I'm pretty much 'meh' about Crawford's story about her tidying up journey. I found her writing chaotic and full of angst, so the narrative came across more as a personal discovery of how a minimalist approach works for her.

One of her best insights was the comment that Minimalism has such an all-or-nothing ring to it, requiring an unwavering devotion. While I can see her point, I've never felt that way about the minimalist philosophy. Why would it occur to anyone that they have to clean sweep everything and reduce to the bare minimum? But then I arrived at a less cluttered home environment having read other influential books on the topic.

By the time I arrived at Rachelle Crawford's book, 10 years had passed. And I think that's a key point that was lost in her book. It takes time to learn how to tidy up your own home in a way that suits you: the time factor is big in the process. She does talk about fitting the minimalist concept to personal style however.

One last critique: the e-book is substantially more readable than the physical print copy. The font size and greyed-out colour is dreadfully difficult to read (in the physical book). On an e-reader or browser, one can enlarge the print; on my Kobo, I could also darken the print colour. So I recommend the digital format if you think this book might be the way to declutter and tidy up your home. ( )

This author is engaging, and I would recommend this to those interested in paring down their life. I don’t feel as though I got much out of this read; everything has already been said in other works, and I don’t think her “messy minimalism” take is that much different as I don’t think anyone is enforcing all-white harsh starkness any longer (or maybe they are—I’m not big on following what’s on the socials). ( )