Winter Checklist: Homemaking Goals for the Winter Months

Have any ambitious goals on your winter checklist? While I love the idea of setting attainable  goals, I appreciate having a little bit of challenge in my attainable goals.

As I seek to pursue a more old fashioned life, the wisdom of becoming a skilled homemaker and an accomplished woman becomes more attractive and irresistible. There is so much to learn, so much intrigue, so much to create. With each passing month the richness of an old fashioned lifestyle draws me in and proves itself worth pursuing.

The following is my practical plan of how I am going to pursue old fashioned homemaking this winter. It may seem ambitious and nearly impossible, but I find that much of what I think is impossible loses its impossibility when I simply try for it. Here’s to my ambitious winter checklist and homemaking goals for the next few months.

Sewing

I have three goals in this area. The first is dressmaking, which literally means making all that you wear. While it would be fantastic to be at that point someday, I am going to take it literally and start with making my own dresses.

This past summer, I had the desire to start wearing dresses every day because it makes me feel feminine and pretty even when I’m just doing house work. Since clothing can get expensive, I started working on sewing my own dresses. 

It was nearly impossible to find a pattern to fit all my criteria of being attractive, nursing friendly, and maternity friendly. I needed something that would fit and last through all the different seasons of motherhood so I started working on my own pattern.

Now that I have crafted a simple pattern, my goal this winter is to make a total of six dresses for myself and six for my baby girl. I’ve made two so far for myself and one for my baby so that leaves nine dresses total.

My second sewing goal is to learn how to make linens for my home. I’ve been needing some new curtains and tea towels. I would love to get into using table cloths at every meal as well as cloth napkins. I can make all these things myself at a fraction of the cost instead of buying them already made. Besides, it’s so much fun picking out fabric.

I’ve made the curtains already, so that leaves…

• 6 tea towels
• 3 tablecloths
• 18 napkins

Crochet

My washcloths that I currently use are the same ones I got as a wedding gift. They have been around for far too long and it’s time to get some new ones. 

I thought I would try my hand at crocheting some washcloths and little scrubbing pads. The little round scrubbies are the perfect size that fit right into your hand which makes hand washing dishes much more enjoyable.

Shopping

Having a bulk pantry is something I truly deserve to desire in my home! I believe it will help me save money, and be more conscious of how much we do spend on groceries. Where to begin though is the challenge so I have come up with a simple plan to try out this winter.

I am going to challenge myself to only buy groceries once a month. That means fresh, frozen, and dry goods. 

Since I already can easily go a week without heading to the store, the plan is to slowly prolong the period into two weeks without grocery shopping. If I can go two weeks without shopping, then I can easily add on another week and go three weeks, and eventually stretch it out to four weeks which makes about a month.

The challenge will be preserving fresh produce I buy in order to make it last without going bad. I don’t know how to can yet, but I do know how to ferment and freeze things so that’s a start.

I’m actually very excited about this goal/challenge and can’t wait to pursue it! I may even dabble in water bath canning.

PLEASE, PIN IT!

Reading

Reading used to be a big part of my life, but since I became a mother, it’s a lot harder to get reading in so I have created a simple goal of reading at least one book a season. 

This comes out to a meager four books a year, but at this point, it’ll be a lot more than I have been reading and it is a very attainable goal.

The first book that I am going to read is called Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis. I have already started it several times. Hopefully, I can finish it this time. It’s so good and a perfect one to start with because it has short chapters. 

Gardening 

Sometimes I think I will never learn to grow my own food. Every spring, I aspire to be a gardener, but make very little progress. This last year, hardly anything edible survived the pests and heat, but I think much of my failure in this area is actually due to poor planning.

Once again, this year, it’s going to be different! I truly do hope that I can make some progress in gardening and I’m going to start by planning my garden this winter. 

Nothing too extravagant, just what I want to grow where and also buying the seeds ahead of time. I’m notorious for waiting till the last minute to do any gardening planning, but I’m promising myself to do it differently this year. 

Specific Skills to Learn

There are also some specific skills I want to start learning, and they are…

• Preserving fruit – other than freezing
• Making yogurt
• Learning a few stitches of limerick lace
• Mastering Mediterranean knotted lace

Final Thoughts!

Perhaps I am too ambitious, especially with the dressmaking, but it’s time to get new clothes. Besides I am already setting aside 4-5 hours to sew every week so it seems doable.

I think these goals are doable and as my dad told me growing up “You can always do more than you think you can.”

What about you, my old fashioned friend? Have any goals of learning and living out old fashioned homemaking? Any audacious dreams that you are going to take steps towards?

Any lost arts or forgotten skills that you want to pursue?

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Old Fashioned Winter Hobbies