In celebration of this week’s Homemaking From Scratch online conference, I’m sharing my Top 3 Homemaking Tips over the next 3 days. Today is Tip #3: Have a plan.
Homemaking isn’t always easy. In fact, it can become incredibly frustrating: Just when you finish cleaning the home, washing the dishes or finishing the laundry, the house, dishes and clothes get dirty all over again.
It’s a neverending cycle. Yet a worthwhile one.
God has called women to:
- Build their homes. (“The wisest of women builds her house, but folly with her own hands tears it down.” – Proverbs 14:1)
- Watch over their homes. (“She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.” – Proverbs 31:27)
- Manage their homes. (“So I would have younger widows marry, bear children, manage their households, and give the adversary no occasion for slander.” – 1 Timothy 5:14)
- Work at making their homes. (“Train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.” – Titus 2:4-5)
(Notice how these tasks apply to any woman? It doesn’t matter if you’re single or married, a mother or not.)
It can be a tall order to build, watch over, manage and make your home. But it’s possible.
Make a plan
One way I’ve learned to make my jobs a little easier is to have a homemaking plan.
If I know basically what I want to accomplish – and how I want to accomplish it – I can work at accomplishing it.
For example, I know I want my home to be fairly clean – and cleaned with safe cleaners. To achieve that cleanliness, I plan two deep cleans a year – a fall cleaning in November, before all of the holiday busyness and company hits, and a spring cleaning in April, right as I’m eager to air my home out and celebrate the newness of spring.
Because I know I’ll be deep cleaning in November and April, I decide my cleaning chores by rooms – and I tackle a different room each week. By the end of the month, cobwebs and clutter are gone.
Every other month of the year, I’m content if my home is looking presentable. I work at keeping clutter maintained every day (if things are going well!) or every few days. I try to clean the bathroom and change sheets once a week. I know each day’s tasks include a load of laundry.
By breaking up my tasks into daily responsibilities, I don’t have to be overwhelmed with a weekly laundry day or cleaning day. It works for me.
In much the same way, I have a loose plan for grocery shopping. Once a month, I make a huge shopping trip to stock up on basics, then throughout the month I make a quick weekly trip to replenish fresh foods. This plan has evolved over time, but after plenty of trial and error, I’ve found what works best for me.
Just as homemaking is a neverending cycle, my homemaking routines and plans are constantly being tweaked and refined. Even though they’re always changing, it’s still a huge help to have them in place.
Homemaking From Scratch
Learn more about establishing homemaking routines – along with tips on organizing, decluttering, hospitality, parenting, marriage, and healthy homemaking – during the online Homemaking From Scratch conference.
Conference tickets are available for $29.95. Get instant access today!
What helpful homemaking plans and routines have you made?
Disclosure: Accidentally Green will receive a commission on every conference ticket sold through this post. Thank you!
Note: There is no deadline for ticket sales.
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