Happier at Home
Books | Self-Help / Personal Growth / Happiness
3.7
(73)
Gretchen Rubin
In the spirit of her blockbuster #1 New York Times bestseller The Happiness Project, Gretchen Rubin embarks on a new project to make home a happier place. One Sunday afternoon, as she unloaded the dishwasher, Gretchen Rubin felt hit by a wave of homesickness. Homesick—why? She was standing right in her own kitchen. She felt homesick, she realized, with love for home itself. “Of all the elements of a happy life,” she thought, “my home is the most important.” In a flash, she decided to undertake a new happiness project, and this time, to focus on home.And what did she want from her home? A place that calmed her, and energized her. A place that, by making her feel safe, would free her to take risks. Also, while Rubin wanted to be happier at home, she wanted to appreciate how much happiness was there already. So, starting in September (the new January), Rubin dedicated a school year—September through May—to making her home a place of greater simplicity, comfort, and love. In The Happiness Project, she worked out general theories of happiness. Here she goes deeper on factors that matter for home, such as possessions, marriage, time, and parenthood. How can she control the cubicle in her pocket? How might she spotlight her family’s treasured possessions? And it really was time to replace that dud toaster. Each month, Rubin tackles a different theme as she experiments with concrete, manageable resolutions—and this time, she coaxes her family to try some resolutions, as well. With her signature blend of memoir, science, philosophy, and experimentation, Rubin’s passion for her subject jumps off the page, and reading just a few chapters of this book will inspire readers to find more happiness in their own lives.
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More Details:
Author
Gretchen Rubin
Pages
304
Publisher
Harmony/Rodale/Convergent
Published Date
2012-09-04
ISBN
0307886808 9780307886804
Ratings
Google: 3.5
Community ReviewsSee all
"One of the best home "declutter"/ "minimalist" book I've ever read. I loved the ideas presented, it feels like REAL ways to improve your home, not unrealistic dreams for the dream pinterest home. "
Siara_C
"I listened to the audiobook version of this book on Audible, narrated by Gretchen Rubin. <br/><br/><br/>I didn’t like it as much as The Happiness Project, perhaps because I had already read that one, but I appreciated Happier At Home as well. Gretchen is good at making me feel at home with her. I loved all her specific examples of the things she undertook to be happier each month of her 8 month happiness project - not because those things specifically are what I want, but because specificity helps me think about how to apply the general truths to my life. Gretchen is great at reminding me that pursuing what she calls “happiness” isn’t selfish. Her version of happiness actually reminds me a lot of Matthew Kelly’s (see: Rediscovering Catholicism etc) idea of “the best version of yourself”. While the happiness project stuff isn’t explicitly religious, and Gretchen doesn’t undertake any spiritual resolutions (which I’d love to see, since religiosity is correlated with many of the things that lead to happiness!), many of the resolutions could help a person towards holiness. Some are just fun, but being a good wife, mother, neighbour, friend, coworker, and sister is a step to holiness; caring for the things that need to be done like picking up litter is a step to holiness; suffering for fifteen minutes a day to do something that needs to be done and thus subjugating your will is a path to holiness; revelling in the beauty of art and Creation is a step to holiness. <br/><br/>I love Gretchen’s work and ultimately feel inspired, and not chastised or overwhelmed, by it. Many self help books lead to guilt and overwhelm for me. <br/><br/>This book didn’t get five stars because it felt less tightly focused and organized than happier at home."
T P
Teresa Prokopanko