Iyna Bort Caruso - Simply Organized: The All-in-one Guide to Organizing Your Home, Office, Children, and More!

Whats your breaking point? When do the piles of paper get so high, the old exercise bicycle in the basement so dusty, the toys in the playroom so trip-worthy that you reach the end of your rope?

Everyones got a story, and there are no urban legends among them. Theres the businessman whose slim closet couldnt fit another item. Rather than sort through his clothes and get rid of his never-wears, he came up with an ingenious solutionor so he thought. You decide. He hung his excess shirts off ceiling fans throughout his home.

The tales of an exasperated spouse going to extreme measures are endless. Many are variations on the while you were out theme. The guilty party leaves for work and the Salvation Army truck parks in the driveway.

Theres the story of one particular woman who got fed up with her husbands stockpiling habits. Their basement and garage looked like a thrift store exploded. You name it, they had it; piles of magazines dating back years, broken luggage, outdated TVs, ancient audio equipment, empty computer boxes. Driven to take extreme measures, she spent several hundred dollars to rent a commercial dumpster. It took the two of them an entire weekend to fill it up with a decades worth of useless, busted, and forgettable items that should have been discarded long ago. By the way, its been two years, but she still hasnt tossed out the business card of the carting companyjust in case. Old habits die hard.

Plenty of us could take her lead. Its more than just the unsightly mess that gets to us. Clutter and disorganization first nag at us, then overwhelm us. It makes us frustrated and irritable. It eats away at our time and our sense of control. It also affects our health in ways you might not have considered.

It wasnt always like this. Theres no question that were accumulating things at a greater rate than ever before. Just visit an older home, built in the 1920s or 1930s, and youll see that closets are narrower and fewer. Where did they put all their stuff? youll wonder. Well, they just didnt have so much of it. We live in a time of excess, graduating from bigger to better to best, and hold on to stuff from all the stages in between.

Theres a saying that work expands to fill the time you have to finish the task. That holds true for storage, too. The more space you have, the more things youll find or buy to fill it up, if youre not careful. People who move from apartments to homes wonder how theyll ever be able to fill all those drawers, closets, and pantries. Check with them a year later, and no doubt youll find their closets bursting.

So how can you get started? What are the golden rules of organizing? Well, here they are, in no particular order:

1. Know yourself. Before organizing, identify psychological blocks, problems with your technique, and your organizational goals. This knowledge will help you toward long-term success.
2. Be flexible. Different phases of lifea new marriage, a new child, divorce, or a death in the familypresent organizational challenges. Modify your systems and give yourself time to integrate these changes.
3. Be kind to yourself. In most cases, organizational challenges have nothing to do with laziness or incompetence. Other root causes are at the heart of your struggle. This book will help you to identify them.
4. Be gentle with others. As you become organizationally zealous, your family might irritate you. Work toward reasonable compromises.
5. Enlist the crew. Dont purge others belongings when theyre not around. Instead, develop systems that work for everyone.
6. Banish perfection. Your home is occupied by living beings with mess-making capacities. Home organization, especially for those with little ones, is always a work in progress.
7. Watch your wallet. Before you max out your credit cards, develop a plan.
8. Combat clutter. Keep excess out of your home. When you acquire something new, let go of something old. Only keep items that are beautiful, are useful, or have significant emotional value.
9. Make it fun. As you organize, pipe in music or a radio program you love, and be sure to reward yourself for each success along the way.
10. Love your home. Even if you dont live in the home of your dreams, relish the elements of your dwelling that bring you joy.

Not sure how to put these rules into practice? Dont worry about it. Were here to help. Youre ready to tackle the clutter zones in your home, so congratulations! Youve made a great start. Simply Organized offers you real-world strategies for getting your home back under your control, one room at a time. Youll find space you didnt know existed, even in the smallest of apartments. No need to be a professional contractor or pony up the big bucks to hire one. Each chapter gives you easy-to-implement ideas, many of which wont cost you anything more than your time and some sweat equity.

Getting organized is also a matter of getting into good habits. Lets face it. Sometimes its just easier to pile the laundry on the guest bed for the time being instead of putting it away in its proper place, or to jam the golf equipment into the already overstuffed closet instead of dedicating a proper space to it. Simply Organized equips you with a game plan to manage it all. Plus, youll get insider information on great products on the market that can change your lifestyle and transform your outlook.

When you streamline your living space, the ripple effects are astounding. Relationships improve, productivity soars, and serenity reigns.

Lets get started.

If youve picked up this book, youre probably itching to get organized. Maybe your house is in pretty good shape, but the garage and attic are completely out of control. Or perhaps your home is so chaotic that you have to dig a trail through the clutter to get from your front door to your kitchen. Whatever your situation is, this book can help you as you take small, concrete steps toward your goals.

These first few chapters will help get you started, help you figure out why you have so much difficulty being organized in the first place, and teach you how your new organized lifestyle can even help you earn some money.