Clutter: An Untidy History

Clutter: An Untidy History
by: Jennifer Howard (Author)
Publisher: Belt Publishing
Publication Date: 2020/9/1
Language: English
Print Length: 192 pages
ISBN-10: 1948742721
ISBN-13: 9781948742726
Book Description
Jennifer Howard has written a brilliant and beautiful meditation on the nature of our attachment to things. Reading Clutter made me long for a life without clutter.--Malcolm GladwellI'm sitting on the floor in my mother's house, surrounded by stuff. So begins Jennifer Howard's Clutter, an expansive assessment of our relationship to the things that share and shape our lives. Inspired by the painful process of cleaning out her mother's house, Howard, a former contributing editor for The Washington Post, sets her own personal struggle with clutter against a meticulously researched history of just how the developed world came to drown in material goods.With sharp prose and an eye for telling detail, she connects the dots between the Industrial Revolution, the Sears & Roebuck catalog, and the Container Store, and shines unsparing light on clutter's darker connections to environmental devastation and hoarding disorder. In an age when Amazon can deliver anything at the click of a mouse and decluttering guru Marie Kondo can become a reality TV star, Howard's bracing analysis has never been more timely.Slim and compelling, Clutter is a book for anyone struggling to understand why they have so much stuff―and what to do about it.
About the Author
Jennifer Howard has written a brilliant and beautiful meditation on the nature of our attachment to things. Reading Clutter made me long for a life without clutter.--Malcolm GladwellI'm sitting on the floor in my mother's house, surrounded by stuff. So begins Jennifer Howard's Clutter, an expansive assessment of our relationship to the things that share and shape our lives. Inspired by the painful process of cleaning out her mother's house, Howard, a former contributing editor for The Washington Post, sets her own personal struggle with clutter against a meticulously researched history of just how the developed world came to drown in material goods.With sharp prose and an eye for telling detail, she connects the dots between the Industrial Revolution, the Sears & Roebuck catalog, and the Container Store, and shines unsparing light on clutter's darker connections to environmental devastation and hoarding disorder. In an age when Amazon can deliver anything at the click of a mouse and decluttering guru Marie Kondo can become a reality TV star, Howard's bracing analysis has never been more timely.Slim and compelling, Clutter is a book for anyone struggling to understand why they have so much stuff―and what to do about it. Read more