{"id":118,"date":"2017-08-21T06:09:21","date_gmt":"2017-08-21T11:09:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stonehouse.club\/?p=118"},"modified":"2019-01-29T00:52:35","modified_gmt":"2019-01-29T05:52:35","slug":"time-management-on-the-homestead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/treml.com\/stonehouse\/wp\/?p=118","title":{"rendered":"Time Management on the homestead"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I am routinely asked how I do everything that I do.\u00a0 Well, it can be a challenge, that&#8217;s for sure!\u00a0\u00a0Time\u00a0management\u00a0is something I find difficult.\u00a0 Working full time away from the house while trying to do some homesteading fills my days and sometimes I get overwhelmed.\u00a0 It is necessary that I continue to work outside the home at this time\u00a0in order for us to reach our goals.\u00a0 Someday\u00a0I hope to be able to be at home more but until then I need to allocate my time wisely.\u00a0 These are a few things I&#8217;ve found helpful in keeping my sanity and getting done what needs to be done.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Have realistic expectations.<\/strong><br \/>\nI try to be kind to myself.\u00a0 I&#8217;ve come to\u00a0understand that I\u00a0can&#8217;t do it all and it&#8217;s OK.<strong>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>There was a time not so long ago that I would beat myself up for not doing as much as I thought I should be able too.\u00a0 For instance, we have a fairly large garden but there is still yard space to spare.\u00a0 I had aspirations of digging up the rest to plant more food.\u00a0 That would be awesome!\u00a0 But, the more I thought about it the more I came to the realization that I did not have the time to take care of more garden space.\u00a0 Sure, we could get everything planted but it wouldn&#8217;t be long until we were swimming in weeds.\u00a0 We could potentially loose what we worked so hard for because we didn&#8217;t have the time to tend it.\u00a0 And even if we did I probably would not have the time to preserve it all anyway.\u00a0 It&#8217;s better to have a garden the size that John and I both can handle and have success then to become frustrated due to unrealistic expectations.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Create a schedule.<br \/>\n<\/strong>In addition to working my day job and completing my homestead chores (gardening, food preservation, chicken tending, etc&#8230;)\u00a0I also have the activities that come along with daily household management.\u00a0 There is still house cleaning, grocery shopping, meal preparation, laundry and numerous other jobs needing attention.\u00a0 I found that by making a schedule of &#8220;chores&#8221;, both homestead and daily household,\u00a0 I can at least\u00a0keep my head above water.\u00a0 Everyone&#8217;s schedule will look different.\u00a0 Mine even looks different depending on the time of year.\u00a0 In general I have a list of things that need to be done each morning like make breakfast, pack lunches and wash breakfast dishes.\u00a0 Each evening I know that I will be making dinner, making lunches for the next day and putting them in the fridge, cleaning the kitchen, meal prep for the next night if needed and washing a load of laundry.\u00a0 I\u00a0 add in time in the garden during the season and my chicken duties each night too.\u00a0 I broke my house down into cleaning zones.\u00a0 I work on a different zone each week and spend 15-20 minutes each night Monday-Friday, cleaning that zone.\u00a0 Last week my cleaning zone was the kitchen, so I did those tasks that don&#8217;t need to be done daily like cleaning the oven or wiping down and organizing the cabinets.\u00a0 I have a list of jobs to be done in each zone that I follow.\u00a0 Then I add in one or two other jobs each day.\u00a0 Monday night I work on making gifts for upcoming birthdays, holidays, baby showers or whatever occasion that calls for a gift.\u00a0 Wednesday night is menu planning and Thursday is grocery shopping.\u00a0 This might all sound complicated but once it was in place it was extremely helpful.\u00a0 I used the plan over at www.flylady.com to get me started.\u00a0 She&#8217;s awesome!<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ditch the Cable or Satellite.\u00a0 <\/strong>TV is a huge time waster!\u00a0Giving up satellite\u00a0was a bit hard for us at first.\u00a0 We&#8217;ve been without for a few years now.\u00a0 We use a Roku to stream Netflix, Amazon, the History\u00a0Channel, PBS, and many other channels.\u00a0 Some are free and some are pay.\u00a0\u00a0 And during football season we can watch our Ravens play thanks to the digital antenna that John installed in the attic.\u00a0 So we can pick up the local station and watch the games.\u00a0 The one thing we got into the bad habit of doing was watching YouTube videos.\u00a0 That can suck as much or even more time!\u00a0 Now we try to limit our YouTube viewing to a few short videos each night.\u00a0 There are some we save and watch them all at one time on the weekend.\u00a0 We also watch a movie once a week, usually on Saturday night.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Try to create more time.\u00a0 <\/strong><br \/>\nI know that we all have the same 24 hours in our day that we can use.\u00a0 Figure in time for getting ready for work,\u00a0traveling to and from work, the 8 hours spent at work, the 6-8 hours (more or less) for sleeping, that doesn&#8217;t always leave for a lot of time to do what needs to be done.\u00a0 Thankfully, I have been with my employer for long enough that I get 4 weeks a year for vacation and personal\/sick time.\u00a0We rarely\u00a0take vacation\u00a0since we\u00a0are trying to become debt free ASAP and then save for our place in the country. \u00a0 I choose to use my vacation time at home to work on projects, work in the garden or\u00a0work on food preservation.\u00a0In addition, I have a half day off every week which allows me to run errands that might get otherwise delayed or neglected.\u00a0 We are also grateful that John is off during the summer months.\u00a0 This allows him to get his big projects completed as well as to\u00a0help me.\u00a0 Which brings me to my next point.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Understand that it takes both of you.\u00a0 <\/strong><br \/>\nIf you are married or homesteading with a friend you will not be able to get everything done if you don&#8217;t help each other.\u00a0 If John did not help with the weeding and garden prep I would be so overwhelmed that gardening would not be fun.\u00a0 In turn, if he is working on a project and needs an item unexpectedly, he will order it online and I will swing by and pick it up from the store on my way home.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Prioritize.<br \/>\n<\/strong>This is the time of year when the garden is going gang busters, produce needs to be put up, and the fall garden needs planted.\u00a0 These things take priority.\u00a0 Growing and preserving our food for winter is first and foremost.\u00a0When we had our fireplace and heated with wood, firewood was a priority. \u00a0So if my linen closet has to wait until fall or winter to before I can re-organize it, or the oven had to wait several days longer to be cleaned,\u00a0so be it.\u00a0 I can live with that.\u00a0 Food and heat are priority.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Take a day to rest.<br \/>\n<\/strong>I know this might sound crazy.\u00a0 Here I am complaining about not having enough time and now I&#8217;m suggesting that you take a day to rest?\u00a0 Yes, I am!\u00a0 You can do a google search and find numerous articles advocating a day of rest.\u00a0 We all need to take time to recharge each week.\u00a0 God felt that it was so important that He create the Sabbath and commanded us to remember it and keep it Holy.\u00a0 John and I do not do any work for money or around the house from sundown Friday night to sundown Saturday night.\u00a0 We are working so hard all week that we so look forward to that time for resting, recharging and spending time together and with God.\u00a0 In fact,\u00a0I think that\u00a0because we do honor this time God has created and commanded us to set aside that we are able to accomplish as much as we do every day.\u00a0 Give it a try!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you have been feeling overwhelmed I encourage you to try some of the things that helped me.\u00a0 This is not an exhaustive list of time saving tips by any means but it&#8217;s a good place to start.\u00a0 What time saving tips do you have that you&#8217;d like to share?\u00a0 I&#8217;d love to hear them!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am routinely asked how I do everything that I do.\u00a0 Well, it can be a challenge, that&#8217;s for sure!\u00a0\u00a0Time\u00a0management\u00a0is something I find difficult.\u00a0 Working full time away from the house while trying to do some homesteading fills my days and sometimes I get overwhelmed.\u00a0 It is necessary that I continue to work outside the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/treml.com\/stonehouse\/wp\/?p=118\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span 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