How to Keep House While Drowning

A Gentle Approach to Cleaning and Organizing

By: KC Davis LPC LPC

Narrated by: KC Davis LPC LPC, Dr. Raquel Martin

An NPR Best Book of the Year | 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.

Critic reviews

"With compassion, hard-earned insights, and touches of humor, therapist KC Davis offers relief to the overwhelmed. Her voice is warm and understanding; whether listeners are struggling with the pandemic’s aftermath or depression, Davis offers supportive ways to care for the home — and the self. With exhausted listeners in mind, Davis keeps chapters short and maintains a pace that can be readily absorbed. As she provides shortcuts and helpful recaps of main points, Davis throws a lifeline to listeners who are drowning in piles of dishes or laundry. Having been there herself while experiencing postpartum depression with a toddler, she offers advice that rings with the conviction of lived experience and is packed with creative work-arounds that will help listeners to challenge negative self-talk."

excellent

just what this world needs. thank you.

imagine exactly what you hope this book will be. it's exactly that but better.

Everyone should read

Couldn’t recommend this book enough. As a cleaning lady I so appreciate K.C.’s perspectives. Everyone could benefit from reading this book.

Comforting

KC Davis LPC has a warm delivery of some important supportive wisdom in this book—I really appreciated it and do recommend it for people struggling with household management. And for anyone who is too hard on themselves.

WOW

The validation I felt from this in literally the opening 3 minutes had me SHOOK. I can not recommend this book enough. Validating, relatable, gentle, to the point. I loved it!!

life changing

this is one of the best books on cleaning and organizing I have ever read I appreciate how the author intended to help others that struggle with household chores