The Art of Keeping House

Have you ever thought of your home as a ‘work of art’ ?  After seeing so many beautiful homes on blogs around the country, I'm pretty sure most people do. Certainly decorators like Maria of Colour Me Happy and Mary Ann of Classic-Casual-Home, understand the subtleties of beauty in the home.

I know that I revel in the texture of fabric, ornately carved crystal, and the detail in every day decor. But what we don't talk about much is how...

Housekeeping is the key to revealing a home's beauty. 

 A beautiful home won't stay pretty long, if it's buried in clutter.

 

This hit home for me the day I noticed that my new refrigerator didn’t look so ‘spandy nice’  as it had at the store. Most of the 'new' feel of an item is tied in to the clean factor, isn't it?

Have you ever noticed how easy it is to ruin the 'look' of a stylish hotel room?  It’s simple--just leave out your shoes, clothes, shopping bags, and paperwork.  And for sure...“Don’t worry about the bed--just let the maid get that!”

If you leave messes all over your hotel room, it won't look lovely for long. And the maid isn’t going to pick up your stuff--that’s your job. :o)  When I stay in a hotel room, I want to enjoy it's beauty...not live in the mess of my own clutter. What a waste of money that would be!

 

Here’s the rub though. The same thing happens in our own homes every day. Why buy a lovely home, furnish it stylishly  and paint it lovely shades of just the right color, just to bury it all in clutter? In order to enjoy a beautiful home, you have to keep it clean and picked up. It's that simple.

A room truly can be a work of art..if we are willing to see the beauty in every day things and to maintain that beauty .

Sadly, no fairy godmother is going to show up to whisk away the mess.  And it doesn't work to clean once a week either, because you still have to live in the mess the rest of the week.  As Denice Shofield, said in Confessions of an Organized Housewife  a house needs daily attention. Things need to be put back in their rightful places--often!

It occurred to me, one morning, that if everyone in the house would pick up after themselves,  I'd gain a couple of spare hours of prime work time.

Yes, I am the homemaker, but I’m not a butler or personal maid.

We all need to show common courtesy by  not leaving things out for someone else to pick up. If I don’t train my kids to do this, I’m doing them a great disservice. Habits like orderliness will serve them well for the rest of their  lives. If they don’t learn it now, the messy habit will plague them forever.

Did you know that stuff causes stress too? Jamie of Life and Love in the Country talked about the dramatically improved attitude of her son after removing excess toys in her post "Lessons from a Toddler". Less stuff equals a happy toddler!

by Rebekah

So, I had a chat with the kids and let them know that, as of today, all items left out for an hour or more, would be ticketed at a quarter per item (using sticky dots). Somehow, my regular reminders had not eliminated the messy habit up to now.

I'm hoping this new system will...

•  Train the kids to pick up after themselves.
• Net some extra free time.
• Get them used to an orderly environment.
• Help us be more prepared for emergencies.
• Eliminate ‘big’ cleaning days. 
• Leave time for more Family Fun.
• Help us find things more easily.

  
  

If an object isn’t adding to the beauty of a room..

then it should be put away.

The heart of housekeeping is the idea of maintaining the beauty of our home. That's something even young children can understand and help with.

Even the most simple home can be pretty with regular maintenance.  Why do your work in a messy environment when you could function in a lovely one? Finding beauty in every day things  and maintaining that beauty is part of what makes homemaking …an art.

Linking with My Romantic Home's Show and Tell Friday

and Raising Homemakers' Homemaking Link Up