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  • How to Keep House While Drowning

  • A Gentle Approach to Cleaning and Organizing
  • Written by: KC Davis LPC
  • Narrated by: KC Davis LPC, Dr. Raquel Martin
  • Length: 3 hrs and 3 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (429 ratings)

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How to Keep House While Drowning

Written by: KC Davis LPC
Narrated by: KC Davis LPC, Dr. Raquel Martin
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Publisher's Summary

An NPR Best Book of 2022
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.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2020 by KC Davis, 2022 by Katherine Davis. All rights reserved (P)2022 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

What listeners say about How to Keep House While Drowning

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well done.

loved it. very compassionate. just what i needed i would like to hear more from this author.

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very good for the overwhelmed...

it was good for someone younger..
..mouth didn't apply to me unless I got sick..🤷‍♀️

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fantastic!

loved this! it was my first full audio book- the chapters are short and to the point. so it was easy to pause and come back to without feeling like I missed something.

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Thank you KC Davis!

This is a wonderful book! KC Davis speaks from experience, and is compassionate, empathetic, and realistic in her approach. This isn't a one-size-fits-all book with a strict program. Instead, KC offers up advice based on her own experience that can easily be adapted to suit anyone's needs. I found myself nodding a lot with her experience, had a lot of AHA! moments, and cried hard in the intro with how relatable it was. This is a must read for everyone, no matter how much or how little the struggle to keep house.

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Fantastic!

Excellent for anyone who struggles with not meeting societal expectations and all of those "I shoulds" we tell ourselves, especially when dealing with neurodivergent brains, mental and physical health issues.

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If you're struggling it is a must-read/listen!

I'm so thankful for this book it's very validating, KC has been a saving grace for me in my struggles with executive function 🙏🏽

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Great Read!

This book is great. I read it as a neurodivergent person and it felt relatable and helpful for me - yet not necessarily written for that one particular audience. Listening to the book was like listening to a caring friend.

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Listen

Great advice for everyone with problems. I am 53 years old and I love it.

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Yes, functional is perfect!

Yes, it's okay to have mess. This book has taught me how to approach coping with managing our household with a kinder inner voice. I listen to this audio book when I am feeling unmotivated to tackle mountains of housework. It works for me! It's nice to hear real solutions for tackling those overwhelming feelings when confronted with oceans of stuff.

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Absolutely fantastic!

I had a huge sense of relief when I listened to this book - being kind and gentle to yourself, ditching rules, and guidance to focus on the function of the tasks and my available energy. So many real examples of specific tasks and various ways to approach them - not all the examples resonate with me, but I was already doing some of them - just landed at the same practical approach to a task that the author did, and I will be applying more of the suggestions immediately. Thank you for this excellent, helpful book - it is a lifesaver.

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