The Declutter Challenge: A Guided Journal for Getting your Home Organized in 30 Quick Steps

by Cassandra Aarssen

Clear a path to the life you want with this bestselling motivational journal by the professional organizer and host of HGTV's Hot Mess House!

Even for the most organized among us, messes find their way into our homes and lives--and sometimes we can't seem to find the strength or time to tackle them. That's where this motivational guided journal by decluttering guru Cassandra Aarssen comes in.

Cas climbed out of years of cluttered living and transformed her home and her life through organization. In this self-help journal, she guides you through favorite tips and tricks that she used to declutter her home and find her way to a more organized and peaceful life.

With pages and pages of decluttering and organizational tools, including supporting prompts and writing exercises, this interactive journal is designed to help you declutter your home and life through mindfulness and self-motivation. Learn how to navigate the chaos of clutter by taking the time to understand yourself and the underlying meaning behind your clutter. Filled with inspiration and open-ended questions, The Declutter Challenge helps you work through both the emotional and the physical clutter in your life. Explore your thoughts and feelings about your belongings--and discover the knowledge and strength to let go of excess.

Genres: Nonfiction, Self Help, Reference, How To

285 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 28, 2020

Reviews

[Shelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

So, I have to admit something: I can’t write in a book. I just can’t. I knew when I bought this decluttering journal, I would never write in it but I have bought and will continue to buy all of Cassandra Aarssen’s books. That all being said it’s a fantastic read/journal and is a wonderful resource into helping yourself or a friend/family member work through decluttering their home and life.

I have watched Cassanda’s youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/Organize... for years now. Once upon a time she lived an a much smaller home, square-footage wise similar to my own, that she even ran a daycare out of. How she was able to make her tiny space both beautiful and functional was inspirational and thus I began my long journey to decluttering and best organizing my home for me and my family. Because of her (and a little bit of help from Mari Kondo in the past year) I truly love my home. I no longer view it as something to get me by till I can afford something bigger and better. My home is better, it just had too much stuff in it.

Additional note: Cassandra if you are reading this there is NO WAY I am taking the final step you mentioned in this book. Sorry not gonna happen. Your books spark too much joy for me to ever declutter. Thanks for always being awesome and sharing your decluttering journey with us fellow unicorns in training.

[A.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

One thing she has done is think about the why; the mental issues that occur with cluttered people. Which is honestly half the problem if you have ever watched one of those hoarder programs. Chuck all the stuff out without dealing with the underlying issues, and it will just come back.
This is meant to be a workbook, and I had borrowed it from the library, but I just hand wrote my own notes. Which, being a good de-clutterer she advises you to throw away once you are done.
Lots of sensible advice here.
4 stars

[Mary Whit · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you like lists you will love this book! A LOT of lists and I do mean A LOT of them. I do wish there had been something for those of us wo families.

[Emily Ray · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is really just a collection of a few paragraphs, motivational quotes (including a line from “Silence of the Lambs” and an MC Hammer song). But it’s mostly empty boxes and lines.

[Dee Renee Chesnut · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a guided journal. You will get out of it what you put into it by writing your reflections on the questions, suggestions, and do-it-now tasks.

The title says 30 Quick Steps but I need more than 30 days of 15-minute tasks to do what must be done to my stored sentimental items that I kept for my hobby of writing family history and genealogy, my hobby of organizing photos into digital copies that are tagged with the names of the people in the photos with the goal of making photo books, and my hobby of reading. I am making daily progress to reduce space these items have used in the past to make room to expand the storage for the art hobbies I had time to explore during the 2020 pandemic.

This book is helping me build on what I used from the information with Marie Kondo. I was really stuck when the category came to Sentimental and I stored too much stuff in my organized hobby closet and organized garage shelves. Other family members do not share my hobby of genealogy and my memories attached to what I stored. The time to declutter these totes is sooner rather than later. The time to organize with the goal of preparing the collection for an appropriate family history archive is sooner rather than later.

[Namo · Rating 4 out of 5]

My rating: 4/5
I really like this book. The detail in the book and the steps are very useful for those who are seeking ways to organise or declutter their mess. The process can be applied to every single room and corner in the house as the author divided the section in the book into tiny chunk.

[PJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, it took me almost a whole year to finish this book. #procrastination But it’s a great guided journal that gets you thinking and decluttering!

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read various books on decluttering. Although many of them were very good, and I understood why I must declutter and how much better it is not to have so much stuff, none of them really got it the way this book has.

There are reasons why I can't just put my stuff in a pile and see what 'sparks joy', and I love that the author totally understands the blockages in a very human way. The journal format really appeals to me and makes the whole process incredibly personal. I don't like damaging books in any way and I certainly can't write in them, so it was amazing to find that the entire journal can be downloaded as a free and editable PDF, or can be printed out. I actually am going to be working through this!

[Silvia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actually interesting.
It's not Marie Kondo, of course, but there are several things I noted down and that I want to try.
Given that it was born as a journal, I just wished I had the actual physical book because there are spaces for notes and little exercises that I would have loved filling in with a pen on paper.
Oh and the graphic is cute, too.

[Erin Stevens · Rating 2 out of 5]

Many many questions to answer and pictures to draw to help visualize the space. The book has you answer a lot of questions of “when I am done decluttering I will feel better because” There are tips along the way. Wish it focused more on the tips and tricks. Also fun quotes throughout!

[Dan Stern · Rating 5 out of 5]

Life gets in the way of a clutter-free life -- unless you figure out a way to help yourself! The author is funny, encouraging & if you break the cleanup down into manageable sections, you can do it!

[Norm Tresadern · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit too simplistic for 5 stars

I liked that the book gets us to look at our motivation for creating clutter, but then it is a bit too simplistic about what those reasons might be and assumes the answers. Sometimes the author's answers weren't the same as mine, and where does that leave me? There were too many sections where I thought, 'well, I'll just have to skip that bit'. I also would have like more about Clutter but and how the different styles may have led to clutter, or may cause different types of clutter or problems with clutter.

I got the book looking for motivation, but I get much more from the YouTube videos.

[Rachel Harrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very practical and helpful quick read

This book is a quick read and a guided activity with simple prompts to reflect on and create motivation. It offers quick suggestions for items to remove from room to room. It also offers practical tips to incorporate every day to keep the process simplified. My favorite activity was developing my dream bedroom, kitchen, living room, etc. It helped me identify what is already working and the little amount that I physically needed to accomplish the visions.

[Estela · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book does a great job of creating simple steps to declutter your home. It's a great workbook for those that need to work out why they hold on to so much clutter. And the author does a great job of guiding you through the process of giving yourself permission to just get rid of it. I think the only lack in this book is that she doesn't delve very deeply into the reorganization of your spaces once you've decluttered. But she does have a whole other book dedicated to help you find your organizing style. This book just focuses on helping you to declutter.

[Tamara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this one up at first as an ebook through my library app for Hoopla. For years, I have been a clutterer to the max. When I first discovered Cassandra Aarssen through Real Life Organizing, it was refreshing to see someone approach the science of clutter through different personality types, the "Clutterbug" philosophy helped me to see that I have a different organizing style from family members and that is okay. I still have a long way to go and while I did borrow a copy of the physical book for this, I read more for tips than journaling.

[Judith M. Barker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great ideas for me to use

I needed ways to sort and let go of items that have emotional value but don't need to be in my life, just my memories🙋
I needed to understand why I haven't let go of stuff and how I now can. 🏃 Finding new homes for things I've enjoyed and letting others enjoy them too🙆
Reset my thinking to get stuff done🤷

[Margaret Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worthwhile Ideas

She put together many important concepts of achieving a clean house. It’s a useful book. I particularly liked the concepts that indecisiveness leads to keeping too much stuff. I didn’t do the workbook exercises.

[Elizabeth J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks for making me face some home truths

I am very grateful for Cass' journal - she made me consider a number of factors about my junk and showed me a different perspective about how to look at my belongings and determine what is me and what really isnt.

[Julia L Owings · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eye opening

For the first time hubby realized his "can't throw anything away" comes from his grandparents who were raised during the Great Depression. I am sure I won't be arguing over decluttering the barn any more

[Kim Watkins · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m sure is fine as a journal but not a great book to read. It really is a “pick up a pen and write stuff down” work through in this topic so it didn’t translate well to kindle. Not sure why you turn this in to a kindle but ok….

[Christy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Progressing nicely with this journal - I like that it sparks my creativity while helping me declutter!

[Dana · Rating 5 out of 5]

She understands my cleaning and organizing style and has valid, actionable and creative solutions.

[Kym · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good help for beginner decluttering.

[L. Hudson · Rating 5 out of 5]

amazing

best sorting cleaning organizing book & information I have learned- so happy to find - her youtube & other sources amazing also

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not her best.

[Nicky Brinsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best book on decluttering I have ever read! So easy to follow and such great resources!

[Corinnagoodwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute workbook

[Sarah Calvert · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not for me, a bit too prescriptive and I've done a lot of decluttering now so this is more of an entry level decluttering book than going further down the road. Also I didn't gel with her examples.

[Belinda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good Stuff

I like the ideas and the notebook style of the book. A lot of it did not apply, due to a house fire last year, but I took from it what I could use.

[Samantha Linsenbigler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Feel like this is more journaling than helping you actively declutter? Idk