How to Keep House While Drowning

A Gentle Approach to Cleaning and Organizing

By: KC Davis LPC

Narrated by: KC Davis LPC, Dr. Raquel Martin

Length: 3 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

An NPR Best Book of 2022
USA TODAY Bestseller

This revolutionary approach to cleaning and organizing helps free you from feeling ashamed or overwhelmed by a messy home.

If you’re struggling to stay on top of your to-do list, you probably have a good reason: anxiety, fatigue, depression, ADHD, or lack of support. For therapist KC Davis, the birth of her second child triggered a stress-mess cycle. The more behind she felt, the less motivated she was to start. She didn’t fold a single piece of laundry for seven months. One life-changing realization restored her sanity—and the functionality of her home: You don’t work for your home; your home works for you.

In other words, messiness is not a moral failing. A new sense of calm washed over her as she let go of the shame-based messaging that interpreted a pile of dirty laundry as “I can never keep up” and a chaotic kitchen as “I’m a bad mother.” Instead, she looked at unwashed clothes and thought, “I am alive,” and at stacks of dishes and thought, “I cooked my family dinner three nights in a row.”

Building on this foundation of self-compassion, KC devised the powerful practical approach that has exploded in popularity through her TikTok account, @domesticblisters. The secret is to simplify your to-do list and to find creative workarounds that accommodate your limited time and energy. In this book, you’ll learn exactly how to customize your cleaning strategy and rebuild your relationship with your home, including:

-How to see chores as kindnesses to your future self, not as a reflection of your worth
-How to start by setting priorities
-How to stagger tasks so you won’t procrastinate
-How to clean in quick bursts within your existing daily routine
-How to use creative shortcuts to transform a room from messy to functional

With KC’s help, your home will feel like a sanctuary again. It will become a place to rest, even when things aren’t finished. You will move with ease, and peace and calm will edge out guilt, self-criticism, and endless checklists. They have no place here.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2020 by KC Davis, 2022 by Katherine Davis. All rights reserved (P)2022 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

life saving and life changing!

So, this book describes the challenges I face every day, some of the ways I've learned to cope, and then it gives ways to manage, conquer and triumph over the endless cycle of what most of us call, CHORES! -but it delves far deeper than that. Has the author been living in my head? How did she know my life so well???? Others invest countless hours and dollars in therapy sessions for what you can get in this lovely, straight forward, in your face, well worth it's weight in gold, #happyagain book!

Beautiful perspectives

I found myself scrambling for pen and paper while listening to this at work, and jotting down notes every 10 minutes as if I was in high school chemistry!
I found KC on Tik Tok and her videos always gave me amazing new ways to look at my life. So glad I took the time to listen to her read this book. I genuinely feel like I’ll be able to take home so much of what she said and live a more stress free life.

Reading this was like taking a deep dive into all of her best thoughts. I felt like I was having such a relieving, and comforting conversation with her.

I loved her writing style!

She reiterates her main points all the way through and that helped me so much; along with the way she was giving matter of fact explanations of her metaphors.

Life changing.

If you have ADD or Adhd this book is a must read. Simply that. Read it. It will change how you view yourself, your surroundings, and how you handle nearly every situation you live with. It takes shame into understanding.

Very helpful

I enjoyed listening to this book. The author/narrator has a very pleasant voice and her message is comforting and helpful.

This Book is Necessary

I have struggled with “keeping my house” for the last decade since my mental health took a nosedive. I found KC on TikTok during the Covid lockdown. Her approach to care tasks rocked my world. It was like someone turning on the light in complete darkness.

Validated!

This book gave me the validation I needed to both live in my current state and make things easier on myself while I try to get back on track. I got so many great ideas and got the motivation I needed to get started after months of feeling stuck and frozen in my house. This is a must for all adults!

Mental Health and Cleaning

This was beautifully written. It was a nice reflection on your mental health and how it can impact your home. There were several good "hacks" to keep yourself moving forward when you're struggling to clean.

This Book Fed My Soul

This book made me feel like KC was talking directly to me! She made my soul feel lighter. Every self-doubt and worry, all of the negative self-talk I feed myself was addressed and reframed in such healthy and helpful ways. Thank you thank you thank you!

A Reframe of Mindset

I truly enjoyed Davis's perspective on care tasks rather than chores! Uplifting! Motivating! Kind!

Fantastic book it takes a judgment out of house work

So many different ways of reframing how we look at our care tasks! I have been so much for listening to this book