More Than Pretty Boxes by Carrie M. Lane examines with great care and compassion the origins and history of the field of professional organizing while ruminating on what the profession says about work and consumption in the United States.
Lane includes numerous anecdotes from her decade researching this project. As she accompanies organizers who clean up a cluttered art studio and clear out storage units left behind by deceased parents, readers learn about the daily lives of those in the organizing profession and develop empathy for people who choose to hire organizers. Along the way, she poses questions: How do Americans actually consume and work? Are they thriving in their work/life culture, or are they buying more and more items to feel something other than professional pressures? How do the demands of employment coexist with the demands of having a family? Ultimately, Lane answers these questions with the need for a more robust support system for families.
While helping clients to unearth themselves from beneath mounds of consumer goods, professional organizers also must contend with the reasons those mounds exist, directing clients to therapy as needed and reevaluating consumer culture. Lane skillfully weaves these threads together to make readers consider their own relationships with their stuff and their vocations.
Perfect for readers interested in reconsidering the American mantra of "work, work, work so we can buy, buy, buy," More Than Pretty Boxes is indeed more than an assessment of the professional organizing field; it is a reflective look at the objects that accumulate and why they do. --Alyssa Parssinen, freelance reviewer and former bookseller