Decluttering at the Speed of Life: Winning Your Never-Ending Battle with Stuff
Written by Dana K. White
Narrated by Dana K. White
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
You don't have to live overwhelmed by stuff—you can get rid of clutter for good! Decluttering expert Dana White identifies the emotional challenges that make it difficult to declutter and provides workable solutions to break through and make progress.
While the world seems to be in love with the idea of tiny houses and minimalism, many of us simply can't purge it all and start from nothing. Yet a home with too much stuff is difficult to maintain, so where do we begin? Add in paralyzing emotional attachments and constant life challenges, and it can feel almost impossible to make real decluttering progress.
In Decluttering at the Speed of Life, decluttering expert and author Dana White identifies the mindsets and emotional challenges that make it difficult to declutter. In her signature humorous approach, she provides workable solutions to break through these struggles and get clutter out—for good!
Not only does Dana provide strategies, but she dives deep into how to implement them, no matter the reader's clutter level or emotional resistance to decluttering. She helps identify procrasticlutter—the stuff that will get done eventually so it doesn't seem urgent—as well as how to make progress when there's no time to declutter.
In Decluttering at the Speed of Life, Dana’s chapters cover:
- Why You Need This Book (You Know Why)
- Your Unique Home
- Decluttering in the Midst of Real Life
- Change Your Mind, Change Your Home
- Breaking Through Your Decluttering Delusions
- Working It Out Room by Room
- Helping Others Declutter
As long as we're living and breathing, new clutter will appear. The good news is that by following Dana’s advice, decluttering will get easier, become more natural, and require significantly fewer hours, less emotional bandwidth, and little to no sweat to keep going.
Editor's Note
Irreverent approach that works…
This is decluttering made easy. You don’t have to assess every item to determine if it brings you joy. Just, like, maybe throw out things that are definitely trash? And put items back after you use them? Dana K. White uses plenty of humor to help you through the process of cleaning house.
Dana K. White
Dana K. White is the creator of the No Mess Decluttering Method and (much to her own surprise) a Decluttering Expert. Dana shares realistic home management strategies and a message of hope for the hopelessly messy in her books: Organizing for the Rest of Us, Decluttering at the Speed of Life (a Wall Street Journal bestseller), and How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind. Dana teaches her strategies through her blog, podcast, and videos at ASlobComesClean.com and trains coaches in her unique decluttering process at DeclutteringCoaches.com.
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Reviews for Decluttering at the Speed of Life
578 ratings60 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great advice and easy to follow. Much more realistic than The Art of Tidying Up.
3 people found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This made it so easy to start. The KonMari method was too much for me. This really breaks it down and makes the mess less overwhelming.
2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book spoke to my soul. The author is my spirit animal. I now have confidence to be way less messy
2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I already considered myself to be good at decluttering and organization, and while I don’t struggle with visible clutter (except in my kids’ room), this was helpful for decluttering things that are in storage. I’m going to do the decluttering questions with my kids in their room today, and get this, I’m looking forward to it! I thought this book would be boring and I would end up not finishing it, but I’m so glad I gave it a try. I love the way the author reads the audible version. Definitely worth a read, even if you’re really good at decluttering already. It was also super helpful for how to help others declutter and the container method is a game changer!
2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great book. I enjoyed listening to it as I cleaned my home and de cluttered my kids’ room. The best lesson I got was it was exactly how to do the decluttering without making more of a mess and how to gain momentum to keep going by doing the things that make a visible difference first. Definitely worth a listen if you struggle with maintain a tidy home.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5An easy read, and super practical and encouraging. Read it, you won't regret it!
Do you find the prospect of the complete mess decluttering/organizing often makes so daunting that you never actually do it? There is a better way. The author take you through the multiple stress of decluttering at the speed of life, WITHOUT having your home a wreck in the process.1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5SUPER Practical! Funny, realistic, and pointers on decluttering habits you can apply to every room and even help you with loved ones who are dealing with clutter.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5An excellent book. Starts off with the practical side of decluttering for one self, and considers important aspects on how to help others. It also approaches (in its last chapters) the iceberg of underlying psychological issues that underlie cluttered lifestyles. It gives great advice on how to go about overcome these. I made great progress myself while listening to this audio book!
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Excellent! I’ve read a lot of decluttering books, but I still felt stuck. This book got me excited to declutter & I felt empowered that I could actually do it this time!
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I've gone through several purges and made a lot of progress bit still struggled. I've read several great books on minimalism and on decluttering. This one really hits home, and I can relate to Dana more than any other author on the topic so far :)
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great, realistic, easy to follow and fun to listen to
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dana has a writing style that is conversational and free of judgement. Her methods have helped me a lot in my home even with chronic pain. She thoughtfully addresses unique situations and also has a great YouTube channel and podcast. I am so grateful for this author!
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A very useful guide on how to start the decluttering process. Also helpful for anyone trying to help a loved one declutter.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Doable! That is the word I would use! Don’t wait, and don’t be overwhelmed as Dana says over and over again. I bought this in hardcopy so I could read and underline and re-read. I’ve read many organizing, cleaning and decluttering books and this seems DOABLE!
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5the last two chapters were very serious and helpful. they needed to be at the end. the author is a wise woman with truly good advice to offer. i am really glad i read this book and i think i'll come back to it from time to time. i enjoyed it enough to look for what else she has written!
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is a great book with good information about practical application, and getting over procrastination and springing into action even if only with small steps, b/c even small steps forward are forward progress.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Excellent audiobook - throughly enjoyed listening and found the material very motivational. Now comes practical application!
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great advice, presented in a number of actionable ways. Just 2 rules to declutter by, but explained over many examples and contexts from the author's personal experience.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5If you struggle with clutter, you need to hear this book. This is the most realistic approach I have ever come across, and I have tried a few. Read the book, do what Dana says, see your house and your life being transformed.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5life changer. a must have! read it over again until you’re fully decluttered in all aspects of your life.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5It’s a lot of twaddle talk. This book about decluttering is cluttered with so many unnecessary things. Just get to the point lady. ?
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I listened to the audiobook, read by the author which makes it fun! Practical, non-judgmental and doable, with a side of self deprecating humour. I listen to it as I am decluttering, so a few repeats already! :-)
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/52023. This is the best book I've read on the psychology and useful methods for decluttering. The tip to store leftover containers with their lids on is worth the price of the book. Key point: Recognize that available space for particular items is finite and just keep what fits easily in that space. Also: Ask where you would look for this item and put it there. Ask whether it would even occur to you that you own it or would you just go out and get another one (In that case donate/discard).
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dana does an amazing job at explaining her easy decluttering process and dividing it in very easy steps. Now let me go grab a trash bag ?
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The book is well written. It gives very practical advice that enables you to progress through the decluttering process even when you have only limited chunks of time.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Excellent... helped change my mindset about clutter ! ! !
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wow! She said EVERY POINT I needed to hear. Amazing book.
This book was written with REAL life in mind. No fluff, no pie in the sky aspirations, just honesty and workable solutions. It's like she walked through my own house and came up with a great plan for me to implement to fix it. (That's the key, y'all - you can't just read the book - you have to participate.) AND she did it all with a liberal dose of KINDNESS. Thank you, Dana K White! - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book nailed it! The author covered all my excuses but gave me practical suggestions that work.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This was the best decluttering book I have read so far.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This was exactly the tips and advice about decluttering that I have been missing and makes so much sense to real life. Thank you for this book.