When Organizing Isn’t Enough: SHED Your Stuff, Change Your Life

When Organizing Isn’t Enough: SHED Your Stuff, Change Your Life by Julie Morgenstern       Audio Book:  10 hours, 30 mins.   Paperback Book:  288 pages               

I enjoy reading about organizing, it is a carry over from Niecy Nash’s show “Who Wants a Clean House?” that I used to love watching (Niecy come back!)   Niecy got me hooked on organizing and her assistant Trish with all of her visits to the Container Store got me thinking of ways to repurpose, reuse and restore a lot of things.   This book is in keeping with that genre.   Julie Morgenstern is another guru of organizing all that stuff that accumulates in your closet, in your guest room, in your living room/family room everywhere from home to work great ideas.    Her S.H.E.D. plan stands for her organizing theory:

Separate the treasures – the stuff you want to keep

Heave the rest – Easier said than done but her theory is to get rid of all the stuff you don’t love because that is what becomes clutter in your life and piles in your hallway, garage, etc.    Heaving the stuff doesn’t mean let it sit in the floor until you do something with it.   Now that you have culled the good stuff from the mediocre or unloved stuff that is just weighing you down Ms. Morgenstern says to get it up and out of your sight which means get it out of  the house heave that stuff out of your life and let it become someone else’s treasures.   Donate it or if it is in too sad a shape, dump it.

Embrace your identity from within.     Now that you know your likes from your dislikes address who you are in the now, not keeping a bunch of stuff you used to love but doesn’t have a place in your life for who you are today.   Hanging on to the past is like carrying baggage around with us.    It creates both mental and physical clutter in our lives.    Know the You that you are today and what you love today share your previous loves with others who will give them good homes – donate to Goodwill where others will peruse your donated goods with utter delight and you can feel good knowing your former loves have good homes.   It helps with the separation anxiety.

Drive yourself forward.    Once you have dealt with all the separation anxiety and booted out the old stuff and kept only what you love – look around – you are now surrounded by only things that you love.   Now drive yourself forward to only allow things in your environment that uplift you that make you happy and keep that honeymoon feeling with all your possessions by not bringing in things just because they are free, on sale or seem like something you might need someday.    Stay in the now, keep the glow of love in your heart when you are out.   Don’t let things jump into your hands or shopping cart unless you absolutely can’t live without them, they serve a purpose or fulfill a REAL not imagined or made up need and don’t clutter your finances by overspending to soothe your emotions.   Shopping therapy is as bad for you as eating 40 pounds of fat or sugar.    It feels good at the time, but, later you wish you hadn’t indulged yourself like that.    Drive yourself forward – stay positive – be creative- keep that happy euphoria going – don’t allow bad influences in to ruin your natural high of being surrounded by things you love.   That is a good metaphor for life when you think about it.

Good book.    I like this author’s work very much.   She is very down to earth and speaks to her reader not over their heads.    I will be reading more of her work.