1 comments about From A House to A Home: Great Ideas for Decorating the Home, Feeding the Family and Making the Most of Time-Off.

1. This is a wonderful book full of ideas to make your house into a warm, inviting, and child-friendly enviroment :) There are also a ton of pictures that will warm your heart :) I just love this book !!!

5 comments about 10,001 Hints and Tips for the Home (Hints & Tips).

1. I just realized that the Cassandra Kent book that I reviewed was the OLD version of Hints and Tips (copyright 1996). I thought I had the "10,001" version (the covers are identical) but it turns out I had the older version of the book. There seem to be many more chapters in the new version (such as Decorating and Gardening, which are not in the previous version). I wish I had seen the new version, which looks great, but I don't recall seeing it at the bookstore. I only bought this book a month ago, but I'm truly satisfied with the version I have. It's a lovely book and I still recommend the old version if you want to save a few dollars.



2. ...If you like cutesy decorating ideas, you might like this book. If you're looking for practical household tips, there's nothing beyond the obvious and some tips are very impractical. For example, they advise you to keep candles in the refrigerator so you can find them easily in a power outage. I don't know about you, but in a power outage, the last thing I want to do is open the refrigerator and spoil my food. The book tries to cover everything under the sun and, as a result, isn't really good for anything.



3. I don't consider myself a home expert but may reconsider after reading this book. There was very little that was new to me and much of it was common sense. When I did come across something new, (home repairs for example) there wasn't enough detailed information. I needed to consult other resources. I think the book tries to be everything to everyone. I much prefer Hints from Heloise, Decorating for Dummies and, the Readers Digest repair books.



4. This book contains some rather outdated concepts. Such as advising you to store garlic in oil. This has long been warned as dangerous due to potentital food poisoning, yet the book does not include any caution about this practice. The book also tells you to extract egg whites from passing the egg from one shell to another, which again is not an adviseable method (I checked my Better Homes & Gardens book and Cook's Illustrated).

   The index of this book is wrong a lot of the times.




5. This book is excellent. I bought it several years ago for myself, and my children call constantly to ask me to look up solutions for their household challenges. I decided to buy three copies---one for each of our adult children. They, like we, will find great hints and tips to make their lives easier.
   
   An excellent reference for efficient living.

1 comments about Creating a Haven: Simple Steps For a Healthy and Nurturing Home.

1. This is a great gift to yourself or loved one that is either creating a new space or having diffculties in thier lives that could be caused by bad energy flows. It covers Feng Shui from all angles and gives practical solutions and backs them up with reasoning that makes perfect sense.

2 comments about Fix It, Clean It, and Make It Last: The Ultimate Guide to Making Your Household Items Last Forever.

1. I was pleased with your book, it has very many helpful hints. Several I've already heard, but many I haven't. I like the way the table of contents was layed out, and all of the resourceful recycling ideas included. The index is very helpful and I especially enjoyed the "Golden Oldie" included on certain pages.



2. This book is almost completely useless. I have just recently purchased an older house and was in need of a book to help me clean and fix many things I've never before encountered. I had 3 very specific items I immediately needed help with, 1)cleaning hardwood floors, 2)replacement of electrical outlets, and 3)removing old window caulk. Although the book had information on these three topics, it was of absolutely no help. The entries were very terse and generally insufficient in details for people - like me -- who really need help. For example, the section on hardwood floors, didn't tell me how to clean them, but did tell me how to fix a squeaky board. The book entry said, "find the squeaky board and put a screw in it". Again, this isn't really helpful enough to people who are buying "how to" books. The only graphics in the book are stock fill art; there are no diagrams or pictures that aid the descriptions in the text. My copy has already gone into my box of books to be donated to a local charity.

No comments about The Historic Chicago Greystone: A User's Guide for Renovating and Maintaining Your Home.

No comments about Vinegar: A Guide to the Many Types and Their Uses Around the Home.

No comments about Creating a Safe & Healthy Home: Is your house putting you at risk? Here's what you can do about it..

1 comments about Organized Kidz: E-Z Solutions for Clutter-Free Living.

1. This book has some good information, but there is a lot of fluff and repetition, as well as empty pages for you to write notes on after every chapter. If the book were printed properly without so much double-spacing and blank pages, it would be less than half the size.
   
   The book seems to be directed at parents, yet the authors write as if children are the readers. As an adult reading it, the writing style gets annoying rather quickly. And if your child is a sophisticated reader, he or she will probably be annoyed by it as well.
   
   Borrow it from the library first.

2 comments about How to Avoid Housework: Tips, Hints, and Secrets on How to Have a Spotless Home.

1. This is a wonderful book for anyone who hates housework and/or just doesn't have the time. I'm only half way through the book, but so far I've enjoyed everything! I especially love the portion where she states (and quotes others) that the immaculate homes that we see in the 'House Beautiful'-type magazines are not a reflection of normal people who have busy lives! Also enjoyed the chapter on getting the big ones and little ones in the household to do housework as a team. I am currently reading a library copy, but want / will get one of my own!



2. This is a great book if you are planning to move, build a new home or purchase new furniture. It gives hints on everything to the type of flooring that is easiest to keep clean to which furniture would be best to stay looking nice with little upkeep. Also good for ideas on how to organize and keep clutter to a minimum as to spend less time doing housework. I read it cover to cover and used a highlighter on points to refer back to. I loved this book so much that as a real estate agent, I give this to clients before they move and they have all loved it too!

5 comments about The American Frugal Housewife 12th Edition 1833: Dedicated to Those who are not Ashamed of Economy.

1. Both the prose and the basic philosophy espoused by this book are refreshing on todays palate. No over-wrought writing or get ahead mentality here. The book gives a wonderful view of household life in the 1800's, covering ground from pudding recipes to the best and cheapenst method for cleaning your candle stick holders and treating common ailments. Liberally spiced with the philosophy of a frugal housewife who's example many of us would do well to follow.



2. The thoughts and ideas of the 1800's could be applied to todays world to make it a better place. Like putting more energy into our morals and pride rather than trying to keep up with the Jones'. A wonderfull and funny look at many things that have gone wrong with society over the years.
   I read just a few pages in a little store, than had to come home and find it to buy for myself.



3. I bought this book at a Revolutionar War event this past weekend and I've read it 3 times already (Purchased Sunday, and it's now Tuesday morning). My husband can't believe that I can't put this down. But I find it fascinating reading. Many of the little tips in here are still on many websites today for frugal living (olive oil and a little white vinegar for a wood furniture polish, for example).

   Easy and fascinating reading for anyone interested in history, frugal living, and occassionaly a good laugh.




4. I got this book over 10 years ago, at the Sturbridge Village gift shop, and I swear, I've read it so much that I probably have whole sections memorized! It is, without doubt, THE best book of its kind.

   The American Frugal Housewife is fascinating on a variety of levels, not the least in that Child wrote the book with the emphasis on "AMERICAN." Other such books existed at the time, but they were written in England and for English women. Child was one of the Transcendentalists who were huge advocates of personal self-discipline and restraint, but believed to their core the importance of fighting for what they knew to be right. It wasn't just a religious fervor -although Child's Christianity, like that of Catherine and Harriet Beecher Stowe, was extremely important - but a belief that the still relatively new United States had a unique destiny that set it apart from the rest of the world, specifically the old, decrepit world that was Europe.

   Child was no blindfolded nationalist, however. She saw the flaws and contradictions that bound the new Republic. Child, like many other Transcendentalists, was a fervent abolitionist and a proponent of women's equality, and worked all her life toward achieving those ends. Even with its problems, Child was an ardent American. She saw Americans as a unique race of people with a unique and powerful destiny. Americans, she believed, were new and unique, and that the American destiny was far different from the degenerate, rotting hulk of Old World Europe.

   So what does all this have to do with the American Frugal Housewife? Well, Child wrote the book specifically to address AMERICAN houswives and what she knew to be their unique problems and issues. It's much more than just a recipe book; it embodies Child's philosophy that the only way toward virtue was self-restraint and sobriety, and that the way to tutor the new nation in these values was by teaching the nation's housewives - the hand that rocks the cradle, Child believed, did indeed rule the world.

   The new nation was becoming prosperous, and Child saw that then, like now, people had a difficult time learning how to restrain themselves financially. One part in particular has to do with how mothers should raise their daughters. Child believed they should teach their offspring the virtues of frugality, that it was better to put savings "out at interest" and earn wealth from it, then to indulge in the latest fad - one in this case being something called a Brussels carpet. As new brides went out to set up their household, Child lectures at how they drive their husbands to bankruptcy by embracing fads and trying to keep up with the Joneses.

   Other, cheaper types of carpet "will answer just as well," Child wrote. She also recommends using cheap illustrations, nicely framed, as wall art, rather than going overboard to buy the latest European style.

   Some of the best sections are on frugality. Child was the "Hints from Heloise" queen of her day, and she's got a solution for everything that could possibly beset the early 19th century housewife. The interesting thing, as others have noted, is how so many of her tips still work so well.

   I don't know that I'm ever going to need her instructions on how to brew my own soap in a backyard kettle or how to keep my homemade pickles in a barrel from turning soft, but I did get a burn mark out of an antique chest by using rottenstone and oil, just as she prescribed.

   What's rottenstone, you ask? Well, you can buy it at a hardware store, but if you want the recipe, buy the book! It's a fantastic window on early American life, but the sound advice inside, about not getting into debt and how to "do up" your brass so it doesn't tarnish, is still amazingly useful.

   I guarantee you'll become a Child fan, just like me! :)




5. I think it's very funny that she doesn't waste paper by diving right in with tips and doesn't bother to space out paragraphs. I actually like this more than Tightwad Gazette which tries not to be too preachy. Not Mrs. Childs, she's my kind of charismatic and she's preaching to the choir! I wish I lived as frugally as I should but this book is wonderfully bracing. Her analysis of consumerism still applies today.