Ultimate Beginners Homemaking Guide
I remember being a little girl dreaming of my future husband and home. Being a wife, mother and homemaker just seemed so exciting!
I dreamed of the picnics I’d go on in with my kids, the elaborate meals I would make and the beautiful home I’d keep. Honestly, I actually thought being a housewife would be so easy and I’d be great at it.
Now that I am a housewife there have been a lot more challenges than I ever thought. While I do love it and am grateful to be a housewife and homeschool my kids there was a lot to learn in the process.
If homemaking is what you’d love to do, then this homemaking guide is for you! I’ll share the many tips I have learned in the decade I have been keeping home. From meal planning, creating cleaning schedules and more, so let’s get started!
What Is A Homemaker?
I think it’s important to first understand what a homemaker even is! By definition a homemaker is the person who runs the home and keeps the home going.
This person, which is normally a woman keeps the home clean, cooks for children, runs errands, plans out meals and greatly influences the mood and atmosphere of the home. A homemaker is extremely important and should strive to make their home a pleasant place to be in.
Everyone wants to be able to come home at the end of the day to a clean comfortable home where they can relax and be there selves.
What Does A Homemaker Do?
A homemaker is responsible for running the home. We will go through some of these tasks in more detail just below. But a homemaker generally does the majority of cooking, cleaning, raising kids, grocery shopping, budgeting, decorating, gardening and running errands.
Meal Planning
A huge part of homemaking is food! At first this can be a bit daunting and can take some time to get used to. I wrote a whole blog post on Simple Meal Prep Ideas. I share practical tips on how to make sure your home is stocked and ready for easy meals.
Learning what staples, you use in your kitchen and having them on hand will make making food from scratch a whole lot easier. After you start making 3 meals a day for the forcibly future you are going to want to simplify your meals.
Having certain go to meals that are quick, easy and contain things you always have on hand will really help when you’re in a pinch for time.
Grocery Shopping
Groceries are an important part of homemaking. It can also take up a bit of the weekly budge as food isn’t really cheap these days. I wrote a post on 12 Ways To Save Money On Groceries that will help you to buy good quality food for a lot less.
This is how I feed my family of 5 for 3 meals a day for about $200 a week. There are many food products out there that are loaded with additives.
Learning to read food labels and buying in season local food can really help improve quality of what you are buying.
Cleaning
Something that never seems to end in the home is cleaning. There is always something that can be cleaned whether it’s dishes, laundry, bathrooms, counter tops and floor it always seems to be on repeat.
Creating a cleaning schedule for this reason can be extremely helpful! Having a rhythm to your days and weeks will make keeping on top of the home a lot less stressful and easier.
For a more in-depth article on creating your own rhythm for you home you can click here! How To Create A Peaceful Homemaking Schedule
Raising Kids
Kids in generally a big part of the homemaking journey. Whether you choose to homeschool your kids or not, you are still in charge of feeding them, making sure they are clothed and taken care of.
Kids really show us in what areas we need to grow in. Whether it’s patience, are attitudes and what we say. They become almost like little mirrors reflecting us for the good and the bad.
Whether your kids are very little or older it’s important to get them used to helping around the home. I wrote a post on how to Teach Life Skills To Kids By Doing Chores! It’s important for kids to get involved and learn the skills they need when they are older. You can never have enough life skills.
I also wrote a post on 20 Life Skills Children Should Learn, that goes into a bit more depth on certain life skills, how to teach them and why.
Cooking
This is something you will be doing all the time, so here are a few recommendations to help make cooking more enjoyable and easier.
- Keep your staples on hand, like spices, pasta, pasta sauce, rice, root vegetables and meats to name a few.
- Try to have simple sides, salad, frozen vegetables, sauerkraut, boiled eggs, sliced cheese, sliced raw vegetables. Having some simple sides to go with a meal makes a dish come together faster and can be pretty versatile. Plus, you can have these prepped ahead of time.
- Get meat out first thing in the morning so it’s defrosted and ready to be cooked for dinner.
- Have a repertoire of a few simple meal ideas you can throw together in 30 minutes or less when you are short on time.
- Try something new once a week for fun, to learn new skills and keep things interesting in the kitchen. Experimenting can be half the fun!
What Skills Should A Homemaker Have?
While there are many skills a homemaker can and should have below, I will list just a few. Learning and growing as a person and homemaker is part of the fun and I encourage you to continue to grow.
While I list a few important skills below I do have a thorough post about Homemaking Skills To Help You Be A Better Housewife that you might enjoy!
Time Management
You need this if you want your home to run smoothly! Keeping track on how you spend your time can really help your day flow better.
- Be aware of how much time you spend on electronics like social media or watching tv. These are big time wasters!
- Have a list of the most important things to get done to the least. Do the things you really want to get done first and the rest can wait if need be.
- Don’t do too much in a day, keep things manageable or you will where yourself out.
- Don’t multitask it actually takes longer to get the tasks done!
For more practical tips and ideas you can click the link below!
Time Management Tips For The Homemaker
Scheduling
You will find that creating a schedule or rhythm to your days, weeks and months to be extremely helpful. Knowing that you don’t have to do everything in one day and having tasks spread out really makes running a home more manageable.
- Write a list of everything you want to get done in your home.
- Break it down into things that need to get done monthly like maybe cleaning the oven, cleaning out kitchen cupboards and wiping down skirtings.
- Then write down weekly tasks such as mopping floors, wash bedding and cleaning out the fridge.
- Afterward write down daily tasks like wiping kitchen counter down, washing dishes and making beds as an example.
- Schedule in a little cleaning every day. This will make life so much simpler! Doing a load of laundry a day is easier than doing 5 loads in one day!
Figure out your main priorities and focus first on those things. If homeschooling your kids and making sure they are getting nourishing food is a top priority, then focus on that. Focus on getting those things done so you can say your day has been successful.
If you want a thorough post on How To Create A Peaceful Homemaking Schedule you will love this post!
Budgeting
Learning how to budget is a very important homemaking skill to have. It might not be the funnest initially, but it will one of the handiest. Having a list made up with how much money is coming in regularly to how much money is going out is important.
This allows you to visually see where your money is going, where you can potentially save more, and helps you keep within your budget.
I have been there when money was tight. Having a budget and keeping to it allowed us to save even when there wasn’t a lot coming in. I wrote a thorough post on this topic, post link is just below!
How To Save Money On A Low Income
Decluttering
It is amazing the number of things we can collect over the weeks, months and years in our homes. This leads to a lot of clutter as things get broken, miss placed and no longer used.
Being able to regularly go through your home and remove these items will make your life so much easier. When you declutter, you are freeing up space in your home and reducing the amount of cleaning you have to do.
The less things in your home the less you are looking after.
While decluttering might initially seem daunting if done regularly it can be enjoyable and very easy. If you want to learn How To Successfully Declutter Your Home Quickly you will love this post!
Cultivating Beauty And Peace
A big part of homemaking is creating a visually beautiful home for your family and yourself but also creating a peaceful atmosphere. Here are some tips and ideas on how to do that.
Creating A Beautiful Home
Creating a beautiful home will look different for everyone. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder is it not. There are many ways to create beauty whether through art, specific eye-catching pieces, comfortable couch pillows, rugs and more.
There are many unique ways to make a beautiful home. It doesn’t have to cost a lot to have a beautiful home either.
Slowly with time you will find pieces that mean something to you, you will fill your home with pictures on the walls, lamps in corners for reading together and make your space your very own.
If you want to read more about How To Create A Cozy Home You Love you will love this post.
Finding Joy as a homemaker
I think it’s important to note that at the beginning it can be very hard going from a life that revolved around yourself to now a life revolving around everyone else. Doing the same tasks every day, feeling unappreciated and loneliness can be common in homemakers.
It’s important to notice these things and find ways to bring joy into your everyday homemaking if this is you. I know I personally struggled a lot more than I thought I would.
Doing little things like having music playing in the background, burning candles in the areas I’m in, and having flowers in vases really helped me find joy. I wrote a whole post talking about many easy and practical ways on How To Enjoy Homemaking!
Self care for homemakers
Finally in today’s post I want to mention taking care of yourself. It’s so easy to lose oneself once you become a wife and mother. Making sure you take care of physical and mental health is extremely important.
Not just for you but for the whole family. Your mood will set the tone for the whole house, and kids seem to feel the emotions you are feeling and act out accordingly.
Little ways to look after yourself would be to enjoy a warm beverage. Read a book for a few minutes a day before the kids are awake or after they go to bed. Go outside for a few minutes and enjoy the sunshine.
Once again, I did write a whole blog post on Self Care For The Busy Mom And Homemaker. This post contains a lot of practical tips and ideas to ensure you are looked after as well. You can’t give from an empty cup!
Conclusion
I hope you found this homemaking guide helpful and filled with valuable information for you. There are many roles and responsibilities that a homemaker takes on.
While this can initially seem daunting and hard to struggle to begin with, with time it does get easier. I wish you the best in your homemaking ventures and will see you again in my next post! Happy homemaking!
