How to Simplify Your Life: Seven Practical Steps to Letting Go of Your Burdens and Living a Happier Life [Paperback]

Having read the German edition of this book, I can only wholeheartedly recommend it. It is a true life-changer and deservedly dominated the bestseller lists in Germany for months on end. The steps outlined in "How to simplify your life" are as easy as they are effective. I can't think of anyone who would not benefit from reading this book.

Do you ever wish that you were born with an owner's manual? Well, Tiki Kustenmacher, simplicity expert, and Dr. Lothar J. Seiwert, professional coach, offer a digestible life guide that reads like an operating primer for the human spirit. Livened up with Kustenmacher's cute illustrations, each chapter tackles a different facet of life, such as managing clutter, taming finances and establishing goals. The practical tips from these bite-size chapters are easy to digest and implement. Their recipe for a simplified life includes valuable suggestions for handling difficult emotions (jealousy) and life events (marriage, death). Although the text is fun to read, the authors skip around and circle back to different subjects in each chapter. Tighter organization would have made the book's counsel easier to track. And, each chapter begins with an unnecessary, somewhat annoying "dream of simplicity" visualization. Just skip those little appetizers and dive right into the main course. Also check out the excellent reading list at the back of the book. We recommend this manual to pack rats, workaholics and all those who would welcome simplicity as a relief from life's chaos.

Awful, awful, awful! Okay, so the book does have a friendly approach and is easy to read. However, I didn't learn anything from it, except that artificial sweeteners are bad for you. To behonest, this is not the kind of advice I was after. Here's just a few things that I didn't like about this book...

It assumes that you have a desk at home and that you also have the space and money to buy a suspension file system (like a filing cabinet). For the average person, this is ludicrous. The filing system is meant to be temporary - a place to store paperwork until you have time to deal with it properly. However, it then states that every time you put something in, you should take something out. This is contradictory. If you had time to deal with any paperwork, you'd not have been putting anything into the temporary system in the first place, so you wouldn't then spend that time at that moment, dealing with taking anything out.

The idea that 'clutter can make you fat' is ridiculous. Any research in this field might show a relationship, but not causation. The claim is unscientific and irrelevant. It's more likely that the type of person who allows the clutter to abound is the same type of person who allows their fitness to slide. I'm fat at the moment, but it's not because my flat is cluttered. It's because I ate all the pies.

On page 19, I still hadn't learnt anything and yet it was still promising that it would reveal the secret of simplification in the next section. I don't like books that always harp on about how they're about to teach me something, if only I just keep on reading. You finally get to the end and still don't quite know what you're supposed to have gleamed from being told that you're about to learn something.

I also don't appreciate the subtle attempts at manipulation. There's a section at the back, dedicated to the enneagram of personality types. At the end of this section, there's a few counter-arguments for those who don't like to use personality type systems. The argument I dislike the most is "...you cannot discover your real strengths and weaknesses without any orientation". To me, this does not sound like empowerment. Instead, it appears to be a sly dig at anyone who doesn't agree with the system. If you like using such systems, I'd recommend reading a book by a psychologist who specialises in that area. However, I wanted a book on how to simplify my cluttered flat, not a diagnostic tool for identifying which is my symbolic country (I kid ye not)!

One suggestion is to have three piles - keep / throw away / not-decided. Is this meant to be a NEW idea??? Seriously, the option of giving a hoarder a not-decided pile is a terrible piece of advice. The idea is that the not-decided pile gets packed away and thrown if not used again in a specified time, but with a hoarder, that usually won't work. Most things would just end up in the not-decided pile!

I also don't like the way the authors assume you have oodles of money. They say you should buy elegant, professional things, as opposed to using home-made alternatives. It insists you should buy from an office supplies store, not a furniture store. So, a book that should be helping be to organise my clutter (and apparently my finances too) is advising me to buy even more stuff AND to pay over the odds for it! It just smacks of consumerism and snobbery.

Plants, apparently, shouldn't be kept on windowsills. What the? My flat is like a hobbit hole and they're all straining for the light as it is. If I take them away from the windowsill, they'll probably top themselves in protest.

Another astounding piece of advice is to "reduce horizontal surfaces". Oh dear.

Okay, so I get to page 42 and still I've learnt nothing new. Except, that horizontal surfaces cause clutter and clutter makes me fat. I'm thinking now, that maybe I shouldn't have bought this book. I could've spent the money on custard creams.

Then comes the shocker. The book still doesn't reveal the secret to success at attacking my clutter, but instead suggests that I apply for a new job every three years (even if I've no intention of leaving my current job). It says it will give me a confidence boost. Really? Well, when the company I apply to contacts my current boss for a reference and she then wants to know whay I'm applying elsewhere - I'll just say it's because I wanted to boost my self confidence, shall I? Oh and when the employer has to make redundancies, such behaviour can't do anything to boost your confidence when your name goes on that redundancy list. Who wants to keep someone on their team, when they know they're constantly looking elsewhere and have no loyalties to the company?

Another piece of advice that I personally don't like, is to tell everyone about your mistakes. Apparently, it won't lower your self-esteem, but will make you endearing. Now, I do confess my mistakes to those I trust, but it encourages you to do it willy nilly at work. Of course there are people who will find it endearing and who will bond with you if you open up to them in this way. However, there are also some viscious back stabbing sharks in the workplace who will go tittle-tattling to the boss every chance they get. In such cases, such advice could land you in real trouble.

Another gem is regarding the issue of having promised to do something for somebody and then not having the time to do it. It suggests you tell your customer or colleague to wait 4 weeks, even though they need it done in 4 days. Apparently, this will not result in losing customers and it won't cause problems with your colleagues. Really? On which planet is this?

On another note, I understand that the author is trying to break the addiction to perfectionism and to get the reader to relax a bit. However, I doubt that telling us to go to work without ironing our trousers is really the best way to go about it. In some jobs, this could also land you in real trouble.

A recurring theme in this book is that it assumes you either work in an office or have an office at home. Something which niggles me and ignores a large part of the population.

The ludicrous suggestion that you should hire a driver is... well, hilarious. I actually guffawed like a lunatic at this bit. Apparently, I'm more likely to shop at a local (more expensive) market if I do the shopping myself and therefore I should hire a driver to do my shopping instead. He will have the time to go further afield and to shop at a cheaper supermarket, thus saving me both time and money. Are they SERIOUS?

As if it couldn't get more preposterous, then came along the 'pièce de résistance'. When there's something on the tv that you want to watch, get someone else to watch it for you (whilst recording it, of course). Meanwhile, you can do something better with your time. Then later, they can report back to you and tell you if there are any bits that would be of interest to you, so you can then fast forward the recording to the bits you want. There are so many things wrong with this, I don't know where to start. If you want to watch tv, watch it yourself! There's delegating and then there's being a lazy so-and-so.

Oh and one more thing. Is it really necessary to quote the bible? I understand, that in ye olden days, when everyone went to church and the bible had a large influence on the general population, that the odd quote from Paul was quite useful in guiding the masses. However, with a reader base consisting not only of christians, but also of muslims, sikhs, pagans, buddhists, atheists and let us not forget those who've been touched by his noodly appendage - bible quotes do nothing to add substance or validation. When I'm reading a book about decluttering, I'd be better influenced by quotes of people who are successful, efficient and well known. Quoting Paul on how a man and wife should love each other - well, it certainly didn't enhance my ability to get off my bum and clear up the mess in the corner.

What this book did do, is waste three days of my life, which I could have spent tidying the flat.