A classic bestselling resource for every household, Home Comforts helps you manage everyday chores, find creative solutions to domestic dilemmas, and enhance the experience of life at home. “Home Comforts is to the house what Joy of Cooking is to food.” —USA TODAY Home Comforts is an engaging and comprehensive book about housekeeping. It is a lively and readable guide for both beginners and experts in all the domestic arts. From keeping surfaces free of germs, watering plants, removing stains, folding a fitted sheet, cleaning china, tuning a piano, lighting a fire, setting the dining room table—this guide covers everything that people might want to do for themselves in their homes. Further topics include: making up a bed with hospital corners, expert recommendations for safe food storage, reading care labels (and sometimes carefully disregarding them), keeping your home free of dust mites and other allergens, this is a practical, good-humored, philosophical guidebook to the art and science of household management.

It is intended that women be happy and successful in their homemaking. Being a homemaker is a divine appointment and is a woman’s greatest calling. It should be rich in the rewards of joy, satisfaction and accomplishment. All too often, however, women feel confused, distraught or bored with their role as homemakers. They frequently dread each day, live for the time when their children will be raised so they can be released from it all, or they escape from their responsibilities to their home and family and return to the business world. Other women do enjoy their homemaking activities but find their work consumes most of their day and there is little time for other interests. Many women are wonderful homemakers and managers but are eager for new ideas and skills to make their homemaking even more effective and satisfying. To all of these women, this book offers a practical guide to happier homemaking. It recalls to mind the significance of homemaking and gives their attitude a lift. When the suggestions concerning order and efficiency, methods and approaches are applied, coupled with the workable plan which systematizes the routine duties, women will find their interest in homemaking greatly increasing and that there will be time to get their work done and enjoy creative activities, family fun and personal development. This is not just a book on how to keep house; it offers a way of life which will bring joy and satisfaction to the homemaker and rich, happy experiences to every family member.

Whether your home is small or large, an apartment in the city or a country cottage, it is a space that should be at once beautiful and livable. The key to that is managing the upkeep without feeling flustered. Until now, there has never been a comprehensive resource that not only tells how to care for your home and everything in it, but that also simplifies the process by explaining just when. With secrets from Martha Stewart for accomplishing the most challenging homekeeping tasks with ease, this detailed and comprehensive book is the only one you will need to help you keep your home looking its best, floor to ceiling, room by room. In Martha Stewart’s Homekeeping Handbook, Martha shares her unparalleled expertise in home maintenance and care. Readable and practical–and graced with charts, sidebars, illustrated techniques, and personal anecdotes from Martha’s decades of experience caring for her homes– this is far more than just a compendium of ways to keep your house clean. It covers everything from properly executing a living room floor plan to setting a formal table; from choosing HEPA filters to sealing soapstone countertops; from organizing your home office to polishing your silver and caring for family heirlooms. Martha Stewart’ s Homekeeping Handbook is organized for clarity and maximum practicality: Room by Room covers the upkeep of the appliances, tools, furnishings, and surfaces found in each room, from the entryway to the kitchen, from the attic to the laundry room. Throughout the House instructs the reader on the proper ways to routinely clean and periodically maintain everything in the home, including dusting, sweeping, vacuuming, polishing, scrubbing, waxing and much more. Comfort and Safety focuses on techniques to ensure your home is running properly and safely, such as recognizing when to clean vents, fixing a leaky faucet, and eradicating pests. A-to-Z Materials Guide provides an invaluable resource that explains the unusual materials that many favorite objects are made of–from abalone to zinc–and how to care for them so they last. Encyclopedic yet friendly, Martha Stewart’s Homekeeping Handbook is a seminal work–a must-have for everyone who wants a well-cared-for home that will endure for generations.

Get your home and your heart in order in just 31 days! Sarah Mae wants to let you in on a little secret about being a good homemaker: It’s not about having a clean house. She’d never claim to be a natural, organized cleaner herself—yet, like you, she wants a beautiful space to call home, a place where people feel loved and at peace. Where people can really settle in with good food, comfy pillows, and wide-open hearts. Is it possible to find a balance? To care for your heart—and your home—at the same time? Journey with Sarah Mae on this easy, practical 31-day plan to get you moving and have your house looking and feeling fresh. But even more than that, you’ll gain a new vision for the home of your dreams, and how to make it a place of peace, comfort, and community. Originally published as the e-book 31 Days to Clean and now revised and expanded in print for the first time, Having a Martha Home the Mary Way will inspire you to find a happier, healthier . . . cleaner way to live.

An illustrated, nostalgic how-to guide to achieving a clean, organized, and happy home—with over 500 retro tips and tricks! Return your household to the simpler times of yesteryear with this delightful guide full of time- and money-saving tips on everything from cleaning and organizing your home to buying and handling food. Even in an age of endless new household products and devices, these old-fashioned, tried-and-true methods can help any homeowner keep a cleaner, happier home. A thoroughly researched compendium of the best American home life tips from the 1920s through the ’60s, Classic Household Hints is filled with useful information, full-color illustrations, fascinating sidebars, and quotes—providing practical help as well as fun for housekeepers and neat freaks everywhere.

Whether one is a mother hen who loves feathering her nest, a mastermind who sets goals with schedules to match, a creative spirit who adds color and flair before elbow grease, or a starry-eyed dreamer who watches it all happen, Hannah Keeley's remarkable new guide shows how easy it can be to organize and decorate a home that nurtures the spirit and frees up time to spend with family and friends.

Clean your homethe easy way! The best ways to clean today are different from what they were even a few years ago. It's not just that you have to know how to use new products and new equipment. The surfaces in your home and the fibers used to make clothes and furniture have improved. Plus, the time you have to clean has shrunk. Inside you'll find easy-to-follow information on stain removal and a room-by-room guide to cleaning up everything from counters to carpets. You'll cut down on expensive cleaning bills and still maintain your home. Open the book and find: The basics of having a clean house The right tools for the job Methods for busting dust Tips on cleaning floors and carpets Guidance on caring for your kitchen and bathroom Hints on doing your laundry

For Cheryl Mendelson, laundering is the best part of housekeeping. It’s full of physical pleasures—the look of favorite clothes restored to freshness and beauty, the tactile satisfaction of crisp linens in beautifully folded stacks. Good laundering preserves things you love and protects your pocketbook. It doesn’t take much time or effort. What it takes is knowledge, and Laundry is the comprehensive, entertaining, and inspiring book on the art of laundering. Culled from the bestselling Home Comforts, with revised and updated information and a new introduction, Laundry is an indispensable guide to caring for all the cloth in one’s home: from kitchen rags to bedding, hand-washables, and baby clothes to vintage linens. Mendelson offers detailed guidance on when to disregard labels, removing stains, making environmentally informed choices, sewing, and storing clothing and fabrics. A much-needed antidote to the standard-issue how-to manual, Laundry celebrates the satisfactions of ironing, folding, and caring for clothes and linens. Both pragmatic and eloquent, Mendelson provides beginning and veteran homemakers with a seamless combination of reliable instruction, time-tested advice, and fascinating personal narrative. As a farm girl in Pennsylvania, Mendelson—who is a philosopher, lawyer, and professor, as well as a homemaker, wife, and mother—received a classic domestic education from her grandmothers, aunts, and mother. Laundry combines the best of the traditional lore they taught her with the latest in technical and scientific information. Writing with infectious love and respect for her subject, Mendelson is sure to instill in readers a newfound affection and appreciation for the art of laundering.