Why Cleaning Has Meaning: Bringing Wellbeing Into Your Home

If you want a step by step tutorial on how to clean a particular item this may not be the right fit for you,though it does offer helpful solutions for common situations, but if you want inspiration in being a better housewife and mother and small steps you can use to get closer to that goal in a spiritual as well as material fashion, buy this book! I am biased, I admit. Linda was my second boss ever and a very dear friend to a homesick 19 year old. I owe the fact that my house full of 6 young daughters aged 1-13 years is not a worse mess than it is to her careful grounding in the basics of cleaning. But I think I can truly say that anyone who wants to feel a little more effective and liberated as a housewife and mother, or cleaner in general, will find joy in reading this book and find that they can do the same jobs as ever in a gladder spirit because they find more meaning in them. We are too often tied down into the routine of things we 'have' to do...toilets, kitchen sinks, laundry and forget to step back and say "what does it mean?".Thank you Linda, for helping me find freshness in my vocation as mother. Thank you for a the sunlit mornings in the Betriebsbuero talking about Elizabeth Goudge and Laurens Van Der Post and and why microfiber cloths were so handy and a hundred and one other things.Love Enid

After inheriting stuff and more stuff from family members who have passed away, I found myself getting more and more crowded by clutter and the clutter made it difficult to clean. I wanted help in breaking through this increasing mess and creating a lovely space. I loved all the spiritual, soulful discussions of cleaning - it created the foundation for the rest. Having lived in Europe, house gnomes and kitchen witches were normal and not weird to me. Frankly I am surprised to read how some were disappointed with this approach, when the "Look Inside" feature clearly states these topics in the table of contents. Anyway, this approach has been monumentally helpful for me in a way that has been effective and rewarding. It created a paradigm shift for me and my relationship to my space, my home, the items that I chose to have there, and how I maintain them. I was able to find happy owners for much that I did not need and am able to cherish meaningful items that had been buried in "stuff". I still have a bit to go, but I have finally been able to break through all of this - something that several other clutter removal and cleaning books were not able to inspire me to do.

Vague and meandering

Absolutely loved everything about this book.

I’ve got enough going in my life as is that I don’t need to staring invisible spirits are preventing me from keeping my home clean and orderly. I do think homes have an energy to them and cleansing can help, but can’t follow this book. Maybe if I thought of the spirits as forms of archetypes and breaking the points of this book into more metaphorical ideas instead of literal I could find some use in it. But I’m not willing to put that much mental work into cleaning my home when there are faster and more productive ways to do so.

I work in a anthroposophical (Waldorf) home for mentally disabled people and I work part-time in the "Cleaning" Studio. My job is to motivate some of the residents of the home to clean. But not just to clean, to enjoy what they are doing and to understand that there is a deeper meaning and sense to cleaning for themselves as well as for the other residents.I was given Linda Thomas's german version of this book (Putzen!?) to read when I started my job and although I can read german well, I can't read it at the speed I can in english, and so I was thrilled when Linda sent me a copy of her book in english when it was published earlier this year.Cleaning is seen as a very menial and thankless job in our society and it is not a small feat to get disabled people to find joy in the task of cleaning.Linda shares some amazing advice on how to care for rooms - how, if your attitude is the right one, the rooms feel cleaner, cared for and yes, she even teaches you that you can learn to enjoy cleaning!I try on a daily basis to instill the values Linda shares with us in my "Cleaning" team and it seems to be working. We try to work in rhythmic motions, and try to have consistent chores.This book is a really easy and enjoyable read and not only talks about cleaning in all its forms but also explores the various cleaning rituals in different cultures, as well as homemaking in early times.The residents have been getting a special treat from my studio colleague who has been reading to them from this great resource once a week, and they are thoroughly enjoying it.If you are looking for a book that gives you some great practical tips on how to clean your home and helps you to develop the deeper sense of cleaning, then this is a book I would warmly recommend.

loved it

Linda brings a new attitude towards us. How do we see cleaning. Is it something that we need to do with frustration or is it care about our environment and therefore about us who live in it. If so, then it is an act of care and love...

I don't like cleaning and housework, never have, so when I came across this book I thought it would be a good read, as I might find some inspiration to encourage me to enjoy it more. And it has helped. Linda looks at the spiritual implications of having a dirty versus a clean house, at the rewards involved in engaging with cleaning in a mindful way, and at the larger sphere of leading a spiritually awake life. It has slightly weird grammar as it seems to have been translated from German, or written by a German, but it's not enough to take away from the content.

A very important book!Linda came to give workshops to us (Camphill UK) and it was brilliant. I love the way the book is written, like she is with you in the room, talking to you. She has taken on a vital mission: to make people aware of the meaning and value of cleaning. And she does this in an absolutely inspiring and meaningful way.

This book was very helpful getting me motivated to start cleaning. I do get easily distracted so it definitely helped! There are some good ideas towards the end of the book but there is a section about faires, etc which I wasn't so sure about. However, on balance, it was definitely worth getting and very useful.

This book is much more than a how-to of dirt removal. It treats cleaning as a higher calling and discusses how cleaning a home improves the well-being of the inhabitants above and beyond simply creating a pristine living space. If you need inspiring before you tackle a seasonal clean up, this could be the motivation you need.