Quick & Dirty:
- Perfect for someone who is taking the first steps to cleaning up their lives. I would not suggest this book to anyone who has been struggling to get their things in order for a long time.
- Good basic advice.
- Comprehensive, covers everything from your bedroom to your computer.
This book covers a broad range of topics, more than I would have expected from such a compact book. That being said, it is a short and compact book and so it gives you a brief overview of many areas as well as advice for dealing with these areas. There is no magic fix in here. If you've been through 3 cleaning self help books before, this one won't be any help.
This may have just been in the review version, but there was weird bolding that got a little annoying.
That's really all I had to say in general about the book. Here's some nit-picky things I want to supply my two cents on.
First the author talks about how expensive professional organizers are...but then suggests talking to your accountant to find out what paperwork is important to save and what can be destroyed...If I had the money for an accountant I'd probably be able to spend money on a professional organizer.
The rest of the review is about problems I had with her advice on a few topics.
-->Photos!!
Personally I think this bit of my review is pretty important if you care about your photos. The author suggests having them professionally scanned in and getting rid of the shoe boxes full of pictures...
- Imperfections become more obvious when scanned.
- MOST old photographs have some form of matte finish, the natural texture in the paper shows up as ripples or black dots in scans.
- Saving online is great until the service shuts down. You generally should be given notice but if a company suddenly goes bankrupt you may lose everything unless they are bought out. Yahoo cancelled their photo service years ago and I was too slow getting in there to save my photos. Remember to ALWAYS have hard copy backups of your files. And data CORRUPTS so they should be checked and updated periodically.
- If the service doesn't shut down you do need to be concerned with crashes and hacks. A few years ago Google got hacked into and people lost lots of emails, and probably more (I honestly didn't follow the story too closely).
- Last photo concern! If you did scan in everything and upload it to an account, if you stop using the account for a while you risk forgetting the password and changing email in the meantime...very unlikely hypothetical situation but it is possible.
-->Scanning receipts.
- Can be expensive for a decent scanner that will last more than a year or two.
- Lots of extra steps on the side (extra computer security etc.)
- Wonderful time-gobbling procrastination tool.
-->Wire ties for your wires behind your desk, tv stand, etc.
Well "wire ties" it's in the name right? Well...from personal experience they can be problematic if you want to shift things around later (and they can make cords too short, nothing worse that your keyboard being just a few inches too far back...) Also, if you accidentally tighten them too much they can be difficult to remove and you risk damaging wires.
I suggest you go to a discount store and buy the Velcro ones. I've seen them as cheap as $1 for 8 (and those were color coded). They are much easier to shift and remove later and they can be reused over and over.
-->Downsizing sentimental items.
I think the section on downsizing sentimental things is an overly simplistic view on a much deeper issue. I don't agree with this section but then again I'm a cluttered sentimental fool.
Wanna get cleaning? Check it out on Amazon.
Overall 3.5/5
***I received this book as an ARC. This in no way effected my review.***
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