More Than Pretty Boxes - Lane, Carrie M

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Résumé :
For a widely dreaded, mundane task, organizing one's possessions has taken a surprising hold on our cultural imagination. For those with enough means and/or desperation, there are people who can be hired to help declutter. Here Carrie M. Lane introduces us to the world of professional organizers and offers new insight into the domains of work and home, forever entangled--especially for women. Organizers choose their profession out of a need for creativity, flexibility, and opportunities for growth that are increasingly difficult to find in the modern workplace, and the stories they tell about work with clients are fascinating. In that sense, organizing is a good job in an era of bad jobs, one that can help us see more clearly the limitations and disadvantages of many of the other forms of work available to Americans today. In a world where unhappy workers outnumber happy ones by two to one, most professional organizers love their work. But while this system of hiring women to perform the previously unpaid labor of other women assuages some of the pains of contemporary life, it also distracts us from systemic problems around the way Americans are expected to work today, both in paid positions and in their unpaid labors for the household. Ultimately, More Than Pretty Boxes shows that the way we live and work today is not working, especially not for women. There is a palpable too muchness to everyday life that demands an unsustainable level of work and worry. Organizers aren't the answer to this crisis, but through their career choices and their work with clients, organizers can help us better understand both the nature of the problem and the sorts of solace, support, and solutions that might help ease it--Provided by publisher....

Sommaire:
This study of organizing and decluttering professionals helps us understand--and perhaps alleviate--the overwhelming demands society places on our time and energy.

For a widely dreaded, often mundane task, organizing one's possessions has taken a surprising hold on our cultural imagination. Today, those with the means can hire professionals to help sort and declutter their homes. In More Than Pretty Boxes, Carrie M. Lane introduces us to this world of professional organizers and offers new insight into the domains of work and home, which are forever entangled--especially for women.

The female-dominated organizing profession didn't have a name until the 1980s, but it is now the subject of countless reality shows, podcasts, and magazines. Lane draws on interviews with organizers, including many of the field's founders, to trace the profession's history and uncover its enduring appeal to those seeking meaningful, flexible, self-directed work. Taking readers behind the scenes of real-life organizing sessions, More Than Pretty Boxes details the strategies organizers use to help people part with their belongings, and it also explores the intimate, empathetic relationships that can form between clients and organizers.

But perhaps most importantly, More Than Pretty Boxes helps us think through an interconnected set of questions around neoliberal work arrangements, overconsumption, emotional connection, and the deeply gendered nature of paid and unpaid work. Ultimately, Lane situates organizing at the center of contemporary conversations around how work isn't working anymore and makes a case for organizing's radical potential to push back against the overwhelming demands of work and the home, too often placed on women's shoulders. Organizers aren't the sole answer to this crisis, but their work can help us better understand both the nature of the problem and the sorts of solace, support, and solutions that might help ease it....