Mary Ellen's Guide to Good Enough Housekeeping

Had enough of experts who make you feel you need a million different cleaning products, loads of time and encyclopedic knowledge to have a clean, comfortable house?

Then you're ready for Good Enough Housekeeping.

Here's the most practical advice ever from Mary Ellen Pinkham, the best-selling helpful hints expert and star of HGTV's "TIP-ical Mary Ellen"-the "good enough" method of getting the job done with little time and little or no help.

"Housekeeping is like painting the Golden Gate Bridge. When you get to the end, you just start over," Mary Ellen says. "It's overwhelming unless you unless you know where to begin-and when to stop." That's what this book will explain.

Good Enough Housekeeping is cleaning off the handprint without going on to wash the entire wall

Good Enough Housekeeping is sweeping the floor to protect it but not worrying if it's clean enough to eat off.

Good Enough Housekeeping is recognizing that the hygiene standards for a bathroom are not the same as for an operating room.

Good Enough Housekeeping means knowing when the job is done and not spending another second on it.

You're good enough to deserve a break. Start practicing Good Enough
Housekeeping now.

Mary Ellen Pinkham's Best of Helpful Hints shot to #1 on The New York Times Bestseller List in 1979 and stayed there for over a year. She now has her own line of cleaning products and stars in "Tipical Mary Ellen" on the Home & Garden TV Network. She lives in Edina, Minnesota.

Dale Burg, Mary Ellen's long-time collaborator, lives in Manhattan.