Clutter's Last Stand

Decades ago, I was a new mom, and I was overwhelmed with housework. I read "Is there life after housework?" by Don Aslett, and not only was my house clean, but I had time to relax, and my friends were asking me how I did it. Then I got "Clutter's Last Stand" and started throwing things away. (I remember I had three cribs in the garage, but we had no plans of having more babies. And what about all those grocery bags under the sink?). I got rid of a ton of stuff, and I was able to not take in too much more stuff. Years later, I went with a family member to help clean out an elderly woman's house. What a horror!! She had gone to the thrift stores for years, and filled bags full of clothes, then piled them on the beds and floors of her three bedrooms until you could not take one step inside the room, and the junk was piled six feet high. Also, every time she got the mail (for decades), she put it in a bag without sorting it, and put it in the bedrooms too. Love letters and old photos were mixed with sales flyers from years ago, and everything infused with silverfish. The bedrooms had not been used for 20 years, but the rats had chewed through the walls, and had been living in the clothes and mail all that time. When everything was finally thrown out, it turned out that one buried bed had fallen through the rotted floor and down to the dirt. We had to throw out the floor too. And the whole time we were throwing out pooped-on, chewed-up toxic trash, family members were saying, "No, you can't get rid of THAT!" What was the point of saving all that stuff? It made the bedrooms unusable, and invited vermin and disease into the house. Plus, if she had spent that money and time on decorating instead of accumutaing junk from the thrift store, she would have had three nice, usable bedrooms. In the end, all her "treasures" desintigrated to trash and had to be burned. When I got home, I revaluated the things I was accumualating. I want a pretty, peaceful home, not a huge trash bin. If I am not using it, I am getting rid of it. Get Clutter's Last Stand now so your grandkids won't need pitchforks and snowshovels to clean out your bedrooms.

A friend told me that "You own the thing; then the thing owns you." So true. This is not an organize-your-possessions book as much as it is a pare-down-your-possessions book. In fact, Aslett refers to storage cubbies (china cabinets, desk organizers, closet racks, shadow boxes, extra shelves) as "junk bunkers," irrestibly beckoning us to fill them up, and he refers to "things and stuff" catalogs as "junk pornography." If you're like me, you'll be ready to throw out half your possessions when you finish the book. When I was reading this book (not at home), I was dying to get home & start cleaning out drawers & closets -- When I got home, I immediately ran to my spare bedroom closet & loaded up thirty-three beautiful but seldom-worn and too- tight dresses for Goodwill. I was equally ruthless with books I don't read, nail polish I don't use, plastic cups, old race tee shirts, stuffed animals from high school boyfriends, old lamps without shades, my ten-year-old skis and boots, old ice skates, ratty towels, clothes to "paint" or "work" in. The boxes of "stuff to sell on e-bay" (that have been int he garage for months) have been redesignated "stuff for Goodwill." Aslett shows how cluttering your life with stuff really gets in the way of enjoying life. He points out the burden that results from excessive ownership -- pointing out the fallacy of acquiring inexpensive (or "free") things that cost us much more in the long run, the problems created by owning several of the same item (when one would suffice), for saving things for the future. Aslett doesn't advocate stark minimimalism or an all-out blitz; he does have some sympathy for things to which you may be emotionally attached -- but he suggests ways of evaluating and miniaturizing junk (saving a scrap of fabric or a button from your prom dress, rather than the whole thing). He doesn't judge whether your possessions are treasure or junk; he gives you the framework for deciding whether YOU are better off keeping an item or getting rid of the item. This isn't a new age simplify-your-life book, but Anslett doesn't hesitate top explain (near the end of the book) how filling your life with junk (possessions, food, draining "friends") can lead to depression and anxiety. It's laugh-out-loud funny in parts, readable, and painfully honest. Read it -- Goodwill, Salvation Army, Bottomless Closet, Disabled Veterans -- someone will be glad you did.

I think this is a great book. I know some people are put off by Don's brashness, but with clutter being the problem it is today I think he is doing us a great service by showing us how we are just bogging down our lives by holding on to so much junk! I know numerous people who have read this book and they all have wonderful things to say about it. This book has helped change my life. It has helped me realize how much of my life was being used up by dealing with junk, physically and mentally. People are more important than things and the present is more important than the past. If you are looking for a way to organize and keep all the junk you have this book is not for you. But if you want to be set free from the bondage of junk this book will help.