To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labour tends. — Samuel Johnson, the Rambler, No, 68.
That’s the very first quote in Gretchen Rubin’s brand new book, Happier at Home (affiliate link) which — like its predecessor The Happiness Project — is sure to be a blockbuster. The Samuel Johnson quote immediately hit home for me, because 
golly, isn’t this blog about finding happiness in our sweet little midcentury homes… about loving the house you’re in, instead of pining after what it may lack… and about giving our houses our tender loving care — so that they can give theirs back?
Crikes, sorry to get all mushy there. But in case you haven’t guessed, I am hugely enormously, gigantically, sentimental about happiness in house and home. It is kind of… all that I think about. I also just read Gretchen Rubin’s first book The Happiness Project (affiliate link) in July. I thought that the book was hugely enormously gigantically brilliant. It was a #1 New York Times best-seller for good reason. The book is NOT self-help FLUFF. This woman is a take-no-prisoners serious, avid researcher. She wrote lauded history books about Winston Churchill and John F. Kennedy before she turned to the more prosaic, yet elusive, topic of Happiness. In a nut, with The Happiness Project, she synthesized amazing amounts of research on the topic… and then… and this was the especially brilliant part: She put her findings to work in her own life, small-step-by-small-step, over a 12-month period, and chronicled her experience. The book is super easy to read, super encouraging — but at the same time, it’s deeeeeep. How often can you say that.
Now, Gretchen (I don’t think she will mind my familiarity) has followed up her first best-selling happiness book with a second one that focuses even more specifically on cultivating happiness within your home and with the creatures who may live there with you. UPDATE: Happier at Home has just hit #2 on the New York Times best-seller list, in just its FIRST week on sale. THIS BOOK IS A MUST-HAVE!
One more happy thing: Gretchen once gave a shout out to Retro Renovation on her blog — and send several hundred new visitors our way. She like the retro. Can ya believe it. I can: Retro is Happy!
Michael says
Watching plants grow (or simply stay alive) always makes me happy at home.
Kim says
I’d love to win this book–sounds insightful.
For me, I’ve increased my happiness by minimizing my gardening chores after memorial day and before labor day. I really hate being out in the hot, sticky days of July and August, so I do only what I REALLY need to do then–and I maximize my garden time in the beautiful April, May, early June, and September/October weather instead.
craftlounge says
I am so looking forward to reading this book. Loved the first one. My key to maintaining my happiness is to be satisfied with the blessings I already have – both material and other. Sometimes it is a struggle but i am constantly trying. Being unhappy is more work and the end result is crappy 😀
P.C. says
I am happier at home when I let some things go — I have found that nobody will actually die if I skip a day of laundry…and I have learned that vacuuming the dog hair up tomorrow vs. right away doesn’t really reduce the amount of dog hair! So the new motto is to “Let some things go!”
Jaime says
I LOVE being at home. As much as I enjoy what I do, I can’t wait to get back home. I’m always sad when I have to spend more hours during a day at work than I do at my house.
Queen of Fifty Cents says
Retiring from my day job last year so I can actually BE home has made me extremely happy!
Ellen says
Count me in.
LoquaciousLaura says
I’ve been so curious about her first book!
My latest cheesy step — since I agree that happiness is most often a choice, and so we need to remind ourselves of that — is to keep a Bad Cat calendar at work and write on every day something that made me happy. I’m often surprised by how small those things are, but not at all surprised that they often have to do with my family 🙂
Mia says
I’m happy at home when things are quiet and I know everyone is OK, where ever they are.
jess says
I’m happier when the cooler weather allows me to turn the oven on and crank out some home-baked goodness after a long summer of avoiding the additional heat. Nothing like a lived-in kitchen and the scent of fresh food to make a home feel happy.