Home Management Series July 2014

Time is of the essence here…..

What I am attempting to deal with in my better home management series is how to arrange ourselves so that we are not working 24 hours a day. We live in the home, we look after other family members in the home, and we bring our guests into the home. That is quite a lot of time spent in the home, therefore the home manager should aim to do the minimum of real work so that she can escape from the home for at least six or seven hours a day. Only in this way can she guard against being too overworked and tired for her essential function of managing.

Some sources calculate that housewives work anything from 70 to more than 80 hours a week. In this short series of articles, methods to reduce that time by 50% or more will be given. However, in order to really reduce your workload you need change the way you view your current role and what you expect from the other members of your household.

We are going to look at all the activities of the housewife and see how we can reduce the time and effort spent on them. We are going to do a time and motion study, thereby ensuring most effective, pleasant and healthful matching of work-space and convenience with least physical effort. Then we shall consider:

• effective buying and storing;

• help for the housewife;

• methods and equipment to improve efficiency; and finally – and very important:

• finance, without which nothing is possible.

Make haste slowly…..

Of course, change cannot be achieved overnight, but if these articles make you look at running your home in a new way, things will improve more quickly than you might imagine.

However, even if you like some of the suggestions, don’t start ripping everything out; don’t divorce your husband; and don’t go and buy everything in sight! Instead, make a five-year plan – or something like that.

In other words, keep your own individuality: apply the suggestions to your own circumstances. People have always created their own atmosphere. This consumes more time than is strictly efficient, but such things are important and worth the drawbacks, as long as they do not become too demanding.

But generally, the advice in these articles can work for you. People might laugh at the idea of the housewife being a manager, and at the notion that there are very important skills to acquire. But that should be like water off a duck’s back to you, as you and your family achieve new found comfort and contentment. You can afford to have the last laugh!