My Boyfriend Barfed in My Handbag . . . and Other Things You Can't Ask Martha

This book is fantastic for both people who are new to cleaning and old pros. I particularly think this book is a must-read for young men and women who are new to living on their own. I found this book to be extremely informative as well as entertaining. The author is funny and witty, as well as knowledgeable. It has information on everything from how to get grease stains out of pants to removing stains from walls to efficiently and thoroughly cleaning your bathroom. It includes suggestions for products to buy as well as new uses for products lying around your house; for example, after reading this book I now have lots of white vinegar and hydrogen peroxide in my house. Unlike some other cleaning books, the author uses an informal tone, is not condescending, and does not make any assumptions about what you already know about cleaning, so nothing will go over your head. I highly recommend this book for every house.

This book is hilarious! Besides all of the humor, it actually has some really great cleaning tips in it as well!

Holiday present. Useful tips plus funny.

I was laughing out loud on the plane...at a book on cleaning. I hadn't expected that. Even without useful advice, this would still be a great read. But there is so much solid advice, wrapped in witty prose, it was weirdly inspiring. No, it's not for the great cleaner, looking for scientific analysis. This book is for the rest of us, who really have no idea how to get cooktop vents clean. My copy is getting dog eared from all the referencing. Just bought one as a gift for my niece about to move out on her own. The author is hilarious, warm, self deprecating and wildly entertaining. Well done.

This book has fabulous advice for cleaning typical and atypical messes. The style is conversational, a little too much so for me but the author has a humorous style and I purchased 4 copies to give to friends for birthdays. The title alone makes it a great gift but, as I stated, there are also informational and unusual cleaning solutions.

For a subject as banal as household cleaning, I really enjoyed this book - the author's writing style is just great - and have found it to be very useful. It's full of great tips and encouragement to de-filthify your house, and you don't feel compelled to spend hundreds of dollars on specialty cleaning supplies (water, ammonia, bleach (never ammonia and bleach together of course), and baking soda are the main go-tos). Definitely worth a read if you're looking for a starting point to a cleaner home.

Book information okay. Tried several of the cleaning hints and not very successful for me. Wasn't worth the price of the paperback. Needs to be organized for faster look-up of specific stains.

Can a how-to about cleaning be chock full of useful tips and funny? The short answer is a resounding yes! The longer one is that Jolie Kerr manages to deliver a no-nonsense but chuckle inducing step-by-step home cleaning guide for the masses with 'My Boyfriend Barfed in My Handbag...' - a title that by itself is attention grabbing and fun. It's not often that how-to's are reviewed on T.T.P., and this is the first none-wedding planning title to make the cut, but it needed to be shared. Kerr's slightly self deprecating, tell it like it is style makes you feel as though your getting advice from a good friend and not reading it because your a disaster of a thirty-something whose never heard of laundry bluing and the amazing thing it does for your whites. Bottom Line: If you've ever found yourself at a lose when faced with a mess, a yellowed shirt or just need affirmation that your using the right stuff on your floors, this slightly off-kilter guide should be in your arsenal. Doesn't matter if you consider yourself a clean freak or a slob, this one gets a T.T.P. guarantee. You'll like it, and you might even pick up a few new tricks for keeping the kipple* at bay. *For those that need a definition, well, it is my humble opinion that you should read 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' Really. Add it to your list now. Thank me in the comments later. In the meantime, the definition as provided by Urban Dictionary: Kipple is a word coined by the remarkable science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. It refers to the sinister type of rubbish which simply builds up without any human intervention. Eventually, one day, the entire world will have moved to a state of kipplization.