How to Keep House While Drowning

A Gentle Approach to Cleaning and Organizing

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Pub Date Apr 26 2022 | Archive Date May 06 2022
Simon Element | S&S/Simon Element

Description

An NPR Best Book of 2022
USA TODAY Bestseller

This revolutionary approach to cleaning and organizing helps free you from feeling ashamed or overwhelmed by a messy home.

If you’re struggling to stay on top of your to-do list, you probably have a good reason: anxiety, fatigue, depression, ADHD, or lack of support. For therapist KC Davis, the birth of her second child triggered a stress-mess cycle. The more behind she felt, the less motivated she was to start. She didn’t fold a single piece of laundry for seven months. One life-changing realization restored her sanity—and the functionality of her home: You don’t work for your home; your home works for you.

In other words, messiness is not a moral failing. A new sense of calm washed over her as she let go of the shame-based messaging that interpreted a pile of dirty laundry as “I can never keep up” and a chaotic kitchen as “I’m a bad mother.” Instead, she looked at unwashed clothes and thought, “I am alive,” and at stacks of dishes and thought, “I cooked my family dinner three nights in a row.”

Building on this foundation of self-compassion, KC devised the powerful practical approach that has exploded in popularity through her TikTok account, @domesticblisters. The secret is to simplify your to-do list and to find creative workarounds that accommodate your limited time and energy. In this book, you’ll learn exactly how to customize your cleaning strategy and rebuild your relationship with your home, including:

-How to see chores as kindnesses to your future self, not as a reflection of your worth
-How to start by setting priorities
-How to stagger tasks so you won’t procrastinate
-How to clean in quick bursts within your existing daily routine
-How to use creative shortcuts to transform a room from messy to functional

With KC’s help, your home will feel like a sanctuary again. It will become a place to rest, even when things aren’t finished. You will move with ease, and peace and calm will edge out guilt, self-criticism, and endless checklists. They have no place here.
An NPR Best Book of 2022
USA TODAY Bestseller

This revolutionary approach to cleaning and organizing helps free you from feeling ashamed or overwhelmed by a messy home.

If you’re struggling to stay on...

Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9781668002841
PRICE $22.00 (USD)
PAGES 160

Average rating from 50 members


Featured Reviews

I am that rare autistic who doesn’t typically struggle with executive functioning skills. However, I DO struggle with what Davis calls assigning morality and shame to care tasks.

I love Davis’s TikTok videos: she is upfront and unafraid about calling a spade a spade, and she does that in this book, too. And, even better, this book is written to be neurodivergent-friendly. I rarely am able to finish nonfiction books (give me a story any day!), but I read this in two sittings.

It is incredibly down-to-earth and will be incredibly helpful for so many people who see Rachel Hollis and Marie Alonso and are frustrated at how perfect their lives look in the pictures while the readers’ own lives never seem to live up to the guidelines in the self-help books. But, your life can look like Davis’s. This book sets you up for success AND self-compassion.

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