The Complete Household Handbook: The Best Ways to Clean, Maintain and Organize Your Home

This extensive, phenomenally organized volume lives up to its title: with this household handbook, there's no need for another. The book even manages to make such dry subjects as loading a dishwasher and installing lock sets reader-friendly and reasonably interesting. The chapters—beginning with cleaning and going through laundry and clothes care, food and the kitchen, decorating, storage and home office solutions, maintenance and repairs, home finances, and safety—are logically subdivided to help readers find topics quickly. They feature frequent boxes containing helpful suggestions ("keep a sponge mop just for rinsing floors; it is almost impossible to get all the cleaning solution out of a mop"), time savers ("paint large areas more quickly with the help of a power roller"), dollar stretchers, safety tips and advice on how to shop for specific items. Diagrams, checklists and focused sidebars (such as how to hang pictures, in the home decorating chapter) round out the detailed coverage. Neat freaks will pore over this work as if it were a suspense novel; the rest of the population will be glad to take its easy-to-follow advice as needed. (Apr.)