Customer Reviews

Household Hints for Dummies

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A friend gave me this book as a housewarming present and I thought she was nuts because I've had my own home for 30 years. What could I possibly learn from a book about keeping house? As it turns out, plenty! I cannot believe how many hints, ideas and shortcuts I've used from the book -- on taking care of my house, clothes, car, pets. Mine is by my bedside, so I can read a little passage on how to get wax out of carpeting or iron a shirt efficiently before I go to bed. Lest you think I'm a cleaning fanatic, I am not. My house is littered with papers and junk because I work full-time. What this book has done is show me how to use shortcuts and techniques that make keeping things under control easier and less tedious. I salute Janet Sobesky and the publishers. If the whole series is as useful as this book, I'm buying them all.

Throw all your other cleaning books away! Janet Sobesky's Household Hints for Dummies has all the information you'll ever need. Her tips are clever and helpful--whether you're removing an ink stain from a blouse or wondering how often you need to clean your drapes. This book makes cleaning less of a chore.

This book is great for the kids going off to live on their own (either school, marriage or moving in with boy/girlfriend, or just leaving home) My mom just passed away so its up to me to keep the house tidy and I dont have the advisor I used to have so this book is great!!! Hints on everything from cleaning the right/easier/faster way to keeping home clutter free, getting kids to help out and even tips on little household jobs and keeping bugs away. Book has lots of hints and easy to see icons alerting u of dangers or more tips.

Why didn't my mother tell me all this? I believe that reading this book should be required along with every marriage license, lease and mortgage agreement. This book is a natural for a bridal shower gift, or anyone just setting up housekeeping. I'm giving it to everyone on my gift list for Christmas!

This review is for the Kindle edition . . .I wish I had the book version to make it easier to flip through to find what I'm looking for, but having said that, I am still very impressed with the usefulness and practical creativity of this book. I am not new to keeping house; I have two sports-mad sons (and lots of other active kids in athletic shoes trekking in and out), a husband who does lots of outdoor exercise and gardening, and five(count 'em!)big dogs. As you may imagine, I have cleaning issues. Thus far, I have been able to tackle the daily messes and keep our heads above water but then, I've been fortunate enough to have had the weekly help of a wonderful cleaner for a number of years. Sadly for me, my cleaner is now retiring and I am left with full-time cleaning issues. I realized I need an organized strategy to accomplish the household jobs in a timely fashion so that I can get on with my life and still maintain a decently clean home. Thus, I turned to this book. Wow! There are so many tips that seem so obvious, so commonsensical, but which were still revelations to me (and me with a number of years of homemaking under my belt). For instance, what to do with those orphaned socks that always seem to pop up? Slip them over your hands and use them to apply furniture polish, or to dust, etc. Huh! Why didn't I think of that? Or, WD-40 to remove crayon marks? Who knew?!!! There are so many such tips offered, time-saving and organizational strategies outlined, and recipes given for homemade, thrifty, and eco-friendly cleansers that it's impossible to convey the wealth of good ideas this volume holds. It is not for dummies, after all. It's for all and sundry who have a home to care for. The only "dummies" are those who may imagine they won't benefit from this little gem of a book.

What there was in this pocket edition was very helpful.

It seems to have done the trick, having me want to go out and get the full version of the book.

So many great suggestions, such a great format, and a fun, engaging read too! Highly recommended!

A friend gave me this book as a housewarming present and I thought she was nuts because I've had my own home for 30 years. What could I possibly learn from a book about keeping house? As it turns out, plenty! I cannot believe how many hints, ideas and shortcuts I've used from the book -- on taking care of my house, clothes, car, pets. Mine is by my bedside, so I can read a little passage on how to get wax out of carpeting or iron a shirt efficiently before I go to bed. Lest you think I'm a cleaning fanatic, I am not. My house is littered with papers and junk because I work full-time. What this book has done is show me how to use shortcuts and techniques that make keeping things under control easier and less tedious. I salute Janet Sobesky and the publishers. If the whole series is as useful as this book, I'm buying them all.

This book is a "wonderment." And a "wonderment" is a thing of wonder. Don't bypass this book if you are anal. Anals have super clean houses and are frequently
nurses. They start sniffing the air for dirt as soon as you walk in. The author calls
them "clean-o-holics." This is such a great book. It's like being at Disneyland.
We first go to section 1 (there are six sections). Here we may be in for some disappointments. The author won't say it. But she really hypothesizes that you
can't have (this is hard to grasp) a user-friendly house or dwelling unless you have
a minimum of some time-management or organizational skills. Now she doesn't
write separate books on time-management or organization, but she does give the
bare minimum of these skills. That includes calendars and "to-do" lists. She does
say that you can go right to the other sections to learn. But the implications are
what I just stated. Sections two through four give us all the stuff that we need.
The messy bathroom. The messy kitchen. And so on. This takes up a lot of room
in the book. About 180 pages of this 350-page book. Section 4 is about "troubleshooting." The stuck door, bugs, the plunger. Section 5 is about safety.
Burglars, bad food, accidents. Section 6 is "The Part of Tens." Basically everything
that we didn't cover in the previous five sections. One of the points that I am trying to make is that this book is even good for the "clean-o-holic." Because they can find out how much they don't need to do. Thank you. I hope that I have helped