Martha Stewart's Organizing

Description

The ultimate guide to getting your life in order—with hundreds of practical and empowering ideas, projects, and tips—from America’s most trusted lifestyle authorityTrust Martha to help you master all things organizing—sorting, purging, tidying, and simplifying your life—with smart solutions and inspiration. Here, she offers her best guidance, methods, and DIY projects for organizing in and around your home. Topics include room-by-room strategies (how to sort office paperwork, when to purge the garage or attic), seasonal advice (when to swap out bedding and clothing, how to put away holiday decorations), and day-by-day or week-by-week plans for projects such as de-cluttering, house cleaning, creating a filing system, overhauling the closet, and more. Martha’s indispensable expertise walks you through goal-setting, principles of organizing, useful supplies, and creating systems for ongoing success. A look into Martha’s own personal calendars offers a template for scheduling essential tasks. Last, plenty of strategies, how-tos, timelines, and checklists will help you stay organized all year long. Review: Simple and elegant organizing complete with calendars - Two sections in this book; seasonal by month--things to do to organize your life but organizing not just with an eye to maintenance of your dwelling, but also maintenance of your lifestyle. So in January, when you are likely to be eyeing a new workout routine, sign up for a yoga class. When you are gathering your forms for tax season, schedule an appointment with your advisor. February: a short month, deep winter. Start a knitting project. Sharpen garden tools for later in the season, get a sitter for Valentines Day dinner. You get the drift. Then the second part of the book is organization by subject, bathroom, bedroom, living area, kitchen, entryway. What I love about this book are the calendars and also the lovely photos, which you would of course expect from Martha Stewart. But there are also suggestions of things that can help organize you, such as roll out shelves for your bathroom vanity. And what to store there (such as a first aid kit) and what to put somewhere else because it's not used as frequently. There are many decluttering and organizing books but this book is very appealing and readable. It follows a bit of the advice of "Fly Lady" who suggests daily, weekly, and monthly routines in a book to keep you from being overwhelmed at any one time and on track. This book is more aesthetic in nature but as such, it's inspiring. And it's very practical advice; for example kitchen. What do you keep on the counter? So, Martha suggests putting essential tools in a drawer within arm's reach of the stove or sort them into crocks by type (spoons, whisks, tongs.) She suggests felt pad glides for on-counter appliances so you can shove them back against the wall when not in use, and forward for cleaning behind the. I never thought of that one--good idea for the big mixer. Lots of small helpful tips, for example, washing your sponge in the dishwasher doesn't really work so well (this is true.) Put the sponges in a net bag and run them on hot water with big towels. Another hint I can verify; make sure when you are constructing or remodeling your kitchen island, you have an electrical outlet. And install hooks or a towel rod for kitchen towels. Lots of good ideas, very readable book and very nice to look at. Review: Well organized - Great tips