The Best House Cleaning Advice You’ll Ever Receive

Each of us has a struggle in life we have to deal with on a regular basis. Me? Housekeeping. House cleaning. Dealing with clutter. Those are my big struggles. I am still trying to figure it all out. That’s why I jumped at the chance to read an advance copy of Dana K. White’s brand new book, How to Manage Your Home without Losing Your Mind: Dealing with Your House’s Dirty Little Secrets. Now THAT is a title I really sink my teeth in to!

I’ve read all the books ever published on organizing and cleaning and decluttering and and and. Well, nearly all. Most of them leave me feeling defeated before I get through the first chapter. The authors just don’t ‘get’ me and my issues. Their brains obviously don’t think like mine, because they are naturally organized, they naturally see what needs to be done. I don’t. {Take note. I’m recommending this book and I’m including my affiliate links to make it easy for you to purchase. If you choose to do so, I thank you! If not, that’s ok too.}

What’s different about Dana’s book? Well, you’ve heard that age-old question, “How do you eat an elephant?” Answer: “One bite at a time!”  That pretty much sums up Dana’s methods. Her past attempts at keeping a tidy house failed. She made the choice a few years back to figure out how to conquer the clutter and put her house in order and also to figure out why. Even though that is what she had always wanted, it just was not coming naturally. She wanted to overcome that and she wanted to know why so she could begin winning the battle. Over time Dana saw how focusing on one basic daily task (like washing the dishes) made a huge impact on the whole house. Then she added one more task to that daily task. And saw even more improvement.

What did I love most about this book? She not only tackles the ‘how’ of it, she gets down to the ‘why’ of it. Why do I not see clutter when I step around multiple times a day? Why do I have a hard time finishing a task? Why is it so hard to figure out what to do next? A Slob Comes Clean, where Dana has been blogging for the last 7 years, has been her Slob Lab. She tackled all these questions and all this craziness in real life and shared her experience, her results, her discoveries. And she’s put it all in to this book! And she’s hilarious.

Here’s a peek at the Table of Contents – each chapter begins with a fantasy, and the reality. These were ‘ah-ha!’ moments for me. Yes, my brain had this glorious illusion of what it would be like to get my house in order, but the reality of it is, I’ll never attain that perfect fantasy I’ve built up, because. . . we LIVE in our house, not in my fantasies!

The author put a name to the obstacles that keep me from accomplishing what I need to – things like Time Passage Awareness Disorder (T.P.A.D.) and Procrasticlutter and Project Mentality. You’ll have to read her book and/or visit her blog to learn more about these. She explains them in clear and humorous detail there. When that old familiar feeling of panic arises I can easily squelch it because of the tools Dana equips me with in her book. No problem, Dana and me, we have this!

“A decision that’s waiting to be made is stressful, even if I don’t realize it’s stressing me. Routines remove the need to make the same decisions over and over again.”

In the book, I read about making pre-made decisions – this made so much sense! If you know ahead of time you don’t keep used gift wrapping, it’s a no-brainer to toss it into trash or recycle bin when you straighten up the clutter on the table. I also found many relate-able scenarios — like saving toilet paper tubes. Really? Who save toilet paper tubes? I did, and so did Dana! We both had grand ideas of what to do with them – maybe I’ll share a post here one day about mine, but you can read about hers and what she did about it in the book.

The thing is, this lady is the real deal. She is not just talking the talk, she’s walked the walk. She speaks my language, her brain thinks like my brain, and she’s funny! One favorite section of mine was a “slob-logic conversation” she had with herself about doing or not doing the dishes (it’s on page 35) If you are used to doing the dishes only when you have to do the dishes, you’ll understand the thoughts/rationalization that runs through my head about why I don’t need to do the dishes when there is not a big pile rising from the sink. The author’s own conversations with her own self are eerily similar to those that have played out in my own brain over and over and over again.

Following Dana’s methods we are establishing better habits, better routines, and loving the space we live in all the more. The day my book arrived I curled up with a hot cup of coffee and couldn’t put it down (honestly, see that title photo up above? My daughter took that while I was lost in my own little deslobification world.) I read from cover to cover – it was FUN to read! It was liberating! I learned it was ok to not be perfect. In fact, I began to realize I did not have to be perfect. It was just fine to just make things better.

I was also excited to find her 28 Days to Hope for Your Home book included as an appendix at the end of the book. If you’ve visited her blog, you may be familiar with this gem. A day-by-day tutorial for her tried and true methods. That alone is worth buying this book!

We all have the supplies we need on hand, because really there are very few supplies we need. That’s a myth excuse for putting off my de-slobification journey. I’ve already started. Who’s with me?!

It was such a joy (a relief!)  to read the words and thoughts from the heart of a kindred spirit! Like Dana, I am a self-professed slob who has a history of piles and messes but with a dream of happily-clean-ever-after. The transparent and humorous real-life account Dana shares in How to Manage Your Home without Losing Your Mind gives me hope and courage as I work to make a home for my family.

What’s your biggest housekeeping struggle? Have you ordered Dana’s book yet? What did you gain from reading it? Let’s discuss in the comments!

These products will help you get started on your Deslobification journey. Disclosure: I was given an advance copy of this book in return for my honest and unbiased review. I was also sent a gift box of lovely cleaning supplies that I have chosen to put to good use while implementing the terrific methods I read about in this book.

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