cal7180's Full Review: Cheryl Mendelson - Home Comforts: The Art And Scie...
I purchased this book after hearing raves about it on the Martha Stewart bulletin boards. I am somewhat "housework challenged" and was really excited to have it demystified for me. I had high hopes of learning exactly what I needed to do, when I needed to do it, and how to do it. I'm sure all this information is in there somewhere, but, while it is exhaustive, it is not presented in such a straightforward manner.
The author, Cheryl Mendelson, starts by telling the readers that the cleaning routines she suggests are just suggestions and you are free to do what works best for your household. I get that she doesn't want to dictate and for someone who has been running a household for years, I'm sure that approach is appreciated. I however was looking for direction. With a full time job, I was looking for a no-brainer approach. I don't want to have to synthesize tons of information to come up with a cleaning routine. As someone adverse to chemicals, I did however appreciate her soap and water approach.
In terms of kitchen safety, I found Mendelson to be a bit germophobic and over-reliant on bleach (aformentioned chemical aversion). From what I understand, not all bacteria is harmful, and it may be more harmful to NOT acclimate your body to various microbes unless you plan to live the rest of your life in a bubble. Never wash your hands in the kitchen sink? Wash all your dishrags in a separate load of laundry? I know she said we could adapt to fit our household, but her suggestions that you run your kitchen as if you were planning to perform open heart surgery on the counter got annoying.
The laundry chapters I found confusing and a bit overwhelming. I don't think that I need or want to know everything there is about fiber, dye, fabric treatments, etc. to do a load of laundry and I ended up feeling like maybe I should be breaking my laundry into more specialized loads based on this instead of the standard whites/lights/darks. Some of the information was contradictory, for example, on one page, she tells you not to iron out candle wax. Then on the very next page she reproduces a stain removal chart that she got off the internet and it tells you to iron out wax stains. Some of it was also incomplete, for example, she claims she has successfully machine washed a plastic shower curtain, even though the manufacturers don't recommend it. She then goes on to give detailed instructions on how to scrub your plastic shower curtain by hand -- something I can't imagine I would ever do. While I'm not adverse to experimenting with a $5 shower curtain liner, if she's going to put it out there that you can machine wash it, she should tell you how.
I did, however, find a lot of the information useful as a buyer's guide. I love Persian rugs and hope to some day own one. Her discussion of the different types, what to look for, etc. was great. If I were redoing my kitchen or bathroom, the chapters on various flooring and counter materials are ones I would definitely reread to get an idea of the upkeep involved before making decisions on materials.
If you are planning to hire domestic help, the chapter on the legalities, taxes, etc. involved was also very good (although personally I think it sounds easier and less time consuming to clean your own house or raise your own children than to deal with all that paperwork). Mendelson's legal background really came into play here.
I mentioned in the summary that the editing was sloppy. In addition to the occasional contradictions and omissions that a good editor should have caught, there were numerous references to "see below" for information that was several pages or chapters later, there were asterix that did not have corresponding footnotes at the bottom of the page, and there were references to "see page 358 below" when page 358 was not below, but rather pages back. This may seem petty, but it got annoying after seeing it repeatedly.
Overall, there was a lot of good information in here, unfortunately it got overshadowed somewhat by presentation style, volume, and some editing problems. I think as a reference it will be something I'll refer back to, but maybe reading it all the way through isn't the best approach for a beginner.
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