Simple Homemaking! A Fool-Proof Beginner’s Guide

If you’re looking for a beginner’s guide to homemaking, then this is it!

We will keep it simplified and minimal.

For those of us wondering….”Where do we even begin?”

When my husband and I first decided I would stay home to take care of our first child, I was really nervous about what I was going to do all day.

I didn’t want to just sit around all day, but isn’t that what a “stay-at-home mom” does? 

I was severely lacking in the basic homemaking skills. I used to (and still do) struggle with time management. 

But my paradigm was extremely off-base. I had no idea how hard I was going to work, and I had no idea what an HONOR it is to be able to be home to care for my home and family members.

Being a full-time homemaker is a privilege that many women wish for. One that should never be taken lightly.

All that said…. WHERE do we begin?

What do we do? There is no boss to check up on us. There are no checklists (unless we make them for ourselves.)

If you’re a new homemaker, I would recommend starting with identifying your “core” tasks for your own home.

These are the things that must be done or the home and family suffers. They will feel it if these things aren’t done.

“MOM! I don’t have any clean pants!”

For most of us this will include: A reasonably clean house (I said reasonably!), laundry washed and put away, and nutritious meals prepared for the family.

It’s important to build out each of these categories, but this is the first step to figuring out your homemaking routine.

The reason we need to start here is because it’s SO EASY to get excited about other (more seemingly fun) tasks, and let the laundry pile up while we spend all our time on embroidery.

These “more fun” tasks might include: keeping chickens, starting a side-hustle, baking sourdough, or other volunteer opportunities.

It’s so alluring to learn fun new skills. All of these are GOOD things, but it’s important to understand our priorities.

What is the most important thing for your family?

The care of your home

Keeping a tidy house does not need to be an impossibility. It sometimes feels like a full time job though, doesn’t it?

If you are in a season of having lots of small children and they’re not helping much with chores yet, then I want to encourage you.

This is a hard season, for sure, but it will get easier soon. Once they are able to help a little bit, then things won’t feel so difficult.

If you’re not in a season of all tiny children and your house still feels impossible to keep up on, then you might need to do some decluttering. Minimalism has saved my sanity!

Our homes should be able to be managed reasonably. 

Now, living with people is going to lead to messes. It just is.

As much as I try to train my children not to spill things and smear windows it still happens. And I make more messes than the kids.

Don’t be so focused on trying to keep a perfect home that you miss opportunities to love your family along the way. Quality time with your loved ones is important, too!

This is where having a cleaning schedule will help you stay calm when you see the disastrous bathroom mirrors. You can look at them and say to yourself, “It’s fine, I know I will clean the mirrors on Wednesday.” 

“Stay at home mom cleaning schedule”

Deep cleaning is important, but don’t let it scare you! Just remember there are seasons for everything.

I heard a dear middle-aged friend talking about how she takes her window screens apart every spring and washes her outside windows thoroughly.

Until that moment I had never even considered doing that! When I told her how I’ve literally never done that, she sweetly reminded me that I’m in a much different season than she is.

When she had young children she also never washed her window screens. 

Don’t beat yourself up about what is reasonable for you to accomplish.

Go back to your priorities and start with those.

I love the quip that our homes should be clean enough to be healthy, but messy enough to be comfortable. 

What is a homemaker?

Nourishing Our Families

It is REALLY difficult to come up with nutritious meals on a whim. I have tried a million times.

One of the best ways to continuously create nourishing meals for the family (and yourself) is to meal plan.

Meal planning is a really big topic, but it’s worth mentioning. There are so many different ways to create a simple meal plan, but whatever you do, start with your SCHEDULE first. 

It is so much easier to plug in your meals when you see your husband’s work schedule and the family’s event schedule written down.

It also helps me to check the weather for the week (I do weekly meal plans) and cook according to the weather. We like to grill when it’s above freezing, and we enjoy soups when it’s bitter cold, etc.

Busy nights are the nights when we choose to do the easy meals. 

Having a meal plan is also a great way to get the most out of your grocery shopping. 

Listen, groceries are very expensive. You deserve to get the most for your money.

Form a plan and stick to your grocery list when you head to the grocery store. Learning how to be a wise grocery shopper is a great skill to hone.

Along with serving good meals to our families, we should CLEAN UP after ourselves in the kitchen!

When I’m planning what to make in the kitchen, I won’t even start a food project if I know I don’t have the energy to clean it up when I’m done.

That has helped me not get to the end of a huge salsa canning day and feel like I can’t possibly bring myself to wash another canning pot. Nope, just leave the tomatoes in the freezer for another day.

Yes, I just finished talking about how important it is to feed our families good nutritious meals, but it’s totally possible to make good meals without destroying the kitchen.

Some meals require more components than others, but there’s TONS of delicious “one-pot-wonder” meals to be discovered.

Make a list of some of your families favorite (healthy) meals that don’t make a huge mess. It will be really nice to have a quick reference for yourself.

If you’re in a really busy season, maybe it’s not the time to be trying out new recipes. BUT if you have the bandwidth for it, trying new recipes can be really fun for the family.

Have I mentioned your kids should be helping?

Give everyone “table chores” and let them be included in the process!

You work very hard to bring good meals to the family, and they can help with some of the cleanup. Of course this will depend on the ages of the kids, but even the toddlers can help carry things from the table. 

It’s time to talk about laundry.

Have you ever heard the joke that if you do one load of laundry a day then the laundry stays caught up, but if you skip one day you have a thousand loads to catch up on?

Laundry is a never ending cycle that we just have to learn to embrace.

At least we have the luxuries of machines to wash and dry our clothes for us. Washing laundry is as easy as pressing a button!

The folding, however…..

This is where most people struggle, myself included. 

Some things that will make laundry folding (and putting away) go more smoothly are: audio books, great music, reading a book to the children while THEY fold, or listening to podcasts.

For us, it really helps to have lots of laundry baskets so I can fold it and put it in each child’s own laundry basket. Then they have a much easier time putting it away. 

A few more practical tips for putting laundry away are: piling it on your bed to fold. Then you know you’re definitely getting it put away before you can go to bed.

Also, I have come to enjoy folding laundry after the kids are in bed. Something about being able to get it done without interruptions is actually quite satisfying.

If you’re really struggling in this area, then I would highly recommend decluttering some clothing. (YES, I’m talking about minimalism again.)

Hear me out, having a capsule wardrobe is wonderful for a plethora of reasons, but the biggest reason is having less laundry to pile up.

And once you add a few kids to the mix, things can get overwhelming very quickly. With less clothing to deal with, the laundry will feel much more manageable. I promise.

Final Encouragement

Creating a beautiful home can be a full-time job.

Between the impossible standards on social media and the television shows, we can really beat ourselves up.

Home management is a big job that requires learning some difficult but basic skills that everyone should know. Unfortunately, many of us were never taught how to create a realistic to-do list, or keep up on dirty laundry.

This will be a lifelong journey that is full of beauty and joy.

Embrace the little things, and persevere through the difficult tasks that feel hard today. Creating a comfortable place for our loved ones to flourish is an honor.

What a blessing that we get to fill this role.

Homemaking matters.