How to be a More Productive Homemaker

Do you struggle with your homemaking and feel like you’re not the as productive as you could be? Check out these homemaking tips and hacks to help you be a better homemaker.

Homemaking is really becoming a passion of mine. When my husband and I first got married, we knew that once we started having babies I would stay home with the kiddos and take care of them and our home.

I’ve always wanted to be a wife, a mom, and a homemaker. That being said, I’m try to always think of homemaking as my job. This makes me feel more responsible with it and like I need to treat it as something that’s very important.

I love listening to other women’s advice and getting as many homemaking tips and homemaking ideas as I can. I am far, far from perfect but learning the best ways to create a haven and care for a happy, clean, efficient, and welcoming home is something I’ll always enjoy.

Homemaking, like a job, is something that we can always be improving in. We should continuously be learning how to be more efficient and effective homemakers, happier homemakers, etc.

Are you wanting to up your homemaking game and be more productive? I’ll show you what I’ve learned with these 6 tips on how to be a more productive homemaker.

Have a Plan

I am a big believer in planning. I know this doesn’t work for everyone, but I encourage you to at least give it a try.

There are so many different areas with your homemaking that you can make an intentional plan for. You can try things like meal planning, cleaning schedules, daily to-do lists, planning out weekly and monthly schedules, etc.

Creating plans within your homemaking will allow you to be more productive and efficient with your time. It will ease a lot of the stress that can come with not knowing what to do and not feeling like you’re getting anything done.

Its up to you what areas of your homemaking you want to plan. Try different things and see what works!

How to create plans as a homemaker:

• First, write down all of the different areas in your homemaking that you’d like to try having a plan for. Again, this can include meal planning, cleaning schedules, daily to-do lists, morning and evening routines, etc. If your family is really involved in the community and participates in a lot of different events, its great to plan those out as well.
• Now, do a brain dump and jot down all of your ideas that come to mind in each of those areas. Anything that comes to mind. For example in meal planning you can write down the day of the week you’d consider planning on, different meals you want to include your meal planning, advice you’ve heard of for successful meal planning, etc.
• Finally, make your plans! This can look different for everyone and how you plan and what you plan. For me, I like to keep a good sized, yearly planner that I refer to every day. In the back of the planner it has a notes section where I would keep all of the brainstorming notes I mentioned above. Every weekend, usually on Sunday, I make my plans for the coming week. Every evening I try to go over the following day’s schedule and plan. And once a month I jot down monthly plans.

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But Still Be Flexible

Even though its important that you have plans in your homemaking, its almost just as important that you are flexible with them. Taking care of a home, kids, pets, your husband, and managing different schedules is subject to changes.

If a situation arises that would cause you to have to change your plans, then just change them and go with the flow! Don’t stress and don’t let it upset you. Learn to adapt and be flexible when necessary.

Maybe the baby didn’t sleep good the night before and you got a solid three hours of sleep. Have a slow day the following day and skip the cleaning that you had planned! Switch around your plans to accommodate for a day of rest.

I always like to plan one free day during the week, usually fridays for me, where I don’t have very much planned for that day. I keep it as kind of a catch-up day, get together with friends or family day, or run some errands in town kind of day. If something comes up earlier in the week where I want or need to have my free day earlier, then I just switch the days.

How to be flexible as a homemaker:

• Don’t pack your schedules too tight. If your schedule is packed full to the brim every day, then it doesn’t leave you with much room to be flexible. Just like how I plan in one free day a week, I try to also plan in a few free hours each day. A few hours in the afternoon I try to keep completely unplanned. Then I use that time for miscellaneous tasks depending on the day. There is always something I can think of to do during this time, but I don’t plan it in beforehand. That way if I didn’t finish all of my usual homemaking tasks that morning and early afternoon, I can catch up during my free time. Or if there is a project that I’ve been wanting to do, something new I’ve been wanting to bake, or some reading I’d like to do, there’s a time frame for it.
• Practice flexibility. I don’t think being flexible is something that just comes naturally. I believe its a skill you have to practice and hone in on! Its also something that you have to remind yourself of. Whenever a situation arises where the plans have to be changed and you are required to be flexible, try to remind yourself of its importance. Think about how its a skill and you are practicing that skill. You can also think about all the times in the past where you were flexible and everything turned out JUST fine.

Have a Dream or Vision

I read this once on a homemaking blog, and it has stuck with me ever since. Just like with anything that you are wanting to improve upon, its important to always have a vision of what you want and what you’re working towards.

This is why vision boards can be so effective. I don’t think you have to go out and create a detailed and intricate vision board for your homemaking (unless you want to, which would be totally awesome too;)) I just think its helpful if you have a good idea of what excellent homemaking looks like for you as well as your dream home.

For example this could mean visualizing what you want your home to look like, how you want it to feel, even the kinds of aromas throughout your home. This might sound cheesy, but it can be so effective!

Here is a super short example of my vision for our home and my homemaking.

You walk in the door and you can smell a homemade apple pie baking or some other seasonal food. There are homemade, beeswax candles burning. Its tidy and clean inside but still welcoming and cozy. There are happy kids running around, and I’m ushering you inside to serve you a cup of coffee or tea and make you comfortable.

Of course you can go more or less in depth, but the idea is just to have a good idea in your head of what you’re working towards with your homemaking.

This will give you motivation to be a more productive homemaker every day! If you can in the mornings and throughout the day, take a few moments to visualize yourself being a productive homemaker and your dream home environment. Then work towards it!

How to create a vision or dream for your homemaking:

• Have a journal, Pinterest board, physical vision board, etc. where you keep all of you ideas on your dream home and ideal homemaking. Having something that you can physically look at or refer to, not just what’s in your head, can be great for making your vision a reality.
• Remember to refer back to it consistently. Just making a vision board or Pinterest board and never looking at it won’t do you any good. I think looking over your vision board once a day and thinking about it throughout the day would be most helpful.
• Make it your own. Its important to remember that your vision for your homemaking and for your home as a whole is completely unique to you. Its easy, especially with social media these days, to get caught up in what everyone else is doing. Then you think you have to be doing it just like them, but you don’t! Your home and family is your own, so keep it that way. Try to remember what values are most important to you and incorporate those into your homemaking dream and vision.

Wake up Early

We have all heard the benefits of waking up early over and over again, especially with regards to being successful.

Studies have shown that some of the most successful people are early risers. Of course there are exceptions. I think for the vast majority of people, homemakers included, waking up early can be really beneficial.

Even if you don’t consider yourself a morning person, give it a try. I think its especially helpful if you have kids to try to wake up at least a half hour before your kids do, more if possible.

Even though I’m not always consistent with it, I know without a doubt that when I wake up before our little boy, I am able to get so much more done throughout the day. I have more motivation, and I feel much more productive.

One of my favorite things about waking up before our son, is that I am so excited to go get him out of bed when he wakes up and I feel ready for him. I’ve usually showered and have gotten ready, had a cup of coffee, picked up the house, and done some computer work.

If I’m still asleep when he wakes up, for one I’m still sleepy and not yet excited to get out of bed. I don’t feel ready at all, and its harder to get some of those things done (like take a shower, get ready, computer work) when I have him with me.

How to wake up earlier as a homemaker:

• Go to bed earlier. Most of these will be pretty obvious, but its because they work! Making sure you’re going to bed earlier and getting enough sleep will help you to be ready to wake up at that earlier time.
• Have something in the morning that you’ll look forward to. This will be different for everyone. For me, I loooove a good cup of coffee, not for the caffeine, but just the taste! I really enjoy the taste of coffee so its such a treat for me to have a decaf cup in the mornings, complete with heavy cream and a little bit of pure maple syrup. I look forward to it every morning so it makes it easier for me to get out of bed if I know that’s what I’ll get to enjoy. For you it could be your favorite smoothie, a few chapters of a good book, a breakfast muffin, whatever floats your boat and gets you out of bed essentially.
• Try all of the other tried and true tips for waking up early. Just like with going to bed early there are several tried and true tips for waking up early that you should be giving a shot. Make sure you’re not having caffeine late in the day. Try to do everything you can to get a good nights rest. Start slow and work up in increments to the time that you’d like to be waking up at. Set your alarm clock on the other side of the room. Give whatever you can a shot until you find what works for you.

Do it With JOY

This is one area in my homemaking that I am REALLLLY trying to work on this year. I want to be a joyful wife, a joyful mom, and a joyful homemaker.

After all, all of these things are my dream job. They really are!! They’re what I would dream about being able to do when I was a young girl.

I don’t know why I struggle at times with doing things joyfully and not begrudgingly, but I do. Its so embarrassing to admit!

I am usually pretty good about getting all of my cleaning tasks done, waking up in the wee hours of the night for a crying baby, and doing the things that my husband asks. I just do them. Butttt I’m not always good at doing them with a happy, joyful, and grateful countenance.

There’s no point in having a tidy, spick-and-spam home if there’s no joy in it. I really believe that how I act and my attitdue can have a direct impact on my husband, our kids, and the overall well-being of our home. So joy is what I want to choose!

How to have joy as a homemaker:

• Give yourself a reminder. Especially when you are first working on this, sometimes all you need is a reminder for a short while. Maybe jot down three things in the morning that you love about homemaking or that you’re thankful for. Post them somewhere in your home that you’ll be sure to see them often throughout the day. On the fridge is a great place, or on a sticky note in your daily planner.
• Make time for you and know what makes you happy. I think its really important as individuals and as wives, moms, and homemakers to know what makes us happy and feel amazing. If you absolutely feel great when have your nails done, then try hard to fit it into your schedule and your budget to get your nails done. If you have to get out of the house and have some social interaction to feel happy, then schedule it in and work it out. Be in tune with yourself as a person and make it a priority to do the things that make you happy. Of course, there’s a balance and sometimes we have to be disciplined and say no at times. Just try hard to find your balance.

Ditch Perfection and Work on Consistency

Let’s face it, you are not going to have an absolutely perfect home, perfect homemaking routine, perfect family, or anything else. You might have those occasionally but definitely not ALL of the time.

I think its definitely okay to always be working towards what is perfect for you, but to understand that it likely won’t be something that happens all of the time for you.

Something that I am really trying to work on lately, with my homemaking and with every other area of my life, is consistency. I want to consistently be keeping up with our laundry, consistently workout, consistently wake up early.

I know that I will never be perfect and there will always be days where I mess up and I’m a wreck, but as long as I am working towards consistency I will be happy.

How to ditch perfection and work towards consistency:

• Start small. Choose maybe 1-2 things with your homemaking that you’d like to work on mastering consistency with. When you’ve got those things down, then you can add in a couple more. Don’t overwhelm yourself or else you’ll just be setting yourself up for failure. Some examples of things you might consider can be consistently setting aside an hour each week and 15 minutes every day to write and go over plans. Consistently loading and unloading the dishwasher every single day. Consistently waking up an hour before the kids every day.
• Take a break from social media. I have a love-hate relationship with social media. I love the inspiration it provides and the connection, but I don’t like the pressure it can put on me and the time it takes away from me. If you feel the same, take a break! Often times our social medias can be the main factor that’s pressuring us towards perfection. Like I mentioned when creating a vision board, social media can make you feel like you need to be living like everyone else, even when that’s not what you really love or what’s best for you.

Okay homemaking friends, are you ready to put all of the tips above into practice and start being a more productive homemaker? I am! Let’s work on it together. I’d love to hear some of your thoughts on what’s helped you to be more productive with your homemaking. let me know in the comments below!

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