Carol Bakker's Reviews > How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind: Dealing with Your House's Dirty Little Secrets

3.5 stars

Well, I messed up and read Dana White's books out of order. Decluttering at the Speed of Life was, in fact, life changing for me. The container principle (whatever size your container aka bookshelf, cupboard, drawer, closet, [cough cough] HOUSE — limits the size of what you can store: so limit what you keep to the size of your container) was so helpful for me to reframe culling decisions.

But. When I encountered it in *this* book, it was "old hat," "yeah, I know that already." It's still really good stuff, it's just not new and earth-shaking to me today.

I loved several things: looking at managing your home NOT as a 'project' but as daily habits. Working on the most visible parts of your house first. Making basic chores (washing dishes, sweeping the kitchen floor) non-negotiable habits.

Her first daily habit is "do the dishes" — so reminiscent of the Flylady's command to polish the sink. For me, home cleaning/management/how-to books are just like diet books. I've tried them all. It's sort of like playing the game: "What diet have you NOT tried?" But, really, it makes sense. Dirty dishes all over the counter and piled precariously in the sink spell S-L-O-B better than any Scripps Spelling Bee Contestant.

The other throw-back, for me, was timing how long a task took. Yep. I did that with Sidetracked Home Executives. I timed myself vacuuming the ghastly olive green shag carpet (9 minutes) and put it on an index card. I still have those cards. Sigh.

The best thing about Dana White's approach, I think, is that she has a way of reframing your dilemmas *and* answering them. Selling on Ebay? Just donate the stuff!

But I'm gonna one-up Dana and give you the *best* Home Management tip ever: Marry a Neat Freak. I shudder, positively seize, imaging what my life would be like if I had married a slob. My husband, aka The Laundry Czar (he changes loads in the middle of the night, for reals!), thinks and acts in an orderly way. It has been the biggest blessing of my life.

Which brings me back to one of Dana's best quotes: Ideas weren’t making a difference. The only thing that made a difference was actually doing something. I can't tell you HOW MANY times I've read a book, gurgled and bubbled about my 'new system', and my husband has said, "Just vacuum the *$(&@# floor; stop reading books!" It all comes down to doing the work.