The Organized Home: Design Solutions for Clutter-Free Living

I am in love with this book. Instead of telling me what a slob I am or that I should just toss all clutter, the authors understand what its like to have collections of stuff and busy lives. There are so many "home organization" (and i use that term loosely) books out there and instead of focusing on how to organize your home and indirectly your life, they pound into you that one must always get rid of stuff. This is not the case with the wonderful Casey Ellis and Randall Koll! I can live clutter free and organized. Yes, junk mail gets thrown away as soon as it enters the house but I now have lovely baskets to organize the myriad of magazines that cross my threshold and I can actually get to the things I use most and sleep well knowing that my linen closet could be in photo shoot.

I enjoy functional yet eye-catching rooms with a feel of luxury to the space - comfortable and classy ....So when I came across the book "The Organized Home: Design Solutions for Clutter-Free Living" it immediately appealed to me. The book is filled with lavish photographs of beautiful rooms that are pleasing to the eye. But the rooms go beyond the pretty/decorator look because each is designed with simple solutions to organize the space so the home becomes a refuge from our hectic lifes. It becomes a place of peace. Organized and restful. Though I have read a number of organization books, this one introduced me to some lovely new ideas. How to use a tansu(or chest), how screens can be used to hide and divide, why you should always have a mirror in the hallway and much more. The hardcover book 10" by 8" with its glossy cover is pretty to place on the coffee table and so packed with solutions you will refer to it constantly. It includes chapters on organizing by design, creating a first impression, adding life to the living room, creating a double duty dining room, taming childrens rooms and taking a fresh look at laundry and mud rooms among others. Each chapter takes an indepth look to give you tips and techniques to make your home glow. One of my favorites is the kitchen section. In this section the authors teach you how to cut clutter, plan for get togethers, organize your kitchen gear and display collections. The nitty gritty is covered not just surface information. Not only are you given quick and easy ways to increase your storage for example you are also encouraged to label your spices with the date of purchase, rotate your dishes and take inventory of your cutlery. Little things that make your kitchen function at its best. And this is done room by room. A super read, packed with information and very inspiring! Lee Mellott

When I learned that Casey Ellis and Randall Koll, both excellent writerswhom I read in the San Francisco Chronicle, had written a book aboutorganizing your home, I was thrilled. Seven years after I had moved intomy darling San Francisco apartment I would finally be organized! I pre-ordered the book as soon as it was available and in a short time itwas at my door, waiting for me. I opened it and looked at the cover,flipped through the pages a bit. The organized bookcases on page 69,the pocket-sized office on page 116, and the mud room on page 134 -soon this organized beauty would be mine (granted, I have no mudroom, but I'm ready to move to Vermont to have one).Fast forward two weeks and I'm digging through piles of papers,laundry, junk, trying to find the book. I finally found it and read through. I need this book! The photos are lovely, the writing is clever andamusing, the tips are great for anyone - small apartment or big house!If you buy one book about decorating, buy this one!

I received this book as a gift, and when you get a book about organizing as a gift, you tend to examine what it is that's, well, wrong with you. I hunkered down for what I expected would be the dreaded lecture on setting up a neat little corner for bill-paying. But no! I opened a beautiful book! Witty and smart. Great writing, not just about organizing options, but on useful design theory. Gorgeous inspiring photos! Things that seemed like I could actually do them, and not just mentally file them away as something my neurotic professional organizer aunt would do. Tips on keeping a functional kitchen have improved my good-but-lazy cook ass already! I love that this book does not require an instant remodel of everything you already have. It offers useful suggestions you can do one at a time, and some bigger ideas to mull over for when le grand remodel is actually possible. Thank you, Casey Ellis and Randall Koll! I must now buy five more copies to give as gifts! (Do you think people would take that the wrong way?)

This book is truly a gem. I live in Ann Arbor, and am one of those people who leaves a "trail of clutter" behind wherever I go. My house (yikes!) shows it, and though I've read a lot of books on managing clutter, staying organized, and the like, they just really haven't worked for me. I guess I'm not altogther embarassed to be me, but this book is really great and really different It looks at all this from a *design* perspective, and makes it both fun and engaging to begin designing one's home (or apartment) in ways that make it look *much* *much* better *while* managing the clutter in some really easy and helpful ways. This book has helped me find a me that *can* be more clutter-free without stressing out about it. Now I'm beginning to invite people over to my place much more, and this design book is--strange as it sounds--actually opening up new avenues for me socially and in all kinds of other ways. What a great idea! Randall Koll and Casey Ellis: my hat is off to you. Thank you. I mean it: thank you.