Embracing the art of homemaking as a 21st-Century woman allows you to live a life and create a home that says welcome regardless if you are a stay-at-home mom or have a thriving career.
What pops into your mind when you hear the word “homemaker”?
Do visions of June Cleaver with heels, pearls, and a perfect house comes to mind?
Homemaking used to be a revered art. Sadly, somewhere along the way, the art of homemaking fell to the wayside. We’ve gone through an era where being a homemaker was often scorned. Where women were told to focus on a career and not the home.
I don’t think that homemaking has to be your full-time career. It can be but for most women, it’s not. Some by choice, others by necessity.
Job, kids, or marital status do not determine whether or not you are a homemaker. If you have a place to lay your head, you are a homemaker.
“The homemaker has the ultimate career. All other careers exist for one purpose only – and that is to support the ultimate career. ”
―
This quote used to make me grieve that I didn’t have a husband or children. It wanted to be a homemaker. I wanted to have that place to create a warm and welcome space for those around me. Until I realized that every woman regardless of marital status or job status is a homemaker.
Jami Balmet of a Young Wife’s Guide puts it so well.
You are a homemaker by definition. You are a homemaker if you are a woman. Whether or not you have kids. Whether or not you work outside the home. Whether or not you are married. You are a homemaker because God has designed your role to be a keeper of your home. ~Jami Balmet
It can be a college dorm room, a tiny house, on your own, with family, or with a spouse. Regardless of where you live, for that period of time, that place you rest your head is home.
Homemaking is a gift. A gift to you and to those around you.
Homemaking is a chance to create a haven for yourself, those you love, and anyone else who comes through your door. A place where those who enter feel embraced with grace and peace.
Home is a sacred space. A place of refuge.
There are small things you can do along the way to become a homemaker, or even better yet, a haven maker. Embracing the art of homemaking as a 21st-century woman is a slow but steady process. We are all always gleaning and growing.
Creating a home is not just about managing to keep food on the table and the house tidy. Homemaking takes those things and builds on them.
Embracing the Art of Homemaking as a 21st Century Woman
1. Lean into your season
Embrace wherever you are. Are you a stay at home mom? A single gal? Full-time working mom?
Lean into the season that you are in. Love it, live it, for what it is. That is where God has you for this moment in time. It doesn’t always make sense. I get that. Believe me, I get that. I’m a single gal in my mid-30s. This is not where I saw myself. Yet this is where God has me.
We only do ourselves harm by beating ourselves up about what life is not. Why waste so much time on the land of if only when we have the current life to live?
Love those babies. Take care of those babies. Love that job. That ministry. Embrace juggling work and family. This is only a season.
Homemaking is a part of every season of life.
2. Find a homemaking mentor
A what? Yes, a homemaking mentor. A person who can encourage you to take delight in your home. Who can give you inspiration when you don’t know how to do something.
A homemaking mentor could be your mom, a friend, a blog, a podcaster… There lots of ways to have a mentor to encourage you in embracing the art of homemaking.
My mom is definitely my foremost mentor. She taught me all the basics and shaped how I still do things today.
When I jumped into the world of natural living, Lindsey Edmonds of Passionate Homemaking became another mentor.
You can have a mentor for cleaning. One for cooking. One for creating routines. One for making your home feel welcoming. You get the picture.
Simple Tip: Only pick one or two mentors for each area, especially in the online world. It’s easy to become overwhelmed with too many people, even the internet ones speaking into your life.
3. Pick one thing to start with
If you feel like you are starting from ground zero, make a list of the top 5 things you want to learn or improve your skills in or do around the house. Then pick one item and focus on that first.
Once you feel that you have a grasp on that, move on to the next thing. Before you know it, you will have more skills in keeping your home and cooking than you thought you could!
4. Create Routines
Routines and schedules are two different things. While schedules might be necessary sometimes, routines are life-giving.
Routines allow for the rhythm and flow of life. Those things that you do each day or week but don’t force into a time slot.
Routines allow yourself a bit of grace. My morning routine has become a game changer for me.
Other routines might look sort of like the old poem:
Wash on Monday,
Iron on Tuesday,
Mend on Wednesday,
Churn on Thursday,
Clean on Friday,
Bake on Saturday,
Rest on Sunday.
Of course, most of us don’t spend a chunk of your day churning but you get the picture.
It might look something more like this:
Laundry- Monday,
Bathrooms- Tuesday
Floors- Wednesday
Meal Prep/Baking- Thursday
Errands- Friday
Catch-up- Saturday
Rest- Sunday
In this current season, most of those things happen in my home over Friday and Saturday. Every woman and her home is different. I assign tasks to a day not to a specific time slot so that I have the freedom to shuffle things around a bit as the need arises.
5. Find your style
How you decorate your home can be a bit of an extension of yourself. Having a warm and inviting home creates a space that you and those around you can feel comfortable in.
For me, I see it as your home feeling like hygge from the moment you step in the door. Did you know that hygge can be embraced year round?
I’ll be honest. I still struggle with finding my style. Yet, little by little I am learning how to express myself in decorating. Lots of things like inexperience, time, and budget get in the way but my home continues to feel more and more like me.
I chose to focus on little things like a few cute throw pillows, fresh flowers, and essential oils wafting from my defuser. (While scent is not a “style”, it still add an element to your home that is decidedly “you”.)
Finding your own style is an area where you might want to find a mentor. I know that I do! Right now that is the area that I still feel like I need a mentor the most. Currently, The Nester is my main mentor for that area of my life.
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