Whether you are just starting out on your homemaking journey or you want to up your game, you have come to the right place if you are wondering, “How do I become a successful homemaker?”
Becoming a successful homemaker is like a sport. It’s going to take a lot of practice and a few moments of pressure to really refine your skills.
The great thing is, though, there is no score board. Just room for growth. As long as you continue moving forward in your homemaking journey, you are growing. This continuing growth is what makes homemaking an art and not just a skill to master.
Sure, there will be times of discouragement and frustration.
That’s when you have to go back and remind yourself why homemaking is so important.
And as with any career path in life, you will have to learn joy in the moments and be secure in your identity.
How to Become a Successful Homemaker
1. Keep Learning
As long as you are willing to keep learning from others, you can become a successful homemaker. So many women have gone before us that it would be silly to try reinventing the wheel.
Find someone in your family, neighborhood or church whom you trust and would love to learn from.
Befriend them and just soak up their experiences.
Maybe it’s listening to her stories and life lessons. Maybe it’s going into her home and helping her with her homemaking duties. Or maybe it’s her coming into your home and helping you with your homemaking duties.
2. Be Willing to Change
Because I grew up with my mom at home all the time and I learned how to do everything from canning, to freezing to making soap, my homemaking skills were quite broad by the time I got married and began homemaking on my own.
But I soon realized, that just because I’d learned how to do something one way, didn’t mean it was the best way for me now.
I learned to adapt and change my habits. I learned from the new mentors in my life.
And I’ll have to continue to change my homemaking habits as me and my family continue to grow and change.
3. Create a Routine
Schedules are tricky when it comes to homemaking because there are so many distractions that upheave your schedule.
Creating a routine keeps your day more fluid and gives flexibility when things go haywire.
A routine is simply the desired structure of your day. It doesn’t have time frames or hard stops. A routine is more events focused instead of being time focused like a schedule.
Sure, it’s good to submit to some hard stops like bed times and meal times. But keeping flexibility in your day can eliminate a lot of stressful expectations.
An example of a routine:
- After I wake up, I make and eat breakfast.
- After breakfast I throw a load of laundry in.
- After laundry, I get dressed for the day.
- After I’m dressed for the day, I clean up breakfast and tidy the bedroom.
- After I tidy, I have undistracted play and reading time with the children.
- After play time I clean and switch laundry.
- After cleaning is lunch.
- After lunch is nap/quiet time.
- After nap/quiet time I make supper.
- After supper I clean up the kitchen and tidy the living room.
- After cleaning up, I fold laundry while watching TV.
As you can see, routines are built on the previous activity. This way, if your day gets thrown completely off and you don’t have lunch until 2pm, your children still know that it will be nap time after lunch.
If laundry doesn’t get thrown in the washer until 1pm, you know that you will still get it folded while watching TV that night.
4. Make a List for Your Day
Have a list in front of you of what has to get done that day. Make those tasks a priority and get them out of the way as soon as possible. Ideally, keep this list under three items, but I like to keep it at one item.
I find having one big task that has to get done that day keeps me motivated and pushing forward, because I know I can at least get that one thing done and call it a successful day.
Then make a different list of what you want to get done that day. In your pockets of time when you find the kids sleeping an extra half hour unexpectedly or you get home from an appointment early, you have direction of what you should do with that pocket of time.
If I don’t have this list of want to’s in front of me, then when I have a few minutes of down time, I end up wasting it because I can’t recall one of those smaller tasks that I wanted to get done!
5. Start with One Thing
You don’t become a successful homemaker overnight. It’s not a genetic thing you’re born with. Homemaking skills are learned and practiced and practiced and practiced.
So start with one thing to learn and practice. I know, you want to do all the things and become a successful homemaker right now.
Just pick one thing. Pick one skill that you want to learn and focus on that one.
For example, if you want to learn how to can, pick one or two food items to preserve and begin.
Gather all the supplies and equipment needed and find recipes that sound good to you. Learn from YouTube or from a friend to get extra tips and techniques that may not be covered in a recipe.
After you’ve got canning those one or two things mastered, then try growing those foods in a garden!
6. Take One Step at a Time
Don’t feel pressured to become a successful homemaker overnight.
Just take one step in the direction you want to go.
So if you currently get take-out every night and would like to one day cook your meals from scratch, take one step. One step towards cooking from scratch is cooking at home. So make a frozen pizza or chicken nuggets.
After you’ve gotten the hang of preparing supper at home and cleaning up, try making something from a box that requires a bit of cooking and prep.
Then choose a simple meal to make from scratch one night a week. Then two nights a week, and continue taking that one step towards your goal of cooking from scratch.
After a couple months, you’ll be a whole bunch of tiny steps closer to your goal!
7. Don’t Compare!
Your journey to become a successful homemaker isn’t going to look like anyone else’s so stop comparing yourself to others!
If you feel yourself being intimidated or squashed by someone and their homemaking ability, don’t chose them to mentor you.
Yes, you should find someone to learn from and mentor you who is farther along in their homemaking journey than you are. But if she is the right personality fit for you, you won’t feel intimidated or inadequate when your are with her.
For more about kicking the comparison habit, check out 5 Reasons You are Failing as a Homemaker.
For more practical homemaking skills, check out my Basic Homemaking Skills Resource Guide. Also, consider getting your kids involved and learning right along side you!
If you want to know about some of my favorite tools and products, check out My Favorite Things.
So if you want to become a successful homemaker, jump right in! I’m so glad you’re here to learn and share in this noble and fulfilling journey.
