91 How Dana Declutters

Dana K. White is a decluttering expert for the rest of us. The ones who struggle. We discuss her decluttering process, her Cinderella story from slob to home management guru, clutter thresholds, and teaching our kids to declutter (or at least attempting to).

Dana K. White is a decluttering expert for the rest of us. The ones who struggle. I found her about four years ago, when I was just starting How She Moms, and her first book, How to Manage Your Home without Losing Your Mind, quickly became my home management bible. Finally, someone who got me! Since then, she has written two more, Decluttering at the Speed of Life, which I have been using to guide this year’s Spring Cleaning, and her latest book, Organizing for the Rest of Us, which will be arriving at my doorstep tomorrow. She also has a fabulous podcast with, gasp, 333 episodes, where she tells the truth about cleaning and organizing.

Like Dana herself, I have been reading home management and cleaning books for years. I learned something from every book I read, and made incremental progress, but when I inevitably fell off the wagon I just felt like a failure.

Enter Dana, with a home management plan that works for highly distractable, messy people like me.

Now there’s a spectrum here, and messy and tidy are certainly relative terms. But if you’re somewhere in between total hoarder and Marie Kondo, I’m betting that some of Dana’s techniques will resonate with you.