Unstuff Your Life: Kick the Clutter Habit and Completely Organize Your Life for Good

Really enjoyed this book. As I go about simplifying my life, I find myself repeating key phrases such as "like with like" and "the thing is not the person". I even lecture myself on returning things to their designated homes when I get careless.

In a fulsome act of disorganization, I soon discovered that I had already read this book about a year ago, but continued with the audible version anyway, and quickly found that I had overlooked much valuable material during my first go-round. As I am already a fairly well-organized person, I had scanned or skipped whole pages during my first reading, figuring that certain sections did not apply to me. Arrogant fool. During the audible version, I discovered that every chapter contains valuable information.

I lost my husband to cancer 3 years ago and letting go of his belongings has been a difficult process. When I was ready, I donated most of his clothing; then I threw out university papers and essays, etc., the accoutrements of a life that were once significant but not particularly personally valuable. For the smaller yet somehow bigger things, author Mellen's advice helps me as I continue to struggle with memories such as theatre ticket stubs, stacks of photographs, his bedroom slippers, his e-mail address. I'm filing and organizing the treasures, discarding the duplicates or the unlovely photos in which my butt does indeed look big, and handing off special items to his family, who I know will value them. In a truly heartbreaking moment, I was forced to throw out the cards, love notes, and other special paper mementoes that I had temporarily stored in a plastic box. In the basement. Too late came Mellen's warning never to store paper-based valuables in the basement. These precious treasures were coated in black mould when I opened the box, and they could not be salvaged. I can only console myself with Mellen's observation that the thing is not the person.

Mellen's delivery is perfectly suited to the material, and he manages to inject humour into the narrative with a pause here and a little emphasis there. Well done.

I will keep the slippers.

Your purse needs a home. Don't let it follow you around the house from room to room like a lost puppy! - this line made me laugh so hard it was like flipping a switch in my brain. I was always looking for important stuff like keys and wallet and late for work because of it. The humorous imagery Mellen uses to point out the absurdism of living in chaos has helped me understand how my beliefs about stuff were keeping me drowning in it, and then he told me exactly how to deal with all my stuff.

I have already listened to it 3 times since purchasing a week ago.

Ready to get organized in the shortest possible time with a minimum of fuss? This is the book for you. This is no-nonsense advice from an expert who has worked out practical systems that really work. Andrew J. Mellen's two battle-cries, "A home for everything" and "Like with like," echo throughout the book and every organizing challenge. Anecdotes and stories about real people solving clutter problems help round out the more technical details.

A feature that sets this book apart is that it addresses electronic clutter -- e-mail, phone messages, computer files, etc..

Mellen's theater background comes through in his narration, and sets it apart from other author-narrated How-Tos. He brings genuine enthusiasm and an expert tone to his subject.

Mellen encourages his listeners to pace themselves through the many stages of organizing their lives. And, he gives helpful support and advice for parting with sentimental items -- a process that often takes time.

If you're serious about getting control of your clutter and simplifying your life, this book can really help.

This is easily the most likely to be put into practice. I have already pitched 4 huge garbage cans full of stuff. Terrific progress particularly since the stuff has been sitting on shelves in my office for over 10 years.

Gradually, I came to the realization that I was being controlled by a bunch of old books and magazines. I have not used it in years and in many cases have never opened them. I hung onto them even when I had to rent an extra office to store it all.

I now save $200 per month all from listening to this simple book.

Andrew Mellen gave me permission to unload my stuff, to be free from caring for it and from paying for it over and over through excess "carrying costs".

Remember, Don't Fear Sentimental Land.

I learned so much from this audible book. Now I'm going to go back and re-listen to see what I missed - and apply the lessons even more.

I will keep this book in my active library for a long time!!

"Everything has a home and Like goes with Like."

his humor and passion can be heard.

na

This was one of the best audio books I've listened to.

Andrew J Mellen causes you to analyze what your problem organizational areas are and gives strategies to prevent you from falling back into old habits. Each chapter takes you into a living space in your home and helps you organize (after getting rid of the stuff) in a way that makes it easy to keep it that way.

Mellen's advice is to read a chapter, and tackle that space before going on to the next chapter. It's exactly what I did and it works.

If you've read a lot of books on organization, I think you'll find this one to be one of the most valuable in your library.

Sure. It serves more as a reference guide than a "read through once". The advice on organizing your file system was very good. I feel like I've finally got a handle on my personal files.

Good, simple, sound, logical advice.

No.

Clearly the author has had some emotional and panicky clients, because he spent a large portion of the book telling the reader to take a deep breath, don't panic, etc. Just a little too much cheerleading for my tastes, but if you ignore that, the information contained within is good.

This great book is in a category all it's own. It's a "How to" book to get your life in order (in terms of efficiency) so you have more time to read more books, work, or get to all those other projects/priorities you have been waiting to accomplish your whole life. I now feel organized and at peace with my time management - thank you!

Great voice.

I was able to listen to this book over a couple of weeks while doing housework. Following the ideas in this book has cut my housework down to consuming only a fraction of my time - from 20 disorganized hours cleaning house per week down to 6-7 productive hours each week buying me more time to do the things I want to do. I'm already an organized person in some areas of my life, but the book reminded me to become organized in what I thought were unimportant areas and it feels great!

A systematic process for decluttering

He is certainly passionate. Better than most authors narrating their own books.

His systems and processes

Totally worth the listen. I know using his approach will help me.

Simplify, expel,move on

Don't berate yourself

This guy is tough, in a nice kind of way. If you have a friend who is OCD they really need to listen to this as they may hate him and then learn to love him. He has a tough narration style, point blank, do it and move on - kind of like a nice army sergeant - yeah right! Anyway, if you really need to get your stuff sorted you will appreciate the tough narration.

duty sergeant meets paper clip and the paper clip wins!