ShopFront: Why anyone would bother buying a book that tells you how to clean your house was beyond us at first. It has to be done - but who needs a book?

Unless you're a crazed masochist, housekeeping is drudgery: something that's got to be done rather than enjoyed.

But there is satisfaction in getting your home cleaner than clean and this is the thinking behind a new book called Keeping House by Cindy Harris (Ryland Peters Small £16.99).

It's a pretty book with great photographs and if you go beyond some of the obvious advice ("Your home should be a place where you can relax") it's a very sensible how-to guide to housekeeping, covering hot topics such as how to tackle clutter (pass on stuff and create new storage places) and what your "essential daily tasks" should be.

You'll learn how to make cleaning more effective by doing weekly tasks ("toss all pillows into a tumble dryer for 15 minutes once a week, this will kill dust mites as well as freshen and fluff your pillows") and monthly tasks ( "tackle one drawer or cupboard in rotation, particularly in the kitchen and bathroom").

One of the best chapters is "Sparkling Surfaces", which will satisfy the most enthusiastic cleaning fetishist with spot removal tips for things like blood (one teaspoon mild detergent with 250 ml tepid water) and recipes for home-made sterilizing solutions (unfortunately it doesn't tell where you can actually buy ingredients such as Isopropyl alcohol. Not the off licence, we guess).

If you take this stuff seriously - and by the end of the book you'll be spooked into doing so - Keeping House has it all: minute detail on disinfecting the toilet bowl and dictatorial direction:

"Frequency of cleaning should not vary!"