Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I have to admit something: at first glance, I tend to judge books by their covers. When I first saw the cover of this one, I wasn't too impressed; the picture of the author on the front made it look like some kind of "as seen on TV" tripe, and the overall design of the cover was just very... amateurish. Perhaps the authors were in this for a quick buck, so they could push their own "special" cleaning goods. But then I noticed that there were over thirty amazon user reviewers who had given the book an average rating of 4.5 stars, and I noticed that the book has been in print for almost 20 years. So, I decided to try it out. That said, this book is a masterpiece. With a really bad cover. I've been living in an apartment for almost 3 years, and I have never enjoyed cleaning it. In fact, I've been so discouraged by all my cleaning attempts that it's made me want to clean less and less--a sentiment which the author actually talks about in the introduction. The thing is, no one ever really taught me how to clean; among those I grew up with, it was always assumed to be some kind of innate talent, one not worthy of writing a book about, so whenever I asked anyone about how to clean something, they always responded with something to the effect of "just do what works well for you." That said: I essentially had absolutely no idea how to clean, and this book told me everything I needed to know in about 100 pages (the last 100 pages of the book talk about how to organize cleaning in a team, how to deal with housecleaning services, and some other things, which I haven't read yet). It wasn't intimidating at all, the print was nice and large, and the prose was very conversational. And the book actually teaches two different things--how to clean well (he introduced me to the use of a toothbrush, feather duster, putty knife, sh-mop, and some other things, all of which were far more effective than tools I'd used before), and how to clean as efficiently as possible, if you so desire. As another reviewer mentioned, this book really isn't a religion--take what you want from it and use the rest as food for thought, or throw it out entirely. Right now I'm only focusing on the techniques because I just want a clean apartment, but once I've got the techniques down I'm going to try to take some of his advice on efficiency and try to put it to good use too. Also, given the fact that the author sells his own products, he is remarkably good at not pushing them. He states repeatedly through the book that the tools you use aren't as important as the methods you use, and he offers the names of several commercial brands that work well. He even says that you can make your cleaning apron (more on that later) on your own; although he doesn't give much direction on how to go about doing this, I imagine if I knew how to sew it wouldn't be too hard. The only "non-standard" tool in his arsenal that isn't available at a standard hardware store is the many-pocketed cleaning apron--you're supposed to put all your tools on it, so they're always on your person when you're cleaning. A lot of people seem to think this idea is ridiculous, and I'll admit that at first glance I was fairly skeptical about it, too. I still don't own a cleaning apron, actually, but when cleaning my apartment after reading his book, I realized why one could be incredibly useful. The author claims that the apron is the most important of all cleaning tools because it saves so much time--you won't ever have to walk somewhere to get a tool. However, what he doesn't mention is that such an apron would probably make cleaning a less stressful activity. One of the things I realized when last cleaning my apartment was that a lot of the time I'm cleaning, I'm not actually *thinking* about cleaning--instead, I'm thinking, "where did I put my putty knife?" or "where's my glass cleaner?" Having an apron with dedicated, separate pockets for each tool would enable me to focus all my attention on cleaning, not constantly switching my thoughts between cleaning and wondering where my tools are. I believe this would make my cleaning routine not only faster, but also more focused, less stressful, and possibly even (ok, maybe this is a stretch) enjoyable. It sounds like a great idea and I hope it actually works well in practice. Another thing I really like about this book is that it's one of the few books I've read on domestic activities that doesn't assume the reader is female. In this day and age, it actually angers me when I read recently-published material on home economics that assumes the reader must be a married mother (even many of the married couples I know share household duties), and I think it's one of the things that really turns men off from reading these kinds of books--as a 25 year old single male, whenever I pick up a book and read something on the back that tells me I'm a 30-year old mom, it's kind of hard not to put it down. Fortunately, this book is incredibly good at being very unassuming about the reader and their lifestyle, and other home economics books would do well to follow its example. All of that said, the book does have a few downsides, apart from the horrible cover. For one thing, the author often tells you things like "Trust us. Don't argue with this method, don't ask why, just know that it works." The problem with this is that, for one thing, without a solid understanding of *why* you're doing something, there's no possibility for you to alter or improve on it to make it more effective for your particular situation. Furthermore, it makes it harder for me to remember, because I usually remember things by understanding the reasons and then deriving the actions that follow from them, instead of memorizing the actions by themselves. That said, however, the author does actually explain the reasons behind most of his techniques. The only other thing that would've helped this book would've been full-color photos: being completely clueless, I don't really know what mildew and soap scum look like (or what the difference between them is), I don't know how to tell whether my floor is vinyl or linoleum, and I don't know how dirty a cleaning cloth should be before I should throw it out and use another one, so full-color photos explaining these things would have been very useful. Oh, and to those who buy the book or are worried about getting a hold of this gimmicky-sounding "sh-mop": at first I was worried I'd have to mail-order this contraption, but I found out that the sh-mop is actually mechanically simpler than a standard mop, and was apparently successful enough that generic brands are now selling them under different names; my local hardware store had something called a "Hardwood Floor and More!" which matched the book's description of the sh-mop precisely (its base even had the same dimensions), so this tool shouldn't actually be too hard to get your hands on; I also find it far more effective than both my sponge mop and my Swiffer WetJet. Ultimately, this book has been extremely helpful for me and I now feel much more confident in my cleaning abilities than I did before.