I have too much stuff!

By Judy at My Freezer is Full

Confession time- my house is a mess.  I need to do some serious organizing and putting things away.  You see- I have problem.  I have a hard time throwing things away.  I’m forever thinking: “Oh, that could be useful someday”.  So things tend to accumulate.  I’ve got stacks of empty cottage cheese and yogurt cartons, fabric, yarn, old buttons and bits and pieces of this and that in boxes.  My husband is just as bad, collecting bolts, screws and other potentially useful stuff.  We’ve got an overload of ‘things’.  But I guess it isn’t all bad.  Rather than buy new pillows for the couch, I dug into my fabric stash and recovered the ones we had.  When my DH needed a particular size screw for a repair, he sorted through the collection until he found one.  Scrap wood for a project- no problem. Need a pot for a seedling- just go get one.  Materials to send in to school for collage making- got you covered.

So where does the line lie?  How much is too much?  While laid up for the last day and a half with a bad combination of a stomach bug and pulled muscles in my back (I’ll leave that one to your imagination!), I did something I rarely do: watch TV.  I had the opportunity to see a program on hoarders, those people who’s ‘collecting’ is even worse than mine.  But it made me think- Am I really saving things for future use, or do I have a problem?

Considering that I can walk through my home, it’s clean enough to entertain and I don’t have difficulty throwing out truly useless things, I don’t think I’m a hoarder.  And I do generally use the things I save at some point.  But it still leaves the problem of organization.  I’m hoping that once construction is done on the house I’ll have more room  for storage and I’ll get organized (yeah, like that will ever happen!)

But I still feel like I have too much stuff.  But it’s really useful stuff….

Anyone else with this problem?

It takes two (or more)

I identify as a homemaker, obviously, and I glory sometimes in playing up the frilly, old-fashioned connotations thereof. I love my ruffled aprons (I love them so much that I need to make another, or see if I can talk my friend Lyd into making me one in exchange for goodies.) I wear dresses more often than not. I love the imagery of the 1950s housewife. Yeah, I’m a girly girl.

But being a homemaker in the 21st century isn’t a solely female province and I say thank goodness for that. I came home tonight to the Cat-Herder making fried rice, bread rising in the oven; he gets home a bit earlier than me and decided to get dinner started so I could write. (I’m heavy in the throes of my next book.) He does a lot of the bread-baking these days, because it’s a task he enjoys. Kneading, he says, is soothing. He likes to cook, too–certain dishes are decidedly his specialities. We both clean. Okay, neither of us clean as much as we feel should happen, but if we didn’t both pitch in, we’d be far worse off. I’m the gardener. He helps dig new beds and he mows the lawn. I’m trying to get him to let me mow the lawn, in fact, because it’s a chore he really hates, but I think he thinks of it as a man’s job. Like baking.

We’re not the only humans regularly in residence in the house. The House-Geek, a dear friend of the family, is around most weekends. (He lives in a place so small he has to go into the hall to change his mind, so he comes to us for a taste of homey goodness and the company of cats.) He largely “earns his keep” by making sure the computers are behaving, but he’ll occasionally make us something Asian and knock-your-socks-off spicy for dinner, and if the Cat-Herder’s uniforms are hung very neatly indeed, we know the House-Geek pitched in on the laundry.

The idealized 1950s housewife has her allure. Often I feel I’m falling short because I can’t “do it all,” and do it while prettily dressed and wearing heels, to boot. Honestly, though,  I’m not sure I could work outside, write, tend a garden the size of ours and do all the traditionally “female” chores.  The work of making a home, when one must work outside the home, can easily take two or more. I consider myself blessed that the guys see this.

Now if we could only train the cats to clean their own litter boxes, we’d be in great shape!

How do you divide the labor at your house?

Making it stretch

Stephanie of GoingGreenInSoIL

Our household has had its shares of harsh times this year like most people.  Things have been tight and like most people we buckled down.  Among the clipping of coupons, stocking up during great sales and trying to get the best bang for our buck we try to be creative with the things we end up procuring.

We reuse plastic containers that our recycling program does not accept.  I haven’t had to really buy plastic bags for quite some time.  While I do try to buy stuff with the least amount of packaging sometimes it’s just not easy to find.  It’s also great that during parties and the holidays I don’t mind sending off leftovers in them. 

Another thing that we do, or more accurately my husband does, is make one whole chicken stretch into several meals.  He asked me one day how to make chicken broth and then he set to work.  One chicken will equal not only the original meal, but it will also give us a couple containers of broth that are frozen and used for things like cooking green beans or as the liquid for cooking rice.  Left over meat is separated from the bones and packaged up for either lunches, our infamous ”clean out the fridge before it goes bad” leftover dinners or frozen for later meals.

Un-technologizing

by Annette @ the Ward House

Is that even a word, un-technologizing?  You won’t find it in dictionary.com.  Trying to live more sustainably and simply has created a dilemma: how does one live simply and sustainably while still having internet and cell phones?  We are going on 3 years now without TV and none of us seem the worse for wear; take away the cell phones and, well, that will create some d.t’s.

Growing up I never had a cell phone and did not have one until about 4 years ago; that was the beginning of my dependency.  Ronnie and I have spoken many times about doing away with the cell phone plan and just keeping trac phones (pay as you go) for when we are traveling or when the girls have away games, etc.  That will become more of a reality for me as my current cell phone begins to fail.  * update, it has failed.*

I did not renew my two year contract and since this phone has died, I will be the first to move to a track phone; no texting, calling only when necessary.  Not sure how I feel about that.  Having a cell phone flies in the face of how we are trying to live and the many other lifestyle changes we have made.  Why is giving up a cell phone so difficult?  I actually feel vulnerable!

I have at least one friend in the blogosphere who just has a trac phone to use when traveling – do any of the rest of you use a trac phone?  Did you have a cell plan originally?

Community Matters

By Joanna of Keeping Feet

As a sidenote, this is Homemakers Who Work’s 100th post! A big thanks to all the ladies, especially Kathie, who have made this happen. I have so much to learn from all of you!

As homemakers, we tend to try to ‘go it alone’. We don’t need the grocery store to have bread- we can bake it! We don’t need the canned goods aisle- our pantry is full of our own canning efforts! We don’t even need the farmer’s market for produce- we grow it! Laundry detergent? Cleaning products? Skin care? All things we can do ourselves.

Doing things ourselves is great- typically it’s healthier and greener, and often more cost-effective, too. Being connected to our community is something that can be lost, however, when we try to do everything at home, without the help of others.

If I made my own candles, I wouldn’t have found out about this fabulous local soy candle maker I discovered a couple weekends ago. If I didn’t bother to ask, I wouldn’t have found a lady in my state who makes organic, fair trade dog toys. If I insisted on always cooking at home from scratch, I wouldn’t discover local restaurants run by local business owners- and I’m always excited to support small businesses in the community. If I kept to myself, I wouldn’t have made great likeminded friends who supply me with pears and peaches and apples from their families’ trees (Applesauce canning party on Sunday! Hooray!). Having a community, and being involved, matters.

And then, there’s the support community where I get most of my crazy homemaking ideas and recipes- the internet. While being in front of a computer is pretty much the last thing I want to do in my free time, the ideas I’ve glean from blogs and sites and, really, online friends are the majority of my projects and inspiration.

And this community of Homemakers Who Work? Friends. I’ve got pretty much zero real-life friends who work outside the home full time and have interest in homemaking-type things. You gals are my community, in that respect. Thanks for the first hundred posts, and for the hundreds more to come!

Small Project Bites

by Kathie of Two Frog Home

Did you know that there’s no rule that says you have to start and finish an entire project in one sitting?  Ok, I jest, but sometimes I behave in that way.  I act as if starting and stopping is some kind of major instance of law breaking that could land me in jail.  I’m trying to change that by taking small bites of projects instead.  Doing things in this small bite manner, seems to help me stay more refreshed and less freaked out about everything that needs doing.

Here are a few ideas to help you get started:

• Instead of a massive whole house deep clean once a week, I try to do one room a night or every other night.  Doing one room at a time seems more manageable and if I keep up on it, takes very little time.
• When its time to can large amounts of produce, I break it up.  I snap green beans one night after work and let the sit in the fridge until I’m ready to can the next night or over the weekend.  The same can be done for other items.  I bake and puree the pumpkins one day and freeze it to be canned into pumpkin butter another day.j
• Who says I need to be awake when the dehydrator runs?  If the item I’m drying takes more than 8 hours to dry, I put the trays in before bed and remove the dried goods in the morning.
• I keep a small supply of note cards in my car so that I can write letters when I’m sitting in construction during my work commute, on my lunch breaks, etc.  It’s ok to start a letter, put it aside and come back to it later. 
• I run a load of laundry through the washing machine in the morning and hang it out to dry all day while I’m at work.  I check the weather first to make sure its not supposed to rain, but if it does that’s ok, too. 

How do you take small bites in order to keep yourself from getting overwhelmed?

Going high tech

A little high tech helper

By Judy of My Freezer is Full

Sometimes when you’re really busy, a little help comes in handy.  It’s great if you have others around who can help, but, now and again, I rely on a bit of high tech fun.  A few years ago my husband came home with a Roomba-  A robotic vacuum.

Okay, I was a bit skeptical at first. I mean, come on, a robot?  But after a few tries I was sold.  We have hardwood floors which are a pain to keep clean.  With our little friend, we can start it in the morning when we leave for work.  It will tool around the house, vacuuming around the furniture, up and over the throw rugs (as long as you don’t have fringe) while we’re gone.  It follows a random path around the first floor, it has a ‘bumper’ so that when it runs into furniture or a wall, it turns a different direction. When it decides that it has covered the area, it will turn itself off. When we get home, we just need to empty the dust bin and plug it in to recharge.  Of course, it’s not perfect, it doesn’t get everything on the floors and it occasionally will miss a place or two or not manage to find it’s way into the kitchen.  But it is small enough to fit under the china cabinet (where my regular vacuum won’t), it runs itself, and it does a pretty reasonable job of cleaning the floors.

In a house with children and pets, where there is dirt and fur tracked in on a regular basis, it has become a handy helper.  It’s not for everyone, and it was a bit pricey initially. But the time saved in vacuuming has been wonderful.  When my husband and I were both working full time, we would run the Roomba every other day or so and save the ‘real’ vacuuming for the usual weekend cleaning frenzy. It really helped save the finish on the wood floors from being scratched up by all the sand and grit that gets tracked in from outside.

I hear that the new models will even find their dock and recharge themselves but we probably won’t upgrade any time soon. There is even a model that will wash your floors for you and suck up the water. But I’m happy with what we’ve got- it’s a bit of high tech help that saves me time- time I can use for something much more fun than vacuuming the floors.

Letting Go

by Kathie of Two Frog Home

I think we’re bombarded with images of the woman who does it all constantly.  It seems to be everywhere, even if you avoid alot of the mass marketing going on out there, I’m willing to bet you know the image I’m talking about: the woman who has a fabulous career, perfectly mannered & behaved children, keeps a spotless garden, and floors so clean you could eat dinner off them – she’s never tired and does it all without so much as a hair of out place and in heels and pearls.  I have no qualms saying that I believe that woman to be a mythical creature brought to life by marketers to guilt us into buying products we don’t need. 

I’m learning that I need to let that mythical creature go and rid myself of all those perfectionist fantasies.  There is so much I want to do and accomplish on a daily basis and I want it all to be perfect and I want to be kind and beautiful in the process.  I fall short, much of the time.  I’m learning, however; that I need to focus on what’s most important and go from there:

• Is it really most important that the floor be perfectly spotless or is it most important that I sit on the porch drinking a beer while dreaming with my husband?
• Is it more important to have a completely weed-free garden and no time to read for pleasure or can I live with some weeds and have time to read?
• Is it more important that get rest that I need for that important project at work or should I stay up late washing walls?

I think most of us know and realize that our relationships with our loved ones should take priority, but I also know that often it gets shifted down a level or two when we feel pressure to be the woman who does it all.  So for today, I’m going to be ok with having chipped toe-nail polish and not wear sandals to work and I’m going to accept the garden as it is (weeds and all) and I’m also going to have a fabulous home cooked dinner with that sweet man of mine and be grateful for all of it.  I won’t dwell in the land of perfectionism where I never measure up, but rather I’ll thrive in reality which might not be as neat but its 100 times more thrilling.  I hope you’ll join me.

PS: I’m fully aware that men can be homemakers too, its just that I don’t see that image of the man who does it all in advertisements, tv, etc. as I do the woman…