How To Be A Homemaker When You Hate Housework

Becoming a homemaker won’t happen overnight. You have to be kind to yourself and allow yourself to create good habits. Take one day at a time. If you hate housework, if family life is chaotic like it is in my house, or if you work outside the home full time, you’re not going to know how to be a good homemaker overnight. You won’t have the time to learn those skills all in one day. You will have to learn to spend a little bit of time each day understanding how to manage your day correctly, making minor tweaks to your day to make your life a little bit easier.
Don’t worry about being a good homemaker. Don’t think you’ve got to be a better homemaker than you already are. You are going to learn to manage your day to fit in with your family and life.
So let’s start on this homemaking 101 journey.

1. Keep two simple lists.

   Working from a list is not everybody’s idea of fun. I know how hard it can be to keep on top of your list.
   It can be pretty soul-destroying when you don’t complete the jobs you’ve added to your list. It can be a motivation crusher; however, the system I use is designed to ensure that you are only starting the jobs you can do within your time constraints and physical abilities.
   If you hate lists, that’s fine. I’m not suggesting that you control your whole life with a list, but just jotting down a few little things running around your brain to get them out of your thoughts helps to get out of the dilemma and prevents the dreaded procrastination.
   
   A weekly planner is your friend. It’s not a list of jobs you must do and cross out. It is just a record of things like
   ✔️Where do you and your kids need to be
   ✔️What’s for dinner
   ✔️ Birthdays, anniversaries, etc.
   ✔️ What you need to pick up at the store
   ✔️ Bills to be paid
   ✔️ kid’s school reminders include non-uniform days, swimming, school photos, and book days.
   
   So I’m sure you can manage that without too much stress. A weekly planner helps keep you organized and ensures you don’t forget important things.
   Your weekly planner should be kept somewhere where you can see it and check it regularly throughout the day.
   I like to cross off everywhere I’ve been, everything I’ve done, and everything I’ve organized to leave only t the things that need to be done.
   I keep my weekly planner in the kitchen next to my food prep area so that when I’m cooking tea, getting the kid’s breakfasts, or making my lunch, I can keep checking to ensure I’ve not forgotten anything.
   I usually have my weekly planner planned out at least two weeks in advance, so I know exactly what I’m doing and where I’m going, whether any birthdays are coming up, and the things I need to plan for these weekdays.
   
   To-do list
   My second list is a to-do list written down on a long thin shopping list pad like this one . This is not a usual to-do list that gives you pressure to get all the jobs done that day and makes you feel like a failure if you don’t accomplish them all.
   This is a list of jobs I’d like to get done next when I’ve got 15 minutes of spare time. for instance,
   ✔️ Spot cleaning the walls,
   ✔️ Washing the windows
   ✔️ 15 minutes tidying the garden
   ✔️ Cleaning under my son’s bird
   ✔️ Declutter a drawer
   ✔️ Clean out a kitchen cupboard.
   I try to finish at least one of these jobs each day, but I never stress if I don’t have time.
   
   As I walk around the house and notice anything I think needs to be done, I will add it to the bottom of the list. If the job is time-consuming, like gardening, I will break it down into 15 minutes at a time. A job doesn’t go on this list if it takes longer than 15 minutes to complete.
   This allows me to catch jobs I keep thinking about as I see them but don’t have time to do.
   
   What I love about this list is that when I’m tempted to procrastinate and leave one chore to start another, I know that it’s on my list and that I’ll eventually get around to it later in the week when I’ve done all the other jobs.
   
   There is a method to this list, and it’s the only way that works.
   Don’t be tempted to pick the easy jobs off the list and procrastinate on the most demanding tasks, as this is unproductive, and you will only find that you’re left with a great long list of jobs you don’t want to do and are never going to get done.
   
   When you work on a list like this, often you’ll find that jobs like wiping down the banisters or Spot cleaning the walls will only take you two or three minutes a day; however, if you’ve cherry-picked all the nice easy jobs and left all the awful jobs, you might well find that those jobs will take you a lot longer.
   
   I try to work from the top of the list to the bottom; that way, all the jobs get done equally, even those I don’t like doing. This is the only way to get work done that I don’t like and prevent procrastination.
   
   You’re never going to find the motivation to tackle a list of jobs you don’t want to do, so work through my system, write your list as you go around the house, and only start on the jobs in the order that they are written on the list.
   
   If you haven’t got time to tackle the jobs at the top of the list, don’t start; wait until you have time to tackle the job at the top.
   
   You’ll be surprised how much you get done by using this method. It’s the method my mum uses, it’s worked for her for over 50 years, and her house is immaculate even though she suffers from a bad back and has problems with mobility.

2. Get up early

   OK, I know everybody hates getting up early, and I’m not trying to tell all the mums who’ve been up all night with their babies to have less sleep; this doesn’t apply to you as you’ve been up all night anyway!
   But for the rest of us, try to get up at least half an hour earlier than the rest of the family to give yourself a head start.
   I use this time to:
   ✔️ Get breakfast ready
   ✔️ Empty the dishwasher
   ✔️ Feed the cats
   ✔️Start a load of laundry.
   
   They say the best time to be productive is to get up at 5 am, but I’m not that cruel! Aim for half an hour before the rest of the family gets up. Even half an hour can make a massive difference in the work you can get done before everybody else gets up and starts making those demands on your time.
   
   

3. Spend an hour every day on housework.

   I know what you’re thinking. You’ve got to cook tea, get the kids to sports, stop at the supermarket, fill the car with petrol, and numerous other things besides working full time. There isn’t time to do an hour every day on housework. Well, I’m telling you, you can do this. Your hour of housework doesn’t have to be done in the morning, and it doesn’t have to be done all in one hour. You can split it into half an hour or even 15-minute slots to fit in with your day.
   Turn off the TV, put down your phone, and only pick them up when your hour of housework is done. If you’re a stay-at-home mum or work from home and your kids are in school, try to get an hour’s worth of tidying up, and housework done before you start work.
   Set a timer and:
   ✔️ Make the beds
   ✔️ Tidy every room
   ✔️ Wipe down the bathrooms
   ✔️ Put a load of laundry on.
   ✔️ Prepare anything that you need for making dinner.
   
   You’ll be amazed at the number of jobs you can tick off your list in one hour every morning!

4. Make sure you clear up immediately after every meal.

   Fill up the dishwasher, empty it when the cycle has finished, and clean the surfaces before you sit down to watch TV or relax. This way, you can keep on top of the dishes and always have a clean kitchen.

5. Prepare your laundry before you go to bed.

   Before you go to bed, prepare one load of washing to put in the machine. This takes a couple of seconds but gives you a headstart on your day and helps you to conquer the laundry pile.
   I like to put my laundry in the washing machine and set it on a timer to start an hour before I get up in the morning so it’s freshly cleaned and ready to put in the dryer or hang on the line on a nice day.
   If you want to be organized, have another basket of washing ready to put in when the first one has finished.
   To learn more tips on staying on top of the laundry pile, read this post.

6. Spot-clean everything.

   Instead of spending ages cleaning everything like walls, light switches, doors, and kitchen cupboards, try spot cleaning as you see dirt.
   You must carry a cloth dipped in hot soapy water and a magic eraser for this. If you see a spot when you’re walking about, clean it.
   Clean it with a cloth of soapy water first. You can try a magic eraser if the mark doesn’t rub off straight away.
   Before you use a magic eraser, test it in an inconspicuous area before you clean because they are very abrasive and may take off the paint or scratch glossy surfaces.
   To find out how professionals clean a house quickly, read this post to get some tips on cleaning your home quickly without using so much energy.

7. Spot clean floors

   The same method can be applied when cleaning floors. Rather than mopping each day, take a soapy cloth and clean up any spots of dried food, footprints, or water spots. This should allow you to save time mopping daily.
   Read this post to find out how to clean floors quickly and efficiently.

8. Sweep daily.

   I know this sounds like quite a lot to do each day, but if you sweep in high-traffic areas daily, it saves time having to do a great big clean later in the week. It means you’re keeping on top of the dirt, not tracking it into the rest of the house.
   When high-traffic areas are clean, less dirt is tracked upstairs, so you won’t need to vacuum upstairs as often.
   You can whizz around quickly with your broom, set your vacuum on the hardwood setting, and run over your high-traffic areas in a few minutes. That’s all it takes.
   If you’ve got pets, the hair can get everywhere, so it is imperative to keep on top of it, and a quick sweep around each day should help you to do that. In this post, find out which broom best controls pet hair.

9. Make your bed.

   Making all the beds in the house encourages your family to keep the rest of the room clean and tidy and gives the impression that the house is clean. Read how to make the perfect bed in this post.

10. Open windows.

    Airing the house allows you to keep it smelling fresh every day, even if you haven’t had time to clean it. So if visitors arrive, the house smells fresh and clean, and no smells from last night’s dinner will linger.
    A clean home doesn’t smell of cleaning products. A clean house smells of nothing; it smells of fresh air and is not stuffy.
    Read this post to find out how I keep my house smelling clean and fresh by airing out the house every day. I’ll show you how airing out your house for just three minutes every morning can make such a massive difference to the air quality in your home.