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Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House
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List Price: $19.95
Our Price: $11.50
You Save: $ 8.45 ( 42% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Scribner
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 640
EAN: 9780743272865
ISBN: 0743272862
Label: Scribner
Manufacturer: Scribner
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 896
Publication Date: 2005-04-05
Publisher: Scribner
Studio: Scribner
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Quad play
Comment: I purchased 4 copies of the same title from four different suppliers. All 4 copies arrived promptly and as good or better than described.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Zen Housekeeping
Comment: Once you understand the steps behind each chore, you can find pleasure and a feeling of accomplishment and pride in your housekeeping, regardless of the level of attention to detail that you choose. This is a wonderfully detailed, encyclopedic tome; it is not a book that you will read for entertainment, but as very useful guide that emphasizes method, efficiency and order. Comments from a few reviewers on a certain level of 'germiness' as being desirable are HIGHLY misguided. It was Victorian principle of applying science to domestic environment that led to (a) numerous gadgets that revolutionized housework; (b) sanitation science, including public water supply treatment and food preservation techniques; and (c) strategic changes in purpose-driven home design. These innovations resulted in a tremendous reduction in infectious disease, improving the odds of survival beyond infancy and adding *decades* to average adult life expectancy over the first half of the 20th century. These same Victorian principles underlie the exacting European approach to domestic chores that the author was taught at home, although she provides factual explanation behind the 'how-to' of each task.
On germs, sanitation and the immune system: most of our home environments are tightly enclosed and poorly ventilated. Therefore, our living space retains entrained dust, animal dander, humidity and pollutants, including ultrafine particulates and VOCs (volatile organic solvents) responsible for inducing lung, skin and central nervous system disease. VOCs are internally released from materials of construction and products used within the home. Modern dietary issues worsen irritant and toxin response, resulting in inefficient immunity to pathogens and overactive immune response to common foods, allergens and 'self' (autoimmune disease). Sanitizing kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom is a dashed good idea, given this immune regulation problem. Carpets and mattresses can and do retain dust and organic particulates, encouraging mites that thrive in the warm, particle-retaining, humid conditions found within thickly layered padding.
As an environmental/chemical engineer and microbiologist, I found this book to be sensible, satisfying in provision of detail, and timely with respect to home sanitation. Plus, it provided answers to niggling samll quandries that aren't common knowledge - all found in a reasonably priced book. Highly recommended.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful if you're into self-flagellation
Comment: My mother gave this to me as a gift on my wedding, so I haven't had the guts to put it right where it belongs-- in the garbage.
I can get through a chapter at a time before I throw it. There is NO WAY that this woman can be a lawyer, raise a family, and still find time for ironing sheets, figuring out what shoes to wear up the stairs, turning mattresses, washing walls, worrying about pet germs, and keeping items off the chairs-- unless all she does is work and clean. That sounds like my definition of hell.
As a personal narrative, it does nothing but inspire guilt and make you glad that none of your friends or family are anything like this woman. As a reference book, it stinks. It's hard to find the important information, and often it's interwoven with the writer's opinions on what's right and wrong. Also, if you are a slight hypochrondriac, or worry about things like the dangers of the kitchen and bathroom, this might send you over the edge. This woman has obviously never read that you need some germs to build up your immune system. I wonder what happens to her when she ventures out in public-- I imagine her in a mask and gloves.
As a working woman with a baby on the way, I'm glad I haven't taken this book too seriously. There's no way I could have found the time to become pregnant (unless I scheduled it in between weekly drain cleanings and mattress turning).
Customer Rating:
Summary: Information Overload
Comment: The book is very complete, but be prepared it has more information than you could have ever imagined.
I probably needed something a little less complete to avoid information overload.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Bridal Shower Gift
Comment: How to create a home and keep a house... an art often forgotten in this busy world we live in.
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Editorial Reviews:
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The classic bestselling resource for every American home. 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 food pathogens, watering plants, removing stains -- Home Comforts addresses the meanings as well as the methods of hands -- on housekeeping to help you manage everyday chores, find creative solutions to modern domestic dilemmas, and enhance the experience of life at home. 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, A summary of laws applicable to the home, including privacy, accident liability, contracts, and domestic employees and more in this practical, good-humored, historic, philosophical, even romantic, guidebook to the art of household management.
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