Alright ladies, time for some household hints! I have a mother who is a great homemaker and was a good role model. I give her the credit for the fact that I have an orderly, clean house even with so many children. I think that there are perhaps four things that my mom taught me that I can pass on to you that will help you if you struggle in this area.
1. Before I go to bed at night, everything is back in its place. Sounds simple, doesn't it? It is. Of course, it may take you some work to get to this place, but it is worth the work. If everything does not have a place, some things may have to be gotten rid of!. Sometimes I would rather just go to bed, to be honest, but a habit is hard to break. At this point in my life, I do not go upstairs into Teenage World very often, but when I do, I clean and get them busy organizing their things. My mom taught me never to go to bed with dirty dishes in the sink and so even if there is only one glass, I wash it! But I am always glad to get up in the morning to begin the morning tasks having a clean work place.
2. When you cook, clean up as you go! This is one of the biggest helps. Smaller messes are easier for me to face than big ones. I keep a sink of dishwater going while I am cooking or making soap for that matter. When I am done with a dish, I wash it! I do not use the dishwasher, believe it or not, except for company. My goal before dinner is served, is to have all of my preliminary dishes done. My mom also taught me that the dishes are not done after dinner until all of my counters and the stove are wiped clean and the floor is swept. You can see how this keeps housework from becoming overwhelming.
3. I also learned from my mother that children are not merely decorative, but need to be useful as well! When the older five or so children were growing up, they all had laundry days and household jobs to do. They learned to clean bathrooms, mop floors, dust and pick up after themselves. Their rooms as well needed to be picked up before bedtime. Granted, my younger group are not quite as well-disciplined since the older ones were already in place as the little ones came along, but we are working on it, to be sure!
4. I learned to make out a weekly menu, then make my grocery list around that menu. Then I had a plan for dinner every night and the ingredients to carry out the plan. I can still picture my own mom with the grocery adds on the table, making her list. She also kept a pantry list. When you removed a staple item from the pantry, you wrote it on the list. That list was added to the grocery list so that we did not run out of needed items.
You can see on the above picture how we women, no matter how young, are good at multitasking. Take advantage of that skill and cordless phones and use that phone time to pick up or organize drawers or whatever!!
I hope this is helpful to someone. These have been lifesavers for me!
Let me know if you try any of these hints!
Diana
