Book Review: Living with Less  (Author  Mary Lambert)

Many people think that the more they own, the more contented and happy they will be – their lives become defined by their possessions. In fact, the opposite is often true: the more we have, the less happy and contented we are in mind, body and spirit. In Living with Less, decluttering expert Mary Lambert sets you the challenge of reducing your personal possessions to just 100 items.

… which is a little misleading. Lambert does introduce a process of decluttering that is do-able and makes it accessible for many who have a hard time getting rid of things. However, she almost makes it too easy, bundling items together (she counted scarves as a single item on her list but had 12 of them, etc.). So while I was cynical when I looked at her list, the book itself did motivate me to go through my closet and let go of a lot of things. I also appreciated her perspective of purchasing less to begin with, so then you don’t have to declutter later. The step-by-step guides get a little repetitive (“Get one trash bag and label it TRASH, get one and label it DONATE” listed for each and every category of items), but you can glean a bit of helpful information and at least be motivated to clear out.

2 out of 5

Marleah Augustine is the Adult Department Librarian at the Hays Public Library

You can see more of her blog here http://hayspubliclibrary.wordpress.com