Homemaking Diva Routines

Last time, I told you that routines help you know everything will get it's turn and allow you to relax. Let's talk about how to set up some great Homemaking Diva Routines.

Start SMALL; Rome wasn't built in a day. If you go too hard, too fast, you'll just crash and burn. Babysteps are KEY here. Choose one or two small things that you can work on and then work on them consistently. That is your goal. Two small things, consistently. After a few weeks (not 15 minutes, not 1 day, a few weeks) of doing your two small things consistently, you can add a third small thing, and your babysteps can grow. But only slowly. If you go too fast, you will get overwhelmed and you will stop.

I like to start in the kitchen (but I do work for Saving Dinner, so I may be slightly biased). In any case, everyone needs to eat, and eating tends to require a little cooking, and both eating and cooking tend to create some dirty dishes. (Now, you can start anywhere you want, this is just a good example, feel free to start with the laundry or clearing your desk, or whatever works best for you.) If you decide to start in the kitchen like I usually do (yes, I am not perfect and I have started more than once), there are two simple things in the kitchen: washing dishes, and having food ready to cook.

Washing dishes: PLEASE don't wash all the dishes for 2 hours straight if you are far behind. We're starting small, remember? If you have a dishwasher, empty any clean dishes, put those away, fill the dishwasher up again and turn it on (even if it's not quite full), then do ONE load of dishes at the sink. You're letting the dishwasher do most of the work, and you're making progress. That is IT for day one dishes. Day two, empty the dishwasher, put away the dishes you washed by hand, and wash one more load at the sink. From now on, the dishwasher gets emptied within 24 hours of when it was turned on. Preferably closer to 12 hours. Part of emptying the dishwasher is putting any waiting dirty dishes into it. Also, whenever you're starting to run low on something that is in the dishwasher, run the dishwasher (we tend to run out of spoons first). Incorporate one load of handwash dishes a day plus checking on the dishwasher into your new daily routine.

I find now, that I'm mostly caught up, I'm just doing one small handwash load of dishes on weekdays. Plus it's a LOT easier to wash more 'recently dirty' dishes than 2 week old spaghetti pots :)

We'll talk more about having food ready to cook next time!


Thank you for joining me, and I hope I can help you! It really is fun to be a Homemaking Diva!!

Love,
Valerie :D

Please comment or send your questions to me at homemakingdiva@hotmail.com