Organizing Plain and Simple: A Ready Reference Guide With Hundreds Of Solutions to Your Everyday Clutter Challenges
While both of these books are aimed at people who bemoan the  amount of stuff they've accumulated, their approaches are  completely different. Glovinsky, a professional psychotherapist  and professional organizer, asks readers to examine the  underlying psychological issues that they have with "things."  She explains different mental glitches that can make organizing  harder for some people than others. Quizzes and checklists are  offered so that readers can identify their thing issues and  compensate for and/or ameliorate them. Basically, she takes  Julie Morgenstern's Organizing from the Inside Out to the next  level. Smallin, on the other hand, shares some concrete tips and  techniques to control clutter. Unfortunately, she strays from  that direction and digresses into topics such as personal  finance (she gives tips on saving and investing), personal  safety (she explains why semiannual fire drills are important),  and final arrangements (she provides lists of what must be done  when there's a death in the family). This lack of focus, coupled  with an annoying tendency to repeat the same hints in different  paragraphs, makes her book an optional purchase for public  libraries. Glovinsky's book is recommended for any public  library where clutter-control books circulate well. Pam  Matthews, M.L.S., Olmsted Falls, OHCopyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.