5 comments about Organizing Your Craft Space.

1. Excellent in case you don't know how to organize in a small space. I already had the same ideas as in the book but found a few more to make my craft room cleaner and not so messy.



2. This is a good book for organizing several different types of crafts. It includes Scrapbooking, Quilting, Beading and other crafts. The book helps you recognize alternative sources for organizing besides the organizing products on the market.



3. I was terribly disappointed with a book with such a beautiful cover, but the pretty pictures continued inside with no real organizing information.



4. Many people think that you don't need to be organized to create art. For these people, art happens naturally by grabbing canvas and paint and "doing it". However, if you ask any artist, you'll find out that this isn't always the case. I know for a fact that if my studio isn't clean and tidy, all my tools and materials organized and out where I can reach them when I need them, I cannot work on any project. A disorganized workspace tends to stifle my creativity and leaves me feeling like I cannot do anything.
   
   What prompted me to purchase this book was the idea that it focused solely on how artists, from scrapbookers to quilters, can organize their space to maximize their time spent on creating their art. I also liked how it went into a multitude of art styles, rather than focusing on just one art. If you've always wanted to organize your art space or create a perfect place for starting a new craft, then this book is for you. Like most craft-related books on the market, Packham writes for art women but don't let this fool you. There's a lot of information that can be used for artists of all ages, men and women alike.
   
   Organizing Your Craft Space begins by assessing your art space needs. Packham includes many lists and questions that cover your available space, what tools and things you use to make your crafty items, your color preferences and objects that might help store your items as well as look pleasing in your space. She explains that these questions are central to uncovering what is the best fit for your artistic needs. She even recommends that you keep a space journal and fill it with diagrams of your room, all the items you use in your art and any things you need to purchase for your room (like plastic containers, furniture or tools). Keeping a journal of this sort gives you a written record of what gives you the freedom to create and what sorts of things and colors you want to fill your creative space. She also defines the different types of storage styles and suggests many helpful tips and tricks for keeping your space free of clutter and trash. For artists whose craft space aslo doubles as a guest room, Packham gives advice on how you can accomidate both in the same space with minimal effort.
   
   The rest of the book details storage and organization by art type. These chapters include stained glass and mosaics, rubber stamping, scrapbooking and other paper arts, beading, yarn crafting and quilting. Packham discusses various needs and organizational styles that can be used to suit each craft-form. She starts out by listing a few short questions about the art and materials you use and then goes into explaining how these items can be stored or contained to maximize your time spent creating art. Each chapter includes an over abundance of pictures that show different ways to contain and organize your craft space. At the end of a section, Packham showcases one or more guest artists and their real-life working spaces. She tells us about their space, challenges and solutions, as well as showing us what these artists use to contain their tools and the methods they use to keep them focused on making art.



5. I really like this book. It has wonderful photos of the best craft rooms in existence. Great little quizzes to determine your decorating/organizing styles. Nice tips sprinkled throughout to help you plan your own. But the parts of the featured craft rooms that I would like to duplicate - I will have to do a few hours of research for a purchasing source. A "Where to Buy" section would make this book a 5 star! Or at a minimum, brand names of the items used in some of the rooms that were clearly not furnished through garage sales (so that I could just google them!). As it is, it is just a coffee table book since there isn't much more than nice photos in my opinion.

5 comments about Organize Your Garage In No Time.

1. Barry's book covers all the bases. He starts out by helping set a goal, create a plan, and envision the finished project. Then using small steps and understanding humor he guides the reader through the important basics of the organizing process as it applies to storage areas. From there Barry opens the world of storage options. Do you hang it, put it on a shelf, in a cabinet, or a drawer? He has pictures galore of different products and tricks you can devise yourself.
   
   These suggestions are invaluable for someone who needs to know what he or she has to choose from. And he addresses how you can use what you already have for storage, the cost of what you will need, and having a garage sale.
   
   Some of the best chapters are the extra ones about storage in sheds, attics, and basements. He even throws in a chapter on storage of seasonal and holiday items.
   
   Barry has left no stone unturned. If you need to organize your garage, you have what you need here.



2. I purchased this book as a gift for my husband. It is a good information book. I am very pleased with it.



3. I have read a lot of books regarding garages and this so far is the best one on step-by-step how to do it. The author has experience and knowledge and ability to put it in an easy to read book.
   The basis for organizing can also apply to closets and other things.
   Book is in a format that allows you to read only what applies to you.
   I highly recommend this book for someone starting on this seemingly overwhelming task



4. I enjoyed reading this book because I felt it was the first organizing book in which the other thinks the way I do. It was a refreshing change from othe organizing books. The topics were clear and the suggestions were practical. It is also unique in the use of images showing products out on the market that are mentioned in the book. I was happy to see things covered that I hoped I would find in a book on garages and was intriqued by others I didn't know about.



5. Organize Your Garage in No Time was everything I thought it would be and more....easy-to-implement ideas and great pictures that not only guide you to the garage of your dreams but also helps you see the finished product before it's done! Not only is it true to its claim that you really can organize your garage in no time--it's fun to read and the strategies in it will help you organize any room of your home.

5 comments about Clutter's Last Stand: It's To De-junk Your Life!.

1. The reviews of this book were so good that I guess I was expecting the definitive book on decluttering. While the author makes me smile, admits he has a tendency to be somewhat of a packrat, and is easily understood, something seems to be missing. I want motivation, but find that I can receive more motivation on various websites on the net. As I declutter my bookshelves, this book will be one that goes in the 'donate' box. Mr. Aslett knows his subject though, and I'm looking forward to receiving his book, Is There Life After Housework? I have high hopes for time-saving tips from that book.



2. I've read this book & a few others that Aslett has written. This is my favorite by far. It is motivational & always makes me want to jump up & dejunk my house. I have a short list of books that are so good that I try to re-read them every year--this book is on that list! If you ever find that you can't easily put things away because your cupboards, drawers or closets are too crowded, or you ever feel like you "should" keep something (gift, belonged to someone dear to you, could be worth something, someone might be able to use it, etc.) then this is the book for you! Don Aslett has a good sense of humor & writes in an easy-to-read manner. It doesn't take a long time or a lot of concentration to read his books, plus you actually want to get up & simplify your life before you've even finished the book! Highly recommend this book for pretty much anyone to read! :-)



3. This book is perhaps one of the most influential books I have ever read. I come from a long line of pack rats and junk hoarders. I was raised to view things and objects as not whether I needed them, but as whether they were "a good deal".
   
   Aslett's book is not about cleaning, it's not even about de-junking your house, it's about changing your mentality about stuff. Not just stuff you can hold, stuff you hold onto that otherwise has no purpose or value.
   
   This book will make you seriously reflect on what is important in your life. Too often, especially in the U.S., we think that things will make us happy, and nearly every holiday and event is filled with gift giving. Over time this accumlates and for some reason our allegiance shifts from people to things.
   
   I read this book when I was a freshman in high school and I have never looked back.



4. I was inspired to clean, toss, and condense after reading this book. Read this book with highlighter in hand.



5. I bought this book about 5 years ago and it changed my life. The first time I read it-I took 2 carloads of stuff to the Goodwill. I reread it a month later and got rid of 2 more carloads. The 3rd time six months later another full carload. I kept rereading it and have remained relatively clutterless for several years.
   
   I decided to pass the book on to a packrat friend. This month I was sorry I had and ordered another copy. Since reading "Clutter's Last Stand" I have check out numerous books on clutter control from the library but have only used one or two ideas from these other volumes.
   
   This book is the classic and the ONLY one you need-but you need to keep rereading it. Anything else should be tossed as wasteful rubbish~

5 comments about The Organized Life: Secrets of an Expert Organizer.

1. This is one of those small books I keep by my bedside to read a few pages of tips before I fall asleep. It's an easy book to read in bits and pieces, but if you are looking for a full-blown "how-to" on organizing, this one may not be for you.
   
   The book sections are:
   
   Clutter
   Paper
   Closets
   Kitchen
   Time
   Storage
   Home Office
   Bed & Bath
   Garage, Attic & Basement
   Photos
   Children
   Holidays
   
   I like the "look" of the book inside - colorful pages with easy-read-text, small charts and lists. Because of the type fonts, bolding and white spacing of the pages, it's really easy to get information from the pages by just a glance. (So you can read what you want and skip the rest).
   
   The content is really a collection of tips and ideas, not a full-fledged plan of organizing everything top to bottom. Some of the information may be things the reader already knows (sometimes, though, I have to see it in print for the obvious to become useful). However, I did find a number of useful new ideas. This was probably the book that convinced me that keeping department store "bonus" makeup sets was more of a storage hassle than it was worth. I also started taking more notice of what was already in my closet and giving careful thought about new purchases to be sure I don't already have something very similar. I like the author's idea of using my Inbox only for items that have not been reviewed yet. Why look at something twice?
   
   I enjoyed reading this book and although I didn't use every idea, I did pick up a few and got to thinking about how to better organize my life. However, if you are looking for a more thorough book, you may want to check out Donna Smallin's Organizing Plain and Simple: A Ready Reference Guide with Hundreds of Solutions to Your Everyday Clutter Challenges or books like it.



2. If you were able to follow the dozens of random tips in this book, you would probably enjoy a more organized life. On the other hand, if you are able to follow the tips in this book, you probably already have a well-organized life. For example, the author suggests several solutions for dealing with children's artwork, including mailing special items to grandparents, "...What you've chosen ... should be sent on its way quickly. A personal note on the back or a signature makes it that much more special." The assumption here is that one has packing tape, mailing tubes, address labels and suitable note paper readily at hand and that one has a system for remembering to take packages to the post office when one is headed in that direction.
   
   A more ludicrous suggestion involves the "paper exchange," which entails setting up a filing system on one's kitchen desk so that children can file their school announcements and permission slips each afternoon; a parent then reviews these papers in the evening, signs any necessary paperwork and returns the forms to the children's backpacks. I could expend several hundred words picking apart the unrealistic assumptions underlying this proposal; instead, Dear Reader, I leave it to your imagination to consider whether this program could be easily implemented in your household. If it could and you haven't thought of it yet, perhaps The Organized Life is for you.
   
   To her credit, Ms Denton does include some suggestions that are useful to those of us whose dispositions make us susceptible to clutter. She devote several pages (p. 100, p. 150) to ideas for reducing clutter and analyzing whether an item really needs to be stored or could better be discarded. She warns of the perils of accumulating needless toiletries. She tells an inspiring anecdote about a man who maintains a clean basement by regularly removing anything he could replace for less than $5 because he recognizes that the benefits of a clean basement outweigh the risk that he might someday havie to spend a small sum on replacement items.
   
   In short, Ms Denton's attractive little book with its brightly colored pages and easy-to-read typography makes a diverting browse for someone who enjoys domestic organizational tasks. It is unlikely to provide any transformative guidance to the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free of their own wretched refuse and teeming to-do lists.



3. This is my favourite organisation book (and ive bought a bundle!). It is an attractive, compact book with modern graphic design & images that make it fun to read. The content is simple and 'straight to the point' and instructions/strategies/tips are in easy to follow point form.
   Don't waste your time with the many wordy,text dense organisation books that you have to search thru to uncover just a couple of good ideas... buy this book instead!



4. This book was good in the aspect that it gives many easy-to-do tips on how to get organized. However, many of the tips were too basic or outdated. The paper management section was very outdated, but gives good ideas on how to filed effectively. I especially liked the section on time and the home office section. Both of these had great ideas on how to use organization to make a better environment in these areas. "The Fingertip Test" in the Home Office section is a handy and useful tip.
   
   I am a professional organizer in Honolulu, HI (www.organizedislands.com), and I will certainly use this book for helpful hints for my clients.



5. This is a delightful book. She gives us organizational tips in a simple, easy to read, easy to follow format. And I have to say the book is just a beautiful book. Nice to hold in your hand and very colorful. It makes you happy to think about organizing.
   If I had to say something bad about it, I would say that it is a bit on the basic side. It doesn't go into great detail.

5 comments about Inside the Not So Big House: Discovering the Details that Bring a Home to Life (Susanka).

1. I am hooked on Susanka's books describing how to give our homes more of the character found in 50+ and older homes. I'm hoping to build using some of the detailing she explains, instead of having to buy an old house and renovate, in order to get a cozy, unique and homey dwelling.



2. I bought and then gutted a 1960s, three-story, 3,700 SF office building. Serving as my own architect and general contractor, I completed the two lower floors as offices for my professional engineering firm. I then turned my attention to converting the third floor into a luxury two-bedroom apartment.
   
   Although my original intent was to make the apartment a rental space, family circumstances of a regrettable but common kind will soon require me to make the apartment my own residence. With the floor plans nearly completed, I realized that the "oh my God" reaction from first-time visitors that I was seeking required great attention to detail.
   
   During the design of the office portions, I had studied about a dozen design books from Amazon and now wanted resources for the architectural details of the apartment. (Architectural details include windows and doors, floor, ceiling, and wall finishes, cabinetry, molding and other millwork.) With architectural details well done, the apartment or home looks inviting and interesting even before furnishings and decorator items are added.
   
   This book was the third to arrive of the ten I ordered so far. The first two were entirely forgettable, but this one yielded a dozen good ideas.
   
   The 210-page book has a chapter for each of twenty-three projects, each by a different architect. Most projects were renovations of a home of 1,200 - 2,100 SF. Architectural interior detail styles range from craftsman and usonian, to contemporary and gentle modern. Each project is notable more for the interior design details than for the building exterior or site.
   
   My favorite, but not my only source of ideas, was a Block Island cottage by the Newport architect, James Estes. My apartment, located at a charming 1900-vintage village center of a NYC suburb is 15 miles from the nearest salt water, but the quiet serenity and color palettes of an ocean-front cottage had been in my mind as an organizing concept for some time. No matter that the large band of windows on the east end overlook a parking lot instead of beach and ocean.
   
   The Amazon listing shows the cover photo, a project not to my liking. You can page through the other pages available on Amazon for other samples. Note the excellent color photography and the expert and well written commentary of Sarah Susanka, the principal author of the many volumes of the Not So Big House series. Co-author Marc Vassallo is an architect, and he now writes fulltime, including fiction.



3. Absoultely amazing insight ....worth every penny; the quality of the photos alone will justify the purchase....it will be the single best expenditure that you can make in building a new home or remodeling an existing area. Makes things so clear that everyone will get it. They say "You don't know what you don't know"....after reading this book and her others in a series....you will know what you did not know that you did not know...Just buy the book and you will understand what I am saying



4. This is one of my favorite books. I love Susanka's style - modern, but also friendly and warm. The layout of the book is excellent too, lots of photos with helpful annotations.



5. I bought this book because I am looking to renovate my house and I found it very useful. There are plenty of photos of the various details in the houses and a great explanation of how to achieve a similar look. It is an excellent source of ideas if you're looking to transform your home.

5 comments about Clean: The Humble Art of Zen-Cleansing.

1. This is a great book. Fun to read with fabulously fresh methods for cleaning the house. It truly is a ZEN experience. I read it quickly and refer to it often. Fully recommend it!!!



2. "CLEAN" is an amazing example of how each of us can take responsibility for our environment--home, neighborhood, city, state, country, planet. It provides easy and safe recipes that replace commercial products, but more than that, it's creating a grassroots environmental movement. We all hear about Global Warming and figure, "What can I do?" or even worse, "the government will fix it." Environmentalism begins at home, and "CLEAN" is a great guidebook to get us started--if everyone exchanged just ONE commercial product for ONE "CLEAN" recipe, the process of de-toxing our planet would begin. And we all have the ingredients in our homes already--baking soda, salt, lemon juice, white vinegar and borax (OK, so maybe you don't have borax, but believe it or not--it's in every grocery store right beside the commercial laundry detergents and bleach!) You have to clean anyway, so why not do it in a way that is safer for your family, pets, neighbors and the other billions of people who share our planet!



3. I keep a copy of this book on my coffee table in my country house. I always enjoy it when my guests are curious and I can share this precious gem of a book with them. The author is genuine and exremely knowledgeable.
   I have incorporated several of the recipies and they work without hurting me or our planet. I have purchased several copies to give to friends when I visit their homes.



4. "Clean" is a true gem. When I first read the book I thought to myself sure, sure baking soda and lemon is going to do the job of the store bought cleansers I've been using for years. Well imagine my surprise when I gave it a half-hearted whirl and soon found myself surrounded by a wonderfully fresh and spotlessly glistening bathroom and kitchen. And here is the part I really enjoyed, that overbearing scent of the cleanser I normally use wasn't there. I'm sold. I've mixed up my own batches of cleansers, refer to the book on a regular basis and am converted. Thanks to Michael DeJong's book not only is my home bright and clean and I am saving money but I can help save the environment.



5. If you care about the environment and/or your health (or your family's health) you'll find the cleaning recipes in this book very useful. I remembered some of the cleaning techniques from my grandmother when I was a little girl, then they were all forgotten until now. You can find all the ingredients in your grocery store, borax f.e. is in the laundry isle. These ingredients used in this book work just as good if not better than the store bought. My grocery store offers nowadays eco-friendly cleaning products but they are very expansive, your home made version will cost you very little to make, and it's very easy. The A-Z cleaning key section is a quick way to look for a cleaning problem you have with the necessary ingredients and a link to the pages where it describes more about it. If you ever got a headache using those toxic shower cleaning products, think again, your body is telling you something...use nature's own...

3 comments about How to Live in Small Spaces: Design, Furnishing, Decoration and Detail for the Smaller Home.

1. Well organized,liked the pictures and ideas. A little light on actual hard core information, but a nice intro to the ideas that are useful to consider when contemplating a small space remodel.



2. Though I am not color blind, one would be hard to believe that when it comes to color choices I have made in the past. I knew nothing about color and how colors work with one another.
   The first part of this book outlines basic color theory - the primary colors, secondary and tertiary colors and how they work together. The book then goes into how to use color to set different moods or support different themes - for example, what colors to use for an Asian or Mediterreanan look.
   I learned a lot - and finally got it through my head that paint is not permanent - if you don't like it - paint it over. With this book in hand, I won't be afraid to try different color combos. This is a great book with lots of ideas!



3. This book has some very valuable information on getting your life ready to live in a smaller more efficent space. It also shows some very good examples to inspire you.

5 comments about Clutter Control: Putting Your Home on a Diet.

1. None of the books I ordered to give me pointers didn't seem to tell me much I needed to know about that. My situation didn't fit these how to books as they went through a lot of stuff that didn't pretain to me very much and having boxes strewn all over to sort things can not work here for me as I have roomers and the hall would be blocked doing such a thing. I guess if I had a huge house like some have, but I am in a small 3 bedroom condo and it wasn't helpful for me.
   MomElly



2. Jeff Campbell, guru of The Clean Team, and author of the books *Speed Cleaning* and *Spring Cleaning,* chides and guides the reader to declutter one's domestic existence - the better to clean around, my pretty!
   It's a Holy War against Clutter and Chaos, in which Less really *is* More. If you are tired of living like Fibber McGee, get this book. Then READ it. Don't just leave it lying around in the midst of all the incoming mail clutter.
   Campbell first lies down The Uncluttering Rules, #1 of which is: "When in Doubt, Throw It Out!" and then, with compassion and humour, goes through The Psychology of Clutter. He grants dispensation from guilt of liberating oneself of Gawd Awful gifts from well-meaning friends and relatives. Then there are "Uncluttering Guides: An Alphabetical List" of Clutter Combat Zones. It is a truly emancipating experience.
   Cannonize Campbell!
   TundraVision, Amazon Reviewer



3. Since I am a clutter-aholic, I have read oodles of organizing books and de-cluttering books and this one is the least inspired. He seems to be just filling space with each topic, rather than offering any new insights or ideas. For this particular topic, I recommend the Messie's Manual for a beginner and Julie Morgenstern's Organizing from the Inside Out for some practical tips. The best part about Clutter Control is a guide on page 137 giving suggestions of how long you should keep certain kinds of documents. I ripped out page 137 and threw the book away. The latest organizing book I've read is David Allen's Getting Things Done. It is awesome for paper clutter, one of my worst problems. I seem to be making progress!
   
   To be fair to Jeff Campbell, his book, Speed Cleaning is THE BEST on the subject of how to clean.



4. I was a little disappointed with the information in the book - it was pretty basic, not much innovative or new material. Just good common sense ways to tackle the clutter in your house. Also a little too much into the "psychology" of clutter instead of practical advice. If you have never read anything else on getting rid of clutter this book would be helpful to you.



5. I would not recommend this book for a client or an organizer to read. I say this because in my opinion the author writes the book with under tones of arrogance and does not explain to the reader that these are methods that may work for him but it is ok to try other ways to find what fits for a particular person. There are many ways to archive success in completing an organizing task and a person should be open-minded.

5 comments about Organizing Magic: 40 Days to a Well-Ordered Home and Life.

1. As usual, Sandra Felton provides a thoughtful, kind, step by step program for getting out of a mess into a clean, organized home. While this book alone will leave you with some questions, buy it in conjunction with almost any of her other books, and you will have a guide to solving your most pressing home organization problems.
   
   Felton provides her suggestions with more than a little bit of insight into how things got to be this much of a mess to begin with. She is a reforming messie person, and doesn't hesitate to share her experiences with you.



2. Nowhere near as good as other organizing books. If you do want to get a book on organizing, get: organizing from the inside out and organizing plain and simple. Those 2 combined give you all the info you need...



3. I was considering purchasing this book (no, I have not read it). After reading one of the book reviews below, I was drawn to visit, the author, Sandra Felton's website. I surfed around her website a little until I came across a Teleclass she hosted on Decluttering Your Life. I could only manage to listen for about 10 minutes because I was getting so agitated and annoyed with her inane and repetitive questions of the interviewee. I don't know how the poor interviewee, Marsha Sims, could make it through the interview without screaming?! Not only did the questions Felton was asking appear idiotic, but the whole Teleclass was disorganized and chaotic. I find it hard to believe that I could learn any organizing methods from someone who is more disorganized than I am. After listening to Sandra Felton for 5 minutes, I decided not to purchase any of her books! Marsha Sims had some really interesting ideas (that she was barely able to get through on the interview) and I have decided to see if she has written any books of her own.



4. This should actually be "40 STEPS (rather than DAYS) to a Well-Ordered Home and Life." I love the idea of becoming Martha Stewart in less than two months, but, unfortunately, it took me six months to get through the book. (I wanted to implement each chapter before moving on to the next.) And I'm still not Martha Stewart.
   
   This is a great book! The author offers practical and sound advice for behavioral change. It's not a book of "put this here and buy this organizing tool." Rather it is a collection of tiny steps to help people change their behavior toward more organized living. The author doesn't want to give people cleaning schedules; she wants to help people maintain clean and organized homes by encouraging clean and organized habits. The book design is colorful (quite feminine, but I'm a woman, so I didn't mind too much) and easy to read. Sidebars and shoutouts are prevalent. The chapters are short making it perfectly bite-sized reading.
   
   Final Thoughts: Definitely RECOMMENDED.



5. As organizing books go, they usually fit into at least one of 3 categories: 1) hints/tips, 2) 'clutter psychology/personality types, or 3) managing (getting rid of/finding storage for).
   
   The author has tried to do all three and ended up doing none. Although the book claims to have one-hour activities, there's really little meaningful substance at all. There's no clear progression where any activity builds on or logically follows another, so the whole thing feels kind of random.
   
   Only a couple of pages are devoted to each day, and these examples are quoted from the book:
   
   * Envision your goals.
   * Stick to a system.
   * Wear glasses that darken automatically in the sun.
   * Serve dinner dishes on the kitchen counter.
   * Drop out of a group or club.
   * Stop sending Christmas cards.
   * Look down the road for trouble.
   * Give away unwanted, outgrown, or downright unpleasant items.
   
   That last one is the most disturbing of all. If it's "downright unpleasant," why would you give it to anyone?
   
   If the book didn't have Sandra Felton's name printed right on the cover, I wouldn't have believed she authored it.
   
   If your clutter problem is just annoying, you won't get anything from this book you're not already doing or didn't already know. If you're a serious clutterbug, you won't find anything here that will help you make any major impact on your clutter.

5 comments about The House That Cleans Itself: Creative Solutions for a Clean and Orderly House in Less Time Than You Can Imagine.

1. This book is a great way to FINALLY get your home neat and clean, for good. Just like dieting is a quick fix to loose weight, but doesn't keep the pounds off, spurts of frantic cleaning right before guests come over won't keep your home clean once the guests leave. To acheive and maintain your ideal weight you have to change your lifestyle, so why should we expect it to be any different with keeping the house clean? This book will walk you thorugh step by step how to make those lifestyle changes to keep your house clean. I'm not talking about adding 2 hours of chores to your already hectic schedule, but instead looking at WHY the kitchen counter is always a disaster or the coffee table is always cluttered/messy (It is almost like free therapy for your home) and coming up with a solution that works for you, not the solution that "generally works" for people.



2. Another delightful mystery by Mindy Starns Clark. Likable characters, romantic interests, and even household hints make for an interesting (and informational) suspense story. Wholesome enough for a pre-teen. I look forward to getting better acquainted with Jo Tulip in future books.



3. I highly recommend this book for those who are looking for a process to show how it is possible to streamline cleaning the house and keep it looking that way. Easy reading and reasonable suggestions for organization, cleaning and saving time in the process



4. In general this book had useful suggestions and a light tone that made for easy reading. No earth-shattering revelations, but solid advice.
   
   That being said, I would recommend reading this book only if you are already Christian or very tolerant. This book on housekeeping includes as necessary steps in the process "Going on a Prayer Walk through Your House (Chapter 4 IIRC)" and "Setting Up a Devotional Space (Chapter 11)" Bible quotations are placed at the beginning of each chapter and God is frequently (though not offensively) mentioned in the rest of the text. For a non-Christian tired of the "God helps me do everything that I ever do", the (extraneous) religious sections are going to grate.



5. I employed a few simple ideas and tools that the author recommended and have been surprised that my housecleaning attitude has turned from avoidance to "enjoyment" that the task of cleaning my house for my family or visitors is not as overwhelming or dreaded as it used to be.