The One-Minute Organizer Plain & Simple

by Donna Smallin Kuper

Book Overview

Bring order to your hectic life, quickly and efficiently. Donna Smallin offers innovative ideas and effective solutions to the busy person's daily battle with both physical and mental clutter. This... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1580175848
• ISBN13: 9781580175845
• Release Date: September 2004
• Publisher: Storey Publishing
• Length: 282 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.1" x 7.2"

Customer Reviews

Easy to read and bursting with great ideas!

This is a very useful little book filled with tips on keeping yourself organized. I found many great ideas in the book and it covered just what I was looking for. The book is organized into two parts: Getting organized (getting started, clearing clutter, paper stuff, spaces & things) Staying organized (everyday strategies, clutter control, home management, schedules & to-do's) I found so many of the tips useful (perhaps more useful tips than other similar books). Putting small items in zippered bags in your purse helps to cut down on clutter and makes finding things much faster. (I did this with my makeup and now finding my lipstick is a snap and I don't have to worry about the lid coming off in my purse!). Stapling product receipts to the manual is also a great idea. The author warns about keeping your will in a safe-deposit box because it will be sealed at your death - an important piece of information! I also really like the format of this book. You can read it from front to back or just open to any page and start, which makes it easy to read in small bytes before going to bed or for a minute or two while your coffee is brewing in the morning. The typeface on the pages sorts the information visually: lists are easy to read, important words are bolded or printed in a different typeset. This probably sounds unimportant, but it helps you to read the book very fast and get lots of ideas in a short amount of time. The author also includes little sentences to encourage you in your organizing (like: "Remember nothing worth doing is easy"). This book is full of ideas you can really use and is so easy to read. A great reference for anyone and would also make a nice gift!

Fun read; helps get you in the mood to get organized!

This book is worthy of taking up space on the shelf. I enjoyed reading it and look forward to referring to it again and again. It's a great tool for getting in the organizing mood. THIS BOOK DOES NOT TAKE A BIG TIME COMMITMENT. I read it mainly while sitting in the car-line at my child's school waiting for school to be out. 5 minutes here; 10 minutes there! The suggestions for getting the whole family into organizing were very helpful. While I found several ideas I have heard of or used before, there were many more that I had not thought of. Some reccomendations that didn't apply to me made me think of other things that did. Warning! The One Minute Organizer may lead to a better organized home.

I Wish There Was a Different Term For Organizing

There's a billion books on organizing, I've read many. This one has a small layout, and short sentences, so it doesn't seem so overwhelming. The book is arranged into categories, and everything about it is short and simple. Easy to pick up and read, the tips and plans are easy to carry out.

Organizing made easy!

Organizing doesn't have to be all that difficult or time-consuming . . . in fact, Donna Smallin in her excellent THE ONE-MINUTE ORGANIZER PLAIN & SIMPLE contends that by doing it in small chunks of time, your life will be made both easier and simpler. Smallin, a nationally-recognized speaker on uncluttering, had previously written ORGANIZING PLAIN & SIMPLE . . . although I haven't yet read that book, I will do so in the hopes that it is as helpful as her latest effort. You can read THE ONE-MINUTE ORGANIZER straight through in less than two hours . . . that's what I did the first time . . . now, I'm going back and rereading certain parts from such various chapters as Getting Started, Clearing Clutter, Paper Stuff, and Everyday Strategies . . . I will probably continue to do so in this valuable little book that I'll keep, as well as cherish. There are so many useful tips presented that it makes it difficult to present just a few in this review . . . however, I'll try by sharing the following that caught my attention: Start with the most visible clutter first. Seeing clear and obvious results will give you a boost of confidence. Sort knives, spoons and forks as you put them into the dishwasher to make it easier to put them away when they're clean. Keep the same calendar for business and personal use. Use different-colored pencils or highlighters to distinguish between work and personal commitments. When you write appointments in your planner, also write in a phone number to call in case you're running late, want to confirm or need to reschedule. And here's a final one that I REALLY need to consider implementing: Check e-mail messages and return telephone calls once or twice a day, instead of all day long.

what a great help!

I picked this up at a school book fair, needing to find something to buy, figuring it would not make a real difference for me. Boy, I was wrong! I found her approach of taking small amounts of time to incorporate little ideas very useful in my hectic life. I don't have days to set aside for an all-at-once overhaul, being a mom dealing with an out-of-house job, kids' sports on weekends, etc., but I can find a little time each day to incorporate one or two of the 500 ideas into my system. I read through with sticky note tabs in hand to mark ideas I wanted to incorporate, and one by one they are making a real difference.