Good Housekeeping Simple Organizing Wisdom: 500+ Quick & Easy Clutter Cures (Volume 3)

by Good Housekeeping, Laurie Jennings

The ultimate guide to decluttering! Good Housekeeping helps you organize your home, simplify any task, and tidy up fast.
 
Let the experts at Good Housekeeping help you get organized with this inspirational room-by-room guide to tidying up! Hundreds of tips and tricks include how to keep a well-ordered fridge, gain extra counter space, conquer cookware clutter, choose the best shelving, clear up your desk and digital spaces, and streamline your closet and garage. You’ll find pro organizer ideas for every area in your home, must-have Good Housekeeping Institute-approved products, and advice on finding a place for everything and putting everything in its place. Keep this book handy, refer to it often, and say goodbye to the mess!

Chapters: Organizing Must-Haves, Kitchen & Pantry, Living & Family Rooms, Work & Craft Spaces, Bedrooms, Bath & Laundry Rooms, Entryways, and Garages.

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference, Self Help, Adult

208 pages, Hardcover

Published March 5, 2019

About the author

The Good Housekeeping Institute was created to provide readers of Good Housekeeping magazine with expert consumer advice and delicious, classic and contemporary east-to-follow recipes. These ideals still hold true today. The institute team are all experienced cooks, home economists and consumer researchers. They test the lastest products in purpose-built, modern kitchens, where every recipe published in the magazine and its range of bestselling cookery books is rigorously tested so that you can cook any Good Housekeeping dish with confidence.

Reviews

[Susan B · Rating 1 out of 5]

I liked the smaller hardcover format of this book and the photos are beautiful. Things I didn't like: duplication, contradictory suggestions, unrealistic expectations, ideas that probably don't or won't work for most of us. Personally, trading kitchen cabinets for open shelving would be a disaster in my house. It would look a mess and everything would get dusty. I suppose it's fine if you don't own very much and what you own is pretty enough for display, but otherwise...? Ugh. Also, wicker baskets: dust collectors. Magazine files to hold canned goods? I don't think so.

I didn't bother finishing this book after getting a good gist of it. No point in wasting my time while my house crumbles around me. Better to use it decluttering and simplifying.

[Susannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a nicely laid out book with practical ideas for organisation and storage. There are tips for organising different areas of the house, with photography to illustrate how it is done. Although the tips are most useful if you own your house, as some of them require interior modification. Additionally, there is some advertising for products, but they open about that. Altogether a useful and handy decluttering and organisation guide.

[Marissa Morrison · Rating 2 out of 5]

The hyper-materialistic aesthetic is off-putting.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of the ideas were common sense and practical. I enjoyed perusing the photos. One of the ideas helped me to organize my sewing nook, by pulling my farm table out from the wall I can now walk around it enabling me to cut fabrics easier. Storage totes now line the wall so the room looks less messy.

[Christine Dabbs · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’d already read Marie Kondo and bought into her method. So some of these organizing ideas seemed very much the opposite of helpful to me. But I found it yet another useful source of visual inspiration!

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book had lovely pictures and lots of easy to read text, but some of it was duplicated from chapter to chapter. Also, a lot of the advice and pictures just weren't practical for anyone who lives in a house that is less than 3000 square feet. Sure, if my living room was that big I could have multiple end tables that are also ottomans that also double as storage. And yeah, if my kitchen were so big that I actually had a pantry instead of 3 double doored cabinets to fit everything in, then I could organize my pantry in such a smart way. Sigh.... Although I did still manage to pull a lot of useful ideas out of the book simply by trying to think creatively about my little house and what it needs as I flipped through.

Although I must admit that there was some advice which was simply bad. Baskets? Everywhere? Also little cups and trays to hold small items on the nightstand or in the entryway? Wouldn't that be the birth of clutter on that small spot? I thought the whole point of trying to be clean and organized was to avoid clutter and try to keep spaces clear so that's its easy to quickly clean on a regular basis. If I have little basket and cups that would just encourage me to fill them up! And the part about mail/bills/paperwork didn't make much sense. I thought there was a well-known technique afoot that says you only touch paperwork once. Mail comes in and you open it, then you toss it or shred it or file it. There. That's it. No cubbyholes for bills to be dealt with later.

Although all that being said, I do still intend to look through the other 2 books in the series, Simple Cleaning Wisdom, and Simple Household Wisdom. That's a whole lotta wisdom that I may benefit from, or it may just sail right over my head! We'll see!

[Colleenish · Rating 1 out of 5]

Use baskets! Don't let your nightstand get cluttered! Other bland organizing tips!

The pictures are beautiful but really unrealistic and the book is full of product ads.

[nukie19 · Rating 3 out of 5]

First up, the book is beautiful and inspiring with lovely pictures of nicely organized spaces throughout. It reads and looks like a high-quality magazine which has positive and negative results. Positive in that it is full of awesome tips and great ideas pages. But negative results include feeling a little disjointed (each page almost reads like its own article), having sometimes contradictory information from one page to the next, and overall just not being well-suited to be read start to finish.

All-in-all, this would be a great reference of ideas for someone organizing a space from scratch, redecorating, or moving into a new space. But, I'm not sure its quite as useful for people already well settled in and just looking for tips rather than full-scale redoing a room.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good Housekeeping lands on the organizational concept that it used in the 1950s with updated thinking with Simple organizing wisdom : 500+ quick & easy clutter cures. Various categories from rooms to work areas, including the garage and even your car, are included in this publication full of photographs and tips to making life easier and stress-free. Also, there is an area devoted to holiday decorations. In addition to finding its roots with organization, Good Housekeeping endorses and promotes products for the organization and associated cleaning. It would be a good read for those who appreciate spring cleaning and keeping it neat.

[Jes · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually like the way this book is set up. It's not a ton of text, PLENTY of picture examples, and has lots of good information. I skipped the parts I knew I didn't need (like attic and basement storage) and got a lot of good ideas I hadn't even considered before (like using a hutch for a linen/extra storage). I'll definitely be using some of the tips. The only thing I didn't like were the in book ads. I don't need more ads in my life. And I get that that's how magazines do, but yuck.

I recommend this book to people who don't have a clue about housekeeping, people who have somewhat a clue and need help, or people who just plain like the magazine.

[Westminster Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well-written book, in an extremely easy-to-read format with photos, it has a great many helpful ideas. This is a compilation of ideas found in other books along with new ideas and presentations. Decorating hints are found included among the many organizing tips.

Find Good housekeeping simple organizing wisdom at Westminster Public Library today!

And if you are in search of new books to read, try our services, What Do I Read Next. Our library staff are standing by to create a personalized recommendation list for you!

[Victoria B. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a hit-or-miss. Some of the advice in "Simple Organizing Wisdom" involves renovation: extend your kitchen cabinets to the ceiling, add hidden storage to your island/cabinets, build a banquette, frame a window with built-in bookcases, install a giant (wall-sized) bulletin board...It seems ridiculous.

The tips that *are* good, or the pictures that have cute storage ideas, give you absolutely no idea as to where to find that item. I was disappointed. Meanwhile, some of their tips seemed like a paid ad (Mr. Clean, Tide, Weiman Electronic Wipes...) or cleaning advice, not organizing advice.

Honestly, you are just as good looking up organizing tips and hacks on Pinterest.

[Ligaya · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing new here for me, so that was disappointing. Bite-sized text blocks with photos of (sometimes unrealistically) styled rooms, rooms that were typically generously sized. Closets with only a dozen pieces of clothing hanging and books organized on the shelves by color are my pet peeves in organizing books, and this book had both! To add insult to injury, ads sprinkled throughout masquerade as more helpful hints. This book would be good if you have no idea of where to start and don't have a lot of stuff.

[Miss Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I still have more of this book to read. I want to own this book. Organizing and keeping things straight takes work, daily work. This has quick and easy ideas on how to organize just about everything, even done emails and office supplies. Plenty of photos and great hack ideas. It all takes daily work though to stay and keep organized. No quick fixes.

[Mindy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Beautiful pictures, bad advice. This book may have ideas to organize, but it definitely does not have "clutter cures" as promised. There was little to offer in forms of letting things go. Much of it consisted of getting more storage. If you were to follow the advice in this book, you will end up buying all the products recommended and a bigger house to fit it.

[Maryann Lucero · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nothing new here, except maybe the endorsements. Pretty pictures. Stick with Peter Walsh and Mari Kondo. Plus, any book on organizing that tells you to organize your books by color gets thrown across the room and escorted out of the house!

[Al · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mediocre tips that aren’t accessible to everyone (no good hacks, pictures were lovely but of spaces way out of my lifestyle and price range) and an over abundance of wicker-basket solutions. Plus, at the end of each section there was essentially an ad for “good housekeeping approved” products.

[Wizard · Rating 3 out of 5]

5/10

This book has a lot of pictures, so many in fact that it was primarily pictures. Some of the information was repetitive, and most of the solutions only work if you own a house, especially a larger one.

[DP · Rating 2 out of 5]

My copy only had 112 pages and 300 tips. There was nothing earth-shattering, but there were some good ideas, accompanied by some inspiring photos of organized spaces. I'm glad I read it and will keep it around for future reference.

[Courtney · Rating 2 out of 5]

A few good ideas, but ultimately too many Pinterest-type ideas that no normal person would have time for, or probably aren't practical if you have less than a 3,000 square foot home. I can't wait to read the companion to this. 😄

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very clean and light and pretty

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wisdom? No. Pretty and mildly interesting? Sure.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some really good ideas!

[Monica Hyde · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good tips and tricks to organizing, already utilizing some of these every day!☺️

[Sidney · Rating 4 out of 5]

This provided me with several good ideas and motivated me to work on three or four areas of my home. I love to declutter and do so frequently. But, I am always looking for new ideas!

[Dawn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m guessing this is just a compilation of tidbits or short lists from the magazine. It’s a repetitive hodge podge of tips without the any kind of cohesive guidance.

[Joline Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is awesome! Caused me to spend hundreds on organizing gadgets... but... awesome ideas! Lol

[Allyson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nice to look at, but the number of contradictory and impractical suggestions made it frustrating to actually read.

[Brooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up because the pictures were pretty. Advice is so-so

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty pictures, not many new ideas tho.