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Hustle. Hustle. Hustle. Life can be so stressful when we are hustling here and there trying to get everything done in as little time as possible. Were we created to live in such a hurry, or is it okay to embrace slow living?

Maybe you don’t even know what slow living is. I have known about the concept of slow living for awhile now, but I have only recently started trying to incorporate this way of living into our lives.

As many of you have probably guessed by now, I am a very ambitious person. There is so much I want to do in life so slowing down does not always come naturally to me. This spring it became apparent that I needed to slow down before I got burnt out.

I had set some very ambitious goals for the last few months of the winter. I kind of wanted to see what I could accomplish if I really pushed myself. It backfired immensely.

It wasn’t a sustainable way to live, but that’s okay. Sometimes we just have to learn from our mistakes, jump back up, and find what will be sustainable. I don’t know everything about slow living, but here is what I have been learning and trying to apply in our lives.

What is Slow Living?

There is not one definition for slow living. Everyone approaches it a little bit differently, but for us it has come down to being intentional about where we spend our energy and money. It’s about being mindful of what we let into our lives. It’s slowing down to enjoy the little things in life.

There is so much that could characterize slow living. Here are 5 slow living mindsets that sum it up for us in this season.

Quality Items

Too much is easily accessible in our generation. You can get things that are cheaper yet not as good quality with the click of a button. They tend to break easier, not work as well, or just look cheap, too.

One principle of slow living is to embrace a lifestyle of investing in less, but quality items that will last a long time. Take time to look around and slowly make the decision of what you are going to buy.

Don’t be in a rush to spend your money and get it over with. Patiently, look for the perfect fit that will last awhile and in the end, you will probably save money, too.

Look for beauty as well as functionality when you can. It’s okay to spend a little extra on something that is a more beautiful product and that will give you joy to use. This makes tasks beautiful and more enjoyable.

The Little Things

Take time to stop and smell the roses in life. Actual roses, but also the simple beauty that life holds. A flower that pops up in your yard, a sunset, a smile, a butterfly, something that makes you smile, when your child picks you a dandelion.

Don’t let life get so busy that you forget what it feels like to have a gentle breeze on your face or the magical touch of grass under your barefeet. Admire the beauty of God’s creation and the little things that are easily overlooked and forgotten.

Slow down and make time for the little things.

Relationships over Tasks

It’s easy as homemakers to get caught up in the hustle of housekeeping. There is always more to be done. There is always something more that we could be doing. Especially when you have children, it is hard to find the balance of letting them interrupt you for the 16th time during the same task because they simply want you.

As one mom told me, household tasks will always be here for us to do, but our children won’t be. Prioritizing relationships over tasks is a fine balance. I understand that there are moments where children need to be taught that mom has to tend to food real quick before it burns or pull the laundry off the line before it rains.

However, if you are like me, it is so easy to want to just be able to get something organized or cleaned up without having to stop again. But which is more important: the task or the relationship? Sometimes it is the task, but more often, I think, it is the relationship.

Slowing down includes consciously choosing to invest in a relationship over accomplishing a task.

SAVE IT FOR LATER!

From Scratch

There is much to gain from the slow way of living from scratch as people naturally did only several generations ago. This means learning how to make things with raw ingredients including food from scratch and creating a home economy.

Food from Scratch

Food from scratch allows us to avoid harder to digest preservatives and additives that cause a lot of health problems. Following traditional methods of preparing and preserving foods like cooking with whole food ingredients instead of a frozen dinner or canning food yourself instead of buying pre-canned foods helps us slow down and enjoy a healthier life.

It can be harder or more time consuming to prepare food from scratch, but our bodies need movement. Why not embrace the movement of preparing healthier wholesome food that tastes way better and is so nourishing? With a little planning and experience however, cooking from scratch can be simple. It’s really up to you and what you choose to prepare.

Home Economy

Creating things that you would normally just buy is a good way to slow down in life. Instead of simply grabbing a product off the shelf and purchasing it, taking the time to learn how to create that same product in your home can help you save money and teach you a lot of helpful skills.

Some easy things to start creating are…

• Shampoo
• Soap
• Cleaning Sprays and Solutions
• Spice mixes
• Detergents
• Candles
• Condiments

If you would like to know more about building a home economy, check out the youtube channel called Home with Kelli!

Efficient

There seems to be a mindset that we should not strive to be efficient in homemaking. I agree with this as long as we separate homemaking from housekeeping. While trying to cultivate and create a home, efficiency is not helpful. You can’t speed up or shot cut the process of creating a beautiful home life.

There is a place to be efficient though when we are talking about housekeeping. I don’t mean efficiency as in trying to get things down as fast as possible. When I say efficient, I mean learning to do things well so that they naturally take less time because we have mastered them. When we have mastered tasks or processes (like resetting the kitchen after a meal or doing the laundry), it takes less brain power to do them and we hardly have to think about the task.

It does take time and a commitment to work on one or two processes at a time in order to become an efficient homemaker, but I am learning the value of slowing down and considering how I am doing things in order to do them well.

Becoming an efficient homemaker has become a very important part in my journey of slow living. I am still a young homemaker and I don’t have everything down, but I am excited to see the profit down the road of becoming virtuous in the day to day things.

If this idea of becoming virtuous is a bit foreign to you, you might enjoy reading my post on what is virtue.

Final Thoughts!

There is a lot that goes into embracing a slower way of life. It looks differently for everyone, too, because our journeys and our lives are all different.

I hope that you found it helpful to consider these 5 things and that they help you to slow down, stress less, and enjoy life more.

More on Homemaking!

Old Fashioned Homemaking for the Modern Woman

Efficient Homemaking 101

Daily Routine

Cleaning is one of those things that homemakers dread. Unless you are the exception, house cleaning is so easy to put off and struggle to accomplish, yet it is so necessary to keep the family healthy and happy.

Perhaps, it is difficult and will be difficult until it becomes a habit and familiar to us. Someone once said that “Things are only hard because they are unfamiliar to us.” Maybe if we create a cleaning schedule and stick to it until it becomes second nature to us, it won’t be so difficult any more. 

I have tried many housekeeping schedules, but none of them worked well. After digging around and looking at other homemaker’s cleaning schedules, I decided to create my own. You may not find everything mentioned here to be super helpful in your own situation of life. We all require different things, but hopefully you will be inspired or find something helpful in creating your own cleaning schedule.

How to Create a Simple Cleaning Schedule

The first thing to do is to grab a piece of paper and jot down three categories or lists…

• Daily
• Weekly
• Yearly

Everything that needs to be cleaned in your home pretty much falls into these three categories. A great place to write this down is in a homemaker binder. This will help you stay organized as you are trying to figure out what works for you.

Daily

To figure out what goes into this category, think of what things have to be done everyday for the survival and happiness of your family. What are the bare minimum daily tasks that need to be done?

I talk more about this in my post 5 Daily Homemaking Tasks. Essentially, there are only 5 main things that I need to do everyday in order to keep an orderly home.

RELATED POST: My Simple Daily Routine

Weekly

The next category is the weekly cleaning list. These are things that don’t have to done everyday but should be done quite often. Here are a few ideas of what is on my list…

• Fridge
• Appliances
• Windows
• Dust
• Mop
• Bathrooms

I usually have a cleaning day on Mondays where I try to get a head start on these tasks for the week. Sometimes, I get them all done on that day, but not always. It really helps to jumpstart my cleaning to have a day set aside to this housekeeping task.

Yearly

After creating a daily and weekly list of cleaning tasks, everything that is left over goes on the yearly list. These are things that you might fight on a spring cleaning list like…

• Walls
• Baseboards
• Doors
• Cabinets
• Dressers

And such.

I, however, cannot bring myself to commit to spring cleaning. There are too many things that I get overwhelmed before I ever start. It has been really helpful to at least for a start to commit to taking on one deep cleaning task a week instead of blocking whole weeks off just to clean.

Spring cleaning works really well for some people and maybe there will be a season where it works for me, but for now, I need baby steps. 

I need something that I can easily start and keep up with. If you are like me, you might make complicated detailed lists that require a lot of mental energy just to create and then you are so tired from creating the list that you have no motivation to keep your whole system.

This is why I have narrowed it down to just three categories or lists that I can just slowly work through as I have time and if I don’t get to it in one week, it’s not a big deal. The system won’t fall apart because it’s simple and easy to jump back into.

A Few Helpful Mindsets

Have you ever found that the way you think about things like cleaning affect your motivation to do them? I know I have.

Cleaning is so easy to dread and greatly dislike, but with a few shifts in the way we think about it, we can make it simply a part of our life that we hardly think about it anymore and feel better about it.

To clean is to remove dirt. 

Ok, maybe this isn’t helpful to you, but it really helped me to realize that not everything needs a deep clean. Sometimes all I need to do is do a quick wipe and if it there is no dirt to bee seen, that’s all that is needed. 

Not everything needs to be scrubbed. No need to hard core scrub everything and spry it down with bleach just to make it clean. This makes it harder on yourself because most of the time, all that is needed is a quick wipe. If you stay on top of it, most of your cleaning will simply be keeping the dust off of it.

If it feels too hard, simplify it. 

Doing laundry used to stress me out. It seemed such a complicated task…until I simplified it. Decluttering and reducing the amount of our clothes, breaking loads up into manageable daily loads instead of large loads all in one day, etc. 

If some part of your housekeeping or homemaking for that matter is simply too hard, take some time and break it down. Simplify it into more manageable tasks. 

This may take some time, but it’s so worth it to simplify things down until you feel like you can manage it.

Feelings do matter and it is so much better to not have to battle how you feel about a household task every time it needs to get done. If you can find a way to that feels manageable, this will help tremendously.

RELATED POST: Laundry Routine: How to Simplify your Laundry Schedule

It can be done.

If cleaning is hard and feels so complicated that you put it off, then maybe consider that there is a good chance that you are doing it the hardest way.

Homemakers have been cleaning house and managing homes for ages and they probably did it a bit easier then we do so seek them out. Ask the older ladies in your community how they did it even as a young homemaker. Your grandma’s, mom’s and even mother-in-laws will have invaluable tips and advice to help you on this journey of homemaking. Seek them out, confiding in them your specific struggles.

Another good resource is to read old housekeeping books. I found many on the Internet Archive to be very helpful.

Homemakers have been flourishing even while doing housekeeping. It can be done and you can do it, too!

Don’t give up until you find what works for you.

Housekeepers need all the grit in the world. This is one of the qualities that I admire of homemakers from years gone by. They dug their heels in and faced a lot of things we can’t even imagine.

We would all do well to learn from their example and have the grit to try this or that, tweaking our routines and rhythms of cleaning tasks until it works well.

If you don’t like doing laundry or dishes or cleaning baseboards, if you don’t like it, change it. Don’t stick yourself in a corner dreading your housekeeping. Do something about it.

“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

This may take some time to establish a process or system of cleaning that works well and that you don’t dread it so much. Just keep striving and you will flourish as a housekeeper.

Final Thoughts!

What is it that you dread about housekeeping? What cleaning task is so hard for you? Is there something that you have to do as a homemaker that frustrates you to no end? Don’t let it overwhelm you any longer.

Create a housekeeping schedule that works for you that is simple so that you can stick with it and jump back into when you have gotten behind. You can get on top of your housekeeping and stay on top of it. It is possible if you have a system that works for you.

I hope you find my simple housekeeping schedule encouraging and inspiring and that you feel like it is possible to flourish as a homemaker! 

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MORE ON HOMEMAKING!

Morning Routine: How to be a Productive Homemaker

Evening Routine: How to End another Lovely Day as a Homemaker!

Dishwashing Routine: The Best Way to Hand Wash Dishes

Lovely spring is on its way! The birds are starting to sing again and the green grass is growing again. Are you ready to have an old fashioned spring?

After a winter of being shut inside for most of the days, I greatly anticipate the weather changing and getting warmer. As I wait for the season to fully change so my family can enjoy wonderful sunny days outside, here are a few things I am doing in anticipation of getting outside again and enjoying the sunshine.

Don’t get me wrong. I do enjoy the winter months of resting and catching up on hobbies that I don’t always have time for the rest of the year. But there is just something lovely about the newness and freshness of spring!

I grew up in the tropics without winter and while I love the Christmas season and what little snow we get here, as soon as the weather starts getting warm again, I can’t help but dream of all the spring things like….

• Gardening
• Making my own cleaning products
• Opening the windows
• Wearing spring dresses

After the cold of winter and dormant nature, spring is like new life. It’s fresh and new ready to take on the year. It’s ready to flourish into all that it can be and I am ready to get out there and watch it do just that!

Here are a few things you can do to make the most of this lovely season and enjoy it to the fullest!

Plan a Garden

Gardening is definitely something I still need to learn a lot about, The last couple of seasons, I have grown a few things but I want a real garden this year, One that actually saves us money and that my family can benefit nutritionally from.

Some beginner tips that were given to me by more seasoned gardeners are to…

• Focus on growing one or two new things at a time
• Add one or two new things every year.
• Grow enough of one thing to last your family for a year.

This really simplified gardening for me, I can handle one or two things and grow enough of it for a year (hopefully).

I’m thrilled at the idea of learning how to feed my family from what we grow! It’s also nice to take it slow and not try to do it all at once. The plan is to have a simple salsa garden so we can preserve and enjoy homemade salsa and other tomato goods like tomato sauce.

What are your plans for gardening this year? You don’t have to grow everything this year. Take the time and enjoy the process building a sustainable habit of gardening!

Make Homemade Cleaning Products

It’s so rewarding and oftentimes cheaper to make your own cleaning products. I have been ever so slowly switching out our products to more natural ones. While you can buy natural cleaning products, it’s cheaper to make your own once you figure out what recipe you like.

Some products you can easily make yourself are…

• Hand Soap
• Dish Soap
• Laundry Soap
• Mop Solution
• All Purpose Spray
• Window Cleaner
• Bathroom Cleaner

The thing that I am dabbling in making for my home this spring is our own laundry detergent. It isn’t always the cheapest option to make you own, but it is the cheapest option if you are wanting a cleaner detergent.

It’s so nice to know what is in your detergent because you made it yourself. You can also choose a nice spring scent while you are at it. Wouldn’t it be fun to have seasonally scented laundry detergent instead of the same scent all year round?

I have made one recipe so far, but it didn’t turn out. It kind of gelled up instead of being a liquid detergent. I think, I will try making powdered detergent next.

In the meantime, it still gets my clothes clean and also works great to clean the bathroom.

Open the Windows

After being inside all winter long, it’s so wonderful to be able to open the windows again. As soon as possible, even if it is still a little crisp outside, we like to open the windows and air out the house.

It can get a little stuffy with the windows shut all winter so we really look forward to opening the windows and letting in a refreshing breeze.

There is something exhilarating about a fresh spring breeze! It’s inspiring and rejuvenating. Opening windows is such a small thing, but don’t forget to take advantage of it as much as possible.

Simmer a Spring Potpurri

You could bring more spring scents into your home with a simple spring potpourri. Think of the soft floral scent of rose, lavender, or lily gently wafting through your house and lingering in the back rooms long after you have turned off the potpourri!

If you aren’t into the floral scents, you could also do some citrus making use of orange peels and lemon rinds.

Go Barefoot

It’s finally time to kick off your shoes and sink your toes into the grass….and maybe a little bit of dirt, too!

Perhaps I am still a child, but I love the feeling of walking barefoot through the new soft grass in spring! It’s so lovely and it makes me giggle. Then I run off and chase my little ones across the yard. How I love spring!

Bring Out the Dresses

With the change of the season comes the opportunity to bring out the light frilly dresses! It’s time to put away your warm winter clothing and bring out more delicate elegant spring dresses.

You know what I’m talking about. The ones that beg you twirl and pick wildflowers in.

I love wearing dresses all year long, but there is just something wonderful about wearing dresses this time of the year!

Final Thoughts!

Spring is such a lovely time! I hope you make the most of it this year and enjoy a good old fashioned spring full of simple goodness!

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MORE ON HOMEMAKING!

Spring Homemaking: A Most Delightful Time for Homemaking

The Vintage House Dress

My Simple Daily Routine for Homemakers

Do you dread washing dishes? Maybe you were blessed with a dishwasher…and then it goes out. Now you are stuck with hand washing dishes and you are struggling to be a happy homemaker about it.

Maybe washing dishes takes up way too much time. You want to relax after a good long day of homemaking, but the piles of dirty dishes are staring you in the face.

Did you know that you can actually enjoy washing dishes? Creating a dish washing routine orders this monstrous task breaking it down into manageable bite size pieces so that you can do this task effeciently and joyfully.

How to Create a Dishwashing Routine

A good dishwashing routine should include…

• When are you going to wash dishes
• How often are you going to wash dishes
• How you should wash the dishes
• A kitchen reset

If you settle these things in your mind creating a plan and sticking to it, you can joyfully flourish even when you have dirty dishes to wash. You have to commit to working out the kinks though, tweaking this and that, until the process goes smoothly and to your liking.

If there is something that annoys you about washing dishes (like your hands getting chapped or there is always too many dishes or it takes way too long), then do some research. See what other homemakers are doing for these problems.

Don’t just put up with the annoyances because you will only get more annoyed. There are solutions. You can create a dishwashing routine that you enjoy, but you have to commit to making it so.

When are you going to wash the dishes

If you don’t choose ahead of time when you are going to wash dishes and build it into your daily routine as a homemaker, then it will weigh on you and you undoubtedly will dread doing dishes. If you predetermine when you are going to wash dishes and stick by it, then you will be surprised how much this will relieve you. You might actually stop dreading it, too.

How often are you going to wash dishes

There is no right or wrong answer to this question, it is solely up to you. You should at least wash them daily though. I find for my family that twice a day works well. You may find that committing to doing it after every meal actually works best for you.

What ever you choose to do, commit to it. Work consistently at doing it that many times until it becomes second nature. When it becomes a habit, then you will start enjoying it or at least not dreading it half as much.

How you should wash the dishes

This is the nitty gritty part of creating a dishwashing routine so that you can flourish. It actually is very helpful though to find out and predetermine what order you are going to wash the dishes in and how you will actually wash them.

It may not be exactly the same every time, but having a simple order to the process that you establish simplifies this task immensely. This is the order that I find works best for me…

• Plates
• Glasses and Jars
• Serving Dishes and Storage Containers
• Silverware
• Pots and Pans

Having an order really helps so that you can make the most of the drying mat or drainer. If you do things out of order, you may find yourself having to lift or move dishes so that you can make everything fit.

Here is how I wash dishes…

Gather all the dishes 

The first step in washing dishes is to bring everything that needs to be washed to the sink. Clear off the table and make a mental note whether or not any dishes were taken to other rooms at the house. Often times there is a cup or two on a night stand somewhere that needs to be washed. 

Because I clear off the table after a meal and put dishes in the sink or near the sink once I am done with them throughout the day, there isn’t usually much to do in this step. 

Rinse and scrape

Before washing the dishes, it’s a really good idea to rinse them and use a brush to get all the food off. This keeps your soapy water clean, so you don’t have to change it out because it got nasty.

I got this wooden brush for my birthday one year and I love it for this step. 

It’s such a nice experience using something wooden over something plastic!

A good habit that I am trying to establish is to rinse and scrape my dishes throughout the day, when I am finished with them, instead of waiting till it’s time to wash them. The longer they sit the harder stuff sticks in the longer it takes to get it off, but when I read stuff right away, it hardly takes any time. 

Wash

Next, I wash out the sink next to my drainer and run soapy water into it. If there’s a large bowl, that’s already dirty, I like to run my water into that this saves me to step of washing at the sink.

Also, if I am doing dishes by myself (which is most of the time, but I look forward to the day with my children. No chore should be down alone.), I choose the sink next to the drain or for washing in the farthest ones are insane. 

If you do it, the other way, you have to take a step or reach farther towards the drainer every time you rent something. This means an extra unnecessary step for every dish. This wastes so much time and energy!

Rinse

After I run my soapy water, I swivel the faucet to the other seat and let it run, and I rinse each dish as it gets washed, stacking it on a drying mat or drainer. 

Not having to turn the water on and off and having to wait to get to the right temperature each time saves time. It’s also not more expensive because we pay a flat rate for our water. 

I grew up cleaning and filling to rinse sink up to rinse dishes, but after trying a few different things, I realize that this took up time. When you were busy mom with toddlers, having official routines like this dishwasher routine with my laundry routine saves time and energy.

Also, I like to use drying mats over a trainer because you can fit more on them.

Towel dry/air dry

After rinsing and stacking dishes on my drying mat, most the time I let them air dry. I would love to get to the place where I dry my dishes right away and put them where they go.  This, however, is not the season for such things. Maybe when my kids get a little older and can help me, I can do extra things like this that aren’t necessary, but are really nice to do. It would be really nice to have that countertop space back someday. 

But the reality is that I don’t have the energy to dry my dishes in this season of life. I grew up drying and putting the dishes away, and although I find it satisfying the old-fashioned, it just isn’t practical.

Kitchen Reset

Any time it is time to do the dishes is a good opportunity to reset the kitchen. I do at least two kitchen resets a day, where I…

• Put things away like leftovers or spices
• Clear off the table
• Wipe down counters, table and stove top
• Sweep the floor
• Care for my cast iron

Doing a kitchen reset and refreshes the room, clearing it up of clutter, and spills. As one old fashioned homemaker said “The great secret of a clean kitchen is keeping it that way all the time”

Housekeeping after office hours 1953, P 112

Tips for Hand Washing Dishes

• You don’t have to wash dishes three times a day. My family is still relatively small and so it doesn’t make sense to me to wash dishes three times a day. We do very well only washing twice. I like to skip washing after breakfast because we don’t make that many dishes. Someday when my family grows bigger, it will become a necessity to wash dishes after every meal, but for now I am enjoying what works well for me.
• Rinse dishes as you are done with them. It takes twice as long to scrub dishes that have sat for a while. Stuff dries on which makes it much harder to rinse it off, but if you rinse dishes as you bring them to the sink after a meal or throughout the day, washing will be a breeze.
• Rinse dishes before washing them. If you don’t get to rinse the dishes as you bring them to the sink at least rinse them before you wash them. This will keep your dish water clean which makes washing much faster because you won’t have to refill your dishwater so often. It also makes hand washing much more enjoyable because your water won’t get grimy so fast. It’s a good way to keep the water from getting oily, too. 
• Invest in a scrub brush.  Having a good scrub brush makes rinsing your dishes before washing them easier. While it isn’t absolutely necessary to have a wooden one, I was given this long handled wooden scrub brush and I love it! The wood adds a nice touch especially if you are veering away from plastics. It’s practical, very helpful, and a little bit old fashioned, but I like using a quality brush even to scrape my dishes.
• Use natural dish soap. Handwashing can be really hard on your skin, but the chemicals from the soap will seriously chap your hands. I struggled with this for over a year until I switched to a more natural dish soap. Now my hands hardly suffer from being in the water for long periods even in the winter. 
• Moisturize after you are done. After you are done washing dishes, it’s a good idea to moisturize your hands to keep your skin hydrated. In fact, I have recently learned that the best time to moisturize your skin is while it is still a little wet, which means that after dishwashing is the perfect time. My favorite thing to use is Organic Jojoba Oil. 
• Make your own washcloths and scrubbies. This is definitely not a must, but I absolutely love using things I have made myself. Crocheting a few washcloths and scrubbies is not very hard to do either so if you don’t know how to crochet, this is a wonderful project for a beginner.
• Wash your sink out after you’re done. Making it part of your dishwashing routine to wash out your sink last thing ensures that your sink will always be spotless.
• Use a different washcloth and/or scrubbie each time. I used to have a problem with my dishrags always stinking. It was not fun and definitely took away from having a good experience hand washing my dishes. Part of the problem I realized was that I let the wet rag sit in between washes so I tried and experiment. After every time I was done washing dishes, I threw the washcloths into the washer and got a new one for next time. It worked! Using a clean washcloth everytime kept them from getting stinky and because I was making my own, it was super easy to have plenty on hand and never run out.
• Find what works. If any part of handwashing (or any part of housekeeping for that matter) really frustrates you or annoys you, experiment. Tweak the process until you find what works smoothly for you. In the words of a 1920’s housewife, “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 You don’t have to be stuck with a system that doesn’t work for you. You have to do the dishes but that doesn’t mean that you have to dread it so figure out how you can do it the best way possible.

Final Thoughts!

I hope you didn’t find this too nitty gritty! It can sound overly complicated, but stopping to think through these things can really help you enjoy the necessary task of washing dishes.

Please, share this if you found it helpful or were inspired in anyway! My hope is to be a blessing to homemakers and help them lessen the load so that they can flourish in this wonderful calling of homemaking!

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The struggle to stay on top of the laundry is a common challenge for homemakers. It is a never-ending cycle of dirty clothes, finding the time and motivation to do laundry, sorting clothes, and the constant need to fold and put away clean laundry. Staying on top of the laundry requires consistent effort and organization to prevent it from becoming an overwhelming and time-consuming chore.

Laundry used to stress me out, but then I started a laundry routine. Now it rarely gets out of hand, and even when it does, it is so rare that it doesn’t seem stressful. My brain knows that it’s not the norm now so it’s okay.

There is no right or wrong laundry routine. Some people like to do all of it in one day, but this is the method that helps me flourish and stay on top of the laundry. 

Here are the 4 parts that make up my laundry routine…

Themed Day

Having a day where laundry is the theme or business of the day is a big help. This doesn’t mean that this is all you do that day or that this is the only day that you do laundry on. Having a laundry themed day means choosing one day in the week to get ahead on the laundry.

I typically do a load of laundry, almost every day, except on Sundays. This is when I get our clothes washed, but on the themed day, I wash extra things like sheets and dress clothes. Having a day set aside to get ahead on laundry has been so helpful.

One Load Every Day

Along with having a laundry themed day, doing a load every day helps me conquer this chore.

I like to start a load as part of my morning routine before the children get up. This helps me get a head start and gets the load in the dryer and dried around lunchtime.

I’m working to develop the habit of folding the laundry on the same day during my daily tidy routine. If I don’t fold it the same day, the clothes tend to sit until it builds up and it becomes overwhelming.

Tackling one load a day all the way keeps it from building up. It is much more manageable to do one load from start to finish, from the hamper all the way back to our dressers and closets, then to leave a load to be folded at some other time. The more I put off folding laundry, the higher the pile seems to grow until it becomes so big that I have to block off a large amount time just to get the laundry folded. 

It typically takes me about 15 to 20 minutes to fold a large load of laundry so it’s no wonder that when three or four loads pile up it takes me about an hour to get it all done. 

It is mostly psychological, but I am more motivated to do 15 minutes periodically of folding laundry, then to have to sit down and to do a whole hour or more.

One Laundry Hamper

Another important part of my laundry routine is only having one laundry hamper. About a year ago, I decluttered all the extra laundry baskets that we had and took it down to just one. 

Part of the reason for doing this is because I have toddlers and a pile of anything just laying around begs them to scatter it all over the house. I keep our one laundry basket in our room where they can’t get to it and any time I am changing them or I find dirty clothes I take them either to the laundry basket or straight to the washing machine. 

I only have one laundry basket, but I do use my washing machine as a laundry basket, too. This system works itself out nicely because the clothes have to go in there anyways so I might as well store them in there while they’re waiting to be washed. 

The other thing that’s nice about it is that I don’t have to go all over the house looking for random dirty garments before I do laundry. This conquers so much chaos! 

RELATED POST: 11+ Laundry Tips for Beginners

Laundry Folding Habit

Since I get to fold laundry for the rest of my life, I decided I might as well do it in a way that I don’t have to think about it as much. I created a system to fold laundry so that becomes routine. Here is how I do it.

• Fold in the same place – Sometimes this changes with the seasons of life, but I try to find the best place to fold laundry where I will have plenty space and where the children can see me since they like to know that I am near. Previously this was the couch, but now find that dining room table works well. Since this is where I have been folding laundry when it comes time to fold laundry, I don’t have to figure out where I want to do it. I already know to take the laundry basket straight to the table.
• Sort before folding – I’m still not sure why, but sorting clothes into piles before folding them instead of folding them as I pull them out of the basket is less stressful. It took one large task and broke it down into smaller ones and my brain loves it!
• Have the piles in the same place every time – After dumping the laundry out (since I only have laundry basket), I place towels in the basket , my son’s clothes in a pile on the left farther from me, my daughter’s in a pile on the left closer to me, my husband’s on the right in a pile farther from me, and my clothes in a pile closer to me. I have already chosen where I want the piles to go and I always sort them this way so that my brain doesn’t have to think about where I want someone’s pile to go every time I do laundry.
• Fold piles in the same order – There are five piles that I sort laundry into and I have found that I like to fold them in a certain order every time. It did take a little training to establish this habit, but its routine now. I don’t have to think about.
• Place piles in the basket according to the layout of our rooms – It’s less taxing when putting away clothes to follow the layout of our house. I happen to live in a house that has all the rooms lined up along one side of the hallway with our bedroom at the end. It’s nice and easy when I am done folding to place things in the basket in the same order so that I can go from one room to the next without thinking where I need to go next or having to back track because laundry piles were placed in the basket in a different order. Occasionally I do flip the order just to keep things interesting and also to see if I am still doing what fits best for the season I am in.

This probably sound super tedious, but doing laundry is a big task! If you break it down and organize your method of sorting and folding laundry, it’s less stressful. You don’t have to think about what needs to be done next because you already have a plan in place so that everything makes sense and flows together.

Final Thoughts!

Laundry used to be stressful and really hard for me to stay on top of. These 4 ideas of having a theme have transformed this stressful chore into a manageable habit. It’s routine now and I don’t have to think about all the different little steps because I have already predetermined how I am going to do it.

Also, doing it all in one day never worked well for me because it never could get all the way done in one day, but that may work for you. It was too stressful for me, but now I hardly think about the laundry, this laundry routine broke things down and simplified my homemaking. It has made me a better homemaker!

Did you get any inspiration how you can make laundry a less stressful chore? Then please, PIN IT so that someone else can be inspired and find joy again in homemaking!

MORE ON HOMEMAKING!

• Daily Routine: A Simple Daily Schedule for Homemakers
• Morning Routine: How to be a Productive Homemaker
• Evening Routine: How to End Another Lovely Day as a Homemaker

What do you want your evenings to be like? Peaceful? Restful? Happy? Contented?

Then, friend, you need an evening routine! An evening routine or rhythm of events can help you unwind from the day.

You have been working hard all day caring for your family and home. At the end of the day, you don’t need to do more housework if you can help it. Sure, you might have to wash dishes or sweep under the table, but this is not the time to catch up on all the stuff you couldn’t get done during the day. 

It’s time to do what needs to done, enjoy a meal, clean up the kitchen, and then just relax. 

Here’s what we strive for in our evening routine as a family. 

Supper Time 

Evening routine at our house starts with supper. We set the table and enjoy an old-fashioned supper time with lots of food from scratch on our nice dishes. I like to have the table set and almost everything done before my husband gets home from work because soon as he drives up, it’s time to celebrate because Daddy’s home! And it’s time to feast!

Yes, we eat on nice dishes often even with little kids. My set of china is second hand so although I love it I would rather use it adding a charming touch to our everyday then store it somewhere afraid that it might get broken. It’s too beautiful not to be enjoyed!

I do have corelle ware plates that I love, too. These work great if I need to stick something in the microwave. So sometimes we use china and sometimes we use corelle ware, but I amorally trying to get away from using plastic plates. This isn’t for health reasons though I am sure there is some benefit from it. It’s more because ceramic plates and bowls are more beautiful and add quality to our mealtimes.

After a leisurely eaten meal (well, we try to make it leisurely if the children let us.), we clear the table and move to the living room to relax a little before doing dishes, and reset in the kitchen.

Dish time/kitchen reset

By seven, it’s dish time. I have learned that if I don’t set a time to do dishes, I tend to put it off because it’s one of my least favorite homemaking chores. Setting a start time is really helpful for me to get the kitchen cleaned up in a decent time. 

I have also been very intentional about becoming more efficient with washing dishes. Dishwashing, whether you have a dishwasher or you are the dishwasher,  is still a necessary part of life and unfortunately, it can be time consuming. It was taking so much time that I purposely made myself stop and think about every single step in the process to see if I was doing it the best way. It sounds very tedious, but in the end after tweaking some things, I actually cut the time I do dishes in half. 

That’s more time I can spend with my family and relaxing in the evening!

Time to relax

After the dishes comes my favorite part of the day!

As a homemaker, and a mom (and perhaps for anyone), work is never done. There is always more to do and not enough energy or time to do it all.

Occasionally, I’ll do house, work related stuff in the evening, but most of the time, if it doesn’t get done before supper, or during my pre-supper, tidy routine, it can wait till the next day.

We need to rest, just as much as we need to work. To create a place where we flourish or thrive and not just survive, we cannot work all day long. Eventually, we will crash or get burnt out.

This is why I purposely have a cut off time for my house work. If it doesn’t get done before supper, then it doesn’t need to happen that day. 

Bedtime

Around eight, we start getting the children ready for bed, and after we get them down, and actually sleep, we head to bed ourselves.

My husband hast to get up early to get around and make it to work on time, but I am one of those people who need 8 to 9 hours of sleep every night. So we go to bed early. 

We do like to read or talk for a bit, but we have found that we were more likely to flourish the next day if we go to bed around 9:30. 

Perhaps I’m too passionate about rest, but I have seen homemakers get burnt out simply because they weren’t getting the rest they need. Especially as a mom of the littles, a good night sleep is nearly sacred.

I almost forgot to mention our bedtime snack. The children usually say they’re hungry and end up sleeping better with a snack in their tummy. 

It’s helpful for me, too. I sleep better, and I also find that when I’m weary from a good hard day of homemaking that I can easily get depressed in the evenings.  Having a little balanced snack before bed helps me flourish and be a happy homemaker even when I’m tired.

Final Thoughts!

After reading this, I hope you are convinced that evenings should be relaxing and are not for extra housework. We worked all day! Now it’s time to chill and enjoy the family God has given us!

So, friend, do you have an evening routine or have you been inspired to start one? 

Taking time to make and implement even a simple evening routine like this one can really help eliminate chaos and bring peace and joy to the end of another lovely day as a homemaker!

Inspired? Please, PIN IT!

MORE ON HOMEMAKING!

Daily Routine: A Simple Daily Schedule for Homemakers

Morning Routine: How to be a Productive Homemaker

The Vintage House Dress: A Perfectly Simple Homemaking Dress Code

Looking for some cute vintage Valentine’s Day Decorations? Here is a list of 17 lovely ideas to decorate your home with! 

Valentine’s Day is a celebration of love, and what better way to express that sentiment than by transforming your home with all these lovely ideas? From the classic reds and pinks that symbolize deep emotions to the timeless imagery of hearts and roses, Valentine’s Day decor offers a delightful opportunity to infuse your surroundings with warmth and charm. 

If you are looking for more Valentine’s Day decoration ideas, I have you covered. From flowers to candles to collectibles, here are a few things that are super cute in celebration of Valentine’s Day.

Let’s decorate!

Flowers

Fresh flowers, especially red roses, are popular for Valentine’s Day. Maybe floral arrangements in vases, bouquets, or as table centerpieces…

• Fresh or faux flowers in a vase 
• DIY Paper Roses – These would be cute in a vase, on bookshelves, and centerpieces. You could also add them to a wreath or garland. 

Wall Decor

Floral wall decor is always a delightful way to decorate and fits perfectly for Valentine’s Day. You might like some cute vintage signs. The floral one is my favorite!

• Floral Vintage Sign
• Wooden Heart Sign

Table Setting

Decorate your table with a romantic table setting with cloth tablecloths and napkins and your fancy dishes. Bring out your good silver and add a few candles for a candle light dinner. 

Here’s a cute table runner idea with doilies. You could even get the red heart shaped ones!

• Paper Doily Table Runner

There are some lovely candle holders that would be cute, too!

• Pink Votive Candle Holders
• Ceramic Rose Candle Holder
• Rose-Pink Mason Jars

Hey Friend!

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?

Are you struggling to manage your time at home?

Check out my new eBook Systems & Routines: Simple Time Management for Homemakers! It includes all that I have learned about systems and routines and how they have helped me manage my time and home well!

DIY Decor

Get creative and make your own Valentine’s Day crafts. This could include handmade cards, paper heart chains, or personalized photo frames.

• DIY Valentines Day Garland
• DIY Floral Valentines Wreath
• Honeycomb Paper Hearts
• Crocheted Heart Shaped Coasters
• DIY Pink Chalk Paint Mason Jar

Vintage Valentine’s Day Cards

There are cute collectibles like these valentine’s day cards and post cards that would make a good vintage decor piece on a mantle or piano top.

• 24 Vintage Valentine Cards
• 190 Free Vintage Valentine Day Images for DIY Cards
• Vintage Printable Post Card Sheets
• Vintage Postcards.

Final Thoughts!

Ready to decorate for Valentine’s Day? 

This is another holiday that I have never decorated for before having grown up overseas were it wasn’t celebrated, but it sounds like a lovely old fashioned holiday. I’m looking forward to adding some romantic touches to my home for a bit. We may even try to have a candle light dinner with those pretty table setting ideas.

What about you? Are you ready to decorate?

Inspired? Please, PIN IT so that someone else can be inspired, too!

Hey homemaker, are mornings a struggle for you? Maybe you struggle having a productive day as a homemaker. I hope that sharing my simple morning routine will inspire you to be a productive homemaker!

Do you love reading other homemakers morning routines? I do even though I have a simple morning routine in place. Seeing how other busy homemakers do to prepare for another wonderful day of homemaking is always inspiring!

Mornings can be such a struggle, but having a simple morning routine is a game changer. Not only will this morning routine help you get up early, but it will also help you get a head start on homemaking before your kids wake up. And who doesn’t want to be ahead?

I know for me that a productive morning leads to a productive day so here are my 5 simple morning routine ideas to help you be a more productive homemaker!

Get up at the same time every day.

I would say get up early, but that can mean several different things. And when is early enough? 6:30? 5:00? 4:30?

Perhaps you don’t struggle with this, but I do. I can get up “early” like 5:30 or 6, but it’s just really hard to consistently do this every day.

I find that waking up at 7 every day is an achievable goal for me, even when I have to wake up in the night with the children. It’s about the time when the sun comes up where I live, give or take 30 minutes throughout the year. Some may call this late, but it works well for me. It seems to be a sweet spot. 

If you struggle with “waking up early“, striving for consistency might be a better goal for you. 

Make breakfast. 

Breakfast is one of my favorite meals of the day, because eating a good breakfast helps me have a good start to my day. It is, however, one of my least favorite meals to make from scratch because it takes me awhile to wake up.

I try to keep it simple though, and make the same thing every day. A lot of times, it’s eggs, toast, and some fruit. A simple from scratch breakfast!

Sometimes I am ahead of the game, and I start some thing the day before, but when I don’t, this is my go to breakfast. I always have the things to make this on hand, and can whip it up no time. 

While waiting for the skillet to heat up so I can make my eggs, I do a few things around the house. 

Open the curtains. 

I love opening the curtains and letting in the morning light while breakfast cooks. The natural light brightens the morning literally, and figuratively as it helps me not be so groggy.

There is something elegant about having actual curtains rather than blinds too. It’s a simple, old-fashioned touch that makes me smile. I’m even contemplating having lace curtains because I love the dainty, elegance of lace. It’s so pretty! How fun would it be to get to tie back lace curtains every morning?

Start a load of laundry. 

After opening the curtains, the next thing I try to do is start a load of laundry. Doing a load nearly every day helps me stay on top of it, and if I started early before the children get up, it is more likely to get folded and put away.

I love getting ahead on things and starting a load of laundry before breakfast is one thing that I strive to do every morning. 

Reflect and devote. 

Taking time to reflect on God’s word, and devote your self, and your home to him is the secret to a good morning routine. Taking some time to read some scripture and pray, really brings peace into the home and orients you before the chaos of the day (especially if you have any children). 

Pursuing God, in this way, is one way homemakers from the past grew in virtue, and found the strength and grit to flourish no matter their circumstances.

Although I love all the old-fashioned things that homemakers from the past did, their grit and virtue are fast becoming my favorite old fashioned habits. This are some of the most necessary habits of homemakers who want to flourish, and their roots lie in daily time with God in his truth.

Finding time, for this is the difficult thing as a homemaker, especially in the morning. Morning time is my favorite time to do it, but to be honest, it doesn’t always happen then. On crazy days, I sometimes don’t get it in until the afternoon or even bedtime. Although it is difficult to fit in, it’s such a good and deeply refreshing time that I strive to do it every day.

Final Thoughts!

If mornings are a struggle for you, then you need a simple morning routine to help schedule those important morning hours. It doesn’t have to be super in depth or detailed. It is a lot easier to keep a simple morning routine. Having too many details to remember makes it too difficult.

After you have figured out a morning routine that works for you, you might find my daily routine to be helpful in creating a daily template so that your days can be more organized.

Were you inspired? PIN IT! so that others can be inspired too!

MORE ON HOMEMAKING!

Daily Routine: A Simple Daily Schedule for Homemakers

The Vintage House Dress: A Perfectly Simple Homemaking Dress Code

Old Fashioned Homemaking for the Modern Woman

Do you ever get tired of waking up in the morning and trying to figure out what to wear? Getting dressed can be such a stressful thing especially if your kids are already awake and want their breakfast.

What if we could simply grab something, throw it on, and know that without hardly thinking about it, we could be dressed both practically and attractively for whatever the day as a homemaker might look like?

This is why a house dress is the perfect homemaker outfit!

What is a house dress?

A house dress is a practical and comfy, yet attractive dress that is worn around the house. It’s practical enough to do housework in, yet nice enough to receive visitors or slip out and run errands in. You can dress them up for special occasions, easily add layers when you are cold, throw an apron on to do some housework, and pretty much anything else you need an outfit to do.

They easily cover all the bases and check all the boxes. It’s pretty easy to find or make nursing friendly and maternity ones so that you can have one wardrobe that covers every season of homemaking!

Do people still wear house dresses?

Although it’s not as common as it once was, house dresses are becoming more common. Homemakers have fallen back in love with the old-fashioned house dress, and it is almost become fashionable for women to wear dresses around the house again.

Can you wear a house dress outside?

This is the beauty of a house dress. They can be both practical and pretty. You can clean, garden, and run errands in them. It is the perfect homemaking outfit because it checks all the boxes and is suitable for anything you need to do.

Homemaking Dress Code

I personally have adopted the house dress as my homemaking dress code. Perhaps it is because I am old-fashioned but also because wearing dresses has always been special to me. They are naturally feminine and beautiful and I love them!

It’s easy to get dressed in the morning when you only have one garment to pick out. You just throw it on and you’re good to start your homemaking for the day. 

Recently, I hit that point where it was time to buy new clothes. Most of my outfits were well worn or heavily stained. It was time for a major wardrobe update, so I made the move and only bought dresses.

I found some on Amazon, but Jane had a better selection for almost half the cost.

I do try to save some of them for Sunday dresses as they are nicer, but for the price, I would not feel bad about wearing them every day or when I go out and about. 

One of them is reserved only for running errands and shopping. That way I know I will always have at least one presentable every day dress that I can wear in public. (You just never know what could happen when your mom.)

For my every day house dresses, I am learning to sew my own. This way, I can learn how to sew a dress without feeling too bad when I make a mistake or if they don’t fit just right. 

I’m not wearing my homemade dresses out and about just yet. My seamstress skills need a lot of improvement, but someday, when I learn how to make a decent attractive house dress, I’ll share the pattern with you. 

I love how affordable it is to sew your own dresses, too! For $15, I can buy enough fabric to make myself a dress and have enough fabric left over to make one for my little girl as well. (It’s been fun having matching dresses even if they aren’t perfect!)

Aprons

If you do adopt the old fashioned way of wearing house dresses, you should also consider wearing aprons over your house dresses. Especially if you or Mom of Littles, aprons will catch the majority of stains, spills, and spit up, keeping your cute house dresses in better condition for longer.

Final thoughts!

So what do you think? Are you in love with house dresses yet? Are you intrigued by this old-fashioned homemaking dress code?

PIN IT! So that others can be inspired, too!

More on Homemaking!

A Simple Daily Routine

How Can I Be A Happy Homemaker?

Old Fashioned Homemaking for Modern Women

5 Daily Homemaking Tasks

Structuring your days as a homemaker can really help you be productive. There’s so much to do and having a flexible daily routine cuts down on the stress, too. My daily routine is like a template that makes time for all my duties and some hobby time, but it’s still flexible enough to stand up to all the chaos that children can bring.

I always enjoy seeing how other homemakers structure their time, so I thought I would share my daily routine with you.

Morning Routine

Ideally, my day starts at 7. After waking up, I get dressed, and do a few things around the house, like open curtains, start breakfast, and also start a load of laundry.

RELATED POST: Morning Routine: How to be a Productive Homemaker

Breakfast

After breakfast is made, and on the table, I wake my children up, and get them dressed, and we sit down to eat. Afterwards, I clear the table, and rinse the dishes, so that they will be easier to wash later. We do not make very many dishes for breakfast, so I tend to wait to wash the dishes later. 

Reflection/Devotion Time

After breakfast, and while the children are content, I have some quiet time to devote my heart and home towards the Creator. 

I believe that one of the biggest secrets of old fashioned homemakers is that they were virtuous. They made their homes and lived their lives for the glory of God, and not just for themselves.  

They were good homemakers, because they practiced the daily habit of directing their hearts towards goodness, beauty, and truth all of which comes from God. 

It is very important if we are going to create a place to flourish, that we intentionally devote ourselves and our homes to God on a daily basis. It is also very hard to always carve out adequate time to do this every day, but what time I do get is always so sweet and prepares my heart for the day.

Plan the Day

After taking some quiet time, I pull out my notebook and write my to do list for the day. Making a plan for the day even just a simple list of things that I want to do is very effective in helping me have a productive day as a homemaker.

On the days that I do not make a plan, these days are almost always more chaotic, and not very productive at all. 

I also make sure during this time that I settle what we are having for lunch and dinner that day if I have failed to make a meal plan for the week. This also assures that I will have plenty of time in case I want to try to make something new.

Hey Friend!

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?

Are you struggling to manage your time at home?

Check out my new eBook Systems & Routines: Simple Time Management for Homemakers! It includes all that I have learned about systems and routines and how they have helped me manage my time and home well!

Business of the Day

The next section of time is given to the business of the day. I’ve fallen in love with the old fashioned idea of themed days. It really helps to break down my week with specific themes like cleaning day, shopping day, Sabbath, etc.

These things are done during the allotted time for the business of the day, which is from my quiet and planning time to around 11 o’clock in the morning when I start lunch. This gives me typically about an hour to a hour and a half to work on stuff with plenty of time for interruptions.

Lunch

Next comes a delicious from scratch lunch, which we typically eat around 11:30. I often take a few moments after eating to sit and watch a YouTube video or two about some thing I’m trying to learn, like lacemaking, bookbinding, or even some other area of homemaking. It’s a nice little productive reprieve in the middle of the day.

Dishes

At 12:30, I washed both breakfast and lunch dishes. We don’t make many dirty dishes for breakfast, so it works well to wait and wash them after lunch. I intentionally set a time to do dishes, or else I will put it off, and then it becomes a burden to do at some inopportune time later on in the day

Hobby Time

After dishes are done, the next bit of time up until 1:30 is my hobby time. I am a very creative person and I have learned that I do not flourish if I do not purposely take time to create things. 

This also gives me a chance to do things that I might’ve enjoyed before the children came along, but now I struggle to find time to do. It’s very important as moms to take time to sharpen what skills we have, and to do things that bring us joy. 

Currently, I’m working on sewing my own dresses, so this is when I pull out my machine and try to make some progress on a dress.

Sometimes the children do interrupt, but I have learned that they are actually really good at entertaining themselves. If I let them entertain themselves, this gives me some time to do something I really enjoy. Even when they do interrupt, I am usually still able to make some progress. 

Nap Time

At 1:30, my children go down for a nap, and I get to do whatever my heart desires. Sometimes I bake some cookies or do more research on a homemaking skill, but mostly I work on my blog. 

There is one thing, though, that is absolutely forbidden during this time and that is house work. It might seem like the most opportune time to do some extra cleaning organizing, but I refuse to use the most quiet time of the day to do chores. Protecting this personal time, keeps me sane and happy as a homemaker. 

Snack Time

Nap time is followed by the most important time of the day: SNACK TIME! Perhaps this is a little dramatic, but who doesn’t enjoy a good snack?! Maybe I just like food too much, but we really enjoy snacktime where we literally just enjoy a snack and each other’s company. 

Sometimes I take some extra time to play with my children afterwards and simply make them laugh. It will never hurt us grown-ups to be a child again and enjoy the simple things that entertain children. 

Tidy Routine

At 4, I start my tidy routine, where I fold laundry I start supper, and tidy up the house before my man comes home. We don’t eat till 5:30 or 6 but starting meal prep this early allows plenty of time to cook from scratch without rushing it.

While the food is cooking. The house gets organized, swept, the bathrooms touched up, and if there’s any time left over, I put a dent in the dishes.

Evening Routine

For me, the evening begins with setting the table and sitting down to enjoy a meal together as a family. This is followed by a kitchen reset and then enjoying whatever downtime we have together.

Often, I pull out some crochet when my husband reads or plays with the children. 

Then we put the children to bed around 8:30 and go to sleep ourselves. We have found that sleep really does help us flourish so we prioritize going to bed at a decent time although we are often tempted to stay up and read. There is usually very little time in the day to enjoy a good book. 

RELATED POST: Evening Routine: How to End Another Lovely Day as a Homemaker

Final Thoughts!

There can be so much chaos in homemaking especially with children, but be encouraged that homemaking is manageable. You can do what you need to do and still have time to spend on something you enjoy.

For the longest time, I thought it was impossible to give time to hobbies and things I enjoyed. It was just so hard to carve out time and be disciplined about it. My husband encouraged me to create a system to give order to things and creating this daily routine has truly changed my life and made homemaking so much easier. 

I truly hope you were encouraged and inspired in some way. If you were, please, PIN IT! so that someone else can find it and be encouraged or inspired by it, too!

MORE ON HOMEMAKING!

• Laundry Routine: How to Simplify your Laundry Schedule
• The Vintage House Dress: A Perfectly Simple Homemaking Dress Code
• 5 Daily Homemaking Tasks to Simplify Life