Excluding the fortunate few to whom organizing comes naturally, if we do not address this aspect, rebound is inevitable no matter how much is discarded or how cleverly things are organized. The story is that a monster moves in during the middle of the night and cannot sleep until the child’s room is clean. Leaf’s protocol is based on bringing existing thoughts, feelings, and choices into full conscious awareness, and then “re-conceptualizing” those thoughts/feelings/choices as a way to re-shape or replace associated neurons.

Having read many books on the subject of alcholism I have grown used to reading sanitised accounts of what it means to live as an alcholic, mainly outlining how much help there is out there for people wanting to give up and how wonderful life will be when it you do. Emily and I have read lots of books on the topic of tidying and home organization, but many of them did not include specific strategies for tidying with children. Instead of focusing on what you want to throw away—which, of course, naturally brings unhappiness—Marie encourages readers to focus, instead, on the things we want to keep.Cleaning Up New York has been a cult classic since it was first published in 1976 in an edition of 750. The thing that most stuck me about this book was the immense respect that the author, (who feels like my friend after reading this, a gentle companion through this process), shows to all possessions. What grabbed my attention in the Asprey interview is that Leaf (a neuroscientist and speech pathologist) was an early believer in neuroplasticity.

Whether its clearing the dinner table, taking out the garbage, or cleaning their rooms, chores teach children responsibility and self reliance. I hated this book, its a self indulgent memoir that shouldn't be described as a book about how someone over came drinking as its not that at all. If you want to teach your kids to tidy, it can be helpful to start by introducing them to the topic of tidying in an accessible, fun way first. Antonia Quirke, writing in the New Statesman, coined the phrase 'overwhelming unconscious resentment' when reviewing this book and she hits that proverbial nail right on the head. The brain, Leaf explains, arises from the mind — not in any magical sense, but because our thoughts, feelings, and choices literally stimulate neurons to either emerge, grow, and branch or to prune, fade, and disappear.The book just moves from times in her life where the people around her used and abused her and alcohol and drugs were around and she did lots of bed hopping. Exposing the culpability of the drinks industry, the enabling qualities of Class As and our powerful sense of entitlement to drink until we fall over, Cleaning Up examines a moral panic of our time, exploring why women drink, how to stop and what life after alcohol is really like.