CCIO Table of Contents > Author's Note

I was not born a neatnik, although I often wish I had been. I love living in a clutter-free home, but I’ve had to learn how to create and maintain that kind of environment, because “neat and tidy” is not something that comes naturally to me. I am also a feng shui professional and the author of several books about feng shui. Because living clutter-free is fundamental to good feng shui, clutter—and how to cope with it—is a topic of great interest to me.

As I studied feng shui during the 1990s I was inspired to tackle my own clutter. Then, as I began to build a feng shui practice, I recognized that I needed to be able to teach others to deal with their clutter as well.

Unfortunately, while my feng shui training programs all stressed the importance of getting rid of clutter, none had taught us how to do it. Nor did I learn why we so often let clutter get so far out of control before doing anything about it, or why it’s so hard to keep it under control once we’ve tackled it for the first time.

With the goal of being better able to assist my feng shui clients (and hoping to reap some benefits myself) I took clutter-clearing classes with experts like Michelle Passoff and Karen Kingston. I read all the best-selling books on how to get rid of extra stuff and organize what’s left into a system that is both workable and sustainable. And I realized that accomplished clutter clearers and feng shui experts were all preaching the same thing: when you clean up your clutter you do more than uncover the surface of your dining table for the first time in years—you also uncover a deeper sense of who you are and what makes you truly happy.

Most important, you’ll develop essential skills that will help you get to where you want to be in life.

How magical!

In 1999, I connected with a wonderful man—now my husband—on a feng shui discussion group online. We began corresponding every day, and three months later I moved from the spacious New York City apartment in which I’d been living alone for 10 years into a much smaller space a block from the beach in Hawaii, where we would start our new life together. An impulsive move of over 5000 miles may not be for everyone (although it has worked out beautifully for me) but it can’t be beat as a clutter-reducer. I returned a few pieces of family furniture to my parents’ house in New England, boxed up some warm weather clothes and a small number of favorite books and CDs, and sold or gave away everything else. In addition to all the stuff I released, I lost 12 pounds without even trying.

How liberating!

The next few years were both fun and satisfying as I founded a publishing company and began to fulfill my long-held dream of writing about feng shui. Then, as I was about to start writing the third book in my Fast Feng Shui series, my beloved pointed out that a big part of the traffic at our FastFengShui.com website was people looking for clutter clearing advice from a feng shui perspective. He also gently brought to my attention that we had been so busy that we’d forgotten to practice what we preached. Our own home, once sparsely furnished and immaculately feng-shuied, was no longer tidy or organized. Stuff was everywhere. In fact, once I lifted my gaze from the computer screen and took a good look around, I realized how seriously I’d let things get out of control—again.

How embarrassing!

That was the moment I decided to put future Fast Feng Shui titles on hold, and to once again focus on clearing my clutter and organizing my home and workspace. This time I would use the process as an opportunity to review and compile everything I knew about clutter clearing and all the insights I’d gained from years of feng shui consulting. Drawing on my former career experience as a professional writer and instructional design consultant, I would create a self-study program that people could learn from in their own homes, at their own pace, that would support and guide people in finally learning to live clutter-free, forever.

That program, called the Clutter-Free Forever! Home Coaching Program, was originally marketed exclusively online at our ClutterFreeForever.com website, as a manual and separate weekly lessons. In response to customer requests I’ve now compiled all of that information into this one book. Although this book follows a different format from the original material (the lesson content and activities are woven in throughout the text, rather than being separate documents), it includes all of the text, activities, and journaling questions that made the first version of the program so successful. It is designed to guide, motivate, teach, and inspire you to finally triumph over your clutter and reclaim your home and your life.

Achieving mastery over clutter and disorganization requires a shift in emphasis and attitude. You’ll probably need to develop some new skills, or dust off some you haven’t used in a while. The fact that you are reading this book means you are ready to start the transformation to a clutter-free life. You have the dream; all you need now are the inspiration and skills.

This book provides them both, so let’s begin...

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