The Well-Ordered Home: Organizing Techniques for Inviting Serenity Into Your Life

by Kathleen A. Kendall-Tackett and Michele Waters

Book Overview

Containing organizing techniques for inviting serenity into the home, this reference explains the many benefits of an organized home and shows readers how to attain them. The author breaks down this... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 157224321X
• ISBN13: 9781572243217
• Release Date: March 2003
• Publisher: New Harbinger Publications
• Length: 119 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 7.0" x 7.2"

Customer Reviews

A Well-Ordered Book!

Don't let the size of the book fool you - just because it doesn't take an encyclopedia sized book to get her ideas across does not mean they aren't profound, easy to internalize, and life changing. I recently had the pleasure of taking a seminar on the Well-Ordered Home taught by Ms. Kendall-Tackett at a La Leche League conference and I was so impressed I ordered the book the next day. It's not too simple to be true - this little book can help you get your home in order so you can spend more time enjoying life!

One of the BEST books on the subject

As a psychologist, researcher and lecturer the author shares that she has cleaned homes for money while in school and that she faced firsthand the downside of being disorganized after her second child was born. So she's been there done that and knows what works. I appreciate her honesty, or the whole 'been there done that' attitude. Her 4 key principles for household organization are Start where you are and don't make change a prerequisite for organization. Start where you are and work with the strengths you have. Have what you need. As a culture, we are inundated with stuff. Yet often we don't have what we need to work well. Use Active Storage. Active storage she notes means keeping things you use frequently in accessible areas. And Get Rid of Clutter. Because clutter she notes creates stress and make every job more difficult. She lays out some helpful and workable suggestions in Part 2 titled Organization Begins in Your Mind where she shows traps to avoid like Perfectionism. Because as she notes perfectionists put things off until they can do them 'perfectly,' but also perfect doesn't exist so things never get done. The All Or Nothing Thinking where one thinks that if they cannot do everything NOW then they wont even start. Or Feeling that domestic work is not worth our time, because its deemed beneath smart people. When in fact a smart person will see the value in being organized and how it brings order and more free time to our lives. Chapters 13, 14 deal very well with having the simplest yet best cleaning tools for cleaning home and laundry. Chapter 15 and 16 deal with an efficient but rightly stocked kitchen and pantry. To some her advise will seem to common sense, but having watched my share of friends kitchens and television shows dedicated to getting organized I know that common sense is a lost art to many, and being reminded to only have a few knives that one uses for the right task, and dumping the rest is sage advise. Personally I was surprised and pleased to see Chapter 19 Order to Go where she notes for women 'Women carry around a lot of junk and often end up with a purse the size of a battleship.' Few if ANY books on decluttering or getting organzied ever deal with the #1 (in my opinion) problem for women which is their purse. Personally I have a small, very small purse that is more like a passport purse since it can carry my money, credit card, cell phone. Its my belief that when we allow ourselves to get trapped in a big purse that we send a message to our family members that they need not plan better, since Mom will probably have what they need. You can keep as the author notes, items like a first aid kit, Power Bars, tablet and pen etc in the car when you need them. No need to carry a mini home with you. The book is choked full of valuable information, and as someone who owns dozens of books on downsizing, decluttering, simple living, I am picky about recommending books on the subject since the last need someo

Loved It!

I have several home organization and storage books, but this is the only one that I have actually read cover to cover. At first, when I got it, it was smaller than I was imagining and it had no pictures, so I thought I wouldn't like it. I was wrong! It gives ideas that make you maintain an organized house without much effort, once the initial setup of the suggested organizing ideas and techniques is in place. This book confirmed some of the things I was already doing that worked, it gave me new ideas and it helped me refine some that I already had in place. A quick and easy read and definitely suggested.

A delightful read

A delighful new approach to home organization. Very focused on 50 specific areas that can be applied to many other situations. Great for the reader short on time but needing both motivation and an understanding of practical methods of organization for the busy family. Written in a positive and crisp manner...

Eating the Elephant

This book has become a permanent fixture at the breakfast spot on my kitchen table. It could easily be titled "How to Eat an Elephant." Every few days, I open to a different page and find out how to make my life sane. The author has done a great job of helping me approach very difficult household tasks and become good at them. This is after all another skill those of us who are not obsessively compulsive need to learn in order to survive life on the edge! So far her ideas have gone down better and have saved me real time and real money by not having to re-buy what I know I have already bought but can't couldn't find if you had a gun to my head! Her writing style is crisp and light and she approaches the negative emotion of why these tasks are so distasteful. As you read you feel she is right there at your kitchen table to help you through the tough spots. Enjoy!