The Family Manager's Everyday Survival Guide [Paperback]

Kathy Peel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 29, 1998

"Whoever you are, and however you operate as a family manager, this book can help. Use it as a yearly planner, a reminder, and a good friend with good ideas."
--Kathy Peel

Throughout the year, life is full of surprises. A sudden rainy day confines your kids to home. Wouldn't it be nice to give them fifty fun ways to combat cabin fever? Your husband calls: he's bringing home some important business associates for dinner. Imagine whipping up a delicious meal on a half hour's notice. A sudden visit from family? Learn to clean your entire house in a weekend. You can do it--and family manager expert Kathy Peel shows you how in this indispensable year-round planner.

¸  Outline monthly and seasonal goals and strategies
¸  Develop your best management style
¸  Apply the seven survival strategies
¸  Simplify finances and record keeping
¸  Anticipate and plan for the big changes

Plus ideas for shortcuts in the kitchen, speed cleaning, smart shopping, and hundreds of other ways to make every day easier and your life much happier.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Here's another winner from Kathy Peel. She's got tons of great ideas from decluttering to cleaning, from organizing child care to throwing great, stress-free parties! There's a comprehensive index in the back, and a complete table of contents in the front, so this one's terrific to keep around for a reference!

Eileen Gaffney, Associate Managing Editor

From the Inside Flap

"Whoever you are, and however you operate as a family manager, this book can help. Use it as a yearly planner, a reminder, and a good friend with good ideas."
--Kathy Peel

Throughout the year, life is full of surprises. A sudden rainy day confines your kids to home. Wouldn't it be nice to give them fifty fun ways to combat cabin fever? Your husband calls: he's bringing home some important business associates for dinner. Imagine whipping up a delicious meal on a half hour's notice. A sudden visit from family? Learn to clean your entire house in a weekend. You can do it--and family manager expert Kathy Peel shows you how in this indispensable year-round planner.

¸  Outline monthly and seasonal goals and strategies
¸  Develop your best management style
¸  Apply the seven survival strategies
¸  Simplify finances and record keeping
¸  Anticipate and plan for the big changes

Plus ideas for shortcuts in the kitchen, speed cleaning, smart shopping, and hundreds of other ways to make every day easier and your life much happier.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; 1 edition (September 29, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345419855
• ISBN-13: 978-0345419859
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #557,566 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kathy Peel is CEO of Family Manager Inc., a company that trains women in the art of family management. She has written 21 books, selling more than 2 million copies. Her latest works are The Busy Couple's Guide to Sharing the Work & the Joy, The Busy Mom's Guide to a Happy, Organized Home (winner of the 2009 Gold Mom's Choice Award) and Desperate Households. She is AOL's Kids & Family Coach, and she contributes to many publications, including FamilyFun, Parents, Woman's World, Family Circle, HomeLife, and ParentDish. A popular speaker and media personality with repeat appearances on programs such as Oprah, The Early Show, The Today Show, and HGTV.

Visit Kathy Peel's Web site: www.familymanager.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Refreshing and Down to Earth Book, August 5, 1999

By 

D. Williams "Host of By the Book Radio" (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Family Manager's Everyday Survival Guide (Paperback)

The Family Manager's Everyday Survival Guide by Kathy Peel

What a wonderfully refreshing resource Ms. Peel's book is! The Family Manager's Everyday Survival Guide is not only filled with useful, practical effective tips for managing your home, but the author's philosophy is so REAL. She immediately provides the reader with "10 Reasons to Get Organized", followed by "10 Reasons Why You'll Never Get Organized and Stay That Way Forever" - how true to life! So many books on organizing and time management teach just one way of doing things, and when this style does not match the reader's personal style, a sense of failure is created; but not so with Everday Survival Guide.

This book is well written, easy to follow, and (dare I say it) well organized. It is a guide, reference book, and primer all in one. Reading one of the basic principles in organizing early in the book is a big plus for the reader: "Organization is an ongoing art, a process, not an end product." This is exactly what organizing professionals teach their clients, and a lesson not to be dismissed lightly. By stating this right up front, Kathy Peel has tuned the reader in to the fact that there is nothing wrong with them, and the quest for finding balance in their life is shared by all women.

I particularly enjoyed the home management exercises, such as looking through rooms in your home for "secret" storage space, and not taking anything for granted in uncluttering your home. Using checklists as a time-saver is a wonderful idea, avoiding being disorganized on trips, for parties, etc.

I've added The Family Manager's Everyday Survival Guide to my recommended reading list for my workshops and teleclasses, and encourage readers to buy two copies: one for themselves, and one for a friend. Happy organizing!

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely Essential Reading, August 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Family Manager's Everyday Survival Guide (Paperback)

This book is wonderful! It is down-to-earth, practical, easy to read and thorough. All of her tips are very do-able, and she never implies that her way is the *only* way (or even the *best* way, for that matter). The author encourages readers to take their own personality, family size, lifestyle, etc. into account and work from there, instead of trying to achieve some Martha Stewart (aka Impossible) ideal. I highly recommend this book.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Full of Information, Repeat of much information, October 22, 2001

By 

apoem "apoem" (Bosque Farms, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Family Manager's Everyday Survival Guide (Paperback)

First the positive:
This book is full of useful information to help you in organizing your home, your time, your life and more. There are many hints and techniques as well as a encouragement. If you are just starting down the road to organizing, this is a good book to begin with.

However, if you already have a fairly well run family and need to fine tune your organizing this is not the book to get.
Much of this can be read in any women's magazine in any given month. Many of the ideas are very simplistic (not that this is all bad).

Overall, I'd say that there are other better books out there that deal with organizing a home. I prefer Confessions of a Happily Organized Family or others by the same author.