10,001 Ways to Declutter Your Home on a Small Budget

by Ed Morrow, Sheree Bykofsky, Rita Rosenkranz

Who thought organizing your home and office could be fun? 10,001 Ways to Declutter Your Home on a Small Budget is just that and more. With a lively design and inspirational, inexpensive solutions, this guide offers life-changing possibilities. The authors look at why clutter happens and suggest ways to change clutter-accumulating behavior. They illustrate ways to efficiently organize necessary possessions (including the importance of defining “necessary items”), and examine dozens of ways to dispose of clutter. Their emphasis is on uncomplicated, inexpensive solutions that are easy to implement, including:
Go Cyber with Your Closet 8 Ideas for Shifting with the Seasons 6 Ways to Turn Storage into Art 10 Home Office Helpers 16 Supplies for Garage Cleanup 4 Tips for Choosing a Vacuum Cleaner And much, much more

Genres: Nonfiction, Self Help

352 pages, Paperback

First published May 18, 2010

Reviews

[Jessi · Rating 1 out of 5]

When I sat down to start this book, I did so with a pen in hand and paper nearby. Surely there would be some good ideas in a book that claims to contain 10,001 ways to declutter my home- on a small budget, no less!
This book is complete and utter crap.
I try not to be too harsh when reviewing things. I try to keep the feelings of the author in mind- even if something is poorly written, I try to be at least a little nice. I can't do that here. The book is worthless. Literally, worthless.
First, let's tackle the title. I'm sure that there are indeed a few thousand suggestions, ideas, tidbits of information, and notions in this book. What percentage of them have do to with decluttering and organizing? Less than half. In this book you will find advice like "don't soak silverware" and "never put crystal in the dishwasher". This has nothing to do with decluttering. The book is FULL of stuff like this. If I wanted homekeeping advice, I would have picked up a book on homekeeping (and I have run across some great ones, mind you.) The focal point of this book is supposed to be DECLUTTERING.
The second issue I have with the book is the next bit of the title: the "on a small budget" part. I am on a small budget. There are other people I know who are on budgets, some smaller than mine, some bigger. None of us can afford some of the suggestions in this book. At the very beginning, we are told that adding walls, adding doors, expanding rooms, and other MAJOR home improvement or remodeling projects can "help declutter" (I guess that's the purpose of the projects- I mean, that's what the book is about, right?) Wouldn't more sane advice to be "hey, get rid of some of the crap around your house! Here are some good ways to accomplish that"? But no. We are told that spending thousands of dollars on remodeling projects is a good way to declutter- ON A SMALL BUDGET. Another ridiculous piece of "decluttering" advice is to install motion-sensored lights in your closets. You know, like when you open your refrigerator door, a light comes on. Wouldn't it be helpful if you had that for your closet? No. It would waste energy (the light would always come on, whether you needed it or not, and would likely stay on if you left the door open), thus raising your electric bill- not budget-friendly! And who is so busy, so preoccupied that they really need an automatic light for their closet? And how much would that cost, anyway? Again, this is another piece of "advice" that is neither helpful nor budget-conscious.
The third issue I have with this book is just the stupid, pointless advice it gives. Like buying inflatable furniture for your living room. We are told that it can be deflated and put away if you need more space. I'm sorry, I didn't realize all of us were living in a teenage girl's bedroom in 1996. Inflatable furniture. Really. Come on. We are told we should keep our kitchen knives sharp, because if the knives are dull, we could press too hard with them and end up cutting ourselves. How does that help me organize and declutter my home? I also laughed out loud at this line, in a section about organizing kitchen cabinets and pantries: "You won't have to hunt for days for that jar of sweet pickles that someone tucked behind the rolled oats." Ok, who is this book written for? Hoarders? Survivalists with bunkers full of food? What kind of sad person looks for a pantry item FOR DAYS- and wasn't smart enough to simply move things aside to look for it? The so-called advice about cabinet organization wasn't very helpful, anyway. We are told that it makes sense to put like cans of soup in front of each other, so we don't have to feel around wondering what magical treasure trove of mystery soup is hiding behind the can in front.
Lastly, I had a HUGE problem with the editing of this book- or lack thereof. Typos, spelling errors, and nonsensical gibberish abound. I don't know who was in charge of proofreading this thing, but they should have been fired. I know that errors happen- one or two subtle ones popping up here and there is completely understandable. But here's an example of what I'm talking about:
"3 Vacuum Options Small Homes...
#3 If you have a friend in a neighboring apartment, share a vacuum. You no only can split the cost but also we be storing it only half the time."
That is lifted VERBATIM from page 64.
Please, for the love of all that is good in the world, do not waste your time or money with this book. Don't even get it from the library- it will only serve as more clutter sitting around your home until you get the chance to return it. It's 316 pages of complete and utter bilge.

[Alicia Barton · Rating 1 out of 5]

To see a more in-depth review, please visit my blog that will be linked here: https://rb.gy/cqnppo. I might have to fix some things on it, but for anyone who views the review, thanks for visiting! I hope you will subscribe for more and send me feedback. I would love to improve my blog. Anyways to the short review I will put on Goodreads.

I'm going to be honest for anyone who wants to read a book about decluttering or wants advice on how to declutter that this book is not the best when giving advice on this subject. The book has little tips about decluttering and it rather tells you to add rooms to your house. This is the opposite of decluttering and saving money: adding rooms costs a lot and it gives people more reason to get more clutter.

I also felt like this book was riddled with stupid advice or common-sense advice. An example of stupid advice is replacing traditional furniture with inflatable furniture or hanging pictures on the wall rather than in scrapbooks, which I'm sure people already do. It's nothing new. I also feel that the writing could be better. I found several grammar mistakes throughout the book.

If you want books about decluttering, read Decluttering At The Speed Of Life by Dana K. White or It's All Too Much by Peter Walsh (I provided the links to the books on my blog) as alternatives or any other decluttering book rather than this one.

[Samantha von Delvaux · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is complete garbage. And I feel bad saying that about a book.
"How to Declutter Your Home on a Small Budget" -Buy storage stuff and store things in there. Every other organization book I've read says to downsize, not buy more stuff to add to your home. The tips cover more of home improvement.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is really easy to read because it is broken into 10,001 numbered ideas. So, you flip to the section of the house you want to think about and then read bunches and bunches of quick, often clever ideas that are conversationally conveyed.