A few weeks ago, I finished reading Organized Simplicity.

I first “met” the author (Tsh Oxenreider) by reading her blog, Simple Mom. She writes about “life hacks for home managers.” Every post I’ve read has been extremely helpful and practical. Her book, Organized Simplicity, is no different.

My iPod was pleased to receive this book for $0 a few weeks ago when Amazon was offering it for free in a Kindle edition. (Sidenote: There is no way I would have finished reading this book so quickly if it had not been on my iPod. It was so easy to catch a few pages at random times because I almost always carry my iPod around with me! So, if you have an iPod, download books on it. Trust me. It’s awesome.)

Organized Simplicity is organized (I’m witty; I know.) into 2 parts. Part 1 begins by defining “simplicity.” Various topics such as time, money, family purpose statements, and home management notebooks are explained.

Part 2 is more of a practical guide to achieving simple organization in your home. Chapters are divided based on rooms you might find in your home and methods of purging the extras, cleaning, and organizing what remains.

Although in many books, you probably just skip anything labeled “appendix,” the appendices in this book might just be your favorite part. Filled with recipes for homemade cleaners and toiletries, plus many templates for organizing specific sections in your house and personal life, I know I will be referring back to the appendices many times in the future.

If I had to rate this book, I would give it a 10 out of 10. Tsh explains a mindset about simple living that is not “one size fits all.” It is workable for every person in every area of life. Her writing style is extremely easy to read and the fact that she offers plenty of practical advice compelled me to continued reading.

A few of my favorite quotes? But, of course.

“Simple living is about living you life with a purpose that aligns with your values. […] Living simply is about being who you were made to be.” (page 15)

“The definition of simple living is this: living holistically with your life’s purpose.” (page 28)

On becoming too busy:
“Don’t let your current season-of-life activities morph into long-term habits, or you will be guilty of letting the urgent things replace the important.” (page 65)

“Simple living is a state of mind. It’s a choice to not let the consumer-driven culture dictate how you live, what you invest in, and how you spend your valuable resources.” (page 69)

“The simplest definition of a budget is ‘telling your money where to go.’” (page 72)

And a quote from William Morris: “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” (page 103)

Right now, there’s a de-cluttering project going on at Tsh’s blog. It runs through the month of March. If you feel so inclined, why not join me in the project of de-cluttering your house?

My current project: the kitchen. Yikes. How many gadgets does a girl need? {oooohhhh…just one more!}

How about it? Are you an organized person? Do you have everything alphabetized in your spice rack and your clothes organized by color? Or are you more of a “throw it in there and I’ll find it when I need it” type?

Let’s chat.