I didn’t read Year of No Sugar and didn’t know of the author, but when I saw Year of No Clutter on NetGalley, I knew I wanted to read it. I’m a little bit obsessed with reading about organizing and optimizing (which is not to say that I actually do these things) and dealing with a mild hoarding problem seemed like a decent read.

I was in for a surprise. As the publisher claims, Schaub is indeed hilarious and inspiring. Her voice is so clear and so very likable throughout the story. Her vulnerability is endearing and thought-provoking. She perfectly balances introspection, personal history, and detailing the actual work. This book was great, even good enough to distract me from the final book of a fantasy trilogy I’ve been reading.

I normally separate my reviews into pros and cons, but it just didn’t work for this book. I honestly can’t think of any cons. No book is perfect for every person, so it’s possible the Eve’s voice won’t resonate with you or that the topic is completely uninteresting to you, but the book is a great read for anyone.

I'm a sucker for self help books. In fact, I hope to someday write one of my own (in regards to dealing with anxiety) I also, am a very organized person. I also have a problem with clutter that I've been trying to combat. This book proves that the two do go hand in hand. The author has a tendency to hold on to sentimental things, and by that I mean anything anyone she cares about has touched or owned or given her, ever. I get it. Oh, do I get it. When my Mamaw passed away she left me her collection of dolls. She has tons and tons of dolls, all wearing dresses that my mom crocheted. What am I suppose to do with all of those dolls in dresses that my mom made and my Mamaw loved? I have no idea. I do know that I've gotten off topic, this book is what we're talking about and this book is good. It's easy reading, relatable and filled with humor and insight and truth.

I especially loved the bit (in chapter 8, I think) when the author talks about her grandmother and her passing. It was heart breaking and eye opening. I won't tell you the story, you should go read it for yourself, but the moral is that what we hoard can say a lot about what we're afraid of. My mind was blown.

I finished this book tonight and my boyfriend says "feel better about life?" My response was "I feel like I should go clean out our closet."

​
I don’t know if Eve intended to be funny, but this book was hilarious and informative at the same time. As you can tell, it is a book about learning to leave clutter free. She talks about many people’s tendency to never get rid of anything.

Eve tells her story about how she has been a hoarder for most of her life. She talks about a particular room in her house (hell’s room) where she keeps random stuff. Her husband is surely a darling.

Eve and her daughters embark on de-cluttering Hell’s room and it is quite the adventure. The things they find (dead mouse kept in a cardboard box, stolen Monopoly game pieces, fifth-grade report card…).

Rating: 4/5

Favourite Quote: “Consequently, objects have become my crutch of choice, helping me to recall things I never would otherwise…Without my memories who am I? If I equate memories and objects, then to discard an object is to lose a piece of myself forever.”

Title: Year Of No Clutter
Author: Eve O. Schaub
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Reviewed By: Arlena Dean
Rating: Four
Review:

"Year Of No Clutter" by Eve O. Schaub

My Thoughts...

This is a true story of how Eve who had one horrible secret and that was that she was a collector of things which turned out to being a hoarder [collector vs hoarder]. What may be a surprise to many but this is so true of a lot of us that just start out collecting things as we will see from Eve's standpoint that she had over 500 square feet [secret Hell room] of things that she has keep because it seemed like everything meant so much to her life. So, Eve decides to start a 'year of no clutter.' Now how will this turn out for her? How will she dealt with what to keep, throw away or send to charity? Has all of this stuff given her 'happiness, joy, satisfaction, or simply a connection to various memories?' I know a lot of people can identify with this book including myself! So, as I read this read I kept waiting to get more advice on how to get get of my clutter but it seemed like this read was more about 'Eve's personal journey and growth [her memoirs] rather to the actual organizational how to guide book.' Now, I will say it was quite a interesting read even though it wasn't quite what I thought the novel would be about. I will say I was given some inspired ways to tackle some of my problem areas in my home. By the end of the read Eve did let the reader know that after a year just what she decided to keep, threw out and donate using plenty of scenarios giving the reader some interesting stories. I did learn from the read this wasn't just about her being the only hoarder in this family, for her husband and father had some of these issues to.

A fun and insightful look at the relationship we have with our stuff.

Eve Schaub decided that the time had come to deal with the "Hell Room" in her house. The Hell Room was the repository of a wide variety of objects, many of which most people would not have saved. Ms. Schaub is honest about her need to hang onto certain items and honest about her efforts to reduce their hold on her. Along the way, she gives some practical information about how to donate one's possessions or keep them in a manageable way (ex: selecting children's art work to include in a printed book). I enjoyed the book most when the author was talking about her personal struggles. The sections that included discussions and statistics about hoarding were less interesting.

Expect the unexpected. This is not at all what I thought it would be - it is not a how to - not really a memoir of a year but more like a quick look at various pieces of a year. Eve has a room - that most of us can only imagine to be a "hoarding" room. Over the course of a year she starts to process they room but emotionally and physically. She describes the elements making up the room with love and stories along with the process she uses to reclaim the room. The writing seems to a direct reflection on the personality of the author. You feel like you are sitting in her slightly cluttered living room having a conversation . She flits from item to item in a light tone with thought but at times little intention beyond realizing everything has a story/background/temporary meaning. It did make me want to clean out my junk drawer - and I did!!!

Author Eve O. Schaub lives in a home that wouldn't win any Martha Stewart awards, but that isn't exactly messy, either. Or at least, that's what the casual observer would think. But Schaub's home hides a nasty secret than infects many American households-- the secret junk room. The largest room of her home, clocking in at over 500 square feet is packed to the gills with things. Including a dead mouse. For reasons. But Schaub is determined to change her pack rat ways and declares a year of no clutter.

America has a fascination with hoarding and decluttering, and I'm no exception. I have all the related tv shows programmed into my dvr. I enjoyed many of the personal stories and cluttery anecdotes the author provides throughout her book.

But I wasn't particularly inspired by Year of No Clutter. The author never really sets forth parameters of what a year without clutter means. No set guidelines for achieving her goals, or even a hard statement of what those goals are. As far as I can tell, the author just spent a year sporadically going through and puttering around her junk room. At the end, she had a sort-of-less-messy room. Yippee.

The author seems like a fun person, and her writing story is fun and engaging-- but there's no meat to this book. Read Coming Clean instead.

2.5 stars.

The Year of No Clutter was interesting. The life of a hoarder & her attempts to clean out one entire room. I found it frustrating at times (I would have thrown all of it out!), but her honesty kept things going. I had no idea before reading that she was a hoarder, but thought it would have been a story of a woman cleaning out her house, step by step, logically. More of a "how to" book vs inside the hoarder mentality. Definitely interesting!

I often write book reviews on websites like Amazon or Goodreads.com, but this is the first time I've felt the need to move the review to a more personal forum. The objective for those reviews is to offer feedback to internet strangers to help them decide if they want to read the book or not. It's more about the book, less about me personally. It's impossible for me to write a review of Year of No Clutter without saying more about myself than someone scanning reviews on Amazon would want to know. The book is a memoir by Eve Schaub, after she gave herself one year to clean out the room in her house that she is most ashamed of and keeps locked, in fear that someone will discover her dirty secret: the Hell Room.

Eve Schaub's Hell Room is a large bedroom in where Stuff ends up when there is no other answer to the question, "What am I going to do with this?" It is a purgatory for items she can't part with, for a myriad of reasons that are all touched on in the book. The shame and burden of the secret room grows in proportion to the inventory of the room itself until she is emotionally and physically at capacity for both. Much of the memoir is self-discovery, as she searches for logic in her inability to part with belongings. She understands that the Stuff no longer serves a purpose and has become a burden, but throughout the book she examines the underlying reasons for her attachment to things as she tries to come to terms with owning the label of "hoarder".

The reason that this review goes beyond the normal review post is because I have hoarders in my family and the problem is very real to me. I'm sure if you asked my mother or grandmother, they would describe themselves as "collectors", whereas my dad would likely respond with, "My stuff is none of your business", The rest of the world would call them hoarders. My dad has always been meticulously organized, so my first glimpse of the tip of his Stuff Iceburg was seeing his overstuffed file cabinets with decades of statements - electric bills, phone bills, printed emails... with my dad, most things had a place, but generally that place wasn't the trash can. My mother and her multiple storage units are another story altogether. Two parents, two very different methods, both undoubtedly hoarders.

I started reading Year of No Clutter on a weekend when I had time to relax and start a new book. In the first 24 hours, I...

Read the first chapter
Put the book down
Went to the boxes of photos and mementos I brought back from my dad's house and organized them by type, labeled the boxes, and finally put the boxes away in my closet.
Resumed reading half of the second chapter
Put the book down
Took out the trash and the recycleables
Turned on the TV to watch a show, deleted 20% of what had been stored on the DVR
Resumed reading after the show
Put the book down
Made a pot of spaghetti
[Okay, the spaghetti interruption was just b/c I was hungry, but then I] Finished the spaghetti, immediately put all dishes in the dishwasher and ran the cycle even though it was only 3/4 full (which I never do)
Resumed reading
Sorted all of the mail that had been accumulating in the bin for weeks
Started to organize the boxes in the dining room that have been sitting there since I moved six months ago
It took me longer to read the first four chapters than it did to finish the rest of the book. I am so conscious of my parents tendencies that last month when I mistakenly bought a 4-lb. bag of sugar and then discovered an existing 4-lb. bag of sugar already sitting in my pantry, I went into a panic. "OMG, I have it!! I'm turning into my dad!! It's starting!!"

Growing up with my parents, it seemed normal to form an emotional attachment to things. It wasn't until I was living by myself in small spaces that I realized I had to let go of things. And even then, I have taken the path of least resistence. When I left for school, I stored many items in my great grandmother's basement, until I was informed that it had flooded and everything was thrown out. When I moved to DC I left many things with family members for storage, they haven't yet complained or had floods yet. Then, when I started packing my DC apartment to move to a larger unit in the area, well, that's when I started to write the book reviews because I started reading all of the books on my shelf so I could donate them. Then I bought a Kindle. And stored all of the non-book things I don't really need but still need to emotionally part with in boxes stashed in the dining room. It's not a hell room, but the burden feels very similar.

I enjoyed reading Year of No Clutter for a couple of reasons. First, it's a cautionary tale. I clearly have hoarder genes and need to be careful not to let things go to the point where it becomes an overwhelming secret shame. Second, I have been avoiding sorting through a lot of the attachments she is dealing with. While my situation is not at the same level (I would have no problem saying no to the question, "Do you want this piano?"), I need to stop comforting myself by comparing myself to people who have a bigger clutter problem, and to find a way to just let go of *things* without feeling like I'm throwing away the sentiment behind it. That is just garbage. Literally.

If you have a battle with clutter, you may enjoy the book for the simple fact that you can relate at some level. I don't know what neat person would think of it, because I have so few of them in my life and absolutely no insight on the thought process of neat people. I envy them, but I do not understand them. I suspect unless you or your loved ones struggle with clutter, you may not enjoy the book as much because it probably seems like a trivial problem to "normal" people. The book sometimes feels like a series of "Here's how crazy I am..." sidetracks, which are often times funny, but sometimes either fall flat or are ick-inducing. Other times it feels like the author is trying to justify keeping things, rather than doing what she set out to do - which is clean out the clutter. I won't spoil anything for you about how the year ends and how she defines success or defeat, but if you stayed interested enough to read this entire review without being completely annoyed, you'd probably really enjoy the book.

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 her life 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!

In this true story, Eve lives with her husband and two daughters. Her house is cluttered, with piles of stuff seeping into almost every room. But Eve's biggest secret is "the Hell room", a room so full that you can not see the floor. Eve decides to start a "year of no clutter," where she will dedicate herself to clearing out the hell room.

So right off the bat, it felt like Eve's progress was very slow. Although not quite to the level of people on the "hoarder" tv shows, Eve feels a deep connection to everything in her house and finds it hard to let go. She talks us through her thought processes, and slowly she learns that it is ok to not keep everything you own.

Eve's father is a hoarder, and during the year she goes to his house to help him get ready for a cross country move. Seeing everything that he keeps, that she sees as "junk" helps her in her quest. She begins to take a closer look at the things she is keeping in her own life.

When I first saw this book, I thought it would be more of a self help guide, to help me deal with clutter. Really, this is a personal memoir, about one woman's struggle. There are some interesting points the reader can take away, and I do feel mildly inspired to tackle some of my problem areas in my house. If you are looking for advice, you might want to look elsewhere. This book was fun to read and I enjoyed the look into one woman's life.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Eve is a hoarder. She keeps everything that has meant something in her life. She is not as bad as the people we see on tv programmes, whose rooms are full of clutter, who have to climb over to move around their homes. Eve's clutter is mostly in the largest room that they now call the hell room.

I found this an intresting insight to hoarding. How the author dealt with how she decided what to keep, throw away and send to charity. There was also some humor to this book.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Sourcebooks (non fiction) and the author Eve Schaub for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to read this book to learn how Eve had managed to have a year of no clutter - whilst eventually there were some tips on clearing clutter the majority of the book describes just the opposite. It tells Eve's struggle with not being able to let things go and how she even acquires more things from other people, such as her Mother and Father. These are things that she has to have as they once belonged to her and are her memories. I began to feel overwhelmed by her clutter just reading the book.

Eve references Marie Kondo a few times in this book - the lady who wrote the The Life Changing Magic of Tidying up. I too have read this book, and really this book is at the complete opposite spectrum - if you are looking for tips - this is maybe not the book for you. If you want to understand hoarding or cluttering then this gives an insight into a very mild form of that. Eve mentions an extreme hoarder who had 36 cats - 13 of which were found dead due to the amount of stuff they had become trapped under and undiscovered. Although Eve is not this extreme she does describe how her own cat goes and pees in her clutter room and she found a dead mouse in there too!

Eve has a few mantras through the book - Less is More and Keep Less Use More both of which I subscribe to. About two thirds into the book she describes "Gift Ban Strategy" and I thought - yes this is it! - great idea. You need to read the book to see if you agree.

Overall this is a humorous book - Eve brings the whole dilemma of "should I keep it or not" to life in a comedic manner. I especially loved the tale of the fate of her childhood Blankie. There are also lovely quotes at the beginning of each chapter including one of my personal favourites by William Morris "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful".

I'm giving this book 3 out of 5 stars. My thanks go to Netgalley for an advance copy of the book for review.

"Eve has a problem with clutter." Like, a super duper problem. She has so much clutter it has taken over an entire room in her house. In her latest memoir, Eve O. Schaub is determined to relay her plan to relieve her family, and herself, from the clutches of the Hell Room.

Year of No Clutter tells the story of one woman's battle with stuff, physically and mentally, and the affect it has on our identities.

Schaub's memoir is not easily relatable, but I don't think that was necessarily the point. Schaub poses and examines various questions about the clutter in our lives, whether it's in our homes or in our minds.

Although some of her actions are rather questionable, Schaub exposes some hard truths about clutter, hoarding, and our relationship with stuff. In that our stuff may bring us happiness and could be a part of us, but our stuff isn't what makes us who we are. Our stuff (physical and mental) doesn't have to take over our lives.

Year of No Clutter isn't necessarily a book that gives you a clean-cut and thorough explanation of how to remove the clutter from your home. It's more along the lines of a journey on how (this person in particular) was able to move from being unable to part with anything, to being able to part with her belongings and continue to do so.

While it is funny at times, I wouldn't recommend it for everyone because you might find yourself scoffing at Eve and her predicament. I'd recommend it for readers who would like to facilitate a better understanding of hoarders and other 'clutter-prone people'.

We've all got clutter unless we are the saintly sort but this author has a major clutter monster in her life and she's prepared to not only fight it but also understand it.
This book is for anyone who might not yet have bought into the minimalist culture and wants to tackle the heart of the problem. on the other hand it might actually make you think your house is not so bad after all.

A really funny take on what to do with all the "stuff" we accumulate. As one who has recently, "down-sized," I understand the dilemma. As we age, we all have to come to terms with what is meaningful to keep and what our kids will ultimately throw in a dumpster after we're gone.

It’s most impressive that Ms. Schaub could write a more than 300-page book about the clutter in her life. There was no actual story; just clutter and her cluttered life.

I expected it to be a self-help book about how I could declutter my home. It was not. It was about her self-awareness. Ms. Schaub learned a lot about herself throughout the book as she reminisced with each piece of clutter that she touched, but it definitely got a little lllooonnnggg. Every – it seemed like every, anyway – piece of junk/clutter was liberally described. I found myself wondering how deep was that psychological hole she was trying to fill as she kept almost every item that she touched throughout her life.

I couldn’t decide how many stars to give this book. The writing was free flowing and very descriptive, but the content left me wanting.

P.S. There’s not a doubt in my mind that easily within two years, and probably less, her Hell Room will be completely cluttered once again.

This year, like many years in the past, my new year's resolution was to get organized. The very first thing I need to do to get my entire life organized is to de-clutter my house. When I saw a book called "A Year of No Clutter for some reason I thought it was going to be a book detailing how I could use the next 365 days to get my house organized. To my surprise, it was actually a book about someone else's quest to clean up her own act. At first, I was just going to bail since it isn't exactly what I was looking for, but I stuck around and enjoyed reading this very relatable book. I too have a "Hell Room" where all of my junk goes and I really can't seem to get it cleaned up no matter what I do! It almost made me feel better to know someone else has the same problem and made me feel even better to know that she too was motivated to clean out her room. Towards the middle of the book, there was a lot of repetitiveness and the book just became uninteresting to me, so I don't know whether she was successful in cleaning out her "Hell Room" or not but the portion of the book I read did motivate me to get started de-cluttering my own house.

In her second book, author Eve Schaub explored the tendencies to accumulate too much stuff in her humorous and engaging memoir, “Year of No Clutter”. This book follows her debut release: “Year of No Sugar” (2014). The introduction was written by Schaub’s husband Steve, a quote by Anne Lamott was also included: “Nothing heals us like letting people know our scariest parts.” Readers will unlikely be unable to view their stuff in the same light after reading this book.

In their large Vermont home, Schaub was determined to clear the “hell room” which was crammed to the max with stuff, so much that she feared little visitors going in and out of the room. Stuff spilled out into the hallway, she was overwhelmed, dazed, as a “tranquilized water buffalo”-- it would take several attempts to clear all the stuff out. Scraps of fabric, papers, kids art projects, looked interesting, a single old sneaker would make a great Santa Maria in her Columbus diorama.
Besides, did she really want to throw things into the landfill that could be useful to others? Using Marie Kondo’s "the life changing magic of tidying up" (2016) she wasn’t so sure about the Japanese expert’s principle that her belongings should “spark joy”. It was a revelation to her that not everyone had a “hell room”, nor did they save 5th grade report cards, dried flowers, stuffed animals, or the dress worn to graduation. In fact, she would learn that her powerful impulse to save things was likely genetic, related to a form of OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) for which she received therapy and medication.

Hoarding was a deviant condition—a torture, that brought sadness, misery, depression, hopelessness with an inability to cope. With the death of Gary, a friend from church, he had been a severe hoarder, Schaub agreed to help. Friends were barely able to enter the house, the heat and electricity hadn’t worked in years, there was minimal plumbing. (From the book) “I breathed into my dust mask and had the odd sensation of scuba diving in a shipwreck.” There were tall mounds, stacks, and piles that had to be carefully navigated through, they were unable to find a photo for Gary’s memorial service. Schaub compared the experience to the documentaries and shows related to Hoarding.

Profits in the storage industry total about 3 billion USD per year, Schaub realized the value and importance of space as “hell room” became the “art room” that her daughters Greta and Ilsa enjoyed using. Unable to resist writing about all her belongings, “The Autobiography of a Rug” and “The Weirdest Things I Own” seemed to be of utmost importance—to the author. 3* GOOD. ~ With thanks to Sourcebooks Inc. via NetGalley for the DRC for the purpose of review.