How to Keep House While Drowning : : a Gentle Approach to Cleaning and Organizing

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Care tasks are morally neutral -- Kindness to future you -- For all the self-help rejects -- Gentle skill building: The five things tidying method -- Gentle self-talk: Mess has no inherent meaning -- Care tasks are functional -- Gentle self-talk: find the compassionate observer -- Organized is not the same as tidy -- Susie with depression -- Gentle skill building: Setting functional priorities -- Women and care tasks -- Gentle skill building: Laundry -- You can't save the rain forest if you're depressed -- Drop the plastic balls -- Gentle skill building: Doing the dishes -- When you don't have kids -- When it's hard to shower -- Caring for your body when you hate it -- Gentle self-talk: "I am allowed to be human" -- Good enough is perfect -- Gentle skill building: Changing bedsheets -- Rest is a right, not a reward -- Division of labor: the rest should be fair -- Gentle skill building: Bathrooms -- Gentle skill building: A system for keeping your car clean -- When your body doesn't cooperate -- Contributing is morally neutral -- Cleaning and parental trauma -- Critical family members -- Rhythms over routines -- Gentle skill building: Maintaining a space -- My favorite ritual: Closing duties -- Skill deficit versus support deficit -- Outsourcing care tasks is morally neutral -- Exercise sucks -- Your weight is morally neutral -- Food is morally neutral -- Getting back into rhythm -- You deserve a beautiful Sunday.
"For anyone tired of staring at the same mess every day but struggling to find the time and willpower to fix it, popular therapist and Tiktok star KC Davis presents a revolutionary method of cleaning to end the stress-mess cycle"-- Provided by publisher.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

Summary / Annotation
Table of Contents
Author Notes

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Need submitted by Clown81 on July 6, 2022, 2:28am I need this book if it is going to show me how to clean my house.

The best hug I’ve ever gotten from a book about cleaning submitted by mgsobo on July 27, 2022, 6:29pm So many books in this genre give you a giant to-do list , and some add a helping of shame or impracticality. This book gets into the down and dirty of handling basic care tasks in the face of chronic illness, disability, small children, and other obstacles with compassion and clarity about what really matters and what can be let go of until it gets easier or more help becomes available. Real and hopeful.

Potentially a Life Preserver submitted by Meginator on August 1, 2022, 3:40pm This book is very well-intentioned and will resonate deeply with readers who are new to the household organization area of self-help; its simple, short chapters and useful appendices are ideal for anyone who is completely overwhelmed at the idea of maintaining their home space and who simply needs a place to start. I appreciated the author’s gentle approach and her insistence that rules and systems only matter as far as they actually serve the people using them, as well as some very useful lists of ideas and suggestions. The author’s approach may not work for all readers, especially those who have already been looking into the subject, but this will be a big help for a lot of people.

Short and direct submitted by Mtadams on August 10, 2023, 7:49am A short and direct book with practical tips and also looks into what can be happening at a deeper.

Patient and understanding approach submitted by Helengio on August 20, 2023, 6:41pm A really fantastic book with a great, self compassionate approach.

How to Keep House While Drowning submitted by leighsprauer on October 23, 2023, 8:01pm I was hoping this book would have more practical tips, especially for sorting/organizing, which is what I struggle with. Instead, it's more of an affirmation for people who have difficulty keeping up with daily "care" tasks: dishes, laundry, cooking, sweeping & vacuuming. Davis doesn't really give a lot of tips; her main goal is to let people know that it's okay to let things slide and only do the bare minimum. And she does a good job of writing about that and extending grace to people who struggle with that. It's not my particular challenge (although that's only because I've already internalized her advice - undone dishes and laundry don't bother me - not because I get these chores done every day), but I appreciate that she's trying to help those people.

Don’t let the title dissuade you submitted by srakes2425 on April 25, 2024, 6:08pm Approachable and understandable tips for anyone, not just those who are “drowning”. This books provides ways for you to set up an practical organizational structure for yourself; not the structure itself. 5 stars

Great book for those with executive functioning challenges submitted by mickalangelo on June 14, 2024, 11:30am This book is affirming and helpful especially for those who struggle with executive functioning and who feel overwhelmed by external pressures and moral labels used around household or "care" tasks. Highly recommend!

Great Book submitted by patpatel3025 on June 14, 2024, 2:55pm I really liked the perspective she game and the non-judgmental advice.

Great book submitted by Cherie on June 21, 2024, 11:58am This book is an excellent read for anyone, but especially accessible to anyone who is neurodivergent as it has parts where it recommends skipping chapters depending on your pacing/how prefer to execute tasks.

The author challenges norms and expectations about cleanliness and being on top of household chores while also trying to maintain your sanity. She declares that we must reframe our minds and think of these things as care tasks, and that any amount done is doing good for our future selves because the important thing is to treat ourselves with kindness and do what we can with what we have.

Her chapters about laundry, dishes, and rest really resonated with me. Too often we set standards for ourselves that are much too high (the house must be pristine at all times), when really all we need is for it to be functional (the dishes are in the sink, the laundry in the hamper, and the clutter shoved in bins) so we can ensure we have time to rest properly and have the energy to tackle it all again the next day.

This will be one that I'll likely re-read on occasion, as it's chock full of good ways to reframe how you approach care tasks, but also incredibly digestible.

Sometimes doing the least amount is ENOUGH! submitted by murnag on July 22, 2024, 5:05pm As a former over achiever who was clearly compensating for something, I really appreciated this book as a way of going much easier on myself. Favorite tip that was actually a relief to do: if I don’t have time to empty the dishwasher, I can just toss in those essential items I must have, and run it again. Living out of a laundry basket of clean but unfolded clothes is perfectly fine. I don’t have to feel ashamed!