Last month was organizing month, but I certainly didn’t get organized in a month! We are constantly trying to figure out new ways to keep ourselves, our home, our children and all our stuff organized. After reading this book, 5 Days to a Clutter Free House, by Sandra Felton and Marsha Sims, I think our biggest problem is the up keep. I’d have to be on my children 24/7 for them to pick up and put away everything they touch each day; and I grow weary of doing so and give up all too often rather than keeping on, keeping on.

5 Days to a Clutter Free House provides a step-by-step plan of action to help you get your house organized in less than a week, as the title suggests. It may seem impossible if you are buried in a cluttered mess but the authors use the approach of gathering a team of people to help you and they give you tips on how to gather that team together too. Since we are a family of ten I plan on getting the whole family working on our problem areas so we can get our house in order before my mom arrives in a little over two weeks. Think drill Sargent!

The first part of the book is about “Getting it Under Control” and the second part is maintaining the order you created in just five days.

I liked the plan of action the authors provided. Many of their suggestions are very similar to what we do when doing a major cleaning. We get the children to make 3-4 piles: toys, clothes, garbage and papers/school work or books depending on what we are items are laying around. We usually use bags, but I like the idea of boxes. New boxes to stack and keep things in order as you put every thing back in its place…seems like a small expense to pay for order in the home.

I liked the biblical basis of where order comes from and we often quote it to our children, “God is not a God of chaos but order”, after all he didn’t hang the trees upside down, right?

I enjoyed reading the list of what disorganized people tend to be like in the preface of the book…page 9…if you want to look it up to see if you fit the description. Then later on page 27 they say this, “Messies tend to be perfectionists at heart.” Sound like you? Don’t worry you aren’t alone!

I think this book would be an encouragement to anyone dealing with clutter as it does give a solid plan of how to create order out of the clutter. I think the key to maintaining order is creating new habits, as the second half of the book recommends.

“Available February 2013 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.”

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