Mindy Starns Clark - The House That Cleans Itself: 8 Steps to Keep Your Home Twice as Neat in Half the Time

HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS
EUGENE, OREGON

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011, by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com

To protect the privacy of individuals who completed the authors housekeeping surveys and/or shared their stories, names have been changed throughout this book.

Some graphics inside this book were created by Linda Moye, with additional graphics by Amy Starns. Used by permission.

Cover by Dugan Design Group, Bloomington, Minnesota

Cover illustration Michael Lotenero / Photodisc Green / Getty Images

THE HOUSE THAT CLEANS ITSELF

Copyright 2007, 2013 by Mindy Starns Clark

Published by Harvest House Publishers

Eugene, Oregon 97402

www.harvesthousepublishers.com

ISBN 978-0-7369-4987-3 (pbk.)

ISBN 978-0-7369-4988-0 (eBook)

The Library of Congress has cataloged the edition as follows:

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Clark, Mindy Starns.

The house that cleans itself / Mindy Starns Clark.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-0-7369-1880-0 (pbk.)

1. House cleaning. 2. Christian life. I. Title

TX324.C576 2007

648'.5dc22

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, digital, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Dedicated with much love to my dear friend Kay Justus.
Thanks for putting up with me as a roommate all those years ago, in college and beyond, when housekeeping was a vague intention, the vacuum cleaner mostly served as a coatrack, and the oven was for hiding dirty dishes .

That was then, this is now

Many thanks to

My husband, John, for loving me so completely, even in the midst of mess. You are my helpmate, soul mate, and best friend.

My daughters, Emily and Lauren, the most supportive kids a mom could ever ask for.

Kim Moore, my beloved editor and dear friend; Barbara Gordon; and all of the amazing folks at Harvest House Publishers.

Helen Lerner, MD, for invaluable insight into the psychological aspects of housekeeping issues.

Thanks also to

Dr. Gadget Dave Dettman, Helen Styer Hannigan, Hannah Keeley, Elisa Marshall, Linda Moye, Amy Starns, Jackie Starns, Vanessa Thompson, Shari Weber, Joy Williams and the Memphis HTCI Sistas, and the ever-helpful members of CONSENSUS and ChiLibris.

I am deeply indebted to those who were willing to share their deepest messy-house secrets, fears, questions, problems, feelings, and challenges during the process of writing and later updating The House That Cleans Itself . To protect the privacy of these generous people and their families, I have changed most of the names used throughout this book. Thus, to all of my anonymous helpers, you know who you are, and my hope is you will see how your own transparency has helped so many others who face the same struggles. Thank you!

Finally, my heartfelt gratitude goes out to everyone who has given this system a chance since it first came out and then took the time to provide feedback through e-mails, reviews, blogs, comments, letters, and more. Your input has had a tremendous impact on the new and improved version of this book. You have blessed and encouraged me more than you can imagine!

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By wisdom a house is built , and through understanding it is established; through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures .

Proverbs 24:3-4