Monday, November 1, 2010

Old-Fashioned Home Management-- Part TWO


"Hearth and Home" magazine, October 1918
Before I get started on this post, I want to make sure my readers know where to find Part One of this series. Be sure to read it here first!

PART TWO: Planning by the Week
Okay. So, our fore-mothers knew all about running a household. Is the modern homemaker doomed to always serve last-minute freezer meals and to attempt to gather useful cleaning tips in 30 second segments on the Today show? No way! Of course, we need to adapt old-fashioned skills to meet our modern needs, but we can successfully utilize the knowledge of the past.

I'm excited today to dust off one of these old ideas and share it with you. While it is not a revolutionary concept, I think it's worth revisiting.

Remember these?

Many of our grandmothers embroidered dishtowels just like these. They're cute, though they may not be conducive to your decorating style. But let's explore the idea of organizing our weeks according to days, as these towels demonstrate.

Remember that the homemakers of the past worked hard all week simply to put food on the table each day. We have been blessed to no longer need to exert ourselves so much. We no longer really need a baking day, or a day dedicated to ironing, but we can look at the duties that fill our modern lives, and assign them a day for us to accomplish those tasks.

Some possible examples of this could be a day to run errands (Who likes to go to the grocery store every day? Not me!), a day to pay bills/ take care of home office tasks, a day to focus on sewing or craft projects, etc.. Wouldn't it be great to have a day each week where you know you'll be running hither and yon, but then, you'll also have a day to finish some of those projects you never seem to give much time to?

Now, I'm not going to tell you what your schedule should look like. The idea is for you to customize your week in a way that works best for your home and family!

Here's an example of how things are scheduled in my little world:
  • Monday: Weekend Recovery Day-- My house is always destroyed by the time Monday rolls around. This is the day I focus on gathering up the laundry, and making sure each child's church shoes have been put away. I also try to make sure the kids get their Sunday clothes in the laundry so that they'll be clean by the time next Sunday rolls around. I'm not perfect at this, but I do have it scheduled!
  • Tuesday: Personal Study Day-- I teach a Shakespeare class for homeschooling youth once a week, and Tuesday is my day that I prepare for that. My bigger kids also need time on that day to finish their projects for their classes and other personal study. The computer gets a lot of mileage for us on Tuesdays!
  • Wednesday: SUPER Cleaning Day!-- Because we host weekly homeschool classes in our home on Thursdays, I have assigned all the deep cleaning jobs for our schedule on Tuesday. This is the day when walls get washed, floors get mopped, toilets get scrubbed, and the dust flies!
  • Thursday: Renaissance Commonwealth and Dance Classes-- Beginning at 9:30am and ending at 2:30pm, we have twenty-plus extra people at our house. In the morning, we have a Constitution class going on at the kitchen table, while a Civil War class is going on in the living room. The younger children (under twelve years old) of the teachers are outside. Then we all gather for lunch at 11:30am, and I start teaching choir and then my Shakespeare class at 12:30pm. THEN, at 4:30pm, my twelve year old daughter goes to ballet lessons, and my sixteen, fifteen, and fourteen year old kids attend ballroom dance lessons at 7:00pm that evening.
  • Friday: Low-Key Day-- This is the day when we take a deep breath. I do a little sewing, let the kids do some crafts or art projects, and we just enjoy one-another's company. Lots of reading happens on Fridays. We sometimes make a library trip or watch a Shakespeare movie on this day. This is the night my husband and I also try to take time to go on a date.
  • Saturday: Errands and Shopping-- I prefer to go grocery shopping early in the morning on a weekday, before the crowds descend, but we usually don't have a lot of time to do that. Saturday would not be my ideal errand day, but it's a necessity for us these days.
  • Sunday: Day of Rest and Worship-- We attend church, write letters, read books aloud for long periods of time, call family, nap, and attend other church meetings as needed, on the Sabbath. Meals are easy, and often dinner is popcorn and homemade snacks. I'm so grateful for a day of rest!
The planning of the week can be a very powerful thing for a homemaker. It gives us some structure, but it also gives us some freedom to plan days of rejuvenation, purpose, and rest. We can also see where our time is going, and then we can adjust things as we need to.

Consider planning your week to be a more effective homemaker and mother. It worked for Grandma, and with a little creativity, it can work for us!

5 comments:

  1. To have peace you've got to have some kind of schedule to base the week off of. When I can't remeber what I've done and thought I haven't accomplished anything. I just look back on my schedule. And if I remotely follow it I can give myself a pat on the back for accomplishing something. Thanks mama Rachel for the reminders.

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  2. I would LOVE dishtowels like those!

    I've attempted many times to organize my housework, menus, and days like this and other ways. Nothing has really stuck yet. I'm back to working on creating my own thing now though.
    Hopefully I can do a better job of preparing my daughter for homemaking while she is young so she doesn't have to struggle as much!

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  3. Rachel~

    How I enjoy reading what you write! It speaks to my heart! I sat down just the other day, to make a schedule for my week, as far as what family work we do on what day. I am currently awaiting inspiration from my Father in Heaven, about how best to tackle laundry at our house! :0) I see that you have a website listed to the side, called "Mama's Laundry Talk". I think I'll check that out! Thank you for your wisdom, wit and inspiration for me! Your blog is fast becoming one of my very favorite to read!

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  4. You have listed some great ideas here for scheduling my week. I never thought of actually putting those necessary tasks down on paper. I'm lucky to get the most needful items jotted down. Thanks for this post. I look forward to reading more of your posts.

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  5. I really like that your week doesn't have the same titles as every other blog I read. I really am feeling a need to change some of the *days* around here, and you have given me new inspiration! :D--S

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