Aarssen - Real life organizing: clean and clutter-free in 15 minutes a day

Real Life Organizing

Clean and Clutter-Free in 15 Minutes a Day

Cassandra Aarssen

Contents

Peter Walsh
Bestselling Author

Chances are youre leafing through the pages of this book, wondering whether to buy it and wondering even more about how to successfully tackle that clutter youre struggling with.

Everyone struggles with clutter to some degree, and all of us can use a little help with being more organized. Thats where Cas Aarssen comes in! Here in Real Life Organizing is a real solution to the clutter challenges we all face. A real solution from a real mom, and parent, and homeowner, and career person who knows what it is to struggle and to overcome disorganization in all its forms.

Ive worked for the past fifteen years helping people get their whole lives organized and I firmly believe that our homes are metaphors for our lives they tell our story and show the world who we are. I believe its impossible to make your best choices, your most enlightened, spiritually rich, emotionally stable choices in a cluttered and disorganized home. It just cant happen. Time and time again, I have seen how clutter hurts families and have witnessed firsthand, again and again, that when you declutter and open a space you create the opportunity for amazing things to flow into that space.

Real Life Organizing leads you through the sometimes-difficult, always-rewarding path of decluttering your home. By identifying your clutter style you are helped to determine the best way forward. This, combined with sensible and achievable tips and techniques, enables anyone to tackle clutter, organize spaces and find the peace and harmony that every family deserves.

Stuff has power, and the stuff we own has powerpower for good or power for ill. Its up to each of us to decide how we use the stuff we own. Once again, this is where Cas steps in. Not only does she help the reader understand the power of what they own, she also helps them to see their stuff as tools to help them create the life they want. The words organization and organic have the same root that means whole, complete, one. And that is the transformative power of organizing a home.

Real Life Organizing is a reflection of so much of the wonderful work Cas does on her YouTube channel and elsewhere. She demonstrates in these pages that organizing doesnt have to be the impossible or overwhelming task that many think. By establishing routines, implementing simple systems and making organization part of your daily life you can conquer clutter once and for all!

Organization is not something you do, its the way you live your life. It is not about simply cleaning up, it is about making mindful decisions everyday about your life. Real Life Organizing will help with all that and more!

I feel it necessary to, right from the start, give you a disclaimer regarding this book. While I am in fact a Professional Organizer and I do make my living organizing other peoples homes, teaching college workshops on organization and creating weekly YouTube videos and blog posts offering organizing tips I am a crazy, unorganized, giant disaster on the inside.

I AM NOT a naturally organized person. In fact, the majority of my life has been spent living as a complete and utter super slob.

Want some examples of my extreme slobiness? Brace yourself. In my early twenties, I was at the height of my all time mess making. I was working three jobs and cleaning my apartment wasnt high on my priority list. My fridge got so bad that I decided to try and mask the putrid smell with Pine-Sol. Note: DO NOT POUR PINE-SOL IN YOUR FRIDGE AND LEAVE IT THERE. The only thing this did was make everything smell, and taste like artificial pine trees.for months.

I also threw out an obnoxious amount of pots and pans because weeks of caked on grime seemed so daunting that it was easier to just buy new ones. I eventually switched over entirely to paper plates and plastic cutlery too. Did I mention the piles of dirty clothes that covered almost every square inch of my floor? I had literal paths carved into them so I could walk from one room into the next. Im making you feel like Martha Stewart right about now, arent I?

Was I lazy? Of course I was. Am I still lazy? Absolutely! The only difference is that now I have discovered easy and inexpensive tips, tricks, and solutions that allow me to have a clean, organized, and functional home with minimal effort to maintain it. I have gone out of my way to find and create solutions that make my home seem almost self-cleaning; I have way more important things to do than spend my time cleaning up all day long, like binge watching Netflix! My point is, if I can have a clean and clutter-free home, you can certainly have one, too.

I have read dozens of amazing books on home organization. I would wager a bet that I have pretty much read every book ever written on the subject, as organizing has become my most favorite hobby (obsession). I am constantly on the hunt for new and unique ways to make my life easier (a.k.a allow me to be even lazier). I have organized my own home, clients homes, and spent the past seven years dedicating myself to learning as much as I possibly can about how best to have a clean, clutter-free and functional home with the least amount of effort to maintain it. I wanted to put together this book and share the very best advice I have learned for real life organizing for real people with kids and petsand, well, just a whole lot of stuff.

So here is how my organizing journey began. After we had our first daughter, Isabelle (Izzy), I was adamant that I would stay home with her full time, so I started a daycare from my house. When I say I started a daycare, what I mean is I first tried everything I could think of to earn money while being a stay at home parent, and when all of those ideas failed miserably, the idea of babysitting other children seemed like my only viable option. One morning I randomly placed an advertisement offering childcare services online and handed out a few flyers in our neighbourhood (no thought or organization was put into this venture). In just a few short days, after dozens of calls from neighbourhood parents, I was running a home daycare just like that. At one point, I was watching nine childrennine! My life and my home were filled with brightly colored toys, loud screaming children, and absolute chaos. This last minute career option turned out to be more amazing than I could ever have hoped for. I was able to be home with my children and they were able to have wonderful friends each and everyday to play with. Being a daycare provider helped me to become the best parent I could be. I spent my days singing songs, doing crafts, and playing games with my children (there was also a lot of snotand poop).