Discardia

What the reviewers are saying:

"Instead of challenging the reader to emulate Hercules mucking out the Augean Stables, Sanders approach is to take on bite-sized tasks that conform to three core principles … Even if you don’t feel like your life needs an overhaul, everyone could use some fine-tuning. Discardia, which offers plenty of useful advice, is one of the best 'life hacking' books I’ve come across." - Mark Frauenfelder, editor-in-chief of MAKE magazine, founder of Boing Boing, and author of Made by Hand.*

"Full of great solutions and some very good universal truths." - Mary Carlomagno, author of Live More, Want Less: 52 Ways to Find Order in Your Life, Secrets of Simplicity, and Give It Up!: My Year of Learning to Live Better With Less.

"Engaging, purposeful, motivating, and enjoyable! … The book has inspired me in more ways than I have room to describe … I'm a well-organized person, but the memories associated with "stuff" made me hang onto it. Dinah helped me see that I could maintain the memories without needing to keep the accompanying items. … I don't mean to sound gushy, but this book has helped me see how the stuff I have accumulated was blocking my path to the life I want to live. Consequently, I've changed the name of my "to-do" list to my "to-be" list."*

"I love this book -- my husband teases me about all the self-help books I read. I'm not sure I'm going to need another after this one. Really. … I put Discardia: More Life, Less Stuff in the bathroom last night and this evening my husband told me he'd gotten through two bags of his stuff, and thrown a lot away. These are bags that have been in place in the basement since 2004."*

"Dinah Sanders has distilled these books down to their most useful essence, saving you the sometimes-exasperating experience of wading through books that are 10% 'one good idea,' and 90% 'expanding upon that one good idea.' For those who have not read the entire panoply of this sort of self-help book, Discardia is practically a library in and of itself."*

"…an excellent book for anyone looking for ideas on how to lighten their life's load of baggage, both accumulated physical items, and mental baggage that goes with it"*

"…this book is helpful, motivating, chummy, and wise…Everybody needs this kind of help, not just hoarders and the organization-handicapped. I'm pretty damn organized and efficient, but I found lots of helpful tips and motivators here."*

"While many of the concepts in Discardia weren't new to me, the gentle and cohesive way that they were presented made them seem fresh. What's presented here is the ultimate 'lifehack' - creating the life you want to have by optimizing the life that you do have. Discardia approaches this in a simple straightforward manner and I found myself implementing many of the ideas immediately with awesome results. This is definitely worth the read."*

"Just giving small, individual tasks a holiday imbues what would otherwise feel like chores with the importance of life-improving projects. She makes a strong argument that objects require emotional and mental responsibilities, so acquire strategically and discard frequently. Freeing ourselves from baggage opens up space for exploring what could make our lives a little more awesome. Grounded and simple to do, her advice helps guide that exploration."*

"Sanders has a friendly writing style, no lecturing or preaching, just good advice that's worked for her and other people with more ambition than time. It's not just about cleaning the clutter from your spare room. She wants you to make the changes that are right for you, slowly but surely moving towards the life you want and away from the life that just happened while you weren't looking. With that goal in mind, she gives advice and examples that have worked for other people dealing with similar problems, some thoughts on how we end up with these problems and suggestions for how to maintain better habits in the future. I found that the tips and suggestions seemed really appropriate for my life, unlike some other books and websites focused on ruthless decluttering and an endless routine of chores. Sanders' upbeat attitude was catching, and since finishing the book last week I've decluttered my wardrobe, reorganised the pantry to put frequently used things at waist level, and begun taking the stairs at work each day. None of this feels like a hassle, just like a smart choice I can make on the spur of the moment."*

"Treasure trove of suggestions on how to freshen up your life. … Over the course of many pages, [Sanders'] conviction and energy helped overcome my paralysis."*

"Much more than just a quarterly spring cleaning, Discardia is a new way to look at the way we buy, use and throw away the things in our lives"*

"It covers basic principles like giving up quantity in favor of quality, making small incremental improvements, and how to decide what to discard. Dinah's methods are radical, but sane, and easy to implement a little at a time. ... I think Dinah's is the definitive guide."*

"Unlike a lot of self-published self-help books, this one is smart, well-written, clearly copy-edited, and lovingly proofed. It's a joy to read."*

"I stumbled upon the Discardia blog several years ago, and loved the year of One Discardia Tip a Day. Here Dinah Sanders has put it all together in a book form and I couldn't be more pleased. Unlike some of the other unclutter books, Discardia really focuses on its purpose: more life, less stuff. The stuff isn't a problem in and of itself, but it gets in the way of living our lives in a more open, satisfying way. I love that this book puts it all together, and I intend to go back to implementing at least three tips a week. I know it will make a difference."*

"[Sanders] has has a lovably-nerdy sense of humor and a simple, pared-down way of writing that surely made a few of us in the crowd go home and throw away a few old books and records"*

More reviews and discussion are also available at the Goodreads page for the book.

What it says on the cover:

Let go of everything that doesn't make your life awesome!

With three key principles and numerous practical tips, Discardia—a new holiday—helps you solve specific issues, carve away the nonsense of physical objects, habits, or emotional baggage, and uncover what brings you joy.

Dinah Sanders, productivity and happiness coach, draws on many years of experience to provide a flexible, iterative method for cutting out distractions and focusing on more fulfilling activities. Join others around the world who use Discardia's inspirational—but not sappy—approach, and put your energy where it counts: toward living the less stressful life of your dreams!

From the Introduction:

We are all busy people—busy with work and projects, busy with play and dreams, busy with our communities and friends and families. We look at our homes and think "What a mess! There is no way I can get this clutter under control without spending weeks working on it full time!" We look at ourselves and think, "I'm a mess! What am I doing with my life? What do I even want to be doing with my life?" It's easy to be overwhelmed by the seemingly vast distance between the way things are now in our lives and the calm, clear lives we'd like to be enjoying.

We know we don't have everything we want. We know we have things in our homes and minds that don't match the ideal we want for ourselves, but the idea of adding anything or taking on more to-do's to change things is overwhelming. We view that dreamed-of excellent life as a thing we need to squeeze into the overcrowded chaos of the one we live now. The good news is that it's already in there, just buried and hidden under a bunch of stuff we don't need or want. The quarterly celebration of Discardia—a new holiday—is the time to carve away all the nonsense that isn't making us happy, and uncover what does. We don't have too little; we've piled too much on top of ourselves. When we steadily scrape away the junk with one good decision at a time, our true selves begin to shine through. Discardia doesn't require us to radically change course; rather, it is the simple practice of leaning the boat in the direction in which we want to sail. Little adjustments lead us to wonderful new places.

Letting go and lightening our loads create positive motion; when combined with a light touch on the rudder—a little leaning of the boat—we have the ability to turn our lives in better directions.

The tips in this book, plus the supportive community of Discardia fans (whom, for convenience, I'll refer to as Discardians) found in multiple online locations, will help you put your energy where it counts: in making your dreams real and in living a less stressful life full of awesomeness.

Read the rest of the introduction...

Events

November 20, 2011: Consumerism Commentary podcast.

January, 2012:
- 25th: Book club discussion at 2 Sisters Bar and Books in San Francisco, CA, 6-8pm.
- 28th: Reading/workshop at Four-Eyed Frog Books in Gualala, CA, 4-5pm.

March 2012:
- 11th: reading/presentation at SXSW Interactive in Austin Convention Center, Austin, TX. 3:30-4pm. (This will actually be a short presentation intended to provide immediate value, rather than just me reading from the book).
- 14th: reading/mini-workshop at San Francisco Public Library, Main branch, in L/H Community Meeting Room, San Francisco, CA. 6-7pm. Bring some books/CDs/DVDs to donate to the Friends of the Library! (Normally they encourage people to bring their donations to the Donation Center at 431 Treat Ave. in the Mission, because their storage space in the Main branch store is extremely limited, but they're going to do an extra donation pickup the morning after our event. Hooray!)

Media Kit

On a deadline? Email me with a subject line beginning "MEDIA INQUIRY:" to help me prioritize my response.

About the author

I am a post-boomer/pre-digital native who spends as much time online as off. Currently self-employed as a writer and productivity and happiness coach, I have worked in jobs ranging from library page to senior software product manager. When my work hasn't centered on organization and effective flow, it has been anchored around the reading life, whether on the printed page or a glowing computer screen. A constant theme throughout has been streamlining processes to help achieve goals better, faster, and with more enjoyment along the way; in other words, increasing awesomeness.

• book cover art for web use (no review quote)
• book cover art for web use (2nd printing version, with review quote)
• book cover art for print use
• author headshot for web use
• author headshot for print use (note: 8MB file)
• additional background on the author
• contact information

Errata (a.k.a., "Oops.")

In Chapter 12, Randy Reddig's name was misspelled "Rettig". Sorry, ydnar!

In Chapter 31, the TED conference was mistakenly referred to as "Technology Education Design" instead of "Technology Entertainment Design."

These have been fixed (along with 13 minor typos) in the second "printing," which is recognizable by the Mark Frauenfelder quote on the front cover as well as by the copyright page.

Administrivia:
Discardia.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. In other words, a good way for authors to make just a bit more per copy on their books.