Rightsize . . . Right Now!: The 8-Week Plan to Organize, Declutter, and Make Any Move Stress-Free

by Regina Leeds

Get ready for moving day the stress-free way

Whether your new home is across the country or across the street, moving is never easy. Between the packing, the hauling, and the unpacking--let alone the clutter of boxes, the misplaced items, and the upheaval of leaving the old place behind--the stress can overwhelm even the most easygoing person. But with the right plan, it doesn't have to be that way!

For over 25 years, bestselling author and professional organizer Regina Leeds has helped her clients prepare for new homes with practical support and a fresh perspective. She sees moving as an opportunity to simplify and start fresh. In Rightsize ... Right Now! Regina outlines her 8-week plan to clear clutter, organize, pack, and relocate without stress, with:

Helpful guidance on making a moving plan, from hiring movers down to forwarding mail
Strategies to tackle each room in the house in a smart, efficient way
Rightsizing projects to weed out unneeded possessions
Expert advice on organizing your belongings for the move and the new home
Weekly self-care tips to keep you from getting bogged down
No matter if you're going from dorm to apartment, house to house, castle to
condo, or you're preparing for retirement, Rightsize ... Right Now! will help you to conquer the chaos of moving and settle into a simpler, cleaner home.

Genres: Nonfiction, Self Help

MP3 CD

First published March 31, 2015

About the author

Professional Organizer. New York Times best selling author of 9 books. Speaker.

Reviews

[Tina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly - This book stressed me out WAY more than it helped me!

The author has a million ideas about all the numerous and "vital" things you should do to move and detailed instructions for exactly how you should complete those tasks. It was overwhelming! In my opinion, this title wants to be too many things; it's life coaching, cleaning, relationship building, moving guide and home economics. I just wanted advice on how to move!

Additionally, I didn't really trust her order of packing your home. If I pack my kitchen in week 1, how will I prepare food for the next 7 weeks? It makes no sense. I found a better packing list online via Pinterest for anyone who needs it - It's called "What to Pack When" and it's been really helpful:

http://authenticsimplicity.net/2013/0...

[Mark · Rating 1 out of 5]

Augh! This could have been a pamphlet if the author wasn't so in love with the sound of her own voice.

I've read a lot of books where the author spends more time on the story of how they came to learn about [topic] than they do on [topic]. This is worse. She is just so amazed with herself that she was able to come up with names for the steps of her process and ascribe to them faux-mystical significance that she doesn't even accomplish that.

[January · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rightsize... Right Now! The 8-Week Plan to Organize, Declutter, and Make Any Move Stress-Free by Regina Leeds (2015)
233/259-page Kindle Ebook

Genre: Self-Help, Nonfiction, Organize, Declutter, Moving House

Featuring: Advertisements, Praise, Bibliography for Regina Leeds, The Zen of Organizing, The Magic Formula, Zen Organizing and Your Move, Time Frame for Rightsizing, Structure, The Power of (Good) Habits, The Ultimate Helper: A To-Do List, Words of Caution, Closing Thoughts, WEEK 1: MAKE A PLAN, The Solution Is in the Details, The Moving Mantra, Preparation Is Key, Making a Move Notebook, A Tidy Tool: Categorized Moving Files, The “B Word”: Making a Budget, Considerations for Moving to an Address to Be Determined, Finding the Mover of Your Dreams, When to Start Packing, Fresh Eyes Exercise, Rewards and Tips, Self Care, Each Week’s Summary, WEEK 2: TAKE THE FIRST STEPS, Mover Meetings, When You Should Definitely Hire Professional Movers, When You Are the Mover, Creating the New Space, Stuff Disposition: Strategies for Clearing Unneeded Items, One Room at a Time, Clearing the Clutter: Packing the Kitchen, Planning for the Next Kitchen, Packing the Laundry Room, Packing Tips, Prepare Your Forwarding Paperwork, Packing the Master Bedroom, Clothes and Linens, Time Suckers: Behaviors to Avoid, Packing the Master, Planning for the Next Bathroom, The Linen Closet, WEEK 5: THE END OF PAPER PILES, Packing the Home Office, Dispelling Tax Phobia: How to File Important Documents, Paper Sorting Before a Move: The Down and Dirty Method, Building a Permanent Filing System, Packing Living Areas, The Book Collector’s Dilemma, What to Do with Media Collections, Outlets for the Stuff in Our Lives, Packing the Children’s Rooms, Memorabilia and the Art of Letting Go Children’s Treasures, Off to College: Preparing for the Dorm, The Circle of Life: Retirement, WEEK 8: HIDDEN POCKETS OF UNMADE DECISIONS AND FINAL PLANS FOR THE BIG DAY, Packing the Garage, The Kingdom of Unmade Decisions: Packing the Attic and the Basement, Tips to Avoid Injury and Promote Happiness, The Big Day Unpacking and the Period of Adjustment, A Note from Regina, Resources - Websites, Index, Excerpt from Regina Leed's One Year To An Organized Financial Life by Regina Leeds with Russell Wild

Rating as a movie: PG-13

Books and Authors mentioned: One Year to an Organized Life, One Year To An Organized Financial Life, One Year to an Organized Work Life, One Year to an Organized Life with Baby, The 8 Minute Organizer,
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck 71

Memorable Quotes: Moves that are foisted on us cause off-the-charts stress. As the calendar days fly by, you find yourself feeling exhausted and practicing the fine art of procrastination. I’m here to help.

You’ll never achieve a new effect by holding on to an old cause.

Do you have “fat” clothes from another time in your life? Why are you keeping them? Do you plan to gain weight in the new location? I didn’t think so. Make a donation bag or box. (Use heavy-duty black or green trash bags, not the flimsy white ones).
101 You love to read and decide to give yourself fifteen minutes a day before the move. When you look at the clock, you are stupefied by how much time has passed.

Community-style micro-living remains the exception, not the rule. The prosperity boom after World War II engendered the American dream of individual home ownership. Home sizes ballooned over the ensuing decades. Today a typical American home is twenty-three hundred square feet—twice the size of the typical French home and three times larger than the typical Brit’s.

My rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🏠🗃📦🚚🏡

My thoughts: 🔖Page 19 of 233 week 1 MAKE A PLAN - I think I love this book already. I started it because I feared I lost my Kindle streak and I should have started this book last week. It's great so far.
🔖83 week 3 TELL THE WORLD AND TAKE ANOTHER STEP - Of my current 7 books this one is the most exciting and that's sad. My only issue with this book is she does endorsement commercials within the story like a YouTuber with sponsors. Let me knock out this audiobook so I can move on to something good.
🔖105 week 4 RUB-A-DUB-DUB, LOTS OF FOLKS IN THIS TUB - So much good information but no time to sit and read.
🔖205 week 8 HIDDEN POCKETS OF UNMADE DECISIONS AND FINAL PLANS FOR THE BIG DAY - I feel comfortable stopping here. I'm highly motivated.

This book was great! It's well-organized, highly motivating, and doesn't just focus on the move itself. She discusses stress, finances, nutrition and wellness. I read the excerpt from One Year To An Organized Financial Life and it sounds great. It's organized month-to-month, and the months are broken into weeks. I adding to my TBR..

Recommend to others: Yes. I have a few other books, but so far this is the best book on the topic.

[Ericka Clou · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book probably won’t change your life dramatically but the author is an organizing professional and it shows. The book has lots of good ideas and tips.

[Nichola · Rating 2 out of 5]

I often try to motivate more house emptying by imagining I could move in 6 months, so I thought a book with that in mind could offer an energized but thoughtful perspective. However, this seemed oddly focused on things at the "new" place- like measurements and cabinet space that sort of fizzled it for me. She also included lots of tips for hiring movers/packers etc. which I suppose was appropriate but also seemed to focus on pretty local moves... so uneven, and not particularly useful for me to just know long term what would be good to discard and what I would regret letting go of. Also, her online links to checklists weren't there anymore, I guess because it's a bit dated.

[Jess Roever · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are some good tips in here, but you need to weed through a lot of tips that probably do not apply to you to get to them. It seems to me that she spends a lot of time giving examples of past people she has helped and explaining common sense ideas instead of getting straight to the point and giving a step-by-step plan to decluttering while/before moving. A lot of her tips are for wealthy people (or perhaps people who don't want to pack their own things). Throughout the whole book she talks about hiring movers to pack and move your house, like everyone can afford that. I am not sure if I am outside her target market, but I have never been able to afford the extra money that it would cost to have movers also pack up everything I intend to move. When she talked about moving your art collection I laughed out loud. She also mentioned hiring a personal assistant during the moving process. I feel like anyone with this much expendable income would just hire someone to help them with the move instead of reading this book.

[Brendygirl · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book suits its purpose- to streamline your STUFF over the couple of months beforehand so you don’t end up moving unnecessary digital or physical clutter to your new home. You organize your Digital PHOTOS and files, etc etc. You sort through everything you are moving over several weeks so you don’t end up in a rush and just moving it to the new place because you never sorted it. You use the parts of the book that apply and she helps remind you why it’s easier to do it now than on the back end of the move.

[MrsMunster on StoryGraph · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a mixed bag.
Great ideas for downsizing (or “rightsizing”) and organization, definitely gave me an optimistic feeling about tackling our impending move. However, Leeds is very obviously in a privileged position, most obvious with how much she disdains the idea of not hiring thoroughly vetted professional movers and asking friends instead. Her mention of a “poor man’s option” for organization several times in the book, and rolling her eyes at some DIY decor options was a major turn off.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good tool for planning a move, complete with checklists online to use to organize your move. Although it is more oriented to long-distance moves of larger households, it is easy to apply her organizing suggestions to any situation. As a professional organizer, she knows how people tend to accumulate things and have them randomly stashed throughout their homes. A big part of this book is how to get rid of things you don't need and organize what you keep.

[Luana · Rating 2 out of 5]

For a book about downsizing by a professional organiser, it was pretty darn disorganised. There was some solid advice in there, but very much hidden under piles of unnecessary prose about the personal trauma that may have led you to hoard magnets or whatever. I would have preferred a much more streamlined approach for this particular topic.

[Simonew · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was fine. But it concentrated a little bit more on people who can afford to actually hire movers and have money to play with in terms of buying furniture . Nonetheless , it’ still had some useful titbits that people could use

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not everything appiled well for my circumstances so there were parts I skimmed over but the parts that did apply were very helpful. We plan move to another state in about six months, this helped me to get in a good frame of mind to plan and start preparing.

[Ann · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am not moving. I just checked this book out of the library for some downsizing tips. There were not many tips here. I think that I need to come up with my own book, rather than rely others.

[Cory · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely motivational and an easy read. The format of having checklists at the end of each chapter to summarize what was talked about in the chapter was really nice.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very helpful. I picked up a few good tips!

[Beckie Gaskill · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book to help get you organized and ready to move!

[Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative, lots of stuff not applicable to me tho

[Emily Schatz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was excited to win this book from Goodreads because I so enjoyed reading "One Year to an Organized Life with Baby" when I was expecting my first child.

When it came, I realized it was the audio version, and I am terrible at listening to things unless I am (for instance) in the car on a road trip. So I have listened to maybe a third of this book, and it's going to take awhile to finish.

Here is what I've gathered so far: While Regina has good insights on how to THINK about organizing and sorting your belongings, these are hidden within long chapters full of exhaustive details about how to DO a move. The main benefit I was hoping to get from this book was not a step-by-step how-to (since I am not moving), but a new way of looking at home organization and better perspective on the ever-ongoing decluttering process. The book does contain comments on this, and some compelling client stories in the same vein, but again, it's mostly about packing and dealing with movers.

Much of that advice is indeed helpful; however, it is sometimes so detailed, and she spends so much time emphasizing the importance of hiring professional movers and explaining exactly how to work with them, that I found it hard to stay focused. In addition, regarding moving, she is constantly preaching some version of "you get what you pay for." Although this is usually true, it is not going to make me willing to shell out the thousands for my next one-mile move in Brooklyn.

My last disappointment with this book was a surprise having to do with the audio format. I find Regina's writing style quite engaging, and I'm sure if I had been reading I would have had an easier time getting to the parts that interested me and skimming the rest. But when listening, everything has to go in sequence and you don't get to imagine the voice in your own head. Regina's reading was quite slow and lecture-ish, and so the long instructional sections on interviewing movers and measuring cabinets made me fidget all the more.

[Kari · Rating 4 out of 5]

I discovered this book two days before my move, not two months. Luckily I had already done most of the things recommended- I had been preparing for my move for months. But I read on anyway, and now I am relaxed and ready to tackle the daunting task of unpacking when I move, and to start out organized in my new home.

[LemontreeLime · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't realize when I borrowed this from the library that its focus was on getting ready for a move. It was interesting, and as I've never had the money to pay for professional movers, I understand more about how that industry works.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

A practical guide to taking the stress out of packing. Well written if a bit repetitive.

[Tisha · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was more about how to schedule things for a move. There was barely anything about decluttering...other than to do it! Meh.

[Candy · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's all here if you're moving.

[Bonnie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is junk. I can't find anything helpful in the book at all...unless of course you're looking for advice on how to think about moving... in which case, you're set!

[J Crossley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book seeks to make your next move as hassle free as possible. The author walks you through what to eliminate, how to pack, and how to roll with the punches you may face during the move itself.

[Brian D Kraemer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I no longer feel frozen

Preparing for a move out of the country with a spouse and two children under 5. I was feeling overwhelmed and frozen at 12 weeks out. This book was to the point and well organized. I took about two days to read and take notes that fit my situation.

I understand selfcare and it's importance, but mostly skimmed over those parts except to note which weeks she expected to be most stressful.

I also liked that she tried to organize us in a way that can be carried on in the new home and that she gave some tips on unpacking.

[Lawra Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

for the most part common sense stuff. readable writing though. not boring, just no eureka moments. used it to help make my moving to-do lists.