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

Homemaking Diva Habits

How do you become a 'Homemaking Diva', and more importantly, how do you succeed at being a Homemaking Diva? It's easier than you think!

Step one: CARE. Being a Homemaking Diva means literally that: Making a Home. A Home is not where you live. That's your house or apartment (or wherever you are) a home is more personal. It's the happy feeling associated with being in your house, not because of what is there, but because of WHO is there. I love my husband. And one of my major goals is to make our house a calm home for us to live in together.

Step two: ROUTINES. I don't know about you, but I find it very difficult to relax when there's a lot of things that need doing. I'll be sitting beside my husband watching a DVD and my mind will be racing through various tasks that I 'should' have done that day or that need to be done soon. When I'm on a routine and I know I did a decent amount of 'Diva-ing' today and I will get around to everything in it's turn, I feel better about it and I can relax. We'll talk more about routines next time :)

Step three: RECHARGE. It's the old airplane analogy. The flight attendant will always tell you to put your own oxygen mask on first before trying to help anyone else. If you are burnt out, you're of no use to anyone. Take care of yourself so you can take care of others. If you care about making a home for your family and if you have good routines in place, you can take a break and recharge without guilt, and know that your routines will keep things from falling through the cracks.


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

Clear and Free!

Well, after my last post I got to work. I cleared some space in the spare room downstairs that is going to be storage and a guest room eventually. Then I started to declutter up in my dressing room (also crafting room). DH was wondering what I was doing as I took load after load of stuff downstairs.

I did not just move my junk. I decluttered a bunch of stuff, put several things in more logical places, and even took my beautiful angel candle holder OUT of the box and put it on display in our front entry. Admission - it's been in the box since we got it.... but I'm using it now!

I took care to only put things downstairs that made sense to be there for storage: The luggage, extra pillows and blankets, 'decor' items not currently in rotation, and containers (nice boxes, empty plastic totes...).

The plan is to build my sewing table (cool idea I have from pinterest using bookshelves) in the middle of the room, so I moved what was left towards the walls. I grabbed my Rubba Sweepa and pulled up a bunch of hair :S Then I vacuumed really well.

I pulled out one of the bookshelves to build and discovered that it's a two person job, so it's going to have to wait a bit.

For now I'm enjoying my accomplishment. In the near future I'll have the table and start learning to sew!


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

The Snowball is Melting!

Yep! That's right. The snowball is melting! Not so much because I've been accomplishing it (I HAVE done a bunch, and DH actually went through half a closet.) but because I'm lowering my expectations... I set the bar way too high on that one.

The original idea was to completely declutter/ rearrange half the house with the final step being setting up my craft room. The problem is, most of the stuff isn't mine. So I need to wait for days when he's off and I think of it and we feel like it. Few and far between, but we are making progress. But since I am NOT just going to throw out all DH's stuff - that's not nice, I need a new plan. (You can read more about the snowball here.)

So the new plan is 'Do what I can'. What a concept! I can't declutter DH's stuff for him while he's at work, but I can move some of it  over now that he has partially moved into his office. That will make enough space for me to move the luggage and a few other things out of my dressing room so that I can declutter my stuff and then set up my crafting area.

No worries, we will still be doing the DH decluttering, but now there's no pressure and I don't feel like I won't be able to work on learning to sew for months and months.

Wish me luck, I'm diving in!

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

Do You Post-it?

Are you one of those people with stickies all over your desk and computer screen?

I used to be. Now I'm trying a system I'm making up that uses the stickies. Full disclosure! Not my original idea. I'm actually combining two ideas I saw on Pinterest. (Are you following me? It's in the sidebar.)

I have regular ones that are 2" square or so and small ones that are supposed to be book markers or something they're about 3-4" x 1". BTW, stickies is one place where you want to go brand name. Dollar store ones don't stick for more than 5 seconds.

I use the little ones on my calendar and the big ones in my book. I bought a 'sketchbook' that you're supposed to draw in and I put the stickies inside. Each page (or pair of pages) is for a specific purpose. I have (off the top of my head): Daily, Today, Tomorrow, this week, Monday, Tuesday..., Next Week, this month, monthly, and upcoming.

It's a little intensive as I'm shuffling stickies all the time, but not really. The Monday, Tuesday... pages stay 98% the same, each sticky on those pages is something that needs to be done on that day every week. Something that needs to be done THIS Friday would go on the this week page (or the tomorrow page now), not the Friday page.

About once a week, I flip around and move stuff up from the 'long term' pages, but day-to-day I'm looking at the today page and the 'Thursday' page (or whatever day it is).

I also have pages with themes that I use to corral ideas. For example, when I have an idea for a lesson, I write it on a sticky and put it on that page. Last week, when I needed to brainstorm, I just opened to that page, looked through my stickies and was able to put together another year's content!

This is a new system and I'm still figuring out the kinks, but I really like it so far

What do you think?

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

Five Ways to Save Money - In the Bathroom

Nobody wants to light five dollar bills on fire, so here are some helpful hints to save some money:

1. Soap is soap: This one is directly 'stolen' from Flylady, the idea is that you don't need a different kind of soap for every single thing. Leftover shampoo, conditioner, hand soap, etc. can be used for cleaning the sinks, tubs and toilets. I keep bottles of hand soap and laundry detergent when they're "empty", add some water, shake it around and use that to 'swish my toilet (with a brush and some elbow grease).
2. Don't buy shaving cream: This one's for the ladies. Use shampoo or conditioner to shave your legs. I've been using conditioner to shave my legs for about a year now, and it works perfectly fine. The only difference I notice in the shower is that it's much easier to fit everything on those little shelves with one less bottle. You can use the same as you use on your hair, buy cheap stuff especially for this purpose, or use up a shampoo you didn't like.
3. Don't buy makeup remover: I paid $10.49 plus tax for a 125mL little bottle of L'Oreal makeup remover. Can we say expensive? NOW, I use Johnson's head-to-toe baby wash. A 444mL bottle runs somewhere around $7.00 plus, I water it down. I fill my L'Oreal bottle about 1/3 full, and top it off with water, shake and I'm ready to go. If it's safe for baby's eyes, why not mine? (Plus I have semi-sensitive skin, and no problems).
4. Use what you have: This always applies. We all have those stashes of "nice" creams and stuff for "special" occasions. Go ahead and use them. You are special all on your own, you don't need an occasion. 
5. Try cheap: Touch and go with this one. I've done the cheap-o Q-tips and was not impressed, so I only buy brand name for them. But I buy the cheaper "Daisy" razors, no name cotton balls and cotton pads. If it's something you use a lot, buy a small package of a cheaper version or brand and see if it'll work for you.

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

Frugal Hospitality

Some of you may remember last time I told you that I was going to try and be especially frugal for the next while as we just invested in a sectional.

On Sunday, we decided to invite my in-laws over after church. This is frugal for us because we often end up going to a restaurant for lunch. But that meant I needed to figure out what to make. :)

Brunch is always a delicious and frugal choice. It doesn't get much cheaper than eggs and toast. Especially since I get my bread from Westons for 99 cents! (They're the bakery that makes the bread for the grocery stores. Whatever the grocery store doesn't sell gets returned to Westons and sold in their 'thrift store'. Bottom line, the bread is one day older and a heck of a lot cheaper. I go when I can and get some for now and some for the freezer.)

I almost made lasagna for dinner, but that meant buying a ricotta, and the day ended up being way too hot to turn on the oven. I decided to make burgers. I originally didn't want to because I'd just pulled the ground beef from the freezer and knew it would be VERY cold on my hand mixing it up later. But then my brain clicked and I decided to let Todo do it. Todo is my stand mixer... we named it that because it's shape reminds us of two droids from Star Wars, one of which is called TODO-360. (Yes, I'm weird.)

But aside from the fact that I've named my stand mixer, it really IS handy and makes a good burger. I used the Basil Burgers recipe from my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook and the regular 'blade' in the stand mixer. Want to know ANOTHER ground meat trick? Doesn't matter if it's meatballs, meatloaf, burgers, or something else. Mix all the 'stuff' together first, THEN add the ground meat. Everything goes together faster and more evenly.

So we had burgers for dinner, and I had everything on hand for them. Score more frugal points!

We all enjoyed each others' company and tried out the new sectional while watching some episodes from Shark Week :)

None of it cost me a cent!


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