How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind by Dana K. White (review and giveaway)

Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this book, free of charge,from Thomas Nelson, for review purposes on this blog. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it,  all opinions are my own.

Every Tuesday we share Christian books, or kids books with you.

It's sorta become 'a thing' here at BTHM.

And today is no different, BUT we're gonna look at book that really fits more into our New Year, New Self meme, but that also makes an excellent gift idea, for stressed out moms!

Synopsis:

Bring your home out of the mess it’s in and learn how to keep it under control.

“The dirty little secret about most organizing advice is that it’s written by organized people,” says blogger, speaker, and decluttering expert Dana K. White. “But that’s not how my brain works. I’m lost on page three.” Dana blogs at A Slob Comes Clean, chronicling her successes and failures with her self-described “deslobification process.” In the beginning she used the name “Nony” (short for aNONYmous), because she was sharing her deep, dark, slob secret. Now she has truly come clean—with not only her real name but the strategies she has developed, tested, and proved in her own home. She has learned what it takes to bring a home out of Disaster Status, which habits make the biggest and most lasting impact, and how to keep clutter under control.

In How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind, Dana explains that cleaning your house is not a onetime project but a series of ongoing premade decisions. Her reality-based cleaning and organizing techniques debunk the biggest housekeeping fantasies and help readers learn what really works. Chapter titles include:

My First Step: Giving Up on the Fantasy The Worst Thing About the Best Way

Just Tell Me What to Do
Conquering Laundry
Get Dinner on the Table
Putting an End to the Never-Ending Weekly Cleaning Tasks
Don’t Get Organized
How to Declutter Without Making a Bigger Mess 
Fighting the Perceived Value Battle
But Will It Last?

With a huge helping of empathy and humor, Dana provides a step-by-step process with strategies for getting rid of enormous amounts of stuff in as little time (and with as little emotional drama) as possible.

Review:

If you've ever read a organization/de-clutter/clean house book, then you KNOW where Dana is coming from. The PERFECTION in those books can lead your mind around the bend, and leave you with more self-loathing, than actual HELP! Dana's methods are not only more logical, they are PRACTICAL. You won;t feel overwhelmed, or that you have to achieve perfection or be a failure!

One of Dana's 2 questions to decluttering is:

If I needed this item, would it ever occur to me that I already have one? 

If you're a crafter you pretty much just recognized your entire craft room clutter, yes? But do you KNOW what is there? RIGHT. Hence the issue, that can ultimately creep to every room. I actually have a theory on this. My grandparents were children of the Depression. They were taught to hold on to anything useful and USE it. That trait became a lifelong habit, that they then passed to THEIR kids. Who either went the Martha Stewart organize EVERYTHING route, or the total opposite (hence why the 80s saw huge houses arise). Now the next generation gets taught BOTH from grandparents and parents, and add in the whole re-cycle phase....and you see where we are, and why the NEED for de-cluttering books to begin with! 

Dana's 2 question style is a lot of what I have started. It is truly a great way to take the EMOTIONAL attachment out of 'stuff', and then to determine where it needs to BE if it is staying in your house for a solid purpose. Last week I had Miss Grace go through her bookshelves in her room for the billionth time (I swear books are spawning and multiplying on their own at night in that room), and it was amazing how she used Dana's question above to determine if she truly NEEDED the book, if she would ever read it, and was it something she would look for in 20 years to hand down to her child. Once started, I left her alone and was shocked at how well she did, de-cluttering on her own. She was thrilled to find the available space for her BOXES of legos! Yeah 2 problems solved!

That's just an example of how the SIMPLICITY of Dan's methods actually work. I know I need another reund of SERIOUS de-cluttering in the upstairs rooms, as during the holiday season, they tend to take the worse damage, as things get moved and stored and then left. SIGH. Having read this book, it doesn't seem like such a huge undertaking now! I recommend this book for everybody, so you can get beyond the 'I have to be perfect' and find what WORKS and stick with it! It also makes a great gift for those who say they just can't get started!

About the Author:

Dana K. White is a blogger, speaker, and (much to her own surprise) a Decluttering Expert. She taught both English and Theatre Arts before leaving her job to make her family her life's work. Today Dana shares realistic home management strategies and a message of hope for the hopelessly messy through her blog, weekly podcasts, and videos. Dana lives with her husband and three kids just outside of Dallas, Texas. Oh, and she’s funny.