Goodreads asked Eve O. Schaub:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Eve O. Schaub My most recent book is Year of No Clutter, a memoir detailing how I spent a year cleaning out one enormous room in my house that was packed to the gills with so much stuff that I couldn't even shut the door any more. Although "the author cleans out a room!" might not sound like a scintillating plot at first, I had the idea to write the book because I've always been obsessed with the idea of stuff, objects, belongings, collections- and the reasons why we keep them. Why is one person's priceless treasure another person's worthless garbage? Who's right? What's the difference between a "collection" and a "hoard"? After decades of being a "keeper", was there a way to shed my cluttering tendencies, or was I stuck for good, keeping everything and yet being able to find and access practically nothing?

I figured that if I was this intrigued by what I considered to be the bottomless topic of "stuff," then hopefully what I wrote about it would be interesting and entertaining. Also I figured there must be people out there like me who also struggle greatly with the question of stuff- what to keep, what to discard, how much is too much? Hopefully they could relate to my thought process and maybe I'd come to some helpful revelations in the process for all of us. And lastly, for the readers out there who are the opposite of me- the minimalists!- the book could provide a window into a world that they might not otherwise be able to comprehend, perhaps helping them to understand better a friends or family member who is a Person of Stuff.

Every year for as long as I can remember my New Year's resolution has been to clean out that room out once and for all and make it functional and livable again. As I thought about the idea for the book, I figured, if I can't get my room back after a whole year of trying, maybe I am hopeless after all, but at least then I'll KNOW. The good news is that I discovered that with thought and perseverance, changing one's keeping habits IS possible. I'll never impress Marie Kondo or Martha Stewart, but I was able to change more than I had ever expected possible.

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