A Clean Break

"The best way to cut down on cleaning is to prevent it." --from A Clean Break They say the mark of a good book is that you can't put it down. That may be true for thrillers and mysteries, but the mark of this good book was that I couldn't wait to put it down and start putting the ideas into practice. I desperately needed "A Clean Break" from my old mindset about cleaning. This warm, wise, and entertaining book gave me a new vision and a new vocabulary of clean. And who better to tackle the topic of home management than mother-of-eight Sandra Phillips and cleaning guru Don Aslett? The homes of both authors have been featured in newspaper and magazine articles and on television networks like the Discovery Channel, HGTV, or CBS. Section One, on designing your home for easy cleaning, has practical advice on downsizing, camouflage, maximizing storage, and much more. Building a house? Read this book before consulting an architect. Buying a home? This information may save you from buyer's remorse. And even in my not-so-new house, I'm learning how to rearrange rooms and replace worn items in ways that will make housework easier. At last, I feel like I can take control of my house instead of having it control me. A Clean Break is designed to enlist the help of every family member--with sections aimed at inspiring children, teens, and spouses to pitch in (and pitch out). As Sandra says, we wouldn't tell our kids "Go drive a car" or "Go make a pie" without first training them. Why then do we tell them "Go clean your room" without showing them step by step how to do it? The objective is for kids to carry these organizing skills into their schoolwork, their careers, and their homes of the future. And the delightful side effect is a clean house now. In this cleaning curriculum for families, Phillips and Aslett offer creative, kid-friendly suggestions, such as color-coding the laundry and making up your bed while you're still in it. Or for teens, relating cleaning to fitness. (Genius!) For spouses, this sterling advice: don't ambush your mate with a chore list. Let the need for help be known well ahead of "deadline." And for everybody, why standards of clean work better than cumbersome cleaning schedules. The order (or disorder) in our homes affects every part of our lives--our health, our productivity, our play, our spiritual life, and family harmony. Clutter and disorganization rob us of our most important resources--our time and energy. Thanks to the principles in A Clean Break, my family is simplifying, de-cluttering, and cleaning its way to freedom.