One of my IRL friends, Kim, loaned me this book a few weeks ago. While I can’t say that there were (m)any new ideas in the book for those of us who have already read tons of organizing type books, it was a GREAT book and I would recommend it to anyone wanting to get a handle on organizing their home. Kim had GREAT timing in loaning me this book since I was getting bogged down in decluttering/reorganizing/redecorating our home this summer. If I have ANY hope of being ready for school in another week I really needed a good reminder to concentrate on the things that MATTER and leave the things that don’t. Otherwise, I would probably be organizing our pencils, crayons, and markers in color wheel order (LOL)… SERIOUSLY. I hate to admit that I used to do this (LOL).. and I used to keep our spices alphabetically organized. Those things sure used up a lot of precious time that could have been doing something more important like scrapbooking!The basic gist of the book is the 80/20 principle which was discovered by an Italian economist name Prieto. Example: 20% of your carpets get 80% of the wear and 20% of your clothes will be worn 80% of the time. I first heard of the 80/20 principle a year or so ago when our pastor had a sermon on 80/20. Reading this book was a good reminder for me of that principle and I should probably relisten to our pastor’s sermon as well. You can read more about the 80/20 principle here . Basically, those of us who have been in and around business management for any length of time know that this is really an old principle renamed (LOL). I attended many a seminar in my “working days” that taught the difference between working efficiently vs working effectively. The 80/20 principle seems a lot like that to me. But, I digress. Author, Sandra Felton, suggets that if we can isolate the most important factors that make house work go easily and well, we will have discovered a powerful tool for living a fulfilling life with less effort. Contrary to what I like to think (LOL), she suggests that NO ONE needs to be 100% organized or even 80% organized. Instead, she recommends that we find the “SIGNIFICANT” 20% that will have an 80% impact. You’ll read about common phrases such as less is more, KISS (keep it SUPER simple), etc. All good reminders. In the first chapter you take a quiz which will help you identify the key areas you should work on which she will guide you through in later chapters. I picked several things to work on, but none of them really had anything to do with “organizing” our home. Most of the ones I chose have more to do with creating a certain type of environment. I’m already a fairly organized person. I say “fairly” organized because Type A’s like myself also have procrastination issues because we like to have everything figured out *exactly* before we even start.. therefore sometimes….. we don’t ever get around to starting (LOL). I know most of you won’t be surprised by that….. but after I decide something look out! One of the first things that jumped out at me in this book were the following quotes:

“Home is a sacred place for you and your family. Home interprets heaven.” Mrs. Dunwoody.”Consistently coming home to a well-cared-for environment makes everyone feel nurtured and secure.” – Sandra Felton

One of these days our oldest dd is going to move out of our home. Hopefully that won’t be any time in the near future, but I know the day is coming. The first chapter of the book had me reevaluating several things I do (or don’t do) in our home one of which has to do with meals. Tim and Amanda are the ones who work outside our home all day long. Theyusually come home asking “what’s for dinner.” Sadly, more often than not they are met with an “I don’t know” response. I aim to change that ASAP! I don’t want her most recent memories of home to be that of never having anything home made to eat and always having to wait for dinner to be ready. And, with Tim having to eat out so much while he’s working I figured he would also enjoy more home cooked meals. (watch for my freezer challenge update SOON). Sandra Felton uses the phrase “Bare Bones Way” repeatedly throughout the book. Her Bare Bones Way is:3 Steps to organize a home – consolidate, containerize, and condense. This is a little different than what I remember of Aslett’s books because of the consolidating and condensing part. With this book, first you consolidate everything into one place, then you put it in containers. After you’ve gone through your entire house and all like items are contained then you can condense and finally discard. 2 routines – establish 4 things for a morning routine as well as an evening routine. Most of us homeschooling moms have WAY more than 4 things in our morning and evening routines, but for some this may be a completely new concept and she explains it in detail.5 habits to keep clutter on the run:If you get it out, put it back. I have to admit that I’ve slacked off a little bit (ok a lot) enforcing this with the boys. Now I’m on a mission to get them in this habit. Apply the 3o second rule consistently: I don’t think I’ve ever heard this one other than in regard to food that falls on the floor (LOL). In the context of this book, she’s talking about if something takes less than 30 seconds to do you should DO IT NOW!Follow the camping rule: Leave the area in the condition you found it or better. We’re pretty good at this one (LOL). We’re always taking something from one room to another, etc. Now we need to concentrate on a previously learned strategy that I don’t recall being mentioned in this book and that is to only touch something once… decide where it needs to go or what to do with it and just do it!Look, really look, at your surroundings. This is where I’m at. I was almost done with the decluttering before Kim loaned me this book. Now, I’m really taking a look at each room to see if there is any 20% thing I can change that will have an 80% impact. Example… making my bed. I hate to even admit this here for all of blogosphere to read. I haven’t made my bed in quite a LONG time. I have a good reason you know. Nathan usually wakes up and comes to snuggle for a bit in the morning. He usually falls back to sleep. I go downstairs to start my day and rarely ever make it back upstairs. Now that we have completely cleaned out our bedroom (see extreme home makeover post about our new bedroom set) I determined to make my bed every day. That one little act which takes only a couple of minutes has really helped me stay determined to keep our bedroom neat and tidy all of the time. When the bed is made I’m not as likely to leave a pile of clothes on the floor and save the whole clean up job for sometime later when I have more time and do it all at once. So.. this one thing added to the 30 second rule above has already made at least an 80% impact in our bedroom this week. My mom was probably horrified to find out I didn’t make our bed every day. Now that she knows she’s been calling me and asking me if I’ve made it (LOL). When she asked me that on Sunday I told her no. Then, later I went upstairs and saw my bed was made. I guess it’s just part of my nonthinking routine now because I sure didn’t remember making it and no one else made it for me (LOL).Use little minutes: Whenever you have a minute or two, do a little something. We’re also pretty good at this one. We (as in the all of us) are pretty good at multitasking around here. I spend a lot of time on the phone. Every time it rings I head to the utility room. I always need to organize something in there (LOL) and I can easily do that while on the phone.That’s the basic overview of the ideas and principles discussed in this book. There are chapters dedicated to various rooms or zones with helpful hints and tips for organizing in each of them. She talks about schedules in one chapter. For a year now, I’ve been contemplating cutting back to one theater camp week per school year instead of two. The fall play last year was really hard on all of us. I ended up being sick with a migraine most of the week with the stress of having to practice the music, work out co-op kinks, get our payroll done, etc. Josh wanted to be outside “working” instead of inside at play practice. Emily didn’t want to get behind in her school work right after we started. Nathan didn’t like having to stay home. He wanted to go with us, but they have a policy of NO children allowed if they aren’t in the play, etc. As summer approached I KNEW I was going to have to decide soon so the organizers would have plenty of time to find a replacement for me. My all or nothing tendencies also lead to an attitude of thinking once I sign up for something I’m supposed to do it forever. Even though I really enjoy playing the piano for these performances, I knew that I was probably going to have to cut back to only one per year. Sandra talks about “depressurizing schedules.” That pretty much confirmed what I already knew. This week I emailed to let them know I won’t be the accompanist for the fall play. I’m expecting an 80% better fall than we had last year by simply taking out a 20% activity. Yes. We will miss the fall play, but I’m hoping we’ll be a lot less stressed as we start our school year this fall since we won’t have that big week long activity right at the start of our school year.That was quite a lengthy summary. Again, most of these things were not new to me, but the book was a timely reminder of some things I had forgotten or let slide in the last few years. If you’re looking for an organizer book I think you’ll enjoy the little quizzes along the way which will help you identify your long term goals and help you prioritize your way to achieving them.