Review: Unstuffed Decluttering Your Home, Mind, & Soul By Ruth Soukup

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 2353 KB
• Print Length: 208 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0310337690
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Up to 5 simultaneous devices, per publisher limits
• Publisher: Zondervan (April 5 2016)
• Sold by: Zondervan CA (CA SOR)
• Language: English
• ASIN: B010R5PUNE

Book Description


STUFF.  It's everywhere.  Lurking in corners and closets,spilling onto counters and coffee tables, creating havoc everywhere we look.  And it's not just the physical clutter that weighs us down.  Oh no, it is the stress of overbooked schedule, and the weight of a life that sometimes feels oppressive and totally out of whack.

New York Times bestselling author Ruth Soukup feels your pain--she has been there too. Through personal stories, Biblical truth, and practical action plans,she will inspire and empower each of us to finally declutter not just our home, but our mind and soul as well. Unstuffed is real,honest, and gets right down to the question we are all facing--how can we take back our lives from the stuff that is weighing us down?

In this book we will:

• Create a comprehensive vision for our homes, and make instant changes to improve its overall function.
• Discover that more closet space is not the solution, and instead learn how to set strict limits for the stuff we bring in
• Overcome the frustration of dealing with our kids' influx of stuff and implement practical solutions for keeping the chaos at bay.
• Recognize the pitfalls of an overstuffed schedule BEFORE it gets out of hand, and instead learn to combat the culture of busy that keeps us running from one thing to the next.
• Finally conquer that mountain of paperwork that threatens to tumble down around us at any moment.
• Let go of the guilt that gets attached to gifts and instead learn to separate our loved ones from their stuff.
• Begin to cultivate our real friendships while eliminating the toxic relationships that weigh us down.

Who Needs This Book?

Unstuffed was written for anyone who feels stressed out or weighed down by a life that feel chaotic, out-of-control, and completely overstuffed. It speaks to the mom who is overwhelmed by the clutter that comes pouring into every facet of her home and schedule, from trinkets and paperwork to endless obligations and activities.

It is for the woman who craves not just a step-by-step guide to ridding our lives of STUFF, but a true understanding of why our lives become so stuffed in the first place--and what we can do to stop the madness, once and for all.

Most of all, it is for the person who is tired of feeling guilty for not being able to do it all, the woman who can't ever quite seem to keep up with other people's obligations of what her home is supposed to be, the mom who is exhausted by always trying to get it right.

Want to know if this book is for you?

• Have you ever found yourself buying more storage containers to organize stuff you probably should have just gotten rid of?
• Do you ever find yourself frustrated that even when you do manage to get your house cleaned up, it never seems to stay that way?
• Do you sometimes feel like you can't keep up with all the activities and obligations you have committed to?
• Do you ever struggle to find an important piece of paper because there are just too many pieces of paper to keep track of?
• Have you ever felt guilty for getting rid of something that was a gift, orheld on to something you didn't really like because someone gave it toyou?
• Do you feel like there are people in your life who simply suck the life out of you?
• Have you ever felt like you need more balance?

If the answer to any of these questions is YES, this book provides real and practical solutions from someone who has been there. Ruth doesn't just offer advice, she walks it with you, and shares with brutal honesty her own mistakes, failures, and shortcomings.  It is encouraging,motivating, and life-changing.


About the Author

 Ruth Soukup is a blogger, wife, mom, and New York Times bestselling author of Living Well, Spending Less. Her site, LivingWellSpendingLess.com, is one of the top personal finance and lifestyle blogs on the web, averaging more than a million visitors per month. She is also the founder of the Living Well Planner™ (www.LivingWellPlanner.com), an all-in-one tool to help you organize your goals, budget, and schedule. Ruth lives in Florida with her husband, Chuck, and two daughters, Maggie and Annie.

My Review

Stuff. How did we all acquire so much stuff! Author Ruth Soukup is helping us to unstuff our lives in her book: Unstuffed Decluttering Your Home, Mind, & Soul. The book is divided into 3 sections: Home, Mind and Soul.

Part One: HOME 1. Living: Creating a Vision for Your Home 2. Storage: More Closet Space Is Not the Solution 3. Kids: The Stuff Just Keeps Coming
Part Two: MIND 4. Schedule: How Much Is Too Much? 5. Paperwork: Drowning in a Sea of Information 6. Other People’s Stuff: Letting Go of the Guilt
Part Three: SOUL 7. Friends: Cultivating Real Relationships 8. Wellness: Finding Balance in a Chaotic World 9. Spirit: Letting Go of the Need to Do It Yourself

Becoming unstuffed, truly unstuffed, is much more than that. It’s changing the way we look at our homes and the stuff we live with. It’s changing the way we look at our schedules and the stuff that fills our time. It’s changing the way we look at our relationships and the stuff they are made of. It’s becoming purposeful about the stuff we let in... ( Ruth Soukup. Unstuffed: Decluttering Your Home, Mind, & Soul (Kindle Locations 223-228). Zondervan).

Soukup gives us the tools to declutter all aspects of lives. This is not just a book, it is also a workbook. For example, in the section on our home, she asks us: What is the vision for my home? Then follows up with questions such as: What is my decorating style? How do I want my home to feel? How do I use my home? And Soukup provides room for us to answer these questions ourselves before we move on to the next section. This is extremely useful to helping us to visualize what we need to do to clean the clutter out of our lives.

There are some great questions about our spiritual lives: 

Spiritual Symptoms:
• Do you ever neglect prayer and Bible reading because you just don’t have time?
• Do you regularly skip church because other activities take precedence? 
• Have you developed any destructive behaviors, such as drinking, doing drugs, or overspending to cope with the stress of trying to keep up? 
• Do you feel like God is very far away? 
• Do you struggle with a nagging sense of guilt?
(Ruth Soukup. Unstuffed: Decluttering Your Home, Mind, & Soul (Kindle Locations 1354-1361). Zondervan.)

I found Unstuffed to be a great resource. It has given me lots of greats ideas for working toward a less complicated life. I am ready to Unstuff!