Tidy Up Your Life: Rethinking How to Organize, Declutter, and Make Space for What Matters Most

by Tyler Moore

Bring order to your home and focus to your busy life with Tidy Dad’s guiding principles and practical routines for organizing, cleaning, and prioritizing—both emotionally and physically.

A father of three with a stressful job, Tyler Moore felt his life resembled an overstuffed closet: disorganized and overly busy behind tidy, closed doors. When it all became too much—for his family's 750-square-foot apartment and his mental health—he set out to unpack the physical and emotional mess around him.

Chronicling his progress as “Tidy Dad” on Instagram, Moore learned that tidying is about so much more than the aesthetics and decluttering of a physical space. When he stepped back, reflected, and named what was "just enough," he was able to devise systems and hacks that brought order to his whole life. Drawing on Moore's experience with the everyday highs and lows of parenting, home management, and work-life balance, and filled with his signature warmth and wit, Tidy Up Your Life includes:

Tidy Dad’s process for tackling overwhelming tasks—how to identify what really matters both emotionally and physically to you and the people who share your space.
How to arrive at your own definition of "just enough" as well as thought experiments for appreciating what you already have.
The goal is not "always tidy" but "easily tidied" and other principles for lifting some of the mental and physical burdens we feel when managing our homes.
Tips for making a “one-area-a-weekday” cleaning schedule and other simple routines that compliment household rhythms and reduce the mental load you may be carrying.

A vital book for overwhelmed parents, as well as overworked, stressed-out professionals, Tidy Up Your Life, will help you live a more joyful, tidied-up life.

Genres: Nonfiction, Self Help, Audiobook, How To, Adult, Personal Development, Psychology

256 pages, Hardcover

Published January 7, 2025

Reviews

[Ginger Newingham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is going to sound so sexist, but I swear I checked four times to make sure this was written by a man. His brain works very, very similarly to mine, so this book resonated with me more than other books on simplifying and tidying. I love how he focused on doing a mental tidying before even approaching a physical tidy.

My love of this book is an ode to libraries, as one of my staff members did a display on organizing and cleaning and minimalism this month. I picked this book up solely based on her display!

[Hollis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found via clutterbug podcast.
More of an (interesting ) autobiography than a how to as none of the information is new or groundbreaking.

[Kerry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Audiobook • 3.5 stars • No earth shattering revelations here, but I enjoy a good tidying up moment. Spring cleaning season is the perfect time to listen to this book and it gave me a few ideas for when tackling a few of the organizing projects on my to-do list.

[Jeff · Rating 1 out of 5]

Expected more system and fewer stories from a book with this title.

[Kari Corsi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick read - the author spent a lot of time talking about cleaning a lot and not as much tidying and organizing. I still appreciated his touch on tidying up your thoughts and life to help tidy up your life.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tyler Moore and his wife Emily live in New York City in a two bedroom one bath apartment with three daughters. After their second child was born Tyler had a crisis - he had accepted a promotion at work but was miserable and adding the second child had made their routines at home much harder. He ended up taking a leave and started trying to make their apartment work better for their family. He started an Instagram account, Tidy Dad, to show his tips and tricks. That led to this book. I wasn't familiar with Tyler before (but am now following him on IG), I just like a good organizing book. I like that his three main steps are declutter, tidy, and clean and need to be done in that order to be effective. The first half of the book is "tidy up your mind" and focuses on why you hang on to things, your organizing methods and routines, etc. The second half is "tidy up your space" and give specific tips for each area of your house. Because he has three children in a small home, there is a LOT about kids and toys. But I do think his tips would work for any size space - it's just more crucial in a smaller space. Throughout the book tips and suggestions are highlighted in margins or half pages. I especially like the "decluttering calendar" he includes because it helps with seasonal things like taxes, Christmas, vacation, etc. I can see why Tyler is a great school teacher - he is very positive and upbeat. It wasn't amazing or life changing for me, but I liked it and it was a quick read.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nothing super ground breaking here, but I like that he actually lives with a family in an actually small place, and focuses on workflows and what you actually need for your space/life rather than just aesthetics and decluttering. There's no pictures at all, which is fine but not what I expected given that he is known for his instagram account.

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tyler is such a positive spirit, and you’ll finish this book not only with practical tips and mindsets to live a tidier life, but with an enthusiasm for intentionality and a personalized perspective on “success.”

[Stacy Wittenberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you enjoy the organization genre, this is a good one. I've read them all--- Kondo is a bit too minimalist... Clea & Joanna can be more aspirational than realistic... this book falls in a sweet spot- practical & motivational. Bonus follow @tidydad on IG- it's a fun account!

[Dave Harmon · Rating 2 out of 5]

well.
I was really excited for a lot of good strategy and tactics for fighting clutter. new mindsets and ways of thinking. things like how to create and manage spaces to dump stuff, or concepts like the less you use it the further away it should be. e.g. if you use it all the time (like the salt) just leave it out. the stuff you use from once a day to once a week goes in the cupboard, and the rest goes in a closet. but no, this had very little actual useable substance. nothing like the examples I just gave.
but props to the author for managing three kids in that small apartment, that's heroic. he was pretty lucky all three were all the same sex though.

[Carrie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don’t think I’m the intended audience here. Although I do live in NYC and understand the need to carefully organize in tight spaces, I didn’t gather any new tips for how to do so. However, parents may come away with more strategies for helping children take ownership over culling their spaces. There are also detailed deep cleaning instructions for each space. Be aware, however, that the advice does sometimes skew towards the more affluent (not everyone can afford to replace all their underwear every 6-12 months.)

To sum up the main points: measure your space carefully and include baskets, bins, and furniture that exactly fit your space. Regularly take everything out of those baskets and bins and keep only what you actively need. Give your kids agency in this process.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I struggled wanting to listen to this because his voice annoyed me. I often found myself zoning out and not paying attention, especially during all the “kid stuff” sections. He had some good tips and I learned a couple things I had never heard before - specifically after wiping baseboards, use a dryer sheet against them after and it will keep them from getting dirty as quickly. Mostly it is just the same purging and organizational things we all know. I also feel like I need to scrub every inch of my house and throw half our stuff away now (but I also know I am not going to.)

[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, however it took me a while to get into it. I like following Tidy Dad on Instagram. He is honest, funny and someone you just want to be friends with. I liked all the real life tips and tricks.

[Nan Babcock · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read lots of books on decluttering, organizing and tidying, and I enjoyed getting a dad's version.

[Awoenam Mauna-Woanya · Rating 3 out of 5]

A stronger second half with some good ideas on ways to think about cleaning. Intrigued by the set schedule (monthly and daily) for tidying and decluttering our spaces.

[LemontreeLime · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its like blues clues meets marie kondo. (Not a problem, tbh)

[Karis Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful! Very thorough.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tyler knows how to tug on your heartstrings and encourage you to start physically cleaning your space (something i have VERY little motivation to do)! He offers most practical tips all neatly outlined (cleaners and gadgets to use, organization hacks, “pairing down” advice + more). I appreciate his vulnerability in sharing his personal struggles which were the impetus to begin his own tidying journey, and help others as a result.

This book will speak to men, women, married, single, parents, professionals and everyone in between! Highly recommend! 🧼 🧹 💜

[Brittany · Rating 2 out of 5]

Listened to audiobook. Good, practical advice but nothing groundbreaking. It did, however, motivate me to clean/tidy little by little!

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

As other reviewers have mentioned, there is nothing ground-breaking in this book that will miraculously turn you into a master tidy-upper-er (is that even a word?). Tyler does give the reader permission to tidy per their needs and situation, which is often the start that we all need. Tidy to your preferences and level of satisfaction. No two people will do it the same way and that’s okay.

[Sabrina Poole · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book and while there wasn’t any huge groundbreaking advice; I appreciated listening to Tyler Moore’s insight. Moore lives in New York with his wife and three daughters in a very small apartment. So, his perspective is already one who has expertise in pairing life down due to his living arrangement. Moore has good tips on tackling various areas during the coordinating season. My favorite was having a snack box ready in the summer and loading it with snacks that won’t melt. I also appreciated his strategy of tackling one area a day. Another great aspect was Moore’s overall positive attitude towards household management. Overall, Tyler Moore or Tidy Dad has some great tips on tackling a life that is busy and full.

[Andrew]

dnf @ page 76. this is probably a lot more helpful if you have children, as this is less a housekeeping book and more of a self-help/managing and compartmentalizing your work-life balance, with memoir stuff thrown in. i do appreciate that the author took some time to talk about why minimalism isn't necessarily the right option, and more about deciding what deserves room in your home based on your life and interests, but that was about it. if i have to read about the "seasons of his life" any more i'm gonna lose it, unfortunately. now i'm going to tidy up my goodreads currently-reading shelf by giving up on this one!

[Elyse Lawson · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Physical clutter is often a manifestation of the mental clutter we feel. Making the sense of the mess… is an important part of the process!”

A practical and encouraging book about creating organizational systems that work with YOUR needs in YOUR space. Tidy Dad does a great job articulating that organization isn’t a one size fits all and decluttering isn’t a one and done thing. He encourages the reader to identify what is really important and come up with creative solutions that work for them.

[Julie Bestry · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a perfectly fine book written by a very sweet-seeming teacher-turned-social media influencer whose publishing company is capitalizing on his moments of fame. But there's a difference between a social media influencer and a professional. Personally, as a 25-year veteran professional organizer, I'm pretty picky about books on topics in my sphere of influence because I've seen how many books my clients have purchased and tossed (or, more likely, piled up) because they weren't helpful. This feels like one of those books.

Tyler Moore was a teacher, then an administrator, who "freaked out" due to overwhelm. He and his wife had three tiny kids and live in a tiny apartment with one tiny bathroom in New York City. So, he took leave, made a huge mess of his apartment trying to make it less of a mess, and then made himself some stardom — the book cover calls him an "Instagram Sensation" — about getting it all together again and started giving advice to people on Instagram. (And now he's back to being a classroom teacher.)

Moore seems like a nice guy. (I don't use Instagram, so I'm not going to weigh in on his skills there.) He's egalitarian and devoid of any of the icky patriarchal condescension about organizing and cleaning that we often see when non-professionals write on these topics. His respect for his wife, Emily, and her intellect and skills, as well as for other women in his life, makes him a breath of fresh air. There's nothing of the "alpha" about Moore, he's an actively invested girl-dad, and I'd probably enjoy reading a book he might write about the teaching profession.

And, as a teacher, he knows how to break topics down into bite-sized pieces. He even explains how that process applies to the classroom: identifying goals and scope, creating a pacing calendar, drilling down to a unit plan, and devising a lesson plan, and then extrapolates that to figuring out how to change one's life. His writing skills are solid; he's affable, likes to use small anecdotes as frameworks for explaining what to do, and if he were a staff writer for Real Simple or Women's Day magazine, he'd be handy at writing listicles.

So, I have nothing bad to say about the author or his writing abilities. However, I'm hard-pressed to figure out who this book will really serve. The book starts with a "Tidy Up Your Mind" focus, which would best reflect finding mental clarity to reduce overwhelm and be more productive, but it's not really a very deep practical guide to productivity. The second half of the book is divided into household sections, and then each is further divided into organizing and cleaning advice. Again, there's nothing particularly deep, although each chapter's listicles include useful material, either prompting questions ideas for products for corralling items or keeping spaces clean and sanitized.

Again, this advice is fine, as far as goes, which again, is about as deep as what you'd get in a magazine. That's understandable because Moore is a teacher and social media influencer, not a professional organizer (or cleaner). The vast majority of his advice is based on what he does in his own NYC apartment (and second home in Pennsylvania, which they sometimes live in and sometimes rent out) with his own wife and three children. On occasions, he shares the experiences of his mother, his co-teacher, and some people who DM or comment on his Instagram page.

However, if Moore did this professionally, he would know that all of the things he advises are very rudimentary and still only work for people who have probably never read a book about productivity, organizing, or cleaning and might be delighted by "beginner" advice, but more importantly, are not going to be helpful for people who actually struggle with such things.

People who are not neurotypical, people with ADHD or autism, people with physical disabilities or chronic health conditions, anyone with range-of-motion issues, clinical depression or anxiety disorders, and honestly, even neurotypical grown-ups past the age of 30 probably aren't going to get much that they don't know out of this book. It's fine that he doesn't provide depth, but it's disheartening that he doesn't know (or at least doesn't acknowledge) that his advice is predicated on a lot of mental and physical health privilege (and expectations of the same for his readers). This is the kind of thing that prompts clients to call me (and my colleagues) because they are embarrassed and downtrodden about not being able to apply advice made to sound so simple.

So, the book is cheerfully written, with solid technical writing skills, and provides a baseline of introductory concepts on productivity, organizing, and cleaning. If you are neurotypical, if you have no mental health challenges, if you have never read anything about these topics, and if you have small children (because this book is largely focused on the tiny tot-raising era in one's life), this book might be worth buying. Otherwise, I'd encourage you to either check out a library copy or flip through the book in a bookstore to see if there are any elements that reflect your needs. When I read, I usually use tape flags to mark impressive or frustrating things; I used only one tape flag in reading all 200+ pages.

Your mileage may vary.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a review of Tidy Up Your Life: Rethinking How to Organize, Declutter, and Make Space for What Matters Most by Tyler Moore.

I absolutely love this book!! Tyler Moore is personable, down to earth, realistic, funny, and full of practical and easy to implement ideas.

He shares his own family's journey of how they improved their lives by determining their true priorities and needs at this time/season in their family's life. He then decluttered, organized, and made space for the physical things kept in support of those priorities and needs, and created routines to maintain the day-to-day upkeep of his efforts.

The results gained them more happiness, contentment, and peace of mind by creating an oasis from the outside world which contains all that they need for this "season" to support their interests and activities; have things organized and easy to find, access, and put away; and giving them more time to enjoy each other.

Topics covered were impressively comprehensive.

I really enjoyed reading this book and recommend it highly to others who would like to have their lives and belongings in better order!

My thanks to Rodale Books for allowing me to access a DRC via NetGalley. Publication is 1/7/25. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own and are freely given.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tyler Moore and his wife live in a small two bedroom/1 bathroom apartment in New York with their three little girls. It may sound impossible to some who have sprawled out living spaces in the suburbs with multiple bedrooms and bathrooms, not to mention the built in storage of garage, basement and attic. The Moore family had a lot less square footage to maintain. It is interesting to read the challenge of assessing what you “need” and how to keep any sized space clean and organized. With a background as a school teacher and administrator, Tyler was good at accomplishing his to-do-list with little ones underfoot. But stress and anxiety of a busy work life and family responsibilities can take its toll. Tyler discovered methods to keep his home tidy and everyone in it happy. As he morphed into his life as “Tidy Dad” through social media (some of his videos went viral!) He realized that with space, time and financial budget in mind anyone can create the life they want and most importantly prioritize what you need. This light, entertaining read is filled with great tips and motivating ideas for any sized space. If you are ready to take the spring cleaning plunge, check it out! It took thirty years of marriage for my hubby to start doing the dishes. So, yeah, you can change old habits and it is worth a try!

[C.G. Twiles · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is some really interesting stuff here, but I think it's mostly because I live in NYC too so I was curious to hear how 2 adults and 3 young kids manage to make it work in a small 2-bedroom apartment in Queens.

I first heard Tyler Moore on Stephanie Sefarian's podcast and which is a podcast about minimalism so I don't know why Moore took the tack that he's NOT a minimalist and criticized the movement so harshly when in fact everything he was saying in the book WAS minimalism. He seems to think minimalism is living in an empty house with a chair and bowl. At one point he actually makes it sound like minimalists won't give their children toys, which is not the case at ALL.

Minimalists don't give their children EXCESSIVE toys - which is exactly what Moore himself is advocating.

My best guess here is that because he is an "instagram sensation" and trying to appeal to a certain type of mother who would be scared off by the word "minimalism" he is doing his best to not only separate from it, but disavow it.

Yet there is nothing he preaches - decluttering, making space for what matters, not impulse buying, etc. - that isn't based in.... MINIMALISM!

This would be like writing a book extolling the virtues of being a vegan, but disavowing that you shouldn't eat meat.

So.... kind of disappointing that he would take this route.

[Lindsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a long time follower of Tidy Dad on Instagram, I was really excited for this book. Put simply, this book is Tyler Moore's Instagram account in book form. Other than a few stories that I had not heard before, the majority of the book's content can be found on his Instagram page, but what was nice about the book is that it was all in one place and in an orderly fashion.

I enjoyed that this book gave Tyler and his family's experience about keeping a tidy life and home and then gave guidance on how I could do the same - all with such a positive attitude. It was not preachy as many books in this genre are, but instead was very uplifting and gave the impression that if he could do it, I could too. I just wish he would have had more room to expand on some of the topics and how he accomplishes all of these things on a regular basis. But overall, an easy read that gave me encouragement to keep working on tidying up my own life.

Thank you Rodale Books for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

[Karley Gunn · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like his Instagram, you’ll like this.
His philosophies really pair well with the principles in Kendra Adachi’s first book, The Lazy Genius Way. I like the practical advice given, but also the focus on “this is what works for me, but don’t copy and paste my formula, make it work for you”.
The only part that seemed odd to me was the section about block play and child development. I’m an infant/toddler developmental specialist, so I always appreciate a good refresher, but it seemed like going through the different skills targeted by different types of blocks was out of place.
Overall, I’ll probably come back and reread certain chapters throughout the year. I also appreciate the preorder bonuses!

[L · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd not heard of Tyler Moore, or seen any of his social media accounts - but I'm always trying to tidy / organise / declutter so this looked like a good read. There were lots of tips and advice which I'm sure will be helpful - often in list format. I would think nearly everyone would find some ideas they'll be able to put to use, although a lot of the information and suggestions is available in other similar books. There was lots of information and techniques relating to life with young children. I wouldn't say there were many new or innovative suggestions but it was still a helpful and interesting book to read.

I do think this book would have been improved by including some photos for a bit of colour.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.