Tidy the F*ck Up: The American Art of Organizing Your Sh*t
Author: Messie Condo
Read By Natalie Naudus
Summary from Goodreads:
This funny, down-to-earth parody of Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up hands listeners the most useful tools for keeping crap clean and organized without all the pressure. In this book, you’ll discover useful ways to figure out what to do with your shtpiles in an approachable, care-free way, and you’ll say farewell to the hair-pulling stress of marathon cleaning. Tossing all your junk in a closet doesn’t make it any less of a clusterfck, but approaching it little by little and making use of some helpful hints can do a world of wonders for all your sht, the comfort of your space, and your general sanity. With this hilarious guide, you’ll learn how to – Become a decision-making badss – Get rid of the sht you don’t need and keep the sht you do – Live life after a clusterfck! – And more! With a lighthearted tone that the finest sailors would admire, Tidy the Fck Up will help you make your house a f*cking home.
Nobody Wants Your Sh*t: The Art of Decluttering Before You Die
Author: Messie Condo
Read By Hillary Huber
Summary from Goodreads:
Free yourself and your family from the f*cking clutter before you croak!
Inspired by The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, Nobody Wants Your Sh*t will light a fire under your untidy ass with humor and helpful organizing tips that you’ll actually want to use.
Like a delightfully foul-mouthed best friend, this book dishes out the funny, unpretentious advice you need to hear most. You’ll discover how to deal with your sh*t like there’s no tomorrow, live in the moment without the f*cking mess, and make your life and your eventual death a hell of a lot easier. With this witty guide, you’ll learn how to
– ditch the d*mn indecision
– get your sh*t together and feel fantastic
– give your busy family a f*cking break and more!
Whether you’re getting ready to move in, move on, or just move your ass, Nobody Wants Your Sh*t will help you take control of your f*cking life.
I still remember when Marie Condo’s book came out in 2010 and how much my friends all raved about it and how much it “changed their lives”. I have always considered myself a pretty organized and neat person when it comes to my belongings, but I picked up the book to see what I was missing. I don’t think I got more than 50ish pages in before tossing the book and saying to myself that life is too short to fold my socks! So when I was looking for a humorous book to pick up for my nonfiction challenge this year and saw these books I knew I had to read them.
First off, both readers did a fantastic job with their narrations. They both had voices that lend themselves well to the dry and sarcastic humor of the books. Their voices were also nice to listen to.
Before I get into the meat of the discussion I do want to warn you all that if swearing is not your thing, then you don’t want to pick these two books up. There is a lot. More in Tidy the F*ck Up than Nobody Wants Your Sh*t, but even for me who probably swears just as much, it was a bit more than I was even comfortable with at first. I did get use to it though. This author did write a third book however, You Can’t Take It With You, which is a clean version with many of the tips and ideas she presents in these two books. I haven’t read that one yet, but I might give it a chance when I can.
Even though these are both parodies they really had some very useful information in them. I am a fairly organized person and have no trouble purging clothes and books periodically, but I do struggle a bit with the sentimental items in my home. Both books present some useful ideas on how to deal with these which I am considering. For example, even though my son is almost thirty, I have binders with some of his old school work and art work that I know he doesn’t want. One of the author’s suggestions was to take pictures of the things that you truly love and then toss it all. It will be hard, but with moving next month I know I am going to have to be ruthless.
Nobody Wants Your Sh*t focused more on organizing things to make it easier for your kids to deal with your sh*t when you’re gone. Again there were some useful ideas, like discussing who wants what or even if they want it. Honoring their wishes or knowing that they don’t want your Star Wars collection might be hard, but at least it is honest. With only one child I know there won’t be any angry battles over my grave about who gets Aunt Ida’s gravy bowl, but still there are some things that need to be settled before I go, just to make life easier on him or my husband.
Highly recommend both these titles, as long as you are ok with the swearing. As much as I enjoyed the audiobooks, I think the physical copies of the books might be more useful. There are checklists at the ends of the chapters and finding specific tips would be easier to track in a book. If you are looking around your space and thinking to yourself that you really need to get organized but don’t know where to start, these books might just do the trick.
Confessions of a Serial Reader 