Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

I wish I had this book 8 years ago and glad it exists now.

How to Keep House While Drowning: A gentle approach to cleaning and organizing. by KC Davis, lpc

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This past July, I read KatSings review of How to Keep House While Drowning and immediately put it on hold at my library.   Eight years ago I was drowning.  I was a SAHM who was deeply depressed and feeling very worn down with a sickly four year old and a neurodivergent eight year old.  When every day is physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausting it’s hard to keep house to the level of “clean” that we often feel morally compelled to do.  And because we can’t […]

“And never underestimate the importance of even just a little bit of progress.”

Unf*ck Your Habitat: You're Better than Your Mess by Rachel Hoffman

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I’ve intended to read this book for some time. Down in the depths of my depression fellow Cannonballer Siege mentioned on Facebook one of Rachel Hoffman’s tips to Unf*ck Tomorrow Morning – put a little toilet cleaner in the bowl before bed. It was such a small thing, but cleaning my bathroom had become my Impossible Task and it helped get that under control that week and lift the cloud of depression just a little bit.  I knew instinctively that any author who would a) […]

Step By Step

Unf*ck Your Habitat: You're Better Than Your Mess by Rachel Hoffman

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Several lovely people on this site have reviewed “Unf*ck Your Habitat” with rave reviews, and I’m totally a sucker for a fun title and I hate cleaning, so I decided to give this book a go. And it’s every bit as good as everyone says. Hoffman breaks cleaning down into short bursts of what she refers to as 20/10s or 20 minutes of doing something and 10 minutes of rest. That way something is always getting done, but it never feels overwhelming. It starts to […]

If Only It Could Magically Make Me Want to Clean

Unf*ck Your Habitat: You're Better Than Your Mess by Rachel Hoffman

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I purchased this book immediately after reading the review by sistercoyote. I was intrigued by the premise, and it lived up to the hype. Author Rachel Hoffman recognizes that a lot of cleaning and organizational books/magazines/websites create unrealistic expectations that can leave people feeling like a failure when their efforts don’t turn out the same or they can’t even put in the effort. She makes a point of addressing situations that these other sources don’t: how cleaning can be more challenging if you have a […]

There is No Such Thing as Failure in This Endeavor

Unf*ck Your Habitat: You’re Better Than Your Mess by Rachel Hoffman

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Cleaning, weight and money are three minefields strewn with emotion bombs and judgement shrapnel. I grew up in a house where all house cleaning was accompanied by temper tantrums (my dad), recriminations (my mom), and tears (me). In fact, if you read enough of my reviews you will get the impression that I grew up in a crazy, chaotic home and you will be correct. As an adult, housework has been fraught with emotion and often felt overwhelming. It is a place in my life […]

The strangeness detracts from the usefulness.

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So. KonMari. I think most of us are at least passingly familiar with it, since the word is a verb now, as in “I KonMari’d so thoroughly last weekend, I donated my husband to Goodwill.” I have some thoughts. The first is that the basic philosophy behind the method – don’t keep anything in your home that doesn’t spark joy – is slightly flawed but extremely useful. She touches on it many times, but I still found the “rules” a little murky on things that […]



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