I read It’s All Too Much: An Easy Plan for Living a Richer Life with Less Stuff after hearing it referenced on The Tim Ferriss Show in comparison to The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. I loved the mental and attitude approach of Marie Kondō‘s book, and Peter Walsh has a very similar mentality but without the spirituality. Whereas many people wind up dismissing Kondō because of her zanier aspects (e.g. thanking your inanimate object possessions), Walsh is laser focused on clearing the clutter of your house while clearing the clutter of your mind and emotions.
The first three chapters don’t even get into physically removing clutter from your house. They go over the underlying issues that cause people to gather clutter. Those reasons run the range of humanity, from emotional attachments to mementos to societal pressure to buy more things to feel more fulfilled and successful. This is a powerful introduction to the problems clutter cause and the alternative way to approach your life in relation to the things you own. As Walsh repeats throughout the book, once you accumulate too much stuff, the stuff owns you instead you owning the stuff.
The remaining six chapters cover the actual steps to take in decluttering your house. There’s a sub-chapter for each room of the house: master bedroom, kids’ rooms, family/living room, home office, kitchen, dining room, bathroom, and storerooms. Before those, though, there’s a very useful exercise to create a room function chart. This chart includes your vision for what each room should be used for. For example, is your dining room going to double as the kids’ homework area? This is a fantastic exercise to get you actually thinking about the purpose and focus of each room and area in your house. So often stuff just creeps into other rooms and eventually your master bedroom is also your laundry room annex or your kitchen contains more papers than your home office.
Walsh is very adamant in his convictions. He believes the sole purpose of the master bedroom is to create romantic, restful atmosphere for you and your partner. He says your collectibles should be proudly displayed or gotten rid of. He thinks your dining room table should be clear of all items at the end of each day. Most people are not going to agree with everything. I happen to concur with the vast majority; in fact, I can’t think of a single point I disagreed with him.
This is an excellent book for those looking to regain control of their house, whether cluttered or not. It also helps formulate a new outlook on life, especially your relationship with the things you own.
