Go Organize: Conquer Clutter in 3 Simple Steps

by Marilyn Bohn

Are you ready to take control of the clutter in your life? It's easier than you think. Professional organizer Marilyn Bohn guides you through the entire organizing process using her Lights On Organizing System, a simple but highly effective three-step process. You'll learn how to use the Searchlight step, the Spotlight step and the Green Light step to transform your surroundings and create an organized home that you love to live in. You get in-depth advice on organizing every area of your home Plus, there is complete information on organizing memorabilia and inherited items and a special chapter on downsizing to help you organize for a move to a smaller living area, such as moving from a house to a condo. The best part is, you can tailor all of the advice to meet your specific needs. As Marilyn says, "There's no right or wrong way to be organized. What counts is that it works for you." Conquer clutter once and for all with Go Organize!

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference

240 pages, Paperback

First published November 19, 2009

Reviews

[Amanda Marshall · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was simple and efficient. Unlike other reviewers I actually liked the 'flashlight' approach. Basically she points out that when a room is messy or cluttered it really does effect our moods. Who wants to try lounge peacefully in a room that's messy & unorganized? She has you rate the problem space on how it makes you feel when you're in it (for me it was my bedroom closet & I always found myself overwhelmed). Once you've rated it she has you analyze exactly what makes you unhappy about the space (i.e. clean clothes are just tossed on the floor) and works you through handling each issue one at a time (i.e. I put up a couple hooks so when I'm in a rush I won't just toss clothes on the floor, then I can hang them later). Yes it's basic, but sometimes you just need simple input from an outside source to get the job done.

Marilyn Bohn, my closet thanks you.

[Catherine Petrini · Rating 2 out of 5]

This home organization handbook employs light as a metaphor and a framework for putting your house in order in "three simple steps": Searchlight, Spotlight, and Green Light. That translates roughly to examining a room to determine its current issues and their causes and effects, figuring out what you want to fix, and putting in the time to reorganize the space into something that works for you.


Author Marilyn Bohn does have some tips and approaches that might be useful. I like her advice about breaking down the work into chunks of time, and to set a timer to pace yourself. But like most organizational systems, hers is oversimplified and makes some rather large assumptions about what her readers have to work with. For example, the chapter on organizing the Craft Room assumes you can dedicate an area of your house solely to crafts; in fact, she even says you should have a separate table used for nothing but crafts... and a different space for each different kind of craft you do! Yes, this would be wonderful. But it assumes that my house is a whole lot bigger than it really is. Many of us just don't have those options, and have to do crafts (yes, all different kinds) at the dining room table or the living room coffee table, the same places where our families may eat, read, or do homework. And her description of how to organize the Laundry Room assumes I have a laundry room with counter tops for folding clothes, and with enough floor space to set up an ironing board. Bohn has clearly never seen my house.

I'll take a few bits and pieces of advice and inspiration from this book. But most of it is either pretty much like every other organizational guru's system, or is designed for some reality other than my own.

[Peta · Rating 4 out of 5]

I nice simple decluttering/organisation book with some good achievable tips.

[Ice · Rating 2 out of 5]

Take control of the clutter in your life. It's easier than you think. Professional organizer Marilyn Bohn guides you through the entire organizing process using her Lights On Organizing System, a simple but highly effective three-step process.

She shows how to use the Searchlight step, the Spotlight step and the Green Light step to transform your surroundings and create an organized home to live in. You get in-depth advice on organizing every area of your home including:

The Kitchen
Bedrooms
Closets & Storage Room
Home Office & Paperwork
Craft Room
Laundry Room
Bathrooms

Plus, there is complete information on organizing memorabilia and inherited items and a special chapter on downsizing to help you organize for a move to a smaller living area, such as moving from a house to a condo. As Marilyn says, "There's no right or wrong way to be organized. What counts is that it works for you."

[Ruthmgon · Rating 2 out of 5]

The jury is still out on this one. I have only scanned this one and not delved into it. The 3 step lights idea, Searchlight, Spotlight, Green light with all the wattage and other descriptors seems a bit contrived, but it might work for some people. I just find it distracting when you have to flip around to find out what a code word means so you can finish a paragraph. Plus I am already prone to distraction, I don't need help with that!

The three step idea is great, but when a step is too big--I really avoid it, which is always where I get into trouble. Maybe some of these steps are really catagories of tasks?

It strikes me as more of an organizational book rather than a decluttering one. To be fair, I need to read more thoroughly than I have so far.

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are so many good ideas in this book. But the downfall is that there are very few pictures in this cute little square book. I like pictures! Chapters one and two are the most illuminating and really made me think about my house and work spaces. If you read those two chapters, you will know what I mean by illuminating. Although I would not go out of the way to recommend this book, I am going to make a couple of notes and use them.

[Amber · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were a lot of good pointers to simplify and organize your home. I couldn't use some of the information though, since I'm not planning on going out to buy more storage containers or shelving... I want to get rid of things, not just find new homes within my home - that doesn't clear out the clutter, in my opinion.

[Relyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

As you can probably tell by now, I love to read organizing books. Organizing is a passion of mine. In fact, one of my jobs in college was organizing people's closets. I loved it. But this book? ICK. Nothing new, nothing helpful, nothing informative. And a silly piece of shtick by comparing organizing to lights. Dumb.

[Daphne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this offered some good ideas. It would be a great book for someone who has NO organization in their lives. She walks you through each room showing how to make decisions on what would work for you.

[Jaclyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

A good book to get you motivated to start organizing. It did also re-iterate my least favorite fact about organization.....that it is an ongoing life long process. I'm still looking for a book that has the solution to that!

[Lindsay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good concept if you buy into the author's methodology. Very repetitive, as the reader is taken step-by-step, room-by-room through the same process.