Clea Shearer

Declutting books are my brain candy reading. This is not a decluttering book per se, but rather organizing decluttered stuff, so close enough.

The photos in here are gorgeous. Drool-worthy photos if you love pretty organization. Visual candy. Lovely layout & printing job too.

But. But. But... the book itself is completely ridiculous, imo. And I even like organizing by color (one of their main suggestions)!

As the impact of plastics continues to be noted (need I say, in a bad way) worldwide, show more this book encourages you to buy, buy, buy plastic bins for almost everything. And, hey! Don't forget -- vinyl stickers (plastic) are included in the back of the book too. Even if you're fine with that, you need a pretty large budget, I'm guessing, because they say you should buy oodles of organizing pieces (more than you need) w/ the option to return some later. Lots of famous name-dropping throughout, as in, "We did celebrity abc's house, isn't it gorgeous!" and "Wow, we're so in love with celebrity xyz's house, which we also did." (Not direct quotes, by the way, but you get the picture....) I realize we're a media-driven age with "influencers" shilling over-consumption 24/7, but please, grow up already.

As far as actual organizing advice, this book has pretty slim pickings. There are a few notes & ideas, but that's about it. Although they tout solutions for everyone & every space, my opinion is that if you want to achieve even one iota of what they photograph, you need a modern home with pristine white walls, hardwood floors of some sort, modern, minimal kitchens, & practically new [insert every object in your house] in perfect rainbow hues for organizing. No help for those who have folding doors, laminated kitchen floors from the '70s, stained cabinets, old paneling, mismatched dishes, minimal closet/storage space, or carpet/paint/furniture/items that might have seen better days. There's not a lot of "how to" in this book, though they claim to share their process so that anyone can achieve the same results. They are obviously successful with an elite client-base; it also looks like their clients probably didn't need much organization to begin with. (I don't know. Before & after photos might have helped here had they truly worked some organization miracles. Instead, every photo looks as if the clients tossed everything, moved into a new home, & bought all new stuff to be organized in a pretty way.) If they can't clearly elucidate their actual process (which, imo, they don't) & can't make it applicable to everyone (as they proclaim), they shouldn't publish it as a "how to" book aimed at the general public. Instead, they should have omitted the "advice/how to" portion & printed the Instagram-worthy photos as a coffee table photo book for organizing nerds.

Summary: Pretty photos but utterly laughable as an information source. show less

Nothing says bougie white woman like admiring photos of white pantries in which all of the food has been put in matching clear plastic containers with labels. While there are many specific reactions to images or text that seemed important to capture, the real reason I didn't love the book is that the aesthetic gets boring really fast.

...as much as i love color-coding, they go too far...way too many pictures of tall shelves with shallow containers just to fill up space...too many things show more stacked on things which is a pain in the ass...the whole "relatable" less than perfect mommy schtick left me unable to relate...sat with my son going through and being appalled and flagging shit...looking at that playroom I think "Gwenyth hates kids" and why do they keep putting kids stuff on the 7 foot shelf?..It's not actually important to label things in clear plastic containers, especially when you can't read the label against the color or pattern of the visible content ...way too much plastic! Putting backpacks in baskets in cubbies? Wtf?...Mandy Moore's pantry looks like it has been staged for the realtor's open house or an HGTV dream home tour...p 9: "no, your daughter will not want that shirt one day" just wrong! The young people love vintage and thrifting and upcycling. Admittedly, most of us can't afford to store everything in case our kids do one day want it, and it's impossible to guess which shirts they will want, but some of those shirts, yeah...p 15 looks like some mom on facebook...p 141 OK, you really do suck as a parent. You should not purge your child's belongings when they aren't looking. You may ask them to select items to donate or store, but if you think your kids have too much shit then don't buy so much, but it is always wrong to steal from people, even your kids. If you don't approve of gift bag stuff then find an alternative and promote it....p 145 who thinks a playroom with a bunch of breakable vases is a good idea? And while I fully support the right of everyone to shelve their books however they like, I do think you're missing several points if you invariably arrange books by color...seeing once again a vast supply of single use water in plastic bottles reinforces my sense that the world is fundamentally fucked. Why are the vegetable bins in the fridge labeled, but not the leftoners? Why are the Froot Loops in heavy glass jars on the upper shelves?

It's amazing really. I've read a million home organizing books because I love the pretty pictures and find them soothing. Marie Kondo is the ideal here, so calm, but also, so warm and personal. This is the opposite: stylized, rigid, commercial and just insanely excessive. When the revolution comes...It's illogical, but all those tiny bottles of water make me think of Flint and a feeling that no one should ever have enough money to insulate them from the gross inequities of our society. All that scrupulously maintained whiteness, all of the things taken out of their packaging in order to be placed in multiple levels of more new packaging, it starts to feel evil.

Library copy show less

Best for:
People who like to look at interior design porn. People who want to organize. People who have some measure of disposable income.

In a nutshell:
Joanna and Clea share their organizing philosophy, room by room, and share some gorgeous photos of different options. Also some famous people’s pantries.

Worth quoting:
“We know you’re fantasizing about all your dry goods in pretty jars — and they’ll get there! — but first, be realistic about your time, experience, and show more abilities.”

Why I chose it:
I binged The Home Edit on Netflix over the last couple of weeks and needed to get the book.

Review:
I am an extremely organized person. Seriously, probably one of the most organized people I know.

And yet …

Moving house in the middle of the pandemic meant that things just got shoved pretty much anywhere. And because my partner and I rent a place in London, it came partially furnished. On the plus side - we have loads of storage, which is rare in the UK. On the negative - there’s literally no rhyme or reason to how we unpacked. And one of the closets - affectionately dubbed ‘the murder closet,’ because, trust me it’s creepy as hell - has a lot of the landlords items we don’t need (this place used to be an AirBnB).

So, I’ve purchased and read the book, and am slowly making my way through my house. Yesterday, I worked on what has become my home office. I edited out a lot of things I didn’t know I had still kept (shoved into one of the fabric cubes I bought when we moved in, in an attempt to have some sense of order), figured out what (if any) organizers I needed (finally got a monitor stand!), and will finish up when that stand arrives this week.

Today I moved into our bedroom. I’ve not yet tackled the wardrobe, but I have taken a go at our nightstands and a couple of other areas in the room where things are stored (a function of using other peoples’ furniture). I also did tackle the murder closet, and while it’s not going to show up in Style magazine any time soon, I think I’ve worked out a system that will work for us.

Joanna and Clea are not Marie Kondo, but they’re not in opposition to her. They just go a bit further in directing the reader as to how, once they’ve pared their belongings down to things that we need or that spark joy (as Ms Kondo would say), we can keep them organized in both a visually pleasing and a useful way.

The authors are also funny. Their little quips here and there make reading a book on organizing entertaining. The only drawback is that their solutions require a lot of containers and dividers and while those items are not exorbitantly expensive, they can add up, and may not be accessible to everyone.

Look, there’s so much going on in the world right now. Is having an organized home the priority? Nope. But I think better, I manage life better, I just exist better when my shit is organized. And this book is helpful.

Recommend to a Friend / Donate it / Toss it:
Recommend to a Friend show less

First sentence: All day long, we take things out and we put things away. Everything has a home! You just have to know where it is. Where do toys go? In the bins! Where do books go? On the bookshelf!

Premise/plot: A board book concept book on tidying up. It is more about teaching kids to be responsible--at least in part--for tidying up.

My thoughts: I never knew I needed this book. It is a simple book, in some ways. I love the question and answer format. I don't necessarily love, love, love show more the illustrations. However I enjoyed the text. show less