“Pretty Neat” Review and Giveaway

Alicia Rockmore and Sarah Welch the creators of Buttoned Up® organizational products impart their wisdom and experience on us in their newest book Pretty Neat. Being that I am the self-proclaimed world’s slowest reader I was intimidated when I opened the book because the font was much smaller than I had anticipated and I thought “crap, this is going to take me forever.” However, I was wrong! Pretty Neat is a simple read and organized logically so it flows easy and understandably. Chapter one lays the groundwork for any organizational endeavor whether you’re the Martha Stewart type or the Linus type. Let go of the notion of perfection and grab ahold of living imperfectly organized. Once you’ve let go of the need to be perfect you can focus on your priorities and work toward realistic goals. This is achieved by delegating, learning to say no and eliminating excuses. While you may think these tasks are easier said than done in chapters two through five Rockmore and Welch share hundreds of interviews and hard facts of people successfully achieving imperfect organization. Their stories and step by step instructions are convincing, inspiring and practical.

From all the interviews they conducted to write this book they knew to tackle key problem areas of homes all across the country – to do lists, schedules, home clutter, toy overload, office clutter, virtual clutter, and meal overwhelm. A chapter is devoted to each problem area providing clear and simple solutions. My favorite chapter is chapter eight, Clear the Clutter at Home, where I not only dog-eared many pages but I underlined many sentences as well. This is the chapter where clutter is defined. And although these women argue that it is a broad definition is seems very straight forward to me.

“To one, a collection of baseball cards is clutter. To that person’s husband it’s anything but. For simplicity’s sake, anything that (a) you don’t really love, (b) you don’t really need or use, (c) doesn’t represent you or make you happy, or (d) doesn’t work, is clutter.”

I love organizing books that are well researched and well organized. In Pretty Neat you’ll learn to accept pretty neat rather than perfectly neat and you’ll learn tools and tips to maintain it.

Compliments of Alicia Rockmore and Sarah Welch, I am able to giveaway one FREE copy of Pretty Neat. To be entered to win simply comment to this blog post by answering the question “what is your favorite organizing book or blog that you reference regularly?” You can be entered a second time in the drawing by signing up for the Ready Aim Organize e-Newsletter. If you’re already receiving the newsletter than by simply answering the question above you’ll be entered twice. All comments must be posted by Thursday, March 24 at 11:59pm EDT. Entries must answer the above question and include your email and full name to be eligible to win. Winner will be drawn randomly and will be announced on Friday, March 25th. Thank you for your participation!

What is your favorite organizing book or blog that you reference regularly?