Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Likely Stories - How to Keep House While Drowning: A Gentle Approach to Cleaning and Organizing by KC Davis

KC Davis is a counselor and speaker who lives in Houston. In her book, How to Keep House While Drowning, Davis outlines practical and compassionate instructions on how to keep life running when you feel like you are flailing.

KC Davis is a counselor and speaker who lives in Houston. In her book, How to Keep House While Drowning, Davis outlines practical and compassionate instructions on how to keep life running when you feel like you are flailing.

Reading this book felt like chatting with a smart older sister who has it all figured out. Someone who is gentle, compassionate, and efficient. She gives clever advice that literally makes life easier and more manageable. This is a short book. It is designed to be accessible and offers concrete solutions to everyday challenges, such as doing the dishes, or keeping up with hygeine when these simple tasks feel insurmountable.

To say that this book changed my life, is not hyperbole. I read "How to Keep House While Drowning," after having my daughter, and reread it when a surprise second baby arrived 18 months later and I found myself with two under two.

I adopted many of Davis's housekeeping strategies - For example, she introduces the five things tidying method - there are only five things in each room you must manage, trash, dishes, laundry, things that have a place, and things that do not have a place. When you break down a messy room into these five things, suddenly the chaos is not as overwhelming.

Davis speaks with kindness as she teaches gentle skill building, and addresses complicated issues, like division of labor in the household. Most importantly - this book taught me to treat myself and others with greater grace and empathy. Davis argues that care-tasks (her term for household chores) are neither good nor evil, right nor wrong and there are no rules when it comes to housekeeping. It is okay to make your own system, for example, I no longer put my kids' clothes away in each of their rooms separately, we moved all our dressers in the room next to the laundry room and we put everyone's clothes away at once.

There is no shame in cutting corners - Davis says, "Your space should serve you, you do not serve your space." I recommend "How to Keep House While Drowning," if you are, or ever have felt like you are drowning in the simple day to day tasks of being alive, for example, when a new baby arrives, when you suffer a loss, or when you or a loved one, are faced with a mental or physical health crisis.

I also recommend this book to those supporting someone who is struggling. How to keep house while drowning will teach you to be kinder and gentler with yourself and others. My husband and I listened to the audiobook together, and agreed, if people could be this kind to themselves and each other most of our problems would be solved."

Unfortunately, Davis has yet to design a system for keeping a car clean, so mine stays messy.

RECENT EPISODES OF LIKELY STORIES
Likely Stories - Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Hey there. Lauren here. I’m KWBU’s public relations intern as well as a Baylor student and a bookseller at Fabled. Today I’m going to be talking all about the book, Carrie Sotozis Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Let me tell you, I love me some Taylor Jenkins Reid. I would probably say she’s my favorite author. She writes such fascinating stories with the most interesting characters. One of these interesting characters being Carrie Soto.
Likely Stories - Iona Iverson’s Rules for Commuting by Clare Pooley
Have you ever been in a daily commute, or in a class, and sat next to the same people day in and day out, and not known one thing about them? Not their names, not their jobs, and certainly not their lives. You give them nicknames in your head attributed to what they wear and what they drink, but you have no idea who they are. Of course, you never speak. The first rule is “don’t talk to strangers.” What would it take to get to know these people, and in turn to let them into your life?
Likely Stories - Bringing Ben Home: A Murder, A Conviction, and the Fight to Redeem American Justice by Barbara Bradley Hagerty
I’m Joe Riley with KWBU, and this is Likely Stories.Every couple of weeks, I visit the Waco McLennan County Library and browse the New Book shelves. That’s where I saw Bringing Ben Home: A Murder, A Conviction, and the Fight to Redeem American Justice. Actually, it was the author’s name that first caught my eye – Barbara Bradley Hagerty is currently a contributing writer at The Atlantic. Before that, she spent 19 years reporting on justice issues and religion for NPR. I checked the book out because I’ve always been impressed by her work.
Likely Stories - The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter
It’s not Christmastime anymore, but that's never stopped me from enjoying any story set during the most wonderful time of the year. This one is heavy on mystery, lightly romantic, deeply nostalgic, fully entrenched in the setting.
Likely Stories - Everything We Never Had
Nearly every time my husband sees me reading he asks, “Reading one of your “happy” books again?” To be fair, he may have a point. For example, listening to the audiobook of a novel that unpacks the emotional trauma of four generations of Filipino men, is possibly not the most uplifting way to spend a drive through the plains of the Texas Panhandle. But Everything We Never Had by Randy Ribay was so worth it. I’m Gia Chevis with this week’s installment of Likely Stories.
Likely Stories - Killer Story: The Truth Behind True Crime Television
For this week's episode of Likely stories, Kevin Tankersley, from the Department of Journalism, Public Relations & New Media at Baylor, is investigating what goes into the making of True Crime Television.
Likely Stories - Trust
Hi, I’m Molly-Jo Tilton, reporter at KWBU and hobbyist reader. On this week’s episode of Likely Stories, we’ll be talking about Trust by Hernan Diaz.
Likely Stories - Counting Miracles
Hello. My name is Douglas Henry, Dean of the Honors College at Baylor University, with this week’s edition of Likely Stories.
Likely Stories - All Fours
My name is Heather White, I teach Art History classes at Baylor. Before I begin this segment of Likely Stories, I wanted to let you know that this review acknowledges the existence of sexual desire, if this is not appropriate for everyone in your listening space, you may want to return after this three minute segment has ended. Okay, here we go.
Likely Stories - Butter
If it has taken you an annoyingly long time to learn that perfection isn’t a healthy goal and getting help isn’t a sign of a character flaw, then you might empathize with Rika’s journey in Butter, A Novel of Food and Murder by Asako Yuzuki. I’m Gia Chevis with this week’s installment of Likely Stories.

Heather White grew up in Waco, left after high school, and returned in 2019 to teach Art History classes at Baylor. Before lecturing at BU, she worked as a museum educator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, and taught for local organizations in DFW, Houston, and OKC. She lives in Woodway with her husband and three kiddos.