Guide of the Home

 How can you get your home in working order if  you have spent your life away from home in the corporate world?  How do you adjust? How can you order your day?
While it seems natural to begin with a brand new morning, I would suggest that getting the living room and kitchen cleaned the evening before, is a better way to begin.  Waking up to those clean areas gives you a great start to getting the rest of the house in order.

I would also suggest creating a homemaker's basket to help you prepare for the next day. You can make one for yourself or for someone else, as a homemaker's motivational tool.  It is a very large wicker basket, painted the colour you like, lined with a small table cloth.

Load this basket with a day-calendar that has the absolute best pictures you enjoy seeing every day, and a place on it to write. Each day, you tear off the page, and use the back of it for your shopping list. A shopping list is something you add to occasionally, as you see the need for something. You may be in the bathroom and notice you need more soap, so you reach into your apron pocket and pull out the list and and add the item. You might be hanging out clothes to dry and notice you are short on clothespins, so you add that to your list.

The homemaker's basket can be taken from place to place within the house. It contains a box of your favourite tea, a scented candle in a jar, your favourite magazine or book, some stationery, envelopes, stamps, and pen. Load it with some scented dish detergent and a matching room spray, some fancy rubber gloves and brand new  dish towels, plus some delicious snacks in a little container. Put a tear-off day calendar with the most beautiful pictures you can find. Each day, tear off the page and use the back of it for your shopping list. Find a tea cup you can't resist and put it in the basket.

 You might include things you will be using, such as a special cookie cutter and some matching paper towels or napkins. You can get some of these things at JoAn fabrics (scrub pads, cookie cutters) and others at Dollar Tree, Wal Mart, Ross, and TJMax. Lacking these stores, you might be able just to look around your own house and find some things that would work for a homemaker's basket. The little table cloth liner is just an old cloth that has been dyed light pink by sprinkling a little fabric dye in a pan of hot water.  Click on the pictures for larger views.

All these items are a feast for the eyes and a delight to the senses.A soothing CD from the Dollar Tree is just the thing to put into this basket if you are making it for someone else. You can probably get every one of these items at a dollar store, including the basket.

On the inside of the cup is written a scripture in gold. It comes from a discount store where less than perfect items are sold. (Ross) 

The basket can be painted a different colour and you can make stationery or cards for it.  A notebook and pen that match your basket color theme can be used to make your schedule list.  

On this list, there are three things that will be helpful in getting your house in the kind of order you are happy with:

Things that absolutely must be done;
Things that should be done, and,
Things you really would like to do.

Use the first item as a motivation that will get you to the third item. If you get the things that really must be done, completed, you are closer to doing something you really would like to do.  The must-be-done items are limited to about three things also:

Dishes and kitchen must be clean, in order to be able to function in the kitchen and be able to have a healhy environment,
Laundry must be done,
The bathroom must be clean and sanitary,
The floors must be clean.

I have a bare-floor policy in my house because I want to prevent accidents, and also be able to get around the house without having an accident on a stray shoe, a toy or any kind of object out of place.  I also believe that clean floors, bathrooms, kitchens and laundry rooms, contribute to good health in the home.

These are all things you need to write down in the fancy notebook with the elegant pen you got just for your homemaker's basket. 


A better beginning for each day is to dress up, but not in the kind of clothes you were used to wearing when you worked for someone else. Instead, choose long skirts, to just above the ankle,  made with natural fibres, (cotton, denim, pique, wool, linen)  pretty, low-heeled shoes, button down blouses with ruffles and pretty embroidery, and cardigan sweaters. Pull your hair back and fasten with clips or roll into a bun. I know women who never set foot in the kitchen or any part of the house unless they are dressed and ready. They never wear slippers to do housework and they never do their housework in their robe and nightgown, because they believe that the way you dress has a lot to do with the way you approach your work.

 At the Cottage Gate, by Helen Allingham

19th century women managed the home, indoors and out,  just fine in a long skirt.

Dressing up as I suggested above, gives the work the dignity it deserves.  If you are used to wearing jeans all the time, the longer length skirt will make you feel a lot more comfortable, and it is a lot more modest for all the bending and reaching you are going to have to do in house work.  I think it is really important to have a print or color that gives you joy, and I also believe in mood-dressing. This means that on a particularly gloomy day, you can bring the sunshine in to your life by wearing something that is cheerful.

 From dollar stores or discount stores, you can find homemaker's aids such as these scented trash bags for small trash containers around the house, which come in white, blue, and green. Hand soap in clear, unscented, or scented colors, as well as a cheerful blank book with no lines and some matching pens, give the homemaker a chance to sit and think,make lists, make clothing sketches for her sewing,  design her garden or sketch out her living room arrangements.  If the basket is for someone else, you can add healthful snacks such as carob bars with nuts, from the whole foods section at discount grocery stores. Package them in cellophane or hand made containers of some kind.

Take the homemaker's basket to a comfortable place, pour yourself a cup of tea in your fancy cup, and write down the things you want to do, as you want to do them. A list would look something like this:

bathroom
bookshelf
make beds
bookshelf
kitchen
laundry
meals
go outside
shopping
creativity

These things being done, I would feel free to pursue something that I enjoy doing. Some people like to knit, and others would rather read.  I believe it is essential to do something creative every day because it renews the mind and body. These creative things can also add to the beauty and comfort of the home, especially if they are things like hand made cushions or a vase of fresh-picked flowers for the table.

 There are always much bigger projects that will need attention, such as wallpapering or painting,cleaning closets or the home office,  and different kinds of home improvement. You can put aside one day a week just for those kinds of bigger projects. Eventually, you will catch up to all the years of neglect. Clean one cupboard once a week, and one row of books in a bookshelf.

  I believe it is a priority to have your house in the design and arrangement that makes you happy, because it is your office and your daily environment. You are going to be the one that does most of the work at home, and it is helpful if the house is a beautiful place of refuge for it. You can make it a happy place that looks relaxing, or you can make it austere and uncomfortable. It is your choice.

It may seem like an extravagance, but it does no harm to the budget to buy grocery store flowers. Sometimes they are not very expensive, and a bouquet can last as long as a month.  If you have no vices (smoking, drinking, gambling, expensive collections) and if you rarely go out to movies or restaurants, I dont see any reason not to treat yourself to a lovely bouquet at least once a month. If you are frugal with everything from bathroom tissue to cleaning products, you can afford this wonderful treat. Imagine yourself inside a grand mansion where every room is filled with fresh flowers. All you have to do is break the bouquet apart, shorten the stems and put them in various vases and jars throughout the house. It amounts to about $2.50 a week when you break down the cost. It brings a spark of life to the home and makes your job more important than anything else.

I really believe in homemakers rewards and am always looking around for something elegant to work with at home, that can either be free or just cost a few cents.

Being the guide of the home means you have to control the clutter and the atmosphere. There will be those who will want to pour cold water on your ideas but you have to persist in doing what is good and right. If you are the guide of the home you are actually in a better position than the head of a corporation, because you can do exactly what pleases you in order to get your job done with grace. You do not have to sit down with a board of directors and pass things through congress before you can get anything done. You can regulate your time so that you have plenty of time to pursue other interests.