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Summary: This book saved my life (well, really my carpet)
Review: Cheryl Mendelson, philosopher, lawyer has written what is possibly the most helpful book about home keeping on the market. From discussing the way to clean up a room (think small-start by straightening) to a meditation on the function of the bedroom (the cave of nakedness), this book offers practical, usable and most importantly doable advice on just about every topic related to home care. No gimmicks, no elaborate tools, no impossible to find supplies, it's astonishing what ammonia, baking soda and some laundry soap can do.Cheryl, you rule!
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Summary: I really thought I knew what I was doing
Review: My mom was a full-time homemaker, and she kept a neat, clean and comfortable home. She gave me regular chores growing up, so naturally I assumed I knew everything I needed to about homemaking. Well, this book showed me the huge gaps in my understanding as well as giving me a kick in the pants to do the chores I always put off. It is a lot easier to do a chore when you finally understand the "why's" as well as a more efficient way to do them! Not to mention that the author includes simple and inexpensive recipes for cleaners that beat commercial mixes. As a result of following only some of the advice, my health and my family's has improved over the last month due to a reduction in allergic attacks and improved hygeine. The most reassuring aspect of this book is that the information can be custom tailored to your individual situation and household -- you don't have to do everything to benefit. It also makes a great occasional reference book, as some have pointed out. Home Comforts belongs in everybody's home library.
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Summary: A tip from this book saved a ... pair of boots
Review: This reference book is very like a dictionary or encyclopedia: You look into it to find a certain fact; next thing you know, hours have flown by as you become engrossed in learning other facts you never dreamt of. Home Comforts more than paid for itself with its tip on how to remove mildew from leather. A pair of ... riding boots became mildewed on their way home from Ireland (and I mistakenly thought I'd dried them thoroughly). I thought I'd have to buy another pair and break them in, but this book saved the day -- paying for itself six times over. Like a medical reference, it's worth having on your shelf for just such emergencies. ....
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Summary: I hate housecleaning, but loved this book
Review: Driving home one day I heard an interview with Cheryl Mendelson. I was taken away with her ideas on housekeeping. My views have been forever shaped by this book. This book goes into great detail about every aspect of house keeping, and quite frankly more than I ever considered. Her cleaning methods are detailed. I fell in love with the theory behinds things like do we dust or vaccuum first? How to best seperate clothes before you put them in the washer. Her topics range from keeping your house clean, you laying out your kitchen cabinets for your ease, to how to make your home comfortable in many ways. This book is perfect for both the beginner house keeper as well as the seasoned person. You may even be able to settle arguments such as the proper way to fold things by reading this book. What I loved most about her book is that she wasn't trying to push high standards on you, but she shows you schedules, lists, and what should be done, and why. We all live in a busy world now, with many of us raising families, as well as working. This book can help to relieve some of this frustations with showing you how to organize your home to make it more comfortable for you.
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Summary: A great reference guide
Review: I borrowed this book from the local library and enjoyed it so much that I bought it today. It is great for answering the questions that some of have. I was not really taught the ends and outs of the "little" things that make a home. I found this book extremely informative.
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Summary: Comprehensive how-to for keeping house, bar none
Review: This is THE perfect gift for anyone getting their first apartment, shower gift for a first time bride, or anyone who is a general slob (just kidding.) It is truly a panacea for those of us who need more information, but not didactic or preachy. And it's really interesting! The flip side of the feminist revolution is that the home got neglected when we were freed from it. This is why Martha Stewart is so darn popular. Mrs. Mendelson explains everything so that we can keep it and our sanity from going away. Wish I'd bought it sooner. Thank you, Mrs. Mendelson, for this wonderful encyclopedia. The US really needs it.
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Summary: Not ob-com, not anti-feminist
Review: I have to disagree with many of the negative reviews of this book; having read most of the material, I did not find the tone "preachy" or guilt-inducing. Those who felt it was antifeminist or aimed at putting women on a guilt trip likely have deeper, anti-woman/ anti-domestic issues of their own. No amount of rhetoric or mythology changes the fact that houses get dirty, people need to eat healthy food and wear clean clothes, and keeping an orderly, clean and effective household requires a modicum of effort. Not everyone can delegate everything out (which requires effort in other ways, such as producing the money to pay for others to do your housekeeping for you). Personally, for my regular cleaning I use speed-cleaning methods adapted from professional methods and rarely am down on all-fours putting out the elbow grease on my floors (if you keep a regular cleaning schedule, such efforts are rarely needed), but understanding WHY things should be done, the science behind the chores, can make them go much faster. Keeping your furnace filter changed regularly means you have to spend much less time dusting throughout the rest of the house. Keeping your appliances clean means they stay "like new" much longer, so you save money on replacements and repairs. Of course you can't do everything listed in a 800+ page book, but at least you will understand better what needs to be done in YOUR particular situation for optimal results, and may find faster, easier, alternative methods to achieve the desired results. Overall, this is an excellent book for those who take pride in their homes and providing a healthful, pleasant environment based on knowledge and competence, whether male or female.
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Summary: Home Comforts: So very helpful and informative. I love it!
Review: I have always hated housework and I have been trying to conquer my chronic disorganization. As a New Year's resolution, I decided to change both these aspects of my life. When I got the book "Home Comforts" in the mail I picked it up and literally read it from cover to cover. Wow! What a revelation. I never realized all of the 'things' that go into making a house run. Cheryl Mendelson does a wonderful job of covering these topics and more. I was so impressed with this book I even told my mom, the consummate house-organizer, about it! The book is well organized, well written and well thought out. I have used the tips and organizing checklists found in "Home Comforts" since buying the book and have been very pleased with the way my housework and organization have improved. Note: you will find at first that some of the cleaning schedules in this book may be a bit rigorous. But you can decide what you think is most important to you and develop your own. I'm a single Navy woman and my work schedule prevents me from doing a lot of the stuff on the weekly schedule, but I have made up my own calendar and it works for me. I really love the chapters on cleaning and laundry (very helpful tips on stain removal- especially for uniforms!). There is so much information on how to correctly do the mundane tasks we all hate: laundry, dishes, cleaning, etc. There really IS an art and science to keeping house. This book also covers the important subjects of home safety and keeping good home records. This book is going to become an heirloom in my family - I'll pass this book on to my children when I finally have some. :) Theresa Sweeny
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Summary: Every Cleaning Detail Scientifically Documented!
Review: I received this book as a gift and reluctantly started to read it. I'm not too interested in spending more time cleaning. Then I found I couldn't put it down. This is much more than a guide to dusting and vacuuming. It covers the history of how and why a cleaning practice developed and if it's still necessary in today's world. The author is like the Martha Stewart of house cleaning. She explains the reasons behind her cleaning recommendations and cites the source of her information. I didn't realize that you should let your bed air out for two hours before making it to reduce the moisture to kill microorganisms. Also I'm supposed to be washing my cats weekly to reduce their dander and improve life for my allergic husband. It's answered every cleaning question I've ever had and many I'd never thought of.
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Summary: This is a wonderful book - but read this
Review: Everything that the glowing reviews below say about this book is true. It does an immense amount of the work required to elevate what Ursula Le Guin called the "ancient, complex and necessary art" of housekeeping to the status it deserves. If this book becomes a usual graduation or wedding present, perhaps we will be on our way back to civilized living. However. No book, however wonderful, can escape reflecting the prejudices and limitations of its author. This is a book written by a woman who keeps house in an East Coast urban apartment, who has one child, who probably does not do any large-scale entertaining, and who is finanacially fortunate. These circumstances affect the book adversely. Low income housekeeping is simply not addressed; the most obvious example of this is the complete neglect of information on doing laundry at a laundromat, in a book which details every other possible permutation of laundry. There is an unexplained assumption the homes in question will be well-heated; this particularly affects the usefulness to me of the kitchen chapter, which gives pantry temperatures my pantry never gets near in the winter months. This is not merely an oversight based on class, but also a geographical oversight; in areas like the Pacific Northwest, where I live, many houses are simply not efficient and are very cold for much of the year. Foodstuffs can be kept safely on my countertop for much longer than she allows for in her well-heated kitchen. Some of the other examples of prejudice and hasty thinking are more serious. The most problematic, in my view, are her ill-advised comdemnation of co-sleeping, and her very nasty views on servants. Co-sleeping, the practice of infants and very young children sharing a bed with their parents, is not only common to indigenous cultures, as she claims, but has always been done in the West and is widely practiced now. Her dismissal of it as only appropriate to "islands where the fish leap out of the sea and fruit falls to the hand" is, frankly, racist. Where are these islands, exactly? Is the assertion that indigeneous people lead a life of perfect ease? This is all completely outside her areas of expertise and just silly in a housekeeping book. She treats servants as a necessary evil and spends a few paragraphs informing us that in the days when all families aspiring to gentility kept them, all they did was complain about them. Well, that's only half of the truth. It is equally true that mistress and maid sometimes created a family bond between them, that servants stayed with families fallen on hard times without pay, that wealthy people who had been raised by servants often treated their aged nursemaids with tremendous consideration - moreover, that social system that is very distant from ours and really bears very little relationship with the dynamic of the modern domestic servant and her employer. Large houses and large-scale entertaining require hired help, period. While it is now possible to lead a middle-class life in an isolated nuclear family unit, performing almost all the domestic labor en famille, why the hell would you want to? It requires living in a very small space and never having too many people over for dinner - and gah! serving them all yourself if you do. This book should be treated as a reference book; her information is astounding. However, she seems to want to create the impression that keeping house her way is the only way. Pish tosh. Some of us have to haul our laundry to the laundromat. Some of us like to have numerous houseguests for extended periods. Some of us have significantly more than one child. When she gives you pure facts, you can usually trust her; but when she strays into lifestyle and habits, trust your gut.
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