Best Books on Cleaning & Organization... and a Giveaway!

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I love reading about organizing and keeping a home; there’s something about seeing pictures, learning new methods, and implementing ideas that gets me excited. But there are so many books out there, how do you know which ones are worth your money? Below I’m sharing some of my favorites.

Make sure to enter the giveaway at the end of this post for your chance to get one of these books for yourself.

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up…

This book has been a top-seller in the world of decluttering and organization. Marie Kondo created, what is defined as, the “Konmari Method” of decluttering. Instead of asking yourself whether you want to keep or discard an item, the author encourages you to ask the question of whether the item brings you joy. This method also encourages you to declutter by category (i.e. clothes, books) versus room-by-room. It’s definitely a different approach; one that I love, actually. I have practiced the Konmari method with my clothes and books. Marie Kondo also wrote a book to supplement this one, titled “Spark Joy“, offering more straight-forward “how-tos”, using the Konmari Method.

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing

Simply Clean…

Love lists? This book is for you. Love crossing things off your list? This book is really for you. Becky Rapinchuk, from the blog Clean Mama, created this book to help you keep your home clean and organized by implementing a system that encourages you to complete certain chores on certain days. She’s created tons of lists to keep you on task; everything from daily chores to weekly chores to monthly and biannual chores. She also adds a few cleaning recipes in at the end 🙂

Simply Clean: The Proven Method for Keeping Your Home Organized, Clean, and Beautiful in Just 10 Minutes a Day

The Home Decluttering Diet…

“The Home Decluttering Diet” is written by my friend Jennifer Lifford, who blogs at Clean and Scentsible. Jenn starts you off with a 30 day “detox” by having your organize quick spaces in your home (your purse, for example). Once you have completed the detox phase, you start working on different rooms in your home. Jenn dedicates an entire month for each room, sharing organizing tips along the way. In total, this book is supposed to take about a year to complete, but you can certainly go at your own pace; whether slower or faster. I wrote more on this book in this post on organizing paper clutter.

The Home Decluttering Diet: Organize Your Way to a Clean and Lean House

The Complete Book of Home Organization

This book is written by Toni Hammersley, the woman behind the blog A Bowl Full of Lemons. Each chapter focuses on one space in your home; with a weekly challenge for getting the space organized. There are tons of ideas on creating “real life” organizing systems to help keep all your rooms tidy. I also love that there are a few homemade cleaning recipes thrown in. Toni just came out with another book titled “The Complete Book of Clean“, which I’m anxious to get my hands on.

The Complete Book of Home Organization

The Naturally Clean Home…

If you’ve been around this blog for any length of time, then you know I LOVE making my own cleaners. I like knowing exactly what’s in the products I’m using around my home. Baking soda, vinegar, and essential oils are my favorite go-tos. The Naturally Clean Home has a bunch of DIY Cleaning Recipes for you to try out for yourself; everything from dishwashing to stain treatments to floor cleaner.

The Naturally Clean Home: 150 Super-Easy Herbal Formulas for Green Cleaning

Better Homes and Gardens: Organize Your Home…

This book is filled with beautiful pictures and awesome ideas for organizing around your home. The book starts out with a quiz so you can set realistic goals based on your “organizing personality”. The book also addresses common issues that arise during the organization process: attachment, perfectionism, etc. As the book progresses, there are wonderful ideas for organizing each area of your home.

Better Homes and Gardens Organize Your Home: Clutter Cures for Every Room

The Joy of Less…

This book is all about embracing a minimalist mindset. The start of the book discusses what minimalism is really about, helping you create the right mindset about your possessions. The latter half of the book walks you through each room in your home, helping you to declutter your space. The basic premise is to rid yourself of large items first. Then display things by how often they are used (daily, weekly, or seasonally). Once this is accomplished, create “modules” for your belongings (i.e. electronics, reading material, movies, etc.). Once a space is decluttered, there are a few limits to set in order to ensure the space stays decluttered.

The Joy of Less: A Minimalist Guide to Declutter, Organize, and Simplify

Martha Stewart’s Homekeeping Handbook…

This is not a book you are going to read cover to cover, instead it is a reference book, with more than 700 pages full of tips on caring for everything in your home. The book details cleaning and care instructions on every type of fabric, counter-top, fixture, flooring (and more) in your home.