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

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June 26, 2019 By Lisa Sharp 4 Comments

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

retro housewife wearing cleaning gloves holding head and looking stressed

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

Pop Art Tired Housewife Washing Dishes at the Kitchen

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!

clumsy housewife dropping plates in kitchen

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.

Sharing is caring!

Filed Under: Homemaking

Previous Post: « 12 Basic Cooking Skills Every Adult Needs to Know
Next Post: Finding Time for Homemaking With a Full-Time Job »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Rebecca says

    May 5, 2014 at 8:35 pm

    I know what you mean life is so busy and it is hard to fit everything in! I hope you find a way to figure out the best way to balance everything! πŸ™‚

    Rebecca

    Reply
    • Lisa Sharp says

      May 10, 2014 at 1:07 pm

      Right? Work, housework, exercise, fun, it’s hard to fit it all. πŸ™‚

      Reply
  2. Stephanie says

    August 27, 2018 at 8:49 pm

    Coming here from your other post. What works for me, when there’s just too much going on, is to focus on one major home thing per day. Obviously the daily crap has to get done- dishes and cooking and whatnot- but I make a list of Crap I Want to Get Done, super fun stuff like ‘wiping down appliances,’ ‘reorganize dish cabinet,’ that kind of stuff, and each day I pick out one project to do. If I have the energy/time/ability to get more done, awesome. If not, no biggie, there’s always tomorrow (and obvs, save the bigger projects for days with more time and energy, and go for the things like ‘clear out the silverware drawer’ on days when you have ten minutes and your brain is cooked). Some days, that one thing is laundry because the rest of the day is taken up with other life stuff. At one project a day, you’ll still be making progress, even though it’s a slower progress. Slow and steady. πŸ™‚

    I’ve been working on overhauling the entire house so that it’s easier to take care of as a whole. I’ve been working fairly steadily for about a month and a half now, including cleaning out my nightmare of a basement, and it’s definitely helping in some areas. I still have plenty of work to do, though, and I’m vastly looking forward to the day when I don’t have 43829957329749832 things to do every day.

    Like that’ll ever happen! πŸ˜€

    Reply
    • Lisa Sharp says

      August 27, 2018 at 8:55 pm

      Great advice! I bet your house is going to look amazing!

      Reply

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Welcome to my blog! My name is Lisa and I'm the Retro Housewife trying to live a greener life. I share my love of all things vintage, homemaking and green living here on the blog. To read more, click here.

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