Tried and true, old fashioned homemaking routines to help make your home clean, organized, and cozy.
Do you wish you could keep home like grandma did? Is your house always a bit unorganized, messy, and behind? Do you want to create a cozy, clean, and inviting home?!
I have a solution for you! Try adapting some tried and true, vintage homemaking routines. Grandma (and other women of the past) really knew best, especially with keeping a home.
Homemaking itself is old fashioned nowadays. In the past most women were homemakers and it was given a lot more attention! Women cultivated their skills as homemakers and found what worked. Especially with their routines!
I think we’ve lost a lot of that knowledge and expertise with time and lifestyle changes.
If you want to learn how to adapt old fashioned homemaking routines to better manage your home, you’re in the right place.
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Old Fashioned Homemaking Routines
What is an old fashioned homemaking routine? Here are some characteristics of vintage homemaking routines:
- includes time to get dressed and ready for the day
- chores are broken up into different days
- includes daily cleanings of all rooms
- makes time for plenty of homemade food and projects
Before we go over each one of these, lets go over what routines are. Routines are a general flow of activities or tasks that you follow consistently. They are usually in the same order!
Routines don’t have specific time slots. This is different from schedules! For example if you’re considering a toddlers nighttime schedule, you’d say he takes a bath around 7 and goes to bed at 7:30. If you’re talking about his nighttime routine though, it would sound more like bath, then lotion, then cuddles and a book, then bed.
A homemaker should usually have a mix of both schedules and routines that work for their home. Some people will do better with more schedules and some with more routine.
Getting Dressed Every Day
Getting dressed every day should be an important part of your old fashioned homemaking routine. I have a whole post on why its important to get dressed every day as a homemaker. You can check it out HERE.
Essentially, being intentional with your outfit, hair, and makeup can help you to be more productive. It can also just help you to feel better. When you feel comfortable, clean, and confident with your appearance, you’ll often have a better attitude!
When you think of a vintage housewife, what comes to mind? I always think of their outfits! And hair! Dresses, heels, and a boufant hairstyle were the norm. They always seemed to be put together.
Even women in other time periods gave attention to their appearance before starting their day. Prairie women up until now!
Of course, times have changed as have styles, but you should still make ‘getting ready’ an important part of your routine. It will look different for every homemaker, so do what works for you.
Hey homemaker! I have something super exciting to share with you. I’ve been working hard for YEARS to come up with schedules and routines that can help (not hinder), our homes and our old-fashioned goals. I finally have a tried and true method and I’ve put it all together in an easy-to-follow guide for YOU! Get your copy today by clicking HERE 29+ pages of tips, ideas, and printables to make it your own.
Divvying Up Your Days
One of the ways that old fashioned homemakers worked out their routines, was to divvy up the chores for each day of the week. They had focus days, or theme days.
Now, chores doesn’t just mean cleaning! Chores can include laundry, baking, outdoor work, organizing, sewing, etc.
How it works, is you’ll choose a chore or theme for each different day. For example:
- Mondays = Cleaning Day
- Tuesdays = Laundry Day
- Wednesdays = Garden Day
- Thursdays = Baking Day
- Fridays = Errand Day
- Saturdays = Project Day
- Sundays = Rest Day
If you’ve ever read the Little House on the Prairie series you’ll know that Ma Ingalls had a similar approach to her homemaking routines.
She divvied up her tasks by day, and only focused on that one theme for the day. You can do the same!
Decide on a few themes that will benefit your home and family, and go from there. It may take some time to figure out what focuses work best for your family, and on what days.
Daily Cleaning Routines of all Rooms
Old fashioned homemakers were great at tidying up each of the rooms in their home throughout the day.
I suggest having a short and sweet 10-15 minute Tidy-Up Routine. This can be done once or multiple times throughout your day.
Essentially what you are doing is just going around from room to room in your house and doing a ‘surface’ clean up (not necessarily deep cleaning).
Here are some examples of daily cleaning tasks for different rooms in your home:
- kitchen: wash and put away dishes, wipe down counters, sweep floors, put things back where they go
- bedrooms: make the beds, take dirty laundry to the laundry room, pick up things off the floor, vacuum
- living areas: fluff pillows, pull curtains, vacuum or sweep floors, pick up things off floor, put things back where they go
- bathrooms: wipe down counter tops and toilets, sweep floor, re-fold drying towels.
- laundry room: wash, dry, and put away laundry, sweep floor, wipe down washer and dryer
Time for Homemade Food & Projects
One of the last things that was a prominent part of old fashioned homemaking routines, was making the time for lots of homemade food and different projects.
Homemakers used to cook a lot more than we do now. Mostly out of necessity! If you want to feel more like an old fashioned homemaker, try cooking food from scratch more often.
Old fashioned homemakers also had their own projects that they set aside time for.
Of course, many homemakers today have projects! Ours might just look a little different. Maybe we’re doing DIY projects around the home, keeping a blog, or getting crafty.
Whatever projects you enjoy, and preferably ones that can contribute to the well-being of your home, make time for them!
Homemaker Morning Routine
Starting your day off right is very important as a homemaker! Create a morning routine that sets you up for success.
This will help you have the time to get dressed every day, stay on top of your daily chores, and have enough time for your focuses. Your morning routine can include anything from workouts to a load of laundry to enjoying a cup of coffee.
If you’d like to read more about creating a Homemaker Morning Routine, head over HERE.
Homemaker Evening Routine
Not quite as important I don’t think, but still a good thing to get in the habit of is having an evening routine.
Its easy at the end of the day to just let the house go and decide to deal with it tomorrow. Don’t do this! It will just cause you to get behind the following day.
Set aside just 15 minutes every evening to tidy up, close the curtains, turn on your diffuser, and put the house to bed. You’ll be so much happier in the morning when everything is in its place and you have a clean slate to start your day with.
One Last Note
Now you know how old fashioned homemakers created routines to take care of their homes. They really knew so much about the art of homemaking and we can always be learning from past generations.
If you enjoy old fashioned homemaking and you’d like to dig a little deeper into your schedules and routines, I have something REALLY exciting to share with you.
I’ve been working hard the last few years as a homemaker to adapt schedules and routines that support an old-fashioned lifestyle. I gathered all of my tips, and created an all-in-one guide. Its a guide on creating old-fashioned homemaking routines and schedules, complete with printables to make it your own.
Its all of this post, but in lots MORE detail… 25+ pages of detail to be exact! And actual schedules and sheets you can print out and fill in.
You can read more about it over HERE. I’d love for you to grab a copy for yourself and makeover your homemaking routines. I think you’ll love the results you get.
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