What To Do About Everything

A Manual for Domestic Life

RRP: $45.00

“There’s no longer any such thing as an average household. Domestic life is tricky. It’s miles trickier than it was when the average household contained a man and a woman who were married to each other and whose ideal family consisted of a boy and a girl, born in that order, two years apart. Back then there was no identity theft, no interactive online games, no speed dating, no easy credit leading to massive debt, and not much divorce. Smoking, butter and sugar were good for you. Life was slower and less cluttered.”

But things have changed. Our roles are increasingly multi-layered and we tend to be time, cash and energy poor. We want to be free from debt, but borrowing is critical to home-owning. We want to save the planet, but we have to be able to drive, fly and buy cheap imports.

How should we tackle our many domestic dilemmas? Here’s a book that can simplify matters.

What to Do about Everything by Barbara Toner is the ultimate manual for domestic life. It combines expert advice with personal experience as it guides us through the maze of endless challenges from how to sack a flat mate, find a decent plumber, change a tyre, avoid bankruptcy, sell a house, drink safely, get divorced and get moths out of your cashmere.

This comprehensive book will bring daily comfort to time poor, energy poor and just plain poor twenty first century householders everywhere. It covers time and space management, household relationships, having babies, balancing a diet, managing money, deciding where and how to live, home renovations, daily and weekly chores, clothes care, home repairs, grooming and healthcare, life changes (death, job loss, moving) and much more. Written in Barbara’s personable and witty style, this is a book offering tried-and-tested, friendly advice from someone who has been there, muddled through and come out the other side stronger and with her sense of humour intact.

www.whattodoabouteverything.com


Author details

Barbara Toner is an Australian writer and journalist who has written extensively about family life both in books (fiction and nonfiction) and newspaper columns. Double Shift: A Practical Guide for Working Mothers, examined the challenges for women juggling motherhood and jobs in the 1970s. On a lighter note, A Mothers Guide To Life and A Mother’s Guide to Husbands drew inspiration from her long-running column on family life in the UK’s The Mail on Sunday. Its wry observations on the balance of power in modern households attracted six million readers a week. Barbara is married with three daughters. She currently divides her life between London and the south coast of New South Wales.