Home Organization

Someone wrote to us about becoming organized at home. While there is no one way to be clean and organized at home, there are a few ground rules that can be followed. Every homemaker is different and has different likes and dislikes, and different methods of keeping house. There are a lot of helpful things on the web and in bookstores for women who find themselves overwhelmed or giving up.

The first practical thing you can do is clear out all the clutter. If you have a garage or one room you can put everything in, it is a great help. Clear out all the rooms except for the furniture that is necessary or beautiful. Then, clean these rooms. As you need something, go to that spare room and get it. Find a place for it and keep it there when it is not being used. Make everyone in the family practice this habit. The less you have, the easier it is to be organized, and the better habits your family has, the easier it is on you.

In this modern era there is a gross misapplication to the woman's role in the home. Sometimes people get to reading the Bible and without real study, assume that the woman has no say whatever in what goes on in her home. A closer reading of Titus 2, with the original Greek words, brings out the meaning of the phrase "guide (or guard) the home," strongly. It means "to rule." If she wants order in her home, she simply has to insist on her rules being followed. She can't have people in the family running all over the place leaving things helter-skelter however they wish, and then expect to have peace of mind. Most of the nervous conditions and stress that women suffer are due to not having control over their own house. Think about that word "rule," in context of management or control. We all have to have control over the clutter, control over the noise, and control over the condition of the house. We have to have respectful children and a husband who reinforces these values and backs up the wife in her effort to have respect and order in her life.

As a family, we are all in this together. We can't have the wife struggling over in one corner trying to get above the mess, all on her own, without the others understanding her role and working toward her goals. It is just as fruitless to do that, as it would be to ignore the husband in his efforts to keep a job, and not keep his goals in mind either.

In an effort to really rule the home, a woman need not think that she dominates. She is just doing what she is supposed to: managing her home. It is her job. No one has the right to interfere with that job, any more than she would want to interfere and mess up other people's jobs. It is her duty, and it is wrong to thwart her in that effort.

I've been blessed to have a really understanding husband. He just wants to do whatever it takes to make me happy. He doesn't like me to be frazzled and stressed out. He wants to know what it is I will need to reach my goals. He doesn't want me to be frustrated with the home. He will do whatever it takes to make it easy for me to love my job.

In ruling her area, a woman must have obedient children, and working children. They can't be allowed to sit around watching television or out playing sports while she struggles alone with the home. The children must be taught how the house is managed, and they cannot do that if they are just laying around. Even very young children can help the house run smoothly. My daughter, whose sons are very young, folds the laundry and then engages each boy to carry stacks of clothing and towels to the appropriate room. They love this work and to them it seems like a game.

Just because a homemaker doesn't bring home a paycheck, does not mean this is entirely her job. Even a man at work is dependent on many other people to help him do his job. The family should all chip in and do her bidding at home. If there are things that are making her unhappy, such as a yard that needs to be cleaned up, or vacuuming that needs to be done, it doesn't hurt the family to help. The mother is there to organize it and plan it. She is responsible for getting it done, even if she has to appoint others to help her.

In order to give a woman peace of mind in the home, she should never be accused of being a freeloader, not paying her way, or not earning a living. The Biblical mandate to provide for the family was given to the husband, never to the wife. She is to be wife, mother and homemaker. His job is to earn the dollars and his wife is to manage the home with those earnings.To make her also "pay her share" as they are saying these days, is to load her down with double work. She would work all day at someone's place of employment, and then come home exhausted, with the house to manage and meals to provide. In marriage, it is better if both of them are not exhausted all the time. The wife at home, with no added burdens, will have the health and the stamina to do a wonderful job, and the husband will be glad of it.

In "the old days" before a lot of you were alive, a man would never ask his wife to get a job outside the home. To do so would be admitting that he could not be a good enough provider, and that would have been a shame. He would have been embarrasssed if his wife went to work. He wouldn't have been able to hold his head up in society. If the wife went to work, she also would have been embarrassed. It might have made others think that she could not manage her husband's money, or that she was extravagant, was gambling or in debt, or wanted things to add to collections. If women want peace in their lives, and don't want to end up on sedatives, they need to return to this simple way of life.