The Hip Girls Guide to Homemaking by Kate Payne

Tweet var fbShare = {size: ‘small’,}

The Hip Girls Guide to Homemaking: Decorating, Dining, and Gratifying Pleasures of Self-Sufficiency – on a Budget! by Kate Payne – published by Harper Design.

You think after 15 years of being a “homemaker” I’d have this ‘job’ down pat.  BWAHAHAHA…yeah well anyway.  I still don’t meal plan, organizing gets done when I have no room for anything else, and as for decorating… let’s just say I have no ‘style’ of any kind.  I figured an old dog CAN learn new tricks right? Right?  Yep, we can and this book proved it.  My favorite part of this 266 page book came right at the beginning on page 7 (but yes, I did read the entire book!):

Save money with this unique décor idea.  Tools needed: empty olive oil bottle (the fancier ones usually come in exotic, slender bottles perfect for your dish suds) and an oil pourer (the spout you’d use to pour olive oil)…

I knew about diluting dish soap before (I’m a pro at the foaming dispensers in the bathrooms) but the oil bottle – that was a new one, and I loved it!  I went out on the weekend, bought a cute oil bottle at Big Lots for $3 and now instead of the plastic Joy bottle sitting out by my sink…I have this:

There are tons of re-use, reduce, re-cycle type tips in this book for decorating and home maintenance. 

You’ll learn how to clean simply but efficiently and non-chemically.

Gardening and canning have chapters all their own (I’m not there yet Kate…there are some tricks this old dog just won’t do…)

Written with humor Kate Payne will have you thinking ‘homemaking’ without thinking of your grandma at the same time (well sometimes you will be thinking of grandma but in a good way I promise!).  Not everything in the book (like canning or gardening *cough cough*) will strike you as a good or idyllic task, but I don’t doubt that everyone would glean something from it.

Payne delivers a streamlined and basic version of homemaking.  Living in tiny spaces for her homes may have something to do with that.  I kind of like my 4 frying pans, but also realize that I could live with 1 if I had to, and if you feel the need to live with less (or actually NEED to live with less because of space or economic reasons) you will I’m sure appreciate many aspects of this book.

Know someone keeping house for the first time, a new college graduate, newlyweds?  This would make a nice addition to their bookshelf to start them on their homemaking adventures.

You can find out more about Kate Payne and how to change up your homemaking skill set at HipGirlsHome.com.

var idcomments_post_id = ‘400’
var idcomments_post_url = ‘http://www.threedifferentdirections.com/blog/the-hip-girls-guide-to-homemaking-by-kate-payne.html’;