Ladies,
Do you want to know what changed my homemaking game? Working like a hotel maid in my own home. Funnily enough, I have met homemaking wives who are greatly insulted to be equated to a maid. But the fact is, homemaking is largely the work of the maid. It is resetting the room. The maid comes by a room every day to tidy, wash, or re-stock. We are the daily maid to our home, whether we like that or not.
A Maid is Ready for the Job
A hotel maid is expected to have her hair neatly tied back and wear a clean outfit with comfortable shoes. She is a part of representing the hotel, she is a part of the clean and tidy atmosphere by being presentable herself. Does it matter if the room is clean if there is a frazzled sloppy woman slogging around in it? How much worse if she is unhappy and rude to people. The maid is polite and pleasant, or she loses her job. Our countenance and appearance matter as much as the job well done. If we would think that paying customers matter enough to see our best, we should give that to our families who rely on our work for their quality of life. The best thing I ever learned to do for being a homemaker was to pray for the workday and ask God for the strength to do it well in all aspects. But the other best thing I learned to do was to work like the maid!
The Maid Makes the bed
The maid makes the bed, at the very least. Establish the daily task of making the bed. Set the room as though it is going back to the start for a guest stay, like in a hotel. It’s like pressing the restart button. Take this opportunity to pick up any trash to throw away, pick up any laundry from the floor or furniture and put away. This is your bedroom; it should be a getaway.
The Maid Clears the Dishes
There is old-fashioned home keeping advice that says, “a guest should never see a dish in the sink”. This may seem extreme to some, but an empty kitchen sink indicates good kitchen management. The best way to do this is to load them into the dishwasher all day and run it every night without fail. Then empty it before bed or in the morning so that it is available for the dishes being loaded into it the next day. The maid does not let the dishes pile up!
The Maid Does Laundry Everyday
Bath towels, bathmat, and hand towels need to be washed once per week. Pajamas too. Underwear and socks are only worn once so those items build up day by day. Most outfits need to be washed after one or two wears. A fresh kitchen towel needs to be set out every day, so those pile up all week. Pet blankets need to be washed once a week. Bed sheets need to be washed once per week. Living room throw blankets get washed once per week. All of this laundry is not done in one day. When it is spread out, each day typically has a load of laundry. I plan on doing a load of laundry per day. Since I plan for the task and look for items to wash, they do not pile up or get overwhelming and we’re never without something that we need.
The Maid Takes out the Trash
The trash must be taken out once per day. Smelly food items need to be removed from the house. Put in a fresh liner and it will be ready for a new day with no lingering odors.
The Maid Cleans the Floors
You may not need to vacuum or sweep every single day, but if your floors start to look grimy, just clean them really quick. Think like a hotel maid. You are doing a basic once over on all of your rooms daily. A quick tidy, throw away trash, fluff sofa pillows, a quick floor cleaning. Even though I have set days that I do a deep vacuum, I still have days I vacuum quick because it needs it that day too.
The Maid Resets the Room
Like a maid, the homemaker is resetting the rooms. Reset. Reset. Sometimes this reset is just making the bed and picking up. Sometimes it is a deeper cleaning as well. That is when you scrub the shower, bleach the toilet, mop the floors. But the fact is, rooms need to be reset at least once a day, like a bedroom, but a main room with a lot of activity needs to be reset throughout the day.
Homemaker Workday
There is nothing easy about home keeping, which is why many of the homemaker’s jobs end up being delegated to maids or other services. We need the help!
No matter how much you delegate, you are still doing the unseen work of the homemaking wife. The grocery pick up is not making her list or deliberating over meal planning for her! No one is hired to build her food storage, or prepare for emergencies, or plan seasonal wardrobes, decorate the house, or offer hospitality. There is so much more to the wife’s work than the daily housework.
Work Like the Maid, Homemake like the Wife
The wife has to work like the maid, but the maid can never work like the wife. The maid does not light the candle, rearrange the furniture, or set out a vase of flowers. The maid does not bake cookies with the children or kiss the husband when he comes home. A wife is more than the woman who cleans. No one replaces her presence in the home and in the family. A wife not only gives of her physical energy to do the work of the home, but she is also building up her family through her emotional and spiritual attentiveness to them. A sour wife can make it a place to escape while a happy one can make it a place of escape.
To the young woman looking forward to her married life, or the new wife just starting out, to a wife striving to be a better homemaker today, my advice to you is to work like the maid and homemake like the wife.
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