This book takes a different approach to cleaning and keeping house.when you're depressed or just burnt out. It came to me at a good time, because I needed to hear that I'm not a failure just because my laundry doesn't get put away the day it gets washed. It was a simple idea, but an important one nonetheless.

I'm a therapist who was diagnosed with ADHD in my late 20s. As I get further into my career, I find myself working with more and more clients who were also late-diagnosed with ADHD. I say this because I found my way to KC Davis' work while looking for resources to support a common refrain I was hearing from clients about struggling to navigate the minutia of everyday, especially household tasks and hygiene tasks that Davis refers to as "care tasks."

This book is exactly the resource that I was looking for. It's a book more focused on a paradigm shift than some new method to try, and takes lived experience with executive dysfunction and pairs it with what we know about shame, spoon theory, and developing functional strategies to work WITH neurodivergent brains.

I've been watching Davis' TikTok videos and a lot of the concepts in this book are similar to those in her videos. However, I still fully recommend this book because of how the concepts. here are presented in such a clear, succinct, and understandable way.

Three things I particularly love about this book:
1. Even though this book is about care tasks (household and personal), it also comments on concepts related to division of labor and reframing other pieces of human life within a morally neutral context, including movement, and food. The concept of shame is frequently discussed, and Davis' loops in the work of others when it's beyond her own expertise.
2. I love love love analogies and probably overuse them in life, but I so appreciated the literal descriptions Davis provides following analogies throughout the book in order to support readers with more literal learning/communication styles.
3. The short-cut pathway through the text. There is nothing that better illustrates that Davis is the hero we've been looking for than for her to consider what kinds of challenges readers with executive dysfunction may face trying to access the material here.

I couldn't recommend this one more.

Thanks to Netgalley and Simon Element for the ARC of this!

I read the first edition of this and have binged all of the author’s TikToks on my quest to take control of my housekeeping situation. Between mental health issues, tough pregnancies, and a hard time adjusting to the new normal at each stage of parenting, everything felt very overwhelming and I was internalizing all of that to decide what kind of wife, mother, and person I was based on how much I’d managed to get done and what was left. This book does an amazing job of detaching morality from care tasks, addressing personal ability and energy level, and acknowledging the place that privilege has in your ability to get things done. It was very accessible, with small chunks of information (some shorter than one kindle page), which would be easy to read in short bursts, though I devoured it in two sittings. It was well organized and not preachy, like some self-help can feel. I recommend to anyone who is struggling with getting things done and feeling bad about it.

Compassionate and affirming book on not only cleaning but accepting who you are and how you function. Chapters are short and simple with gentle concepts and explanations. Resonated deeply. Loved the title. Highly recommend. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

How to Keep House While Drowning is the most realistic self help book I have read. It's short and to the point.
It talks about the shame of a dirty house and how to let go of the shame. It gives easy to follow ideas on how to keep up with talks. It even renames these tasks and gives a completely different perspective on house cleaning.

I will use some of these techniques when I am feeling overwhelmed about how much needs to be done and don't have a lot of time to do it.

Thanks to netgalley and Simon Element for the arc.

How to Keep House While Drowning
by KC Davis
Pub Date: April 26, 2022
Simon Element
Thanks to the author, Simon Element, and NetGalley for the ARC of this book. I totally agree with Letting go of the shame, especially when it comes to housecleaning. However, it is much more difficult to apply it to myself.
Davis’ 6 Pillars of strugglecare are:
Care tasks are morally neutral
Rest is a right, not a reward
You deserve kindness regardless of your level of functioning
You can’t save the rainforest if you’re depressed
Shame is the enemy of functioning
Good enough is perfect
Throughout the book Davis offers additional resources. I like the mindset of approaching chores from a functionality perspective. Removing shame from caring for your home and for yourself allows room to be good enough, to ask for help, and to hire help. I am recommending this book.
4 stars

I absolutely loved the message of this book. KC Davis gave the permission that I didn't know I needed to prioritize the important things and to not focus on keeping the perfect home. I'm a single mom fully employed and working on my doctorate, so sometimes things around the house just don't get done. My daughter and I have started using the five things tidying method (sometimes over the course of a few days) and it seems so much more manageable. While I might not be ready to stop folding the laundry, I am able to get things done because I don't feel so overwhelmed and paralyzed. I'm thankful that KC Davis came into my life through Netgalley!

I absolutely love this book and feel like it is a must-read for all at some point in everyone's life. I myself could have used this at several points in my past when perfectionism and shame caught up with me in hard seasons. The compassion and understand and love that KC brings to her words is so needed in this world of social media highlight reels and home organization Pinterest ideas. I saw this myself while having a newborn and 2 year old at the start of the pandemic. I read her self published release and it helped motivate me while also giving myself grace. This is a must read especially for all parents of newborns.

This is a fantastic book for those of us who have trouble getting the things done that we want to get done! If you struggle with chores and berating yourself for the struggle, grab this book and read it.

Thank you to Simon Element and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Excellent. This already has thousands of helpful reviews and (justifiably) high ratings. So I'll just recommend it. Great tips and ideas here.

I really appreciate the free ARC for review!!

I have followed KC Davis on TikTok and Instagram for quite some time, so when I saw that she was releasing a book I immediately knew that I was interested. This book exceeded my expectations as a neurodivergent mother who has struggled with care tasks in the past.

I felt, while reading, that I was finally receiving the empathy in regards to cleaning that I so desperately needed in the past. Since reading this book, I've been better able to keep up with things around my house, and better at being gentle with myself if things aren't necessarily perfect. I felt like How to Keep House While Drowning applied practical advice not only for care tasks, but other areas of life as well without even trying to.

The title is very apropos- if you feel like you are drowning in your life in regards to the balance of domestic tasks and parenthood, this book is a great place to regroup. I will absolutely be recommending it to my friends who can relate as well.

*This review along with a photo will be published to Instagram closer to publication under the handle @literary.erica

I have followed Davis on TikTok for almost two years, so I have had time to internalize and put to action a lot of what she writes in this book, and let me tell you, it works.

I am a mom and work-at-home business owner. I have anxiety, lingering aspects of PPD, and ADHD. So this book was written for me.

Rotational cleaning, closing duties, baskets in every room, "resetting" vs cleaning, visual timers, not folding clothes... All these systems I've taken and implemented from Davis' Tiktoks and she goes much more in depth in her book. It feels so validating to know that I am not alone in my executive dysfunctions of cleaning my house.

This is for anyone who has ever felt shame in what their house looks like. This will help you create systems that work for you. Davis feels like a friend and I'm thankful for her guidance.

This book is wonderful; exactly what we need for Our Current Times and My Tired and Anxious Brain. I already owned the shorter self-pubbed version but I may just buy it again.

In How to Keep House While Drowning: A Gentle Approach to Cleaning and Organizing, Davis brings readers a gentle self-help book for when your house is unmanageable, your mental health is teetering, and you are trying to navigate life, with all the things you have been taught you have to do a specific way to be a successful human. That's too much for anyone to carry and Davis knows that. This approach turns age-old perfectionistic perspectives on its head in the kindest, most revolutionary way.

Phew, I don't know that a book has rocked me so completely the way this one did. To my knowledge, this is the first book of its kind written with Neuro Divergent readers in mind. From the font choice to the quick and easy shortcuts, allowing readers to get the key points, Davis thought of everything. Even the appendix had me emotional-- I would like to write a review just on the appendix, and maybe I will, but not today. That might seem like small potatoes, but imagine if you will, being diagnosed with neurodiversity in some way, and not being able to properly learn about it because the books speaking to the experience of ND people IS NOT ACCESSIBLE TO ND PEOPLE !!!! aww yes, ableism, WE MEET AGAIN!

As an adult who was recently diagnosed with Inattentive ADHD and Depression, never in my existence as a human, have I found a self-help book that I could read easily. I struggle with reading nonfiction, especially nonfiction in the self-help category. All conditions have to be just right to get me through the book, and even then, I am probably left with more questions than answers. I not only understood EVERYTHING in this book, I felt like it for the first time, but I also received actual practical help for struggles that have felt insurmountable for the majority of my life.

I read this book straight through, as you would with any book, but, I also took the time to use the shortcut instructions to get the key points of the book in an efficient, no-fuss, way. I can say from experience as an ND person, both methods got me the information I needed and wanted to know. I also love that I can own this book and read it again in half an hour by using the shortcut directions! I mean, wow.

I read Davises original self-published version of this book last year and can attest that reading this version had all kinds of new information. I felt like I was reading a completely different book! So even if you read her original self-published book, this is still worth the purchase and read.

Davis took the social media content that has brought her a well-earned following of people like myself and has masterfully put it in book form with new tweaks and tips. I'm so excited this book is about to exist in the world! We all need this gentle guide to loving ourselves, our spaces, and the people that surround us more kindly. Whether you are a neurodiverse brain, or a neurotypical brain, this book has practical advice and tips and tricks for all capabilities and functionalities.

Thank you to Simon and Schuster and Netgalley for an Advanced Readers Copy of How to Keep House While Drowning in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

You can find How to Keep House While Drowning wherever you buy books on April 26th, 2022!

I adore this book for its unfailing honesty. It reads like the no-nonsense support of a straight-talking friend. Davis reminds us that "No one ever shamed themselves into better mental health." Encouraging readers to feel good doing whatever they can, she asserts, "Anything worth doing is worth doing half-assed." The chapter on keeping cars clean is nearly non-existent; Davis explains that she simply doesn't have this one figured out. Again, she reminds her readers that care tasks are meant to enable us, not add burden. I'm delighted that this book exists and I hope it finds its readers.

This was a god send to my neurodivergent brain. The tips and suggestions have really helped me get control of my environment in a way that works for and makes sense for me. Anyone can benefit from learning to find unconventional ways to become more functional.

Drowning means different things to different people. For some, it's related to mental and emotional health. For others, it's all the duties that coincide with parenting. As a full time working professional who is also the primary caregiver for my 86-year-old mother who lives with my husband and me and has dementia and severe osteoporosis, it's something different entirely. As an integrative life and wellness coach and lifestyle designer, my clients are primarily working women overwhelmed by demanding career responsibilities and caregiving tasks with children and elderly parents and carving out time for their partners and themselves. I was hoping this book would speak to career-oriented individuals who are juggling multiple responsibilities, but I now recognize that the author has a very different intended audience. It's clear from the other reviewers that this book is valuable for stay-at-home moms or those struggling with mental health issues. For what I was hoping to see, it fell short. Insight into the struggles of others is in itself valuable, but in terms of actionable advice, there is very little for people also juggling careers. Chapter 13, which speaks specifically about Women and Care Tasks, is super short and barely acknowledges that there are women with "real" jobs - Davis's quotes, not mine - then suggests that we reflect on gender messages we've received before moving on to an extensive chapter about how to do laundry. This book just wasn't for my brand of drowning, nor that of my friends or the kinds of clients I serve.

I opened this book after a bout of depression. My house was a mess, I was overwhelmed, and I had no idea where to start.

This book was a hug, a pep talk, and a game changer. Chores are re-imagined as care tasks and instead of working for your house, you make it work for you. Davis gives you shortcuts for tasks that seem impossible while drowning: tidying, brushing teeth, showering, parenting, etc.

I am buying myself a physical copy (and everyone is getting one for Christmas). I read this in one sitting and plan on rereading it again soon.

I wish I'd had this helpful book when I was suffering from depression, and could not do housework nor manage important documents. The author has been there too and shares without judgment how to do the most essential things when overwhelmed. Life-changing! Out April 26.

Thanks to the author, Simon Element, and NetGalley for the ARC. Opinions are mine.

#howtokeephousewhiledrowning #netgalley
#SimonElement

I really enjoyed this. First, the cover is really pretty. Second, I like watching KC’s videos on TikTok. Third, this book reminded me of Dana K White’s book, How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind. I read that book when I was in the midst of a long, deep depression, and it helped so much. This book takes it a step further and calls out the neurodivergent aspect of “struggle care,” and really addresses it. Simply put, care tasks are morally neutral. KC takes this and fleshes it out into actionable items, ways to reframe your thinking, and frequent reminders to care for past, present, and future self.

I really would recommend this to friends and family, especially those who struggle with mental illness or some form of difficulty with executive functioning. I think it would also be a good eye opener for those who don’t struggle with care tasks, keeping house, or those other tedious but mundane activities that seem to overwhelm people like me.