The Best Books to Read to Make Your Home Spotless
You might think it’s counterintuitive to read a book about cleaning when you should be, you know, cleaning , but in these books (and there are many) you’ll find all sorts of cleaning techniques, ideas, and motivation to get the job done. You wouldn’t take on any other major task around the house without familiarizing yourself with some instructions, so you should consider rethinking your cleaning strategy and letting the experts help you.
Books on cleaning methods
Some cleaning books provide strategies you can use to clean your home more effectively. This is a great starting point because they give you something concrete and step by step. Here are some of the best.
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Destroy Your Habitat: You Are Better Than Your Clutter by Rachel Hoffman This is a favorite book because the advice is simple and, as many reviewers note, practical and realistic. He gave us the 20/10 method , or a strategy where you spend 20 minutes cleaning and 10 minutes just relaxing, kind of like the Pomodoro method but for cleaning.
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The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Tidying: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter by Margareta Magnusson Death Tidying doesn’t sound “gentle,” but it really is . The idea is that you should start focusing on the things you already have rather than hoarding new ones because one day your family will have to go through them all. Ultimately, reframing tidying as something you do for your children, spouse, parents, or friends during their time of grief is gentle and can help you think about tidying up in a whole new way. Your time here is limited. Spend it in a clean house.
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The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Tidying Up and Organizing by Marie Kondo This book has been out for a decade, but it was so revolutionary that it set the standard for tidying up techniques (and launched Marie Kondo’s worldwide career). If you haven’t read it yet, what are you waiting for? KonMari is a timeless technique that will help you declutter by category for a new clean.
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How to Run a Home During a Drowning by KC DavisDavis is a licensed occupational therapist who, in addition to being featured on CleanTok, gives cleaning tips specifically to people who feel overwhelmed by cleaning. Read this book to learn a gentle but systematic approach to cleaning your space. You’ll learn more about the ” Five Things ” method, which suggests separating the items to be cleaned into trash, laundry, dishes, items with space, and items without space, and then tackle them in that order.
Cleaning up workbooks
If you want more involvement and responsibility rather than just someone reading and doing things, there are worksheets that can help you clean up better.
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Home Edit Workbook: Tips, Activities, and Gold Stars to Help You Keep the Chaos at bay by Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin. This highly rated workbook was created by the stars of the Netflix cleaning show. It has 52 challenges for every room in your house (so you can do one challenge every week for almost an entire year) and little gold star stickers to help you stay motivated.
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Swedish Death Cleaning Workbook: A 30-day challenge to organize and simplify your life, organize your home and keep it clean. Author: Kelsey Zaria. This is a workbook that will help you implement the strategy mentioned above for cleaning your house before you die. It asks you to complete a 10-minute task every day for 30 days. As grim as it may sound, it has 4.1 out of 5 stars on Amazon based on 251 ratings. Reviewers say it made them think, was easy to follow, and can benefit you at any stage of your life.
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Cleaning Sucks: Unf*ck Your Habitat Magazine for Less Clutter, Less Stress, and a Home You Don’t Hate By Rachel Hoffman We’re back where we started, and that’s a good thing. To get the best workbook, try the accompaniment to what may be the best book. This is a full-color how-to journal that will help you understand why you hate cleaning and what’s stopping you from doing it. This is more of a DIY book than a cleaning job book, but it can help you change your entire approach.