Helping folks keep it simple

Newport Beach’s Emilie Barnes, 67, raised two children and spent most

of her life as a stay-at-home mother.

Her children both grew up and went off to college, leaving Barnes

to ponder what to do with herself. She began speaking at women’s

conferences, which led her to write several books on organizing the

home and cleaning up clutter.

That was in 1982. She and husband Bob Barnes have since written

nearly 70 books -- all published by Harvest House -- on topics

including the home, children’s manners and devotional books.

The Daily Pilot’s Lindsay Sandham recently sat down with Emilie

Barnes to hear about her transition from homemaker to author.”

Your first book was “More Hours in My Day.” And this was based on

your experiences of being a homemaker.

Right. The book came out in 1982 and it was, like, this small

[holding her fingers close together]. Since then I’ve revised it four

times. And then the “Creative Home Organizer” basically came next.

This is like ... giving you household hints and tips and things to

do. It’s for every room in your house. “Cleaning up the Clutter” is

another organizational book; this one’s relatively new. It came out,

probably, not even a year ago.

How do you write multiple books like this without repeating the

same things?

I don’t know. You learn more as you grow up. This book, “Simple

Secrets to a Beautiful Home,” this one also has some recipes in the

back. Once you get the clutter cleaned up, then you can have time to

do other things that you like to do.

And so a lot of your knowledge has come from raising children.

Basically, yes. And being able to be a full-time homemaker, the

children grew up in the late ‘50s and ‘60s [and] things were

different then. There weren’t as many women in the workforce as there

are today.

I really like your children’s books about manners. There’s one for

girls and one for boys. Did you write that from your memories of

having small children or were you reminded with your five

grandchildren?

Yes, to a certain extent. But I speak across the country to

women’s conferences. The voice that I was hearing back from them was,

“You know, my kids eat with their fingers, and how do I get them to

sit at the table?” So it just sort of came to me that I didn’t see

anything out there that was manners for little girls, so that one I

wrote first.

Then one mother said to me, “Well, what am I going to do? I have

four boys,” and that said to me, “Let’s do a little boys’ book of

manners,” and that’s how that one came about. My husband actually did

a lot of the writing for that.... It’s teaching manners in a fun way.

So you were a homemaker for all these years, and then all of a

sudden you decided, “I’m going to write some books”?

No, I didn’t. I was a homemaker and my children were ready to go

into college, and I thought, “What am I going to do with my life?”

I really prayed one day and said, “God, what am I going to do with

my life?”

I had a high school education was all. I had a friend ... we began

to do some seminars together. I did the home area; you know, the fun

things like hospitality and stuff. So she did the more depression

topics and personality topics. She wrote her first book and she said,

“You know, Emilie, you need to write a book.”

I was very much against it. I didn’t know how to write. I didn’t

have a lot of education. My husband was the one that had all the

education. He was a teacher. He was a principal. He was in

administration.

And you lived in Riverside when you started writing books.

It was there that I met my friend who encouraged me to write. In

1982, when I wrote my first book ... actually, the publisher called

me and said, “We would like you to write a book on organization.” I

said, “I know how to organize, but I don’t know how to write.”

So [for] “More Hours in My Day,” the first book, I sent in some

tapes of my speaking, and they transcribed the tapes, and that

basically became my first book.

It was in 1982, when the interest rates were just going crazy, so

my husband Bob sold his mobile-home manufacturing company and thought

he might go back to education.

While he was putting out his resume, he said, “I’m going to go

with you when you speak, and I’ll set up a little book table for you.

And then, when I get a regular job, you know I’ll just do this until

I get a regular job.”

Well, he still hasn’t gotten a regular job. We’ve been in

full-time writing and speaking.

I thought in ‘82, I thought that organization was just a fad. But

what happened was the women started going in the workforce, and then

the new generation came up, and they needed it even more, and they

needed it to be simple. I think that’s what is such a success with my

books is they’re simple.