My mom taught me so many wonderful things...she ensured that I had strong moral fiber, conviction, a great sense of humor and feet planted firmly on the ground...
But I am woefully ill-equipped to manage a household.
We're getting ready to move on Sunday into a new apartment. As we are packing up our stuff, I'm amazed at how much clutter we have gathered in just about 2 years. I realize that once we have moved everything over I will have some SERIOUS deep cleaning to do here at the soon-to-be old place. I am becoming overwhelmed by the thought that my NEW place could end up like this if I don't stay on top of everything from the start. Especially with a new baby on the way in August, I could end up in the same quagmire if I don't figure out what I'm doing wrong.
I realized today that I spend a lot of time scouring the blogosphere for advice and tips on making my home a frugal, well-oiled (and clean) machine...but should I really have to look into everyone else's house to figure out how to make mine work? Then I thought about my youth versus my mom's...
She grew up at her mom's side...cooking alongside my grandmother, taking a large role in the weekly chores, learning how Grandma made things work from a pretty early age. And while I certainly had my own responsibilites growing up, my childhood was filled with extra-curricular activites more so than homesteading lessons. I had dance class, music lessons, soccer, softball, and drama club to keep me busy while my mom took care of making dinner. I had my first job as a paper girl when I was 13, and held down part time jobs straight through high school. I was working afternoons and weekends while my my mom took care of the big chores at home. She gave me my own list of responsibilities which I dutifully fulfilled each week, but I never really learned how she did it all.
And now I find myself wondering how the laundry always manages to pile up, the dishes seem insurmountable, and I get brain-freeze when I try to figure out how to squeeze in dusting, floor washing, oven cleaning and other miscellaneous chores into an already busy week. I wonder if maybe I had spent more time at Mom's knee and less time in knee pads, I might not struggle quite as much to fill her shoes. Of course, I'm extra thankful that there are so many blogging friends who learned the lessons I seemed to miss - and I hope I can be a good, if belated, student...
Stumble It!
4 comments:
So true. Although, to be honest, I think my own mom fell into this category too because she used a lot of shortcuts ;)
The same thing happens to me all the time. I completely understand.
I just found your blog on entrecard. I enjoyed reading this post.
Have you met flylady? She's got some great great great help for those of us who are not born organized, all starting with decluttering. Her website is flylady.net. I've found her to be very helpful. Good luck with the move!
Haha - actually it was finding FlyLady's site that got me started to thinking about this whole subject! I've been so busy packing I haven't really dived into her methods, but I plan on giving it a try when we get into the new place!
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