My rating:
add to my books
Loading...
One Year to an Organized Life: From Your Closets to Your Finances, the Week-by-Week Guide to Getting Completely Organized for Good
by
Regina Leeds
Who would you be if you felt at peace and had more time and money? An organized life enables you to have more freedom, less aggravation, better health, and to get more done. For nearly twenty years, Regina Leeds-named Best Organizer by Los Angeles magazine-has helped even the messiest turn their lives around. Anyone can get organized-shere living in chaos or just looking f...more
Paperback, 320 pages
Published
January 1st 2008
by Da Capo Press
(first published December 31st 2007)
There is a good chance some of your friends read this book. Sign in to see!
sign in »
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is currently not featured on any Listopia lists.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
621)
Shevonne
rated it
Recommends it for:
People who dont know about time management and organization
Recommended to Shevonne by:
No One
Shelves:
greatselfhelpbooks
This book is really good for someone who doesn't have any clue how to organize their household. However, I have read tons of books on time management and organization, so I didn't learn much from this book. Being that I know tons on the subject, I think this book is great for people who don't know much. It gives you wonderful tips in a way that will make you slowly become a time management and organization guru. If your house is a mess, then this is the book to pick up.
Week-by-week detailed steps for organizing your life
Regina Leeds starts with your mother’s philosophy: There’s a place for everything. She provides all the details you need week-by-week and month-by-month to help you stop searching for keys and remote controls, and quit wondering when your dental appointment is. With her help, you can change from time-wasting time mode to “just do it” mode. The weekly organizational activities on her agenda range from one hour to a full day, though s...more
Regina Leeds starts with your mother’s philosophy: There’s a place for everything. She provides all the details you need week-by-week and month-by-month to help you stop searching for keys and remote controls, and quit wondering when your dental appointment is. With her help, you can change from time-wasting time mode to “just do it” mode. The weekly organizational activities on her agenda range from one hour to a full day, though s...more
This book has really helped me to organize my home and life. I have read through most of it except the chapter on moving, which I do not plan on doing in the near future.
Really great ideas for staying on top of tasks.
Really great ideas for staying on top of tasks.
view 1 comment
The idea behind Regina Leeds' book is that you break down each area of your house month by month and devote the entire month to reorganizing it. At the end of the year, voila, your life is completely organized. Since I only had the book for two weeks from the library, that wasn't going to work -- so I read the whole thing and took the tips I needed...and I think I can accomplish a lot of what Leeds writes about in much less than a year.
Her method of thinking about organizing is a goo...more
Her method of thinking about organizing is a goo...more
Can't say that the author had a particularly new slant to the whole organization thing, though I did pick up a tip or two on filing. The organization of the book (dividing it up into 12 months) was original, but didn't really seem to work as a concept. Basically, it comes down to 1. Get rid of things you don't use or for which you don't have an immediate need. 2. Think about how you use your space and organize accordingly. 3. Find a system that works for you and maintain it.
If you are com...more
If you are com...more
I like the author's overall plan. Instead of becoming an Organized Person in one fell swoop (and burning out in the process), Leeds has you tackle one area per month and breaks each month down into a week-by-week plan. Sometimes this is an area of your house, such as tackling the kitchen in January or the bathroom in April. Other times, you reorganize an area of activity: in August, learn to plan a move; in November, plan Thanksgiving dinner (and how to throw parties in general).
Unfort...more
Unfort...more
I like to be organized but no matter what I do after I clean, I still find myself once again creating piles and making my house look messy!
This book has a breakdown, room by room for organizing. Each chapter has lots of tips and ideas. Leeds says readers shouldn't try to do it all at once and that when working on organizing we should reward ourselves when we complete a task
I am planning to go room by room, one a month, to clean and organize. Once done, I plan on working...more
This book has a breakdown, room by room for organizing. Each chapter has lots of tips and ideas. Leeds says readers shouldn't try to do it all at once and that when working on organizing we should reward ourselves when we complete a task
I am planning to go room by room, one a month, to clean and organize. Once done, I plan on working...more
Jackie
rated it
Recommends it for:
anyone who feels a little out of control or at least in need of some organization
Recommended to Jackie by:
Mom
I read this in during a time of my life that felt most disorganized, chaotic, and out of control. My mom gave me this book, and I thought it would just be about physically organizing my home, but instead, it's actually about organizing yourself mentally and emotionally then physically.
The author takes you on a step by step process of imagining and reflecting on why you are the way you are--why you are always late or why you impulse buy or why you can't seem to find your keys. Throug...more
The author takes you on a step by step process of imagining and reflecting on why you are the way you are--why you are always late or why you impulse buy or why you can't seem to find your keys. Throug...more
What I learned from this book is that organizing can be done - baby step by baby step, one day at a time. The author gives realistic time frames for doing certain things and has lots of good ideas for organizing nearly everything the kitchen to the holidays. I'd like to own this book.
Another in my occasional series of organizing books. I liked it...sort of. Her perky Zenlite schtick got tedious after a while. This is firmly aimed at women with houses and families; being a single apartment dweller, an awful lot was not applicable to me. Nothing groundbreaking, and she's awfully into journalling, but she is friendly and encouraging enough that I tackled a couple of boxes that have been unsorted for over a year. Not bad but not my thing.
A mix between guided self-therapy (think LOTS of journaling) and basic organizational techniques. I didn't find anything new here, beyond the idea that recognizing patterns from your upbringing can help you be more successful at organizing your life now.
I loved how well this book broke down things into step by step chunks of achievable-ness. I didn't have much time to devour it though since I had checked it out from the library rather than purchased. I'm definitely going to add it to my "to buy" list though.
It's fine as a tool for someone who lacks organizational skills, but redundant if you know the drill. Where it is not helpful is in citing areas that can cost a great deal of money to make you "fully organizational."
I have discovered this about myself. I enjoy reading "how to get organized" books. I have spent most of my whole life trying to get organized. I have variously successful at this at different times.
It would be fun to try this for a year. The reader is given 12 different projects to do. Four sub tasks exist in each task. Each task begins with a journaling exercise about you and the particular task topic.
The setup of this book fits right into my sense of or...more
It would be fun to try this for a year. The reader is given 12 different projects to do. Four sub tasks exist in each task. Each task begins with a journaling exercise about you and the particular task topic.
The setup of this book fits right into my sense of or...more
For those that wish to take a more Zen approach to household projects and organization, this is a good choice. Lots of journal prompts and mantras to keep your year organized by project.
This book did not impress me. I was hoping for something that would really help with action items and felt it was more motivational or "old news". It might work for some, but I didn't learn anything new.
I guess I am already pretty organized. Not too much I didn't already know. Good tips about dream boards & visualizing your home the way you want it.
Great book if you are completely disorganized. If you are a fairly organized person looking for some tips, just skim the book for some new ideas.
This was an interesting book. It takes organizing your life and your home and breaks it down into 12 one month programs for you to work with. I haven't been able to do some of the suggested things yet because of life complications, but I am still referencing it to help me get organized and be organized. When we are organized, we have more time to do the things we enjoy, instead of spending 2 hours looking for car keys we lost, or library books that are overdue and missing in action. I would rath...more
I keep picking up these types of books because I feel unorganized. I must not be because I never find any useful information in them.
I've recently been through quite a few books on organization/clutter control and this one was a standout.
The only reason I'm giving this book 2 stars instead of 1, is because reading it did motivate me to organize a few cabinets and closets. The information in the book just wasn't very helpful. The help that was offered was really vague, and seemed to rely a lot on journaling, discovering your inner 'Zen Organizer', and creating lots of dream boards. It was all a little too froofy for me.
Doing a 'makeover' of your house (or whatever) takes a plan, and this is one.
Very categorical and helps in organizing thoughts and tasks.
So far, I like the cover best.
This is a good guide to organizing your life, but it doesn't really apply to me right now since I live in a crappy apartment and half of my books and "things" are in Bookhampton boxes that one of my cats has been systematically tearing apart with his claws for about three months now. Once I move in August 2009 I'll probably take this out again and try to apply some of her tips to my life. I want to be organized, but I'm not especially interested in being organized in an apartment that ...more
Are you completely disorganized? Are you utterly unable to find anything in any room in your house? Is your filing system defined exclusively by a pile of ratty paperwork on the floor of your office? Do you frequently forget your own child's birthday?
Then this book is for you. Really, it will indeed whip you into shape.
Those of you who have a clue about being organized, skip it.
Those of you who just want to have a more pleasant and organized living space, re...more
Then this book is for you. Really, it will indeed whip you into shape.
Those of you who have a clue about being organized, skip it.
Those of you who just want to have a more pleasant and organized living space, re...more
Heidi
is currently reading it
It's addictive.
Month by month plan to organizing your home. A lot of Zen stuff included... why might you be the disorganized self you are, etc. I found some of the tips helpful but wanted more tips on staying organized once I rearranged according to her instructions. If only she could visit and do the work for me. I also found her suggestions about why people hang on to so much stuff helpful as a way to inspire me to get rid of it. Bottom line -- some good suggestions and some parts of the book to skim th...more
Carol
marked it as to-read
from Jill
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
