How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind: Dealing with Your House's Dirty Little Secrets Paperback – November 8, 2016

Dana White runs a blog and podcast for people who struggle with housekeeping (like me!). I've been reading A Slob Comes Clean for about a year now, and it's the chronicle of Dana's own struggles and hard-earned lessons on how to really, actually keep your house reasonably clean. She calls it Reality-Based Cleaning.Now, if you are a person who doesn't have too hard a time with this stuff, this book is not for you. It's written for those of us with Slob Vision -- the inability to really see a mess or a pile until it smacks us in the face. It's for those of us capable of being completely surprised to find a sink overflowing with dirty dishes when we didn't do the dishes the night before.Dana understands, and has figured out a few ways to cope, which she now shares, including: the few basic habits that really will make a big difference if you make sure to do them every day letting go of project-based or perfectionist thinking pre-made decisions! developing days for jobs the truly revolutionary realization about containers (this is a big one for me!) the two decluttering questions, which are pretty genius honestlyI've been working on these habits myself, and I am actually seeing real improvement in my life. So I'm here to tell you that Dana has been the most helpful to me of any cleaning/organization writer I've read--and I have read a lot of them. I am much, much better at reading about housekeeping than I am at actually doing it; heck, I enjoy reading housekeeping books regardless of their applicability to my life! But this has been the most applicable and encouraging book so far.This is not to say that my life is just like hers, or that every single thing matches up. Laundry may be the only thing that I am really pretty good at, while Dana considers it one of her biggest challenges. But the key is to adapt and tweak things to our own lives.Dana is also a talented writer with a great sense of fun. The book is just a kick to read. ...the five­ minute pickup is the perfect habit to turn into a family task. But, again, don’t judge this family habit on the first day. The first day won’t be pretty. I don’t recommend making your first day their first day. Let them see you setting the timer and working for five minutes. Be the example of how this works, the proof that we’re really only talking about five minutes and not the frantic whole­-house­-clean­-up­-before­-Grandma­-arrives that they’re used to. But even if they’ve seen (and actually noticed) you doing daily five­ minute pickups, that first time as a family will be rough and not the least bit fun. Your otherwise intelligent children may claim to have never known where scissors or glue or toothpaste go. They will suddenly feel exhausted and suffer headaches and leg pain, and they may stare blankly past your shoulder in confusion when you remind them where you’ve kept the laundry hamper for all the days of their lives. The first day will be horrible. Working together, you’ll get significantly less done than if you had done it by yourself. You’ll spend the entire time directing and reminding and threatening motivating.This is one of my favorite passages, about how she would kill herself cleaning and organizing, only to find herself back where she started: After all that work, all that sweat and stress and angst, I’d swear I was going to keep my home this way. This time. Three days later, I looked around and gasped. My home was worse than it was before I started cleaning for the party. Clutter had reappeared, dishes were piled in the sink, and the floor was scattered with dirty socks. All that work, and I had been betrayed. My project energy was gone, and my heart was broken once again by my cruelly messy house. With each failure, my cynicism increased. I accepted the hopelessness of my situation a little more. The problem? Those three days between Party Ready and Disaster Status. They were a black hole in my Slob Brain. I honestly didn’t understand what had happened during those three days. "My cruelly messy house" perfectly describes how I feel sometimes.I also got a copy of a short bonus book called 14 Days to Opening Your Front Door to Guests. This is a single-purpose book; it's only about what to do if your house is a disaster and you're having guests over (for whatever reason, it doesn't have to be Thanksgiving). It's also possibly the single most useful book on the subject I've ever read; it's got laser focus and pulls no punches about the goal. If you pre-order the book, you get this little book as a bonus.Conclusion: if you're a messy person with housekeeping problems, you need this book. Plus it's really fun to read.I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I have been reading Dana's blog “A Slob Comes Clean” for several years. I have two of her e-books. I also bought the new book last week and I think it’s terrific! It is somewhat like the blog in that she shares her experiences and strategies to help with “slob vision” and “slob brain.” But at the same time, she shares new insights in fresh ways, and you don’t have to read the blog for hours to get to the gems of how to proceed and tackle your home.I was stubbornly convinced I was not a slob. I blamed it on the fact that we lived in an old house we were remodeling, but then we moved to a new ranch house and it still was messy. I blamed it on the fact that I had messy children, but then they grew up and left home. And the house, basement, and garage are STILL messy. So I must face the fact that the problem is ME.A typical way I was handling “The whole house is a mess and I have to do something” was usually to go to an area like my closet and tackle that. The problem is, I was so focused on it (that wasn’t even visible) and didn’t do the dishes, clear the kitchen counters, or do quick tidying up of other rooms. Bad idea. I was usually left with a partially done closet AND a messy house. Dana advises to always deal with the visible things first, and then gives strategies to deal with the other stuff. You get traction that way and can keep going forward, no matter if your circumstances aren’t perfect.One of the issues that Dana discusses is that it can take a very long time to form habits, but those same habits can be broken lightning fast. She suggests a short list of non-negotiables – the “must do” daily things in order for any household to run. They really do make all the difference!The day the book came in the mail, I did a quick skimming of the chapters. It was SO good that I knew I wanted to go back and highlight the things that had jumped out at me. Having been a long time reader of her blog, I KNEW what to do, I just wasn’t doing it. This time was gonna be different! Oh yeah, and there was a chapter about using a timer. That is actually one thing I had done in the past, but stopped doing. I don’t even know why I stopped. I know I suffer from a mindset of putting things off if I have all day to do it. Or if I don’t have a lot of time, I won’t do stuff because I think I don’t have enough time. Dana tackles that issue as well.So I am reading that chapter about time, nodding my head and highlighting the important parts. I get to the end, and she quotes someone who had commented on her blog. I start highlighting it because the advice is SO good. Yes, this is so ME. Yes, yes, using a timer is just the thing! Then I turn the page and realize it IS me. I wrote the comment. For real. Check it out – it’s on pages 55+56. See? Slob brain. Hey, my advice is GOOD and it works. I just have to remember to set the timer and DO it!There is a lovely channel on YouTube called “How Jen Does It.” She does a marvelous job of showing how to manage your home. Seriously, I enjoy her cleaning videos. She makes it look so easy and she doesn’t spend all day doing it. You want to know what her secret is? All she is doing is quick cleaning and tidying. She doesn’t have piles of clutter to deal with, she isn’t shuffling mounds of paperwork out of the way as she cleans her kitchen counters, and she has a place for everything and everything is in its place.How to get to where Jen is? Where housework isn’t overwhelming and you can enjoy your home? If you, too, have “slob vision” and “slob brain,” read and FOLLOW Dana’s advice! The bad news is that you can have the perfect system, but systems don’t work themselves. We have to DO the work. If you feel hopeless, Dana’s got your back. Buy the book and actually do what she suggests! I could go on and on. But I have some work to do. There are some non-negotiable tasks calling my name.

Dana K. White helps you get organized, even if you are not the organized type. Written in easy to follow manner, without assuming you are an organizer. Has a good sense of humour along with the info.

This book tells it like it is. It takes a no- nonsense approach to managing a home and doesn’t assume that you know it all. Everything is broken down into simple doable steps that, if you stick to them, you’ll soon see the results you’re looking for. This book is peppered with hilarious anecdotes, and Dana’s sound advice for regaining control, of an out of control home, really does work. This is a practical guide with good advice and tried and tested methods that are easy to follow, and Dana has a great sense of humour too.

Dieses ist mein Lieblingsbuch von Dana K. White. Erstens ist es lustig. Zweitens ist die Autorin ehrlich und beschönigt nicht ihre eigenen Fehler. Wohl gerade deswegen gelingt es ihr, Menschen, die mit ähnlichen Problemen zu kämpfen haben, zu helfen, und das auf kurzweilige, vergnügliche Art und Weise. Übrigens: Im Hörbuch kommt ihr Humor gleich noch einmal so gut zur Geltung.

This is the ONLY resource that has ever helped me to get on top of my housekeeping disasters.It is especially good for people with ADHD.I bought the audiobook and the ebook and I cannot recommend it more highly.If FlyLady lost you at polishing your kitchen sink every night before bed, or Marie Kondo lost you when you had no idea where to look for every one of a particular thing in your house then get this book. Then get her next book. You'll thank me later.

Well-written with humour and lots of great pointers that make sense