I found a couple of blogs that have renewed my enthusiasm for the kind of homemaker I aspire to be: centered, purposeful, frugal, creative, thoughtful, responsible… The target audience is definitely the stay-at-home mom, but lots of the articles deal with issues of meal planning, home organization, de-cluttering, budgeting, and personal attitude that are really applicable to any adult woman. Most of the “mom” articles are about kids who are toddlers or school-aged, but I’ve enjoyed reading them regardless. So here are some links…
I’m having fun following links on post comments, and I’m finding lots more good reading. The common denominator between these sites is an attempt at living simply and thoughtfully, rather than getting caught up in busyness and clutter. Sounds great, doesn’t it?
So far my favorite tip that I’ve read is about house cleaning. The author has a daily chore chart for essential sanitizing and de-cluttering. Beyond that, she says that she only “deep” cleans when something gets bad enough that she really notices and it starts to bother her. And at that point, she just cleans that thing– if you notice a scuff on the baseboard, get a Magic Eraser and clean that scuff, don’t wait until you have a chance (or motivation) to clean all of the baseboards in the house. If you are grossed out by the dust collecting on the mantel, than dust it, but don’t feel obligated to finish off the whole room.
I like it! Seems similar to what I’m trying with my chore chart, but gives me some freedom not to worry about the “deep” cleaning that is not on my daily list.
Let the adventure of becoming domesticated continue!
July 2, 2009 at 9:30 pm
I was just going to send you an email about this! I really like motivatedmoms.com — bought ($8) and printed their at-a-glance planner. I tried to make my own list but actually got bogged down just doing that and trying to make sure everything got covered. The list has daily chores (making beds and such) and then special tasks (honestly these are things I would never think about doing — cleaning the front of my dishwasher???). It is in checklist format so I get my dorky-need reward in marking things off as I get to them. Depending on my day I set different goals: some days my only goal is to get the daily chores done; some days I want to tackle a bunch of the special tasks and let the daily things go for a day; some days I want to get daily chores and one task and some days I just want to make sure I get one daily chore done (this is usually sick-kid-need-to-grocery-shop-and-preschool day).
The tasks are nicely balanced to ensure you have time to get to them (specifies cleaning out only one kitchen drawer — one my tasks for today actually). And it helps to ensure that I don’t spend my family’s weekend time being the Clean Queen — I do the work during the week while Luke is at work and then we can all enjoy the weekend together. The nice thing is the gentle reminders it plugs in for me — like read to the kids (it sounds harsh but some days just seeing that refocuses me); when to buy gifts (or at least think about them) for the coming month; daily scripture to read and then study. It also plans in time for mom — usually lists scrapbooking but I put in what I want instead. Also — I keep a list of things I’d like to get around to so I can sub when the list gives me a chore that doesn’t apply (water indoor plants — yeah, not with this black thumb — we have silk).
That sounded way too much like a commercial…
July 3, 2009 at 10:01 am
I have been reading simple mom for a while and I am a big fan! I love all your summer blogging!