When you let yourself focus on any activity, however mundane, when you feel the warm water running over your hands and each dish as you make it clean, your mind begins to settle and stress levels come down. You are in the moment. Everything is as it should be. In the morning when you make your bed, you set the tone for the day. In the evening as you chop vegetables you create a rhythm. And as you clear clutter from the surfaces of your home, so you create space in your mind. When we open ourselves up to seeing it, suddenly there is beauty everywhere in our daily lives. One of the Fives Ways to Wellbeing identified by the New Economics Foundation, and utilised by the major mental health charity Mind, is simply 'taking notice'. Reminding ourselves to take notice broadens our awareness of ourselves and our surroundings. And studies have shown that being aware of what is taking place in the present directly enhances our sense of wellness. It promotes appreciation and making the most of everything that we have. Tend your mind, tend your world.

Dishwasher is Public Radio favorite and underground celebrity Pete Jordan’s amusing memoir of his dishwashing extravaganza. Part adventure, part parody, and part miraculous journey of self-discovery, it is the unforgettable account of Jordan's transformation from itinerant seeker into "Dishwasher Pete"—unlikely folk hero, writer, publisher of his own cult zine, and the ultimate professional dish dog—and how he gave it all up for love. “For 12 years, I was the most prolific dishlicker of them all. From 1989 to 2001, I dished my way around the country, unwittingly searching for direction. From a bagel joint in New Mexico to a Mexican joint in Brooklyn; from a dinner train in Rhode Island to the Lawrence Welk Resort in Branson, Missouri; from an upper-crust ladies’ club to a crusty hippie commune—I washed the nation’s dishes. Whether it was a gig so lousy that I walked out within an hour or one where I toiled 120 hours a week, I remained a man on a mission: to bust suds in every state in the union.”—Pete Jordan A smart, funny, and surprising look at life, Dishwasher is sure to appeal to fans of Nick Hornby and Tom Perotta.

Written with the no-holds-barred ethos of his beloved series, No Reservations and Parts Unknown, the celebrity chef and culinary explorer’s first cookbook in more than ten years—a collection of recipes for the home cook. Anthony Bourdain is a man of many appetites. And for many years, first as a chef, later as a world-traveling chronicler of food and culture on his CNN series Parts Unknown, he has made a profession of understanding the appetites of others. These days, however, if he’s cooking, it’s for family and friends. Appetites, his first cookbook in more than ten years, boils down forty-plus years of professional cooking and globe-trotting to a tight repertoire of personal favorites—dishes that everyone should (at least in Mr. Bourdain’s opinion) know how to cook. Once the supposed "bad boy" of cooking, Mr. Bourdain has, in recent years, become the father of a little girl—a role he has embraced with enthusiasm. After years of traveling more than 200 days a year, he now enjoys entertaining at home. Years of prep lists and the hyper-organization necessary for a restaurant kitchen, however, have caused him, in his words, to have "morphed into a psychotic, anally retentive, bad-tempered Ina Garten." The result is a home-cooking, home-entertaining cookbook like no other, with personal favorites from his own kitchen and from his travels, translated into an effective battle plan that will help you terrify your guests with your breathtaking efficiency.

The wildly popular YouTube star behind Clean My Space presents the breakthrough solution to cleaning better with less effort Melissa Maker is beloved by fans all over the world for her completely re-engineered approach to cleaning. As the dynamic new authority on home and living, Melissa knows that to invest any of our precious time in cleaning, we need to see big, long-lasting results. So, she developed her method to help us get the most out of our effort and keep our homes fresh and welcoming every day. In her long-awaited debut book, she shares her revolutionary 3-step solution: • Identify the most important areas (MIAs) in your home that need attention • Select the proper products, tools, and techniques (PTT) for the job • Implement these new cleaning routines so that they stick Clean My Space takes the chore out of cleaning with Melissa’s incredible tips and cleaning hacks (the power of pretreating!) her lightning fast 5-10 minute “express clean” routines for every room when time is tightest, and her techniques for cleaning even the most daunting places and spaces. And a big bonus: Melissa gives guidance on the best non-toxic, eco-conscious cleaning products and offers natural cleaning solution recipes you can make at home using essential oils to soothe and refresh. With Melissa’s simple groundbreaking method you can truly live in a cleaner, more cheerful, and calming home all the time.

Dana K. White started ASlobComesClean.com in 2009 in a desperate attempt to get her home under control. She had no idea where her deslobification journey would lead, both in her home and in her spiritual life. This is the story of how God worked in her life to show her that He was more concerned with her heart than her home.

**FREE SAMPLER** Can washing up really be good for you? Can we discover a moment of insight, a wave of calm, a tickle of delight or a tingle of connection within our simple, readily available, everyday routine? Without needing to alter our entire lifestyle, can we unearth a fresh way in, hidden inside the daily and seemingly mundane? How might we flip our thinking away from resisting and towards maybe even relishing the washing up, the cleaning and the cooking? What might this do for our body, our mind and our relationships? One everyday activity at a time, artists, designers, writers, psychologists and speakers share their stories and experiences of the everyday. You will hear of family bonding over the washing up, wondrous rituals with a cup of tea and the creation of playful households. So, yes, we are suggesting that washing up can be good for you. In fact, even more than good for you! It can be liberating, relaxing, creative and healing. These ideas are deeply embedded in some of the world's most ancient wisdom. Here, we simply explore how this way of thinking can very easily become part of our daily doing.

Find order and beauty in the kitchen with this delightfully elegant primer on washing the dishes that elevates and illuminates a seemingly routine chore. Washing the dishes is an ordinary, everyday task--but with examination and care, it can become much more. In this reverent guide to the household chore, Peter Miller shows us how washing dishes can become a joy, a delight, a meditative exercise, and an act of grace and rhythm. We pay so much attention to recipes but little attention to maintenance and cleanup. Washing the dishes is as much a part of making a meal as prepping the vegetables, making the sauces, or seasoning the meats. At times it is quite routine, sometimes raucous, other times complex. It is never convenient. Despite its din and clatter, and despite its reputation, washing the dishes is the coda to the meal. It is a bustling musical of water and soap, of flow and surface, and done well, the fragile shall sit as proudly as the cast-iron. There are some who do the dishes for the clarity and privacy of it, and there are some who relish the quiet isolation of putting things in order where they belong. There are some who feel the time and movement is a kind of digestive. In the evening in particular, there is a silence when it is all done. How to Wash the Dishes brings elegance, art, and a bit of mindfulness to the sink. It is the perfect gift for those who love to clean and equally as apt for those we wish would clean a bit more.