it. So we started with 2 of the four books and then we moved on to the next 2 of those four books.

My second book was It’s All Too Much by Peter Walsh and my wife’s second book was Declutter Like A Mother by Allie Casazza.

Again, we read our books and then swapped and then discussed them. So now I can talk about them.

Once again, both books were insightful, interesting, and helpful. These authors do a good job of explaining their ideas and providing motivation and a plan or system for decluttering your house. As before, both authors have worked for thousands of people and each author does approach decluttering differently.

Peter Walsh was part of the show “Clean Sweep” where “a team of experts had forty-eight hours to help a family get uncluttered and organized.” He has had a lot of very visible decluttering experience that he shares.

Allie Casazza is a mother that learned how to put her house (and herself) together and began doing it for other people. She also developed a program for helping your kids declutter with the joint effort of a friend who’s educated in family therapy. (I did not use that program, but it is something that she offers.)

Peter Walsh is the only man in the six books we read. Perhaps that is why I related to his book and approach more than the others. In a similar way, Allie Casazza is a woman and a mother and this book is definitely aimed at that demographic. I still found a lot of value in it, but her voice throughout the book is meant to support and encourage other moms to get their house together. If you are a mom with younger kids trying to get control of your house, you might feel like she understands you and is speaking directly to you.

Allie wants you to start decluttering in the bathroom. She feels that (as do ALL the authors) decluttering is much harder than most people think, so she would like you to start in a place that few people see and the decisions are easier. This way you can practice and get used to the process, deal with some of the emotions and have a little experience before tackling harder areas.

Peter has you start with getting rid of trash (super easy, no decision to make with that one!) and then anything that is obviously broken or unused. His idea is to get into the flow of things with a general light decluttering of easy stuff. This will get the overall amount of clutter down a little before you even truly begin.

Peter is also very big on the function of a room. He has blank forms in the book you can copy and have family members fill out to make sure that everyone’s vision for each individual room matches. If people see the same room as serving different functions, Peter reasons that it will be difficult to ever have that room truly decluttered because it will always have things in there that are seen as clutter by other members of the family.

The whole family needs to be on the same page on what the functions of a particular room are. And it does not have to be just one thing. The same room can serve several different purposes. But the family needs to all know and agree on those purposes and then the room set up to support them. Everything else needs to go away from that room.

We did this with our family and it was interesting to get everyone’s input and hear what each family member’s perspective was on the different rooms in the house. Fortunately, most of us were in agreement, but there were some interesting discussions about a room or two.

Both authors offer strategies, ideas and encouragement, just like the previous two. All authors have a blueprint to follow when dealing with each room or category. These blueprints are very similar with subtle differences.

At this point, that’s all I really have to say on these two books in particular.

All 4 books are worth reading. They will all get you there. It’s just a matter of which one clicks for you.

Peter Walsh is more analytical and process oriented. He really focuses on the purpose of each room.

Allie Casazza offers a lot of steps, understanding and encouragement for mothers with younger children. (It’s in the title of her book!)

Dana White is intended for people who do not feel like they can just dive-in to a decluttering process. Really going after it can make your house a bigger mess, not smaller, initially. And it takes a lot of time. Her book is centered around helping you declutter a little bit at a time, eventually arriving at the same place, but occurring while life is still going on over a longer time period.

Marie Kondo’s system is the opposite of Dana and intended to be done quickly and utilizes an almost spiritual approach to streamlining your home. Some people do not like that aspect, but I think it is very helpful in dealing with the emotional side of parting with stuff. And I do not think the difficulty of that side can be overstated. It is the hardest part and I think Marie deals with that the best.

All of the authors want you to start easy.

Some want you to start with visible areas so that you get a big, immediate reinforcement once you see such a prominent area looking open and clean. Plus, you get feedback from guests right away. Others want you to start on smaller areas where you can practice. Still others want you to start in private, intimate areas were you spend time so that you have a haven that is clean and decluttered to renew yourself. A place you can retreat to that is put together and will inspire you to continue moving forward with decluttering. Others want you to tackle things in batches, knocking out areas and categories of stuff, bringing down the overall level of clutter across the house together as each category is lightened.

Which book would I pick as best at this point?

It’s hard to say. As a man, I really like Peter Walsh. He is analytical and straight forward and that speaks to me. Allie Casazza is very much directed to women, so hers was my least favorite, but only by comparison. I still really liked her book and her thoughts. The other two fall in between, but it’s like an Olympic race. Even the slowest runner is still lightning fast and only a hair behind first place.

My wife’s favorite was Marie Kondo’s book with her “all in one go” approach and only keeping those things that spark joy in your life.

I don’t think I can pick just one. I found so much value in all four and I find that my wife and I use parts of all them and their systems as we are going. We will quote different parts of different books to each other in different situations. I’m grateful I got to read all of them.

If none of the summaries above speaks to you more than the others, you can’t go wrong with any of these books.

The biggest key is to get one, read it and then get started. You can’t go wrong.