Product Description

This book is for our 'inner housewife', desperate to learn what housewives everywhere used to know instinctively - how to look after our home well and efficiently, with minimum fuss. Housewifery may be a dying vocation, but generations of wifely wisdom must not be allowed to disappear with it. We need to redefine what it means to be a housewife, for the sake of our homes and for the sake of our sanity. We have become dependent on those 5-in-1 chemical cleaners; we can't seem to wield a Hoover any more; doing the laundry takes days out of our week. We are too busy! We think housework is boring! We are at crisis point! Determined to help us to regain control, Rachel Simhon has compiled this manual on everything we need to know about looking after the home. She reveals how to descale a kettle, polish silver, get scratches off glasses, minimise ironing, store food in the fridge, protect photographs from fading and fold a fitted sheet, and explains how to choose a tumble dryer, manage a room full of children's belongings, sort a week's worth of family laundry and even organise a stress-free spring clean. And she answers, once and for all, countless questions such as what really gets red wine out of a carpet, why mattresses become lumpy over time and how to put an end to bathroom mould. Quarter-bound with an elegant Fifties-inspired two-colour design and illustrations, The Housewife's Handbook is the definitive guide to caring for the home.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12059 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 368 pages

Observer
Plenty of handy household gems.

Daily Star
Packed with advice on keeping your beloved pad in tip-top condition, no home should be without it!

About the Author
Rachel Simhon is a deputy editor for the Daily Mail, and until recently wrote 'Household plc', a weekly column offering help and advice on running 'the twenty-first-century home'. She lives in London.

Customer Reviews

Taking the Pledge
Housework, like clothes, is either in or out of fashion. Thankfully for those of us who like to live in a clean, tidy environment, it is back in fashion again; no longer is it thought frivolous to dust and polish. This book, written by a busy working journalist, isn't about the quick fix, but about the smooth running of the home. It is in three parts, the first of which goes through a house, room by room, explaining how each item can be cleaned and maintained. The second part is about household equipment, household chemicals, how to clean and schedules which might help us acquire a cleaning routine which is within the reach of most of us. The final part deals with stains, household pests and pets (some of us think these might be one and the same!), storage, employing a cleaner and useful addresses. This is not a completely comprehensive study of housework but it certainly covers the essential elements of running a home. What is more, it is fun to read, peppered (no pun intended) as it is with apt quotations and anecdotes. "The book is not designed to be read from cover to cover," says Simhon. She says it is to be "dipped into" as and when you need, like a cookery book. Well, I've been reading it from cover to cover simply because its enjoyable.

Amazingly helpful!
This book is full of helpful tips on keeping your house clean and avoiding problems. I never knew you shouldn't wash knives in the dishwasher, or how to unblock a drain without using a chemical product. Not being very domestic but wanting a reasonably clean house, I'm finding this book very interesting.

Frustrated
I have tried to order this book twice now from Amazon. The first copy received had several loose pages, and the second was so poorly bound that the back hard cover hardly covered the pages. Now Amazon have refunded my money but wont send me another copy in case they have a faulty batch. So be aware ....
Anyway, obviously I have seen two copies of the book and I am impressed. All the obvious hints and tips of household management expressed in a very easy-to read way. A book to keep for life - if you can get a decent copy!