As far as I am aware, I am not a mom. I’m certainly not a super mom. I can say with reasonable confidence that my wife has me beat in all super mom aspects (sometimes she whips up a batch of muffins in the morning before heading off to her corporate senior management job – I’m lucky if I can make my smoothie without it exploding).
However, I enjoy the work that Dan Hayes and Vanessa Hayes do on their Simple Life Together podcast, and when Vanessa released her book Supermom vs Super Mom: Simplicity Tips for Busy Moms: A Simple Life Guide to Getting Organized, Finding Margin and Embracing Simplicity for Moms I decided what the heck, I’ll pick it up and maybe get some good simplicity tips.
I bought it when it first came out, but because of the weird way that I read books, I haven’t gotten to it until just now. Since I am currently on a train heading down to the World Domination Summit, I figure it is a good time to write about the book since WDS in 2011 was the first time I met them. If you look closely in this picture, you can see Dan, Vanessa, and I all listening to Leo Babauta in his “class on the grass”.
While I’ve established that I am not a mom, I found that the book has a lot of great tips that you can implement immediately. One area I really liked was her S-I-M-P-L-E method for organizing. We have some areas at home that are a bit, shall we say, disorganized. I’m going to apply this methodology to those and see how it goes.
I don’t think I have ever said this about a book, but the Appendices are almost the most valuable part. There are specific sections for specific types of clutter, and there are routines she outlines that can really make a difference.
For example, there is a fantastic appendix on dealing with paper clutter. If you want to learn to create an overall paper plan, the book is worth it just for that chapter alone.
While targeted to moms, I think Supermom vs Super Mom could be valuable for anyone who wants to create order at home and get their stuff and routines under control.
Full disclosure: At the National Association of Professional Organizers conference in Phoenix this year, I went out to dinner with Dan and Vanessa and they bought me a burger called The Green Monster, and there may have been one or two Lumberyard IPAs involved. However, I had purchased the book months before this dinner, and the deliciousness of The Green Monster did not influence my recommending this book.
