One Year to an Organized Life by Regina Leeds Audiobook Review
I received this book for free from Library for review consideration, opinions expressed are 100% my own. This post contains affiliate links as indicated by an asterisk. Purchases from these links provides a small commission to me at no extra cost to you.
One Year to an Organized Life by Regina LeedsPublication Date: May 7, 2012
Format: Audiobook
Source: Library
Indie Bookstores
Goodreads
Great motivational book on home organization. Author provides helpful weekly to do lists to get your home organized one room per month.
Synopsis from Goodreads:
“Who would you be if you felt at peace and had more time and money? An organized life enables you to have more freedom, less aggravation, better health, and to get more done. For nearly twenty years, Regina Leeds-named Best Organizer by Los Angeles magazine-has helped even the messiest turn their lives around. Anyone can get organized-she’ll prove it to you! One Year to an Organized Life is a unique week-by-week approach that you can begin at any time of year. Regina helps you break down tasks and build routines over time so that life becomes simple, not overwhelming. This book will help you:Master time management Make your kitchen efficient; Permanently organize closets and drawers;Deal with your finances; Reclaim “dumping grounds” like the guest room, garage and basement;Declutter the kids’ rooms; Organize your travel plans-and the vacation photos and souvenirs; Entertain with joy. Regina reveals her magic formula for organizing anything, plus her method to stop the chronic cycles of clutter, misplaced items, and lateness. Whether you’re living in chaos or just looking for new ways to simplify, this essential book will help you get the whole household organized-and stay that way.”
My Thoughts
My family struggles with clutter. My justification for working full-time used to be that I could buy my family whatever we wanted, when we wanted it. That combined with our hoarding of papers, pictures, toys and every small kitchen appliance has resulted in jam packed cupboards and cabinets. I confess we even have boxes of pictures and stuff that I have not opened since we moved into our house 14 years ago. We all like to take things out, but we don’t always put things back where they belong.
I found this audiobook at my library and thought it would give me the motivation to get our clutter under control and our house organized and boy did it! I love how Ms. Leeds breaks down the organization projects, tackling a room each month. I love her “Zen organizer” approach to tackling the room: first, she asks questions that make you think about why it has gotten to this point; second, think about how you envision the space via dream boards (Pinterest woukd work well these days);third, get down to the nitty gritty of clearing out what is not needed and fourth, simple solutions to get it organized and keep it that way. I like how she breaks down a to-do list week by week to make the task more manageable and less overwhelming.
As a narrator, Ms. Leeds has that perfect calming Zen like voice. She explains her theories about clutter and organization clearly and gives relevant real life examples to help illustrate her points. She gives spiritual and motivational affirmations at the end of each chapter if you like that kind of thing. They are a bit cheesy for me but I take it with a grain of salt and as a reminder about how I should value myself, my home and the possessions that are important to me.
While the audiobook is very helpful, I think this is one of those books I will keep a hard copy of so I can take advantage of those to do lists and helpful advice. I have been tackling my closets one by one, and this book has helped me keep motivated in making our house more of a home. The best compliment came the other night when my oldest son told me he was glad I decided to stay home because I was happier and making our home nicer and more organized. I love small victories!
Do you feel like you can never achieve an organized home or are you and your family neat and tidy? How do you encourage your family to keep your house organized? Have you read any other books on organization that have helped you? I’d love to hear your thoughts. As always, happy reading!
This sounds great – I may pick it up myself! I am actually a fairly organized person, mentally. My problem is that my body doesn’t always cooperate with my mind’s plans to get organized and declutter! I know you understand what that’s like.
Still, in spite of very limited stamina, I try to chip away at it little by little. This year, I set a goal to spend just 10 minutes each day on decluttering/organizing, and that has helped some – I rarely manage it every day but I fit it at least some small step about half the time – it adds up after a while!
Thanks for the review – I’m going to write this one down.
Sue
Book By Book
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Sue, that’s EXACTLY how I am, my body can’t quite catch up with the mental images I have of my organized home. 🙂 That’s great you take 10 minutes a day or at least try to. Even small steps will help you to your goal, thats how I am getting there too, slowly but surely 🙂
Thanks for stopping by Sue, always glad to hear from you.
Wow! This sounds like exactly what I need. The tools, instructions, helpful to do lists…AND MOTIVATION?!?!?! I will definitely be checking this out. Lately I feel like I will never get this house organized!
Hope you enjoy it if you give it a try.
Ladies,
One of the first things I teach is that the whole of anything is overwhelming! Narrow your focus and start small. Build on your successes. It took time for the environment to become chaotic, it may take time to create order. Enjoy the journey!
Blessings,
Regina
Interesting! I would have thought that it might be tough to listen to a book about organization. But it sounds like this worked!
It was great to listen to to get me motivated and also to know that I wanted to buy the book 🙂 I still did get the hard copy since it’s harder to take notes for me while listening since I am usually driving or doing housework. I enjoy nonfiction on audiobook, especially books that help me stay productive during mundane tasks or to keep me awake when I am in for a long drive. Thanks for stopping by, always good to hear from you Rebecca!
Oh, BOY!!! I need a good book on helping me declutter my…EVERYTHING. My house is a certified wreck. I really need to make a change. At this point, I have hours of work on literally EVERY SINGLE ROOM that need to be done. It’s pretty overwhelming–which is why I never do any of it at all. I could probably use a book just like this to help me get my act together without making me want to quit before I even begin. I’ll have to check this out!! –Lisa
I am in the exact.same.boat Lisa, it’s overwhelming to think about and I have just now started to tackle it, very little by little. It’s amazing how quickly we accumulate clutter and how very hard it is to get rid of it or at least get it under control. Now that my little one stays home with me, everything takes 3 times as long to accomplish. But I take it one small victory at a time and maybe by the time he starts Kindergarten years from now, I’ll be better organized and have been through the clutter in each room at least once.
Maybe instead of me starting a book club on my blog, I need to start a weekly getting organized meme and we can cheer each other on. 🙂 Would you join me?
Thank you so much, Tanya, for these kind words. If ever you or your readers have specific organizing questions I’d be delighted to answer them. The best place to reach me is at Facebook or if the matter is private via my e-mail: ZenOrg1@aol.com.
Many blessings and deep gratitude,
Regina
Thanks so much Regina, I am flattered you stopped by my blog. I will be sure to be picking your brain if I get stuck! 🙂 I am a fan of yours on Facebook, Twitter and G+ as well.
You are right that there are a lot of sentiment attached to some of our possessions. I think that’s why it is so hard for us to get rid of toys, in particular. I have a strong attachment to stuffed animals stemming from my childhood. I was going through some of my kids’ animals today and was just about in tears putting my favorite characters in a pile to sell. But my kids don’t play with the big ones and they take up a lot of space. It’s time for another child to share the joy these toys bring.
Why not take photos of each animal and create a digital scrapbook? With each photo you can tell the story of the creature. The last shot could be all of them in a box destined for charity … and the next chapter in their lives!
Funny, I have this on my wishlist. I’m tempted to get this now since I’ve read someone’s review about the book. Sounds like it truly inspired you to get organized – gotta love that. 🙂 Cheers and great review!
This book certainly gave me motivation and lots of ideas on how better to rearrange my space (especially in the kitchen) to better suit our needs. Now, I just got to get it done! As the author commented below, I need to focus on a task at a time to get there. I love that she gave us her contact info to ask questions along the way…awesome to have that support!! Hope you enjoy it as much as I did if you get it Chrystal! Good luck with your organization goals and let me know how it’s going!
I bought it! It came this week. 🙂 I’m going to start reading it on the weekend. Thanks to your review it bumped it up my wishlist. 🙂
Cheers!
yay! Hope it’s as helpful to you as it was to me! Let me know how you like it and what you get done! Hope you will stop by my Small Victories Sunday linkup and add your post! Thanks for stopping by Chrystal!