Practical Homemaking Ideas

I Dreamed My Whole House

A new reader asked me a day or two ago about my home. I had offered her some strategies on making the house kind of "lean toward clean." I would like to start out by saying that my house is in no way perfect. I have 6 young kids, 5 of them are rowdy boys. They are the children of two parents that are also rowdy, known to allow Big Wheels to be ridden up and down the hallway at times, impromptu water fights at the kitchen sink, dance parties with all ages jumping around in the living room (including sometimes on the furniture), and so forth. We don't just stay here, we LIVE here.

Early on in my marriage we were expecting our first child, and we decided that for our personalities we did not want to have breakables around that we would constantly have to worry about, or things that we had to say "Don't touch!" It isn't because we're afraid to discipline our children, only that we didn't want a "don't touch/don't mess" kind of a house. Others do have nice rooms with breakables down low and pictures arranged nicely on display. I have no quarrel with that. It's just not something we wanted to keep up on.

Most of my ideas are best in my brain but a little harder in real life. Still, they are good ideas and I think that even though my house is far from perfect, the use of these ideas helps me to keep things nicer than they would be otherwise.

Random ideas:

I find that what stays cleanest longest is PLAIN. What I mean by that is:

I don't do throw pillows or throw blankets. They would all be made into a tent and I would forever be chasing them down through the house to try to put them back "the right way."

I don't have a bunch of stuff arranged on end tables or whatever. As the children have gotten older I do now have a few things, but mostly the tables have something like one lamp and maybe one basket that holds magazines.

Totally clear surfaces make it more obvious that nothing "goes" there, and that if something is put there you notice it right away. when we have stuff already on a surface, a little more is hardly noticeable, and next thing you know our stuff has multiplied!

I don't do glass door cabinets, I also oon't do "tchotchkes" as Christopher Lowell says. (knick knacks)

I purge stuff really, really often so that we can try to keep down on the clutter. When I was first married I had little and then started being given all sorts of things by helpful and kind neighbors. I held onto most of it thinking I would need it. I guess that was an ok step along the way, because I had to figure out for myself what I would like, which things I would use, etc. So, don't be too ruthless before you know your situation very well. But once you do don't be afraid to part with stuff. If you can give things away with kindhearted generosity then that's all the better.

Eventually you'll learn what kind of stuff you can find easily at yard sales or Goodwill in your area, so you may have fewer hesitations on parting with items that you don't use now but might want in the future. This is especially good if you don't have space for all your stuff.

One of the things that makes our house homey is the extras. For some of us it may be candles, photos, memorabilia, books, plants, or other things. I like some of each! :) We have an armoire in our living room that holds our stereo, music, and some books. On top of it we have a collection of clay pots, a plant, and just a couple extra special items that we enjoy seeing often.

We have pictures on the walls, and that is where I try to keep most of my photos since the framed ones sitting on end tables always get knocked over or carried around and eventually dropped.

A lot of designer-type people will tell you to get plain or neutral furniture and to use them as a backdrop to layer upon your color scheme with pillows and blankets and such. For me, knowing it will be a long, long time before I can get away with such things, I choose two loveseats that had a funky floral print. These are fun personality pieces all on their own. Luckily for me, once I like something I will like it forever. So, I have no regrets on funky floral love seats. Other people may not be able to do something like that.

The only thing I would do differently on the furniture if I could go back is to buy leather furniture instead. I have friends with children who have leather furniture and they rave about how easy it is to keep clean. My next furniture will be leather, I hope!

Hard floors are so great for families because you can always wipe up the urps. Any nasty bodily fluid or food spill is quickly removed without fuss. Carpet is not so forgiving.

Don Aslett has some really good books about cleaning. I have read Is Ther Life After Housework? and in it he talks about ways that you can kind of design your house to clean itself. He teaches the reader about high quality floor mats at entrances and other things that can make your house just naturally stay cleaner.

I have found that a lot of times when I am not satisfies with the way something in functioning at my house, if I can take even 5 or 10 minutes of dedicated time to think about how to solve that problem, I can come up with a solution. (the trick is to remember to take the dedicated thinking time, rather than to let the problem roll around in my head for days/weeks/months/years!) By doing this I have created a pantry where I had none, found a way to make my applicances instantly useful to me but never keep them on the counters, given up cabinet space and not miss it, and lots more. This isn't because of any great skill on my part, and it isn't because I went out and spent lots of money to solve my problem. Basic resourcefulness and "thinking outside the box" have helped me to do a lot with my home on a shoestring.

One of my favorite recent improvements was to (almost) eliminate my worst clutter area of all. To the left of my kitchen sink we have our telephone and that is where I tend to accumulate papers of all sorts plus lots of odds and ends that need a place to go. I have battled this area for 6 years, never winning for long, and finally decided that since I have no junk drawer and no office space handy to where I handle most paperwork, I needed to make peace with my need for this space. What I ended up doing was getting a little $5 three-drawer-high plastic thingie. the drawers are big enough for a regular piece of paper to be in. Now the three drawers hold everything plus the phone sits on top. Now instead of the whole counter space being taken up, almost all that stuff is put away. it's also safe from water damage, and it doesn't accidentally fall off the counter and onto the floor. :) I put two plants next to the drawer unit to liven up the space, and it looks really good. I also now have a little more work space that was never available to me before.

Here are some links to past posts showing various things I've done at my house to organize stuff:

http://dollymama.blogspot.com/2005/01/inspirational-day.html
http://dollymama.blogspot.com/2005/06/plethora-of-home-organization-ideas.html
http://dollymama.blogspot.com/2005/06/few-years-ago-i-decided-to-end-madness.html
http://dollymama.blogspot.com/2005/06/inside-bathroom-closet-i-have-2.html
http://dollymama.blogspot.com/2005/06/on-inside-of-our-bathroom-closet-door.html
http://dollymama.blogspot.com/2005/06/kitchen-cupboards-years-ago-i-was.html

I think that homemaking just takes time to get to learn things and to find a style that suits you. There isn't one "right" way to get stuff done. Just be kind to yourself as you try to find a balance that works for you, and then don't be afraid to tweak it as your needs change. :)