Top 5 Tips For A New Housewife

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I've been a housewife and homemaker for about 3 years now.  Most people who read my blog know my plan wasn't to become a housewife, so I was a little lost at first.  I did a lot of things that were really unnecessary, and lacked on a lot of things that were more important!  I've recently revamped my daily routine once again, and I thought I may as well share what I've learned.  So, here we go, the top 5 tips for a new housewife...

1.  Ask your husband what is important to him.  This is such a simple thing, that is so important!  I would suggest and advise all keepers of the home to do this.  Our husbands are all different, they all have expectations on what clean is.  Often bloggers say doing x, y, or z is what will make us successful homemakers, when our husbands really care about a, b, and c being done!  What my husband wants and prefers done is the backbone of how I run things.  My husband personally cares about his work uniforms being clean, dinner to be done, our home to be picked up of clutter, and a generally clean home before the weekend.  My list is more detailed, like washing windows, checking baseboards, mopping, dusting, and all other fun stuffs like that.

2.  Get your cleaning done as early as you can.  This is something I struggle with.  I am not a morning person, so hopping out of bed and getting my chores done is not easy.  I need some time to wake up and be pleasant.  I spent a lot of my early marriage waiting until the latter part of the day to get my cleaning done.  This meant I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off before my husband was due to arrive home.  It made me flustered and more easily annoyed when my husband got home, and also meant some things were neglected due to lack of time.  My goal is to always get the house tidy as soon as I can, and then do a whole house check at the end of the day.

3.  Pick up after yourself.  Oh boy do I hate this one!  It makes a difference though.  After the home is clean, any time you do something that makes a mess, don't wait to clean it up.  Go ahead and wash the dish, or pick up what you dropped, it just makes things easy for you later.  I also encourage this same thing if you have children or a husband.  I wish I would have had this mindset ingrained in me as I grew up so it wouldn't be such a chore now!  I do not expect my husband to do any housework at all, especially the days he works.  However, I do ask him to at least pick up after himself on the weekends.

4.  It's OK if you do things differently.  As a young, impressionable housewife I really thought I wasn't as good of a housewife if I didn't do what other housewives did.  I spent a lot of time on homemaking journals, and schedules that were really useless to me.  I am a free spirit, I don't do schedules.  I do however do lists, which is an entirely different beast.  Make your own rules to keeping house.  Find out what works for you and do it.

5.  Accept that you will never be done.  This is a hard, hard truth of being a housewife and homemaker.  Your job will never end, and you will never retire.  Just accept it.  You will always be needed to mend socks, wash dishes, and do laundry.  You will always be needed to make your house feel like home.  It seems so exhausting and overwhelming, but really, where else would you rather be?  Although you may always be buried under laundry, you'll also be making a house a home which is priceless.

What do you think?  If you are an experienced homemaker what are your tips to new homemakers?  Share in the comments below!