Good Housekeeping Simple Cleaning Wisdom: 450 Easy Shortcuts for a Fresh & Tidy Home

by Good Housekeeping, Carolyn Forte

This Good Housekeeping guide is so simple and smart it will make you WANT to clean! 

Get a sparkling home in a snap! Whether you’re a cleaning enthusiast or a procrastinator, you’re in luck, because no one knows how to keep a home fresh and tidy like the experts at Good Housekeeping. This room-by-room guide is jam-packed with time-saving advice, including information on hardworking Good Housekeeping Institute Lab-tested products. It features a must-have section on stain removal (a perennial request from the magazine’s millions of readers) as well as welcome advice on cleaning up after Fido and after the kids. Hundreds of tricks and tips for taking care of everything from grease stains to kitchen odors, laundry mishaps, and carpet catastrophes will help you clean faster, declutter more easily, tackle trouble spots, simplify big jobs, and accomplish more in less time. 
Good Housekeeping Simple Cleaning Wisdom reveals:

•“Pillow talk” on choosing the right one, when to replace it, and how to protect it against allergens
• How to fix laundry disasters—including when colors from one garment bleed onto another
• Three mistakes that ruin wood
• Patio, porch, and deck spruce ups, plus ideas to keep your grill sizzling (hint: ditch the wire brush)
• How to put a stop to mold and mildew
• How to freshen up a guest room . . . fast—and speed clean in the house in minutes

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference, Adult

360 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 6, 2018

About the author

The Good Housekeeping Institute was created to provide readers of Good Housekeeping magazine with expert consumer advice and delicious, classic and contemporary east-to-follow recipes. These ideals still hold true today. The institute team are all experienced cooks, home economists and consumer researchers. They test the lastest products in purpose-built, modern kitchens, where every recipe published in the magazine and its range of bestselling cookery books is rigorously tested so that you can cook any Good Housekeeping dish with confidence.

Reviews

[Stephanie Mouton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, it's embarrassing that I had to read a book about cleaning, especially when people see my house and think it's pretty clean. But, I'm kind of wimpy these days and a little more scattered, so it never hurts to get some inside cheater tips, right? Like who knew a damp sponge with a little baking soda can remove my youngest's pencil prints from a wall just as good as Mr. Magic Eraser? Yep, it works! There’s also a great section on how to get out any stain imaginable something I seem to be constantly doing these days. If that's the kind of help you are looking for because you forgot you're out of magical cleaning products this book can help you!

[Monique · Rating 5 out of 5]

In attempt to be a better housekeeper, I got this book to learn new cleaning techniques. The daily, weekly and monthly ideas seem easy to incorporate as a busy working mom. I do know that I feel better and eases anxiety when my house is clean and organized. I do know it is hard getting to that point...but I'm trying.

[Thikrayat Al-aradi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very helpful book, filled with information on how to clean and what you need, it covers everything!
And at the end of the book there is a stain encyclopedia that teaches you how to get rid of any stain imaginable.

Would be a nice gift for people.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

My recent “tidy up” efforts did NOT need to be encouraged... alas, they have been mightily enabled!

[Kara · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Sarah Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall the cleaning advice is sound, but I didn't really find anything new that I didn't already know. There are a ton of color pictures that fit what they were talking about but weren't actually needed as they didn't add much but aesthetics to the book and made it look a bit longer than it really is. The other thing to keep in mind and why I really knocked a star off is this is a branded book from Good Housekeeping so they often give advice on exact products which are often more expensive. This also means they didn't give as many "green cleaning" options so really be careful with some of the chemicals they tell you to use especially if you have kids and animals. I personally am trying to remove chemicals from my home for my health, but I didn't mark the book down for this because it doesn't market itself as a green cleaning book. We are surrounded in a world of chemicals and though I feel you should reduce as many as possible I rather people are keeping clean homes with chemicals than live in nastiness.

[Brigid Schibelka · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book offers lots of good tips on cleaning, along with schedules.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good Housekeeping's Simple Cleaning Wisdom: 450 Easy Shortcuts for a Fresh & Tidy Home is a guide that contains common sense ideas on how to keep various parts of the house, outside and garage clean or cleaner. It also contains a rather large stain removal guide for a number of stain producers in the areas of clothes, carpets, and upholstery. Possibly my favorite line in the book is from the late commedian Phyllis Diller when she is quoted as having said, "The best way to get rid of kitchen odors: eat out."

[Rachelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple Cleaning Wisdom... simple tips for maintaining a beautiful home, interior and exterior. Although most of the book is based on common sense, a few unknown tidbits are nestled in the suggestions. Recommended cleaning products, routines, and proper mindset is sprinkled throughout inspirational images of clean and organized homes. It is encouraging to see what can be accomplished by doing a bit of work each day.

[Diana Torres · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of basic knowledge about upkeep and cleaning of the home, nothing groundbreaking, but helpful nonetheless. Especially for people who have never lived on their own or taken care of their own space it is a great reference. Nice full-color stylish photos to go with each section of tips.
Even for long-time homemakers and people who enjoy cleaning, I’m sure they could find at least a few tips that they find helpful within this book.

[Minna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing ground-breaking but certainly a great reminder about all the basic cleaning techniques (baking soda, lemon, vinegar, etc) I keep forgetting about.
I wish more earth-friendly and cruelty free products had been recommended but as another reviewer points out, this book did not exactly advertise that.

[Taylor's♡Shelf · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was beautifully illustrated and formatted above all else.

I feel like the advice itself was hit and miss. On the one hand, the stain-removal section was like a Bible. On the other hand, knowing what we know now about the dangers of breathing in too much toxic substances, I would be remiss to advise anyone to douse their house in this many industrial cleaning products on a daily basis.

[Joanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good compilation of cleaning tips with a sprinkling of product recommendations. A lot of the tips were common knowledge, but I did learn a few new things. There's a whole guide of how to tackle certain stains at the very end that I found quite useful.

[IE · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book a lot more than the Good Housekeeping “simple household wisdom” counterpart. A lot of it is general knowledge but there are some good pointers on best practices for cleaning tasks.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good tips, but mostly just product advertisements, which was disappointing.

[B. Zelkovich · Rating 3 out of 5]

Turns out, I know a lot of this stuff... I just don't do it. *le sigh*

[Jon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nicely done, but very few of the tips were better than common knowledge. Every single tip has a recommended product attached, which could be good or bad depending on perspective.

[Meredith · Rating 3 out of 5]

It would useful as a go-to reference guide for first time home owners, and students on their own.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

a reference to come back to especially for the stain cleaning reference

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Has a great stain removal guide in the latter half of book.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

good general guide for cleaning. useful for the completely hypothetical situation of panic reading at 4am when you're about to move into an apartment for the first time

[Kbpage · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good house cleaning ideas room by room. Very nice stain removal tactics at end of the book. Quite a bit of product advertising/suggestions.

[Miranda Norton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of little tricks i didn’t know that actually work! I’m even buying a copy of this book after borrowing it from the library!

[Dan Stern · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple Cleaning Wisdom... simple tips for maintaining a beautiful home, interior and exterior. Although most of the book is based on common sense, a few unknown tidbits are nestled in the suggestions. Recommended cleaning products, routines, and proper mindset is sprinkled throughout inspirational images of clean and organized homes. It is encouraging to see what can be accomplished by doing a bit of work each day.

[Beverly]

This was an excellent book. Every household needs a copy. Great resource. Highly recommend it.

[Barbara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing new.

[Kathy (McDowell) Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Out of the 450 shortcuts in the book, I will probably remember and use twenty or so. But that's good enough for me.

[Nadina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a pretty quick read, I just postponed reading it for a while.
It was simple and short, cutting everything into small segments which are easy to read or reference.
I liked how it was broken down into areas and they give you a plan for cleaning at the beginning.