Customer Reviews

The House That Cleans Itself: Creative Solutions for a Clean and Orderly House in Less Time Than You Can Imagine

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book is aimed at people who are cleaning impaired. As someone who struggles with keeping a clean house I knew this book was written for someone like me. I really enjoyed the cleaning tips and especially liked the embarrassing house cleaning stories at the end of each chapter.

However, I do think it is a little complicated of a system for someone who really struggles with keeping a house clean. I personally like Flylady's (Marla Cilley) plan for helping the cleaning impaired as it keeps things simple and helps you to start a small foundation and build upon it until you find your house is running itself. This system starts out with the big picture first and it was too overwhelming to even think about doing all the planning and work it required.

The book was worth reading and it did include useful information on cleaning a house (and keeping it clean).

This book makes sensible suggestions that you wish you'd thought of yourself. Thank goodness for the only book that has ever made a difference in my house, and I have a stack of them! The author recommends changing the set-up of your house BEFORE you change your behavior. She further proposes that if you could change your behavior when it comes to organzation and cleaning, that you wouldn't need her book. I highly recommend this for anyone who is drowning and in despair over the state of their house. If you've been embarrassed when someone dropped by unexpectedly, this is the guide for you. Dive in and change your life!

Housekeeping is not my forte. Like Mindy Starnes Clark I feel drawn to helpful hints, but alas, they end up becoming part of my clutter rather than part of my solution.

This book is designed for the housekeeping impaired or challenged. What an amazing idea...restructuring the house rather than attempting to rewire the brains of the household members.

Eureka! If you have struggled with waves of stuff, or a house that seems to explode contents randomly and without warning, this book may be "the one!"

The very Christian message of prayer and persistance is within the pages along with encouragement.

Though I may not begin tomorrow, the ideas and tips are going to be swirling in my mind for weeks, and I'll end up taking a highlighter to the book and then I'm going to get to work.

Two of my housekeeping nightmares are printed in the book and it was no surprise to my friends and family that my stories were chosen.

The House that Cleans Itself and I are going to become very close. I think I can smell lemony fresh freedom.

Mindy Starns Clark is one smart chick - she's the gifted author of a series of inspirational mysteries and a Christian wife and mother. The Trouble with Tulip (Smart Chick Mysteries, Book 1) She's also one of us "creative types". Like me, Mindy was born "housekeeping-challenged".

This book is geared toward women who do not naturally know how to clean a house. We are hard-working and well-intentioned, but we wok ourselves into a frenzy and the house is still not good enough. If this sounds like you, then buy this book. Mindy will help you analyze what you are doing and re-learn it, step by step. She teaches you how to work smarter instead of harder (you're probably already working hard enough). You will learn to how to keep your house good enough all the time, instead of "very nice" once a month. This book will help you relax and find peace with your own personality. And most importantly, Mindy emphasizes that having a daily relationship with God is the only way to start - because unless the Lord builds a house, they labor in vain that build it... even a house that cleans itself!

This book is a great way to FINALLY get your home neat and clean, for good. Just like dieting is a quick fix to loose weight, but doesn't keep the pounds off, spurts of frantic cleaning right before guests come over won't keep your home clean once the guests leave. To acheive and maintain your ideal weight you have to change your lifestyle, so why should we expect it to be any different with keeping the house clean? This book will walk you thorugh step by step how to make those lifestyle changes to keep your house clean. I'm not talking about adding 2 hours of chores to your already hectic schedule, but instead looking at WHY the kitchen counter is always a disaster or the coffee table is always cluttered/messy (It is almost like free therapy for your home) and coming up with a solution that works for you, not the solution that "generally works" for people.

I am really enjoying this book. I bought it because of the title knowing full well that my house won't literally clean itself--but it's fun to dream. I love the true tales at the end of each chapter helping me to realize there are other people out there at least as messy or worse than I am. Right now we are trying to locate movie tickets that were put somewhere...? I'm already thinking of ways to put Mindy's tips to work for me. I don't think my family will like it much! You can tell that Mindy has been there and knows how it feels to be embarrased by the cluttered mess. This book is chocked full of information and inspiration.
Jacque Fessenden

I employed a few simple ideas and tools that the author recommended and have been surprised that my housecleaning attitude has turned from avoidance to "enjoyment" that the task of cleaning my house for my family or visitors is not as overwhelming or dreaded as it used to be.

I completely related to this author and this book from the first page. And I read LOTS of organizing books. This is my favorite, hands down. House cleaning does not come naturally to me--I am a big picture kind of gal, I like novel things (boo unloading dishwasher every day...it just has to be done again tomorrow), and have a hard time being task-oriented when it comes to mundane things.

Mindy didn't set out to write a housecleaning book. The idea came to her while researching a character for one of her Christian mystery books about a household cleaning tips guru! She basically breaks down the house into "zones" and then has you go through the house section by section and gather "evidence" for what is causing the issues for that area. For instance, lots of shoes by the front door means there is no place to store shoes and there needs to be. Then, you do the standard sort/toss clutter/find places for everything. You also set up systems in each area to streamline and support whatever your household management goals. If you go room by room, this entire project can take months.

I loved this book. Some of the suggestions were so unique and quirky, only a fiction writer could have dreamed them up. That being said, I think some readers might find some of the suggestions a bit strange and uncomfortable...so it is probably not for everyone. However, if you are housecleaning challenged, are comfortable with complex processes (think that makes things more interesting even!), like working with ideas more than things...well, this could be your book.

I love the concept of this book--don't change the way you basically operate ( you won't be able to sustain that change anyway). Instead change your environment to make housekeeping tasks easier. While not all the suggestions in the book would be practical for me, I found many that were. Also the approcah of the book got my creative juices flowing and I found some of my own solutions to my worst clutter problems. I also really appreciated the perspective that you should be the one to decide how clean and orderly you want your house to be, rather than living up to some standard. This book probably would not be of much interest to someone who loves to clean and takes great pride in perfection. However, for someone like me who wants a lovely, orderly home, but does not really enjoy making it so and wants to spend as little time doing so as possible, this book was great!

I highly recommend this book for those who are looking for a process to show how it is possible to streamline cleaning the house and keep it looking that way. Easy reading and reasonable suggestions for organization, cleaning and saving time in the process