Gain Your Copy Houseworks: Cut The Clutter, Speed Your Cleaning, And Calm The Chaos Envisioned By Cynthia Ewer Available Through Digital Format

of pictures and a few good ideas, One thing I found amusingborrow not buy books, Why would an author write this Isn't it her job to make money for herself and publishers by selling books All said, I borrowed this book from the library.
I have sticky notes, sticky notes everywhere, This book is definitely a keeper for reference, Here is a small sample of Ewer's suggestions that I marked,

I liked the recipes for green cleaners,

"The quickest and simplest route to a clean house is to schedule cleaning tasks on a daily, weekly, monthly, and seasonal basis, " PageI'm thinking about starting mirror Mondays, toidy Tuesdays, and wood floor Wednesdays,

I liked the fresh food storage and pantry storage guidelines, I have always wondered how long to keep fresh or hardboiled eggs, I have questioned freshness on so many of the items on both of these two paged lists, There is also a very useful chart on treating stains, Do you know whether to soak those stains in cold or hot water

Mirrors and windows are one of my challenges, I will try out Cynthia Ewer's suggestions, Hardwood floors are my biggest frustration in household cleaning, She has useful advice there too,

Yes, I have one of those coffee tables with filmy streaks, I must stop spraying directly onto the table and "lightly spritz" my cleaning cloth instead,

My current cleaning methods tend to make things look as bad or worse than they did before I got started, I hope that following the hints in Cynthia's book can "calm the chaos" of completing these chores,

So I only got through the first half of this book before I had to return it to the library, but the first half was exactly what I needed.
I love that she explains that clutter is a behavioral problem, and so fixing it needs a behavioral change, . . not lots of expensive tubs, shelves, and racks, I definitely garnered some great information that I have been applying in my life,

Update: I again got this book from the library to finish the second half, I was pretty disappointed. I still really liked the first half, but I felt the second half was just not for me, So, it has been a while since I read the first half, but I didn't feel like the second half really implemented the basics taught in the first half.
. . or at least what I got out of the first half, I love a tidy home and have already used a lot of the methods presented in this book so I did find this very helpful, This may be best for hoarders and maximalists who collect too much junk, Not for the minimalists who declutter on a regular basis,

It is also called "Cut the Clutter" now, America's leading housekeeping expert shows you how to declutter, organize, and clean your home, with easytoremember tips for every job, from keeping your bathroom clean and doing the laundry to sorting out paperwork and organizing the family photo album.
Where there is hope, there is help, You can win the chore wars! Author, founder, and editor of the topranked website OrganizedHome, com Introduces easytoremember tips for organizing the home Stepbystep photographs throughout show how easy it is to reach your goal I need these books often to get some inspiration going.
In this one I found the first two chapters useful, on decluttering and organizing, Ewer made me think more about “centers” in the home for different activities, which refers to thinking of the focused activities that are done in the home, determining specific places for those activities, and providing storage for tools and supplies to be available in the center her analogy is the setup of a preschool classroomspaces which always feel fun and full of possibilities!.


She was also practical about minding storage “zones” of hot, warm, and cold, referring to areas you can get at easily, less easily, and difficult high shelves, attic, etc.
I definitely have some rarely/never used items taking up some prime hot space that could be better allocated,

Her STOP method of decluttering is pretty basic: Sort, Toss, Organize, Put Away, Use a timer to keep sessions short,
If you like creating lists, moving lists around and creating more lists, then this book is for you,

I didn't get any new insights into cutting the clutter, .stars Rounded toinstead ofbecause it was an easy read and enjoyable, and because of the innovative idea of dealing with the cause of clutter instead of just providing basic organizing skills.


Houseworks: Cut the Clutter is a comprehensive book focusing on cleaning and organizing your house, At first I was unsure if I would like the design/formatting of the book reminded me of the DK format I didn't like just noticed before I posted this that the book was published by DK, so, figures, in the end it was okay.
Could be summarized as "articlelike text with stock images and big quotes", The photos showing beforeandafters were incredibly simple, some literally adding a container or two and just moving whatever was thrown on the floor in one photo into the containers in the second one.
Example: page.

One benefit of this book is that it doesn't just stick to 'organizing' alone it weaves in cleaning, other aspects of home life cooking, house work, etc.


Good things
Funny introduction on the first page story about break in, Catchy.

Some unique tidbits, like Clutter Personalities, and Top cleaning tips from the pros,

"Where family circumstances permit, make cleaning a family affair, Family members are more reluctant to mess up a clean house when they have been a part of the cleaning effort!" Ewer,,

Book has different colour headers for different sections which is good,

This idea: Colourmatching, "Code laundry baskets with a different colour for each family member, . . On laundry days, family members who can toddle can toddle their own baskets to the laundry center, and return the clean and folded clothing to their own closets at day's end.
".

Good advice re: kids amp laundry, "Rewashing clothing is costly and wasteful of water, detergentand time! Apply a commonsense sanction: whoever seeks to rewash rather than fold gets to experience the laundry process firsthand, Put the offenders to work in the laundry room to close the laundry loophole, ".

Good energysaving tips amp tricks on page, like washing laundry with cold water whenever possible,

Printables at the end were somewhat good/mediocre, The Monthly Menu Planner's text was misaligned with the table and it looked pretty bad,

Could be improved
Large repetitive quotes, Whoever designed the book thought it would be a good idea to display quotes in big font from other parts of that page in the middle of paragraphs, This was annoying to read and the placement sometimes looked stupid, I get they were trying to break up text but it would have been better to just leave that out,

Appearance Author doesn't put much importance on appearance of organizing products amp etc, that much, which is fine, but it's also important to have things look nice,

Outdated. This book is kind of old, and you can tell, Author mentions renting DVDs and other things people don't do anymore! Would be good if an updated version could be printed,

Green cleaning, I was assuming the author wouldn't mention ecofriendly cleaning product alternatives at all, but she did, and that section was a letdown, They were suggested but not encouraged, Using natural products is really important especially when you have young kids to protect them from toxins! However, it is good that they were mentioned at all,

Hazards. Recommends using ammonia, which seems toxic Also recommends EYE PROTECTION, . . something is wrong if you need to wear eye protection when cleaning,

These quotes, . .
"Just as a dress must be designed and a movie must have a storyboard, so every wellrun household must have a plan, ". gtgtNo, movies DON'T have to have a storyboard, Find a more fitting example!

A little unrealistic, Two things. Author doesn't really deal with changing habits attitude: just start doing a new thing, it will become a habit, voila!, Also, author suggested a home notebook which is a good idea, but having only one binder for all the things she suggested is unrealistic, You will need more than one binder! Also on a weekly checklist was "Visit the photo developers", . . why would you do that once a week

"Perfectionists tend to worry about such matters as whether the file folders are the same colour, or if a new file will be out of alignment with the old ones' crosscut scheme.
Each peek in the file drawer if the files don't meet his or her outlandish standards, Get past the whole problem by buying yourself a simple tool to create uniform, nicelooking labelsan electronic labelerand get back to filing, ".
gtgt a, those MATTERS are actually important, k File folder colours MATTER, Just common sense.

b, seriously, an electronic labeler won't solve everything or perfectionists' problems,

Fashion advice, Stick to your expertise, lady! "For each family member, select a basic neutral colourblack, brown, navy, tanand coordinate shoes, coats, belts, and handbags with that color, Accent colors harmonize with the basic neutral: rely on them when selecting tops, ".

Clothes advice: "Identify a candidate for the consignment store if: It's out of style",
gtgt Seriously Do you know how many clothes you'd be getting rid of all the time if you only wore what was in style Sigh, The other criteria is fine colour is not for you, haven't worn it in a while, but don't get rid of something just cause it isn't in style!

Would recommend to.
. .
Those interested in a decent organizing book, It's pretty wellrounded and the good thing is that you can skip to whatever sections you're interested in and skim others like the Cycles of an Organized Home for me.
You may pick up a few new tips and there are some things to glean from this book, so it's worth a read, Not the best organizing book I ever read but I would recommend it!,