apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I've had this book for a few years now, and it's worth the cover price for the author's introduction alone. She answers the anti-feminist backlast issue quite well... amusingly admitting to being a secret homemaker...

Like Martha et al, this work is valuable because it does pull together all the collective know-how that missed getting passed down in the last two generations.

I consider myself a feminist (even though that's a dirty word these days) and don't see how advocating keeping house/cleaning is anti-feminist--unless, of course, she's advocating only women do it, which I somehow doubt! The cynic in me wonders if the author drummed up that issue for publicity, though, since I haven't seen any huge feminist outcry about many issues lately. (Not to mention, if the author is writing books, she's hardly some oppressed, barefoot housewife with no ambition.) I'll check out the book the next time I'm in a bookstore.

I love this book! Not only is it full of great housekeeping information (how to care for books, anyone?), but Mendelson's writing is so engaging that I've been know to pick it up just to read. The author is very clear that housekeeping is not a gender-based activity. Makes a great wedding present too.

I love this book! I got it when it first came out. The author researches EVERYTHING you'd ever want to know about your house, cleaning it, how to clean it, why.... its amazing. This woman is brilliant.

Does it tell how to get paint off of wood floors, windowsills, metal ac units, etc., left behind by messy painters who can't be bothered to clean up after themselves in a timely manner (namely me)? Everything I try takes the paint or finish off of the surfaces.

I got this as soon as it hit the market, and it's solved any domestic puzzle I've ever had. It's a wonderful wedding gift/housewarming gift. Cheryl Mendelson (not Henderson, but kinda close) reminds me of Martha but without all the guilt and baggage. Highly recommended.

I agree that this book has great info, but I was a bit irked by her position that people who hire housecleaners are generally snobby unsympathetic beeyotches, and she personally would never hire someone to clean her house. Gimme a break. She is also obsessed with eradicating all dust mites from places you would never normally worry about them, yet I don't understand what the big deal about them is (unless you are allergic, of course.) But don't get me wrong--lots of other good stuff in the book.

The feminists (full disclosure: I am one) have won the war, if people think total duties of a housewife consist only of cleaning.

I just spent the weekend routing through old stuff from my parents' house trying to decide what to save from stuff that included two full-service sewing boxes, one sewing machine, at least 300 spools of thread, two cookie tins full of cookie cutters, four flour sifters of different sizes, more baking stuff than I could identify, at least twenty knitting needles (including two sets of circular knitting needles and four double-pointed ones, for socks and sleeves), crochet hooks, a tatting set, an embroidery hoop, a washboard (for scrubbing handwashings) and a collection of ironing equipment. Toss in the kitchen garden and the serious canning that some of the housewives did (my mother didn't) and you get the picture of how the time was spent. Housewives of the past didn't just vacuum, let me tell you.

Since I know that most of what Henderson advocates is just cleaning, not the full school of housework, I'll go look for this book.

For Dorio: use Goo Gone or Goof Off.

This is a great book, but has anyone seriously looked at her laundry method? I guess it works great for those who have their own full sized machines. Those of us who use building laundry rooms or laundromats will be staring down 8 or so loads a week. I don't even spend that kind of cash on booze in a week, and I enjoy my cocktails!

That said I'm a total convert to her dusting theories. My wife thinks it's hilarious that every weekend I attack the apartment with a set of damp rags.

Diana, you've motivated me to share my impression of the book... which is that Cheryl Henderson seeks to fill the void left by not gardening, canning, cookie-baking, and sewing with an obsessive hunt for perfect mitelessness. My grandmother canned, sewed, and the whole nine yards -- and while her house was clean and tidy, it wasn't to Henderson's standards of perfection. No one's was.

On the whole, I'd rather cook and sew than obsess about germs. Cooking and sewing at least have a creative element and a visible outcome.

this book is like almost 10 years old. I have had it for ages and it is a godsend for all things domestic

Mendelson, people, Mendelson!! Right there on the cover. Someone (Maxwell?) needs to correct the author link.

I passed on the book because it bordered on OCD for my tastes. I HATE the part about microbes in the kitchen, total USDA party line, no medium rare steak or raw milk cheese for you!! I found it seemed you could claim moral superiority if your house was clean. Sure, it's really nice to have a clean house, but it's not the end of the world if you don't, right? It was just too Puritan work ethic for me. But if I could get past the tone, which I couldn't, it did have useful information.

regards,
trillium

For those of you ticked by the microbe thing, and as a long-time devotee of this book - I think you haven't read it carefully.
Cheryl's take is to "PEACEFULLY CO-EXIST WITH MICROBES." While it is true that she is a bit too picky sounding when it comes to raw milk and the like, she's a lawyer by training and is writing about government regulations. On other stuff, she specifically states that you should NOT try to kill all the bacteria in your home because of the possibility of creating strains that are resistent to erradication and because if your body is never given the opportunity to fight off common germs it will ultimately result in a weakened immune system.
As for the book's overall usefulness, I routinely give it as a housewarming gift and my friends who don't have it are always calling me to look something up. Her stain removal tips alone are worth the purchase price.
I love this book!

Make that "eradicate" and "resistant."

I'm getting a copy from BN.com for my husband. He's the housekeeper in the family.

I'd normally run away from a book that spoke of "keeping house," but you all have me curious about this. I'll have to give it a peek next time I'm in a bookshop. I coexist with a huge range of microbes and entire armies of dust mites, even though we (my husband cleans as much as I) do our best to beat it all back. Three big dogs in the house, and no cleaning service...equals chaos. The truth is, I grew up with a cleaning lady doing the housework, and a mother who was not the most organized person in the world. I have no clue how to "keep" a tidy house because I never learned how. And there are all kinds of people, in all levels of society - who are floundering in dirty, disorganized homes because they never learned how to get it all under control. Even if you hire someone to clean, your home can still be a mess if you haven't organized it well.

BTW, I choose not to have cleaning help because I'm a very private person. Moralizing about whether and why someone would hire a cleaner is absurd. Attaching moral value to having a clean home sounds too much like (various) fundamentalist religions. Didn't Nazi propaganda promote the image of clean, German homes? Scary.

And about the paint splatters...oil will remove latex splatters from a finished floor, or wood or metal window trim (like the Goo b Gone mentioned), but if the surface is painted with a latex, you will have to sand off the wee bumps and touch up with paint again.

I saw a gel at the hardware store for removing latex paint without damage.

Thank you, Sharon!

I love this book. I so love her introduction and identify with it a great deal.

I got this book out of the library after reading about it on another site - and I just ordered it for myself yesterday even though I'm just about done reading it. I want to use it as a ref guide for stains, what to do for spring cleaning (there were things in there I didn't think of, and ones I won't do, but it's nice to have a complete list), and lots of other stuff.