The Clutter-Busting Handbook: Clean It Up, Clear It Out, and Keep Your Life Clutter-Free

by Rita Emmett

Are you tired of being surrounded by so much stuff that you don't know what you have, can't put everything away or find things when you want them? Does your clutter cause you to feel stressed, anxious, or embarrassed? Rita Emmett — a reformed clutterer herself — can help you take control of your possessions. The Clutter-Busting Handbook is a concise, energizing guide that gives you insight and direction as well as proven tips, methods, and strategies to tame your clutter. Emmett reveals

• The four primary causes of clutter
• That cluttering is a habit even lifelong clutterers can break
• The powerful connection between clutter and procrastination
• How to help a pack rat part with unneeded objects
• How to prevent clutter from returning, forever

As entertaining as she is helpful, Emmett offers practical advice on deciding what to keep and what to recycle, discard, or donate. Her combination of experience and good humour — based on her hundreds of seminars and advice shared by people all over North America — will turn even the most reluctant converts into clutter busters.

Genres: Nonfiction, Self Help

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Rita Emmett is a “Recovering Procrastinator”, Professional Speaker and best-selling author whose books all together are in 34 countries, have sold over 205,000 copies worldwide and have been featured in over 428 interviews including with Katie Couric.

As a speaker, Rita's presentations help transform audiences
• from semi-productive to MEGA-productive,
• from fatigued to energized and
• from scattered to focused

Rita, and her husband Bruce and their 5 children were all born and raised in the Chicago area. They believe in the positives of raising children as Cubs fans because it teaches how to handle disappointment, how to be eternally optimistic and to forever have the extreme hope that things will always be better next year. Great Life Skills … don’t you agree?

Her customized presentations covering Procrastination, Clutter, Customer Loyalty, Burn-out, and Communication Skills have helped hundreds of organizations improve their performance, productivity and profitability, and head off burnout before it starts. Some of Rita’s clients include AT&T, Kraft Food, Mercedes Benz, Met Life, and The National Kidney Foundation.

Rita has been honored for her High Content / High Fun interactive Keynotes and Training presentations by being included in the prestigious “Who’s Who in American Education” plus “Who’s Who in America” and the “The World Wide Who’s Who of Women”.

Reviews

[Car]

It had some helpful tips but most of it was common knowledge. I think I could have accomplished more in organizing & cleaning my household if I would've just put DOWN the book...

[D.]

I found three really helpful hints in this book. Number your boxes 📦 and keep a list of the numbered box along with what’s inside it. A list of what to keep inside your glove compartment. Important documents to keep.

[Beckie]

I love this book, and I will borrow it again when I need more motivation. I have a long way to go to declutter my house, but I have made solid progress and feel good about it. This book is way more relatable than the other book I am reading, which is a best-seller from a Japanese author.

[Jeanne Nichols]

Rita Emmett writes well and is very knowledgeable about people who have clutter and how to handle it. This is a good book for clutterers who want to get some of their stuff taken care of.

[Virginia G. Turnbull]

Great ideas. Well written.

This book presents great ideas and is warranted written. In addition, it is a quick read. I not only learned from it, but I also enjoyed reading it.

[Laurie J]

Glad for some Actual and Practical nuts and bolts tips! Helpful things to ponder- even if I’ve heard some of it before.

[Josefin]

Rolig, trevlig, lättläst och full med handfasta råd om hur man tar hand om sina högar och annat stök på ett bra sätt. Jag älskar för övrigt alla Rita Emmetts böcker!

[Chelsea]

This book was what transformed me into a minimalist. After reading this book in July 2011, I donated over 150 items. Cleaning (dusting, washing surfaces, vacuuming, etc.) is so much easier and quicker now that I do not have figurines and other items on my surfaces to clean around.

From this very helpful book, I learned that organizing what you have is not the solution. Decluttering is the only way to transform your space into the space you want and need it to be. I also learned that it is okay to donate items that were gifted to you. The gift giver would not want to add clutter to your life and cause you stress. Now, if I am gifted an item that I do not want or need, I thank the recipient and donate the item to charity.

Now that I am a minimalist, I am so much happier and I have much more time to devote to the things I really value and enjoy (family, reading, physical exercise, etc.). For that, I will forever have this book to thank. This is the best book I have come across on decluttering and I recommend it to everyone.

[Ruthmgon]

Ritas other book on procrastination was so great, I decided to check this one out. Easy to flip around through, I feel that its a little bit listy--but not like some, shes just so likeable and I know she knows what she is talking about, so I forgive her.

trying to jump start dealing with my problem again!!! I would give this one about a three or four stars. I like Rita because she is not preachy, I dont feel like I am a loser when I read her books: an example, the tip section where she talks about getting a buddy to help.

Paraphrasing here; Dont ask someone to help who is just as much of a clutterer as you are, when I asked my sister to help me with her kitchen She is so sentimental that all we threw out was a melted plastic cover and some scraps of paper.

[Lesa Parnham]

This is the second clutter book I have read in the last two weeks, I have given them 5 stars in the genres. Such motivation! Beanie Babies gone! My Mom's high school yearbook gone! Old dresses, my husbands golf hat (he is on vacation) gone. I bought a whole bunch of space bags and have used over 25 black trashbags. I am being brutal, one thing this book has taught me is not to keep clutter because of sentiment reasons. My girls are going back to college and they are afraid to leave me because there may not be anything left when they come back!

[Nichola]

Sort of a mix of quick practical tips and encouragements, with a bit of attention to storage. It is helpful in listing ideas about where to send things, which is great for helping some people to let go, but ultimately those will be dependent on your local resources, which takes time to investigate. It's a bit too light, sort of an everyone can do it, if I keep it light approach.

[Pauliina]

Tämän raivausoppaan kohderyhmänä on ennemminkin yltiöpäiset keräilijät, tavaran säilöjät, hoardaajat. Jos olet sellainen ja kaipaat apua rojukaaoksen taltuttamiseen, tämä kirja voi olla sinulle. Todennäköisesti kuitenkin tarvitset apua. Normaalin tavaramäärän vähentämiseen tämä kirja ehkä hiukan inspiroi, muttei anna sen enempää.

[Molly]

This book is helping give me motivation to help me clean out and organize my house. It also makes me realize that my clutter is not that bad, comparatively, and makes me long for a bigger house with more storage...yes we need a garage!

[Noora]

Jotenkin osuva opus, jonka jälkeen tekee mieli ruveta järjestelemään tavarakaaosta ja heittää rojua pois. Ja rupesinkin. Heittelin vanhoja kortteja pois ja viimekesäisen kortin välistä löytyikin unohdetut 300 euroa :D.

[Janet]

Most of the information in this book is not new and is very basic. However, since it gave me the impetus to clean out a stash or two I will give it a four star review. Also, I will probably check it out of the library again when I need incentive to do a little more.

[Sarri]

Kirjan sanoma on ok, mutta vähän puisevaksi tämä kävi pitemmän päälle. Samaa sanomaa, kuin konmari, että säästä kivat rojut, mutta luovu muusta tauhkasta. Voihan tätä kait käyttää ohjekirjana siivouksen aikana, mutta ei muuten tehnyt mitään suurempaa vaikutusta.

[Amber]

So this is the book i read about HOW to clean after getting the desire and motivation by reading the Messie Motivator. Lots of good specifics.

[Richard Bertram]

Fun little book with easy tips and tricks to help keep todays fast paced life styles from being buried in the clutter.

[Jesse]

Plenty of good ideas, motivating book to read! I'm glad I borrowed it from the library.

[Heather Miller]

some good ideas for paper clutter and getting the kids invovled. heard a lot of it before though