--- product_id: 117236759 title: "Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House Kindle Edition" brand: "cheryl mendelsonharry bates" price: "92.36 DT" currency: TND in_stock: true reviews_count: 8 url: https://www.desertcart.tn/products/117236759-home-comforts-the-art-and-science-of-keeping-house-kindle store_origin: TN region: Tunisia --- # Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House Kindle Edition **Brand:** cheryl mendelsonharry bates **Price:** 92.36 DT **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House Kindle Edition by cheryl mendelsonharry bates - **How much does it cost?** 92.36 DT with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.tn](https://www.desertcart.tn/products/117236759-home-comforts-the-art-and-science-of-keeping-house-kindle) ## Best For - cheryl mendelsonharry bates enthusiasts ## Why This Product - Trusted cheryl mendelsonharry bates brand quality - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description Full description not available ## Images ![Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House Kindle Edition - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51rNr5vXlML.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ More Julia Child than Rachel Ray. Great for first geners and traditionalists! *by L***S on Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2011* I love this book! I've always had a sort of romanticism with the past and love books that deal with the old-fashioned way of doing things. My parents are two working people who immigrated to the US. They grew up very poor, so I was never exposed to this way of keeping house. Poor people generally do not have china, multiple wine glasses, and the like. So I found this book helpful as a first generation yuppie kid, who enjoys more financial and personal freedom from my parents at my age, learn how to keep house middle class style. I wish we all lived with a little more traditionalism as it can be perfectly glamorous, like living in a 1930s film.On to more useful knowledge for you: No, this book is not a 101 ways to cut down on the time you spend house cleaning. I feel like some reviewers did not read the book's introduction, because the author says that you DO NOT have to do as much cleaning as she suggests. They are guidelines. I STRONGLY suggest that you take advantage of the "Look inside" feature that Amazon has provided and read the table of contents and the excerpts of the book before making a decision to purchase.This is a housekeeping book in the style of the housekeeping books of the days of yore. I appreciate the detailed discussion of every little thing, even folding, storing food, and organizing a kitchen, because a lot of young people don't know how to do it (spoiled by their parents). It should be noted that you do not have to fold in the way that she tells you if you already have a system of doing so.This book is also not a book who feel overwhelmed by cleaning and need motivation and coaching. She provides a rationale for cleaning, but if you are seriously unmotivated, this might not work for you. There are no steps, a la Fly Lady. This book is written from the author's point of view, there are no scientific facts grounding much of it. If you need a research study, I would not buy this book.I would buy this book for an intelligent young man or lady who is looking to get married. I would buy this book for anyone who wants to know how to set up and run a house. I actually bought this book because I was reading one of Bunny William's interior design books and she said no one knows how to run a house anymore. I thought, "Well, how DO you do it?", a search led me to this gem.I have to address one of the criticisms of this book that I found ridiculous. If you want to learn "green" ways of keeping a house, obviously this is not going to be the book for you as the book's description makes no mention of that. Furthermore, the copyright date for the hardcover is 1999. In 1999, no one cared about being "green", so do not expect it to have a chapter on that. Again, read the table of contents or the index.I haven't read all the way through the book, but I will say an improvement to the 1999 edition, I haven't read the 2003 paperback, would be to include managing a household budget. I didn't see it listed in the table of contents, so I don't believe that this book had a discussion on that. It does talk about creating an inventory of items to be replenished in a home though.Personally, I think if your house is too large to manage effectively in this era of McMansions and getting the biggest house possible, you should downsize or hire help. This book is not going to help you clean a house of 2,500+ square feet in a day, but it will give you some helpful theory about how it should be run and then you can hire help to allow you to accomplish it.Think of this book like Julia Child's first book, or La Varenne Pratique in cooking. It provides a pretty complete foundation for its subject and is full of art and technique. To extend the analogy, if you want a Rachel Ray, "30 min meals"-type book, look elsewhere. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ How to organize and stay neat *by G***9 on Reviewed in the United States on March 16, 2023* Had time only to scan looks interesting though. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ VERY Useful Book, But I Understand the Ruckus *by S***Z on Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2001* My mother was what used to be called a "pattern" housekeeper. She didn't just iron sheets, she -hand-ironed- them. I didn't so much as not learn from her, I fled -- into a PhD, and two careers as an author and a financial-services marketer, giving me precious little time to breathe, let alone clean.My mother's death, which brought me far more silver and furniture than any sane working woman needs in daily life, shook me out of my comfortably slovenly routine. For one thing, it wasn't that comfortable. But it was easy and I was used to it.When I moved, however, to a much bigger apartment, I decided it was time to make it look pretty; I was astonished to realize how many of the decorating skills Mother had valued -hadn't- been lost in the handover from one generation to my own (Baby-Boom, second-wave feminist). And I was astonished to find out how many of the cleaning skills I -knew- how to do.(I still do; but I'm still pressed for time, so I "inherited" the cleaning woman from the last woman who lived in my apartment.)It was hiring her AND buying a too-long (and wickedly expensive) linen tablecloth that made me realize I needed help.Which is where HOME COMFORTS came in. I admit, I'd avoided the book as what I feared might be part of the post-feminist or anti-feminist backlash, or the Martha Stewart school of self-gratulatory fuss and time-wasting over trivia because, Thorstein Veblein fashion, you -have- the time to waste.What I found was the encyclopedic treatment of home care, from safety to contracts to management to fabric and silver types, that I'd hoped for, neatly written, meticulously organized (like Mendelson's closets, presumably -- mine still won't stand the light of day), exhaustively researched: just the guide to the perplexed and refresher course I needed, with advanced work when I wanted it. I could go to the index for that, and I often do.What I've extracted from HOME COMFORTS is the common sense. I -have- bought an iron, but I don't expect to iron my new linen sheets real soon, and personally, I think that anyone who washes her freezer each week without having spilled something in it is more obsessive and Type A than I, which is saying a LOT. I don't expect to get down on my knees and hand-dust my floors, and I'd deserve to lose my cleaning woman if I asked her to do that.But we manage. -I- manage now, with very little fuss and time, and a considerable rise in morale, health, and general contentment. Using this book enables me to entertain more easily, although I flinch when people immediately start criticizing their own domestic arrangements.I give the book four stars instead of five because Mendelson, while an engaging writer, is at times a little too arch, bordering on the smug, for my tastes and because, as other reviewers have pointed out, this isn't a book to help people keep house on a shoestring. It may be useful for someone starting out, but s/he'd better have an MBA or equivalent to afford all the cleaning supplies! --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.tn/products/117236759-home-comforts-the-art-and-science-of-keeping-house-kindle](https://www.desertcart.tn/products/117236759-home-comforts-the-art-and-science-of-keeping-house-kindle) --- *Product available on Desertcart Tunisia* *Store origin: TN* *Last updated: 2026-08-20*