How to Stop Feeling Like You Are Failing at Being a Housewife

Feeling overwhelmed at the thoughts of homemaking? These tips will help you stop feeling like you are failing at being a housewife and homemaker.

Homemaking no matter if you are a full-time homemaker or not can be overwhelming. There are so many things to deal with and never-ending chores.

Every housewife and homemaker has days where they feel like they are failing. I have those days myself. I used to have them even more but I’ve found a lot of things to help reduce those days.

A few years ago I found myself always overwhelmed and feeling like I was failing. Ironically I spend more hours working now yet I feel like I have things more together. Not always but more often than not.

It took me getting really tired of being behind to really force myself to find ways to stay on track. Since the most common thing I hear from you guys is that you are overwhelmed I thought it would be good to share what I found to be helpful.

How to Stop Feeling Like You Are Failing at Being a Housewife

Say No More Often

This one was hard but as I’ve done it more it’s kind of liberating. As a stay-at-home homemaker, I was always getting asked to do things.

People just seem to assume if you work from home or are a full-time homemaker, or in my case both, that you have all the free time so you can do all the projects.

While being at home does give you more flexibility that doesn’t mean you can or should try to do everything. Trying to do it all will burn you out.

I had to think about my top priorities right now and anything that didn’t fit in those had to go. That doesn’t mean I will never go back to those things but right now they don’t fit in my life.

My time is precious so I treat it as such and try not to feel guilty when I say no to going to an event or doing a project for someone. I’m sure some people aren’t happy with me but I’m a lot less stressed and have more time for the things that are important to me.

Additional Resource: Creating a Stop Doing List

Create a Schedule

I’m not the type of person that likes a very structured day but even I have had to create a schedule for myself. I don’t plan every hour of the day but I have days I do different tasks and generally, I have set work and cleaning time.

How structured you need to be will depend on your personality. Some people thrive with very structured days and some don’t. If you don’t know which you are, try a few different types of scheduling.

Once you find something that works, stick with it until it’s no longer working and then you can adjust. At different times in your life, you will likely need different schedules.

Additional Resource: Creating a Homemaking Schedule That Works for You

Get Help From Others

If you share your home with others they should be sharing in its upkeep. If you are a full-time homemaker maybe a lot of it will fall on you but even then it shouldn’t all.

Figure out what works best for you and the people in your home and make sure everyone sticks to it. This also may need to be adjusted over time, especially if you have kids.

Additional Resource: How to Divide the Household Chores List

Take Shortcuts When Needed

This was a big one for me to learn. I was making all of our cleaners, making all food from scratch, and doing all of those “good housewife” things.

That worked at one point when I didn’t have a business to run as well. Now I spend a lot of time on my blogs and creating content. I love it but it does mean I don’t have the same free time I once had.

Now I rarely make bread and I buy more packaged food. Our dinners are still usually from scratch but for example the buns for burgers this week were not homemade and neither was the BBQ sauce. At one point in time, they would have been.

I also don’t always make my own cleaners. I still love them and they save so much money but right now I can afford the cleaners and the time is more valuable to me.

I have fallen in love with Grove Collaborative because the prices are really good on natural cleaners and I didn’t have to add another thing to my shopping lists. You can even set items up on subscriptions so you don’t have to think about it at all.

Don’t feel guilty if you need to stop doing something you once did and need a shortcut now and again. If you can afford it and it works for your family, do it!

It’s okay if you feel like you’ve been failing lately. It’s likely just a sign you need to follow some of the steps above. It happens to all of us and there is a way out of it.

If you feel like you need a little more help in this area be sure to check out Say Goodbye to Survival Mode. I feel like it really helped kickstart my journey to a less overwhelmed life.