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bookhound's review
4.0
I appreciate the insights the author gives as to why she keep things (in large part because I keep things for the same reason, just not to the same extent.)
1. Previous lack
2. Fear of forgetting (losing memories)
3. Limiting future possibilities
4. Denial of death
5. Belief that things should last forever/not wear out or need replacing
As her husband points out in the intro, clutter is a reminder of failure for those who are controlled by it- failure to finish a project, to make a decision, or to have a functioning space free of clutter. His intro was powerful because it gently reveals what serious clutter does to family as well as the person creating it.
1. Previous lack
2. Fear of forgetting (losing memories)
3. Limiting future possibilities
4. Denial of death
5. Belief that things should last forever/not wear out or need replacing
As her husband points out in the intro, clutter is a reminder of failure for those who are controlled by it- failure to finish a project, to make a decision, or to have a functioning space free of clutter. His intro was powerful because it gently reveals what serious clutter does to family as well as the person creating it.
thoughtsonbooks's review
4.0
That was so great to read, unexpectedly so because I don't remember why I requested it. But Eve Schaub is witty and honest and has a great way of describing her life.
Eve Schaub has a problem with clutter, as in she has too much of it; although it is mostly confined to what she calls her hell room, she still decides to try and declutter after she realizes how the clutter is slowly overtaking her life. Her whole family has hoarding tendencies and she really does not want to end up like the hoarder whose house she visits early in her project. With the help of her two daughters she sets out to change the way she approaches clutter without losing the nostalgic tendencies at the core at her personality. I do not quite know why I enjoyed this book so much but I did, whole-heartedly so. I don't really have a problem with clutter; I have actually moved twice with nothing but a suitcase, giving away most of my stuff (yes, even giving away all the books I bought in college - twice (after undergrad and again after postgrad) - although to be fair, I do regret that a bit). The only thing I collect now that I will be staying in the same place for the foreseeable future - are books and more books and those do not count as clutter, thank you very much. I am a bit on the messy side - as much as you can be with as little stuff as I have - again, books lying around everywhere doesn't really count. So I couldn't particularly empathise with her situation, but she still made the book very worthwhile and fun to read.
Eve Schaub has a great voice and the timing of her self-deprecating jokes is impeccable. I do love this subset of memoirs written by women living in the Northeastern US states - the world they depict is so utterly foreign to mine and still something that sounds absolutely lovely, even if they seem to live in a bubble that they don't seem to see. The world Eve Schaub describes just seems so absolutely wholesome without her being condescending; she realizes that she is privileged and uses humour to show that she doesn't always take herself too serious.
This was just the book at the right time for me and I really enjoyed every second I spent reading it.
___
I received an arc of this book curtesy of NetGalley and Sourcebooks in exchange for an honest review Thanks so much for that!
Eve Schaub has a problem with clutter, as in she has too much of it; although it is mostly confined to what she calls her hell room, she still decides to try and declutter after she realizes how the clutter is slowly overtaking her life. Her whole family has hoarding tendencies and she really does not want to end up like the hoarder whose house she visits early in her project. With the help of her two daughters she sets out to change the way she approaches clutter without losing the nostalgic tendencies at the core at her personality. I do not quite know why I enjoyed this book so much but I did, whole-heartedly so. I don't really have a problem with clutter; I have actually moved twice with nothing but a suitcase, giving away most of my stuff (yes, even giving away all the books I bought in college - twice (after undergrad and again after postgrad) - although to be fair, I do regret that a bit). The only thing I collect now that I will be staying in the same place for the foreseeable future - are books and more books and those do not count as clutter, thank you very much. I am a bit on the messy side - as much as you can be with as little stuff as I have - again, books lying around everywhere doesn't really count. So I couldn't particularly empathise with her situation, but she still made the book very worthwhile and fun to read.
Eve Schaub has a great voice and the timing of her self-deprecating jokes is impeccable. I do love this subset of memoirs written by women living in the Northeastern US states - the world they depict is so utterly foreign to mine and still something that sounds absolutely lovely, even if they seem to live in a bubble that they don't seem to see. The world Eve Schaub describes just seems so absolutely wholesome without her being condescending; she realizes that she is privileged and uses humour to show that she doesn't always take herself too serious.
This was just the book at the right time for me and I really enjoyed every second I spent reading it.
___
I received an arc of this book curtesy of NetGalley and Sourcebooks in exchange for an honest review Thanks so much for that!
kcook14's review
5.0
I loved this book. Eve begins the book essentially to tackle her "Hell Room", a room so full of stuff she locks the door when the babysitter comes over or keeps it shut when her friends visit. It's filled with years of items she cannot seem to part with out of fear of regret. I don't have a Hell Room myself, however, I can identify with Eve's compulsion to keep even the most ridiculous things because they seem important at the time or I simply don't know what to do with them. The book follows Eve's journey to find balance: Hell Room vs. keeping what you find truly important and can fit without it trying to take over your house. I found Eve to be incredibly relatable and I enjoyed every second of her journey. I may even start my own!
I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
kate8227's review
4.0
This was a great memoir. I recommend it to anyone who struggles with clutter and letting go of things.
ally_camel's review
4.0
Memoirs about life experiments are my weakness. Give me an A.J. Jacobs book and I’ll be gushing about it for weeks and referring to it for months or years after. My whole family knows the miracle of different genes affecting different people’s experiences and enjoyment of life. I delight in knowing that I have the gene that lets me smell the same… whatever… in pee as in sweat. Which is probably why I hate sweat.
Eve Schaub is a fluffier version of Jacobs. She doesn’t do as much research or share as many facts about hoarding, clutter, etc., and she only sometimes references what facts she does share. I really regret she doesn’t give a source for her garbage facts because I was all set to see what else they had to say. I also totally put the book down for a week after she gave a terrible, self-justified explanation of clutter versus mess. No, Schaub isn’t writing this to build our knowledge. She’s writing to tell us about this thing she did one time and how she succeeded. She writes in a breezy, chatty tone – a friendly monologue on paper. I can just imagine having coffee with her while she slips easily from one subject to the next and back again while I nod and sip, occasionally prompting her to say more.
The Year of No Clutter is delightful and absolutely timely for me. I just bought Marie Kondo’s book to try and declutter my own things. I too have yet to read it. I love hearing how other people deal with similar problems and applying their experience to my own life, so Schaub’s meandering story about her year (and all the memories that came with it) really resonated with me. “You mean it’s weird to keep your old report cards?” I wondered, “and I’m not rejecting my mom by throwing out birthday cards from 15 years ago? Oh wow!” Or when she says, “When I let go [of something], I regret the loss of each and every memory, no matter how insignificant or unpleasant, because it is still some little bit of my past… When I let go of my past, some little part of me ceases to exist; some memory retreats to the deep, dark recesses of my brain, never to be retrieved, ever again,” I totally get it! Now that I’ve read it, though, I can think on the idea. Just because I might never consciously remember that moment again, it’s still in there and has still had a part in making me who I am… so I can let go a little easier now.
For anyone needing a starting point, Year of No Clutter is forgiving. Encouraging. Schaub’s been there. She started as a borderline hoarder. By the end, she’s found a way to let things going more easily. There’s no judgement and she certainly doesn’t pretend it’s easy. Step by sometimes painful step she sorted her clutter. And if she can, maybe we can too.
A copy of this book was provided by Netgalley for an honest review.
Eve Schaub is a fluffier version of Jacobs. She doesn’t do as much research or share as many facts about hoarding, clutter, etc., and she only sometimes references what facts she does share. I really regret she doesn’t give a source for her garbage facts because I was all set to see what else they had to say. I also totally put the book down for a week after she gave a terrible, self-justified explanation of clutter versus mess. No, Schaub isn’t writing this to build our knowledge. She’s writing to tell us about this thing she did one time and how she succeeded. She writes in a breezy, chatty tone – a friendly monologue on paper. I can just imagine having coffee with her while she slips easily from one subject to the next and back again while I nod and sip, occasionally prompting her to say more.
The Year of No Clutter is delightful and absolutely timely for me. I just bought Marie Kondo’s book to try and declutter my own things. I too have yet to read it. I love hearing how other people deal with similar problems and applying their experience to my own life, so Schaub’s meandering story about her year (and all the memories that came with it) really resonated with me. “You mean it’s weird to keep your old report cards?” I wondered, “and I’m not rejecting my mom by throwing out birthday cards from 15 years ago? Oh wow!” Or when she says, “When I let go [of something], I regret the loss of each and every memory, no matter how insignificant or unpleasant, because it is still some little bit of my past… When I let go of my past, some little part of me ceases to exist; some memory retreats to the deep, dark recesses of my brain, never to be retrieved, ever again,” I totally get it! Now that I’ve read it, though, I can think on the idea. Just because I might never consciously remember that moment again, it’s still in there and has still had a part in making me who I am… so I can let go a little easier now.
For anyone needing a starting point, Year of No Clutter is forgiving. Encouraging. Schaub’s been there. She started as a borderline hoarder. By the end, she’s found a way to let things going more easily. There’s no judgement and she certainly doesn’t pretend it’s easy. Step by sometimes painful step she sorted her clutter. And if she can, maybe we can too.
A copy of this book was provided by Netgalley for an honest review.
sweetheart_seer's review
4.0
*I was sent an e-arc from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.*
I am posting this review as written. I wrote it in chunks as I was reading the book, so hopefully it is not repetitive. I decided to take a different approach while reading. I usually take notes, or make small notes on Goodreads when I post current reading status updates, but this one I typed my updates in small batches.
I am posting this review as written. I wrote it in chunks as I was reading the book, so hopefully it is not repetitive. I decided to take a different approach while reading. I usually take notes, or make small notes on Goodreads when I post current reading status updates, but this one I typed my updates in small batches.
In reading the description: "From Hoarders to The Life- Changing Magic of Tidying Up, the question of what to do with all of our stuff seems to be on everyone’s mind. Eve Schaub’s new memoir is the tale of how one woman organized an entire room in her house that had been overtaken by pointless items. It’s also a deeply inspiring and frequently hilarious examination of why we keep stuff in the first place—and how to let it all go" I knew that as a minimalist myself, I had to request a copy to review.
I reached my own personal "click point" awhile back after doing some serious decluttering. Afterwards, it has all been maintenance basically. My husband and I moved into a cozier apartment (read smaller) and since downsizing more have found that the items we have are the ones we need/enjoy.
In reading the first few chapters, Schaubs' writing style reminded me of a calmer/less-hyper and more mature Jenny Lawson (Blogger and author of Let's Pretend This Never Happened" and "Furiously Happy" respectively).
Much like I often wonder why people post so many selfies and overshare on social media, I was struck with the same feeling while taking in the content. Why would she include so much that makes her look bad? I understand wanting to show the mess before the clean, wanting to paint a picture of the before to contrast with the reveal of after; however I felt she came across as a bit unsanitary to say the least. Kudos to her for her bravery in admitting her problem of this magnitude, but I wouldn't be surprised if she wound up with DCFS called on her by anyone reading that personally knows her.
If her household conditions, even if only contained to one (the biggest) room in her home were filled with cat urine, dead bugs, mice carcasses how are her two daughters being raised healthy in an environment like that?!
She may be exaggerating of course for humor sake, which would be my hope, but in this culture of oversharing information, I feel she may have wanted to tone it down a bit. This is my personal opinion, so take it or leave it, and I don't have children myself so who am I to judge? Then again, anyone putting their story out for publication is setting themselves up to be judged in a variety of ways, so I don't feel too bad for having felt this way while reading at first.
I did enjoy her conversational tone in the telling as she came across more relatable than say Kondo did in her clean-up guide. Although that would be more attributed to the culture of the woman writing than anything else I think. I enjoyed KonMaries' book immensely. I enjoyed this book overall but for different reasons.
Schaub explains that both of her daughters love crafting and re-purposing items which makes sense since they probably were following after her example.
Once I began to get more accustomed to her writing style, she herself even saying "Please don't contact DCFS" which I found funny because I realized she knew what readers would probably be thinking(!), and that she had OCD issues that it all started to come together more and I started to enjoy the book.
When the author is describing going into another persons home who was a hoarder as it being akin to a cautionary tale I began to reflect on why it is that the whole hoarding versus minimalism topics were gaining in popularity recently. It is because it wasn't a problem or issue until fairly recently in the first place.
As she talked of beginning the process of cleaning the "hell room" she was really explaining a sort of catharsis not only for herself but also for her two daughters as they helped and reflected back her two ways of thinking. Her youngest wanted to hold onto more things. Her eldest wanted to let more things go. She was agreeing with both depending on the item. It was an eye-opening read as well as one that made me stop and think about my own relation to the objects in my life post various clean-out/minimalist purges.
I appreciated that she touched upon some psychological and sociological reasons for why people let a mess turn to clutter turn to hoarding. It was fascinating how she connected different pieces to being memory triggers for both her and her dad.
The references she made varied from literary (Homer was touched upon a couple times) to more current pop-culture (TV shows and books, even with Allie Bosch of Hyperbole and a half gets quoted which I thought was fantastic).
When she began to illustrate her weaving class and how she incorporated many of her meaningful clothing pieces and her childrens' into a new creation he did so in a way that not only was very easy to imagine/picture, but in a way that showed the great care she placed upon these objects in her life.
I won't give away too much, as spoilers are the bane of many readers' existences...so I will jump ahead a bit to where the cleaning magic happens. Sparked mostly by, as I'm sure many of us can relate, someone coming to visit. Not just to visit mind you, but to stay for two weeks.
I know that even with my husband and my quaint apartment, anytime we know someone is coming to visit, a cleaning furry begins the likes of which should be assigned a name on par with a force of nature: like hurricane Cleanstorm, or tsunami GetShitDoneMode. You know, something simple like that.
I didn't know that schools could FORCE families to take part in a foreign exchange program. It is mandatory? They make parents take part? This, among many myriad of reasons, is yet another reason why I am glad I am not a parent. It must have simply been in the area where the authors' children went to school because I can not wrap my mind around the concept that all schools do this.
Moving on, in sorting through all of her things, and her daughters joining in, (her husband had a lot more in the "hell-room" than he had thought, but he sorted through everything very quickly and was finished while she was still working on it) she realized too that this was not only contained to that room; but spread all through her home. Extra stuff. An abundance. Too much clutter.
The 80s party part was wonderful. The lessons she took away from it as they were being described, I found myself nodding along.
The Art book she had made was a clever solution to the pile of her children's artwork over the years.
The book doesn't deviate too much from its premise. Back history is scattered here and there to tie-in to what is being sorted at the time.
I liked this overall and while not ever having had a "hell-room" myself, I don't have children, and I have never had any of the psychological problems that she experienced, I found I could easily put myself in her shoes due to the conversational tone and way she presented her work. Basically, it is a worthwhile read and easy to relate to even if you aren't a forty-some-year-old married woman with two daughters. Bravo to her for laying her "dark secret" out in the open that way and being able to work through a problem and show how she did so. I have no doubt that her own wish of being able to help a stubborn person facing the same issues she did will be helped by this book as well.
librarydino's review
5.0
I’ll go into this more in a video, but I loved this book. It was so much more than I expected.
littleprairielibrary's review
4.0
I really enjoyed this book! I've always been into decluttering and organizing and I can't resist a book about that subject. I thought this was an entertaining and humourous memoir. It definitely put me in the mood for spring cleaning. Also, the audiobook narrator is fantastic.
mcmoots's review
3.0
I've been on a streak of organizing books lately. Eve Schaub is an organizing book's platonic ideal target audience - she suffers from every form of emotional attachment to objects that an army of organizing book writers can describe. Not that she makes an extensive survey of the literature before diving in to clear her Hell Room; she just starts.
I don't share Schaub's intense sentimental attachments, but I do share her conviction that objects should last forever. Even when I can admit that something is broken or worn beyond repair, I still believe the pieces will be useful to someone for something. Decluttering books will talk about feelings of anxiety at the thought of not having your stuff available, but mostly don't discuss, say, feelings of guilt and failure that arise whenever you send something to the landfill. So it was nice to take a break from those books to spend some time with a friendly voice who would definitely understand why I'm still trying to re-home that old tupperware with the broken lid.
I don't share Schaub's intense sentimental attachments, but I do share her conviction that objects should last forever. Even when I can admit that something is broken or worn beyond repair, I still believe the pieces will be useful to someone for something. Decluttering books will talk about feelings of anxiety at the thought of not having your stuff available, but mostly don't discuss, say, feelings of guilt and failure that arise whenever you send something to the landfill. So it was nice to take a break from those books to spend some time with a friendly voice who would definitely understand why I'm still trying to re-home that old tupperware with the broken lid.