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Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook: The Essential Guide to Caring for Everything in Your Home |  | Author: Martha Stewart
Brand: Martha Stewart
Category: Book
List Price: $45.00
Buy Used: $13.89
as of 11/25/2009 11:29 CST details
You Save: $31.11 (69%)
New (41) Used (45) Collectible (4) from $13.89
Seller: bulldogbooks8
Rating:  169 reviews
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 752
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 4.8
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 7.5 x 2.2
MPN: 277269
ISBN: 0517577003
Dewey Decimal Number: 640
EAN: 9780517577004
Publication Date: October 31, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
A lifetime's worth of homekeeping know-how, this towering volume is sure to be one of the most comprehensive books on the subject. Let Martha show you around the home, teaching you everything you need to know in order to clean, care for and maintain it along the way.
Amazon.com Review
Martha Stewart's new home reference book is a must-have for many reasons, not the least of which is the fact that it's gorgeous. Printed on thick, glossy pages covered with subtle sepia photos and that perfect Martha-blue as an accent color, Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook is a pretty and practical package for everyone: "all mothers and daughters, fathers and sons who have a room, an apartment, or a home to care for." Stewart's exhaustive handbook features a handy "how to use this book" introduction; a room by room guide with weekly, monthly, and seasonal checklists; tips for cleaning, creating a comfortable and safe home, and moving; and a guide for identifying and caring for materials in your home. Curious? Take a look at some excerpts below. You'll be sweeping and shelving your way to a happier home in no time. --Daphne Durham
How to Use This Book: An Excerpt
 When the first issue of Martha Stewart Living was published in 1990, I could not have begun to anticipate how wide-ranging our readers' homekeeping concerns would be. Since then, we have discovered new solutions to age-old problems, brought in experts to advise us on very specific questions about very specific?c concerns, and experimented with all the new (and not so new) home-care products. Over the years, I've brought these lessons home with me, too, which has made me more organized and made my homes better cared for and maintained.
Households are busy places, works in progress where there is always something needing immediate attention and always something more that can be done. With that in mind, I have organized this book to address the tasks at hand and also to address the "more that can be done" for when you have the time and the inclination go beyond the essentials.
It starts with the big picture--an examination of every room and everything you will find within each. The eleven chapters in the "Room by Room" section take you on a tour through the house, focusing on the surfaces and furnishings you might find in any room, and offering strategies for their care and maintenance. Starting with the kitchen, the central staging area in any home, these chapters open with practical space-planning advice, followed by the golden rules of organizing. This information is intended to help contain your belongings and make each room clutter-free and functional. Relevant homekeeping concerns particular to each room are explored in depth--so stain-removal basics appear in "Laundry Room," the best way to clean grout in "Bathroom," and easy sewing repairs in "Utility Spaces." The equipment essential to each room is also addressed, so if you are considering what kind of bathtub to install during a bathroom renovation or whether a gas or electric range would best suit your style of cooking, you will have the information necessary to make such an investment with confidence.
Organize Your Kitchen: Martha's Golden Rules
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 169
 Not for Flylady's November 17, 2009
West Villager (New York, NY United States)
This book is only for two kinds of people: those who care about the materials in their home and/or those who missed this part of the parent/child experience. If bleach, any all-purpose cleaner or just baking soda/vinegar are your steadfast weapons of choice for housework, this will be a waste of time. For everyone else this is a comprehensive manual about which products and methods to use to best clean, maintain and care for your home inside and out. There's also advice about organization, decorating/room layout, pet care, preparing for a baby and even a thorough moving checklist. The level of detail could be considered overwhelming; it's better to think of this book as an encyclopedia rather than a "10 steps" self-help kind. Though completely accessible, it's really a home reference source -- from the varied types of cloth used for washing and drying glasses and bed linen thread counts to the best way to mop wood, vinyl and stone and repairing a torn screen.
Near the beginning she says, a clean house doesn't smell like cleaning products but fresh flowers, what's for dinner or simply the absence of any odor. I realize Martha Stewart is an aspirational teacher but instead of just telling you how to clean a stainless steel sink, for example, she also explains why bleach is the worst choice. A home is one of the most significant financial investments we make and where we spend a good deal of time. It might as well look and feel the best it can for as long as it can.
When I renovated my home a few years back, I searched everywhere for information about how to maintain the flooring, appliances, windows, etc. Most sources centered on the quickest, the least expensive or the easiest. This book centers on pride first while still offering efficient, cost-effective choices.
I may not always wash a dish from the center outward like Martha and my mother, but I'll never struggle with a fitted sheet again.
Essential Information for Your Entire Home. October 19, 2009
Megan Ellinger (Plano, TX)
Never polished a table? Never successfully got a stain out of a shirt? This book will tell you how. It contains literally *everything* you need to know to appropriate clean, store or perform upkeep on any object in your house.
The most valuable part of this book is the section on laundry. Using the tips and charts in this book, I've gotten blueberry stains out of a white handknitted wool garment (wool cannot be scrubbed in any way or it will be ruined).
If I knew anyone who was just buying a home or getting started on their own, this would be one of my "must give" gifts.
Big book to a clean house. September 19, 2009
A. Fernandez
19 out of 19 found this review helpful
This is a seriously big book. It's well over 700pgs and is filled with every cleaning scenerio imaginable. The only negative I could think of was that some of the more basic infomation about cleaning might just get lost. But Martha Stewart is nothing if not thorough. So, to me, this is a must have in order to get that clean house. I highly recommend this one. I also recommend The Big Clean: How to Clean and Organize Your Home and Free Your Mind (Revised and Updated).
How-To Guide for the Shelf in Every Home September 6, 2009
J. Fischer
This is an encyclopedia of valuable information about setting up and maintaining a home. With guides for purchasing, storing, repairing and cleaning just about everything, I find myself using this book at least once a week. I recommend it as a first apartment or bridal shower gift for anyone and everyone who can't call Ms. Stewart to get her advice personally!
A must-have for any homekeeper August 29, 2009
M Holt (Salt Lake City, UT)
This book is detailed and perfectly constructed. Some advice she gives is incredibly specific, like how many inches are preferable between a couch and coffee table, countertop and above cupboard, or how many times a month to dust or vacuum. That sort of advice turned off some of my family but I loved it. It's just the kind of structure I wanted.
First I've been reading the book through front-to-back and usually skipping sections that don't apply to me (yet), like maintaining a garden (I live in an apartment) or caring for marble countertops, etc. and now I'm putting what I've read to use. Trying out her recommended maintenance schedule, trying her recommended cleaning methods, and although I'm not too far into it, I love it already.
It's literally an encyclopedia for house maintenance and while one could argue that the internet can do that too, I just enjoy having the book physically in my hands.
In any case I think I will buy this as a gift for people in the future who are either getting married or are buying a home for their first time. I'm glad I have this resource and can already tell it will stay with me for a very long time.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 169
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