Tag Archive: homekeeping

Positive Homekeeping Weekly Challenge: Week 12

Categories:

Housekeeping, Positive Homekeeping

August 21, 2011

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Remember that you can always find all posts related to the weekly challenges in the Positive Homekeeping Weekly Challenges category.

We’re doing “neglected corners” again this week. Neglected corners are areas of your home or homekeeping that don’t get as much attention as they need. Or even half the attention they need. In fact, they may not get any attention at all or maybe just “once in a blue moon.”

Keep it small and doable because we’re not only going to take care of that corner this week but we’re going to stop neglecting it entirely. If you need an example, look at the first neglected corners challenge.

Here’s what to do:

1) Pick a corner, literal or figurative. Choose something you can clean, fix, or otherwise address this week. Keep it bite-size. I can’t emphasis this enough. Success is essential. Make sure you have the tools to do this job and to continue to do it.

2) Clean, fix, or otherwise address the corner thoroughly. This means toothpicks and scrubbing toothbrushes, if necessary (even if you’re only cleaning three square inches).

3) Make a simple plan for maintaining that corner. Make an ideal plan. Then make a secondary plan, because chances are you won’t be able to keep up with the ideal plan perfectly. Also make a bare minimum place in case things really go awry.

4) Stick to one of your plans. Don’t let anything that isn’t bigger than you derail your plans.

If you need support, just leave a comment!

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Positive Homekeeping Weekly Challenge: Week 11

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Positive Homekeeping

August 14, 2011

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Remember that you can always find all posts related to the weekly challenges in the Positive Homekeeping Weekly Challenges category.

 

This week’s challenge is similar to last week’s, only with a different goal in mind. Remember to keep what you do within your abilities. . . and your budget.

Go into every room of your home (every room, including hallways and storage rooms) and look around. Ask yourself, “What ONE thing can I do to make this room more beautiful?”

If it’s a quick thing (which it probably should be for some rooms), do it this week—maybe even immediately. Clean something, throw something away, rearrange something.

If it’s not quick, then get started this week. Make a plan, do some research, get together your tools and helpers, etc. At the very least, write it on your calendar or running to do list.

Some things to consider:

  • Overall appearance
  • Cleanliness
  • Colors and color harmony
  • How it makes you feel when you look at it (and how it makes your family feel when they look at it).
  • Neatness and order.

Have fun! :-)

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Positive Homekeeping Weekly Challenge: Week 9

Categories:

Housekeeping, Positive Homekeeping Weekly Challenge

July 31, 2011

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Remember that you can always find all posts related to the weekly challenges in the Positive Homekeeping Weekly Challenges category.

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Okay, folks, the action-oriented challenges are here!

Neglected corners are areas of your home or homekeeping that don’t get as much attention as they need. Or even half the attention they need. In fact, they may not get any attention at all or maybe just “once in a blue moon.”

Got any of those?

This week we’re going to address one of them. Keep it small and doable because we’re not only going to take care of that corner this week but we’re going to stop neglecting it entirely.

Here’s what to do:

1) Pick a corner, literal or figurative. Choose something you can clean, fix, or otherwise address this week. Keep it bite-size. I can’t emphasis this enough. Success is essential. Make sure you have the tools to do this job and to continue to do it.

2) Clean, fix, or otherwise address the corner thoroughly. This means toothpicks and scrubbing toothbrushes, if necessary (even if you only cleaning three square inches).

3) Make a simple plan for maintaining that corner. Make an ideal plan. Then make a secondary plan, becauses chances are you won’t be able to keep up with the ideal plan perfectly. Also make a bare minimum plan in case things really go awry.

4) Stick to one of your plans. Don’t let anything that isn’t bigger than you derail your plans.

Here’s an example (your’s could be smaller—or maybe bigger if you’re already a fairly competent housekeeper):

1) Decide that your neglected corner is the stairs. You sweep them but you don’t mop them with any sort of decent regularity. Make sure you have the tools to do this job and to continue to do it.

2) Sweep and throughly mop the stairs.

3) Make an ideal plan: the stairs should be thoroughly mopped once a week on Friday. Make a secondary plan: the stairs should be thoroughly mopped at least once a month. Make a bare minimum plan: Thoroughly mop the stairs at least once a quarter OR ELSE.

4) Stick to it! Put it on your calendar, set a reminder on your computer, get an accountability partner, etc.

I selected a cleaning task for my example but remember that your “neglected corner” doesn’t have be a literal area in your home or even a housekeeping task at all. You know what your neglected corners are!

Go to it! If you need support, the blog is here for you.

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If It’s Worth Doing Well . . .

Categories:

Faith and Life, Housekeeping, Positive Homekeeping

July 28, 2011

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This post is related to the Positive Homekeeping Weekly Challenge.

Remember that you can always find all posts related to the weekly challenges in the Positive Homekeeping Weekly Challenges category.

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“If it’s worth doing at all, it’s worth doing well.”

Tell me, does this make you cringe?

This adage has done untold harm to positive homekeeping and homekeepers. The problem is, it’s perfectly true! There is nothing wrong with it at all and everyone should live by it.

How, then, can it be so harmful? Because it is used incorrectly. It’s the truth but it isn’t the whole truth.

This proverb was coined to convince people not to be careless and slack~ to do a good job on any task that they thought important enough to undertake.

It was never intended to make people feel guilty because they weren’t doing everything as well as it could be done or ought to be done. Nor was it intended to keep people from undertaking a task unless they knew they could do it perfectly.

The reality is, sometimes we can’t do a good job.

The idea that we shouldn’t do anything that we can’t do “right” is, with all due respect to us perfectionists, nonsense! True, sometimes it makes sense to refrain from doing things we aren’t capable of doing adequately, but with most homekeeping tasks even that doesn’t happen.

Time, money, energy, intelligence, memory, knowledge, experience, skills, materials, tools, physical ability, mental stability and strength, information, emotional condition, cognitive ability, other people, weather, inturruptions, priorities, habits, character, other obligations, and more, all affect how well we can perform a task. We don’t have absolute and immediate control over any of these things.

So, I guess we can’t do anything unless everything lines up perfectly. Right?

Uh, no. Somehow I don’t think that would work. The best homekeepers throughtout history were not successful because everything lined up.

Please look at this adage through the lens of reality.

If it’s worth doing at all, it’s worth doing well. If it’s worth doing well, it may be worth doing poorly if that’s the best you can do.

When it comes to homekeeping, by all means, do your best.

Not someone else’s best but YOUR best.

Not your imaginary best.

Not what you wish was your best.

Not what someone else thinks is your best.

Not what ought to be your best.

Not what was your best.

Not what would be your best under other circumstances.

Not what could be your best.

Not what will be your best in the future.

But what is your best.

Ought is where your standards lie.

Will is where your goals lie.

Can is where your actions lie.

Don’t cringe.

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Positive Homekeeping Weekly Challenge: Week 8

Categories:

Positive Homekeeping

July 24, 2011

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Remember that you can always find all posts related to the weekly challenges in the Positive Homekeeping Weekly Challenges category.

I don’t feel like writing a challenge. As I write this, it’s Thursday afternoon and I’m tired.

  1. I don’t feel like writing
  2. I’m not interested in being challenged right now.

But, I don’t live by what I feel. I have a responsibility, here, that I have to work through in one way or another.

How ’bout we just turn that into this week’s challenge? True, that’s not what I originally planned but I AM tired. :–) It’s okay to work WITH feelings (especially genuine weariness), of course, and I do have other responsibilities right now as well that demand my limited time and energy.

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I truly love homemaking. It’s a fascinating subject. I do enjoy many aspects of homekeeping. It’s fun.

But . . . .

That’s not why I do it. If it was, I would be justified in not doing it except when I wanted to.

Sometimes it’s boring. Sometimes I don’t enjoy what I have to do. Sometimes it’s anything but fun. Sometimes I’d rather do something besides what I need to do or something outside of homekeeping entirely.

I don’t engage it homekeeping merely for my own immediate pleasure. I do it because of duty and principle. Duty calls even when feelings don’t.

Ladies, duty calls. I challenge you to work from a sense of duty this week. Work from principle not from pleasure. Be cheerful about it and enjoy it as much as you can but remember that homekeeping is valuable and it’s value does not lie in how much fun you have while you are doing it.

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Remember that duty is not servitude. A sense of duty means that YOU think it matters. If you think homekeeping matters, then do it. Consistently. BECAUSE it matters, not because you happen to feel like it at the moment. That is what it means to work from a sense of duty.

It’s not merely about DOING the duty itself but about doing it because it is duty (doing what happens to be the right thing merely because one feels like it, or sees some personal benefit in it, isn’t really doing the right thing!).

And, please don’t think this is not a challenge for me. It is! While I don’t have to change my perspective in order to meet this challenge (and I’m sure many of my readers don’t either), the duty itself is a challenge. :–)

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Terms, Terms, Terms: What Do I Mean By Homekeeping, Homemaking, Housekeeping, and Home Management?

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Positive Homekeeping, Positive Homekeeping Weekly Challenge

May 31, 2011

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I have come to realize that my use of these terms could be confusing, especially when I use two terms interchangeably and then use the same two terms in contrast!

They ARE somewhat interchangeable and have broad (and thus varying) definitions so I can’t give you a single, absolute definition for each one. I’m going to try to clarify what I generally mean when I use the terms and hopefully that will make them a little less confusing.

Home Management (in order of likelihood of use)

  1. The management of the home or of various aspects of the home. Manage refers to controlling/ordering, or to using resources to achieve goals.
  2. Managerial, controlling, organizing type tasks.
  3. Time management, money management, scheduling, organization, paper management, home office tasks, menu planning, etc.

Housekeeping (in order of likelihood of use)

  1. Cleaning, laundering, neatening, and any maintenance activities that usually fall to the homemaker.
  2. Keeping the house clean, safe, neat, orderly, functional, and physically comfortable.
  3. Keeping house. That is, having a house (home) to keep. For example, newlyweds “set up housekeeping.”

Homemaking (in order of likelihood of use)

  1. Anything involving the care of the home or domestic concerns.
  2. The creation and maintenance of a meaningful, satisfying, appropriate, successful, etc. home life.Domestic concerns traditionally associated with women.
  3. The role and tasks of the wife and mother.
  4. In contrast to housekeeping it is more family-centered and less house-centered. Less maintenance-focused and more nurturing. It’s about the aspects of homemaking that do not involve cleaning and organizing.
  5. In contrast to home management, it is less business-like and more relational and creative. More nurturing and less task-oriented.
  6. In contrast to homekeeping, it is more nurturing, relational, and artistic. It’s more about the family than the place the family lives.
  7. The making of a home. The having of a home.

Homekeeping (in order of likelihood of use)

  1. A bit more focused on home management and housekeeping tasks than is homemaking. See #6.
  2. A cross between housekeeping and homemaking, and thus a combination of the two. I.E. HOME-making plus house-KEEPING equals homekeeping. An all-encompassing term.
  3. In contrast to homemaking, it is more focused on keeping up with the duties necessary to the home life and less focused on making the home a home. It’s more about the place the family lives than about the family itself. More about nurturing the home and home life than about nurturing the hearts, minds, and bodies of the residents of the home.
  4. Also refers to Titus 2:5 and thus to the woman’s role as keeper of the home.
  5. Homemaking (another way of saying essentially the same thing).
  6. In contrast to housekeeping it is more focused on the home than the house, more closely associated with homemaking and with domestic duties and privileges (it’s possible to hire a housekeeper but not a homekeeper).

Subject to revision as needed!

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