You can actually enjoy cleaning, organizing and managing your house by learning to think of home as a hobby. Let’s talk about some strategies to feel confident and have fun while caring for your home.
“Home can be almost like a hobby. It is where we spend our time decorating, cleaning, dusting, and greeting visitors. It is a place to provide wholesome, nourishing meals, clean laundry, and a comfortable bed in which to sleep. It is a place to rest and spend time with the family. It is a place of security and contentment. There is much to do in order to keep it happy. Some people spend a great deal of time on hobbies. These hobbies are times of entertainment and recreation. If a large portion of that time was spent in the care and love of home, it would be an enjoyable place to be.”
-Mrs. Sharon White
I came across this quote on Instagram the other day (from Artful Homemaking) and it immediately resonated with me. It’s exactly what I’ve been thinking for the past few months!
I felt like Mrs. Sharon White had captured my thoughts perfectly.
This past fall I finally got the hang of crochet and quickly became obsessed. I already love to bake sourdough and cook for my family, and paint with watercolor.
I had begun to think along the lines that I could also apply that same excitement and energy into making my home beautiful and comfortable for my family.
That small shift in mentality has already made a major difference in my home. I know the temporary motivation and novelty won’t always be enough to carry me through the monotony that sometimes goes along with homemaking, but that’s where discipline and habits come in.
How To Make Home A Hobby
Once I ran across that quote I immediately got curious as to who this Mrs. Sharon White was. She sounded like my kind of person, but I had never heard of her.
I started looking into her books and her blog, The Legacy of Home.
Mrs. Sharon White and I seem to be kindred spirits. I’m adding a couple of her books to my Mother Culture Planner asap.
I came across another quote in my searching:
This reminded me of a post I wrote last fall about romanticizing your life as a homemaker.
So how do we view home as a hobby? Here are my initial thoughts:
Envision
Start by envisioning a time when your house was clean and tidy and how wonderful that felt. Maybe you were entertaining or having family come to stay, and you went the extra mile to make your house sparkle.
Now go to the room that will have the biggest impact.
This could be the room you spend the most time in, the room that’s already prettiest, or maybe you want to tackle the most cluttered room. But just choose one room, imagine its potential once it’s neat and tidy, and get started.
My Jump-Start Method
- Get a big laundry basket and start placing in anything that belongs in another room. Don’t be tempted to go put it away right then, we need to stick with this room for now.
- Get a trash bag and throw away any trash as you go.
- Have another trash bag or box for anything you want to donate.
- Don’t pull everything out and make a bigger mess at first. We want this to be a very doable, quick project so you won’t shy away from doing it next time! If you remember how long it took and how hard it was, you’ll be much less likely to take on another room. Just toss trash as you come to it, and put aside things you know you want to donate.
- Once you have trash and donations aside, and items belonging in another room out of the way, begin cleaning the surfaces: Dust and wipe down shelves, fans, lights, walls and sweep the floor.
- Now take the laundry basket and put away the things that don’t belong in their respective rooms. If those rooms are cluttered and messy, just do the best you can and don’t let that overwhelm you. You can repeat this process in that room another day!
Spruce Up
Now that you’ve done an initial declutter and have a vision, you can have a little fun. This is where it starts to feel more like a hobby and romanticizing your life.
- Rearrange a shelf or make a small vignette. I have a wicker shelf in my living room that I’ve been playing around with. I like to arrange vintage books, artwork from our stash of picture study prints, candle holders, and things given to me by my grandmothers.
- Shop your house. Is there anything you can snag from another room and try out in this one? A floor lamp, rug, wingback chair, shelf, vases or other decorations? What about photos and wall art? These can be temporary placeholders just to see what suits the room and spark some ideas. Then you can keep an eye out when you’re thrifting, or at least have some long-term goals in mind.
- Make a list on your phone of some items you’d like to eventually buy. Then you can set alerts on your phone from Facebook Marketplace for the type of items you’re looking for, or just glance at the list so you don’t buy something random that you didn’t really want next time you’re at a thrift store.
- Start a brand new Pinterest board for this particular room. Start searching for the types of items you feel the room is lacking, paying attention to what is attracting you to each image. The colors, lines, style, and overall vibe. You can Pin anything from paint swatches and organization ideas, to whole room images, to collages, and products from homeware stores or Amazon.
Repeat this as necessary for any room in your house. Just take it slow and don’t let yourself get overwhelmed. This is a hobby!
An Object In Motion
…tends to stay in motion, right?
Even if you don’t complete this Jump-Start Method I’ve listed above, shifting your mindset to viewing housekeeping and home management to a fulfilling hobby as well as a vocation can get you moving.
And once you have some momentum, keep it going!
Since I’ve begun thinking this way about the things that must be done around the home, I’ve found myself going the extra mile to have the kitchen clean before settling in for the night. And tidying up before my husband gets home, wiping down the stove and appliances we well as the counters after cooking, and staying more orderly with our homeschool supplies.
What mental shift could you make to keep home feeling like a hobby?
Think about it this way: No hobbies are fun ALL the time. There’s a labor of love there, right? Yarn gets tangled. Patterns can take a lot of mental effort to figure out and follow. Mistakes need to be undone, projects don’t turn out the way you planned, and I could go on. But whatever you love about that hobby keeps you going. That’s how we have to think of cleaning, decluttering, decorating and generally caring for our homes.
Here are a few mental shifts to get you moving with some common examples:
- If you have a sink full of dishes you’re dreading, clear one side by stacking dishes on the counter or somewhere, put on a podcast or some music you really love, and remind yourself how much better the kitchen looks without dirty dishes sitting around. Maybe even time yourself so next time you’ll remember it only took 15 minutes.
- If you’re putting off decluttering a room or closet, grab a laundry basket, a trash bag and a box and set a timer for 10 minutes. Follow the Jump-Start Method I mentioned above by pitching anything that’s not worth donating, placing donations in the box, and items that belong in another room in the basket. Just do the obvious stuff for only 10 minutes. You’ll get a thrill from it and get some momentum going.
- If it’s laundry, a podcast really helps me out. I turn on the drier to fluff any clothes that have been sitting and start a new load. I listen to something interesting as I fold, then sort folded clothes into stacks based on which room it belongs in. I have my older two kids put their own clothes away, then I quickly put away my toddler’s clothes and mine and my husbands. It really helps if you keep up with decluttering clothes so that drawers aren’t jammed full. Again, you can quickly do this as you’re putting clothes away! Just stack donations to the side, put your ‘keep’ clothes away, then come back with a bag or box and stick those donations right in the car for the next convenient time to donate them.
- Dust bunnies out of control? I like to dust just one room then do a quick pass with the vacuum. I’ll get other rooms another day. That’s how I keep myself from putting things off too long. I go ahead and use a dusting spray, that’s one compromise I make on the natural products front. I also use a microfiber cloth and just pick things up, dust underneath, and put right back down. Another strategy I’ve used is to hide tiny things like buttons, pebbles, coins, etc. and have my kids do a ‘dusting scavenger hunt’. Then I count the objects to make sure they’ve found them all at the end. This ensures they actually give the room a thorough dusting and makes it fun for them.
- If it’s mopping, quickly move aside any chairs, tables, rugs, etc. Then, I HIGHLY recommend using your vacuum on the lowest profile setting (like ours is 1-5, 5 being for long carpet) and getting every bit of dust, dirt and hair first. Blast a fun playlist or call a friend to talk to on speaker phone or Bluetooth, and go in with your favorite mopping method. Again remind yourself how long it actually takes (not very!) and how good your house will look and smell when you’re done.
Make It FUN
Ok seriously, as weird as this may sound, I always try to remember how I felt about these kind of chores when I was a little girl. I thought things like vacuuming, ironing and mopping were SO grown up and fun!
I know it can be hard to feel that way about it now, but I think that’s usually because we allow other things to crowd out the time we truly need for our homes, and let things get to the point of overwhelm.
If you start with the method I outlined above and do one room per day, your house should be pretty well in check in a week. From there, it’s all about maintaining and avoiding overwhelm as much as possible.
That’s when it can actually get fun.
We already talked about podcasts and music. Another trick to distracting yourself AND getting inspired at the same time is to make a Clean With Me playlist on YouTube. You wouldn’t believe how many women are making content specifically around cleaning and decluttering and inspiring others to do so! Find a few of those videos and let them keep you company. You’ll find yourself getting motivated in no time.
One more way to make it more fun is make a game or challenge for yourself.
Beat The Clock
Set a timer for a certain amount of time and challenge yourself to complete a task before it goes off.
Another way to play this game is to try to finish a job before you have to leave for an appointment or something along those lines. On Wednesday nights I teach at our kids’ ministry at church. I get myself and my kids ready early then try to do a quick pick up around the house and deal with any dishes before we have to leave. I like knowing I’m coming home to a clean house on evenings when we’ll be out a little later than normal.
Baby Step Bingo
Mystie Winckler has a method she calls Baby Step Bingo. This is where you change up your normal to-do list and make it a fun game instead. Simply changing the format can shake you out of a rut and help get the inertia going.
She tells you all about it in this video and you can find out more on her blog, Simply Convivial.
Dress The Part
Sometimes the clothes you’re wearing can make housekeeping frustrating instead of enjoyable.
I find myself moving slower and feeling that frustration if I’m wearing baggy clothes that are getting in my way.
I’m not saying you have to do the ‘trad wife’ thing of putting on your best dress and and pearls to clean your toilet, but wearing clothes that fit and that motivate you will certainly help.
Do you feel good in active wear? Do you like to get dressed and do your make-up for before you feel ready to take on the day? Maybe you work better in clothes that don’t get in your way but that you also don’t mind to get a little dirty, like leggings and dark t-shirts.
Pay attention to how your clothes are making you feel and adjust as needed.
And hey, if wearing a pretty apron helps, by all means!
I’d love to hear how this post helped you in your homemaking endeavors. And here are some other posts I think you’d enjoy:
- 5 Ways To Beat Perfectionism: Build Habits That Last
- How To Romanticize Your Life As A Homemaker
- How To Be Content With Your Home (Even If It’s Old And Ugly)
- Meal Prepping And Planning Tips + Free Meal Planner
- The Only Cleaning Spray You’ll Need- Natural And Inexpensive
What do you do to make housekeeping less like a chore and more like a hobby? Any fun ideas? Share them in the comments!
Thanks so much for reading! Talk again soon,
-Tara
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