Goodhousekeeping Newbie - books

[susiemj]

...who is just wondering if any of those 'how to clean/tidy/arrange your house' books are any good?

And any DIY books. I'm clueless and my DH is worse. I'm quite handy in general though, so it might be worth a spin. Any recommendations?

[susiemj]

I'll take that as a 'no' then.

[JackieNo]

Various people on here seem to rate the 'how clean is your house' books. Not sure what else though, and am pretty clueless at DIY too. YOu could have a bit of a look at the reviews on Amazon if you don't get any joy here.

[susiemj]

I kind of dread to say it, but ... Anthea Turner?

She had a very good trick with a t'shirt, as I recall...

[Smittals]

For a 'textbook' on the right way to do just about everything, I love 'Home Comforts'. Can't remember the author but if you look on Amazon you can read the first part of the book. It's very thorough, quite interesting ([horrified-at-self emoticon]) and in a classic display of displacement activity I like to read it when everything is grungey and I'm too fed up to clean...

[JackieNo]

Smittals - that's what the Lakeland website's for, too - displacement activity.

Just noticed that Anthea's got a new book out - about entertaining.

[Laugs]

I am attempting to become houseproud, or something like that, and have just taken Home Time by Jocasta Innes out of library.

I thought I'd hate it once I read the tagline, "Nesting has never felt so good", but actually I've found it a good read, although the assumption that you probably have a cleaner or au pair did start to grate. The style's pretty down to earth and laidback, which I liked.

Can't stand Anthea Turner, sorry, she's just so smug!

[Seasider]

There's a book called Cut the Clutter which is quite inspiring. Even got me to de-clutter a bit...

[susiemj]

No I can't stand Anthea Turner either. But that t'shirt trick was pretty good....

Library. Now there's and idea. Doh!