How to Keep House While Drowning – a brilliant book for every overwhelmed parent

How to Keep House While Drowning: A gentle approach to cleaning and organising by KC Davis is a book designed to help overwhelmed, overworked and under-resourced people keep on top of household, cleaning and life-admin routines.  

Supportive and realistic, KC Davis reframes how to think about daily tasks to stop the cycle of judgement and overwhelm that can come when you feel like you’re not on top of chores. 

How to Keep House While Drowning was written as a guide to help others by KC Davis, a therapist and mother of two, using methods she learnt through her own struggles with anxiety and post-natal depression.

As well as practical solutions, the book is filled with fantastic phrases to change your mindset and hold close to your heart on hard days. 

Some of our favourites include: “It’s not failure. It’s laundry,” and “A simple plan to keep a space livable is better than an overwhelming plan to keep a space perfect.” 

Even better, the book is very short and designed to be read by busy, stressed or neurodivergent people. 

Chapters are simple and easy to read in short moments grabbed throughout the day. The author even explains at the beginning how to follow a ‘shortcut’ through the book to read only the most impactful parts, if the whole thing simply feels too much. 

Being a parent can come with so many emotions, including guilt, shame and worry – this book helps to reinforce the idea that we don’t have to feel that way about our homes, on top of everything else. 

We love this book and think it’s wonderful for anyone struggling to keep up amid all the tasks life throws your way, especially those with young children in the mix. 

Taking some of the phrases from the book and adapting them to use in our parenting struggles may even help to reduce the (usually totally unnecessary) parent guilt, too. 

After all, it’s not failure, it’s spilt juice. 

Buy the book here:

If you choose to use this link to buy the book, MFFY may collect a share of sales or some form of commission.