Habitat

[February 13th, 2008]

Just get rid of it already!

How many times have you heard that phrase? Whether it’s toxic chemicals, old clothes or a memento that at one time might have meant the world to you but now is just a fuzzy memory collecting even more fuzz, fact is there are plenty of things we probably needed to get rid of years ago.

Well, my friend, it’s time to let go, in more ways than one might think. According to Oprah’s organizational guru, Peter Walsh, in his new book, Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat? (Free Press, $25), all that crap that we hold onto is not just ending up in our house, but on our hips, too. Walsh believes household clutter equals body fat and that both negatively affect our ability to live healthy lives.

That’s why, over the following pages of our annual Habitat issue, we give you the tools to unload all that crap that’s making you and your house such a tub o’ lard. OK, some of them might not be very conventional (and one is super-gross), but hey, who said getting rid of stuff had to boring? Now, hand me a recycling bin.

Glad tidyings,
Byron Beck
Special Sections Editor

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Publisher: Shawna McKeown
Editor: Byron Beck
Art Director: Soma Honkanen
Contributors: Jonah Sandford, Laura Shinn, Saundra Sorenson, Leigh van der Werff, Ben Waterhouse
Copy Editors: Kat Hyatt, Matt Buckingham
Ad Designers: Erik Blad, Brian Brown, Cari Vander Yacht
Cover Illustration by Soma Honkanen