“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.
“I was expecting the same advice about cleaning out your crap and maintaining a tidy house you see on every mummy blog out there, but this was so much more than this. It’s not just about keeping the physical clutter out of your house, but also out of your social life, your professional life, hobbies, pyschological clutter… the list goes on.
This has completely changed how I view my posessions, but also how I approach my job. Don’t underestimate how significant even the most simplest ideas in here can be. It’s stripped stress out of my job (to a large extent) and taken the pressure out of my personal time, to the point that I’m pissing my husband off because my improved quality of life and amount of personal time I’ve been able to reclaim is making him jealous.”*
“I bought the book and I am glad I did. Discardia contributed more to simplifying my life and enhancing its value than almost any other book I had read on simplifying life.“*
“This book is an original in a field with a lot of more or less interchangeable manuals. I dig it.”*
“It’s been a great help getting me to purge all the little things that are holding me back.“*
“I wish this book was available twenty years ago. … I’ve learned lots of what’s in this book the hard way, but believe there is lots more that will be helpful.”*
“one of the most helpful books I’ve read this year“*
“This is a fabulous little (and enjoyably written) book. Not just about decluttering, but about managing life in general.“*
“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.”*
“Pretty Comprehensive on the Subject. From time to time I go on a decluttering bender and I was reading this around same time as the Kon Mari method books. This has a wide range of material and topics and deals with a lot of the emotional side of things too. I gleaned a lot of tips from it and go back to it as a reference. I like all the stories and cases of people on this “discarding” and simplifying kick.”*
“this one is full of good advice“*
If anyone is looking for guidance and a jump start in organizing your life, this is the book for you !*
“This book was full of well-written, useful and entertaining information regarding methods for making our lives simpler and more enjoyable as a result of that simplification.”*
“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
“I never really considered myself as a packrat but reading Discardia has opened my eyes to the amount of stuff I have kept over the years and never use.”*
“The author of this book came to speak at our local book store. Bob and I went and enjoyed ourselves and liked her message of living more with less stuff… This book is broken down into easily digestible segments that provide specific direction on how to clear the mental and physical clutter and add more fun into your life.;never preachy and primarily motivating.”*
“Discardia is basically the intersection of two books I am extremely fond of – Simplify Your Life by Elaine St. James and Getting things Done by David Allen, written in extremely accessible, intelligent prose … I’d definitely recommend it”*
“Great read! I especially liked the distinction between projects and changing habits – and their different criteria for success. … Read it now – and start doing something useful with your time -> making yourself happier!”*
“Really enjoyed this. Sanders has a great writing style – very ‘tell it like it is’.”*
“…the advice, from decluttering to goal-setting, is sensible, achievable, and well-presented.”*
“What a great book! This goes in the same category as Getting Things Done — it will need re-reading every few months or so.”*
“…this is the best book I have received through First Reads so far. Even if you have read every de-clutter book out there and even if you think your home and life are clutter free, you can benefit from this book.”*
“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”*
“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
“…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“*
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Discardia 
