Habits are the building blocks of who we will become. What kind of a homemaker do you want to be?

Every child has been asked the question what do you want to be when you grow up. While we are no longer children and responsibilities often way heavy on our shoulders and hearts, the question still applies to us as homemakers. 

What kind of a homemaker do you want to be when you are a grandma?

Ok, that’s a long ways away for most of us, but seriously, what kind of a homemaker do you want to be? A productive one? A happy one? A skilled one?

The habits we cultivate whether good or bad are the making of us. 

I think most of us want to be effective homemakers, ones that get all the chores done day in and day out, but ones that also create a good and beautiful home where we and our loved ones flourish. In the words of Sally Clarkson, “a life-giving home”!

We long to be homemakers that effectively cultivate something practical but lovely. Something good. Something virtuous. 

Habits are the building blocks for this dream. As we live out our days getting our hands dirty in the thick of homemaking yet mindful to intentionally cultivate good habits, we slowly start to see our dream of becoming a highly effective homemaker unfold before us. 

It doesn’t happen in a day and it’s often very hard work, but cultivating habits are what will make this dream come true. 

We all have days where we are less than effective so I don’t want to sound like I have everything figured out and can give you the magic formula for being an effective homemaker. 

I’m still a young homemaker and have so much more to learn, but here are 11 habits that make up my most successful and effective days as a homemaker. 

Unload the dishwasher around breakfast time

Making a habit of putting away the clean dishes around breakfast time is a great way to get a headstart on your days work. The absolute best time to do this is before breakfast, but I give myself the flexibility to at least do it somewhere around breakfast time either before, while I’m making breakfast, or afterwards. Homemakers can’t account for everything so we have to be flexible. 

On my most productive days I’ve also gone ahead and loaded the breakfast dishes in after breakfast as well, but at least getting the dry clean dishes put away at the beginning of the day is a really good start. 

Start one load of laundry everyday

Whether you get to fold and put away that same day or not, at least getting a load, started, this keeps the ball rolling. At some point, it will get moved over to the dryer because you’ll need to wash another load and then it’ll eventually get folded and put away because then you’ll need a laundry basket at some point.

As long as you make the habit of at least starting one load every day, this will keep things moving and things will eventually get done. 

It’s definitely hard to get a load started if I have to head out of the house during the morning time or if it’s Sunday and I need to head to church so I don’t always get a load started every single day. However, I feel the most productive when I do even on Sundays. 

Reflect and devote your heart and home

Whether you get some time in the morning or during nap time, or in the evening after the kids, go to bed, taking a few moments to stop and reflect on God and his word will inspire and motivate you to create a more sacred home. my most productive days are ones that I at some point spent some time in the Bible reading, reflecting on what I read, and devoting my heart and home to him. 

This really affects my overall spirit throughout the day as a homemaker. Carving out some time really helps me be more calm and gentle, kind and compassionate, and all the things that a mother needs to be in order to mother her children and make a good and beautiful home where her family can flourish.

Meditate on scripture

Let’s be honest. There are some days where we just don’t get to sit down and spend some time in God’s word. Another necessary virtuous habit that I am learning to cultivate is to take a scripture along with me during the day to think about, and to draw strength from in those tense and very frustrating, moments of motherhood. 

This is a very old habit that Christians have been doing since forever. It is highly effective in helping anyone, not just homemakers live out their days with Christ-likeness. 

I especially love memorizing verses about God being my strength and refuge, because these are two things that I almost always need on any given day. 

Although I truly enjoy getting to sit down for some reflection and devotion time, some days I only have time for a verse or two or I simply get distracted, and it never happens. Having a verse that I have already memorized to think on while I’m doing dishes or folding laundry helps me have the spiritual strength I need for that day. 

Putter

This is the best daily cleaning and organizing habit! 

Puttering essentially means to go around doing things without necessarily having a specific plan in mind. You just see what needs to be done and you start doing it.

I finally got tired of trying to make a weekly cleaning schedule work. I am a mom of three children so my life has to be super flexible. It was so stressful, trying to keep up with a set plan and things were not getting done like they should. 

When I first came across the old-fashioned idea of puttering I thought it was a nice idea, but it didn’t appear to be very productive. Just going around doing things seems like the harder way to get things accomplished. 

You’ve probably heard the adage, “The failure to plan is a plan to fail.” I thought I would have to be seriously undisciplined, and just throw all planning and everything out the window if I was going to putter. 

But the truth is puttering is just a super flexible plan. The plan is to get things tidied up and in order and puttering it’s just how you get it accomplished. 

Instead of sitting down to make a list of all the things that need to get done, let the house speak for itself. I love making lists, but I’m really bad about carrying them out. 

Learning to putter to simply walk into a room and see what needs to be done and start doing it, this is how I have learned to keep house productively  without a to do list.

Want to know more? Check out my systems and routines e-book!

Plan your day out every morning

The idea of planning out your week has always intrigued me, but it has never been a successful homemaking habit. It simply does not work for me, but when I searched around on the Internet and on other homemaking blogs, trying to figure out time management, all that I saw was taking some time once a week to plan out your week, including a weekly meal plan. 

Now, don’t get me wrong. I love to plan almost to a fault. I just really really struggle with sticking to my plan. 

I thought I was just undisciplined and needed to  work on it but I never could make weekly planning work for me. 

When I came across an old homemaking book with this idea of planning out my day the day of, I was sold! Weekly planning? No can-do. Daily planning? Now that’s feasible!

Basically, at some point in the morning before I get started on chores, I pull out my planner, take a few minutes to think about what needs to happen that day and make a rough plan for it.

On the days that I’m home (which is most days), I mostly just make a rough meal plan for that day and then putter around getting things done. When I do need to get out of the house for whatever reason, it is helpful to have a more definitive plan of what needs to happen when to make sure that we get out the door on time. 

My homemaking systems and habits that I have cultivated honestly hold every thing else that I possibly need to do as a homemaker and you can read more about that here!

Reset the house before you leave

Getting out the door with kids can be a real struggle, but coming back worn out from running errands to a house that is messy is simply depressing!

A really productive habit to cultivate is taking a few minutes to reset at least the first couple of rooms that will see you when we walk into the house. Primarily, this is the kitchen, dining room, and living room area for me. 

The goal here is not to get everything in perfect order but to at least get the toys put away, Throw pillows back in their spots (they are called throw pillows for a reason, lol), and carry any dirty dishes towards the sink. 

It makes the home feel just a little more fresh and calm. 

Don’t carry your phone around

Let’s face it. Phones are distracting. It’s not necessarily social media, or YouTube that are distracting us from life and homemaking. It’s the fact that we can carry these super addicting distractions around with us wherever we go. 

It takes very little effort to whip your phone out of your pocket and look something up or sit on the couch and scroll. 

Social media, YouTube, and other apps can be really helpful tools to help you cultivate a good and beautiful life where you and yours flourish. They, however, can be really addicting and huge distractions from the life going on around us. 

It’s rarely a beautiful moment when I pull out my phone when the kids are around. They just know that my attention is no longer on them and they dislike it very much. 

It’s easier for the kids to think they can get away with stuff when I’m not aware of what they’re doing because I’m on my phone. It is also extremely easy to be frustrated when my kids try to get my attention because they need my help but I’m distracted with whatever I’m doing on my phone. 

I like doing things on my phone. I like the addictive distractions it creates and they are not in errantly bad. They can be useful tools when done at the right time and with limitations. 

It’s just so hard to not want the distraction when it is so readily available because I keep my phone with me all the time. 

Here’s how I am balancing having a phone around while still being productive…

• Turning off notifications, except for the text messages of a select few Friends or family
• Purposing not to use my phone when it’s time to be doing something else
• Giving myself a set time to use my phone
• Leaving my phone on the kitchen counter

Even though I have never been super addicted to social media, there are a lot of other distractions that phones create too like looking some thing up real quick or watching a YouTube video. 

If we aren’t purposeful about our phone usage as homemakers, it will be very hard to have successful days. 

Reset the kitchen every night

I try to clean up the kitchen every meal, but some days it doesn’t happen. That’s okay though because I have built in my homemaking system a failsafe by resetting the kitchen every night. This ensures that we will have clean dishes to use the next day. 

While I am striving to do dishes after every meal so that it doesn’t all pile up after dinner, life happens and this doesn’t get done. At the end of the day, however, the dishes are washed and we have clean dishes the next day. That’s what is important. 

The habit of resetting the kitchen is more than just doing the dishes. It also includes…

• clearing off and wiping down the table
• sweeping the kitchen and dinning room area
• organizing and wiping down the countertops. 

The kitchen is my primary workspace as a homemaker so to be effective and not overwhelmed, I try to get my space in order at least by the end of each day. 

Pivot as needed

This sounds like it belongs more in a list of homemaking tips, but it’s something that I really had to work on. It’s a habit that I had to cultivate. 

We can try our best to plan and coerce our days in a certain direction, but the reality is that we have to be flexible. Children need to be held and helped. Unforseen messes cleaned up. 

Often, a moment of quiet is necessary to redirect our spirit away from frustration back into a place of serenity. 

Homemakers have to learn to pivot or change direction smoothly despite what they want to accomplish with their time. The truth is that it isn’t our time. We are mere stewards of the gift of life that has been granted to us. 

To consistently sacrifice our desires is hard though. It’s down right maddening at times, but we must cultivate the habit of pivoting as necessary. Things will all work out. 

Eventually, the laundry gets done, everyone eats, the dishes get washed, and we all go to asleep. Day after day, the cycle begins and ends. The necessary things of life are accomplished perhaps not as we want to do them, but nonetheless accomplished. 

We have to learn to accept this and pivot as our duty demands. 

Keep Sabbatical moments

Especially in the years of motherhood, homemakers are on call 24/7 and it is hard to find time for ourselves. It is even more necessary that we find rest in these seasons. 

Ideally, we would have a day of rest or a sabbath as the timeless principle is called, but this is nearly impossible. Even on days that we try to call our sabbaths, we are still required to cook and clean and care for our household. 

Finding a whole day of rest has been nearly impossible for me, but I have found it effective to keep sabbatical moments. 

There are little pockets of time in our days that are more quiet like nap times or after the kids go to bed. We must guard these times for the welfare of our souls. 

These are glorious moments of quiet and peace that restore our spirit and rejuvenate us to continue homemaking when our duties call. I can’t predict which naptimes the kids will choose to sleep the entire time, but in most weeks, there is always a few long moments of rest somewhere in that time frame. 

Also, my husband so sweetly allows me to get out of the house and go off somewhere other than home during naptimes on his day off.  Ideally, I go to the library, but sometimes it’s closed so I might go on some solo adventure and…

• Wander around an antique store
• Go grocery shopping all by myself
• Check out a new shop
• Drive to a park and just sit in the car, lol

In this busy season of mothering little ones, getting alone time is becoming absolutely necessary for my sanity. 

To be an effective homemaker day and day out, it is necessary to cultivate the habit of keeping moments of rest. 

Final Thoughts!

I hope you enjoyed perusing my list of habits! I’m not saying I’m perfect or have everything figured out, but these are the core things that help me in my role as a homemaker. 

My most productive and fulfilling seasons are when these 11 habits happen.

Keep in mind though that I didn’t develop these over night. The productive season that I get to enjoy right now is the fruit of many seasons working hard to cultivate these habits.

If you are in a rough season where it’s hard to be a productive homemaker, take life for where you are at. Work on what you can and give yourself lots of grace.

Slow and steady wins the race.

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Are you struggling as a homemaker or a stay at home mom to really enjoy your role? Do you find yourself easily discouraged or depressed about all that needs to be done? One way to motivate and inspire yourself is to romanticize your life as a homemaker!

Homemaking is hard and there are seasons where it is really really hard like…

• During pregnancy
• Post-partum and the newborn stage of motherhood
• Parenting little ones
• When you have to work outside of the home
• When you or another member of your household is sick
• When you have lost a loved one
• When you are dealing with health issues
• During a move

These are really hard seasons of life, and as a homemaker you are no doubt in one or more of these seasons. 

I have had many seasons of ups and downs in my homemaking journey. It is honestly too easy to be depressed when you think about the workload that rests on your shoulders. Not to mention the chaos that children bring even though you love the little darlings.

There are so many instances that I could tell you about where I set out determined to have a good day, but then…

• I ran a load of laundry not realizing that the kids had thrown a cereal box into the washer and it disintegrated all over everything.
• The kids ran over my foot with their bike
• The toilet flooded the bathroom

You get the picture! No doubt you have your own “lovely adventures” that you could add to the list.

The truth is that it’s too easy to let negative emotions get the better of us. It’s just so easy to choose them even when we know better.

But I’m not here to push you farther down the rabbit hole of negativity. I’m here to encourage you and help you find a bit of joy even in the hard seasons of homemaking.

There is so much to enjoy in life and one thing that has helped me personally in my homemaking journey is to romanticize my life as a homemaker!

What does it mean to romanticize your life?

To romanticize is to “believe that something is better, more interesting, or more exciting than it really is.” (Cambridge Dictionary) In light of that definition, to romanticize your life is to choose to believe that your life is better than what it currently appears to be. 

It is the intentional choice of seeing your life in a lovely light instead of being discouraged about what it feels like or actually looks like. It’s like elevating life to a whole new and wonderful level!

Is romanticizing your life healthy?

Yes, romanticizing your life can be healthy. It can help you stop being discouraged or overwhelmed when things are hard or not going as you expected. 

A bit of romanticizing can help you love where you are at in life and still dream about where you could be without being discontent. It helps you forget about the negative components of life and prepare your heart to live life with a smile no matter what the circumstances.

Too much of this though can be unhealthy and cause discontentment. If you were to embellish your life in your mind to the point where you never had housework and did not have to do the hard work of parenting, for example, this would be romanticizing your life in an unrealistic way and direct your heart towards unhappiness and despair.

As with all things, there is a balance to romanticizing your life. When it is done well, a romanticizing mindset can be a handy tool to pull you out of the dumps and help you be a more virtuous homemaker. 

How to romanticize your life realistically

Let’s talk about how you can do this realistically. Here are 9 ways that you can romanticize your life so that you can flourish even in the hard times!

Look for the beauty in everyday life.

Are there little things that make you smile?

The other day, my two year old had what we have affectionately called a “yogurt beard”. Yogurt was smothered all over her mouth and when she caught my eye, her adorable dimpled grin and scrunched up nose made me almost laugh. 

She was a mess, a mess that I would have to clean up, but seeing that beautiful smile gave me a smile in a moment when I really wanted to be disgruntled.

It is ridiculous and unrealistic, but I often struggle when children cannot eat without spilling food everywhere including their face. It’s one more thing to add to my already loaded plate as a homemaker, but when I focus on that cute little smile and on the fact that she is not going hungry and that she is enjoying her food and her life, that beauty often brings me out of the grumps.

Sometimes beauty finds you like my little girl’s smile found me, but it wouldn’t hurt to seek it out more often. Make it a point to disengage with life for a moment no matter how it’s going and look for something beautiful, something that will make you smile.

Define what you find to be lovely.

Every homemaker has their own preferences, and while there are principles of beauty that are objective (never change), there’s still a part of beauty that is subjective to the individual. As the phrase goes, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.“ 

If you don’t know what you find to be lovely, that’s okay! Discovering this is one of the wonderful adventures of being a stay at home mom. 

It’s easy to fit in a little time to stop and think or google an idea so that you can see a picture, and it doesn’t have to happen in a day. In truth, most of the things that I find to be lovely came to me over time as I was watching a youtube video or daydreaming here and there. 

While I can’t say what you will find to be exceptionally lovely, I can tell you what is lovely to me. Loveliness or everyday beauty to me looks like…

• Ruffles
• Lace
• Fine China-especially red transfer ware
• Floral linens
• White and cream linens
• Decorative books
• Tablecloths and Cloth napkins
• Flowers
• Dresses

These are a few of the tangible things that bring me delight, but what are some things that bring delight to you and your home? What are some things when you see them or think about them that bring a smile to your face?

Surrounding yourself with things that you find lovely will make it even easier to see beauty in the everyday.

Dream.

There was a time in my life that I didn’t know how to dream because I didn’t know what I wanted in life. Life is really really sad if there isn’t something to dream about.

Since then, I have learned so much about myself and homemaking and have all kinds of dreams of what I want to accomplish with my children, in my home, in my online business, gardening, etc. You name it! 

At one point or another, I have stopped and dreamed about what our lives could look like in the future and it motivates me today to learn and grow in my skills as a homemaker and do all that I can so that that dream can come true.

Some specific things I have dreamed about are…

• Designing the interiors of our home – I have fallen in love with the old world/English cottage/Victorian style of decor and I have lots and lots of ideas, but I have no idea what I am doing, lol. There is a lot that goes into designing a room, and I am not prepared to completely commit to any serious project yet. So for now, I stick to dreaming it all up and letting the thoughts roll around until it’s time to act on it.
• Creating a garden – not just a vegetable garden, but maybe one with lots of flowers and hedges and maybe a bench or two. A little bit of beauty in the backyard is what I ‘m going for.
• Creating a handmade home – I’m currently in the middle of learning to sew or make myself every linen object that we need in our home. It’s part of the interior design dream, but also a smaller more tangible dream that I have already started working on. Check out my handmade home category of posts to see what I have done so far! 
• Cooking completely from scratch – I often dream about this when I am putting our meals together. It would be so wonderful (and healthy) to start with nothing but raw unprepared ingredients, learn how to prepare them myself, and feed my family real good food. It will happen someday, I know it! We are taking some steps towards making this dream a reality. It’s a really slow process, but dreaming about it keeps looking forward to that day while still enjoying what we have already accomplished.

Some of these dreams, I have started taking action on already and some won’t be started for many years, but it has taken a lot of dreaming and planning to even get to where I am now and it has been a delightful little adventure even if it has been slow.

One should always have something that they are looking forward to!

Dress up not down.

In today’s world, we are horrible about dressing down for the everyday! It’s hard to take pride or feel like you are doing a lovely job of making a home if you don’t look lovely. 

It didn’t used to be acceptable to not dress well even while at home. Obviously, it was understood that you would dress for whatever work you had to accomplish that day, but isn’t it more delightful to dress up instead of down?!

I am passionate about wearing dresses around the house not because I’m against other types of apparel. I have always just liked dresses. Perhaps this comes from watching too much Jane Austen and Elizabeth Gaskill growing up, but I absolutely adore dresses!

I love that it is trendy to wear dresses right now, but even if it wasn’t, you would still find me wearing my dresses.

I would love to be in a place where I know how to wear a dress no matter the weather outside or the task I’m working on. Until then though, I’m still making do in the winter months and when I garden and such with whatever I can make work for the occasion.

Somedays, I wear whatever I need to during the day and then try to change and gett a little more dressed up right before my man gets home. It makes it feel like I’m going on a date with him even though we aren’t leaving the house and are probably eating soup or pasta with toddlers. 

Learning to dress up and not down even for the nitty gritty everyday of homemaking puts me in a much more delighted mood and helps me aspire to be a more virtuous homemaker!

Dress for your profession.

We are homemakers. We clean, we dust, scrub floors, wipe spit up off our shoulders, dig in the dirt, and romp around with children. Our clothes get stained really really easy.

I’m loving the old fashioned apron life! Especially because it pairs so well with wearing dresses! 

Aprons are practical and can keep your clothes looking nicer for longer. Some provide extra pockets which are handy for picking up stuff that ended up in the wrong room or carrying around a dusting rag. I have often thought about using them to hold BIble verses that I am trying to memorize so I can just whip it out when I am resting on the cough for a few minutes or nursing my babies. 

They are super practical, but they can be pretty, too! You could buy simple aprons that accent your dresses or if you can’t find what you are looking for, you could always make some. They are super easy and that way you could pick out the exact fabric you want, too! 

Here’s a lovely little post I came across that really fueled my desire to start wearing aprons everyday. 

Pursue virtue.

There is something so lovely about being in the presence of a true lady. Not someone who gives off airs or is super rich necessarily, but a down to earth virtuous woman. 

You can hear kindness in her tone, feel loved by her embrace, see understanding in her eyes. This is the type of homemaker that I dream to be. There is something so lovely about being a lady, but I know I often put the cultivating of my heart and spirit on the back burner while I take care of more pressing matters.

This year I decided that I was going to purposefully pursue virtue because I want to be a lovely person that others enjoy being around and that has a personality that refreshes others. For each quarter of the year, I am focusing on cultivating one virtue. 

I am not able to do a huge study or read a lot on them since I am a busy little homemaker, but I have been amazed at the deep growth when I surrender my heart to God and ask him to teach me that virtue on a day to day basis.

I have memorized some key verse about that virtue and meditate on them throughout the day. Occasionally, I try to stop and think about the areas of my life that I lack that virtue and how I’m going to try to work on it.

It’s a long slow process, but even the few months I have been doing this has been very enriching.

Perhaps that wasn’t at all helpful to you in your own homemaking journey, but what are some ways that you can pursue a good and beautiful spirit?

Set the table.

When I say set the table, I don’t just mean put the plates and silverware on the table. I mean go all out even if you are just eating soup or pasta, some quick meal that you barely had the energy to put together. 

I wish I could remember which old homemaking book I got this from, but I found this idea in a book from the internet archive that I was perusing. It mentioned a housekeeper setting the table before getting started at all with the meal so I tried it. Life changing! 

After I have done the hard work of preparing a meal, it takes everything in me just to sit down and eat the meal I just prepared. I rarely have the energy or the bandwidth to think about preparing the table setting, but if I start with the table while I still have energy before I move off to make the meal, I can just bring the food to the table once its done and we can eat while it’s still warm.

You could set the table any way you like. Have fun with it! I like to use…

• Tablecloths
• Napkins
• My grandma’s silverware
• Nice plastic glasses – Someday, we’ll use actual glass, but we have little kids which is why I’m so glad I found these US Acrylic Tumblers. They are the best of both worlds, practical but look nice!
• Flowers
• Candles – I have used unlit real ones and battery operated ones that flicker for safety reasons around the kids.

Setting the table turns any meal into a feast no matter how frugal you had to be with your food budget. Why not spruce up this thing we do three times a day called eating?!

“People grow refined first in their eating.” ~ The Home Cook Book p. 14, 1882

Cultivate the art of a handmade home.

If you are surrounded by beautiful things you crafted yourself, would you take more pride in your homemaking? 

I recently made curtains for our living room. I couldn’t find some floral ones that I liked or could afford so I ordered some fabric from Hobby Lobby, pulled out my sewing machine, and sewed for 3 days straight.

It was so worth it though!! Without fail every time I look at my creation, I’m inspired to create more and love my home more by creating more things for it!

Creating a handmade home can look however it needs to for you. It is defined by the unique skills and abilities of the homemaker that lives there.

What skills do you have or want to learn so that you can craft a handmade home?

Some skills I have or want to cultivate are…

• Sewing
• Candle Making
• Lace Making
• Crocheting
• Knitting
• DIY Decor

Start old fashioned homemaking.

If you are struggling to love and enjoy being the keeper and maker of a home, start homemaking like homemakers used to before devices or social media. Remove the distractions and embrace the beauty and wisdom of homemaking like women in years gone by.

Old fashioned homemaking is a passion of mine because I am hopelessly old fashioned. I grew up overseas in a third world country and when I came to the states, got married, and started keeping my home, I struggled so hard!!

The breakthrough came when I fell across old fashioned homemaking or homemaking using the wisdom of women from years gone by. This enables you to tap into a wholesome way of living based on wise principles like…

• Cooking from scratch
• Crafting your home with your own two hands
• Growing your own food
• Living slowly

…and much much more! It doesn’t have to look a certain way. You don’t have to do it all.

Be as old fashioned or not as you like. Take what is practical for your life and leave the rest.

That’s the beauty of really leaning into homemaking and the wisdom of homemakers gone by. It’s unique to you and your passions and it’s highly effective in helping you romanticize your life as a homemaker!

Final Thoughts!

Homemaking can be hard. It’s harder in some seasons than others. One way to ease the burden and be a more happy homemaker is to romanticize your life! 

It can help you be joyful and really delight in your role as the keeper of your home. If you are struggling to get out of a rut or simply enjoy your homemaking, I highly encourage you to try romanticizing your life. It’s a game changer!

If you were inspired or helped in any way by this post, please PIN IT! so that other homemakers can find it and be inspired, too!

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Productivity tips for homemakers

If life feels chaotic and everything seems to be out of order, then this post is for you. Here is a 5 step action plan so that you can get a handle on the housework and become a more productive homemaker.

If you need a little help managing your time as a homemaker and don’t know where to start, then this quick start productivity guide is for you, too!

If you are a homemaker who some routines in place, but are looking to improve what you already have in place, you will find lots of helpful tips here as well.

As one old fashioned homemaker from the 1920’s said it best, 

“Let the housewife read, investigate, and be willing to try a new method until she proves that it is better or worse than her own.” ~ Lydia Ray Balderston, Housewifery, P. 240

So let’s get to it! Here’s my 5 step action plan for time management to get your time and tasks in order to help you be a more productive homemaker.

Prepare for change

Set yourself up for success. Life is about to change for the good, and there are a few helpful ways you can prepare your household for this change so that they are less resistant to the change and may actually jump onboard with you.

• Communicate with your husband. – Let your man know that you are trying an experiment to help you get on top of the housework and time management. No doubt, he will be totally supportive of you becoming organized and less stressed, but let him know and talk through your plans with him so that he is not caught off guard when you start to make changes. You never know, he might even offer to help watch the kids or help in some other way so that you can get life organized.
• Plan for simple meals. If you want to get things under control, it’s going to take some work and when meal time comes around, the last thing you will want to do is cook. However, you all still have to eat so make a list of easy meals that you can throw together without much hassle and in a short amount of time. Tacos, frozen pizza, sandwiches, pasta, take out, etc. Don’t forget to have some good snacks on hand because you might need it a little extra boost.
• Pray. Don’t forget to ask the Lord’s blessing on your efforts and to help you be patient and kind even as you set about getting life in order. 
• Patiently, keep on. Although most of these steps can be done in a day, the actual work of getting life in order and becoming a more productive housewife will not happen in a day. See it as a journey and commit to patiently go on in the process no matter what comes up. There really is no magical answer or wand you can wave to make this a smooth and sustainable change for you as a homemaker. Be flexible. Adapt. Change your plans as needed. Simply keep going on the journey of getting your life in order no matter how long it takes. 

Now that you have set yourself up for success and are ready to go, let’s get into more practical things to help you get your life in order so that you can become a more productive housewife!

Create a daily structure

The first thing to do after you have set yourself up for success is to create a daily structure. What is the natural flow of your day? What are things that happen everyday without fail?

There are three things that we all do everyday…

• Wake up
• Eat
• Go to bed

This is the most basic structure of anyone’s day. These things happen on a recurring basis no matter the day. When these things actually happen may not be ideal, but that’s okay. Let’s start with what is already happening and work on making it better as we go.

There may be a few other things that happen regularly like your kids’ naptime and their bedtimes or perhaps some homeschool. Take a few minutes and jot down what concrete things happen everyday with the approximate times that they happen. For me this looks like…

• Wake up around 7
• Eat breakfast around 7:30
• Eat lunch around 12
• Naptime at 1
• Eat supper around 6
• Put the kids down around 8
• Go to bed around 9:30

Related Post: Daily Routine: A Simple Daily Schedule for Homemakers

This is your daily structure and the flow of your daily life. If you would find it helpful, I have a daily routine printable included in my weekly planner bundle that is set up with your day divided by meal times.

Let’s call the time between when you wake up and when you eat breakfast your morning routine, the time between breakfast and lunch the business of the day, the time between lunch and supper free time, and the time between supper and bedtime as your evening routine.

I don’t know about you, but the afternoon is not ideal to try to get stuff done. The goal is to get all the tasks done during the morning business of the day time frame so that you can relax and make supper before you man gets home. That way you aren’t so frazzled when he walks through the door, but more on routines later.

Once you have written out a simple daily structure with the in between times labeled, let’s talk about what to do during the in between times.

Identify daily tasks

To start filling in the gaps in your daily structure, let’s identify what your daily tasks are. These are the things that need to happen for the survival and happiness of your family. I talk about them more in my post 5 Daily Homemaking Tasks, but here is what I think the 5 daily tasks for every homemaker are…

• Make Food
• Do Laundry
• Wash Dishes
• Organize/Reset
• One task my man finds necessary – Perhaps your man doesn’t have any preferences as to what makes home feel calm and liveable, but most men do appreciate order in the very least. I once asked a friend how to make homemaking easier and she simply replied, “Know your man.” This could be a whole other post, but to keep it simple here, ask your man what is one thing that he would really appreciate you doing everyday. For me, my man appreciates coming home to clean floors. That means everything is off the floors and the floors are swept so this is one of my daily tasks. Even if you can’t get to the task everyday that your man would appreciate being done, strive for it and make it part of your daily tasks as much as possible because he will feel respected by it.

If nothing else happens in a day and if all else gets interrupted, we will be fed and clothed and have survived another day as a household. 

Daily tasks stay the same no matter the season of life you are in. Eating, wearing clean clothes, and washing dishes have to happen for us to survive. While organizing/resetting and an extra task are not exactly necessary for the survival of our physical being, they are, I believe, necessary for our sanity.

Now let’s stick these daily tasks into our daily structure. 

• Make Food – The food component is already built in since the day is divided by meal times.
• Do Laundry – A simple way to keep up with laundry is to just do a load everyday. I like to start this first thing while I am making breakfast so that it has time to dry and possibly get put away before lunch. That is the goal at least so that it stays within the “business of the day” block of time. If I don’t get it folded and put away before then, the best time to fit this in is the next day’s business of the day. 
• Wash Dishes – You will have to figure out what works best for you (as in how many times a day and when you do them), but at the bare minimum get them done before you go to bed every night. Remember for the survival of your family, you will need clean dishes the next day. I also like to call this my kitchen reset since I do other things like wipe off the counters and such and not just wash dishes.
• Organize/Reset – By this, I mean putting everything where it goes. The best time to reset your home is in the evening before your kids go to bed. Here’s a super helpful podcast to listen to on this idea. Basically after I reset my kitchen, I put my living room back in order by picking up toys, closing curtains, and replacing the pillows, and then the kids room by simply putting away their toys. You could also do the bathroom then or while you are brushing your teeth later on in the evening if you find this necessary, but I don’t find this necessary in this season of mothering only toddlers. They don’t really make messes in the bathrooms yet, but someday I’m sure It will be necessary to make sure everything is put back to order in there, too.
• One task my man finds necessary – This does depend on what your man says, so take what he says and stick it where it appropriately fits in your day. For me, I try to at least pick up and sweep the living room before he gets home as part of my afternoon routine.

Don’t forget to write down these 5 daily tasks and add them to your daily structure before we move on to talking about how to actually implement these things into our daily life.

Identify and address the pain points of the daily tasks

After you have identified your 5 daily homemaking tasks, let’s discuss what makes these things hard to get done every day. Take some time and think through each one. If you find this to be overwhelming, you can skip to the next paragraph where I share how you can just get to it. You may find it helpful though to consider these questions…

• What makes preparing and getting food on the table hard?
• Why is laundry so hard to just wash, dry, and put away?
• What makes doing dishes difficult?
• What is it that keeps me from keeping things organized?
• Is there something that keeps me from doing the one task my husband would appreciate me doing every day?

You may not know the answers to these questions or maybe you just need a simple way to go about addressing some basic pain points in all these areas. So here’s how you can simplify these things so that they are manageable and easier to get done. 

• Food – Choose simple meals that are easy and quick to prepare. Even if you are committed to cooking food from scratch, there is still a range of meal ideas as far as how much it will take to make and put those dishes on the table. Some of my go-to’s are tacos, pizza, breakfast for dinner, Roasted Chicken and Instant pot “Baked” potatoes, etc. Reserve a nice or more fancy dinner for one night a week and stick to simple meals on most days. There are also lots of ways to dress up simple meals if you really want to get into it. In a way, it’s like decluttering your meal plans down until it is simple and manageable.
• Laundry – Read my laundry routine or laundry tips here. The biggest game-changer in making laundry more manageable was decluttering my children’s and my own wardrobes. This means only keeping what is decent, fits, and that we love to wear. Without even hardly touching my husbands wardrobe, this has drastically reduced how much laundry that I have to keep up with. 
• Dishes – Here’s how to create a simple dishwashing routine that works for you. Again, decluttering my kitchen really simplified the amount of dishes I have to keep up with on a daily basis.
• Organize/Reset – Once again, the simple answer to this is declutter. I am definitely not an expert in this area and I don’t consider myself a minimalist in many ways, but I have found it to be absolutely necessary to declutter toys, as well our wardrobes and kitchen inventory.  

Yes, the literal answer to all of these is declutter. Declutter the menu, the closets, the kitchen, and the toys. Simplifying the amount of stuff I have to manage as a homemaker has been key in my homemaking journey.

I finally feel like I’m in a place where housework is manageable simply because of decluttering. The Minimal Mom Youtube channel is my go to resource on this topic and it definitely was a slow process for me, but very vital. 

Create routines

I had an epiphany today as I thinking over this post. It took me a long time to implement routines into my homemaking because I thought routines didn’t work for me. I thought I had to take the exact framework of what other homemakers were sharing and do exactly what they said. 

I often hear other homemakers say routines don’t work for me and I was there once as well, but I have since found that this mindset is wrong and here’s why…..

• I thought I had to take the exact framework of what other homemakers were sharing and do exactly what they said. I know, I’m a perfectionist. I’m shaking my head at myself as I write this, because that is a terrible idea and will not work for anyone. 
• I was not willing to discipline myself to create the habits that routines require. I thought it would be too much work and too hard. Routines are simply habits that we strive to keep.
• I thought I had to do it all at once. Talk about overwhelm! I have now learned that the best way to implement a new routine is to have an idea or list of all that you want that routine to hold or accomplish in your home and then start be just implementing one thing for a week or so until it feels sustainable and not stressful to do. Sometimes if they are small things, doing more than one is not overwhelming. 

Final Thoughts!

Well, friends I hope that this post was insightful and encouraged you that you can be a more productive homemaker. Just remember that homemaking is a journey, and any system that you add to your home will take time to take root and for you to work out the kinks. 

If you are finding yourself overwhelmed, don’t lose heart! Take it one day at a time and determine to have the old fashioned grit homemakers of yester years had and stick with it! Make it work for you and your household. 

Your housekeeping doesn’t have to be perfect either. As scripture put it, “Let everything be done decently and in order.” If you’re feeling the pressure that it has to be perfect, here’s permission to relieve yourself of that extra stress and find a little grace for yourself (and your family members).

Enjoy the journey of learning to manage your time and home and if you need more help, check out my eBook on systems and routines! These 5 steps are included in there as well as much much more.

If you found this post helpful or inspiring in any way, please PIN IT! so that other homemakers can find it and be encouraged and inspired, too!

Do you struggle in the afternoons as a homemaker? Here’s my simple and flexible yet productive and successful afternoon routine!

Afternoons can be a struggle as a homemaker. You work hard all morning long to accomplish things and then that early afternoon energy crash sets in and you struggle to be motivated to get anything done. 

Yet, there is still a lot of time to steward well and many things that need to be done during the afternoon before your man gets home. 

Let me share with you my favorite afternoon routine so far and how I manage to be a productive homemaker in the afternoons. 

A Quick Clean Up

I try to have lunch ready to go by noon so that we can eat and then have a little time to organize things before nap time. This doesn’t always happen, but I sure love it when I do have this extra time to tidy things up a little bit.

Here’s a few things I try to do during this time…

• clear and wipe down the kitchen table
• do the lunch dishes
• clear the toys off the floor in the living room
• tidy up the playroom

Like I said, these things don’t always happen every day, but it really does make nap time a lot more peaceful. 

Naptime

This is by far one of my most favorite times of the day! As a homemaker, it can easily seem like you have no life of your own since you are constantly serving and sacrificing on the behalf of others almost if not all day long. I have found it super helpful to work really hard on my housework in the mornings while the kids are up, and use the time that they were asleep and quiet in the afternoon to do the things that I want to do but can’t necessarily do when they’re around. 

Sometimes I blog or work on computer stuff. Sometimes I’ll work on a sewing project or another hobby. Sometimes I’m wiped out from the day of homemaking, and I just need a nap, or I might treat myself to watching a movie. 

It all depends on the day, but for the most part, I try to work on my blog and online business stuff not because it has to happen but because I actually enjoy working on these things. It makes me so happy as a homemaker that I can be a full time SAHM and make a little egg money on the side! 

Also, I choose to only work on my blog during nap time, so that when the kids are up, I can give my full attention to them, but when they’re not, I choose to use nap time as a quiet and more relaxing time for myself to do things that bring me joy. Typically, I don’t work on any chores, but focus on doing things that bring me delight and keep me off my feet for the most part. 

This post has affiliate links.

Midday Prayer Time

If you haven’t read The Common Rule: Habits of Purpose for an Age of Distraction, you need to add it to your list. It’s a book about daily and weekly habits that will anchor your life in this world of distraction and shallowness. 

One of the habits recommended is a midday prayer time. If you’ve read my morning routine, then you know, I try to have a time of reflection and devotion in the morning time, but it is also very helpful to take a few moments in the afternoon to re-dedicate your heart and home to the one who has so graciously and generously given your life. 

It’s always refreshing to take a few minutes to feed your soul and commune with God and I find it especially helpful to have this time between nap time, where I typically work on devices for the most part and my tidy up routine. It’s a very good transition, too.

I try to do this before my children wake up from nap time, but sometimes they wake up early, so I invite them to do prayer time with me as a way to help me transition back into homemaking, and to help them cultivate healthy, spiritual habits. 

Tidy Up 

After the kids wake up and are settled back into the land of the living without needing my immediate attention, I use the time between nap time and preparing supper to tidy up the house before my man gets home. 

Now, I have tried and used many different systems to keep my house in order. The one I currently use, and which makes the most sense for my life so far is called puttering. 

Puttering means to go about accomplishing things, but not necessarily having a strict goal that you want to reach or making a to-do list of things that need to get done. It means to go about doing things as you see them. 

I find puttering to be a very productive and successful way to reset my home quickly, and in a very motivating way. When it comes time to tidy up, I simply grab my broom, and perhaps a damp cloth for dusting and head to the farthest room of the house which is the master bedroom. 

As I walk in, it’s easy to see what is out of place and what needs to be put away. I like to… 

• empty the trash or have my three-year-old do it for me
• I do a quick dusting of the surfaces
• make sure the bathroom is an order
• sweep the floor

And then move on to the next room. I follow a sort of cycle through my house by starting in the farthest room and work my way through all the rooms until I have covered the entire house and at least have done something in each room. 

 Some days, I don’t have much time to give a lot of attention to each room, but I make it a priority to make sure that the entire house is swept. Having a clean floor is something that my husband really likes to have done when he gets home. Yes, he would appreciate having every single thing back in its place in the whole house, tidied up, but if I only had time to do one thing, he says, he really appreciates if the floor is clean, so I make it a priority to at least do that even if I don’t get to anything else done. 

Something I find helpful to have with me while puttering around is to have a basket or a box with me so that when I am in one room and find something that belongs in another, I can simply put it in the basket or box and return it to the correct room when I get to it instead of running back-and-forth from different rooms to return things to where they belong. This saves me a bit of energy and sanity. 

I have also heard of homemakers having a puttering basket full of all the things you could possibly need in order to set a room aright.

Things like…

• All purpose cleaning spray
• Dusting rags
• Trash bags
• Little cards and a pen so that you can leave a quick note to your man
• A snack
• Something that plays music or an audiobook

I have often thought of using a harvest apron, which is an apron that is designed to be tied up in a way that creates a large or several large pockets to use for this very idea. 

Using this method of  puttering to keep my house tidy has really taken the overwhelm, discouragement, and lack of motivation out of housekeeping. Since I have started puttering instead of using a to-do list or full on housekeeping system, I have actually found tidying up to be very delightful and a simple way to fit in a bit of exercise, too. 

The beauty about puttering instead of having a to-do list is that it gives you the freedom to work on big projects as you’d like instead of having to schedule out time and waiting for motivation to actually get them done. You can simply jump to it if it comes to mind or if you see it and you want to get it done. Remember? You don’t have to set a goal or a list of things you want to accomplish.  You’re simply doing things as you see them so you have the flexibility to pivot from one thing to another without feeling bad that you didn’t accomplish your to-do list. 

Puttering is the most flexible and freeing way to tidy up your home!

Start Dinner

Sometime in the late afternoon, I begin working on dinner. One of my favorite things to do is to throw something in a cast-iron skillet to simmer on the back of the stove so that I can keep tidying up or working on a project like…

• Decluttering a closet
• Organizing a kitchen cabinet
• Cleaning the baseboards or wall because I just so happened to see that they were dirty

I do this most often in the winter time with some kind of soup so that it can keep cooking without needing a lot of attention and so that I can keep working on stuff that I have been meaning to do but don’t always get done. This gives me the freedom to keep puttering all the way right up to the time my man gets home. 

Final Thoughts!

I love having some structure to my afternoons, but find it incredibly helpful to keep it as flexible as possible especially when I have a nursing baby who could need me at any moment. It’s really hard to plan time-sensitive things in this season of mothering little ones.

It’s also extremely helpful to carve out some time just for me and for things that bring me delight because yes, I do sacrifice most of my life to the care of my household, but I am still a person who needs time to herself and time to do things that bring me rest and joy. 

I also try to keep it in mind to be proactive and start supper early because you never know what will come up. The baby might need to be fed right when I think I can start supper or the kids might have an accident or might need a little more attention that I could not have foreseen them needing.  

That way when my man gets home, everything is not complete chaos with things all disorganized, grumpy moods, and a supper that still needs to be cooked. 

Giving myself some time to relax, having a flexible tidy up routine, and proactively starting supper early are the three things that help me be productive and have a successful afternoon as a homemaker. 

Save for later!

Are you struggling to manage your time at home? Here’s my new eBook where I share all that I have learned about systems and routines and how they have helped me manage my time and my home well!

Does housework overwhelm you to the point of discouragement? Do you wish you could finally get on top of it all? Do you have the homemaking dream of keeping your home in order, but struggle to actually do so on a day-to-day basis?

Maybe you think to myself…

• “I want to have a home that is neat and in order, but I don’t know how to do this.”
• “I want to have a clean home, but I can’t seem to figure out how to get it all done.”
• “I want time for hobbies, but I have all this housework to do?”
• “I feel like I have time to do everything, but I can’t seem to manage time well.”
• “I simple can’t get the housework done.”

You’re not alone!

Most homemakers, new moms, newly stay-at-home-moms struggle with this at one point or another. This is something we all struggle with.

I struggled with this, too and that is why I wrote this eBook called Systems & Routines: Simple Time Management for Homemakers. After finally feeling like I was on the other side of the struggle, I just couldn’t keep what brought me here to myself so I wrote this eBook. I wanted to share all that I had learned with other homemakers!

A bit of my homemaking journey…

When my husband and I got married, I was working part-time and managing our tiny apartment the rest of the time. There wasn’t much space to manage, but I still struggled to do all the necessary things like…

• cleaning the bathroom
• making food
• going grocery shopping
• keeping things tidy and in order
• washing the laundry

I am a bit of a perfectionist and it was hard to accept the fact that our living quarters couldn’t stay perfect while we lived in them. There was a constant need to do the same things over and over again. It was really discouraging that nothing ever seemed to get done.

It was flat out stressful at times and I didn’t know what to do about it!

Along came our first baby and then we moved into our first house! Yay! I was actually really excited about having my own house as a homemaker, except…

It still had to be managed! Even though I was constantly busy going about doing things, it felt like I wasn’t actually accomplishing the things that needed to be done.

Here is where the to-do-list entered my life, and I actually hated it! Making a list of all the things that needed to be done and knowing full well that there was no way that I could do it all left me discouraged and often in tears because I just wanted to keep a home well, but this almost seemed impossible!

Was it impossible? Was keeping my home an impossible dream? Was there no way to fulfill my God-given calling to be the keeper of my home? Was I slave to my to-do-list?

But that was years ago and today, things are much much different!

I wake up in the morning passionate about keeping my home! Yes, it includes doing all the things we mom’s and homemakers do, but now it’s actually fun to keep my home. Now, I enjoy keeping my home.

I like it so much that I’ve become the homebody who wants to stay home and organize and clean instead of going out. I like being a homemaker even with small children who love to create chaos!

It doesn’t bother so much if they create chaos because now I know how to easily clean it up and put the house all back together!

This is what systems and routines have done for me and I love it! I love it so much that I had to write this eBook to share all this goodness with you! It was too good to keep to myself.

In case you’re wondering what all’s included…

Here’s a peak at the table of contents…

It’s full of old-fashioned homemaking quotes !

This digital book has more than 15 quotes from homemaking books that were written in the 1800’s to early 1900’s. While I was deep in the throes of my own time management journey, I came across a bunch of different old homemaking books and I desperately searched all through them for advice about my plight.

They played a huge part in this journey and I gleaned so much wisdom from them. Being an old fashioned gal myself, I couldn’t help but include some of my favorite quotes from these books like this one…

What other homemakers think about this book…

I absolutely loved Systems and Routine: Simple Time Management for Homemakers! I only wish I had this guide when my kids were young because it would have helped me be so much more effective with my days and live with less overwhelm. My favorite part was the morning routine section—mornings have always been a struggle for me, and I loved learning how to set up my day the right way from the start. The guide breaks everything down so simply, from morning to evening routines, and gives great ideas for daily tasks and weekly planning. I highly recommend it to any homemaker looking to bring more structure and peace to their days!

~ Nell Marie, Pribbles

This little book includes tips and insights for so many areas of the homemaker’s life. Whether you read it straight through or jump around, you’re sure to find some new tidbit or idea that will inspire or encourage you as a homemaker.

~ Marissa Finch, A Productive Household

Where to get the book…

So friend, are you ready to learn my secrets on how I manage my home? What it took to get me from a place of utter chaos to managing my time well?

Grab your eBook here and jump start your own time management journey!

As I have started creating routines and habits for every part of my homemaking, the idea of having traditions that we cycle back to every year is life-giving. Habits ground us in a way that I cannot fully explain. They provide structure and safe boundaries creating a place that we can flourish in.

One of the biggest times of the year to keep traditions is Christmas. There is something nostalgic, an old fashioned loveliness about returning to the same celebrations and experiences, renewing them for one more year that speak life and refresh us as homemakers.

Each year, I attempt to bring a new tradition or two while keeping to the meaningful ones from the previous years. Here are 9 Christmas traditions that I have either started already in my home or am looking forward to starting this year and in the future.

Advent Wreath

An advent wreath is a wreath with five candles symbolizing different parts of the story preceding Christ’s birth. The themes highlighted by different candles are the prophecy of Christ’s birth, the place of his birth which is Bethlehem, the shepherds coming to worship, and the angels and their message of “Peace on earth”.

There are several ways to celebrate advent or the anticipation of Christ’s coming (both the birth and the second coming)with an advent wreath. Traditionally, I believe, one candle is lit on each sunday (starting the night before each Sunday since traditionally days actually started the evening before each day) adding another candle each Sunday until all are lit on Christmas eve. They are also enjoyed on Christmas day as the celebration of Christ’s coming draws all the pieces of the story together.

Different scripture is read everyday for the whole advent season not just on Sundays; however, this can be a lot especially if this is your first time really celebrating Advent. You can also just highlight each Sunday.

Here’s how you can make your own Advent wreath along with the scripture readings.

Jesse Tree

This is a tradition new to me, but is one I’m looking forward to including this Christmas season. 

If you have not heard of a Jesse tree, the idea of it is to walk through the Bible stories from creation all the way to the birth of Christ. Typically, there are scripture readings for everyday or you can also follow a devotional written for this purpose. There are also 28 ornaments that symbolize each story. You can either hang them on your Christmas tree or have a separate one just for the Jesse tree ornaments. 

There are also a lot of other ideas of what do with the ornaments online. 

Most Jesse tree traditions start on November 28 which allows for one ornament to be hung each day leading up to Christmas Day. 

What an exciting and meaningful way to anticipate the celebration of the coming of the Christ child!

12 Days of Christmas

You know the song…On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…but have you ever considered making this a part of your Christmas celebrations? 

How come we only celebrate Christmas for one day? It seems the typical way our society today celebrates Christmas is by spending all the days from the day after Thanksgiving towards Christmas hustling to prepare for Christmas Day and throwing parties. Then we do one big shiba g on the 25 and call it good. Sounds chaotic and not very meaningful! 

A More old fashioned way to spend the holidays would be to celebrate Advent and then Epiphany or the 12 days of Christmas. You spend the advent season anticipating Christ and then celebrate Christ for 12 days. Who doesn’t want to celebrate for longer?!

This tradition starts on Christmas Day and goes through the next 12 days (Dec 25 – Jan 5) and is full of meaning and life-giving experiences. 

There are many ways to keep this tradition so here are a few ideas to inspire and help you incorporate a longer more meaningful celebration.

• A Sacred Journey – a very intriguing celebration with a focused word for each day. It draws out the theme of each of the feasts that or religious celebrations that were traditionally celebrated.
• A gift a day – I have often wondered as a parent the disservice we do ourselves and our children by overwhelming them with all the the gifts all on one day. My oldest specifically gets overstimulated very easily which can make Christmas Day a struggle. Some people celebrate the 12 days of Christmas by spreading out the gifts over these days. What a wonderful idea!
• 12 days of Christmas books – What child doesn’t love a new book?! Wrap 12 Christmas books new or old and open one and enjoy on each day to prolong the festivities. 
• 12 dates of Christmas – Whether you have children or not, this is a fun way to celebrate through experiences (with a little more planning, of course) by doing 12 different things together. 

Crepes for Breakfast

This is a running joke in our family. My husband is convinced that his mom made crepes every Christmas morning for breakfast while in fact she has only ever done it once or twice. 

The idea is fantastic though! Why not start the day with a small but scrumptious feast of your choosing?! It doesn’t have to be a lot of work since you still have other things to make for Christmas dinner, but you could make something simple and spruce it up like pancakes with a special cider syrup or something like that or make something ahead of time the night before that can be warmed up and enjoyed as you get started on other preparations like homemade cinnamon rolls. 

Bake Cookies

A simple but wonderful way to celebrate is to bake something together. Kids love it and what adult will pass on a scrumptious little bit of sweets with a cup of milk or cocoa?

If you’re feeling more ambitious, you could decorate them, too. 

My favorite cookies to bake are…

• Sugar Cookies
• Chockerdoodles – snickerdoodles, but with chocolate
• Gingersnaps

Decorate Gingerbread Men

I love to make gingerbread houses, but…why go through all the trouble of putting a a gingerbread house kit together if you can’t even eat it because it’s old and not to mention the mess? And if you’ve tried to go the homemade route with homemade icing, it doesn’t always look pretty or hold the house together. 

So to solve all these little issues, we decided to decorate homemade gingerbread men instead this year. It solves all the problems and is much easier to do with children, too. 

Make a Christmas Ornament

If you are creative soul like me, you are going to love these DIY ornament ideas!

• Paper Angel
• 3D Paper Stars
• Paint Filled Ornament Balls
• Antique Style Candle Christmas Ornament
• Glitter Snowflake
• Gold Pine Cone Ornaments

Advent Calendar

Counting down the days until Christmas Day is a fun little way to anticipate this holiday. Oftentimes, each day on the calendar holds a little treat in a pocket or a box or something (depending on the type you get or create) so you get a little something on each day as you look forwards to Christmas, but the Advent calendar traditionally has more to it than just anticipating Christmas Day and all the gifts. It counts down the days until the day celebrated as the birth of Christ using the Christmas story. 

Here are some ideas…

• Bible Verses and Chocolate – Each little baggie has a date on it on which you open it, read the verse, and enjoy some sweets.
• Scripture, Songs, and Service – Three cards are inserted into the Advent calendar of your choice (This post also includes several DIY Advent Calendar ideas.): one witha scripture to read, one with a Christmas song to sing, and one with an act of service to do for others.
• Felt Nativity Scene – Each day, you pull out part or character and add it to the board to recreate the nativity scene.

Handmade Christmas Cards

Whether you are crafty or like to draw, take the Christmas card tradition to the next level with some old fashioned charm by creating your own Christmas cards. The kids will love getting involved in making them, too!

I like to sketch a little Christmas something on the front of blank cardstock like…

• Candles
• Bells
• Pine Cones
• Greenery
• Ribbons

Drawing each card can take a lot of time though so this year, I have contemplated doing something with fabric on the front. Here are a few of the ideas I have gathered…

• Scrap Fabric Christmas Cards
• Printed Template with Fabric Christmas Present
• Fabric Ornament Christmas Card

Final Thoughts!

Christmas is just around the corner or it maybe here as you are reading this. Are you ready to make the most of this holiday season and embed the richness of Christmas deeper within your hearts and home? Even if you have very few Christmas traditions that you keep every year, now is as good a time as any to change that!

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