Customer Reviews

Mrs. Meyer's Clean Home: No-Nonsense Advice that Will Inspire You to CLEAN like the DICKENS

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Having used many of Mrs. Meyer's cleaning products over the years and having found all of them both effective and pleasant to use, I looked forward to this book. In fact, I bought a copy for myself and one to give as a gift. And the online excerpts looked promising.

But, on receiving and reading the book itself --- what a keen disappointment! The book appears to have been self-published because the absence of professional editing is striking. The text is ponderously heavy on family lore and reminiscences, used in a way that frequently crowds out useful advice. The formatting uses sketches and enlarged graphics in place of substantive text. And the substance of the text itself is problematic.

There are some helpful lists given. But beyond those, there are concerns. Some of the advice is painfully obvious ("flush toilets after every use") and some just plain bad. We're told, for instance, to clean a refrigerator when it begins to smell (!) and then to "unplug it and take everything out." This is poor household management. A better, less time-consuming practice is to clean a shelf a week: move everything to one side and clean the empty side with a cloth wrung out of a solution of two tablespoons baking soda to one gallon of hot water. Dry the cleaned side, move things to the clean surface and clean the other side, sorting outdated items as you go. This piecemeal cleaning, done at least once a week, completely avoids the crisis mode of Mrs. Meyer's choice.

More troubling are the lapses in taste that even cross the boundary into vulgarity. Beyond the admonition about flushing every time there is, for one example, her four-year-old's graphic description of a stray cat giving birth (repeated twice in case you weren't sufficiently grossed out the first time). This kind of story does not improve anyone's housekeeping skills.

Women in the twenty-first century don't want to choose between having a home and pursuing a career. They want both. But there is a disconnect between this generation of new homemakers and their mothers and even their grandmothers, neither of whom may have been homemakers themselves. Therefore the popularity of the many books on home management now available. Martha Stewart's book Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook: the Essential Guide to Caring for Everything in Your Home is wonderful, full of useful, detailed information, helpfully indexed. Cheryl Mendelsohn's Home Comforts is encyclopedic and good reading besides. And neither of these writers peppers her prose with "Geez," as Meyer frequently does.

A personal favorite of mine is Karen Logan's Clean House, Clean Planet, in which Logan includes many family stories and references without once lapsing into Meyer's poor taste. Logan's book also contains her personal recipes for safe, natural cleaning solutions, several of which I have used successfully for years.

In addition to these three, an interested reader can find literally dozens of other choices. I only wish Mrs. Meyer had created a truly valuable addition to the list!

To someone who is learning how to keep house for the first time on their own, this book is a godsend! Since moving into my own place, I've been learning that cleaning the house is NOT an easy task but it's something that must be done. This book will help out the complete novice who's never had to clean a day in their life to the well seasoned housekeeper who knows all the little tricks of the trade. The book tackles each room in the house in their own chapter. Throughout that chapter, the reader learns how to maintain everything in the room from shelves to the ceiling, under the bed to the shower curtains, practically everything you could imagine. There's little tips and tricks throughout the book that will grab your attention and make you want to try them out immediately. Each chapter starts off with a toolbox list of the things you will need to clean each particular room. Pretty much everything is on grounds for cleaning down to your car and driveway and your pets as well. It's written in an informative yet entertaining style. Even those who are neat freaks and clean every day will get a kick out of this book. Really there's no excuse for you to say you don't have time or don't know how to clean after reading this book. This is a book that every home should have a copy of. Like the last page of the book says: "A Clean Home is a Happy Home!"

This book is going to be a new automatic housewarming gift from me. Mrs. Meyer packs every page with valuable information, motivation, funny anecdotes, and handy tips. Somehow, even in the litany of cleaning tasks she teaches the reader to tackle, she doesn't make it seem like a daunting task to have a clean, pleasant home that makes you and your family feel happy. It helps that she's practical to the utmost. She raised nine children, and her standard of clean was not "immaculate," but rather, "livable." If you tend to get bogged down in trying to make everything perfectly clean, Mrs. Meyer will not only help you focus on organizing your attempts at cleaning and on doing something instead of nothing, she gives you the tools you need to do so. The book is organized by room (or area) of the house/yard, and includes a sample schedule of daily, weekly, monthly, and seasonal cleaning tasks. Attempting to follow this schedule is strangely freeing. Even if we miss a day's tasks, there's a make-up/rest day built in, and Mrs. Meyer is encouraging and inspiring. There is no sense that a level of perfection can be reached while people are actually living in and enjoying the home, but she makes the reader feel inspired to at least try. And those attempts make visible improvements. An "emergency" guide for making the house seem clean when company is on the way is as indispensable as the rest of the book. Mrs. Meyer is also frugal and environmentally conscious, so her cleaning methods are focused on that angle, which I thought was fantastic. Even better, these inexpensive, non-hazardous methods actually work, often better than the purchased harsh chemicals. I highly recommend this book to anyone who doesn't have a staff to keep the house clean and organized.

Whether we're trying to keep a one bedroom apartment clean or a huge house full of kids, we can always use help with cleaning. Mrs. Meyer's Clean Home could be the answer!

Who is Mrs. Meyer? Thelma Meyer, mother of nine children, was the inspiration for the Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day line of natural cleaning products. This product line was developed by Thelma's daughter Monica. The purpose of the book is not to promote these products, but instead, tells us it's not what you clean with, it's also HOW you clean. The book offers many tips for do-it-yourself cleaners using basic ingredients like baking soda, lemon juice and vinegar.

The book provides a recommended cleaning schedule, outlining tasks to be managed on a daily, weekly, monthly and even yearly basis. Chapters take the reader through the different rooms of the house with tips and detailed instructions for each of those rooms. I found this approach
really helpful. On top that, for each room she gives you a list of helpful cleaning tools and products to have on hand.

Usually books of this genre are dry , but that isn't the case with this book. The advice is straight-forward, and Mrs. Meyer's personality definitely shines through. I don't know about the rest of you, but I can always use advice and tips on how to clean better and faster. I would have loved to have this book when my kids were little. It would have saved me from a few disasters they created. (Ask me sometime about the crib full of chocolate ice cream!)

An emphasis is placed on using natural, non-toxic products where possible and conserving water and energy. Mrs. Meyer's Clean Home will be available in bookstores on 3/2/09

The big clue regarding whether this book is for your or not is something I didn't have at the time of purchase. It's about green cleaning. Reducing your carbon and toxic chemical footprint is the common theme throughout this part instructional manual, part little memories and stories, part helpful household tips book.

I wanted to know a) how to clean up the filthy tub I inherited from the previous resident who managed to leave a nasty ring AND mysteriously bright blue stains, b) the best way to clean hardwood floors since I've been using the Bona system and they really aren't getting clean, and c) how to get sheets to smell fresh since no matter how much I wash them and even have bleached them they still kind of smell like dirty laundry.

The answer to every question seems to be white vinegar and baking soda.

Well...while I do find vinegar to be useful for many household cleaning tasks, I don't find it to be that effective for the tub, hardwood, or musty laundry.

There are certainly some great tips in here and I'm not sorry I purchased the book. I'll keep it on hand for sure. But I still need a good helpful household cleaning tips type book that is perhaps just a little less green and a lot more clean.

I was given this book as a housewarming present when I moved into my first apartment. My aunt's assumptions about my housekeeping skills aside, I do like this book. It's organized logically, provides specific directions for different materials, and has amusing little sidebars and anecdotes.

One thing that pleasantly surprised me was the fact that, despite the Mrs Meyer's logo on the front, the text itself barely mentions the line of products. My expectation had been that, since the book was a Mrs Meyer product, it would strongly promote the use of other Mrs Meyer products. Not so; the book relies on generic cleaners such as baking soda, vinegar and lemon juice. It's refreshingly non-commercial.

One part hilarious and two parts no-nonsense, having a copy of MRS MEYERS CLEAN HOME is like having your smart, funny aunt around to tell it to you straight. With all the "green" books out there, it's about time that someone wrote a book on the old-fashioned way of "being conscious" and "reducing carbon footprint": Don't waste anything and take good care of what you have. I can't wait to bring it to my friend's housewarming party!

The value of this book is it has a lot of sensible or common sense wisdom that home economic classes and our female elders taught us in decades past. Fact is, since the 80's more and more women have chosen to work outside the home while hiring someone to come in weekly to do cleaning.

Research shows that many, many women this past year with economic slow downs, do not know how to clean using items found round the home. Many don't know how to iron, much less make a cake from scratch. One need only read the daily or weekly NYTimes articles on how people are discovering backyard chickens, vegetable gardens, and mending clothes rather than tossing them out.

Thus for those who don't know how to do homemaking arts, this book is a good start.

I love this book and have been bookmarking pages since I received it. FULL of great advice. I like how it does not constantly tout her cleaning products but gives alternative cleaning methods such as using baking soda, vinegar or lemon juice.

Perfect for : Personal Use, cleaning resource book, great gift for: wedding, someone moving into their first house/dorm/apartment, etc

In a nutshell: This book is filled with practical advice, including a very helpful suggested schedule for cleaning throughout the house (daily, weekly, monthly, etc). Once you build a routine, she has provided detailed suggestions for cleaning specific items, for example, the kitchen sink: the sink, the drain, the faucets, and for those trouble sinks - getting them really clean! Other items in the kitchen: countertop appliances, walls and windows, oven, pots, and silverware, microwave, dishwasher, refrigerator, garbage can, table, cabinets, and floors. . . . those are just for the kitchen! For the past few years, I've been trying to build a household cleaning list for myself (including how often to clean each item), and this book has just done that for me! I love it!! I also really appreciate the household cleaners that she suggests as an alternative to harsh chemicals (baking soda, vinegar, rosemary, club soda, lemon, etc). I think this book would be helpful for the person who already has a clean home, and the one who needs to have a cleaner home! The tips and tricks provided in this book are invaluable, and healthier for you and your family!

Extended Review: One thing I really liked was the author's views about conserving water and energy when possible, and how that transfers to respect for money and resources. She also talks about the safety of cleaning products and offers alternative cleaners (use vodka to clean diamond jewelry, p. 124). She also provides so much detail - I had no idea I was supposed to vacuum the refrigerator coils! Plus, she even shares how to care for books on page 120!

Content: This book contains an introduction which covers the cleaning basics (what to clean, when to clean (spring/fall cleaning), organizing priorities, good-for-you cleaning products, cleaning supply list, and a list of things to do during the week to help keep your house clean. Then there are specific chapters for : the kitchen, the bathroom, the living room, the bedroom, the home office, the laundry, "Nooks and Crannies," and the outdoors. The final sections of the book are more resources and cover "Pets, Odors and Pests," a handy glossary, etc.

Format: The book is set up with an introduction, and then chapters for each main area of the house, including outside! The chapters are set up very nicely with a detail in the front of everything the chapter will cover and what page it is on. This is very helpful as it helps you find exactly what you are looking for.

Readability: Easy to read and understand!

Overall: I just love this book. It is going to have a special place in my kitchen so I can reference it when I have cleaning issues. This book would be a great gift for someone just moving out of the house, or getting married, or someone who wants to try to get away from harsh chemicals. . . or someone who just needs a little extra help getting organized with cleaning tasks!