A Dirty Guide to a Clean Home
Housekeeping Hacks You Can't Live Without
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
Everything you need to know about laundry, cleaning, and basic home repairs—from the TikTok star who made bluing a thing, showed you how to fold a fitted sheet, and taught you to properly use your (caulk) gun.
“[Melissa Pateras] makes chores enjoyable in her bawdy debut. . . . Doing laundry has never sounded so fun.”—Publishers Weekly
Melissa Dilkes Pateras is the most competent housekeeper, DIY-project master, and home repair genius that you’ve ever fantasized about becoming. When she followed her kids on to TikTok, she discovered a community hungry for her approachable, tongue-in-cheek advice on everything from balls—dryer balls, that is—to why color-coded closets are a spiritual experience. She doesn’t expect you to know what you were never taught, and she doesn’t care about transforming your home into a minimal, beige Instagram post; she simply wants to help make your life easier.
Whether you’re terrified of your laundry pile or have an inner handyperson who’s been longing for their moment, A Dirty Guide to a Clean Home is a joyful all-purpose guide to organizing, cleaning, laundry, repairs, and beyond. As Melissa says, “Your home shouldn’t be your adversary.”
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
During the early days of the pandemic, bored, middle-aged Ontario mom Melissa Dilkes Pateras followed her kids onto TikTok and, unable to bake bread, instead showed off her skills at folding towels and hoodies. Soon the shaved-headed, tattooed, self-described “laundry lesbian” had over a million followers and a new career. Since then, the self-taught homemaking maven’s moved out of the laundry room, although this book’ll teach you more than you ever imagined about getting rid of stains. From the best ways to vacuum (two words: crevice tool) to how to unclog a sink, Dilkes Pateras is endearingly foulmouthed, refreshingly honest, and unconcerned with projecting an HGTV-perfect image. This is the beginner’s guide to adulting we never knew we needed.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Pateras, who dispenses housekeeping tips on TikTok, makes chores enjoyable in her bawdy debut. Sharing how she keeps her household in shape as a wife and mother of three while working full-time, Pateras explains that she prioritizes cleaning a little every day, reasoning that completing daily such small tasks as washing dishes or putting away toys makes easier her less frequent "deep cleans," which involve vacuuming, dusting, and disinfecting. The plentiful tips are often surprising, as when the author notes that bleach yellows white fabrics over time and readers should instead use "bluing" products that counteract the yellow with blue pigment. Other "hacks" are simple yet clever; for example, she suggests that when hanging a picture frame, one can place a strip of masking tape across the hangers on the back of the frame, mark their positions in pen on the tape, and then put the tape on the wall to determine where to hammer in nails for hanging the frame. Throughout, Pateras's ribald humor animates the advice ("I love balls... in my dryer," she writes on preferring dryer balls to dryer sheets). Doing laundry has never sounded so fun.
