8 Tips to Hack Your Homemaking
If a quick scroll through Instagram or Pinterest makes you feel like you’re failing the homemaking game, you’re in the right place! I have 8 tips to help you hack your homemaking, even if you aren’t a “natural” homemaker! I am not a natural homemaker myself - and as a mom of eight, a hobby-farm homesteader, a homeschool mom - I’ve had to learn some tips and tricks along the way to keep our home chugging along while I’m busy growing flowers, food, and children!
I have failed, A LOT, but I have also learned a lot! And while I have not yet achieved perfection - I’ve figured out how to hack homemaking. Are you ready to learn how? Let’s do this!
Prioritize
What is most important to you in your day? Without knowing your priorities, you’ll just blow like a seed in the wind, never making progress. Don’t worry about what other people are prioritizing, really think about what’s right and best for you and your family. Priorities are about YOU! Tidy house? Kids dressed and looking cute? Clean sink at night? I prioritize what makes me feel best, and I encourage you to do the same
Stop Comparing
Stop comparing yourself to other people. It’s hard, I know. As someone quickly approaching 40, I can tell you that putting those blinders on to keep you focused on YOUR path gets easier as you get older. Don’t compare your home and what it looks like to others. You only know what people choose to show you, not the whole truth. Your friend’s house may be spotless every single time you show up for a playdate, but you don’t know what her day to day looks like. Unless you live with someone, you’re never actually seeing the whole story, the big picture! So STOP thinking that everyone else has it all together all the time - they don’t!
Create a Routine
I am vehemently anti-schedule. Someone telling me I have to do something every day at this exact time makes me want to not do it. So I’ve learned to reframe it, to think of it as a routine, as a flow to do the day. I’m just not Type A enough to stick to a strict schedule, but I can absolutely go along with a rhythm and routine that flows. Find a routine that works for you, and make it as strict or as loose as YOU need it to be. Bonus = routines allow for a sense of safety and security for kids, most kids thrive knowing what to expect day to day. If you need a little help coming up with a workable routine for your family, you can find my printables for routines here!
Figure Out Your Stuff
A big key for me in hacking my homemaking was to figure out my stuff! As in, what’s my happy place for the amount of stuff in my home? (The book Essentialism by Greg McKeown was very helpful for me!) I am not good at minimalism myself, but only you can decide what the right amount of stuff is for you, your home, and your family. If a particular room or category of things is getting out of control, if I have crossed the threshold of too much stuff, I know it’s time to reassess and get rid of some things. Once you determine what the right amount is for you and your family, STICK TO IT! Don’t add more, and don’t take away more than you want to. Knowing your “just right” will help you keep your home manageable!
Delegate Chores
You’re a mom, not a maid. Being a homemaker is about the ethos of my home, the big picture of caring for my family and home, but it does not mean that I am responsible for doing everything myself. You can raise self-sufficient children by allowing them to participate in the care of your home, and isn’t that the goal for all of us? Ask for help in the areas you need it, assign tasks to your kids and to your partner (if you have one). Don’t sacrifice yourself on the altar of doing it all yourself and never needing help from anyone else. You’re not a maid, and you’re also not a martyr!
Meal Plan
If you really want to feel like you’ve hacked this homemaker gig, feeding your family homemade, nutritious meals will definitely do that! You don’t have to reinvent the wheel every meal. Pick your families favorites. Breakfast for dinner, Taco Tuesday, Pasta Thursday…figure out a rotation of meals and types of meals and stick to it! Pick one or two new recipes a week, not every night (heck, you can do just one new recipe a month if you want to!). Nobody is gonna die from eating the same few favorites most of the time - it will simplify your life and your grocery shopping immensely, and free up brain space for all the other things you’ve prioritized for your home and family. You can find my meal planning template here if you need a hand getting started!
Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
We can so easily get caught up in little things that don’t matter, and it makes us spiral believing that we’re failing! We lose sight of the big picture of our family and home and how things are actually going. I have been as guilty as the next person, but maybe I’m old and tired - because the older I’ve gotten, the less I tend to sweat the small stuff. It really helps your mindset when you have older kids who can tell you that they don’t remember the stuff that made you feel like you were failing - we tend to stress about things that don’t really matter in the long run. Let it go, okay? Maybe you need to watch Frozen a couple more times! Stop sweating the small stuff and move on with your day. If it won’t matter in five years, don’t give it more than five minutes of time in your brain! Your future self with thank you for saving yourself all that stress and worry!
Keep the Right Perspective
A posture of gratitude and thankfulness with a heavy dose of perspective on your life and circumstances will go a long way when it comes to hacking your homemaking. This isn’t about comparing our lives to others, but it’s just so true that gratitude for what we have and are able to do helps us to keep our lives in perspective. And when you think about where you were a month, a year, a few years ago - are you growing and improving? I bet you are! I am always trying to do my best, but I no longer beat myself up when I feel like I’ve failed or dropped the ball. Life is full of ups and downs, highs and lows, and the same is going to be true for managing your home. You will go through seasons where it just feels hard, and times when everything runs like a well-oiled machine - and hopefully some of these hacks will keep you feeling like you can handle it no matter what!
At the end of the day, you are a wonderful mother and spouse - the fact that you’re trying to figure it out means that you care, and not everyone even realizes they should care about these things! Keep on trucking, mama, and don’t sweat the small stuff!