Coming Soon to a Kindle Near You
My book is in the home stretch!
Book Update
After testing titles, we have a clear winner! Although some people appreciated the humor in “From Nearly Deranged to Neatly Arranged”, “This Mess Is Making Me Stressed” won 2:1.
The cover is being designed by an award-winning former Art Director from Harper Collins, and G-d willing we are on track to publish on Kindle and Amazon Books by the end of next month. Pre-sales will start soon.
I want you to know that even though I’ve been posting excerpts from the book, there is still a lot of material you haven’t seen. So, the following preview of the Amazon description is for the rest of the world who haven’t had the inside scoop as you have. There’s still time to edit this so let me know if you have any feedback:
This Mess Is Making Me Stressed!
How to organize your home and find peace
Is your home driving you crazy with all the piles and papers? Is it impossible to find anything, let alone peace? Despite following Marie Kondo, does absolutely nothing spark joy?
If you are anxious and depressed by how your home looks and functions, embarrassed and ashamed to invite anyone over, and tired of being aggravated and feeling bad about yourself, this book is for you.
Professional Organizer Donna Barwald, owner of Neatly Arranged in Los Angeles, helps you work through negative emotions that derail you before you begin and guides you through the levels of the organizing process so you can start and keep going.
This Mess Is Making Me Stressed will:
Explain the link between clutter and mental health
Identify the wrong stuff hiding in your cabinets and closets
Train your decision-making muscles so you can declutter confidently
Show you how to create rooms that work and maximize storage
Give you practical step-by-step advice for maintaining “crap equilibrium”
By creating a healthy habit of organizing, you and your home will be transformed. Your home will function better and have a great flow of energy. Best of all, you will feel proud and find peace.
You Don’t Write, You Don’t Call…
Whenever I haven’t heard from a friend in a long time, I say jokingly in my Jewish grandmother’s New York accent, “You don’t write, you don’t call…” Not trying to guilt anyone as my grandmother did, but just to say I miss them.
So, have you ever been waiting for an email response that hasn’t shown up, and you get really anxious and full of self-doubt wondering why you haven’t heard anything yet? Well, I just discovered that in order to comment on these blog posts, you need to be a member of Substack, and although you all have subscribed, that doesn’t automatically make you a member. All this time, I was writing in a vacuum and wondering why no one was commenting, and then I discovered that you couldn’t. Heavy sigh.
So, starting now, if you’re not a Substack member, please shoot me a message at neatlyarrangedorganizing@gmail.com and hopefully, we can communicate that way. You can also follow me on Facebook (Neatly Arranged) and post questions and comments.
Dear Neatly,
When I was a kid, I loved reading Ann Landers and Dear Abby and any other advice column I could find. I always wanted to write a column, so after the book launches, this blog will have a “Dear Neatly” feature where I give organizing advice and help with decluttering dilemmas. I have recently discovered Facebook groups with hundreds of people needing organizing help, so I see a real need. Although I want to comment on everybody’s post, I thought why not spend my time doing it for my readers? So, please email me questions and I will do my best to help you out.
New! Virtual Organizing
This brings me to my next project. I have started consulting as a “virtual organizer.” All you need is a laptop or phone and Google Meet and I’m with you in your home. As long as you can show me what’s going on, I can either advise things to do on your own time, or sit with you as you sort, declutter, and organize. You don’t have to commit to a huge block of time; I can work with you in as little as an hour up to 4 hours, in 30-minute increments. If this works for you, send me an email or visit my website for more information.
Well, that pretty much tells you what I’ve been doing. Now that the book is in editing, I will return next week with some new content. So keep those cards and (email) letters coming folks. I look forward to hearing from you!