Just as the publishing world seems to be rife with books about dieting, practically every publisher also carries one or more books on the topic of house cleaning and/or de-cluttering homes. It would appear that as the average American’s girth gets wider, his/her abode becomes dustier and more cluttered. Does a skinny person keep a cleaner and neater house? Should the Gallup people be studying this possible connection?

“Too Busy to Clean? Over 500 Tips & Techniques to Make Housecleaning Easier” by Pattie Barrett is an example of one of these new books. The author is a newspaper columnist who lives in Massachusetts with her husband and two daughters. Her slim—144 page—book (I bet she’s thin too) begins with a chapter entitled, “Nobody’s Perfect”. Here, she helps the reader rationalize the reasons for leaving the dead philodendron on the top of the bookcase for the past 3 years and why the carpet under the corner end table takes on a grey and fuzzy appearance. Realizing that truly, we are not perfect, her next chapters entitled, “Equipment, Tools for Fighting the War on Dirt”, “Get It Together! Organizing Yourself”, “Making It a Habit: Establishing Routines”, will energize and organize the reader into a “Neatnik.” Her concluding chapter—for those who tried and failed—is entitled, “Hiring Someone to Help”.

“The Queen of Clean” Linda Cobb begins her book with daily, twice weekly, weekly, biweekly, etc. lists of house-cleaning chores. For example, some of the daily chores include making the beds, washing the dishes, and wiping down the counter tops. The only twice-weekly chore is vacuuming the carpets. She really believes in vacuuming to keep the dust at bay. Weekly chores include sweeping the hard-surfaced floors, dusting furniture, cleaning the toilets.

The routine for changing bed linens is iffy. She recommends doing this once a week but she acknowledges that many change their sheets once every two weeks. A bi-weekly chore is dusting the TV/stereo equipment. Monthly chores include vacuuming the upholstered furniture, dusting the ceiling fans, replacing the bag on the vacuum, and sweeping the garage. A quarterly chore is flipping the cushions on the chairs and sofas.

Twice-a-year chores include turning the mattresses on the beds and cleaning the stove hood and exhaust fan. Contracting to clean the carpets, washing the blinds and stripping and re-waxing the hardwood floors are annual chores. The chapters following this enumeration are arranged by months--January through December--with cleaning tips for each month. For instance, in January, she discusses the process of taking down the Christmas tree and cleaning and storing the ornaments. For August, she offers suggestions for cleaning barbeque grills and concrete driveways. November is the time for cleaning all the silver dining utensils and the crystal and china. For each month, she gives suggestions on how to make the work easier.

For those of us who seem to have too much of everything, the book “For Packrats Only, How to Clean up, Clear Out and Dejunk Your Life Forever!” offers great suggestions on how to live with less things. For starters, I suggest that you check this book out at the Library rather than purchase your own copy. That’s a tip that will save you from one less thing in your house. The author, Don Aslett has written a number of other self-help books. Some of his newer titles include “No Time To Clean” and “Clutter’s Last Stand”.

He begins the “For Packrats.” book with a chapter entitled, “This is an Emergency!” followed by “Is It Really that Bad?” Well, of course it is! Why else would you go to an expert to try to de-clutter your home?

Aslett writes that he once thought that clothing was the #1 clutter in people’s life. He now thinks that the greatest culprit is paper, especially since the introduction of computers and their tag-along accessory, printers. Most of us are drowning in paper. The paper trail has become the paper highway and we are being buried by the traffic. Aslett recommends that 90% of the incoming paper be thrown away (recycle it if you can). Sure, the magazines, newspapers, letters, notices, etc. should be read, but their usefulness ends then. They shouldn’t be placed in piles, stuffed in drawers, inserted in files. Just throw it all away!

Much of the other 10% should also be on the way to the trash as soon as you have dealt with their reasons for being. Aslett is a firm believer in handling paper once. First choose to read it or toss it. If you read it, choose to toss it or keep it. If you keep it, file it so you can locate it if you need it.

Aslett also discusses de-cluttering garages and shops, but let’s not go there.