Decluttering At the Speed of Life: A Book Review

**Book received for consideration. Post contain affiliate links. All thoughts are 100% my own. 

When my husband and I were first married, we had absolutely nothing.

No, no, I don't mean money wise (though there was that too), but today, I'm just talking about things. He'd been living in the barracks and I'd moved from my parent's home in Indiana to California with whatever fit in my suitcases. We had our respective clothes, but aside from that... absolutely NOTHING.

The day we signed the lease on our first home, we had to go to the store to buy just the essentials that we could on our limited budget. A couch, a loveseat, a TV and a mattress and box spring--- just on a frame, no headboard or anything. We were given a few pots and pans, a few plates, etc to get us started... but the reality was for that first year or so, our home was pretty empty. Just the bare essentials--- sometimes not even that. It was awful.

But if I were to be 100% honest, sometimes I wish we could go back to that. Because after 11 years of marriage and two kids, we have been overrun. Not by the kids... but by the stuff! After a few years of marriage, we'd finally gotten to a position to where we could actually shop a little more. I could buy all the kitchen essentials and non essentials my heart desired, Christmas and birthdays brought on piles of toys, and even blogging started to bring in more and more items to review. It was still manageable as a family of three, but once we added our second child into the mix. Forget it! Suddenly I find myself longing for the days where we had no clutter, nothing to organize, nothing to put away. Let's be honest, clutter has a way of weighing us down... and it can very quickly take control of our lives if we let it.

But aside from burning it down and starting all over... how do we even begin to get it all together? How do we tackle the clutter that threatens to drive us absolutely crazy?

Today, I'm sharing a book that just might help, Decluttering at the Speed of Life:



You don't have to live overwhelmed by stuff--you can get rid of clutter for good!
While the world seems to be in love with the idea of tiny houses and minimalism, many of us simply can't purge it all and start from nothing. Yet a home with too much stuff is a home that is difficult to maintain, so where do we begin? Add in paralyzing emotional attachments and constant life challenges, and it can feel almost impossible to make real decluttering progress.
In Decluttering at the Speed of Life, decluttering expert and author Dana White identifies the mind-sets and emotional challenges that make it difficult to declutter. Then, in her signature humorous approach, she provides workable solutions to break through these struggles and get clutter out--for good!
But more than simply offering strategies, Dana dives deep into how to implement them, no matter the reader's clutter level or emotional resistance to decluttering. She helps identify procrasticlutter--the stuff that will get done eventually so it doesn't seem urgent--as well as how to make progress when there's no time to declutter.
Sections of the book include

• Why You Need This Book (You Know Why)
• Your Unique Home
• Decluttering in the Midst of Real Life
• Change Your Mind, Change Your Home
• Breaking Through Your Decluttering Delusions
• Working It Out Room by Room
• Helping Others Declutter
• Real Life Goes On (and On)
  

As long as we're living and breathing, new clutter will appear. The good news is that decluttering can get easier, become more natural, and require significantly fewer hours, less emotional bandwidth, and little to no sweat to keep going.

If you, like me, are in a seemingly never ending battle with clutter, this book is a MUST read! When I chose the word Renew for my word of the year this year, one of the big goals on my mind was to get rid of some of the excess stuff. You see, a few years ago, we moved into our current home into a smaller home. Until that point, I had always been really great about doing a massive purge before every move, but this one came on us very quickly with no time to prepare so rather than doing the sort beforehand, it all came with us, and I just had to find places to stuff it. And stuff it I have! I always thought I would get to it eventually, and I have for many things--- clothes, and outgrown toys, etc--- but here we are two years later and more has come in than gone out.

I needed this book! 

This truly is a great read, It's practical, it's fun... it has me inspired to just get it done. And not only that, but to keep it done! Some of these were tips I already knew, and some were new to me, but all made perfect sense! It truly helped to break it down to make tackling the job a little less overwhelming. This is one book that I am certain to come back to time and time again throughout the years, whenever I need that extra motivation again.

Do you need to declutter? Need help knowing where to start? Decluttering at the Speed of Life is available to purchase now: