Category: home

how to have a productive day at home

Due to my work schedule, I have many days off during the week where I am home alone. What happened for a long time on those days is that I would write myself a lengthy to-do list and then only accomplish a tiny portion of it because of one distraction or another. Afterward I felt like I completely wasted my day. Over time I’ve developed a system for actually being productive. If you have a conventional work schedule this could also apply to a weekend day. If you have kids at home I’ve got no advice for you, but this is what has worked for me during this stage of life.

1. Get a good night’s sleep.

This is probably the most important point. For a long time I found myself staying up way too late the night before a day off because I knew I didn’t have to go to work the next day. What I always forgot about is that my body doesn’t like those changes in routine, and I would wake up late feeling groggy. Getting your rest is a must.

2. Go through your morning routine.

I don’t know what this means for you, but for me it means GET DRESSED ALREADY. I find that if I put on real clothes I can get a lot more done than if I stay in my pajamas. It’s a mental thing, but it works. It’s also important for me to eat breakfast and do a little Bible study before I begin the day.

3. Drink some coffee.

I don’t know about you, but coffee works on me. My body is sensitive to caffeine, so coffee gives me energy and wakes me up.

4. Get comfortable.

If I’m too cold, all I want to do is curl up in bed and read. If I’m too hot–which I can’t remember ever happening, but hypothetically speaking–I’ll feel lethargic. Wear clothes that are easy to move around in and won’t bother you.

5. Schedule your day.

Treat your day like you would a day of work or school. Schedule out your time–realistically–so you won’t find yourself lost somewhere in cyber space hours after you should have been cleaning or running errands. One of my days off recently looked like this:

7:30 – wake up, get ready
8:00 – breakfast, Bible study
9:00 – computer time (blog, check finances, social media, etc.)
11:00 – clean, lunch
1:30 – grocery store
3:00 – swim
4:00 – shower, dress
5:00 – walk Cleo
6:00 – church

That day I accomplished everything I wanted to, and when it was time for bed I felt satisfied and ready.

What about you? Given all the distractions at home, how do you stay productive when you need to be?

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[photos via: 1, 2, 3, 4]

February 22, 2010
Playing House: 2010 To Do List

On my quest to ultra domesticity, I must eventually have a perfectly decorated house. Right? Right. Although I wish that could have happened the week after we moved in, it is going to be a long process for us. Mainly because we didn’t have any furniture to start out with, and we’re not rolling in money. But at this point only a couple of rooms are actually presentable, and it’s really starting to get on my nerves.

So! I’ve come up with a realistic list of things I think we can accomplish on the house this year. Here they are.

1. Fix the back door lock.

Remember this?

Well, it’s still there. I’m ready to use our back door again, and I have an idea for a super cheap way to fix this. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

2. Speaking of locks, cut down on the number of keys we have.

There are four doors to our house, and each one has a separate key. Not only is that quite annoying, but I think it might be a fire hazard. I want them to all open with one key, and I don’t want to have to use a key to open the doors from the inside.

3. Finish up the living room.

I want to get a rug to pull this space together. Who knew rugs could be so expensive?

I want to add a couple of cute, comfortable, and functional bar stools to this space.

4. Set up an actual dining room.

This needs to be the next room we work on, because right now we can only have a few people over for meals. We have a lot to do here, as it looks like this right now:

Really terrible. I kind of block this room out of my memory for the most part. Fixing up this room will mean procuring some sort of table and chairs (for cheap – I can just use a table cloth until we can afford something nice), changing up that chandelier, getting rid of those awful window treatments, possibly hanging some shelving, and of course painting. I can’t handle the red.

5. Finish painting all the rooms in the house.

While we’re on the subject of painting, it’s a fairly cheap way to make a big difference in appearance. I’d like to finish painting the entire house this year. In the front part of our house, the trim has all been converted to white, which I love. But in the back, it is all a creamy off-white, which I think looks dirty.

This is our back hall. Yes we left one of our dresser drawers open, and I didn’t close it before taking this picture. Yes it is bothering me. Yes I am too lazy to retake the picture. But isn’t Cleo cute poking her head out like that? Let’s focus on that.

6. Start on the “office.”

One of my 101 goals is to build a pretty and well-organized home office. This goal probably won’t get completed in 2010, but I need to at least start. I am embarrassed to show you what that room looks like right now, but I’m going to anyway.

There’s a pile of balled up newspaper on the ground because I unpacked a box of breakables about a month ago. Eddie likes to use it as a doggy bed, so I haven’t picked it up yet. Actually, it just isn’t a priority and that makes a convenient excuse.

7. Get the carpet cleaned.

We’ve only been here a year and already the dogs have ruined our carpet, at least in a few places. Why is it that when they feel the need to puke, they can’t do it on the tile or the hardwood? But before we jump to getting new carpet, we want to at least give cleaning it a shot.

So that’s my list for the year. If you are willing to lend me some time and muscle strength we have a LOT of painting to do, and in exchange I will feed you. Isn’t that a tempting offer? I thought so.

Tips? Thoughts? Suggestions? Love notes? Send them my way!

January 27, 2010
ah, saturday

Let me just tell you how much I loved today. A LOT.

Any good day off starts with sleeping in, which I did. Then, after some lazing around, David and I decided to cash in on a Cracker Barrel gift card he got for his birthday. Although we’ve been trying to eat healthier this year, we give ourselves one meal a week where we eat what we want. This was DEFINITELY the meal. My love for breakfast food is deep and true, only surpassed by my love for dark chocolate, Blue Bell ice cream, and my Tempur Pedic mattress. And living beings, of course. Anyway, David and I basically ordered one of everything.

Not pictured: the hash brown casserole, French toast, and sausage that we also shared.

We somehow rolled ourselves out to our car when we finished and drove over to Lowe’s. My plan was just to price some blinds for our breakfast room and living room, but David convinced me to just buy them now. I had anxiety about spending the money, but since we’ve been living without privacy for a year now I figured it was worth it.

On the way home we stopped to see our nephew Lucas, where I got to experience this adorableness:

Their cat just crawled on to my back and made herself comfortable while I was playing with Lucas. That never happens to me with cats! I was so excited!

Back at home we set to work installing our new blinds, with the help of our talented and gracious fathers. Conversations with my dad can always be interesting. He is blunt and honest in an endearing sort of way, which makes me nervous at times.

Dad: One thing I’m looking forward to when I get older is being able to tell everyone exactly what I think.

Me: But Dad, you kind of already do that.

Dad: I’m not even close.

Me: (eyes widen in terror)

Amidst such riveting conversation we got the blinds installed and I cannot even believe what a difference they make. The rooms actually look finished now. I keep looking at them. Here is what the breakfast area looked like when we bought the house:

And here it is now, pretty much finished:

And here are the new blinds in the living room:

I’m in love. We had to get them specially cut, and Lowe’s did it perfectly right there while we waited. Eventually I’m thinking some different curtains would be nice for the living room, along with some sort of curtains for the breakfast room, but I am happy with this for now.

After the satisfying completion of that task, I set about making bruschetta to bring to a baby shower tomorrow. I’ve never made it before, and used this recipe. I had to double it, and the mixture turned out looking like this before chilling in the refrigerator overnight:

Can anyone tell me, does this look right? Because I’m not so sure.

I am now ensconced on the couch with my two dogs, watching Ewan McGregor attempt to do a very poor Italian accent in Angels & Demons. Saturdays like these don’t happen very often for us, so I enjoy them to the fullest when they do. It’s been a great day.

January 16, 2010
Help! Household Woes Edition

Although I adore our home, keeping it up is a never-ending list of chores and difficulties. The following items are just three examples of obstacles we are facing. Anyone have any good suggestions?

1. The Broken Key

The key to our back door broke off in the lock, and we tried long and hard to remove it without success. We don’t want to have to replace the whole thing, so I’m looking for bright ideas of how to get that sucker out. After two weeks, the dogs still scratch at this door to be let out; they haven’t caught on that we have to go through the laundry room now.

2. The Mysterious Drips

Drips and streaks like the ones in this picture (if you can see them) can be found on every wall of our bathroom. They are a rusty color and feel kind of greasy. The drips are activated after long showers. We know there isn’t a leak, and we also know that the wrong kind of paint was used in this room. Any clue as to what’s causing this eyesore? We don’t want to repaint if they are only going to come back.

3. The Disappearing Windowsills

This is one of three windowsills that has been almost completely eaten away by our dog(s). Okay, it was Cleo. So we know what the problem is, but my question is, how on earth do we fix this kind of thing? Or make it look presentable without spending a bunch of money? Right now I’m just glad these aren’t at eye level.

Send me a winning suggestion, and I promise to make all your dreams come true. That, or I will write you a haiku. Whatever I feel up to that day.

November 29, 2009
Inspiration For Life
I stayed with my best friend Becca in Kansas this past weekend, and she inspired me in so many different ways. It was the first time I saw her new house in its mostly-finished state. The last time I was there, last year, they hadn’t moved in yet and it was kind of a wreck. They did all the work on it themselves and now it’s adorable. Talking to her about it really inspired me to get working on my own house again, which I haven’t done a thing for in months.

Some ideas I have for the house:
- Some open shelving in the kitchen, filled with dishes, cute baskets of produce, and spices in mismatched glass jars
- Plants all over the place
- Tear down the outdated vanity in the half bathroom and put in a pedestal sink
- Replace the linoleum with tile throughout, and do it ourselves
- Make my own Roman shades
The inspiration isn’t just limited to home decor. For an anniversary gift, Becca gave me the cookbook More-with-Less: Suggestions by Mennonites on how to eat better and consume less of the world’s limited food resources. She explained to me that all the recipes use mostly basic ingredients that are healthy and can be bought in bulk. It stresses unprocessed foods and teaches you how to make some things yourself that you might be used to buying pre-packaged. While we were there Becca made some of the dishes and I was impressed with how good they were. So now I really want to get back on my cooking kick, and in a healthy, world-conscious way.

Finally, I noticed that Becca uses a lot of organic, fair-trade, local products, which is something I have wanted to transition into doing for awhile now. I have noticed that the older I get, the more hippie I become, except without the drugs or political activism. :) I’m not sure how my conservative husband feels about that, but I think he’ll be happy when he sees how I can save us money without compromising on quality and do good to ourselves and the environment at the same time!

Basically I want to be a perfect little homemaker, but unfortunately that’s a hard goal to reach having a demanding full-time job. It’s an ongoing battle to balance the two, but at least now I have some inspiration to keep me going!
October 13, 2009