Reviews with content warning for Pandemic/Epidemic - How to Keep House While Drowning: A Gentle Approach to Cleaning and Organizing

Reviews tagging 'Pandemic/Epidemic'

How to Keep House While Drowning: A Gentle Approach to Cleaning and Organizing by KC Davis

8 reviews

zydecovivo's review against another edition

informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

I’m pretty sure I have heard about this book on TikTok, but seeing it available from my library made me finally put it on hold. I’d like to start by saying this is a useful book. It does what the title says. It gives advice, tips, and reassurance to people who are struggling with keeping up with home chores. The author is both a therapist and a fellow struggler of housekeeping, so she combines personal anecdotes with the outside-the-box therapist ways of thinking (also known as “OMG you’re right that is a stupid rule/custom/thought/box I’ve put myself into”). There is also a section on hair care in which the author asks a black therapist with coily hair for advice on caring for her hair type, which I thought was a nice touch.

I just finished the audiobook version. And while I was able to listen to the information and finish the book quickly, I don’t think the audiobook is helpful if you need this book as a reference. Making a highlight in an audiobook requires rewinding and stopping whatever else you’re working on (a similar hurdle is mentioned in the book with cleaning). And if you are intending to listen and put the author’s advice into practice right away, you will quickly get overwhelmed. It’s better to find a passage that resonates with you, read, plan, and execute. And I can’t see myself returning to listen to a passage again and again without text. I would recommend reading the digital or print versions if you are reading for knowledge and not just entertainment.

Content Warnings

gwenswoons's review against another edition

Go to review page

hopeful informative inspiring relaxing fast-paced

5.0

I loved this book so much. It’s way outside my usual reading palette, and I’m so grateful Storygraph’s 2024 Genre Challenge helped nudge me to read it! A non-fiction book about psychology?!? Would never have found my way to this on my own, and I already feel the huge impact it will have in my life. I was struck again and again by the author’s ability to both do necessary reframing for us - like separating care tasks from moral successes/failings, as they’ve been societally framed for us - and to simultaneously reassure us, letting us know that changing these patterns in our brains will take time, and giving us inspiring achievable ideas to begin that work. I also deeply appreciated Davis’s acknowledgment of different needs and circumstances - so many conversations about self care and self help ignore forms of oppression and challenge, like systemic racism, financial inequity, neurodiversity, and mental health struggles: factors that can quite literally change and affect people’s abilities to do the same tasks others find easy and accessible. This book explores these things honestly and gently, and as someone who’s had serious struggles with anxiety and depression I felt seen and reflected in this book in a way I haven’t in many modern takes on related topics (whether in books or on social media, journalism, etc.). I’m short, I can’t recommend this book highly enough - truly helped me and I hope it might do the same for you. 💜

Content Warnings

bmpicc's review

Go to review page

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective fast-paced

5.0

I joke all the time about being a terrible "housekeeper", but this book... I feel SO validated right now! We are not all hardwired to be Marie Kondo. While I am not currently drowning, I am a human, a partner, & a mom who spent a year celebrating emotional milestones. They left me wondering at times if I was doing enough, keeping up, or simply existing. This was a wonderful reminder that we need to be gentle with ourselves and that is OK.

"You do not exist to serve your space, your space exists to serve you."

This publication notes in the intro that it is designed for neurodivergant readers too. I love the option to read this in the way that best suits you.

Content Warnings