kareila_books | #15: Dana K. White, Organizing for the Rest of Us

Subtitled 100 Realistic Strategies to Keep Any House Under Control, this book speaks to me in a way that no other "how to keep your space clean" guide has. For example: "I don't see incremental mess. I see perfectly neat and I see overwhelmingly messy. The in-between is invisible to me." If this also sounds like you, chances are you will find the advice in this book helpful!

The key concept isn't anything as prone to misinterpretation and ridicule as "does it spark joy?" Rather, it's this: everyone has a Clutter Threshold. To get a handle on your living space, remove clutter (defined as "anything that continually gets out of control in [your] own home") until it no longer stresses you out; now you are below your Clutter Threshold. To stay under your Clutter Threshold, define areas of containment for the things you are keeping. If you have too much of something to fit the available space, only keep the ones you like best. If you get a new one, you have to get rid of the preexisting one you like least. (This explains why I get anxious when people buy me books; I have to figure out which older books to get rid of to make space for any new books!)

There are many more tips and examples, to the tune of 215 pages, but that's the gist of it.