Book Review from The Chattanoogan.com

Is Your House Overweight? 
Getting Rid Of Clutter Can Help Make Resolution To Lose Weight Come True, New Book Says
by Judy Frank
posted January 6, 2012

Decluttering is good for houses, as these before and after photos demonstrate, and for the people who live in them, according to author/interior decorator Sharon Kreighbaum.
It’s another new year, and once again you have resolved to – what else? – lose those extra pounds and inches!

Decluttering is good for houses, as these
before and after photos demonstrate,
and for the people who live in them,
according to author/interior
decorator Sharon Kreighbaum.

Decluttering is good for houses, as these before and after photos demonstrate, and for the people who live in them, according to author/interior decorator Sharon Kreighbaum.

Sharon Kreighbaum thinks she and her colorful, fun-to-read new book can help you there and, along the way, enable you to say goodbye a lot of the other excess baggage that’s been cramping your style.

Decluttering not only helps lower stress, she believes; it also frees up mental and physical space and makes it easier to tackle good-for-you activities such as preparing, and leisurely eating, healthier meals.

The author, an interior decorator who has spent the past 20 years helping people stage their homes to make them pleasanter to live in and/or easier to sell, doesn’t think it’s a coincidence that many of her clients transformed themselves into slimmer, happier people as they worked through the decluttering process.

Her book, “Is Your House Overweight? Recipes For Low-Fat Rooms” – which hit online and store shelves just a couple of months ago – explains how they did it, and how you can follow in their footsteps.

Crammed with vintage ’50s-style illustrations and pages filled with large before-and-after photos of basements and kitchens and numerous other rooms she’s transformed, the book’s chatty approach has a “yes-you-can-do-this” attitude that just might provide the swift kick you needed to help make this new year’s resolution actually happen.

“People who have lots of clutter are often overweight themselves,” the author observes. “(Both) things and food are used to fill emotional voids . . . The Staged Makeovers Diet encourages getting rid of everything you don’t need and giving it to others.”

Think it can’t be done?

Think again, Ms. Kreighbaum advises. Hotel and bed-and-breakfast owners throughout the world have proven time and again that eliminating the items guests don’t really need in their rooms helps them relax and enjoy themselves.

“Live like you’re on vacation,” she advises. “Who wouldn’t like to spend more time on vacation – no cares, no worries, surrounded by nice stuff but less stuff – less stuff to clean, less stuff to store, less stuff to move around?”

Tackle decluttering systematically, the book urges readers. Pick out a room and then begin to remove all those things that aren’t used regularly, don’t belong or just plain aren’t needed.

And start small, Ms. Kreighbaum advises: bringing order to an overflowing closet or a drawer crammed so full it will barely open can be the perfect first step on a slow-but-sure journey to making your home, and your life, a lot more enjoyable.