Embrace and Perfect Your Homekeeping Skills

People underestimate the power and importance of good home-keeping. Home-keeping is an amazing lost art that can save a great deal of time and money, and should be viewed as an excellent way to preserve the environment and health as well. Key factors in smart home-keeping include using minimal resources, healthy foods and ingredients, finding ways to shorten your time in doing various activities and tasks, and learning about how to do things in a more economically and health-friendly way. Here are some tips for smart home-keeping:

• Unless it is a special occasion, do most of your eating from home. An occasion can also be made more special if you prepare a home-cooked meal. You will save money and over time you will develop ways to make groceries last longer than you thought you could.
• Resist the urge to purchase packaged, processed foods. Not only are these foods more expensive, they are never as healthy as those made at home, and usually involve some type of packaging that will pollute the environment. As much as possible, buy local and organic foods.
• Instead of purchasing packaged items for the home, think of ways to save money by creating or making them yourself. Home-made cleaners and solutions for just about any type of preparation for sanitation are right in your cupboard - vinegar, baking soda, apple cider vinegar, hydrogen peroxide, lemon juice, borax, rubbing alcohol, and essential oils can do the job economically and without toxic side effects. Visit The Family Homestead for ideas on how to make your own cleaners.
  
• Discard your modernistic views of getting tasks done. Stop using a microwave and start using your stove and oven. Your food will be healthier -- microwaving effectively removes nutrients from your food and should be considered a dangerous method to cook. Microwaves have also been determined to expose us to radiation and electromagnetic waves that can cause cancer. Whenever possible, don't use your dryer - let your clothes dry naturally. And, don't ever use dryer sheets. They are full of toxic chemicals that can absorb into your skin from your clothing. Always trust your "mothers intuition" about things that seem like they may not be healthy - if you have a doubt, you are probably correct.
  
• If you choose to become a stay-at-home-keeper, don't allow what others who may be working full-time are doing to otherwise influence your choice. Many people who stay at home are busier than those who work out of the home. This is one of the most important jobs you will ever undertake, so march forward and don't feel guilty about taking it seriously!
  
• Learn to partner with other individuals who share your zest for home-prepared foods and other items such as homemade soaps, candles, cleaning solutions, gardening, knitting, crotcheing, canning & jarring foods, sewing, jewelry-making, wood-working, furniture-building, and raising animals for food and other necessity items (such as for clothing, etc.). You may even consider a cooking co-op where you agree with others, perhaps in your own neighborhood, on a schedule of preparing foods where each family only cooks once or twice a week.
• Think creatively about preparing a variety of meals at home for your family. Use the Internet for recipe ideas as they are free and vast. Borrow cookbooks from friends or check-out from the library. If you find that you have a hard time sticking to recipes, experiment with your own whims and tastes. Often something really spectacular can come from a crazy idea.
• Prepare everything you can from scratch. You may be wondering, "where will I ever find the time??" If you re-prioritize your life a bit and make time to prepare home-cooked foods, cleaners, clothing, and other home items, you will find a quiet satisfaction as well as enjoy better health from your efforts. You will start to realize that you can do more from scratch if you just allow yourself the extra moments needed, and your life will start to order itself around these important tasks instead of you ordering yourself around a great deal of other activities that may not be as critical. When you start to slow down, prepare things, and savor the very act of doing these things for your family, you should eventually notice the peace you will feel, improved health, and satisfaction of having put in an afternoon's or mornings time on such fulfilling work.
• Work on reusing, saving, recycling, and rethinking everything you do to save money, time, and the environment. Use glass containers you get from foods purchased at the store. Eliminate plastic from your house as much as you can and replace with reusable containers made of wood, metal, glass, ceramic, and enamel. If you must use plastic, recycle. Recycle glass, paper, and other items whenever possible.
  
• Make at least one meal a day a sit-down occasion at the table with others where no other interruptions prevail. This should be a focused, relaxed time to enjoy healthy food that will nourish your body and join with family or friends, be social, and catch up. Turn off the television and put on some music that will get you in the mood, but will not distract from the task at hand - eating your meal in peace and being able to connect with important people in your life.
• Don't panic if you cannot get everything done in a day; rarely anyone can. The beauty of the home is that it will always be there tomorrow. And unlike a thankless job you have to go to five days a week, you probably won't have a nasty boss breathing down your neck telling you that you may not go home until you have cleaned the toilets. If you have family members breathing down your neck about such items, it's time to sit down and have a talk about all that is involved in maintaining a house and/or caring for children or other family members.
• Spend time teaching home-keeping with your family members -- in particular, your children. Getting tasks accomplished for the common good allows you to spend time together and bond over something everyone in your house cares about. Teach children to help with laundry, dishes, taking out the garbage, mowing the lawn, vacuuming, dusting, baking, tidying up their own rooms and personal items, and cooking meals. Play music, laugh, and have fun while you are engaged in these tasks. As Mary Poppins always says, "Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down!"
• When your daily tasks are done, instead of going out enjoy a family game or movie night at home. Invite friends or other family over to share your evening. This is a great way to save gas, promote personal relationships, and avoid activities that tend to separate us as human beings such as being on the computer/playing video games/ watching television.