Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House

O time and well pscked

I love this book! I've always had a sort of romanticism with the past and love books that deal with the old-fashioned way of doing things. My parents are two working people who immigrated to the US. They grew up very poor, so I was never exposed to this way of keeping house. Poor people generally do not have china, multiple wine glasses, and the like. So I found this book helpful as a first generation yuppie kid, who enjoys more financial and personal freedom from my parents at my age, learn how to keep house middle class style. I wish we all lived with a little more traditionalism as it can be perfectly glamorous, like living in a 1930s film.On to more useful knowledge for you: No, this book is not a 101 ways to cut down on the time you spend house cleaning. I feel like some reviewers did not read the book's introduction, because the author says that you DO NOT have to do as much cleaning as she suggests. They are guidelines. I STRONGLY suggest that you take advantage of the "Look inside" feature that Amazon has provided and read the table of contents and the excerpts of the book before making a decision to purchase.This is a housekeeping book in the style of the housekeeping books of the days of yore. I appreciate the detailed discussion of every little thing, even folding, storing food, and organizing a kitchen, because a lot of young people don't know how to do it (spoiled by their parents). It should be noted that you do not have to fold in the way that she tells you if you already have a system of doing so.This book is also not a book who feel overwhelmed by cleaning and need motivation and coaching. She provides a rationale for cleaning, but if you are seriously unmotivated, this might not work for you. There are no steps, a la Fly Lady. This book is written from the author's point of view, there are no scientific facts grounding much of it. If you need a research study, I would not buy this book.I would buy this book for an intelligent young man or lady who is looking to get married. I would buy this book for anyone who wants to know how to set up and run a house. I actually bought this book because I was reading one of Bunny William's interior design books and she said no one knows how to run a house anymore. I thought, "Well, how DO you do it?", a search led me to this gem.I have to address one of the criticisms of this book that I found ridiculous. If you want to learn "green" ways of keeping a house, obviously this is not going to be the book for you as the book's description makes no mention of that. Furthermore, the copyright date for the hardcover is 1999. In 1999, no one cared about being "green", so do not expect it to have a chapter on that. Again, read the table of contents or the index.I haven't read all the way through the book, but I will say an improvement to the 1999 edition, I haven't read the 2003 paperback, would be to include managing a household budget. I didn't see it listed in the table of contents, so I don't believe that this book had a discussion on that. It does talk about creating an inventory of items to be replenished in a home though.Personally, I think if your house is too large to manage effectively in this era of McMansions and getting the biggest house possible, you should downsize or hire help. This book is not going to help you clean a house of 2,500+ square feet in a day, but it will give you some helpful theory about how it should be run and then you can hire help to allow you to accomplish it.Think of this book like Julia Child's first book, or La Varenne Pratique in cooking. It provides a pretty complete foundation for its subject and is full of art and technique. To extend the analogy, if you want a Rachel Ray, "30 min meals"-type book, look elsewhere.

It sounds trite, but this book has changed my life. Growing up I was lucky enough to have a mother who kept a very clean and comfortable house, unfortunately I never paid any attention to how she did it and I considered all housework a drudgery. Fast forward to the present day - here I am a woman in my late thirties with two young children and who hadn't a clue how to keep house. It seemed I was constantly just trying to "keep up" and whenever we have company I was frantically running around trying to get the house in order. It wasn't until I received this book that I realized that not only is keeping a clean and organized house NOT a drudgery, but there is a methodology to it. I didn't know you scheduled a cleaning day every week, or a marketing day, or anything like it. This is probably obvious to many people, but I used to only do the laundry when it was piled so high it wouldn't fit in the hamper or we ran out of clean clothes! This book has changed my family's life for the better. Not only do we get to enjoy living in a clean and comfortable house every day (no rushing around when company is coming over!), but I find I have more free time to do other things. Yes, my house still gets messy. My four year old spreads his toys all over the living room carpet. I don't really consider that mess though, I mean that's just living. I also know that underneath those toys he gets to play on a clean carpet.This book has taught me how to wash everything from clothes, dishes, to floors. It's really an invaluable reference, plus it's just plain inspiring. It goes over every detail about how to keep a home, not just cleaning, but how to really create a place where you feel rejuvenated. I remember when this book first came out it was considered antifemminist, the fact is it's just the opposite. This is a feminist book. In a gender neutal manner it shows how to keep house. I consider myself a feminist and I'm glad to see someone finally showing the value of something that has been considered "women's work" all these years. She explains why this kind of work is so important for our physical and mental health.My only real criticisms of the book are similiar to other reviewers. She gives parenting advice occasionally which has no place in this book. (She's against the family bed, which as an attachment style parent myself, I disagree with her.) Also some of the advice goes a little too far. The thing that sticks out in my mind is her notion that you should never use the kitchen sink for anything but food preperation. That means no washing your hands in the kitchen sink. This is kind of silly I think. Maybe for people living on a farm who's hands might be soiled with manure I could see this, but for the average person today it's not something I would follow. My criticisms are minor though. I use this book as a reference constantly and I think even a person seasoned in the art of keeping house would find it useful.