{"id":550,"date":"2011-08-03T19:03:58","date_gmt":"2011-08-04T00:03:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/?p=550"},"modified":"2011-09-07T13:17:50","modified_gmt":"2011-09-07T18:17:50","slug":"review-organizing-from-the-inside-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/2011\/08\/review-organizing-from-the-inside-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Organizing from the Inside Out"},"content":{"rendered":"

At this year\u2019s NAPO conference, Julie Morgenstern gave one of the keynote presentations and after that, she signed her books.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t bring the one book I owned for her to sign \u2013 Organizing from the Inside Out<\/a>.\u00a0 Although it\u2019s been a number of years since I\u2019ve read this book cover to cover, I do periodically reread sections.\u00a0 I also liked this enough to borrow Organizing from the Inside Out for Teenagers<\/a> from the library and then to buy a couple of books at NAPO (which I then got signed!).\u00a0 I look forward to making time to read those down the road.<\/p>\n

One of the things that I appreciate about both books I\u2019ve read by Julie Morgenstern is that she insists you find your way to the organizing answers.\u00a0 If you\u2019ve read her book, you\u2019ll have seen many similar posts from me.\u00a0 I also use a quote from her in almost every presentation I give since it resonated deeply for me:<\/p>\n

Being organized has less to do with the way an environment looks than how effectively it functions.\u00a0 If a person can find what he or she needs when she or she needs it, feels unencumbered in achieving his or her goals, and is happy in his or her space, then that person is well organized.\u00a0 \u2018Organizing is the process by which we create environments that enable us to live, work, and relax exactly as we want to.\u00a0 When we are organized, our homes, offices, and schedules reflect and encourage who we are, what we want, and where we are going.\u2019\u00a0 — Organizing from the Inside Out<\/em>, first chapter<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is a critical piece to me when I talk with people \u2013 that what is important is their definition of being organized.<\/p>\n

In Organizing from the Inside Out<\/em>, she spends the first 2 (out of 4) talking about general principles: \u201cLaying the Foundation\u201d and \u201cSecrets of a Professional Organizer.\u201d\u00a0 Part 3 is the main chunk of the book and spends time talking about specific rooms and items (i.e. purses, suitcases, filing cabinet, memorabilia).\u00a0 She wraps the book up with \u201cTime and Technology\u201d briefly, and has a whole book Time Management from the Inside Out<\/a> (one I did buy and will read!).\u00a0 She also provides several appendices with further resources.<\/p>\n

As an organizer, I appreciate that she spends some time addressing the possible things that are getting in the way for people struggling with organization.\u00a0 She also spends time talking about the steps that people often want to skip when embarking on getting organized.\u00a0 She breaks the process down so that it\u2019s easy to understand and follow.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve mentioned before I\u2019m not a big fan of acronyms, I find them hard to remember and largely unhelpful, and she does use one as a basis for getting organized.\u00a0 It\u2019s SPACE: sort, purge, assign a home, containerize, and equalize.\u00a0 Essentially I can appreciate this steps, especially the need to do them in order after you\u2019ve completed analyzing the situation, strategized, and then moving into the attack mode (where SPACE comes in).\u00a0 She offers time estimates for the rooms and items, as many people struggle with figuring out how long things will likely take them.<\/p>\n

If only organizing books could solve everyone\u2019s clutter problems! We all know they don\u2019t, sometimes it takes someone else coming in and helping.\u00a0 Fresh eyes, fresh perspective, someone to ask those questions and wait for an answer \u2013 these things we cannot always do for ourselves.\u00a0 I love how she encourages you to think outside the box and find the inner style that will make organizing work for you.\u00a0 I also know that for just me, that this is often extremely challenging to actually accomplish \u2013 and my organizing struggles are minor compared to some people.\u00a0 Some of her ideas seem great as ideas, but I sometimes question the practicality of them.<\/p>\n

There is a plethora of organizing books available, and I would recommend this one.\u00a0 Some of my clients have more than a shelf full of books on how to get organized \u2013 and although I\u2019ve not ready most of them (gasp!); this would be one to keep (and yes, I\u2019d encourage you to recycle most of the others).\u00a0 It has the essentials on getting and staying organized, if you can follow her steps.\u00a0 This is probably why there are so many books out there, maybe another speaks to you and your style.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Might be the best organizing book I\u2019ve read \u2013 Julie Morgenstern\u2019s Organizing from the Inside Out \u2013 since it is realistic, helpful, and easy to follow. With the plethora of organizing books available, this is one to consider either getting or keeping, as a resource for you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[10,8,18,5,20,25,22,15,4,17],"class_list":["post-550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","tag-behavior","tag-discipline","tag-goals","tag-household","tag-paperwork","tag-postaweek2011","tag-productivity","tag-resources","tag-routines","tag-spaces"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7p82c-8S","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":643,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550\/revisions\/643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}