A Day in the Life of a Mediocre Housewife

 Housekeeping Habits  7 Responses »
Aug 222012
 

I hear my friends talk about the joys of housekeeping, organizing their pantries, doling out chores to their kids, looking at the home with a regimented eye. I’m sorry, that’s just not me.

On a daily basis (or as needed), I do the household tasks but it doesn’t give me a sense of pride. Most of the time, I do them simply because they have to be done. I mean, I guess deep down I do them because I love my family. But that’s not really how I show my love for them.

Proverbs 31:27 says: She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. I’ve said it before. I’m not June Cleaver. But don’t get me wrong. I do keep a clean house. I do the dishes and the pots and pans. I wash the clothes. I clean, dust, organize, clean the bathrooms and vacuum. But I do it so I can move on to other things.

In the morning I grab the dirty clothes hamper out of the bathroom and go to the kitchen to turn on my coffee water. While waiting on it to boil, I go downstairs and start a load of laundry. I unload and load the dishwasher and then fix my coffee. I read my Bible and check my emails and start my writing tasks for the day. After lunch I put the clothes in the dryer and then get back to my writing or working my part-time bookkeeping job. Soon it’s time for dinner. Afterwards I wash the dishes and pots and pans and settle down for an evening with my hubby and son (if he’s home) and daughter (when she visits). The other biggie household things get done when company is coming or on a semi-annual or annual schedule.

I think it’s kind of easy to keep a house in order. Or maybe I’m just not doing it right. Perhaps I just have a small home. I certainly don’t have an army to help me keep it clean. Of course, I don’t have an army living here either to mess it up. There are no toys or other clutter or homeschool books stacking up around the place anymore.

The conclusion I have come to in my twenty-four years of marriage is that there are some things that are more important than a clean house. If I have the choice between visiting with my daughter or doing the dishes or folding clothes, you better bet I’m going to choose the visit. If my husband wants to watch a movie, I may fold clothes while doing it but I certainly will make time for him. If my son wants me to listen to his latest song he’s written, I’m going to put the tasks aside and do it.

They say “cleanliness is next to godliness” but I’m not so sure that’s true. However, having a clean and orderly environment for your family does honor the Lord. It’s part of being the Proverbs 31 woman. But when I feel guilty for not doing everything the way my friends do them or feel terrible because I don’t take joy in the menial tasks of housekeeping, I remind myself that “home is where the heart is” and it’s all about what you make it. It’s the love that flows throughout the walls of the house. It’s the feelings your kids get when you bake brownies. It’s the joy that occurs when you sit and watch a favorite show on TV together and laugh until you cry.

It’s the comfy feeling that takes over when everyone is in their beds at night and you close your eyes to thank the Lord for the day.

I am a mediocre housewife.

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/734842

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Ultimate Guide to Housekeeping Habits

 Housekeeping Habits  5 Responses »
Aug 092012
 

Here at Habits for a Happy Home we are not all about sparkly, spotless homes. I hope that you have seen, through our Day in the Life series this month, that we are regular sorts of people. Each one of us struggles. Just as our ‘About’ page says, “My hope is that this blog will serve to inspire all of us to replace some bad habits with good ones and keep us on the road toward the kind of home that pleases the Lord.”

Building a home that pleases Him is what this guide to housekeeping habits is about. Being a practical help for our homes so that we ultimately glorify Him. Each of our contributors keeps house with the help of different habits. So many of those are shared here in our archives. We bring those to your attention today and offer encouragement from around the web as well.

She keeps an eye on everyone in her household, and keeps them all busy and productive. Proverbs 31:27 The Message

What is a Proverbs 31 Woman? by Angie “Just Listen, obey and enjoy the blessings that will come to you, your husband and your kids because you are walking in HIS will!”

Cleaning/Clutter Busting

  • Cleaning Thankfully – “be thankful for the little fingers and noses that made those smudges.” by Kendra

I’m still working on a way to be thankful while I’m dusting, but you get the idea.

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.  ~Thomas Edison

Chores/Training/Service Opportunities

Household Management/Organization

  • Household Notebook by Kerri. She details the key for planning to be spontaneous and gives us a peek inside her notebook.
  • Evernote App by Steve – it even holds the family drive thru list.
  • Fight Fire with Fire by Kendra – using technology for reminders.
  • My Coupon Binder by Heidi “One of the things that keeps many people from couponing is the clipping and sorting and organizing.”
  • Spring Forward: A Seasonal Assessment by Tricia “You can do it. Invest planning time now so you are free to enjoy Easter and those pretty spring afternoons. Just chunks of time. Bits of brain power here and there. Short-sleeved weather will arrive and you’ll have your family ready.”
  • What if you work and homeschool? Joan at Our School at Home is sharing an Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling as a Working Mom
  • How about some Time Management Tips. Kathy at Cornerstone Confessions has those too. “Look carefully then how walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.” (Ephesians 5:15-16) Plus she offers some general organization tips for many parts of the home including the family automobile.

Taste and see the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him. Psalm 34:8

Menu Planning and Feeding the Family

  • Our Recipe Box – all the recipes our contributors have put in the box.
  • What’s For Dinner? series by Kerri. Do not miss these information packed posts from a mama of eight! Kerri shows you how to plan menus, make a grocery list, organize coupons so you will use them, double recipes, and pull in your helper for a wonderful presentation of a meal!

Realization: Frozen dinner – homemade by me – equals a weeknight vacation!“

Laundry

Atmosphere/Decorating

Websites for Housekeeping Helps

A Slob Comes Clean

Habit Formation Help

We invite you to subscribe so you won’t miss any Habits for a Happy Home. You can find us on Pinterest too!

This post is linked to 40 Ultimate Guides and Lists at iHomeschool Network. Be sure to visit and pin them these great resources!

You are invited for a visit! I am sharing two other guides you might enjoy: The Ultimate List of Easy Slow Cooker Recipes at Hodgepodge and the Ultimate Guide to Choosing Homeschool Curriculum at The Curriculum Choice.

Surviving Life with Boys: Creating a Sanctuary

 Habits for a Happy Husband, Habits for a Happy Wife, Housekeeping Habits  6 Responses »
Jul 052012
 

All of the things I have shared have definitely helped to tone down the chaos in our home. But the reality is that it is not possible for my house to be as quiet and clean as I would like. Even if I spent every minute of the day cleaning, people live here. Precious boys and their pets live here. And you can see the evidence of it everywhere you look! But for my own sanity, I needed one space that was clean. One space that I could go to escape the clutter and the noise and the toys and the pets.

A couple months ago I mentioned that I was working on a master bedroom makeover with several ideas I found on Pinterest. I decided to do it as a surprise for my husband. He works from home in our bedroom twice a week and I knew the chaos and clutter were getting to him too. I tried to keep everything a secret over several months. I worked on the projects during the times he was out of town and I put it all together one day while he was at work. I went as all out as I could on our budget. Even bought a new (used) canopy bed on Craigslist.

Now it is complete, and like so many other parts of our family life, it has rules. No clutter allowed. No rowdying allowed. No toys allowed. Quiet, calm, still boys with no toys are absolutely welcome. In fact, our bedroom is the only room in our house with a VCR, so we occasionally have a family night with all of us snuggling under that canopy watching some of our old Veggie Tales & Thomas the Tank Engine videos.

Don’t have room in the budget for a makeover? No problem! Just instituting a few of these boundaries will go a long way toward creating a sanctuary in your home. And most of the Pinterest projects were fairly cheap. One of the cheapest & easiest things I did that really makes our bedroom my favorite place in the house was filling every surface in the room with pictures of us and places we’ve been. Old and new. Years of memories pulled out of a box and tucked in frames.

The last thing that really helps to make it a sanctuary is keeping it clean. I know that I can’t possibly keep the whole house as clean as I would like. But I can handle one room! The bed is made first thing every morning. I dust at least once a week (if only that room) and keep it vacuumed and clutter-free.

So summer is here and school is out. Now is the perfect time to create a sanctuary of your own!

Surviving Life with Boys Series:

~ By Kendra, Frogs, Snails and Puppy Dog Tales

Surviving Life with Boys: Managing the Dirt

 Habits for a Happy Mom, Housekeeping Habits  7 Responses »
May 012012
 

boy, n. a noise with dirt on it

The first time I saw that quote was in an Uppercase Living catalog a few years ago. Then it cropped up on Pinterest and just last week I saw it on Facebook. Isn’t it so true? Buried somewhere beneath the noise and dirt lies an endless supply of hugs and love and sweetness. But if I am ever going to uncover all that sweetness, I need to find a way to live with the rest of what makes up a boy. Or four boys.

Any of these things could be just as useful in a house full of girls. Several children = chaos, no matter what the gender ratio. I just think that with boys, the chaos is magnified a bit.

Managing the Toys. This was our home, all day, every day just a few months ago: “Whose Legos are these? Please pick up the Legos.” 15 minutes later the Legos are still there. “Didn’t I say pick up the Legos??” 3 hours later, “PICK UP THE BLASTED LEGOS!!!” At bedtime, I’m picking up Legos and muttering to myself about how irresponsible my boys are. NO MORE. Now, we have a box we call the treasure chest. It is in the living room where I find the majority of the forgotten messes.  If I see something lying around, I ask that it be put away one time. If it is still there in 10 minutes, I put it in the treasure chest. Anything left out at bedtime goes in the chest. If they want it back, they have to do a chore for me. Washing windows, dusting, wiping baseboards… whatever I may see that needs doing. And there is plenty that needs doing at our house. I think it would be brilliant to have a big clear container to use for this, like maybe one of those giant cheese puff containers from Sam’s Club. That way all the treasures are easy to see and tempting to get back.

The doing chores for me idea is working so well that I’m starting to find other ways to use it. If they do one of their chores halfway, or forget to do it, I’ll do it. And then they can do one of my chores. To do this well, I think I need a ready list of jobs that need to be done.

Managing the Laundry. A while back I wrote about our laundry system. It has worked very well for us until recently. My bedroom is the only place in our house that is big enough for laundry folding. When the pile of laundry became so big that my queen size bed couldn’t hold it all, I decided it was time to move on to phase two. My oldest two (9 and 11) are doing their own laundry now. One of them is the type that will wear 3 shirts in one day and put them all in the laundry, dirty or not. The other is the type that will wear the same shirt for 3 days and call it clean. Both were driving me crazy! I decided to stop trying to change them and let them handle their own clothing habits. After a few days of basic washing instruction, they were able to handle it completely on their own. There are 3 rules. They only get to wash on Tuesdays and Fridays (the days I don’t wash). They must put the clothes away on the day they were washed. They must have something clean, decent, and unwrinkled to wear to church. Now I know very well that if I went to their room right now I would find inside-out shirts hanging on hangars, drawers not organized, clothes not folded. But this is where I have to pick my battles, be grateful that the shirts are hung up at all, and not venture in their room too often. My 5 year old is still sorting his own laundry for me to wash on my laundry days. Then I fold, and he puts them away.

Managing the Bathroom.  They are responsible for tidying up their bathroom every night. I keep a tub of baby wipes in the cabinet for them to use. The boy assigned to the job that day starts by wiping the faucet, then the counter and sink, then the toilet handle, then the toilet seat and rim. Then the wipe goes in the trash. Now, I know very well that their bathroom is not Martha Stewart clean after that. And I do clean it thoroughly now and then. But it is clean enough that when I do clean it, I don’t have to wear a gas mask. And if the occasion arises that I (or a guest) have to use that bathroom, it is tolerable.

Next month I’ll post about how we manage the noise.

Keeping home

 Housekeeping Habits  No Responses »
Apr 052012
 

Do you ever feel discouraged, trying to homeschool in a cluttered, dirty house?  I admit, this disturbs my well-being and makes it hard for me to focus.  I used to wait until all the school work was done before starting myself and my girls on our chores.  Then I found a fast, easy way to get the house in decent order first thing in the morning,  leaving plenty of time for school and activities.  I don’t use this plan everyday, by any means…. only on days I feel the mess has caught up with us.

First, let me introduce you to our housekeeping helper, flylady.net. If you are overwhelmed with housework, can’t seem to keep down clutter, or even the opposite… a too-clean perfectionist who can’t seem to rest unless everything is perfect, you will benefit from her plan. My morning strategy is loosely based on her “weekly home blessing.”

First, I write out two or three sets of chores, depending on how messy the house is. Each set contains the same number of chores as people participating… namely, myself and my children. The child who arrives downstairs first gets to choose the first chore in the first set (no signing up for the second set until we are finished with the first).  I, Mom, am stuck with the last chore, the one that didn’t get chosen, which is fine because I’m just happy we’re getting all this work done!

Next, I set the timer for 10 minutes. I dramatically hold my finger over the timer’s “start” button, and say, “Ready…. set…. go!” and press the button. The girls run to start their chores, less enthusiastic about this little game than when they were younger, but with some bit of enthusiasm as it is a race to beat that timer. I have made sure that in each set of chores, people are spread out. For instance, I don’t have one girl sweeping the kitchen floor while another is unloading the dishwasher. That’s just asking for conflict.  When the timer beeps, we’re done with the first set of chores, and we go on to the second.

Here is a sample list of chores:

Set 1:

unload dishwasher

empty wastebaskets

straighten the downstairs

Set 2:

dust the downstairs

vacuum the stairs

sweep the kitchen

Set 3:

vacuum the downstairs

fold and put away the towels from the dryer

spray and wipe bathroom sinks and counters

Each set of chores takes 10 min. You work hard for that time, but if you don’t finish, no worries. It’s “good enough.” Usually, the girls finish before the timer. There’s something about that instrument that gets kids moving, the challenge of beating the time and winning, so to speak, the competition.

When we’re finished, chores are done for the day (although I try to have everyone help with meal clean up, too). We have a sense of accomplishment, and a clean, uncluttered house in which to begin our school day… all in thirty minutes time.

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