“You do not have to earn the right to rest, connect, or recreate. Unlearn the idea that care tasks must be totally complete before you can sit down. Care tasks are a never-ending list, and if you wait until everything is done to rest, you will never rest.” – 5/5 stars!

Attention! This book contains: practical tips, shame, validation, gentle skill-building, and a lot of compassion.

How to Keep House While Drowning will introduce you to six life-changing principles that will revolutionize the way you approach home care—without endless to-do lists. Presented in 31 daily thoughts, this compassionate guide will help you begin to get free of the shame and anxiety you feel over home care.

Inside you will learn:
· How to shift your perspective of care tasks from moral to functional;
· How to stop negative self-talk and shame around care tasks;
· How to give yourself permission to rest, even when things aren’t finished;
· How to motivate yourself to care for your space.

Holy crap, I loved this book!

I have never thought I would feel this validated after reading a book, but here we are! The title describes exactly what this book is about, how to keep your house clean and organized when feeling overwhelmed. The author decided to write this book based on her own experience: when her kids were small, she often felt like a failure because she couldn’t get a hold of her house chores. Consequently, she felt a lot of shame for not being able to keep up – and for always comparing herself to others.

There is a lot of great, achievable advice in this book! Let me tell you about the most memorable tips for me:

• Care tasks are morally neutral. Meaning, there’s no point in being shamed when it comes to home chores. Having trouble completing care tasks is not related to morality in any way. Therefore, we need to let go of the judgment because it’s not helpful. As the author said, “No one ever shamed themselves into better mental health”. It can be overwhelming to keep a space clean and organized, so your feelings are valid and you’re not a bad person if you can’t keep up.
• Rest is a right, not a reward. Don’t think you only deserve to rest if you can achieve your house chore goals; rest is necessary for normal functioning, so stop using it as a reward.
• Reset the space for functionality. So instead of thinking about “having to do your chores”, you should shift your perspective to think of the tasks as care tasks and that you are making your life easier if you maintain a clean and organized space.
• You deserve kindness and compassion. The goal of this book is to tell you it’s okay – It’s okay not to have everything figured out. It’s okay to not have a perfectly clean and organized home. It’s okay to feel overwhelmed sometimes. Using the author’s own words, “Good enough is perfect”. Work on your gentle skill-building, be kind to yourself, and don’t beat yourself up if you can’t keep up. 

The writing is good and it’s a very easy book to read. The short chapters help a lot! The author also defined sections in each chapter that specifically say “main point”, to help with focus and understanding what the chapter is trying to communicate.

Like I said, I felt very validated reading this book. We are human after all, and we can only do so much! It’s a really good book to pick up, whether you’re having trouble keeping house or not.