Good Housekeeping Institute - The Art of Good Housekeeping

THE ART OF
GOOD
HOUSEKEEPING

THE ART OF
GOOD
HOUSEKEEPING

Edited by Helen Harrison

Consultant Editor, Trisha Schofield
Head of Testing, Good Housekeeping Institute

Within two years of its successful launch in 1922, Good Housekeeping Magazine set up the Good Housekeeping Institute to test products and recipes, provide household information and champion the rights of consumers. In an era when housewives were finding the transition to a servantless society quite a struggle, the pressure to keep up standards without outside help was enormous. In addition, the 1920s were proving to be an exhilarating time for women, full of opportunities in the form of careers, cinema, cars and clothes, quite apart from finally being granted the right to vote! For women to take full advantage of all these new changes, ideas and innovations, it was vital they had access to independent advice they could trust. This was exactly what the Good Housekeeping Institute set out to achieve and, more than 80 years later, it is still helping women (and men too!) make informed choices about the mind-boggling variety of products and services available on todays market. Our lifestyles may have changed beyond all imagination we now have access to a variety of labour-saving devices and technology that our predecessors would have given their eye-teeth for, and these help make running a smooth home no longer quite the chore it once was. If anything though, the access to such variety can make making the right choices even more difficult and overwhelming. Our experience is that todays modern working women need and appreciate our services just as much as ever. As well as producing tried-and-tested reports and many other practical features for the magazine, our team of professional researchers continue to respond to many thousands of your consumer enquiries for assistance and advice each year.

Our latest book, The Art of Good Housekeeping, aims to give the solutions to hundreds of these queries in one easy-to-use guide, and help make managing your life easier and more straightforward. With most households these days having both partners working outside the home, time truly is of the essence the less hours you have to spend running your home, the more time you will have for the activities you really enjoy. This is exactly what this book will help you to do. Within it, you will find a condensed version of all the Good Housekeeping Institutes practical expertise, built up over many years.

We have distilled this experience into reliable advice that you can use when you buy and equip a new home most of us are more discerning than ever about spending money and want to make sure were getting good value, whether its buying furnishings, a whole new bathroom or even just a replacement small appliance, such as a kettle or toaster. Our buying guides will help you ensure you get the best deal, whether you shop online or in-store. Hiring reliable tradespeople and service providers is important too, so theres information on how to go about finding them and making sure they do a good job. Protecting, maintaining and cleaning your home and its contents is also covered for example, dealing with inevitable problems such as unblocking a sink or removing stains from clothing. Youll find out how to keep your taps gleaming, look after appliances, get answers to common laundry problems and which cleaning materials are best for the job at hand in fact, everything you need to know to keep your home gleaming and fresh at all times. Theres also step-by-step instructions for a variety of DIY projects, decorating techniques for special paint effects, such as stippling and marbling, how to fix things and creative ideas for making curtains and other soft furnishings. When emergencies like fires, burglaries or accidental injuries occur, our sensible advice will help you be able to deal with them quickly, safely and effectively. And as its also vital to understand your rights in relation to your home and the law, weve even provided answers to some of the more frequently asked legal questions, such as what to do about noisy neighbours or whether you need planning permission for building projects.

Every chapter is packed with tried and tested advice you can trust, and a wealth of facts, tips and cross references to lead you to all the information you need as quickly as possible. Weve even provided a section giving details of the Good Housekeeping Institutes own invaluable contacts book, listing all the products, suppliers and useful organisations mentioned in the book. We hope that youll be able to dip in and out of this book whenever youre faced with a new household challenge and be able to find the correct answers to all your domestic dilemmas just think of it like having the GHIs team of professional consumer experts right there alongside you in your home at all times!

Weve made every effort to ensure that all the information in this book is as comprehensive, accurate and up-to-date as possible, but if you have any comments, queries or tips for the the next edition, please e-mail them to us at:

Many of the enquiries received by GHI each year concern products which ones to buy and where to find them. In this section, you will find a wealth of practical information on how to equip your home with the best what to buy, features worth paying extra for, how to choose a tradesperson, shopping strategies to get the best price and advice on consumer rights.

Setting up a new home is an exciting time: it represents a fresh start, it gives you the opportunity to create your own individual space and it gives you the chance to think about how you can add value. Equipping your home is the first step, and before you start it is useful to think about your needs, room by room.