Life in Jeneral: A Joyful Guide to Organizing Your Home and Creating the Space for What Matters Most

by Jen Robin

Overview

”Jen Robin is not just an organizer—she is a teacher and a healer. As she helps sort our ‘stuff’ she is also sorting our values, emotions, relationships, and dreams. She is a magician and this book will work magic on your home and life.” - Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Untamed

In this essential guide, the creative force behind the popular organization company Life in Jeneral reveals her emotionally engaged approach to decluttering—a unique process that empowers people to re-envision their spaces to suit their evolving needs.

Life is about connection, not collection.

 Jen Robin’s company, Life in Jeneral, focuses on the “soul work” of home organization—the psychological and emotional foundation necessary for creating a streamlined and sustainable lifestyle. For Jen, change comes from within—a process that to succeed, must begin with the heart. 

Americans are spending more time at home than ever before, and many have come to realize that their living spaces aren’t serving them. We have too many things, resulting in physical and mental clutter. And the organizational strategies we try only go so far, leaving us feeling disconnected and disheartened. 

Life in Jeneral helps you build healthier mental habits that allow us to break free from the clutter, while providing traditional strategies to get—and stay—organized. Beautifully designed and featuring examples from Jen’s personal experiences and those of her clients, Life in Jeneral teaches us how to:

• Flip common mental blocks that prevent us from organizational success
• Identify and tackle “clutter magnets”—the spaces where things seem to gather
• Discover common emotional baggage keyed to specific types of clutter 
• Organize and evolve specific spaces in the home, room by room

Life in Jeneral offers a holistic approach to organization; once we understand what we want from our spaces—how they can nurture and support our emotional well-being—we can create a home that feels both practical and joyful.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798200747238
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	12/07/2021
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 5.60(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Jen Robin is CEO of the organizational and lifestyle company Life in Jeneral, which she founded in 2014. A former celebrity executive assistant, she realized her true passion was for helping others create happier lives through sustainable home transformation. She lives in Los Angeles, California.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Part 1 Soul Work

1 Connection over Collection 13

2 I Don't Have Enough Time 27

3 I Don't Know Where to Start 43

4 I Don't Want to Lose the Memories 51

5 I Might Need It Some Day 65

6 I'd Feel Guilty If I Let This Go 79

7 I'd Feel Lost Without My Stuff 89

8 Before You Begin 101

Part 2 The Process

9 The Life in Jeneral Method 109

10 Bathroom 119

11 Primary Closet and Bedroom 133

12 Kitchen 159

13 Kids'Spaces 185

14 Home Office 203

15 Garage 215

Part 3 Trouble Spots and How to Maintain

16 Trouble Spots and Solutions 229

17 How to Maintain for Life 237

Conclusion 243

Resources 245

Acknowledgments 246

Editorial Reviews

11/15/2021

Robin, founder of design company Life in Jeneral, offers no shortage of organizational tips in her upbeat debut. “People are the happiest... when they are organized,” Robin suggests, and getting there involves a “soulful approach” focused on how items make one feel. Her tips are broken into three sections. First, there’s “soul work,” which involves a plan for identifying one’s values and emotional barriers to neatness, while “the process” introduces Robin’s five-step method: start by removing everything from a room; then sort, discard or donate; and finally add organizational systems (such as labeled containers) and commit to maintaining them. She offers suggestions for each area: a game can be made of cleaning kids’ rooms; in the “joy drawer” (formerly known as the junk drawer), old photos can be digitized; and open shelving racks go great in the garage. A section on upkeep rounds things out. Her advice is easy to follow and her tone encouraging, though the program (and the photos used to illustrate it) skews heavily toward large, high-end homes and readers with time and money at their disposal. Still, fans of Marie Kondo will find this full of practical ideas. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

”Jen Robin is not just an organizer—she is a teacher and a healer. As she helps sort our ‘stuff’ she is also sorting our values, emotions, relationships, and dreams. She is a magician and this book will work magic on your home and life.” — Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Untamed

"Robin...offers no shortage of organizational tips in her upbeat debut...full of practical ideas." — Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

”Jen Robin is not just an organizer—she is a teacher and a healer. As she helps sort our ‘stuff’ she is also sorting our values, emotions, relationships, and dreams. She is a magician and this book will work magic on your home and life.

Glennon Doyle