2021-04 - Spring Cleaning

Döstädning, or the art of death cleaning, is a Swedish phenomenon by which the elderly and their families set their affairs in order. Whether it's sorting the family heirlooms from the junk, downsizing to a smaller place, or setting up a system to help you stop misplacing your keys, death cleaning gives us the chance to make the later years of our lives as comfortable and stress-free as possible. Whatever your age, Swedish death cleaning can be...

#1 New York Times Bestseller. Gretchen Rubin's year-long experiment to discover how to create true happiness. Drawing on cutting-edge science, classical philosophy, and real-world examples, Rubin delivers an engaging, eminently relatable chronicle of transformation. This special 10th Anniversary edition features a Conversation with Gretchen Rubin, Happiness Project Stories, a guide to creating your own happiness project, a list of dozens of free...

Declutter your way to happiness and peace of mind. Are you constantly cleaning up and clearing away clutter? Do you feel overwhelmed by your stuff? Whether you live in a studio apartment or a large house, we all face the challenge of staying organized so we have a tidy home that feels welcoming, peaceful and calm.

Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes tidying to a whole new level, promising that if you properly simplify and organize your home once, you'll never have to do it again. Most methods advocate a room-by-room or little-by-little approach, which doom you to pick away at your piles of stuff forever. The KonMari Method, with its revolutionary category-by-category system, leads to lasting results. In fact, none of Kondo's clients have lapsed (and...

At 28, Stephanie Land's dreams -- breaking free from the roots of her hometown in the Pacific Northwest, attending a university, and becoming a writer -- were cut short when a summer fling turned into an unexpected pregnancy. She turned to housekeeping to make ends meet, working days and taking college classes online. She also began to write relentlessly. She wrote the true stories that weren't being told: the stories of overworked and underpaid Americans....

Practical tips for organizing the spaces in your home help meet the needs for order in life.

Would you like to clear out some of the clutter in your home? Do you ever wonder where all this stuff has come from feeling like things have maybe gotten a bit out of control? Join Marcia Ramsland, the organizing pro, as she leads you in a room-by-room approach to simplifying your home and office.

Simplifying your space is the process

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Not strong enough to ascend the climbing wall at school, a discouraged child returns home and learns that there are other ways to be strong, from not giving up when working for a good cause or learning a new skill to making sure that no one sits alone in the lunchroom.

"Danny loves spending time with his grandpa. He loves to look at Grandpa's beautiful paintings and colorful masks from Africa. He especially likes a painting of five animals on Grandpa's wall. 'Those are the big five,' says Grandpa, 'the most famous animals from my homeland.' Grandpa promises to tell Danny about one animal each day as they spend a wonderful week together." --Jacket.

Meet Doug, an ordinary kid who doesn't like hugs, in this fun and exuberant story which aims to spark discussions about bodily autonomy and consent. Doug doesn't like hugs. He thinks hugs are too squeezy, too squashy, too squooshy, too smooshy. He doesn't like hello hugs or goodbye hugs, game-winning home run hugs or dropped ice cream cone hugs, and he definitely doesn't like birthday hugs. He'd much rather give a high five--or a low five, a side...

Betty and Maud are best friends but their favorite stuffed animals, Duck and Penguin, are not and do not appreciate being forced to play together.