“I feel like Taylor Swift,” Patric Richardson proclaims. “She won the Super Bowl her very first year. This is the pretty much the same thing.”
Richardson describes the phenom of his latest book, House Love, which, in contrast with Tay-Tay’s freshman gridiron adventures, represents his sophomore foray into the rough-and-tumble realm of the written word. The new volume is an expansion of the tricks and tips featured in his first bestselling book, Laundry Love: Finding Joy in a Common Chore which was an expansion of the tricks and tips that made Richardson famous on HGTV and Discovery+.
Patric Richardson is, of course, the Laundry Guy.
“I don’t want to say, ‘Pinch me,’ because I don’t want to be pinched,” Richardson continues, “but buy me a cookie–I can’t believe it!”
Richardson’s graduation from lavandariaphilia to casaphilia was achieved more steadily and more readily than one might initially suppose. “In Laundry Love, there’s a list of things you need—a spray bottle of vinegar, a spray bottle of vodka, a horse hair brush. I realized those are the same things I use all over my house: I clean my counter tops with vodka; I clean my bathroom with vinegar and water–it’s the same kit,” says Richardson. “So, in the new book, I took this simple kit and applied it to the whole house.”
But the whole house is only half of the equation. “The reason the book is called House Love is because the house is the box,” Richardson explains. “When you get in it, when you put the people you love in it, that’s the moment it’s home.”
The new book’s subtitle is A Joyful Guide to Cleaning, Organizing, and Loving the Home You’re In. It encapsulates Richardson’s re-thinking and re-framing the parts of home ownership that most homeowners dread most. “When you clean your house, you get to pick all your stuff up,” Richardson points out. “You get to claim it, you get to put it back. That makes you enjoy things more when you interact with them, instead of having them disappear. I think there’s something magical about interacting with your things—it’s, you know, pleasurable.”
A concurrent source of Richardson’s pleasure derives from his habit of listening to popular music while spic-and-spanning. The Laundry Guy even offers a laundry list of his own cleaning playlists, three-pop-song sets which fill the ten minutes that, according to Richardson, are all that’s needed to convert any given chamber from sty to sly. “If you don’t get it to perfect, so be it,” the Laundry Guy philosophizes. “You can do ten more minutes tomorrow.”
Richardson’s reconsideration of domestic de-dirting applies not just to one’s things but to where one’s things are, as well. Often, even as they clean, folks moon over the future which, according to Richardson, represents a missed opportunity. “People think of their current houses as just a starter house, or ‘I’m only living in this apartment until I can afford a big house,’” Richardson kvetches. “The house you’re in now can be your home, and the next house you’re in can also be a home.”
House Love is only the latest layer of success that Richardson has earned…although how he measures success eschews mere filthy lucre. “Financially, [House Love has] done very well…but it’s done very well in another way,” the Laundry Guy reports. “I had a woman walk up to me in Salt Lake City. ‘I want to tell you something,’ she said. ‘I promised my husband I wasn’t going to cry, but I’m going to cry.;”
The Laundry Guy starched himself as his Beehive State fan told her story: “She said, ‘I have emotional triggers about cleaning—it goes back to childhood trauma. Your book allowed me to refocus. Every Saturday, my husband, my children, and I clean the house ten minutes at a time, because I read your playlists, and my husband says, ‘Honey, if you want to keep going, we’ll do more.’ You did what twenty years of therapy couldn’t do.’’’
This, then, is Richardson’s truest metric for accomplishment. “At that point, the book is a success,” the author insists. “If the book had sold two copies—one to my mom, and one to that woman–it’s a success. You can’t get better than that. Nothing makes me happier.”
House Love was first revealed to the world over a year ago within the pages of Lavender Magazine. “It was a fun, little scoop, and I wanted to give the scoop to an audience that mattered to me,” Richardson confides. “I love that in my lifetime, I get to talk about what I love which is stereotypically women’s work. I get to talk about my partner of nineteen years [Saint Paul Pioneer Press pop music critic Ross Raihala], and it’s no secret.”
Laundry Love and House Love have profoundly affected cleaners all around the world…but the most profound affect might have been experienced by the volumes’ author. “The books have let me find out who I am…and who I’m not,” Richardson observes. “I want to be cool, and I’m not cool: I’m a nerdy, preppy kid who likes to clean clothes and live in his house.”
Perhaps the most phenomenal part of the books’ phenom isn’t making their author feel like Taylor Swift—perhaps the most phenomenal part of the books’ phenom is making Patric Richardson feel, at long last, like Patric Richardson. “Now that I’ve written two books and had my own TV show, I’m like, ‘This is who I want to be—the nerdy kid who loves his house,’” he proclaims. “I’m totally okay with being that guy. Once you put yourself out there, there’s no going back. And you know what? People like that guy.”
www.laundryevangelist.com/products/house-love-book-hardcover-signed-inscribed-by-patric
