Homemaking With Babs: Tips and Tricks for Making a House a Home - Hardcover

Costello, Barbara

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0593797922 ISBN 13: 9780593797921

Verlag: Random House Inc, 2026

Inhaltsangabe

From the New York Times bestselling author of Every Day with Babs, comes Babs’ life-tested advice and tricks for setting up, cleaning, and maintaining an organized, happy, and healthy home.

Everyone’s favorite grandma is back with a comprehensive guide to caring for the home. Through their decades of experience as homeowners, Babs and her husband—aka Mr. Babs—have figured out the most efficient way to manage a home with ease. From daily routines to seasonal cleaning, organizing, and home maintenance, Babs shares her innovative methods and family traditions that make homemaking simple and enjoyable.

Perfect for renters and homeowners alike, Homemaking with Babs also includes DIY solutions for natural cleaning and pest control, making it a valuable resource for anyone looking to create a peaceful and well-maintained home. With more than 150 full-color photographs, this book offers advice and tips covering: 

• Clean in 15: Practical routines for morning and nighttime that you can do in no time, along with daily, weekly, and monthly reminders to keep the home running smoothly. 

• Seasonal cleaning and organizing: Detailed checklists and tips for spring, summer, fall, and winter, including specific tasks for each area of the home. 

• Home maintenance: Guidance on maintaining home systems, planning for repairs, and creating a home maintenance fund. 

• Natural recipes: DIY recipes for natural cleaners, pest deterrents, and seasonal simmer pots to keep the home fresh and healthy. 

• Get everyone involved: Tips for getting everyone in the household involved in homemaking tasks, from kids to adults. 

With more than 100 easy home hacks, practical tips, and seasonal checklists to help readers manage their homes with ease, Homemaking with Babs makes managing the home feel, well, manageable!

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Barbara Costello, known as BrunchwithBabs on social media, is a mother of four and grandmother of nine. Babs has taken the internet by storm with her warmth, enthusiasm, practical tips, and motherly wisdom, earning her the title of "the internet's favorite grandma." The bestselling author of Everyday with Babs and Celebrate with Babs, she’s also a regular guest on Today, Good Morning America, and The Drew Barrymore Show, where she shares her household tips, tricks, hacks, and delicious recipes. A former teacher and preschool founder, she is also a wife to her loving husband, Mr. Babs.

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Introduction


Everyone's Story Begins at Home

My story begins in Chicago, where my grandfather owned an apartment building ten minutes from downtown, and my grandparents lived on the top level. The first floor held two apartments, which belonged to whoever was the latest son or daughter to get married. My mom, dad, sister, and I were wedged in between, in the second-floor apartment. My mom worked outside the home long before that was the norm, so we all pitched in to help with household chores. There was lots of hustle and bustle in that building, with Italian spoken a mile a minute and the furniture covered in plastic. (How else could you keep it nice with so many people using it?) When I was in the third grade, we moved into our own house in Galewood, but we’d still come together with all the grandparents, cousins, aunts, and uncles every Sunday after Mass for a big meal of salad, pasta, chicken, potatoes, and my grandmother’s homemade biscotti. Wherever you are with the people you love—that’s home.

Starting Out and Moving On

I met my husband, Bill (aka Mr. Babs), in high school; we married five years later, and we started our own family in Chicago. We were raising two little ones—Bill and Shawn—in a house in Willowbrook when Bill’s work transferred us to Virginia. Erin was born in Virginia, and then we moved to Connecticut and our youngest, Elizabeth, was born in Ridgefield. Moving isn’t easy with little ones, but we did it! I also worked as a teacher and director of a preschool I founded. Just like my mom before me, I had to balance a busy schedule while keeping our own home running. Everyone in our family had a job to do, and we all made do together.

Each year, we learned a little more about what makes a house a home. It’s not a spotless kitchen or a perfectly organized pantry. Those are both nice things but they’re hard to have when you’ve got toddlers running around with sticky hands. (Now that we’re grandparents, we get to keep our house as clean as we want, but we miss those fingerprints! For those of you in the throes of parenting, take heart. The time will come when your house is yours again.) The truth is that a house becomes a home when you make it special, in your own unique way, for yourself and the ones you love. A good home is the foundation for a good life.

The Basket House

I have my daughter Elizabeth to thank for helping me find my latest home away from home. She’s now grown with four kids of her own, and we’ve worked together since she started posting videos of my cooking tips and home hacks in 2020. We’ve grown our business into full-time jobs for both of us, and we have the joy (and sometimes challenge) of working together and seeing each other almost every day! When I would drive to her house in the early days of Brunch with Babs, I’d cross a one-lane bridge with an adorable home next to it, right on the river. Elizabeth knew I loved it, and she called me as soon as it went on the market. Built in the 1830s, it had been a blacksmith shop with a brick floor. In 1850, it became a basket-weaving business with a little shop. Now, it’s ours. We named it the Basket House and we spent over a year renovating it so that it’s just right for us. It’s the place where I get to share all I’ve learned with you, and it’s our home away from home.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Random House Inc
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2026
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0593797922
• ISBN 13: 9780593797921
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 272
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: QE GmbH & Co. KG; info@averdo.de; ; Martinistraße 3; Osnabrück; Deutschland