Friday, January 19, 2018

Simple Homemaking || The Art of Homemaking Book Review




This is one of the first homemaking books I read and I loved it.  It was written by Daryl Hoole years ago, I think I first found it at my parent's home a few years after I was married and borrowed it to read.  This book was published in 1979 and is filled with practical tips on homemaking and family life.  Some of her chapters in this book are The Ideal Homemaker, A Place for Everything, Meet the Minute, Plan Your Work and Work Your Plan, and From House to a Home, also a chapter on Family Traditions and another entitled On Husbands. 

This book is a simple guide on ways to organize your time in making your house a home.  I love how she sees homemaking and being a homemaker as a profession, as your life's work. She talks a lot in this book about finding systems to quickly and efficiently finish the monotonous work of a homemaker so you can find time to focus on family, creativity, and enjoyable activities.  A great read to pull you out of a homemaking funk.

Here are a few passages from the book.  She gives a tip on clutter below.

"To begin with, don't have unnecessary items around, cluttering the room, distracting from the furnishings and gathering dust.  don't overfurnish your home."

Another tip on clutter.

"Another great aid to orderliness is to remove anything which doesn't add to the decorative scheme of a room.  If it isn't pretty, put it away whenever possible.  I don't care for the counter top in my kitchen to be adorned with boxes, bottles, packages, and other assorted containers.  if you allow this to happen, your kitchen will never look sparkling clean and attractive, no matter how much you scrub it."

And one more from the book on traditions and family life.

"A wonderful way to put the heart in a home is to enjoy family traditions. These traditions repeated throughout the years, become the very essence of family life." 

Also, I adore her dedication at the beginning of the book.  "To my daughter's, Jean, Diane, Elaine, Becky and Nancy, (5 girls!) who I hope will grow up to be happy homemakers."  By the way, she wrote another book with one of these girls when she was all grown up, a more modern take on homemaking which I have read and will be reading again later this year.

Such a wonderful, practical, old fashioned take on homemaking.

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