Tips for a not-so-housebound housewife

WifeyGoals · 2015-06-27T02:25:31+00:00

Congrats at moving in with your SO!

I'm in a similar situation. What I find that works for me the best is to split up certain chores for certain days. I have a daily list that includes sweeping, surface dusting, dishes, spot mop the floor and put things back in their designated places. (Putting dirty laundry in the basket, putting books and magazines on the proper shelves etc) I clean toilets, sinks and the bath tub on Monday, I clean out the fridge on Tuesday, I swiffer all of the floors Tues and Thurs, Wednesday is laundry day, Thursday I do a deep dusting, Friday I grocery shop (and will start doing meal preps as thats one of my days off from work) and Saturday is a free day to work on a project or relax.

I find that planning helps keep me on track especially with a busy schedule.

Good luck!!

freebumblebee · 2015-06-27T15:21:00+00:00

Do a load of laundry everyday. It keeps the laundry from getting to the state that you need to spend hours doing it, and it only takes a few minutes. If you don't have clothes that need washing, do a load of dish towels and cleaning rags, or bath towels, or bath mats, or sheets, or shower curtains, or whatever.

I find making a chore chart helps keep me organized when I'm working, that way I can split the chores up. For example, I might dust and vacuum bedrooms on Monday, and vacuum and mop the main areas Tuesday.

Keep a notebook or a small whiteboard or something in the kitchen, and constantly work on the grocery list. Whenever you think of something or finish something, jot it down.

What's your career? I will say that when I was a full time student and working full time, I did expect my boyfriend to step up and handle some of the household work, since he was working significantly less hours than school+work+studying+commuting. I don't think it makes you less of a RPW to admit you can't do it all if you're in a similar boat.

2PantsLady · 2015-06-28T15:07:44+00:00

Yeah, I do some work early in the mornings usually. I don't let my husband see me working ever. I generally wake up a half hour before my husband to make him breakfast and get myself presentable. When he's out of the house and I'm home alone is when I work, so he doesn't feel like I'm putting myself through a lot of trouble.

I would also recommend working briskly, if you do you can get a lot of work done in that time. You could probably balance work and home life prety easily as long as you use a schedule and work hard. Good on you for not letting your home life falter in the name of your career, that's super impressive.

JackGoldsteinWrites · 2015-06-29T17:17:18+00:00

Outsource.

PursuingGrace · 2015-06-27T21:42:57+00:00

For me, a huge help has been to really hone my organization skills. I am now self employed, and for a while I was a stay at home parent (per my husband's wishes), but even when I was a SAHM, my husband requested that I volunteer a minimum of 30 hours a week, and he was very supportive of me keeping all of my career certifications, so even when I did not 'work', I was still very busy. And being well organized was a HUGE help. Every big chore or errand was scheduled in a time slot. Every meal was planned well in advanced, and when able, was prepared in advance, and frozen so that it could simply be put in a slow cooker as I made coffee in the morning. I also learned to prioritize my time much better. For example, I used to wait until after my husband was home to go to the gym with him, and we used the on site care for our son. But I learned, rather quickly, that if I did weight training, or higher impact cardio, in the evenings, I had a terrible time getting to sleep at a reasonable time. So I found that it was better for me to wake up a few hours earlier in the morning, and go do my serious workout first thing. It helped wake me up for the day, AND since my husband and kids were home asleep, we could stop paying the childcare fee at the gym. Yes, I might not get the luxury of lingering in bed as much as I would like, but the payoff of having my workout done, showered, dressed, breakfast made and chores started before my husband wakes up so I can start his day nicely is completely worth it to me.
I suppose it would have been easier to just say that you should play with different options to find which ones that work the best for you.

nkbee · 2015-06-29T20:32:44+00:00

A slow cooker is a super handy tool if you'll be handling the cooking! Throw everything in in the morning before work, and then there's a nice hot meal ready when you and your fiance get home, so he doesn't have to wait too long. I'm a grad student but I take care of the house so this has helped me a lot in still being able to cook for my boyfriend while balancing school and work. I also have go-to "fast" meals that I know he loves that I can start and then leave alone until it's basically time to take them off the stove. This was super handy last week as I was sick and couldn't handle standing up for long periods of time -- not a good excuse for him to have to do all of the cooking! My number one cheat meal is Zatarain's Jambalaya mix. I don't usually like using pre-packaged meals for him, but hell, it's his favourite, so...throw it on the stove, add some meat, whatever, then I make it as a wrap. He loves it, and it is so easy for me on days I can't devote a lot of time to cooking.

Also, break the chores down in a manageable way. I do things like the dishes every night (sometimes twice a day), tidy everything up, make sure the bedroom and living room in particular have no clutter. Leave Lysol wipes in the bathroom. It makes it easy to spot clean the bathroom -- wipe down the sink, the toilet seat, etc., so that everything is clean to the eye and then deep clean on a specific day every week so that it never gets out of hand. I usually do the bathroom on Mondays. Do at least two loads of laundry a week. I do our clothes once a week, and our bedding/towels/rags/kitchen cloths once a week.

Wake up earlier in the morning than he does. Make breakfasts, prep lunches. We hardboil a dozen eggs a week - boyfriend isn't a big breakfast eater, so we'll usually just each have a couple of pieces of toast and a hardboiled egg with tea. A batch of muffins on your day off will also go a long way for a week's worth of breakfast.

Make a chore binder. Pinterest has like 10,000 resources for housewives as far as organization, easy recipes, cleaning tricks and tips, budgets, etc.

thatchick2010 · 2015-06-27T02:40:04+00:00

[permanently deleted]

Title	Tips for a not-so-housebound housewife
Author	thatchick2010
Upvotes	13
Comments	23
Date	June 27, 2015 12:42 AM UTC (11 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/RedPillWomen
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/RedPillWomen/comments/3b99hq/tips_for_a_notsohousebound_housewife/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/RedPillWomen/tips-for-a-not-so-housebound-housewife.85460 https://theredarchive.com/post/85460

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