Homemaking, defined

I never really thought about the term homemaking till recently. Having a house now, really makes the term hit home, as it seems we spend every weekend with projects to continue to make the house a home. Today we started out pulling weeds and gardening in the front yard, then rearranging the still box filled garage. Then a trip to his parents as they were giving us their old dining room table. :-)

Then to Lowe's for boards to put in the attic and create a floor, and a few other odds and ends. We were at Lowe's yesterday too, home improvement stores are great, but it's not like grocery shopping where with a list you don't forget things. :-\ We're still learning.

But overall we've been productive. I'm working 50 hours a week right now so the house isn't getting the attention it deserves. Neither is my menu planning or cooking. We've started getting delivery and takeout more than we should. So I need to put forth the effort again to creating a weekly or bi-weekly menu might work better. As it's just the two of us, we can keep more in the freezer and in the pantry to prepare. 

Routine

So today we spent about 2 hours focused on one room, this worked well as it looks done. There will be change but it looks done, no more random boxes around at least in the family room. It had become a catch all in many ways, as it's centrally located.

I did laundry, cleaned up the kitchen, made dinner (Bourbon chicken) cleaned as I cooked, set the dishwasher to run overnight, made coffee for the morning. Waiting for clothes to dry to put out my work pants and rest of my clothes for tomorrow...yep. I'm working some combination of Flylady, Messies, HabitHacker, etc. I've read them all and I love different aspects from them all. I get to hung up on stuff so combining and doing my "own thing" from them works best, I think. And as FlyLady was inspired by the Messies, they aren't too far apart overall. 

They all focus on keeping one spot clean, FlyLady says to shine your sink while the other approaches give you the choice. But you must keep that one small area clean, if nothing else, as an inspiration point. They all recommend doing one entire load of laundry a day, (washing, drying, put away). Another commonality is making a to do list, just writing down what you want/need to accomplish each day.  A daily quick clean 10-15 minutes depending which approach you read at the end of the day you spend a small amount of time picking up all those random things that got put down in random places. There are many, many more commonalities between the organization apporaches. I'm still figuring out what works for me, and as I now have a new house to learn in some things are different that my previous cramped apartment. Things now have a "place" they aren't just sitting somewhere as there is no other place to keep them. There are rooms with purpose, office and separate guest room for example. That now don't overlap and can each have specific things contained within each. Learning curve along with building new habits. Good times.

Side note, I never really drank coffee, but last week I was having a crazy craving for coffee, so I pulled out my old pot (I'd tried to drink it before and got a hand me down pot from my parents) and for the first time really enjoyed homemade coffee. But the pot being old and stored wasn't working great, luckily for me my parents had a "newer" spare pot. So I upgraded and have now been enjoying coffee in the morning. It's been pretty awesome so far. It helps wake me up, more than more energy drinks actually. I stay alert which helps with my job, so good times. ^.^ 

Unpacking and settling

Old apartment kitchen, that's all the counter space there was

It's been a slow process unpacking and whatnot. I feel the kitchen is just about done. Which is awesome. I must say I am totally LOVING the fact that I have counter space, an island and did I mention counter space. The storage is awesome too, I actually have empty drawers and cabinets. HAHA it's amazing. I have finally started cooking in there and it's awesome, and amazing. Things don't fall all over the place when I open a cabinet and they are organized. I have more than 3 drawers, etc. Space is just amazing. The rest of the house is still in disarray but as everyone tells me it takes time. I'm working more hours at work currently which is awesome, but gives me less time to unpack/organize. I need to tackle the master bathroom and my closet...they are a little scary. Reordered the parts to fix the master shower, as the initial set purchased was for "new" plumbing. And we have "old" plumbing. So that's fun to figure out, along with many other random quirks that come with a house as opposed to an apartment. But I feel it's perfect in so many ways, I'm so happy here. I don't miss anything about the old place, and I'm a pack rack sentimental type person so that says something in and of itself.

Part of the new kitchen. ^.^

Thanks to hand me downs, the entire place is furnished, thanks to living on my own for so long I have the rest of the necessary items. I have a wish list for the container store that's a mile long, slowly I will get the things I "need/want" and be able to really get the house in order. For now it's an adventure.