Happier at Home: Kiss More, Jump More, Abandon a Project, Read Samuel Johnson, and My Other Experiments in the Practice of Everyday Life

In the spirit of her blockbuster #1 New York Times bestseller The Happiness Project, Gretchen Rubin embarks on a new project to make home a happier place.

One Sunday afternoon, as she unloaded the dishwasher, Gretchen Rubin felt hit by a wave of homesickness. Homesick — why? She was standing right in her own kitchen. She felt homesick, she realized, with love for home itself. “Of all the elements of a happy life,” she thought, “my home is the most important.” In a flash, she decided to undertake a new happiness project, and this time, to focus on home.

And what did she want from her home? A place that calmed her, and energized her. A place that, by making her feel safe, would free her to take risks. Also, while Rubin wanted to be happier at home, she wanted to appreciate how much happiness was there already.

So, starting in September (the new January), Rubin dedicated a school year — September through May — to making her home a place of greater simplicity, comfort, and love.

In The Happiness Project, she worked out general theories of happiness. Here she goes deeper on factors that matter for home, such as possessions, marriage, time, and parenthood. How can she control the cubicle in her pocket? How might she spotlight her family’s treasured possessions? And it really was time to replace that dud toaster.

Each month, Rubin tackles a different theme as she experiments with concrete, manageable resolutions — and this time, she coaxes her family to try some resolutions, as well.

With her signature blend of memoir, science, philosophy, and experimentation, Rubin’s passion for her subject jumps off the page, and reading just a few chapters of this book will inspire readers to find more happiness in their own lives.

"In her earlier book The Happiness Project, Rubin dedicated each month for a year to a theme (friendship, work, etc.), each accompanied by 'a handful of modest resolutions.' In this sequel, spanning September through May, Rubin narrows her focus to strategies 'to feel more at home, at home.' A goal for her for September was to glean more happiness from her possessions by arranging and spotlighting meaningful possessions and getting rid of meaningless stuff. Resolving to cultivate a shrine, Rubin transformed areas of her apartment into places of super-engagement such as painting wisteria climbing the walls of her tiny office. In October, Rubin's thoughts turned to her 16-year marriage, and she started kissing her husband more often, took driving lessons to share motoring responsibility, began thanking him for tackling chores, and focused on being cheerfully accommodating. Other months concentrated on parenting, time management, body-related resolutions, parents and siblings, and neighborhood. Although it lacks the freshness and originality of her earlier book, this perceptive sequel offers elegant musings about the nature of happiness combined with concrete ways to make the place where we sleep, eat, and watch TV truly a home. Illus. Agent: Christy Fletcher, Fletcher & Company. (Sept.)" Publishers Weekly Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

"Self-help fans rejoice. A new book just came out that's just as good as Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project. It's her latest release called Happier at Home....Rubin's warm, doable and sweet tips seem small when you check them off one by one. But the advice, added together, is a big ball of happy....Every mom will find gems in this book." Parents.com

Gretchen Rubin is the author of several books, including the blockbuster #1 New York Times bestseller The Happiness Project. Rubin started her career in law and was clerking for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor when she realized that she really wanted to be a writer. Raised in Kansas City, she lives in New York City with her husband and two daughters.

A NOTE TO THE READER

 

PREPARATION

september: POSSESSIONS

Find a True Simplicity

 

october: MARRIAGE

Prove My Love

 

november: PARENTHOOD

Pay Attention

 

december: INTERIOR DESIGN

Renovate Myself

• ix •

 

january: TIME

Cram My Day with What I Love

 

february: BODY

Experience the Experience

march: FAMILY

 

Hold More Tightly

187

 

apr i l: NEIGHBORHOOD

Embrace Here

 

may: NOW

 

Remember Now

Afterword

Acknowledgments

Your Happiness Project

The Eight Splendid Truths

Suggestions for Further Reading