- ISBN13: 9781592532025
- Condition: USED – VERY GOOD
- Notes:
Product Description
The Organized Home strives to bring order and calm to the chaotic, possession-filled lives of today’s consumer. With hectic lifestyles, computer passwords, frequent-flyer miles, and thousands of possessions, people are overwhelmed. Society, in general, needs to lighten up, but many find it difficult to part with the stuff that has come to define who we are. The Organized Homed is filled with professional advice, hard-working information, and checklists that help re… More >>
The Organized Home: Design Solutions for Clutter-Free Living
Tags: ClutterFree, Design, Home, Living, Organized, Solutions
#1 by Wigstaffer on April 7, 2010 - 12:52 am
This is basically a book of few words, many uninspiring photographs, and a some weak hints here and there that reveal to you the astonishing secret of clutter-free living: just buy a bunch of cute and clever containers to store all your junk! There is virtually nothing meaty in this thing about how to get organized and STAY clutter-free.
Rating: 1 / 5
#2 by Kate Smart on April 7, 2010 - 2:46 am
This book has taken photo after photo straight out of the Ikea catalogue! Obviously, the authors have decided that they have nothing to offer and opt instead to refer to Ikea’s design and storage ideas. This book actually put me in a bad mood. Listen up folks, THE IKEA CATALOGUE IS FREE. Do yourselves a favour and pick one up, because none of these so-called “organization” books have anything to teach you that cannot be found at your local Ikea store. These authors should be fired. Shame on both of them.
Rating: 1 / 5
#3 by G. A Floyd on April 7, 2010 - 5:19 am
Great design and organization ideas. Loved the sections on preparing for parties. A fun writing style that does not talk down to the reader about style and design.
Rating: 5 / 5
#4 by B. Hong on April 7, 2010 - 7:30 am
Randall is a designer in San Francisco. He ripped me off for $3900 after ordering a custom sofa to be made. I haven’t heard from him in a year. Please don’t buy his book or hire him as a designer. You can check the City of SF to see that he has judgements against him.
Rating: 1 / 5
#5 by Patrick W. Crabtree on April 7, 2010 - 8:48 am
In case you didn’t get the emphasis from this work’s title, this is an “absence of clutter” book.
The large format of the book and the numerous large color photographs are quite helpful to the reader in grasping the details of what the authors, Randall Koll and Casey Ellis, wish to convey, By far the most useful and true quotation one garners from the text is, “The key to cutting clutter is clear: If you put things away, clutter vanishes.”
How incredibly true that is! Of course this concept pre-supposes that one has a place TO stow away clutter, and the book is remarkably helpful in achieving that worthy objective. But the quotation also makes a more subtle link to the psychology of human behavior and I think this is where the book goes a bit off-track.
Changing the behavior (especially human habits which are perceived as negative) of other people is nearly impossible. With great determination, some folks are capable of changing their OWN behavior, mostly one habit at a time, but effective external influence is problematic. Temporary gains can be achieved but they are more often than not, rarely permanent.
So the point I’m making is this: the authors have some specific things to say about storage, all of which is very instructive and useful. But I think they got into a problem area by going beyond that point — when they ran out of things to say, it appears that they began to “make up” things to say which, from my view, fell into the realm of the non-useful, (for an example, see “Positive Household Habits” on page 56.)
These behavioral tips (for lack of a better phrase) somewhat parallel (on a much smaller scale) the “advice” of that crazy lady (actually an organization of sorts) on the internet, known as the Fly Lady. You sign on with her (free) and she gets you started on your chaotic home with two or three little things to advance the cause (these directives come by e-mail.) Then as time goes on, she gradually adds daily tasks, (getting you off the couch – no more Oprah!) Before you know it, she’s running your life with 30 e-mails a day, telling you how and what to cook, what errands to run on what day, and so on — from my view, it’s a mild form of Totalitarian Communism!
Of course, The Fly Lady has no real hold on anyone but some people are quite responsive to direction like this… for awhile. But basically, if you’ve had a crappy home for the past 20 years, short of experiencing a sudden and dramatic life-changing experience, your home will probably always be crappy. This isn’t true 100 percent of the time but it’s mostly true.
But, on the other hand, if you’re absolutely determined to prevail on the clutter issue, then the information in this 2004 book surely won’t hurt! My final advice is if you’re dead serious about clutter and want some great storage, then consult this far superior book: House Beautiful Storage.
Rating: 3 / 5