VIDEO
CNN Correspondent Jeanne Moos shows us some household cleaning techniques Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K

Web posted on: Friday, January 07, 2000 5:35:23 PM

(CNN) -- High brow and house cleaning don't usually go together, but they do in a new book that everyone from Martha Stewart to the New York Times has given a thumbs up.

Author Cheryl Mendelson considers running a household to be a lost art. Her new book, "Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House," guides readers through everything from folding socks to tuning a piano or building a fire.

She's no sock scientists, she has a law degree from Harvard and masters in philosophy. Mendelson says her expertise on everything from sorting laundry to folding sheets comes from her upbringing on a farm in Pennsylvania.

"By the time I was 9 or 10 I could diaper a baby with pins, I could cook breakfast for a family of six," she says.

CNN Correspondent Jeanne Moos visited with Mendelson to discuss the 900 page book of know-how.