A Dirty Guide to a Clean Home: Housekeeping Hacks You Can't Live Without

Everything you need to know about maintaining a happy, inviting home, from perfectly folded laundry to basic repairs—by the TikTok star who makes housekeeping achievable, fun, and even sexy.

Melissa Dilkes Pateras is the most competent housekeeper/DIY-project master/home repair genius that you’ve ever been sexually attracted to. Once she followed her kids onto TikTok and began sharing her years of knowledge, she found a community eager for her approachable, often tongue-in-cheek advice on everything from caulking to why color-coded closets are a spiritual experience. She doesn’t care about transforming our homes into a minimal, beige Instagram post. Melissa sees housekeeping as a form of anxiety relief, self-care, and self-esteem-building. She wants us to feel able to take care of our homes in a way that works for us—so we can relax and feel confident inviting others over; in short, to say, "come on in."

A Dirty Guide to a Clean Home is Melissa's all-purpose housekeeping guide, filled with practical skills grounded in joyful living and written in the warm, witty voice she's known for. As she says: "For some reason I'm famous for folding laundry." Taking us through organizing, cleaning, laundry, repairs, and beyond, she shares strategies, tips, and tricks for keeping house—because it’s okay not to know what we don’t know, and we are all more capable than we think.