A few weeks ago, I shared the tiny domestic tasks that are saving my life right now (mostly laundry, with a side of spice drawer reorganization). These small projects have provided a satisfying sense of control and a great sense of accomplishment over the last several weeks.
It may not come as a surprise that my recent obsession with the best way to remove a lipstick stain was inspired by a book. I have a long history of domesticity reading enjoyment. It’s not just the comfort of reading about house and home that draws me in—it’s the philosophy around small tasks and care-taking that inspires me.
After hearing that many of you are leaning on home projects for distraction during the gloomiest month of winter, I decided it was time to share a few books that have shaped my view of household chores, work, and yes…laundry.
Many of these books mix personal stories with practical tips and how-tos, while others focus on the philosophy of domesticity. I revisit their pages when I encounter a tricky cleaning project or when I simply need a dose of calm.
Whether you need advice, motivation, or inspiration, I hope you find a title to enjoy today. (And I’d love to hear about your current, or planned, household projects!).
9 books about the domestic arts
Welcome Home: A Cozy Minimalist Guide to Decorating and Hosting All Year Round
Laundry: The Home Comforts Book of Caring for Clothes and Linens
Laundry Love: Finding Joy in a Common Chore
Restoration House: Creating a Space That Gives Life and Connection to All Who Enter
The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy and “Women’s Work”
Home Comforts
Organizing Solutions for People with ADHD: Tips and Tools to Help You Take Charge of Your Life and Get Organized
What Are People For?: Essays
Off the Clock: Feel Less Busy While Getting More Done
Has a book ever changed your mind about a routine, habit, or method? I’m eager to see your recommendations in the comments.
P.S. Need a reboot? Here are 15 books for fresh starts and new routines or restart your life with these 12 nonfiction titles.
53 comments
If you crave a simpler lifestyle and embrace a biblical worldview, ‘Biblical Minimalism’ by Cheryl Smith is a perfect little guide –
http://www.lindastoll.net/2020/07/biblical-minimalism-giveaway-bookbag.html?m=1
The book The Lazy Genius Way changed the way I did laundry to the point that it is now my favorite weekly chore and I look forward to being able to fold it!
Yes! I was going to comment on the same book. The Lazy Genius Way changed my mindset on so many things!
I also recommend The Lazy Genius Way for this category of books! Many helpful principles for “getting things done.”
Love this book, too!
Yes! I love that book too!
The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence and
Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World
It’s not a book, but Lindsay Brigham’s article “Duty, Being, and Building with Dirt” (on the Circe Institute blog) helped recently to change my mindset about daily chores. My husband and I live in a small two-bedroom apartment, and I teach music lessons out of our home. Unfortunately this means that our our primary living space (kitchen/dining/living room, bathroom) are also my studio for 3-4 days out of the week. A good portion of my morning is spent in putting that space into order so that it looks professional and neat for my students. This article helped me to re-frame this round of morning chores from being annoying and tiring to being part of the loving care that keeps our household beautiful and even livable.
From Lindsay Brigham:
“If…I deem “regular upkeep” to be an opportunity to embody care—that is, to embody virtues like patience, kindness, longsuffering, forbearance, gentleness, love—then I will consider all recurring duties as a gift and vocation. I will tread the round of daily chores with calm content, looking out for ways to freshen them with creativity and beauty.”
https://www.circeinstitute.org/blog/duty-being-and-building-dirt
Wow! Thanks for that link. Totally something for me to think about today as I do laundry! Thank you, thank you!
Adopting Myquillyn Smith’s mantra “it doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful” has been life changing as well as life giving! All of her books have provided such inspiration and practical application for a Cozy Minimalist home.
The little house on the prairie series helped me to see chores in a different light. Plus it’s a great series!
Liturgy of the Ordinary, by Tish Harrison Warren is a favorite of mine. A decidedly Christian prospective.
This one! I came on to add it and someone already had!
Yes. This one. 🙂
Absolutely LOVE that book – one of the best I’ve ever read.
I LOVE this book. It really does give to our daily round, a sense of God’s blessings in our lives. Sort of like the French chef who says, “It is not necessary to have great things to do. I turn the omelet in the pan for the love of God.” Truly Tish Harrison Warren gets this in her book, “Liturgy of the Ordinary.” Thank you for sharing this one Paula.
I love Kathleen Norris’ writings. This little book is great, I highly recommend it, but it certainly needs updating! “Woman’s Work” was what I did while raising my family, while holding down a career. Just about did me in. My three sons, however, do as much woman’s work as their sweet wives. Running the house hold is indeed art and science, now for both man and woman.
My husband is reading What Are People For? It was a Christmas present someone gave me! 😉 I would also add Ann Voskamp’s One Thousand Gifts to this list. She really helped me find peace and joy in the ordinary everyday.
I just wrote a blog post about 8 Simple Design Tips to help tell your family’s story with your home decor. Our surrounds really do evoke feelings within us and having a calm, organized home helps me so much!
https://themiraculousjourneyofbooks.com/simple-design-tips/
Thanks Anne for the list. “Home Comforts” was my first “how to keep house” book when I got married, many, many years ago and is still my favorite. It also reads like literature. I love all clean house books and a current read that has been insightful but very funny is “How To Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind” by Dana K. White. And if you listen to the audio read by the author herself it is a real treat.
YES, this is totally one of my I-thought-it-was-just-me reading niches! I am totally obsessed with books about housekeeping and homemaking and whatnot (and I hope you don’t mind that I’m dropping a link to a round-up I did of some of my own favorite titles, none of which overlap with yours, coincidentally, though we do share some of the same authors like Myquillyn!).
Since I published that round-up, I’ve gotten even more, like have you heard of Alexandra Stoddard? And I just picked up Thomas Moore’s The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life the other week secondhand, so I’m excited to see how I like that. Definitely adding some from this list that I haven’t read yet!
https://www.toloveandtolearn.com/2019/03/05/15-books-to-help-you-get-your-house-in-order/
Hi Torrie. Alexandra Stoddard is wonderful! I have three of her books. I’ll check out your list.
I just have Living a Beautiful Life, but I’ll probably get more down the road! Do you have any other titles/authors that you love? I’m always on the lookout! Like I said, this is definitely a niche genre for me that I just love 🙂
A Simplified Life by Emily Ley is a beautiful book that changed my life as a busy mom. She makes some really good points about the importance of prioritizing and enjoying the everyday moments with the ones you love, including mealtime prep, laundry and other chores.
Yes! I liked this one as well as Ley’s book Grace, Not Perfection.
Keeping House: The Litany of Everyday Life by Margaret Kim Peterson is a lovely little book I repeatedly checked out from the library when I had a houseful of young children. She writes with warmth and gentleness about the everyday tasks of life.
Do any of these books talk about the “joy” of washing dishes? I don’t have a dishwasher, and doing dishes is my least favorite chore, I really hate it! Only two of us, and I put it off for days….
Audiobooks have now turned dishes into my favorite chore! I turn on the water, turn on my book and settle in.
I used to hate washing dishes also. I do have a dishwasher now but for awhile, mine wasn’t working and I had to come up with a plan.
– I determined to wash all the dishes every night
– I set a timer and tried to beat it and was amazed that it didn’t take as long as I thought.
– During the summer months, I enjoyed looking out the window over my sink at the great outdoors
– I used that time to be by myself with my thoughts, dreams and gratefulness for all I had
– I LOVED getting up in the morning to a clean kitchen and that made it all worthwhile.
I think it’s about the attitude we have in doing any job that makes it easier and it becomes something you don’t even think about hating. Good luck!
I like your postivity
I like the timer idea! Anything to hurry it up!
Yes, the book mentioned directly above you does! The one by Peterson. 🙂 I liked that book.
Thanks, I’ll keep looking for it! My library doesn’t have it and amazon wants $21.40 for the paperback.
The one by Margaret Peterson does. 🙂 it’s a great read.
My favorite inspirational book is an old one – The Honor Girl by Grace Livingston Hill. It may be hard to find. It is set in the 1920s-30s, I believe, and tells the story of Elsie, whose mother died when she was little, and she was sent to live with a wealthy aunt. When she is about to graduate from high school, she returns to her original home and sees how her father and brothers are living (like unhappy bachelors). She begins a series of covert missions to bring order to their home while they are at work, and gradually, seeing their appreciation, comes to want to make a happy home for them full time. It is a very sweet story, and has been a reread every few years, for me.
I’ve owned Home Comforts for years. My favorite household task is laundry. I may have to read some of the laundry books on this list. I used to love watching the home organizing British show “Life Laundry”. What a great title.
This such a great list, thank you! I would add Around the Clock Mom: Make the Most of Your God-Given Time
by Sarah K. Butterfield. It’s easy to read and so practical!
I read the ADD Organizing book many years ago and it’s so, so helpful!! I felt like I had finally found a book that understood how my brain worked.
The mantra “you set the tone for your home” has helped me keep my wits about me when I’m feeling overwhelmed by household tasks. It’s not my job to pick up every mess, but it is my role to stay calm in the midst of chaos! If I keep it together, it creates space for my family to keep it together as well.
And I love Laura Vanderkam’s work!
That ADHD book is SO GOOD! I read it several years ago on your recommendation and I have passed it along to many other people.
This is a fun book list! But fun doesn’t quite seem the right word…just reading your descriptions makes me feel more relaxed about life. A calming book list, perhaps 🙂
I’m interested to read Off the Clock because it sounds like it would actually fit with my list of favorite books on productivity, technology, and relationships: http://alookatabook.com/2020/12/07/5-books-on-technology-productivity-and-relationships/
Cal Newport’s Deep Work has changed my mindset about approaching work tasks, as well as Rest: Why You Get More Work Done When You Work Less by Alex Soojung Kim-Pang. Those are both on that list.
I know it’s already been mentioned multiple times but The Lazy Genius Way was my quarantine read and it was probably the best home book I have read. I also love The Lifegiving Home by Sally Clarkson.
Thank you for the very unexpected titles in your Feb. 23, 2021 email. They sound uniquely compelling.
I love this topic. I just responded to one of your posts yesterday saying that I wanted to reread The Quotidian Mysteries thanks to you, and here it is in today’s post! 🙂 And I’m thrilled you included Wendell Berry in this list. I haven’t read this one by him yet and am moving it up “The Berry Queue,” as I like to call it.
Anne – I don’t know how you keep coming up with such unique topics and lists after all this time, but I’m so glad that you do! I’m thankful for all of your writing.
Just so you know, I started reading this because I am currently procrastinating on laundry! 😂
I have the Home Comforts book and I love flipping through it. Sometimes I love the routine of housekeeping and sometimes it’s an exercise in futility. For me, when I think about doing to serve my family, it’s easier and more enjoyable. If I think of it as my “job”, then I hate it.
I’ve read Home Comforts. I bought it years ago when I was a newlywed and it helped me immeasurably. It’s currently on a stack on my mantle as home decor. I threw out the book jacket because the hardback cover is so pretty. I can’t think of a better place for a book on homemaking.
You might be interested in this blogger’s Victorian Homemaking experiment! It’s been interesting to follow.
https://inquisitivereader.com/homemaking-worldviews-and-where-to-begin/
Karen Maezen Miller has two books that have impacted me and my partner:
Hand Wash Cold: Care Instructions for an Ordinary Life – https://bookshop.org/books/hand-wash-cold-care-instructions-for-an-ordinary-life/9781577319047
and
Paradise in Plain Site: Lessons from a Zen Garden – https://bookshop.org/books/paradise-in-plain-sight-lessons-from-a-zen-garden/9781608682522
Both books have helped us put chores, and our relationship to daily tasks, in perspective. Highly recommended!
Simply clean by Becky Rapinchuk helped me create systems in my home that really worked! Plus it has some great tips.
Glory in the Ordinary: Why Your Work in the Home Matters to God
by Courtney Reissig
I loved “The Gentle Art of Domesticity” for changing my perspective on all things homemaking and keeping.
The book “Unf*ck Your Habitat” by Rachel Hoffman was a gamechanger for me. The website has a good overview and helpful articles, as well: https://www.unfuckyourhabitat.com/
I love the book “How to Keep House While Drowning” by K.C. Davis, who is a licensed professional counselor. Even if you don’t feel like you’re “drowning”, it’s still a great read! While there are definitely practical strategies to keeping house, she primarily focuses on taking the morality and shame out of having a messy or dirty house. Her mantra is, “care tasks are morally neutral”. I love that mindset! I am a counselor myself, and I recommend this book to clients often. The author also has a podcast and website full of good resources!
I also loved How To Keep House While Drowning. I really struggle with organizing and cleaning (possibly undiagnosed adhd) and always saw myself as a failure because of the state of my home. She helped me to understand that I am not a failure because I’m not as neat and clean as I think I should be, and while many of her tips weren’t helpful in my situation, the few that were were gold.