Great tips for organization!! I think you should expect to read through everything all at once, first, then follow through the book throughout the weeks of the year.

This book gave lots of practical ideas for organizing and maintaining your home! It was easy to follow and I took a lot of wonderful tips that I plan to apply to my life.

One Year to an Organized Life
Author: Regina Leeds
⭐️

I could not get through this book and tried multiple times but just couldn't get into it (and as a completionist it has been a really long time since I haven't finished a book). I was intrigued at first because who doesn't want to be more organized. However, there was so much extra material that the author added to the book that had nothing to do with actually getting organized that I could not sift through it to find actionable organization tips.

Thanks to NetGalley, Hachette Books, and Regina Leeds for an advanced copy of the book. All thoughts in this review are my own.

This book is full of interesting and useful information and it was very easy to understand the concepts. Well organized and written in a way that engages the reader. Thank you for the opportunity to read & Review.

The book is extremely thorough to the point it is overwhelming. I prefer more action and less drudgery. Others may find this slow process beneficial. This is not the system for me.

DNF. The structure of this book appealed to me. Breaking down the process of fully overhauling and organizing one's life over an entire year sounds far more doable and less overwhelming than some other books in the genre which offer no guide on how to accomplish their mountain of instructions. However, the construction and design of this book are the only parts which I found interesting. The rest felt very much like I'd heard it before. The tried and true advice that I think is aimed at slightly older generations with far different circumstances than my own. That's not to say that this book wouldn't be helpful for others. It just wasn't helpful for me.

Perhaps we've all been ruined by Influencers on TikTok and Instagram . . . One Year to an Organized Life feels like following the #selfhelp hashtag on Insta. Lots of sound advice, but you've probably viewed the content before in some form or another. Yes, there are benefits to following a program, a bound and printed pathway to getting better at living, but there wasn't anything novel or new. I love that all the advice is in one place. There is a breakdown of timeliness, an interaction through narrative reading that will be a better model than a quick, fleeting video that automatically moves to the next idea before you've fully digested the previous tidbit. Slow down and read, and you could be better organized.

A mix of self help + midfullness + organizing tips.

The beginning is stronger, and I confess I jumped some parts. I still learned interesting organizing tactics, specially on the kitchen, one of my biggest roadblock.

Overall, an interesting book, though it gets a little too repetitive at times.

Better organization is always something I am interested in.

The book is organized with a location to organize for each month. Regina Leeds makes a point of telling you to prepare to get organized. I think giving someone a new focus by the month is a great idea. Keeps you from trying to do it all in one week and when you are not successful quitting.

What I did not like was her telling me that she knew me. Which she does not. I do not lose my keys. This part of the book was really a put off to me. Giving me new ideas for getting organized would work better without this part of the book.

This is not a book I can recommend very highly. People that need help should not have to feel worse to get it.

ONE YEAR TO AN ORGANIZED LIFE by Regina Leeds was previously published in 2008; these comments are about the first Hachette Go edition, published this month. This "Week-by-Week Mindful Guide to Getting Organized for Good" divides comments into 4 week segments on topics like time management, surviving a move, back to school season, and entertaining with joy. Leeds, a professional organizer for more than thirty years, does include a set of resources about charities, donations, tech organizing aids, and more. She utilizes personal anecdotes and a conversational tone; for example, she encourages readers to think about items forgotten in the past as well as four items the person takes on a trip but never uses. Then, Leeds challenges readers to leave those at home so as to travel lighter. Although ONE YEAR TO AN ORGANIZED LIFE could benefit from further updating (she refers to hanging folders and labelling tabs), overall it is a nice compilation of mostly commonsense ideas offered in a helpful, friendly manner.

So, let's face it. So so many of us want to be more organized. Like a moth to fire... this topic attracts many. But the thing is, no book can do it for you and I think that is what many of us secretly want. I think this book goes over the top trying to be All Things for the reader. It's a hard topic to write on. Either you sound preachy, blame-y, compulsive, vague, or all of the above.
But yeah... one year to an organized life? Yes, please.

I thought this was a really interesting read. A helpful layout and the tasks each week were well thought through and achievable. I think when it comes to organizational routines, they can become overwhelming really quickly, but Leeds takes things step by step and really guides you through everything.

I waited to write this review to give myself some time to sort out what I want to say about this book.

Pros:
- The author has been in the organizing business for decades, way before it became a popular thing, and I respect her knowledge about how to organize things.
- She offers many good tips, and I have highlights and notes throughout the book for future reference. The book is ultimately useful.

Cons:
- In her decision to make this book a "mindful guide" to getting an organized life, she tried to be everything to everyone - counselor, therapist, spiritual guide. For me, this took away from her message. I picked up the book to get better organized, not to examine my childhood, journal, practice yoga, or be given affirmations.
- The amount of extraneous material felt like a bombardment. Why are we reading about child labor, personal views on climate change, aromatherapy and OTC supplements, gardening, multitasking, delegating, trauma, and random stories about animals???
- As a type A personality reading a non-fiction book, I was after the facts and only the facts. Reading through all of the extra material was very frustrating to me (frankly, it drove me nuts).

Summary:
This book holds a lot of good information; unfortunately readers must spend a lot of time wading through surprising and inapropriate topics to get to the nuggets they are looking for! Information is key, and you can now make a better decision for yourself. I wish for us all an organized and joyful life.

My thanks to Hachette Go for allowing me to access an ARC of this book through NetGalley. It is scheduled for release on 11/29/22. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and are freely given.

Organization is often a visible sign of our mental state. If we are in a good place mentally, things will often be kept in order. If we are depressed or just feeling lost in chaos, our homes will reflect that, too. This makes it incredibly important to acknowledge first and foremost how our mental state affects our organization process from start to finish. One Year to an Organized Life does this, starting with a month of mindfulness and then incorporating affirmations and breath work along with way. While this can feel a little ushy-gushy to some, it's effective. Shows like Hoarders: Buried Alive remind us that we can clean all we want, but if we don't address the root issue, things will still pile up again.
One Year to an Organized Life lays out each section of life that could use some organization into 4 easy-to-follow weeks. I mean, you can do anything for a month, right?! If you or anyone you know loved Marie Kondo's The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and needs another refresher broken into bite-sized pieces, this book is for you.

This was different than a lot of clean/organize your home/life books that I've read. Each month contains a theme (creating a bedroom sanctuary, organizing the business of life, understanding time management: working on the kitchen), and then contains weekly themes within the month. One thing I liked was that it blended organizing tasks associated with those places in addition to just the places themselves...e.g. with the kitchen it discussed making schedules and routines, and with the bathroom and bedroom it focused on creating spaces for enjoyment and self care. The book also had sections on travel, moving, entertaining, and creating a festive holiday atmosphere. These sections especially felt like they deviated a bit from what I expected but I can also see where these are areas of chaos in people's life. Overall this book seemed like a useful resource if you're looking for a bit more organization.

I... did not enjoy this book. At all. Here is why :

- This feels like something that could have been an interesting self-help on home organization, but ends up treating its readers like children (literally - in the first few pages, the author tries to describe her audience and fails terribly. She seems to believe that people who will pick up this book are the worst slobs in the world, who don't know what an agenda is or how to operate their own laundry machine. Honey, that is NOT your target audience...)

- My other main gripe with this is that the author uses her platform to sneak in esoteric / fake medicine concepts (looking at you, page where she tells you that lifting your index and middle finger in the air will improve your immune system... no, it won't. Never.) and promote her favorite multi level marketing schemes (otherwise known as pyramid schemes, like the DoTerra aromatherapy oils company she recommends) to what she believes to be a vulnerable audience.

Not cool. Not cool at all.

Oh, and by the way - putting on a disclaimer that you "respect science" doesn't work if the next paragraph is essentially "oh no chemicals are bad we need to use vinegar, lemon juice and baking soda instead". Do you know why those products clean well ? Because they are chemicals. They produce a chemical reaction that cleans well. That's the whole point of it.

Overall : I recommend a lot of self-help books, and a lot of them are centered towards cleaning and organizing. I just don't recommend this one.

First: I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for a review on #NetGalley

I'm someone who's already highly organized, but I love reading books on organization to see if I can pick up anything new and to see how others structure their systems and processes. Since I was reading this more as a review copy, and less as an actual workbook, I may not get as much mileage out of this book as someone who really takes the time to work through it week by week.

I think this book would be really great for someone who is overwhelmed by their life in general and needs someone to teach them how to have a higher executive function in a step-by-step way. It covers schedules, not being late, unpacking childhood trauma and the roots of your habits. I’m not sure how much this would have an impact on someone who already has systems in place. Additionally, it not only has organizing information, but lots of information on breathwork, meditation, and so on. As someone who does not ascribe to that value system (but doesn't really mind it - it's just not for me), I just skipped those sections.

In between advice about that, the book lays out incredibly detailed organizational systems. I think the most valuable thing in the book (as an already organized person) was the incredible paper organizing system!

Now a few things on using the book as a tool:

The book starts somewhat slow. You spend the first month planning and dreaming and also setting up a social group to work through the book with you. If you are looking to dig straight into the home/life makeover, spend the first week doing the first four weeks (which you can arguably do on a child-free Saturday morning) and then go straight into month two.

In addition to buying a journal, I would probably buy a big calendar that you can use to keep track of tasks. There are a lot of tasks and suggestions in paragraph format, and it's really up to the reader to distill these down into a sequence of actionable tasks. Someone without high executive function may get lost in the text so a calendar can really help you sort things out as you read. There is a list at the end of each month, but a visual schedule would also be helpful.

This is a very practical book. And if you are motivated by reading and having no one there to hold you accountable to get things done, this book may be for you. (Some people need other people to keep them accountable, if this is you, maybe work with a friend going through this book side by side).

There have been many things this book does. First, it gives you a week by week, month by month, plan to get organized. Second, it also includes tips on how to organize and what you can use to organize your things. Next, it includes chapters on self-care, which I personally skipped. (and if you are Christian, you might not agree with some of the self-care techniques). She also lists places where you can take your things to get them out of your house for good...places to sell and/or donate. There is also a resources section.

She also is into taking care of the earth and being green...so there are lots of tips on how to do this when organizing and purging your items.

I did find there were some things in the book that just didn't apply to me and my situation. Either my needs were different or my house was not set up with the places the author mentions...example a linen closet and a finished basement...I don't have either. There really was no solution to the lack of a linen closet, in fact, the author even recommends storing items that don't fit in your bathroom closet in the linen closet. And the author talks a lot about finished basement and small unfinished basements, she does not get into large unfinished basements. There is a lot of room for organizing hacks and tips for this situation that were just missed by the author.

There were also some sections that I really didn't care about at all. There was a section on travel, which didn't really peak my interest. I guess if you were using this book as intended, you could use this time to catch up on the other areas you are interested in.

I would love to see some example pictures in this book, but the advanced kindle copy I received did not have any pictures. And the book was a bit wordy at times...lots of stories about past clients. I did find some repetition on certain subjects as well.

Overall, this is a very good book on organizing. (The book itself is nicely organized).

This book is for the chronically disorganized, not for the person who wants to clean out their closet and organize their pots and pans. It’s for the person who can’t find anything in their house and is too embarrassed to have anyone over. The author encourages the reader to explore why this behavior is continued and how to make gradual changes over one year. I like that she addresses the cause of the disorganization, most books on organizing don’t.

This is literally One Year to an Organized Life!

It breaks it down week by week what you're goal is, how to get there, and there's monthly affirmations. I don't know what I was expecting going into this book but this is way more! I like that each week is something different and you have projects to complete. It's not just reading about how to better your life - it's helping you do it! This isn't religious so it works for everyone. There is meditation and better eating habits listed in here and I think after living through COVID we could all use that in our lives! It does do some aromatherapy which isn't really my cup of tea but it was interesting to read. I really love the quotes at the top of each chapter - they were really inspiring!! At the end of each month is a round up of what you accomplished that month along with your bonus tip and self care. This really covers all aspects of your life and home!