Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House

Cheryl Mendelson

Simon and Schuster, May 17, 2005 - House & Home - 896 pages

The classic bestselling resource for every American household, Home Comforts addresses the meanings as well as the methods of housekeeping to help you manage everyday chores, find creative solutions to modern domestic dilemmas, and enhance the experience of life at home.

"Home Comforts is to the house what Joy of Cooking is to food." —USA TODAY

For the first time in nearly a century, here is an engaging and comprehensive book about housekeeping. Far from a dry how-to manual, nor a collection of odd tips and hints, a history book, or an encyclopedia compiled by a committee or an institute, Home Comforts is a readable guide for both beginners and experts of all the domestic arts. Including choosing fabrics, cleaning china, keeping the piano in tune, making a good fire, folding a fitted sheet, setting the dining room table, keeping surfaces free of germs, watering plants, removing stains—this guide covers everything that modern people might want to do for themselves in their homes.

Further topics include: making up a bed with hospital corners, expert recommendations for safe food storage, reading care labels (and sometimes carefully disregarding them), keeping your home free of dust mites and other allergens, home safety and security, this is a practical, good-humored, philosophical, even romantic, guidebook to the art and science of household management.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - juniperSun - LibraryThing

worth it for the section "When is Good Enough Good Enough". Mendelson's intent in this book is not to make us feel guilty or compulsive about Keeping House, but how to do it in a way that is effective.

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - navelos - LibraryThing

I liked the introduction to this book and the general idea, but I felt that the content switched between common sense and stuff I'd never do and thus wasn't that helpful to me. It is very thorough though and if you're new to housework, it might have much valuable information.

Contents

• My Secret Life: 3
• CLEANLINESS DAILY LIFE: 5
• Easing into a Routine: 17
• Neatening: 30
• The Whys and Wherefores of Home Cooking: 37
• Breakfast Lunch and Dinner: 49
• Serving Meals: 58
• Stimulating Beverages: 70
• The Center of a Dwelling: 88
• C Kitchen Culture: 103
• To Market to Market: 122
• Cold Comfort: 142
• Bread and Honey: 155
• Safe Food: 161
• The Fabric of Your Home: 193
• Transformations: 221
• The Natural Fibers: 232
• The ManMade Fibers: 242
• and Blends: 253
• Fabrics That Work: 266
• IQ Carefully Disregarding: 270
• Care Labels: 276
• Gathering Storing and Sorting Laundry: 288
• Laundering: 303
• Drying the Laundry: 329
• Ironing: 339
• Folding Clothes and Linens: 351
• How to Launder Tricky Items: 358
• Common Laundry Mishaps: 363
• and Problems: 367
• Sanitizing the Laundry: 375
• Removing Stains from Fabrics: 380
• The Air in Your Castle: 393
• Peaceful Coexistence: 401
• with Microbes: 417
• The Chemistry of Household Cleaning: 436
• Aprons Rags and Mops: 446
• Dust and Dust Mites: 450
• Vacuuming Sweeping: 454
• and Dusting: 458
• Textile Furnishings: 466
• Floors and Furniture of Wood and Woodlike Materials: 487
• Resilient Floors: 506
• Ceramic Tile: 510
• Stone: 516
• ManMade Solid Surfaces and Other Plastics: 523
• Bathrooms: 529
• Pipes and Drains: 534
• Walls Ceilings Woodwork and Windows: 536
• China and Crystal: 543
• Metals: 553
• Caring for Jewelry: 563
• Kindly Light: 569
• Fireplaces: 587
• Some Quiet Occupations: 594
• Sewing: 599
• Caring for Books: 612
• Music: 617
• Images and Recordings: 622
• Home Offices: 628
• and Computers: 631
• Pets: 637
• SLEEP: 643
• The Cave of Nakedness: 653
• Beds and Bedding: 671
• Closets for Clothes and Linens: 687
• NOTES: 839
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: 847
• INDEX: 857

About the author

Cheryl Mendelson is a Harvard Law School graduate, a sometime philosophy professor, a novelist (Morningside Heights and Love, Work, Children), and a homemaker by choice. Born into a rural family in Greene County, Pennsylvania, she now lives in New York City with her husband and son.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House
• Author: Cheryl Mendelson
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Simon and Schuster, 2005
• ISBN: 0743272862, 9780743272865
• Length: 896 pages
• Subjects: House & Home / Cleaning, Caretaking & Organizing; House & Home / Decorating & Furnishings; House & Home / Maintenance & Repair