I would love to hear your thoughts on homemaking today……
What is the great homemaking advice anyone has given you?
(Or that you would give to someone else)
I think mine is two-fold, and I wrote about both of them…..
Would you mind sharing yours? I am excited to read your best advice….
~Elizabeth
My husband keeps telling me to hurry and get the house picked up in the morning, and then I can sew or craft as much as I want. And that the kids should be keeping the house clean, so they get to pick up their messes throughout the day. Man does he know me. 🙂
I wish mine picked up their messes as they went—-wouldn’t our job be so much easier! Some days I clean up one room just to go into another to start and then find an entire bin of legos dumped in the room I just came from. Boy howdy, that’s a challenge!
The best housekeeping tip for me is to do a quick wipedown-clean of your bathroom every day (Clear off counter and spray the mirror and counter with window cleaner, if you use it, then wipe them down with paper towel. Use the paper towel to wipe down the toilet, then toss it. Keep a bit of soap in your toilet brush holder, so you can just take your toilet brush and do a quick swish. You still need a deep clean every week but this keeps it looking shiny and fresh and takes like 2 minutes!), and do a load of laundry all the way to putting it away every day. Of course, I’m doing neither of those things lately, but I really really love it when I do. It makes the worst tasks in the house much lighter.
I’ve been reading Daryl Hoole’s The Art of Homemaking, and I love the part where she says that any task you have will expand the time you have to get it done—so you can get a ton done in an hour if that’s all you have, or you can spend all day doing the dishes because you don’t have any other plans. Trying to overcome that lately!
The best advice I’ve ever heard is Happiness is Homemade! It reminds me that everything I do by hand or scrath (be it mending or making homemade sauce or bread) is where happiness comes from!
Amanda Rose
http://www.sewmuch2say.com
My grandmother told me that the easiest way to clean was to pick one room and clean that one room fully in the evening that you have available. So clean the bathroom on Monday night. Clean the kitchen on Tuesday. Clean the family room on Wed. Clean the dining room on Thurs. Clean the bedroom on Friday. By the time the weekend rolls around, I have given each room attention and Saturday and Sunday are mine. Now, I live in a little house with only 2 bedrooms, so this works for me. 😀
I like to keep a schedule. Thursday and Sunday laundry. Friday (was) bathrooms. Keep things (somewhat) organized, picked up after use, and in order. Then when it is time to clean you are not wasting time picking up “stuff” to get to the “cleaning”. NOW…..I have girls that are older (14 and 11) and have had my days of picking up, encouraging picking up, singing to pick up, etc. I have also had twenty-five years of cleaning bathrooms. I finally decided 25 years was enough!!! I now have a weekly cleaning of all floors vaccuumed and cleaned, kitchen cupboards wiped down, and all bathrooms cleaned. YEP! I said ENOUGH! Enough trying to reschedule when I clean the bathrooms because my daughter (and I) need to see the Dr., there is a school activity, or I wake with a migraine and have to go back to bed to wake in time to clean before getting my girls from school. Enough of not having enough time for both my Etsy shop and the numerous home projects that I want to complete. Twenty-five years and I said enough! I am fortunate to be able to do so and am loving the weight that has been lifted. I feel free! So the bottom line for best advice–hire the cleaning portion out! If not weekly see what a whole house cleaning once over will do to your spirits! All the things we never get to–baseboards, stove, doors…it is a wonderful feeling!!
I love getting the house cleaned after the kids go to bed at night. That way it’s clean and stays clean for at least twelve hours. I either stink or rock at dishes, but today I stink at them. I see the pile of dishes waiting to be done, but lack the desire to do them and find myself commenting instead. Haha.
With Love,
Al @ Shaffer Sisters
I do a few different things in terms of housekeeping. I always wipe down the bathroom each morning before heading to work. It’s nice to come home to a bathroom where the sink is clean and the faucet shiny. If time permits in the morning, I’ll run the swiffer over the kitchen and bathroom floors to catch any crumbs or strands of hair. However, one of the best things I’ve done is to mop the floors in the morning after dropping my daughter off at school. I’ll come home, put the little one on the couch (aka his island), let him watch The Cat in the Hat and mop away. I only do it once or twice a week, depending on how grungy the floors are, but knocking it out first thing is awesome!
I live in Manila, have been married 32 years and both of our girls are now married and live on the U.S. mainland. There are many homemaking tips that they both carried over into their homes that we learned together as they grew into capable, lovely women.
Top priority: Give Hubby/Daddy an oasis of a castle. Look around and ask yourself, What is it about our home that would make him want to come back?
Failing to plan is planning is planning to fail. Keep a Master Grocery List on the clipboard hung on a hook in the kitchen. Teach every member of the tribe to update it.
Ten minute clean-up in every room is a living breath of fresh air. Set the timer and “beat the clock.”
Monday is House Blessing Day. Every room is spiffed, bed linens changed after the mattresses are flipped (I used a Sharpie to mark the corners with 1 – 4), and a Crock Pot dinner prepped.
I did my husband’s and my laundry on Mondays and our girls each had their own separate laundry days. Also, each family member used his or her personal bath and hand towel and face cloth every day for a week. Our bath linens lasted for decades and we saved hundreds of dollars each year in laundry detergent, water and electricity.
No House Blessings were done on Saturdays or Sundays.
Wednesdays were Quiet Days every week. That’s the day all nails were clipped, the car was cleaned out and purses, too. We napped after school and were rested for mid-week church service that night. No crabby children overslept the next morning.
The children took turns weekly with such kitchen blessings as “empty the dishwasher,” etc.
Prepare a dinner menu. Let the kids help cook and bake. The last year our kids were home (they took online college courses overseas after high school, then went to on-campus college together and shared a dorm room), my husband told them they will be fixing our supper every night. Every week they took turns preparing their menus, grocery lists, etc. I was available to teach then to make gravy, etc. and it was a fantastic learning experience for them. They say this is one the best things that prepared them for adult living, single and married!
Turn off the TV, computer, devices. Play classical music. Whistle while you work.
not sure if this qualifies as “housekeeping” advice, but definitely for making a home … I’ve always loved the poem “Song for a Fifth Child” and am often reminded of the last few lines by both my mom and my hubby’s grandma. 🙂
http://www.lullaby-link.com/song-for-a-fifth-child.html