On one hand, it's alarmingly thorough. The author doesn't want you to wash your hands in the kitchen sink. And if I recall correctly, she doesn't laugh hysterically at the idea of ironing sheets.
On the other hand, it's very handy to have a sanity check for certain things. If you doubt the assurance of your floor installers that you can keep that floor clean forever without ever, even once, cleaning it with soap? She doesn't believe it either. If you've heard a rumor that people wash their walls and you don't have the faintest idea why, how, or how often one would do such a thing? She will, no doubt, cover that subject. (I can't actually offer you any details, because I'm writing this post with the book not at hand. I'm that way.)
And she backed me up on one housekeeping scheme that I previously considered to be sheer sloppiness, which gives me a happy glow of annoying self-satisfaction. The specific scheme is what I'd call "junk holding areas". I've forgotten what she calls them. The idea is that you're simply not going to put every object away in its permanent home, every time you're done with it. So you have places here and there around that are intended for stashing miscellaneous objects, until you get around to putting them away. This doesn't work if you don't put them away every few days, but it is an acknowledgement that you can have a decent house without being on your guard at every moment.
It's a good book, as long as you pick and choose the useful bits, instead of taking the whole thing seriously.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
This book sounds worth a go. I do in fact have walls to clean! Lots of sticky finger marks up and down the stairs!
ReplyDeleteI was interested in your post about books too. We also have a huge number of books - but I've recently discovered book swap websites - which I now do obsessively. You can re-collect old favourites which have been lost or given away. At the same time you can get rid of old travel guides with a clear conscience that they will actually be used again. The best one that I use is readitswapit.co.uk where you can swap books directly with other people. (but think this is only in the UK). I've also tried BookMooch - but it's run on a more complicated point system and seems much harder work - you have to snap up books you want as soon as they become available.
I'm off now to try to find the Cheryl Mendelson book!
Howdy do! It really is a good book.
ReplyDeleteAh, the book swap sounds dangerous. Well, except that if it's a _swap_ books would have to go out, yes? So that would prevent the buildup of an infinite number of books.
I have been getting into old favorites, so far with used bookstores. I may be about to re-read almost all of the Agatha Christies.