Customers say
Customers find the cleaning guide practical and full of useful tips, with many good methods for cleaning and stain removal. The book features clear and excellent photos of sparkling homes, and one customer notes it lists only 20 needed cleaning products. They appreciate its general information content, basic approach, and environmentally safe products, with one mentioning it makes a great bridal shower or housewarming gift.
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Breaking down the dirtiest home-cleaning jobs into manageable tasks, a room-by-room handbook presents step-by-step techniques and strategies for cleaning and maintaining a healthy home, and includes tips on tools and products to keep on hand, troubleshooting hints for stubborn stains and dirt, speed-cleaning recipes, and specialized advice on furnishings, fabrics, walls, and flooring. 100,000 first printing.
Our Top Reviews
Reviewer: Lindsey Jane
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Huge Help
Review: Do you ever think, “I need to clean my kitchen.” Then you go into your kitchen and just stand there trying to figure out where to start? Well, then this is a perfect book for you. Cleaning each room in the house is broken down into step by step directions. Have more time? There are additional directions you can do! This is perfect! It is also great for when you ask you spouse to help you by cleaning, say the bathroom. There are step by step instructions they can look at so the bathroom is clean without you having to tell them item by item what to do.This book also has the handy little feature of telling you how to clean any room of your house in a quick 10 minutes! MIL stopping by? No problem! 10 minutes and your kitchen is guest ready.Another thing I love about this book is the cleaning schedule. It has the RealSimple periodic table of cleaning. In chart form it lists what household cleaning tasks should be done weekly, monthly, every 6 months, yearly, etc.The book goes into detail about how to clean your stove and other things like that. It does have some common household stain fixes, but not all.Real Simple: Cleaning is also a pretty book. It is spiral bound with a clean plastic cover. Very pretty. It’d make a nice gift.
Reviewer: a reader
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great, unintimidating introduction to house cleaning
Review: I’ve had this book for less than 24 hours, and I’ve already learned a solution to a maddening cleaning problem I’ve been having; when I clean my toilet, I can get the whole bowl sparkling, except for a maddening ring inside the rim due to lime or rust or something. No cleaning or scouring product, brush, or sponge I’ve tried can completely remove it. Enter “Real Simple: Cleaning.” The solution to this problem is to use a pumice stick/stone to remove it, which is not something that ever occurred to me. I can see why people who were taught to clean as children and teens might think this book is too basic, but I was never taught such things. My mother is a wonderful woman who passed down her love of reading, kick-ass study habits, and wry sense of humor to me, but house cleaning was not a priority for her while she was working on her degree while I was a kid. She then worked 12-hour shifts without complaint so I could go to the college of my choice. Housework fell by the wayside while we were both deeply engrossed in our respective schoolwork. So as an adult, the responsibility to learn such things is on me. I really do need to know a list of the basic equipment I need for most household tasks, which types of cleaning products and methods work for different cleaning jobs, and how often I should do each type of cleaning, all of which this book provides. I’m really late to the party as far as these skills go, and am thrilled that I have such an essential book from which to learn. I’ve been a big Swiffer/Clorox wipes/Soft Scrub/Mr. Clean user prior to finding this book, and will probably keep a small amount of such products as backups in my cleaning arsenal should I need to quickly clean before guests come over, but it’s also great to know that I can use simple household products I already own, such as dishwashing soap and white vinegar instead of doing last-minute runs to the store for manufactured chemical products that release potentially harmful fumes and don’t necessarily clean as well as the “recipes” this book suggests as substitutes.
Reviewer: GleasonFamily97
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Very helpful- you can jump right into cleaning
Review: I am not neat, born organized or very motivated by cleaning. I seriously needed a jump start. I kind of know how to clean but I was looking for specific directions and plans to make my job easier. This book easily fit my needs. The first section of the book has a “room” 101 for each room of your house. Then it has a going deeper section as well as many sidebar notes on tips tricks and cautions. Unique areas such as your office desk or shower stall each have their own page or 1/2 page devoted to their specific needs. The second shorter section is all about the care required for different fabrics or surfaces. There is a clever chart in the back with a suggested frequency of cleaning from weekly to annually depending upon the task and it’s dirt. Basic enough that it will help my teen to learn good cleaning skills but advanced enough to help out those of us who need better techniques and patterns.
Reviewer: dewdrop
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: I needed help!
Review: Growing up in a household where the only real cleaning done was the “oh my gosh company is coming and this place is a wreck” type of cleaning, I have truly struggled my whole life to form some decent cleaning habits. I love this book and feel like it’s helping! I like how it breaks down cleaning by rooms and tells you not only what to clean but how to clean it. I also appreciate some of the simple cleaners suggested like ammonia, vinegar, etc., not that I’m a big “green” person but every little bit helps, right? I think the only thing I wish this book had was some charts that could be copied and used. I can certainly make my own but a starting point would have been helpful. Other than that, great book, great layout, and great information!
Reviewer: JVMI
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Not exactly what I expected…
Review: I have no objection to the book — it’s in a nice format and attractive looking, however, the advice is a bit on the “lite” side. Advice like “Dirty switchplates? Use a Q-tip dipped in alcohol to clean them.” Well, I’m no genius at cleaning (hence, I purchased this book), but I think I could figure that one out!!! Most of the book was like that for me. I don’t mean to be totally negative, there were several worthwhile tips.My advice? Try to buy the book used at a reduced price. It’s not worthless, just not worth as much as I had hoped.
Reviewer: Chmb
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Very Helpful
Review: This is a great book with a very straight forward approach on how to tackle the project: Cleaning the House. I love how the book emphasis that you can get your house looking in tip top shape without having to buy every product under the sun to make it happen. The book also places an emphasis on using environmentally friendly products whenever possible. Seriously, I had no idea that simple dishwasher soap could clean so much around the house. This book is a keeper.
Reviewer: Cam
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Learnt nothing new, but the pictures are nice. This book contains more pictures than information and instructing me to wipe my fridge- but not providing details on natural cleaning alternative or in many cases specific products to use it was a bit too basic for my liking.
Reviewer: Denise
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Nice book
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