Flanagan's Smart Home: The 98 Essentials for Starting Out, Starting Over, Scaling Back

Every time I describe this book to another friend, they decide to buy it -- it's that useful and that important. I hate to say a book can change your life, but this one just might. The author deconstructs every major purchase in your home -- what you need, why you need it and what is the most useful/green/thrifty way to obtain it. As an example, she's changed forever how I'll buy dishtowels. Read her cogent arguments about why linen dishtowels are the most practical ones you can buy, and tell me that you'll ever pick up another packet of cotton towels from Target again. I know I won't. Read this book. Save the planet. Save your home from clutter. Make the smallest items in your house -- like dishtowels -- matter. Now that's the definition of a smart home.

I bought this nifty little book as I will soon be moving from a three floor house that is full of clutter to a three room condo, and I am determined my new home will be functional, attractive, and comfortable. May I also mention I am a terrible shopper? - I tend to buy things for the home that look good or feel good or that are offered on a good sale, but end up being not at all useful or long lasting. The practical and comprehensively simple tips in this book have pointed me in the right direction - it lists everything one needs for a normal home, reasons why you need it, and the type and size of the item that is most useful. The book is divided into six different sections - five for the various rooms of the house (bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, living room and dining room) as well as a chapter on cleaning and repairs. All in all, this is a very helpful and easily referenced book that puts into neat order a task that all of us face but for many of us somehow always turns into confusion and clutter. Highly recommended.

Words are not enough to tell you how great this book is, I am not kidding. It's a book for just about everyone you know. I read it in one sitting cover to cover. I never would have believed that reading about brooms, beds, spoons, dish towels, glasses could be so informative and FUN! Barbara Flanagan give us the history of all the must haves in our homes. She has humor in every section you will be laughings saying YEP, that's me. I am so in agreement with how she thinks. I already have many of the things she suggests as the best and have always thought so but you know how it is. Someone gets you some fancy dishtowels so you use them. I have always known linen and now micro fiber work best. I got up today and started the purge and loving it. Donation station here I come..my SUV will be loaded to the gills. I have been trying to simplify for years. But hold on to things because so and so got it for me. Especially my parents who are gone. I'm not using the stuff, but it remains. This book would be a wonderful wedding shower gift or even before that engagement gift. Then the couple could plan for a functional long lasting uncluttered home, asking for the right things as gifts. The part about the mattress leading to divorce is funny to read but not in reality, but it does sound like how things could pan out. This book is for people like me who have too much stuff and just cannot get ahead of getting rid of it. Child of depression era parents "what if I need it later syndrome". You have not needed it for 30 years chances are you won't need it. She is very "green" thinking and I like that a lot. We are making a turn around now because we have to do it. Everything being disposable is not a good thing. We are running out of landfills for all this stuff we "HAD TO HAVE" only to "Have to Upgrade" 1 year later. This is the most sound book I have ever read on scaling back. It's informative and practical. It's so funny you really cannot put it down. I highly recommend this to everyone. You can tell I am so excited about it. I started the kitchen dish washing method she suggests today as I had the microfiber towels already and pitched the yucko sink drainer...I'll let her explain that to you. I cannot tell you how much of a difference it is to not have dishes drying in the sink. Makes the room bigger alrady. Buy it I promise you will love it!

Barbara Flanagan has filled her "Smart Home" book with terrific ideas for those who want to simplify their lives or just make some changes. And sometimes making changes is good for the soul, especially if they are logical and time/space saving, as so many of the ideas in this book are. Flanagan also treats us to some histories behind the items we use that are not only educational, but to someone like me who likes reference books, make her "Short History of Beds," or the fascinating tale of how the paper towel was invented, fascinating and fun. The layout is marvelous, with each chapter on a section of our daily living (Sleeping, Cooking, etc.) and describing the most essential items to fill that area, ending with a "Smart List" for each chapter, with the items listed like a catalog, including picture, and approximate cost. In the last 2 years I've made some drastic changes, once because of losing almost everything in a fire, then later downsizing from a 1000 sq. ft. apartment to one that is 1/3 the size. It's made me very flexible in how I think of day to day life, and how simplicity really is best. Flanagan's ideas fit well with a simple but elegant life, and as she says, these ideas aren't meant to followed "to the letter," but to be "informed by the spirit" of the book as we make desired changes and decisions on what to purchase.

Like eco-friendly? Like buying things that are built to last? Useful? Non-cluttering? That's what drew me to this book, I'm very into decluttering and I love having things that are built to last. For each of her picks she gives a little history, and some background into why she chose what she did. She gives a review at the end of each chapter with a price range for each item and if she has a brand name she likes she lists that too. Ideas I liked: Some new spins on things I'd never thought about before, and she has a few of them. For instance: A lamp timer instead of an alarm clock. Brilliant in my eyes, alarm clocks scare me in the morning. A pop-up mesh clothes hamper. One that I wasn't so sure about but now seems really cool is using a salad spinner for more than just spinning salad - if you buy a good one. And there's more, such as getting rid of non-stick pans and going to cast iron, which lasts for ever! I like that she doesn't skimp. Buy the best that you can, but be wise in what you buy. And you know, most things really aren't that expensive. That to me is something I really enjoyed about this book. Cons: There wasn't anything bad, but I'd want to research some of her ideas out myself before buying. There were a couple that made me go `eh': A saltcellar, it's like one of those things Alton Brown uses to get salt from on his show `Good Eats'. If you don't have any kids then I can see having one; personally I think they're cool. But if you do have kids I can see salt flung here and there and little dirty hands reaching into it, ick, and she really downplays salt and pepper shakers which I guess is a personal thing. Some that were personal preference, like an electric blanket. She has a sound advice in buying one, but I've never really wanted to own one so I don't see how it's essential other than lowering the heat at night but I have warm blankets that can do that without electricity. I have to say it was a nice read, she has humor, she has her research, and she has sound advice. It makes you think.