More Than Pretty Boxes

This study of organising 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, organising 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 organisers and offers new insight into the domains of work and home, which are forever entangled—especially for women.

The female-dominated organising 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 organisers, 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 organising sessions, More Than Pretty Boxes details the strategies organisers use to help people part with their belongings, and it also explores the intimate, empathetic relationships that can form between clients and organisers.

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 organising at the centre of contemporary conversations around how work isn't working anymore and makes a case for organising's radical potential to push back against the overwhelming demands of work and the home, too often placed on women's shoulders. Organisers 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.