Friday

Free for You!

 Just wanted to let you know that if you sign up for my e-newsletter, you will receive 3 FREE e-articles, including:

  • 15 Steps to Vacuuming Your House Once a Month
  • Renovate Your Kitchen the HTCI Way
  • Special Encouragement to Parents with Small Children

To sign up click here or go to my website at www.MindyStarnsClark.com/contact.php#newsletter

Enjoy!


Thursday

The Sad Truth

A baseball player who repeatedly strikes out can always quit the team...


…and a bad singer can always resign from the choir...


…but a person who is housekeeping impaired still has to manage their stuff as they go through life. With few exceptions, no one can avoid the basics of cleaning.

That’s why you need to turn your home into a House That Cleans Itself!


Tuesday

Book Sale On My Website

Just a heads up, there's a big book sale going on through my website right now, where you can get autographed copies of almost all of my books for 50% off—including the print version of The House That Cleans Itself! Enjoy!




Monday

Let's Get Creative!

I spend a lot of time (maybe way too much time) dreaming up ways that a home can become a house that cleans itself—especially if money is no object. Here's my latest fantasy, which I just might do if my kids were still little, if I had the space, and, again, if money were no object.

In my humble opinion, what every child-filled home needs is a feeding zone in the kitchen that comes complete with tile floor and walls, a handheld shower head, and a drain in the floor!

Let's say, for example, that you took this kitchen…


…and utilized that empty area by adding this.


Then, when feeding time rolled around, even though you'd end up with this…


It wouldn't matter because he'd be sitting right here and could easily be rinsed off!


So there you have it, my fantasy kitchen for families with small children. :) Enjoy!

Saturday

Think Like a Hotel

Our birthday treat at Robert Restaurant
My husband's birthday and mine are a month apart, so every spring we like to celebrate both by treating ourselves to a weekend in New York City. This year's trip, taken a few weeks ago, was especially fun.  

"Angelica, Eliza, and Peggy" and Mindy at Hamilton

One more pic, this was the view from our room, and if you zoom in you can see my husband waving at me from Times Square!


Anyway, back to the point, we stayed at our favorite NYC hotel, the Crowne Plaza Times Square, where I was reminded of a handy tip I share in The House That Cleans Itself

The lobby for the Crowne Plaza is on the second floor, accessible by elevator or escalator. To get there, however, you first have to walk down these two ground floor hallways...



Notice anything clever here from a housekeeping standpoint? How about in this pic of a different hotel lobby?


That's right, it's the floor mats! As I say in the book...

"The next time you're at a hotel. pause for a moment near the entrance and take a look at the elaborate system they have set up for getting dirt off of your shoes as you come inside. Chances are good that there won't just be a simple industrial mat inside and out like you'll find at most businesses, but instead they'll have huge, elongated, roughly textured supermats that start well before the door, extend through the entryway, and continue partly into the lobby. This is because they know that the more thoroughly the bottom of your shoes can be scrubbed off on the way in, the less work they will have to do to keep the place clean. This is the kind of fix that does the work for you, a technique you should employ throughout your home."

Makes sense, right? Of course, I don't have 40 feet of floor matting in my house, but I still make a point of keeping an outdoor mat plus an indoor mat at every entrance. I think it really makes a big difference in the cleanliness of our floors and helps our house to clean itself.

So what's the doormat situation in your home? 

Thursday

The House That Cleans Itself now available on audio!

 

Great news, at long last, The House That Cleans Itself is finally available in an audiobook version! Get your copy at audible, amazon, or iTunes.

It's been a long while since I've done much with this blog, but now that the audiobook is out, I'm eager to do more. Keep checking back for new posts, videos, and pics. And be sure to scroll down for tons of previous posts all about how to keep your house twice as neat in half the time!