January 30, 2025
How to Get Your House in Order:
Downsize Your Stuff, Organize Your Life, Prioritize What Matters
Leigh Daugherty
Aviva Publishing (2022)
ISBN: 978-1636180687
New Book Helps You Organize Your Home and Life
Leigh Daugherty’s new book, How to Get Your House in Order: Downsize Your Stuff, Organize Your Life, Prioritize What Matters, begins with a beautiful quote by an unknown author: “Maybe the life you’ve always wanted to live is buried underneath everything you own.” Unfortunately, that quote may be true for many of us. Leigh knows that as life goes on, we accumulate more and more for numerous reasons—from inheriting objects we may not want or buying things we do not need to overindulging in our passions by buying more craft items for projects we’ll never complete or more books we’ll never get around to reading.
Leigh understands because she’s been there. She confesses that much of her adult life she was hiding a dirty secret—literally. Her house and life were a mess. The demands of her career and being the mother of two young children meant she could not keep up. She felt guilty about it, but she also excused it. She states, “I felt my disorganization at home was my badge of honor—I mean, after all, I was a creative type. I had this delusional belief that routine and order would make me, well…ordinary. I couldn’t be organized and ordinary!” However, clutter and disorganization can be emotionally overwhelming and cause our lives to become disordered and chaotic. Consequently, Leigh has written this book to offers readers a practical way to get their houses in order.
Leigh breaks the book down into three habits for getting your house in order: downsize, organize, and prioritize. She walks readers through each of these, breaking down the habits into doable steps and even being as detailed as how to organize specific areas of your home, from kitchen cupboards to kids’ closets.
The first step in getting your house in order is to decide what possessions you really want and need. We all have things we don’t really want but keep. Leigh offers an exhaustive list of reasons we hold onto things, which helps us really think through and come to terms with what can be illogical or emotional reasoning about why we need to keep those items. For example, a few reasons on the list include: “We hold onto things because they make us feel secure. We hold onto things because one day we will sell them. We hold onto things because they are potential projects. We hold onto things because they represent who we are. We hold onto things as proof of what we have overcome. We hold onto things because we paid good money for them.”
Once we realize why we are holding onto things, we can decide if those reasons are deserving enough to continue holding on. One of the most helpful parts of the book for me was the discussion of family heirlooms and the guilt we often feel in relation to them. Leigh discusses how to politely refuse to accept things we don’t want from family members. She also shares how we can find people who will enjoy an item more than us to give or sell it to. Ultimately, we have to decide whether an item has value to us, not someone else. Once we learn to assess an item’s value to us, it becomes easier to declutter.
Another excellent point Leigh makes is that we hang onto things we believe have monetary value. She cites an episode of the TV show Hoarders where a homeowner was fined $200 a week for the rubbish and junk on her property, yet she wouldn’t part with it because she knew she could get ten dollars for some of the items. Leigh also quotes an unknown author who once said, “All that clutter used to be money.” It’s true. That hoarder could sell all those items and then save herself money, and the rest of us could not buy stuff we don’t need and be financially better off.
While this book is about letting go of stuff we don’t need, more importantly, it’s about saying yes to our own health and mental wellbeing. Leigh encourages us to save ourselves, not our stuff. She lets us know that the fear of letting go is so much worse than the doing of it, yet many of us hold onto our stuff for emotional reasons. She teaches us how to process the emotions involved with letting go of stuff, emotions that are often tied to deeper issues we need to work through. Things we don’t need that we hold onto represent a need to move on from something in our past. Why keep letters from old boyfriends? Why keep clothes we haven’t worn for years? We have our reasons, but we need to do some processing and healing so those reasons are no longer valid.
Once we get rid of stuff we don’t need, we still have other work to do. We have to resist the urge to go backward into old, familiar, yet unhelpful routines. Instead, we need to move on to organizing other parts of our lives, including our finances. Leigh also talks about the concept of Swedish death cleaning, which basically means we strive to make our death as little of a burden on others as possible, so we get our house in order, not only by decluttering but organizing all of our affairs so things will be easier for our loved ones when we’re gone. She even has tips for helping our loved ones, like parents, get rid of stuff so it isn’t a burden on us later.
In the end, a better life awaits us, which includes not just a clean and organized home, but enhanced relationships. Leigh states, “You are going to love being able to find things when you need them! I can’t imagine living like I used to. I would never trade my newfound time for a pile of stuff. Welcome to peace.” And she also points out that, “The most important connections you will ever experience are with yourself and your family. Excess stuff and clutter cause arguments, bickering, depression, isolation, and anxiety. Removing physical obstacles will literally bring you closer together. Everyone will be happier, more relaxed, and have more free time.”
I am so grateful to have read How to Get Your House in Order. I have gone through cleaning out and selling my grandparents’ house, moving my parents into an apartment, and cleaning out my late brother’s apartment. It was all overwhelming and taught me that I don’t need all the stuff I hang onto. But Leigh has shown me how much I am still holding onto. I’m ready to let go of more, and I think you will be too after you read this book and apply Leigh’s advice.
For more information about Leigh Daugherty and How to Get Your House in Order, visit www.HowToGetYourHouseInOrder.com.
— Tyler R. Tichelaar, PhD and award-winning author of Narrow Lives and When Teddy Came to Town
