be a better housewife

I want to be able to clean my house, do my dishes, laundry, keep better track of kids school work, make dinner everynight, have every thing organized and get rid of all this clutter. The most rewarding part of being able to do this would be the smile on my husbands face to come home to a clean house, wake up to clean fresh clothes and socks that actually match!

Okay, as completely backwards and anti-advancement for women that this may sound, I really do want to learn how to be a better housewife/mother. My life has changed drastically in a short period of time – four years ago I was a single, working mother to a then 8 year old boy and we did just fine together. I had the cleaning under control, I made dinner for the two of us, helped with homework and juggled sports schedules with work. Now I am re-married and have had not 1 but 3 more children – a 3 year old boy and 4 month old twins. I can never seem to keep a clean house because with this blended family we now have a total of 3 cats and 1 dog and there are tumbleweeds of animal hair rolling through my living room not 5 minutes after I vaccuum. everytime I walk into a bathroom I have to wipe pee off the toilets. For some reason I can’t seem to make a dinner that everyone will eat so I’m making PB&J for the 3 year old, Chicken nuggets for the 12 year old and some recipe I’ve found out of southern living for my husband because his mother is italian, “the best cook in the world”, and he won’t touch a casserole!! I can tell I’m starting to vent. Basically I just feel like I can’t get it together – a clean and organized house, quality time with all my kids, quality time with my husband (never mind any “me” time!!), decent food on the table at a decent hour,etc…all of this with a smile on my face and without flipping out on everone. If anyone can tell me how to do this….you are God.

Help me get my house clean and tidy and prepare better meals for the family.

help me get my house clean

I want to clean house better,

So, I just got this book called Organic Housekeeping. I’ve skimmed important sections, and now I need to read it more thoroughly. The main thing I want to do, though, is start implementing it one step at a time.

The first step: Get spray bottles for vinegar and hydrogen peroxide to use as disinfectant. I just need to get the spray bottles, and then I need to start remembering to use it. I resisted the urge to buy Lysol or some similar disinfecting product recently, even though they were on a good sale, because I really want our house to be clean, not chemicalized. Also, I worry about our toddler getting into things; he gets in to so many things I didn’t think he could get into.

Anyway, so I’m on my way. Go, go organic and clean!

I am a mother of a 15 month old boy, and the wife of a deployed US Army infantry man! Needless to say I have my hands full… I used to work before I got diagnosed with POTS which prevented me from keeping my job. Now I am a house wife, I know nothing about being a stay at home mom/house wife! My hopes are learning from others to become a better wife and mother.

Back in junior high when I’d read anything available, I read parts of a book of my Mom’s called Sidetracked Home Executives. It was about housekeeping, and the ideas in it have been developed into a huge program by a woman called FlyLady. She’s a bit of a cutesy cheerleader type but if you can work around that, she’s helped a lot of slobs get themselves together in a nearly painless way.

Personally, I spent a decade of my early marriage or longer in serious slobhood. I slowly worked my way out of it. I’m never going to have one of those perfectly clean houses, but I can tidy up and be ready for company in an hour or two, and I actually have clean closets. Not all of them all the time, but at least a couple at any given time.

One thing about FlyLady’s website—it can overwhelm you. If you want a simplified plan without having to wade through her stuff, I can help with that.