How to Keep House While Drowning

George Hotelling reviewed How to Keep House While Drowning by Kc Davis

Decluttering Your Mind, Not Just Your Home

No rating

If you are looking for cleaning hacks, appendix 2 has a dozen or two of them, you can skip right there. This book isn't about cleaning.

This book is about decluttering your brain more than your house. Understanding the differences between what must be done and what you've internalized. The theme that this book comes back to is that these chores are morally neutral. Dusting, laundry, vacuuming are neither morally good nor evil. You'll be far better served if you find a reason to do them, find a work around to make them easier or not needed, or find the core need that actually needs to be done.

As an aside, this book touches on self care, which is something that always tickles my brain. I get the impression that some people use the term "self care" as a code for self indulgence. I like to think of it instead …

If you are looking for cleaning hacks, appendix 2 has a dozen or two of them, you can skip right there. This book isn't about cleaning.

This book is about decluttering your brain more than your house. Understanding the differences between what must be done and what you've internalized. The theme that this book comes back to is that these chores are morally neutral. Dusting, laundry, vacuuming are neither morally good nor evil. You'll be far better served if you find a reason to do them, find a work around to make them easier or not needed, or find the core need that actually needs to be done.

As an aside, this book touches on self care, which is something that always tickles my brain. I get the impression that some people use the term "self care" as a code for self indulgence. I like to think of it instead as caring for yourself as you would care for a friend. Would you insult a friend who didn't clean, or would you kindly help? If you could exercise your friend's body for them, would you as a kindness? I think that a healthier way to approach self-care is to treat yourself the way you would a treat friend.

sanketh reviewed How to Keep House While Drowning by Kc Davis

A book on shame masquerading as a book on organizing

5 stars

I’ve had many extremely validating moments since realizing I had adhd a little over a year ago. This book was another major milestone where I felt validated in my struggle to keep up with laundry and cleaning and all the chores.

I will have to re-read it to take notes but the general principles of giving myself grace have been wonderful. It’s okay to leave my laundry unfolded, for instance. Oh and one specific tip I’ve found helpful is to do hard chores during bounded time. For example, if you put something in the oven for 20 minutes, this is a nice bounded chunk of time to make progress towards organizing a closet. Relatedly, I should reward any progress towards hard chores than only completion.

Will reviewed How to Keep House While Drowning by Kc Davis

I was not the target audience

3 stars

This book is far less about helpful tips for actually doing the cleaning, and more about giving yourself permission not to be perfect. I cleared that hurdle long ago. I am sure there are many people who will gain a lot from this book, but I wasn't one of them.

Phillip J reviewed How to Keep House While Drowning by Kc Davis

Review of 'How to Keep House While Drowning' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

An interesting book. The author stresses gentleness and flexibility, things I don't think I've heard from other people in this space. She also goes beyond just "cleaning," but touches on other areas of care in one's life.

marksutherland reviewed How to Keep House While Drowning by Kc Davis

Review of 'How to Keep House While Drowning' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

A helpful guide to approaching housework from a functional rather than moral perspective. It's short enough to blitz through quickly or dip into briefly over time, making it very accessible. As a result it might not have the heft of other stuff help books but this is more of a manifesto to get you thinking about housework more helpfully. This style is partly to make the book accessible to neurodiverse readers and it's interesting to find a book written with that clearly in mind. If you've ever struggled to keep on top of the chaos, this may well be the book that helps reset your expectations and figure out how to make your space work for you.