Clutter

An Untidy History

By: Jennifer Howard

Narrated by: Emily Durante

Length: 5 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

"I'm sitting on the floor in my mother's house, surrounded by stuff."

So begins Jennifer Howard's Clutter, an expansive assessment of our relationship to the things that share and shape our lives. Sparked by the painful two-year process of cleaning out her mother's house in the wake of a devastating physical and emotional collapse, Howard sets her own personal struggle with clutter against a meticulously researched history of just how the developed world came to drown in material goods. With sharp prose and an eye for telling detail, she connects the dots between the Industrial Revolution, the Sears and Roebuck catalog, and the Container Store and shines unsparing light on clutter's darker connections to environmental devastation and hoarding disorder. In a confounding age when Amazon can deliver anything at the click of a mouse and decluttering guru Marie Kondo can become a reality TV star, Howard's bracing analysis has never been more timely.

©2020 Jennifer Howard (P)2020 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Enjoyable & Thought Provoking: credit worthy

Just finished listening to Clutter this morning. I thought I was doing a pretty good job of keeping clutter to a minimum. But until listening to this book I had not thought about the cost to society ( or to myself ) of the clutter I have. The book was engaging and motivating without being preachy. Now to see if any behavior changes stick. 😃😃

Disempowering and whiny

I expected this to be an interesting look at the history of stuff followed by practical ideas or methods for managing my clutter. Instead, it’s a whiny telling of a story that our stuff has been forced upon us since the Industrial Revolution, and that the only possible way to break the cycle requires exhausting work and large amounts money to amply overcome this three centuries’ long deluge of consumerism.
The only positive is the narrator’s well-done performance.

Thought Provoking

This book really makes you evaluate the effects that clutter has on us, those around us, our society and those worldwide. We must think before we buy.

Microcosm of a Much Bigger Problem

I am on another listening of this book. I find it to be a unique approach as it relates to bigger issues in our world. It causes you to think of our world itself. I find it a useful read.

Touches on a lot of useful information

Having listened to and read numerous organization/clutter books I feel this book was valuable in that it brought to my attention more thought provoking topics of where does everything go once you’ve donated or trashed your items. A few times I found my mind drifting elsewhere while I listened (chapter 2 and discussing trinkets and souvenirs from the Victorian Era) but the writer did a great job touching on many subjects and I feel there is room for her to go even further in another book regarding the discard of our country’s plastic and waste problems. She cites useful books that I’ve added to my library checklist and websites. 👍🏻 the narration was ok, too.

History lesson

Mostly a history of clutter, not particularly useful for how to handle it. The reading of it was okay though, something to listen to while cleaning.

It did not have any ideas on decluttering

Boring 15 word review is ridiculous. I’ve got better tighten things to do than that.

Interesting, but not helpful!

The author’s purpose seems to be simply to express the built up resentment toward her own mother. However, it’s not her mother’s fault; it’s because capitalism is evil. Yeah, I didn’t think that made sense either. I guess writing a book is cheaper than therapy.