Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House Kindle Edition

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.

Had time only to scan looks interesting though.

My mother was what used to be called a "pattern" housekeeper. She didn't just iron sheets, she -hand-ironed- them. I didn't so much as not learn from her, I fled -- into a PhD, and two careers as an author and a financial-services marketer, giving me precious little time to breathe, let alone clean.My mother's death, which brought me far more silver and furniture than any sane working woman needs in daily life, shook me out of my comfortably slovenly routine. For one thing, it wasn't that comfortable. But it was easy and I was used to it.When I moved, however, to a much bigger apartment, I decided it was time to make it look pretty; I was astonished to realize how many of the decorating skills Mother had valued -hadn't- been lost in the handover from one generation to my own (Baby-Boom, second-wave feminist). And I was astonished to find out how many of the cleaning skills I -knew- how to do.(I still do; but I'm still pressed for time, so I "inherited" the cleaning woman from the last woman who lived in my apartment.)It was hiring her AND buying a too-long (and wickedly expensive) linen tablecloth that made me realize I needed help.Which is where HOME COMFORTS came in. I admit, I'd avoided the book as what I feared might be part of the post-feminist or anti-feminist backlash, or the Martha Stewart school of self-gratulatory fuss and time-wasting over trivia because, Thorstein Veblein fashion, you -have- the time to waste.What I found was the encyclopedic treatment of home care, from safety to contracts to management to fabric and silver types, that I'd hoped for, neatly written, meticulously organized (like Mendelson's closets, presumably -- mine still won't stand the light of day), exhaustively researched: just the guide to the perplexed and refresher course I needed, with advanced work when I wanted it. I could go to the index for that, and I often do.What I've extracted from HOME COMFORTS is the common sense. I -have- bought an iron, but I don't expect to iron my new linen sheets real soon, and personally, I think that anyone who washes her freezer each week without having spilled something in it is more obsessive and Type A than I, which is saying a LOT. I don't expect to get down on my knees and hand-dust my floors, and I'd deserve to lose my cleaning woman if I asked her to do that.But we manage. -I- manage now, with very little fuss and time, and a considerable rise in morale, health, and general contentment. Using this book enables me to entertain more easily, although I flinch when people immediately start criticizing their own domestic arrangements.I give the book four stars instead of five because Mendelson, while an engaging writer, is at times a little too arch, bordering on the smug, for my tastes and because, as other reviewers have pointed out, this isn't a book to help people keep house on a shoestring. It may be useful for someone starting out, but s/he'd better have an MBA or equivalent to afford all the cleaning supplies!

I must admit to thinking this would be a cringe making book about housework. However, much to my surprise, it has given me a new take on cleanliness and hygiene in the home and why we do things the way we do.For example, I never actually thought about cleaning the loo seat daily (I live alone but still have visitors) or all the bacteria that could live quite happily in my sink.Her writing is clear, and thank heavens, not patronising.We spend so much time in our homes and we owe it to ourselves to make it as pleasant as possible. Although I would not wax lyrical about the joys of cleaning etc., it is undeniable that learning how to cut corners, and having a more or less daily routine when working full time does reap some very real benefits.Plus sometimes, her words stick. Heat rises (ta da!) so therefore where does the raw meat go in the fridge? Yes, bottom shelf.Love this book, really.

I approached this book with apprehension having heard the author interviewed on "Woman's Hour" ages ago. At the end of the interview I barely suppressed a snort of cynicism when she told Jenni Murray that she "would at last have time to give her home a really good spring clean" - with the assistance of her housekeeper - oh yeah, I thought....Then I picked up a copy of this book in July 2009. I was spellbound. I have never really settled into housekeeping, always seeing it as a chore and rather beneath me. I'll say it now, I still hate dusting, but our house has become a home in the housekeeping sense for the first time in the 30 years we have been married - forget the details, I have stacks of books on theory, it is the whole philosophical approach to home-making rather than housekeeping that has made me happier and our home cleaner , better organised and a more welcoming, cosy environment.Yes, it is very American in tone in the way that feels very neurotic to us but I haven't bothered with reading the bits that I thought would aggravate me; the first few chapters alone make this book terrific value and genuinely life affirming.As for housework being beneath people, just look at this woman's CV. She is right, a clean, well-organised home is not a sign of subservience, it is an attainable goal which we will all benefit from if we strive to achieve it. And by the way, since I started to follow her principles I spend less time cleaning up and still have a nicer home!p.s. "How to get everything really flat" is great for the HOW to do it, she is more for the WHY.

This book is not only a 'how to..' but a 'why to..' guide to caring for your home and your family. It is intelligently written and frequently challenges our views about the way we live today. And it provides exceptionally comprehensive advice on how to deal with all aspects of 'housework' in the broadest sense. It is never dictatorial, and encourages the reader to understand the rationale of all the advice it offers. For me, the 200 pages on laundry were the best of all, but even the chapters that were of little direct relevance provided a wonderful read.This book has been sensibly re-edited for the UK reader, who should avoid the US edition; there are significant differences with the way we live this side of the Atlantic (for instance, we normally have front-loading washing machines, where the Americans tend to use far more basic top-loaders). This book will almost certainly prove a long-term reference book, and I would suggest that it is better purchased as a hardback. Just search Amazon for Home Comforts and you will find both the UK and US editions in hardback - the UK one has the white dustjacket with the clothes care symbols on it.Like other reviewers I have found this book quite inspirational, it has certainly changed the way I live, and I speak as a single man who lives alone.

I have been reading a lot of this type of book recently because I am developing a course on the subject. This one stood out above all the others both for the depth of the subjects covered and the clarity with which the material is presented.The author does not patronise not do you have to put up with the joky approach. I would particulalry commend the section on the storage life of food, frozen or fresh. There are useful tables so you know exactly how long your minced beef will last before and after cooking, or how long that jar of pickles remains edible once opened, and if you should store it on a shelf or in the fridge. This section alone should save us all from throwing away perfectly good food.Topics covered include keeping just about every conceivable article or surface in your home clean and safe.This would make a very handy gift to anyone setting up home for the first time, or the experienced homemaker.Although the legislation described in the sections on insurance, selling and buying etc., the advice given is still useful.

I love this book. I'm a single male of a certain age running my own household. No one taught me anything about how to keep a house. When I went to university I didn't even know how to use a washing machine. It's a brilliant book for anyone who needs to know how to run a house. I highly recommend it.