Habits of the Home

If you have seen my first few posts, you already know that my primary charge right now is as a wife and homeschooling mother to three. I have fully embraced the homemaking aspect of our day and it brings me great joy when I can use my talents to bring warmth and enjoyment to our home. I will say that life has not always been this way.

As I think back to my married life before children, my husband and I were both working and making our best efforts to progress in our careers. In doing all of that, we still had to make time to manage the affairs of the home. We still had to make time to do the grocery shopping, laundry, deep cleaning etc. We both felt like the weekend went way too fast and left little time to actually relax and recharge for the week ahead.

Once we made the shift and started to build our family to include children, our habits of the home had to shift as well. Since I am home full time now, I do most of the general tasks and have developed systems that work well for us. Today I am sharing what works for our family of five. Feel free to adopt and change these systems as you see fit.

Tip one: Starting the day before my family. I currently wake at 4 am (I know this does not work for everyone; maybe you can wake at 6am) the goal is to give yourself 30 minutes to an hour of time before the rest of the family wakes up. I call the early wake up time my golden hour. I use this time to do my Bible studies, internet housekeeping (answering emails etc) and to get a moment of clarity before I start my day. I also use this time to formalize a schedule for our household for the day.

 Tip two: Meal Prep. For some meal prep means batch cooking for the week or several days, for others it might mean something else. In our family meal prep takes two forms. At the beginning of each month, I use a simple printable calendar that I find online and I plan our meals for the month. I plan a breakfast, lunch and dinner option for each day. While this might seem like a strict way to look at the month, it’s just a guide. There are days when we follow the plan to the letter and there are days when we might be spontaneous and get pizza. It’s just a guide. I find having this guide really helps me throughout the day and takes the guesswork out of mealtime. It also gives me a chance to see what we are eating and where we can introduce new dishes to try.

Tip three: Buy in bulk. We are a single income family and we are able to do this by being diligent with our finances. We make one major trip to the grocery stores each month. We have a membership with a major food club and there I buy everyday items in bulk. I buy toiletries, cleaning supplies, pantry staples, seafood and some fresh produce. The rest of the shopping list is completed at an organic food chain for meat and a local supermarket for specialty foods. We have been doing this big once per month shop for several years and it has been such an amazing financial shift. Once I make the meal plan for the month I know exactly what I will need from the grocery stores. Bonus tip: Always go to the grocery stores with a list. As life would have it there are times where we might run out of a few things throughout the month and in those instances, we will shop locally but we do our best to limit this practice.

Now I understand for various reasons this might not work for your household but again you can take the tip and adapt it to your home. Maybe you meal plan one week at a time. I find if you know what you are going to cook you are less likely to eat out. Our family is also big on leftovers so we batch cook a lot and those leftovers can be used for lunch or dinner for the next day. That is one less meal I have to prepare from scratch therefore freeing up more time to be with my family.

Tip Four: Skip or limit fast foods. We are in and out of the car several days per week but one thing remains constant if I know we will be out for a few hours I pack a lunch for everyone adults included. Since I wake early, I know ahead of time what we will be doing for the day and I make time to pack a bagged lunch for everyone before we leave the house if we are heading out for the day. That way we can go about our day without ever stopping for food. Furthermore, I try to make sure if we are leaving the house for the day that I already know what will be eating for dinner so once we get back home I can get that done. No scratching my head trying to figure out what I will make for dinner because I am either reheating leftovers or I can use the meal plan I made ahead of time. It all circles back!

Tip Five: Create a cleaning rhythm. I will break up this tip into three parts. The first will be the general living areas of your home; these are usually high traffic areas where clutter tends to build up. For example near the door most often used there might be a clutter of shoes. Additionally, you might have toys all over your living room area. Here is what we do to address this. Twice daily I do a 10 -minute walk through of these areas. I have a morning cleaning rhythm and a nighttime cleaning rhythm. Before school, I walk through high traffic areas to tidy and put away anything that might be seen as clutter. At the end of the day, I do the same before heading to bed.

Systems that work for us:

In our home shoes and toys are kept in designated locations to minimize clutter. As soon as we get home, shoes are taken off and placed in their designated spots. We implemented this routine and it quickly became a habit. I no longer have to tell my children to put their shoes away because they do this automatically. The same with toys and books. We keep large toy bins in various parts of our home so cleanup is not laborious.

The second part of my cleaning rhythm relates to the kitchen. On days when we are home all day, we are doing dishes at least three times for the day. One child is assigned breakfast and lunch dishes and another is assigned dinner dishes. Once we finish a meal, we tackle the dishes and I clean up the stove and sweep away crumbs etc. This keeps our kitchen clean and ready for the next meal. One thing I really stress is to ensure I leave my kitchen clean at night before going to bed. We do not have a dishwasher but if you do run it at night and you will thank yourself in the morning. Cleaning countertops and floors at night should also be part of your nighttime rhythm. If your children are older, enlist their help. That gives you more time to have general conversation and to have them feel like they are making meaningful contributions to the home.

The third part of the cleaning rhythm includes laundry, deep cleaning and other tasks. Having a laundry schedule is paramount for keeping up with it. If that means doing a load which yes means folding and putting it away in one day or doing all the laundry once per week. Whatever your schedule prioritize it and stick to it in order to prevent overwhelm. Deep cleaning happens once per week for us. Our children are big players in helping around the home and that helps to maintain it daily but once per week I go through all the rooms and do a deep clean. This is refreshing for us all and again I enlist all the help I can get to ensure I am not being overworked or spending all day cleaning.

I want to encourage you to do what makes sense in your family. Some of these tips might not work for you but if they do feel free to adopt them and tell me, how they have changed your life. I hope I inspired you to go and look for areas where you may improve your life. As you move through your journey, know that you have someone championing your cause in your corner. I want to see you win; I want to see you succeed. So be encouraged to go out and be your best you today!

Thanks for stopping by For Your Heart and Home!