Homemaking is a big job. It requires the homemaker to have multiple skill sets and juggle more than we often give homemakers credit for. I remember as a child an older woman scoffing at someone who described herself as a homemaker, indicating to those present that the woman simply stayed at home and did nothing.
But this is far from the truth.
Homemakers are responsible for maintaining the home. That means all of the cooking and cleaning.
Imagine that. All of the cooking. Three meals a day. Every day.
All the cleaning. That means deep cleaning the kitchen and toilet once a week, plus daily clean up from all the cooking. It means doing all of the laundry–for everyone in the household too, I might add. It means doing seasonal cleaning like washing windows and even window coverings. It means washing and sweeping floors.
It means tidying up. Putting away things like school bags and toys and things you might use throughout the day, like books or devices (and all their paraphernalia) and making sure that all these homes have a home–which means, the homemaker is also doing all of the organizing.
I could go on and on, but I think you get my drift. It truly is a lot of work. And if you’re a homemaker, you already know this.
And you know how exhausting it can be.
So let’s talk about some mirco habits that can make all of this much easier.
A Home For Everything
One of the most important things you can do to keep an orderly and tidy home is have a home for everything. For some things, this is easy. Forks and spoons are kept in kitchen drawers. Easy. But for others, this is not so easy.
Like keys and other catch all items.
Have a home for those things. A tray for keys near the door you exit from most frequently or hooks on which to hang the keys.
Here are things you can use to organize the messy stuff that gets left lying around like hats, keys and bags.
- use hooks for hats and bags
- use bins for toys and books and crayons
- drawer organizers
- decorative boxes
- baskets for blankets and pillows
Tucking things like remote controls into decorative boxes can clear up space and help you avoid visual clutter. Drawer organizers can be used for more than forks and spoons–I used them for my crochet hook when I lived in the apartment and had a dedicated crochet corner for my crafting.
This is one homemaking habit I’ve always practiced and it’s made my life so much easier. I can’t tell you how much time and headache this habit will save you.
Make Your Bed
I know I sound like grandma, but making your bed is a game changer. I discovered that when I used to make my bed–it gave me momentum to go into the day, and made the room look so much tidier and cared for. It also allowed me to see other clutter piling up in the room. Sadly, I fell out of the homemaking habit again but it is one I think we should all do.
Meal Planning that Works
I tried a lot of different meal planning techniques before I found one that worked. And it took a few years. I would try one, it wouldn’t suit me so I’d go back to the old let’s figure out what to make for dinner an hour before dinner starts which is always exasperating.
But once my husband and I found a system that works, we haven’t looked back. For us, it’s simple choose the meals we want to make and buy only what you need for those meals and then cook your meals system. We chose recipes that are suited to weeknights like a one pan meal, soups, stir frys and a few others we like and we stick to those recipes largely, trying out new ones and adding them to the rotation. We are never bored of our meals, we always know what to cook and generally everyone is happy.
It’s not everyone’s idea of meal prepping–we don’t chop up veggies ahead of time, but keeping the recipes simple means we save time and that preparing them requires little time and effort on our part, which is ideal on nights when you’re already tired and don’t want to spend brain power on cooking.
Daily Tidying
Wiping counters, sweeping floors, emptying trash bins on the daily will help keep your house in good order. These little daily tidy up habits mean that at the week’s end you can do the deeper cleans like your bathtubs and toilets.
You can include doing one load of laundry a day into this habit if you have a lot of laundry or find doing the laundry overwhelming.
Barely Any Time Rules
There are certain “hacks” that make homemaking easier. These are things that barely take any time or are built into something you are already doing so that you are keeping things tidy and organized without spending hours tidying and organizing. Here are some of those hacks:
- don’t leave the room empty handed–bring with you anything that doesn’t belong and put it away
- if it takes less than two minutes to do it, do it (2 minute rule)
- set a timer and speed clean a room
- put items away immediately after using them instead of just setting them down
Hacks get a bad rap sometimes because they are gimmicky but these are more like habits and I honestly love these as homemaking habits. With very little effort, we can keep things orderly and tidy and save ourselves a weekend of cleaning the house from top to bottom.
Nightly Re-Set
This is one I need to do because otherwise mornings aren’t likely to go very well. I make sure the entire kitchen is cleaned and re-set after dinner so that when we come down in the morning, we aren’t facing dirty dishes or clutter on the counters when we need to make breakfast and just get our day started.
For me the nightly re-set looks like loading the dishwasher and getting it running, washing and putting away any larger pans (my husband actually does this to save me handling heavy cast irons pans) wiping down counters and putting away any clutter like glasses we don’t put in the dishwasher or toys my son has left lying around. Floors are swept and then I can breathe.
Waking Up the Kitchen
Waking up your kitchen in the morning sets the day up for easy cooking and meal prep. And it’s so easy. All I do is empty the dishwasher and put away all the dishes. I also tidy away the breakfast dishes–they go into the now empty dishwasher instead of sitting in the sink. Then anything we use throughout the day can into the dishwasher so our sink and counters are clean and free.
This habit really helps us because we cook three meals a day and having that dishwasher emptied ensures that we don’t waste time when we cook each meal and that our work surfaces are not cluttered up by dirty dishes because all the dishes we use go directly into the dishwasher and are out of our hair.
We Can Do It!
Homemaking is a big job. But having habits and systems can really allow us to streamline the work and even, enjoy it a little more. When we have systems, we know the steps we have to take and we can dive in without overwhelm and without getting sidetracked by other cleaning projects. Do systems and habits mean we will never have bigger messes to clean or organization projects to tackle? Absolutely not. You’ll get behind on things because you’re sick or the kids are sick. Or because you’ve hosted Thanksgiving. But the systems and hacks will keep your home orderly and feeling peaceful and when those messier days happen, you’ll be able to put the home back together far more quickly.
Dear friends, I hope these ideas help out in your own homemaking.
Have other habits you want to share? I’d love to hear them down in the comments.