When I first saw this title “
How to Cheat at Organizing” by Jeff Bredenberg my first thought was only a man would think to cheat at organizing. But to give him a fair shake, I decided to look further. There were some good ideas, but to me it seems this man had a wife to help him out with some of these.
There seems to also be a heavy reliance on technology such as the internet. While some Moms I talked to said these ideas have their merits, one mom said that some days she doesn’t get a shower so how would she find the time to surf the internet for some of the ideas mentioned?
In fact, one of his suggestions was met with great skepticism by my child owning friends. He suggested not putting a portable DVD player in your car, but instead to spend the time singing and playing car games to focus of family togetherness. While they all said the idea was commendablet, this guy never spent very much time with kids in the car or he would know what a godsend the DVD was. One Mom said the only quiet she had was when the kids were watching a show.
One idea of his found particular favor with Moms: providing an “I’m Done with It” bag. The idea is to let the child put clothing or toys they had outgrown or were tired of in a bag and when the bag was full taking it to a local charity.
He has another book called “How to Cheat at Cleaning.” Hmm seems they all do that, don’t they?
Every January I get the itch to clean something out and get organized. If you are like me, you enjoy the thought of "starting over" in January! The library has two books that were published in 2010 that can help you get a handle on organizing your storage spaces. The first book is Storage With Style published by Better Homes & Gardens. Most people know that storage and organization are universal problems for every household, whether you live in one room or six. Successful storage solutions are great ways to keep your home organized and tidy, and this book offers ides for every room, from kitchens and living rooms to bathrooms, bedrooms, home offices and (my favorite :) craft rooms. The book covers simple portable storage ideas, as well as built-in pieces, and shows how to incorporate the ideas into 
every home's decor. The second book is What's a Disorganized Person to Do? by Stacey Platt. This book offers hundres of solutions for you to gain control of clutter in the house and office, from quick-fixes to hour-long projects, including organizing e-mails to sorting through the area beneath the bathroom sink. This book is more focused towards the very "clutter-prone" person, as it does a great job of explaining how to complete the basic de-clutter process. These books are just two of the many, useful, storage and organizational solution books the library has available for check-out.
