“Less is more” is a key concept of minimalism. Too many “things” and too much “clutter” just serve to distract us.
This is why creating habits to routinely declutter and/or get rid of excess can be so powerful.
Like many guys, I simply loathe cleaning. Yet I love to work in a tidy and organized environment. What a quandary!!
My solution has been a series of small micro cleaning habits. Most of these ideas are originally found in the books listed here.
These books on minimalism, organization, and decluttering feature: simplicity, uncluttering your life, and top notch organization.
These decluttering and organization books have a wide variety of topics. They can help a wide swath of people. Whether you should be featured on an upcoming episode of Hoarders or already live a neat-as-a-pin minimalist lifestyle, I am thinking there are still few things you could learn from these books.
Best Simplicity and Organization Books
1. The Power of Less by Leo Babauta
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Takeaways:
- Focus on the essential. The book emphasizes the importance of identifying and focusing on the most important tasks to achieve greater productivity and fulfillment.
- Simplify your goals. Babauta suggests simplifying goals to make them more achievable and less overwhelming, leading to a more focused and effective approach to personal and professional development.
- Embrace constraints. The author advocates for embracing limitations and constraints as a means to foster creativity and innovation, rather than viewing them as obstacles.
- Create new habits. The book offers practical advice on developing new habits and routines that support a simpler, more focused lifestyle, enabling readers to make lasting changes.
- Mindful living. Babauta encourages mindfulness and being present in the moment, promoting a more conscious and intentional approach to daily life.
Although most of us work hard to reach success, we often do so without a clear vision of what we really want, or what success really means to us. And to make things harder, there are so many distractions around that vie for our attention.
The Power of Less: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential…in Business and in Life teaches you how to focus on what’s truly important in each aspect of your life.
Babauta, the author and creator of the blog Zen Habits, is your guide in removing the clutter that blocks your path to success and prevents you from living the life you deserve.
This book provides helpful tips and suggestions on how you can foster new habits that boost your productivity, sharpen your focus, make you more efficient at your tasks, and create focus-oriented and actionable steps to reach your goals.
2. Time Management from the Inside Out by Julie Morgenstern
Takeaways:
- Time mapping. Morgenstern introduces the concept of time mapping, which involves creating a visual representation of how time is currently being spent and then using this insight to make more strategic choices about time management.
- Prioritize and sequence. The book emphasizes the importance of prioritizing tasks and sequencing them effectively to maximize productivity and minimize stress.
- Organize your physical space. Morgenstern underscores the impact of physical organization on time management, offering practical advice on decluttering and optimizing work and living spaces.
- Set boundaries. The author advocates for setting boundaries to protect time and energy, enabling individuals to focus on their most important tasks and avoid distractions.
- Personalize time management. Morgenstern encourages readers to tailor time management strategies to their individual strengths, preferences, and work styles, promoting a more sustainable and effective approach to managing time.
Time-management systems do not always fit into a one-size-fits-all framework. This book identifies your personal psychological strengths and stumbling blocks to create an effective time-management system that’s tailor-fit for your needs.
Through effective tools and technology, Time Management from the Inside Out: The Foolproof System for Taking Control of Your Schedule—and Your Life is your guide to learning time-management skills for achieving a more organized life.
Morgenstern teaches you how to create a system that’s adaptable to constant change, take control of your life, and overcome procrastination for good.
3. Organizing from the Inside Out by Julie Morgenstern
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Takeaways:
- Analyze before organizing. Morgenstern emphasizes the importance of analyzing the specific needs and challenges of an organizing project before diving into the physical act of organizing, ensuring a more effective and sustainable outcome.
- Sort and purge. The book advocates for the process of sorting and purging belongings as a fundamental step in organizing, helping individuals to declutter and streamline their possessions.
- Assign a home for everything. Morgenstern stresses the significance of assigning a specific home for each item to maintain organization and facilitate easy retrieval, reducing time and stress associated with searching for things.
- Containerize. The author recommends using containers and storage solutions to maintain order and prevent clutter from reemerging, providing practical guidance on selecting and using containers effectively.
- Maintain systems. The book underscores the importance of maintaining organizational systems over time, offering strategies for regular maintenance to prevent the re-accumulation of clutter and disorganization.
This revised edition is a thorough guide on how to bring order and organization into every aspect of your life. The book is consistent with Morgenstern’s style of letting readers discover their true personalities and working with them to develop a system that helps them live a clutter-free life.
Through Organizing from the Inside Out: The Foolproof System for Organizing Your Home, Your Office and Your Life, you’ll learn about a tried-and-tested formula for clearing the clutter in your life and getting rid of it forever.
Morgenstern shows you the common challenges people face when it comes to decluttering—personal issues that are at the root of their tendency to be disorganized. In this book, Morgenstern shows her readers that it’s possible to stay organized and enjoy the process of organizing, too.
4. Banish Clutter Forever by Sheila Chandra
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Takeaways:
- Mindful decluttering. Chandra advocates for a mindful approach to decluttering, encouraging readers to consider the emotional and psychological impact of their possessions and to make intentional choices about what to keep and discard.
- Small steps lead to big changes. The book promotes the idea that small, consistent actions towards decluttering can lead to significant and lasting changes in one's living environment and mindset.
- Understanding clutter triggers. Chandra delves into the underlying reasons for clutter accumulation, helping readers identify and address the root causes of their clutter habits.
- Simplify and streamline. The author offers practical advice on simplifying possessions and streamlining living spaces to create a more peaceful and functional environment.
- Embracing minimalism. Chandra explores the principles of minimalism and how adopting a minimalist mindset can lead to a more organized, stress-free lifestyle.
Banish Clutter Forever: How the Toothbrush Principle Will Change Your Life offers helpful suggestions on how to get rid of clutter, and more. The author promises to help you achieve a working system for organizing your space and your life.
Sheila Chandra introduces readers to a couple of concepts that are vital to becoming efficiently organized: zoning and completion.
Rather than just providing tips on how to live in a tidier space, Chandra helps readers get more organized in their lives by sharing her personal experience growing up in an extremely cluttered house.
Readers get introduced to the “toothbrush principle.” Something almost all people are good at is not losing their toothbrushes, so this becomes the jump-off point for becoming permanently organized in all areas of your life.
By the time you finish reading this book, you will have a firm grasp of the habits that promote an organization, as well as newfound confidence in your ability to stay clutter-free.
5. Focal Point by Brian Tracy
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Takeaways:
- Identify key priorities. Tracy emphasizes the importance of identifying and focusing on the most important tasks that contribute the most to one's goals and success.
- Concentrate on high-value activities. The book advocates for concentrating on high-value activities that align with long-term objectives, rather than getting bogged down in low-priority tasks.
- Effective time management. Tracy provides practical strategies for effective time management, enabling readers to allocate their time and energy more efficiently.
- Goal setting and achievement. The author offers insights into setting clear, achievable goals and taking consistent action towards their attainment, providing a roadmap for success.
- Eliminate distractions. Focal Point delves into the significance of eliminating distractions and maintaining focus on the most impactful activities, fostering greater productivity and results.
Focal Point: A Proven System to Simplify Your Life, Double Your Productivity, and Achieve All Your Goals promises to help you find clarity. Through Brian Tracy’s guidance, you will discover who you truly are and what it is that you want most out of life.
You will learn how to think and act like numerous successful people. Tracy will show you how to develop effective plans in order to reach success in different areas of your life. Moreover, you will learn the techniques of fast-tracking success and getting results that usually take a lifetime to work on.
This book promises to give you fulfillment in many aspects of your life. For example, you’ll be doubling your productivity, improving your relationships with the people you care about, making a difference in your community, and developing your spirituality to find peace within.
6. 10-Minute Declutter by S. J. Scott and Barrie Davenport
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Takeaways:
- Small, consistent actions. The book promotes the idea that dedicating just 10 minutes a day to decluttering can lead to significant improvements in one's living space over time.
- Focus on specific areas. Scott and Davenport suggest targeting specific areas for decluttering, making the process more manageable and less overwhelming.
- Mindful decision-making. The authors encourage mindful decision-making when decluttering, helping readers to assess the value and purpose of each item before deciding whether to keep or discard it.
- Simplify and organize. The book offers practical tips for simplifying possessions and organizing living spaces, leading to a more streamlined and peaceful environment.
- Sustainable decluttering habits. Scott and Davenport emphasize the importance of developing sustainable decluttering habits to maintain a clutter-free lifestyle in the long term.
It is often a busy schedule that prevents people from having a clean, well-organized home. 10-Minute Declutter: The Stress-Free Habit for Simplifying Your Home teaches you how to overcome this challenge and guides you in forming a habit that helps you achieve a clutter-free life for good.
Within its pages, you’ll learn to pinpoint the emotional blockages promoting clutter in your home and how to finally get past them. You’ll also learn about the actual benefits of decluttering, not just related to health but also in terms of finances.
Moreover, the book provides a step-by-step system to help get your home decluttered and organized. The authors share strategies you can use a few minutes every day to keep clutter at bay in your house. These strategies become the foundation of a simple, clutter-free life.
7. One Year to an Organized Life by Regina Leeds
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Takeaways:
- Incremental progress. Leeds advocates for making small, consistent changes each day to gradually organize and simplify different aspects of one's life over the course of a year.
- Weekly focus areas. The book provides a weekly organizational focus, guiding readers through specific areas of their home and life to declutter and organize, creating a systematic approach to transformation.
- Mindfulness and intention. Leeds emphasizes the importance of mindfulness and intention in the organizing process, encouraging readers to consider the purpose and value of their possessions and commitments.
- Maintenance and sustainability. The author addresses the significance of maintenance and sustainability in organization, offering strategies for maintaining an organized lifestyle beyond the initial decluttering process.
- Holistic approach. One Year to an Organized Life takes a holistic approach to organization, considering not only physical spaces but also time management, habits, and mindset for a comprehensive transformation.
This book’s author has spent over 20 years helping the messiest people bring order into their lives. She shares some of her routine-building techniques to help readers organize their households and keep them that way.
As the title suggests, One Year to an Organized Life: From Your Closets to Your Finances, the Week-by-Week Guide to Getting Completely Organized for Good tackles organizing almost all aspect of your life, such as your finances, career, closets, and basement.
Anecdotes about real people’s experiences using Leeds’ system are interspersed with her suggestions. These stories inspire most readers, helping them see that becoming completely organized for life is achievable.
8. Daily Inbox Zero by Steve Scott
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Takeaways:
- Email management strategies. Scott offers practical techniques for efficiently managing and organizing emails to achieve and maintain an empty inbox on a daily basis.
- Prioritize and process. The book emphasizes the importance of prioritizing and processing emails promptly, enabling readers to stay on top of their inbox and prevent it from becoming overwhelming.
- Time-saving tips. Scott provides time-saving tips for handling emails, such as using templates, setting up filters, and batching email tasks to increase efficiency.
- Reduce digital clutter. The author addresses the impact of digital clutter on productivity and offers strategies for decluttering and organizing digital communication and information.
- Establishing habits. Daily Inbox Zero focuses on developing sustainable habits and routines for managing email, promoting a more organized and stress-free approach to communication.
If you are like many people who have an accumulation of email in their inbox and can’t keep up with the deluge of this electronic communication, Daily Inbox Zero: 9 Proven Steps to Eliminate Email Overload can help you go to the root of the problem.
This book provides nine steps to help you eliminate the problem of an overloaded inbox.
The book will teach you how to process email correctly, including the following strategies:
9. Unclutter Your Life in One Week by Erin Rooney Doland
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Takeaways:
- Streamlined approach. Doland presents a practical, week-long plan for decluttering and organizing different aspects of life, offering a structured and achievable method for transformation.
- Mindful decision-making. The book encourages readers to make mindful decisions about their possessions and commitments, fostering a more intentional and clutter-free lifestyle.
- Time management strategies. Doland provides time management strategies to help individuals maintain an organized environment and manage daily tasks more efficiently.
- Simplification and systems. The author emphasizes simplifying possessions and creating organizational systems to reduce clutter and create a more functional living space.
- Sustainable habits. Unclutter Your Life in One Week focuses on developing sustainable decluttering and organizing habits to maintain a simplified lifestyle in the long term.
Erin Doland is the founder of Uncluterrer.com, and in Unclutter Your Life in One Week she shows readers how to achieve a stress-free life within a week by following her process of organizing and decluttering.
Doland uses a down-to-earth approach to winning the battle against clutter. She shares a system of organizing based on the way you process your thoughts.
This book provides information on how to use each day of the week to organize specific areas of your life. For example, you are to focus on organizing your wardrobe on Monday morning, your office the rest of the day, and creating a reception station on Monday evening.
Tuesday morning, on the other hand, is allocated to organizing the bathroom, while the evening is for establishing routines within the household.
The author understands that many of us succeed better in developing new habits when a reward system is in place. Thus, she also includes suggestions for rewarding and celebrating our success when it comes to organizing our lives using her methods.
10. The Joy of Less by Francine Jay
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Takeaways:
- Embracing minimalism. Jay advocates for embracing minimalism as a means to declutter, simplify, and find joy in living with less.
- Mindful consumption. The book encourages mindful consumption and thoughtful consideration of the items that enter one's living space, promoting a more intentional and fulfilling lifestyle.
- Quality over quantity. Jay emphasizes the value of quality possessions over quantity, urging readers to prioritize items that bring genuine value and joy into their lives.
- Decluttering as a process. The Joy of Less presents decluttering as an ongoing process rather than a one-time event, promoting continuous evaluation and refinement of one's belongings.
- Creating space for experiences. The author highlights the idea of creating space and time for meaningful experiences by letting go of unnecessary possessions, fostering a more enriching and purposeful life.
In our heavily materialistic culture, minimalism is one solution to the collecting and hoarding of material goods. The premise of The Joy of Less: a Minimalist Living Guide: How to Declutter, Organize, and Simplify Your Life by Francine Jay is that “having less stuff brings happiness.”
Jay is your guide to living simply and serenely. You’ll learn that your stuff (or clutter) does not define who you are; that when you have less stuff, you’ll feel less stress; and that when you possess less objects, you have more freedom.
Through this book, you will be introduced to the streamline method, which is a 10-step process of getting rid of clutter. You will also learn how to achieve a minimalist lifestyle for yourself and your family.
11. Getting Rid of It by Betsy and Warren Talbot
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Takeaways:
- Letting go of excess. The Talbots advocate for letting go of physical and emotional clutter to create space for a more fulfilling and intentional life.
- Simplifying possessions. The book offers practical advice on simplifying possessions and making deliberate choices about what to keep, donate, or discard.
- Emotional impact of clutter. The authors delve into the emotional impact of clutter and the benefits of decluttering for mental and emotional well-being.
- Living with purpose. Getting Rid of It encourages living with purpose by eliminating distractions and focusing on the things that truly matter.
- Minimalism as a lifestyle. The Talbots present minimalism as a lifestyle choice, promoting the idea of living with less to experience greater freedom and contentment.
Getting Rid of It: The Step-by-Step Guide for Eliminating the Clutter in Your Life teaches you how to achieve freedom by getting rid of things, relationships, and behaviors that weigh you down.
Betsy and Warren Talbot drew insights from their personal experience in 2010 of escaping what they termed as “the Cult of Consumption” by selling everything they owned and taking an open-ended trip around the world.
In addition to sharing their personal experiences, the couple also offers useful tips on how to get serious money from selling the possessions you no longer need. The book also contains weekend challenges as reinforcement for what you’ve learned about decluttering.
12. Essentialism by Greg McKeown
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Takeaways:
- The disciplined pursuit of less. McKeown advocates for the disciplined pursuit of less, focusing on only the essential few activities and priorities that truly matter.
- Saying no strategically. The book emphasizes the importance of saying no to non-essential tasks and commitments in order to make room for what is truly important.
- Trade-offs and choices. Essentialism explores the concept of trade-offs and the need to make deliberate choices about where to allocate time, energy, and resources.
- Clarity of purpose. McKeown encourages clarity of purpose and a deeper understanding of one's highest contribution, enabling individuals to make more impactful decisions.
- Simplify to amplify. The author presents the idea that simplifying one's life and work can amplify results and lead to greater satisfaction and fulfillment.
In Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, Greg McKeown shows us the way to be in control of the choices we make in our lives. This is the path of essentialism, where a person lives a life that matters.
Readers will gain insights into the following topics:
13. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
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Takeaways:
- Sparking joy. Kondo introduces the concept of keeping only items that “spark joy,” encouraging readers to evaluate possessions based on the positive emotions they evoke.
- Tidying by category. The book advocates for tidying by category rather than by location, guiding readers through a systematic process of decluttering and organizing different types of items.
- Gratitude and letting go. Kondo emphasizes expressing gratitude for items before letting them go, fostering a more positive and mindful approach to decluttering.
- Vertical folding and storage. The author introduces the technique of vertical folding and storage, enabling readers to maximize space and easily view and access their belongings.
- Maintenance and lifestyle change. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up focuses on creating lasting lifestyle changes by maintaining a clutter-free environment and being more mindful of future possessions.
Marie Kondo’s rise to prominence as a tidying-up guru was aided by her unique approach to decluttering. She tells clients to gather up all items of the same category and dump them on the floor. She then advises them to keep only those objects that spark joy.
This approach to minimalism appeals to many people. A number of readers and clients have claimed that using the Konmari approach has changed their lives and led to better decision-making.
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing helps you understand why clutter happens, provides a simple process to begin tidying up and organizing, and inspires you to tidy up and avoid future clutter by showing you the positive, long-term benefits of the habit.
14. It's All Too Much by Peter Walsh
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Takeaways:
- Clutter as a reflection of life. Walsh discusses how clutter is often a reflection of unaddressed issues in one's life, encouraging readers to address both physical and emotional clutter.
- Letting go of guilt. The book addresses the emotional aspect of decluttering, helping readers let go of guilt associated with discarding items and making space for a more fulfilling life.
- Establishing limits. Walsh emphasizes the importance of setting limits on possessions and creating a vision for the living environment one desires, guiding readers to make intentional choices about what to keep.
- Action-oriented approach. It's All Too Much provides practical steps and action-oriented strategies for decluttering, empowering readers to take control and make meaningful changes.
- Mindful consumerism. The author advocates for mindful consumerism, encouraging readers to be more intentional about the items they bring into their lives and to consider the long-term impact of their purchases.
If you are getting overwhelmed by clutter, you might want to read It's All Too Much: An Easy Plan for Living a Richer Life with Less Stuff by Peter Walsh to guide you on how to get rid of those excess material possessions.
Written in a lighthearted way, the book nevertheless tackles its subject matter seriously, delivering tips and suggestions on how to take back control of your life.
Walsh explains the reason behind our tendency to have clutter in different areas in our lives. He shows us why clutter is a problem, and why we should get rid of it. Then he offers sound suggestions for solving this problem.
A quiz about clutter is provided in the book to help you better understand what you’re up against. Readers find Walsh’s writing style to be motivating enough to start decluttering.
15. Find Your Focus Zone by Lucy Jo Palladino
Takeaways:
- The power of attention. Palladino explores the significance of attention and its impact on productivity and well-being, offering insights into harnessing focus for optimal performance.
- Overcoming distractions. The book provides strategies for overcoming distractions and cultivating a focused mindset, enabling readers to navigate challenges and stay on track.
- Mind-body connection. Palladino delves into the mind-body connection, emphasizing the role of physical and mental well-being in sustaining focus and attention.
- Flow state. Find Your Focus Zone discusses the concept of flow state and how to enter a state of deep focus and productivity, enhancing performance and satisfaction.
- Personalized focus strategies. The author offers personalized strategies for finding one's optimal focus zone, taking into account individual strengths, preferences, and challenges.
Find Your Focus Zone: An Effective New Plan to Defeat Distraction and Overload provides insightful information about the strategies most high performers use to stay on top of their games.
Palladino teaches you the steps that unlock your ability to fully focus on anything that requires your attention. The book promises to bring success into your life.
Through Palladino’s guidance, you’ll find solutions to:
16. Decluttering at the Speed of Life by Dana K. White
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Takeaways:
- Practical decluttering strategies. White offers practical and realistic decluttering strategies that can be implemented at a manageable pace, catering to individuals with busy lifestyles.
- Decision-making guidance. The book provides guidance on decision-making when decluttering, helping readers navigate the process of letting go of items with less stress and more confidence.
- Embracing imperfection. White encourages readers to embrace imperfection and focus on progress rather than perfection, creating a more sustainable approach to decluttering.
- Maintenance and prevention. Decluttering at the Speed of Life: Winning Your Never-Ending Battle with Stuff addresses the importance of maintenance and prevention, offering tips for sustaining a clutter-free environment in the long term.
- Mindset shift. The author promotes a mindset shift towards decluttering, emphasizing the impact of changing one's perspective on possessions and living spaces.
17. The Home Edit Life by Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin
Takeaways:
- Organizing with style. Shearer and Teplin offer stylish and visually appealing organizational solutions, demonstrating how to create functional yet aesthetically pleasing living spaces.
- Customized systems. The book provides guidance on creating customized organizational systems to suit individual preferences and lifestyle needs, promoting practical and personalized organization.
- Sustainable organization. The Home Edit Life: The No-Guilt Guide to Owning What You Want and Organizing Everything emphasizes sustainable organization, offering strategies for maintaining order and preventing clutter from reemerging in the home.
- Mindful organization. The authors encourage mindful organization, promoting intentional choices about possessions and spaces to create a more functional and harmonious living environment.
- Practical tips and inspiration. The book provides practical tips and inspirational ideas for organizing various aspects of life, from home spaces to schedules and routines.
18. Unf*ck Your Habitat by Rachel Hoffman
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Takeaways:
- Realistic approach to cleaning. Hoffman offers a realistic and non-judgmental approach to cleaning and organizing, catering to individuals with busy lives and limited energy.
- Incremental progress. The book promotes the idea of making small, manageable changes over time to improve living spaces, emphasizing the impact of consistent effort.
- Addressing mental health. Unf*ck Your Habitat: You're Better Than Your Mess addresses the link between mental health and living environment, providing strategies for maintaining a tidy space to support well-being.
- Practical cleaning advice. Hoffman provides practical and straightforward cleaning advice, offering tips for tackling common household cleaning tasks efficiently and effectively.
- Embracing imperfection. The author encourages readers to embrace imperfection and focus on progress rather than perfection, fostering a more sustainable and positive approach to cleaning and organizing.
19. Present Over Perfect by Shauna Niequist
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Takeaways:
- Embracing a slower pace. Niequist advocates for embracing a slower, more intentional pace of life, prioritizing presence and connection over constant busyness and achievement.
- Letting go of perfectionism. The book encourages letting go of the need for perfection and external validation, promoting self-acceptance and the pursuit of what truly matters.
- Cultivating meaningful connections. Niequist emphasizes the importance of cultivating meaningful connections and nurturing relationships, fostering a deeper sense of fulfillment and belonging.
- Mindful living. Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living delves into the concept of mindful living, guiding readers to be more present and engaged in their daily experiences and relationships.
- Realigning priorities. The author addresses the process of realigning priorities and values, encouraging readers to focus on what brings joy, purpose, and authenticity to their lives.
Are there organization books missing from this list? Are there books on organizing that shouldn't be here? Do you find this list useful? Do you have any favorites? Make sure to let me know in the comments on the main page of the +200 Best Habit Books List
And if you're looking for more resources on organization and decluttering, be sure to check out these blog posts:
- 5 SMART Goals Examples for Organizational Skills
- The Ultimate Decluttering Supply List for Organizing Your Home
- 8 Steps to Form the Declutter Habit
