By Design, Read, Watch, Click

By MARY-LIZ SHAW

ON THE SHELVES

How to Cheat at Cleaning. By Jeff Bredenberg. Taunton Press. $12.95.

Part consumer advocate, part organizational genius and part male mom, Bredenberg provides a practical approach to living with ourselves and that pig sty many of us like to call home.

It isn’t really a pig sty, Bredenberg adds, it’s just dusty and cluttered.

He starts with the clutter and, like our mothers and grandmothers told us, he works from the top down.

There are some surprises here.

For instance, Bredenberg makes a case that we should stop making the bed – just get a big comforter and pull up.

He also suggests avoiding those crinkly window blinds that are so trendy right now (and pricey).

They, like the old-fashioned metal and wood blinds, are just elaborate dust-lovers. Better to get a fancy cloth blind that you can wipe down and then – sound the trumpets – roll up out of sight.

Bredenberg also is a huge fan of disposable wipes, which come in all shapes and sizes and for a variety of uses, from floor cleaning to food-surface cleaning.

He even has a quote from a professional cleaner: “I think you can probably clean your whole house with wipes.”

And don’t worry about the environment, he adds, because these square, alcohol-saturated miracles make up less than 500th of 1% of all landfill waste.

ON TV

“Trading Spaces” on TLC 11 a.m. today

The show in which neighbors redesign a room in each other’s houses travels to Santa Cruz in today’s episode, where designers Frank Bielec and Hildi Santo Tomas help skate shop owners with their living spaces.

Sometimes the best part of “Trading Spaces” is watching carpenter Amy Wynn Pastor roll her eyes at some funky request from the designer. But she can create magic, too. And fast.

ON THE WEB

tlc.discovery.com/fansites/tradingspaces/project/project.html

If you ever watched a “Trading Spaces” episode and thought you’d like to do that in your bedroom or your kitchen or even your bathroom, well, now you can. This site has pictures and instructions on how to trade your space for a new look.

– Mary-Liz Shaw

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