One Thing at a Time, by Cindy Glovinsky

One Thing at a Time is subtitled "100 Simple Ways to Live Clutter-Free Every Day," and it's exactly that - 100 clear, easy-to-implement strategies for improving your personal environment. You probably won't respond to all 100 - but even if just 20 or 30 percent of the tips speak to you, you'll gain a great deal from this book.

Four words: I love this book.

Out of 100 tips, I highlighted 29 as being especially important or useful to me. That doesn't mean there were 71 useless tips, far from it - in fact, there were only a few I couldn't apply to myself at all. For example, "Keep a phone log" doesn't strike a chord, because I hate telephones and only use mine when it's essential. (On the other hand, maybe I should give this tip a second look for use at work?) Another tip I didn't feel would help me much was "Rethink your photo habits" - I'm not a gung-ho photographer and now use a digital camera exclusively. But it's a good tip for those who use up a whole roll of film every week or two.

Tips I did highlight include:

• One thing at a time
• Carry a clipboard
• Look what I just did
• Put up pictures NOW
• One type of thing, one home
• It's just a problem
• Square the corners

"Square the corners" is almost frighteningly simple - the sort of tip you wonder why you weren't doing all along. On our dining room couch Mom had four piles of magazines, newspapers, puzzle books, receipts and who knows what else, plus two small open cardboard boxes. When I finished reading One Thing at a Time, I went over and squared up these four piles. I also emptied the two boxes - one contained candy and a miniature porch swing (gifts to Mom from grandchildren), the other two books. Now the four piles of paper goods look not just neater but less intimidating and the boxes are thrown away. Voila! Less clutter in just five minutes!