Scheduling Small HearthKeeping Projects
The stillness of the early morning is a pocket of beauty, rest, and calm. I’m sure it is the same late at night for some of you. I’m not rushed, or going, or doing. I’m still. I sip my coffee and do some writing or reading, and like the dawn, slowly warm to the day. Over many years I have taught myself to wake up early and start early. Never once have I regretted it. (My mom was right. Imagine that.) Coffee and quiet mornings and the hope of rain are blessings not to be diminished even by their ordinary familiarity.
I wanted to share this with all my fellow HearthKeepers because it has proven so effective in my own home. I think this is a perfect case in point of why it is so important to have a vibrant knitting circle. It is so helpful to have lots of women with varied interests, backgrounds, experiences, and different home management styles all sharing their work together. You never know how one thought or idea might connect with another and make that one tiny shift in your home that smooths out some wrinkles.
As Sarah and I explored the idea of doing a podcast, Sarah mentioned that she wanted to do regular seasonal episodes. I love seasons! This was an easy yes. Sarah shared her outline for the episode with me and we discussed it. That episode is 1.4 Seasons. I had the privilege and benefit of listening to this episode long before its release, so I had time to test out some things that we discussed. We also have an article about the seasons, if you want to read about it. It covers roughly what the podcast episode covers. One of the big concepts we discussed is the idea of the Cross-Quarter days being days of preparation.
After our recording, I decided to mark August 1 (Lughnasadh) on my calendar as the day I would review the closets, linens, and apothecary to check my readiness for Autumn. I scheduled the project with myself. I set it down so that I wouldn’t schedule something else that day. I decided not to hope that I could fit it in around August 1. I scheduled it.
Up till now, when I had something like this that I wanted to do, I just looked for a pocket of time to do it in. Want to clean out closets? Look for a pocket. Want to organize the pantry? Wait until it’s so bad it spreads insanity in the kitchen, and then look for a pocket to deal with it. I’ve done this for years. I’ve done this for years without realizing the burden I was mentally carrying hunting for pockets. You know what? An effective and all-in homemaker doesn’t have a whole lot of pockets of time just sitting around. Our days are filled with managing so much. I mean just look at our introduction seasons of the podcast. It has at least twelve episodes. Yes, the first two are just who we are and why we are here, but that is at least ten things that are foundational to prudent home management. And I had to stop myself from adding more. Even those of us who seek after slow living and take resting seriously, who don’t try to be busy every second of the day, we still don’t have big pockets of time just sitting around. We pry rest out of the hands of the day, swearing, spitting, and covered in blood.
August 1st arrived, and I reviewed closets, bedding and linens, and the pantry. I tidied, got rid of, and made lists of needs. I realized August 1 was a bit too early to make the Garlic Honey and Fire Cider I want for the cold season, so I opened up my calendar and scheduled that. I picked a day, made sure it was near a shopping day, and set it on the calendar. I didn’t look for a pocket. I didn’t hope somehow that I’d wake up one morning with a couple of hours free that I could dedicate to getting my little apothecary ready for the weather change. I scheduled it.
It was like a rainy day in July or a cool morning in August. A whole world of better home management opened up before me, all because Sarah and I decided to talk about how to use the seasons in the home. Last year I panic-purchased clothes for my husband right before vacation. This year, I’m not panicking. He needs some things, and it is always nice to have something new, but I feel calm and in control. I have reviewed and I’m ready.
For the first time in a long time, I feel like I might be able to accomplish some of the things on my pit list and to-do list. I have rooms that need painting, deep cleaning that needs to be done, organization that has fallen by the wayside, and a garage and shed that need to be better utilized. A home must be constantly maintained, or it will fall into disrepair, and this isn’t just cleaning out gutters, but organizing and beautifying.
Between the everyday chores (vital and often getting a bad rap), the things that just come up, and social obligations, pockets don’t actually exist very often, and if you stumble upon one, you’ve probably forgotten to do something important. What I realized as I put the Cross-Quarter Day to use was that, if I was intentional, if I told myself that such and such a day was set aside to do this one thing, I actually got it done.
This does require a bit of holding the line. You can’t schedule a closet clean out and then tell your best friend that you don’t have anything going on that day. Sure, that’s going to happen because life happens, but you do need to honor the scheduling as best as possible, or this plan will fall apart.
Scheduling my in-home projects has helped me clear my mind of mental clutter, actually get some things done, and given me hope for the future. I have always wanted to spend some time in the winter planning out the flowers and plants for the coming spring. Ladies, I now have hope that that will happen. I will pick a day or two and do that. It won’t be on a panicked whim where my brain is telling me there are so many more important things I should be doing, while I run into Home Depot to grab some random plants and seeds and hope I can get them in the ground. It will be a day set aside for planning and a day or two, or an hour or two, set aside to plant. It will be a day set aside to start seedlings, not a “Crap, I should have done that two weeks ago.”
I know some of you probably already do this, and you might even be snickering at me a bit. That’s fine. We all learn and grow at a different pace and by different paths, layering new skills on top of old skills. Maybe this will help you tangibly think about this so that you can pass it on to your daughters, granddaughters, nieces, and friends. It is certainly going in my grab bag of advice to the next generation.
HearthKeepers, I cannot tell you how relieving it is to have this idea slip into place and to start putting it into practice. I hope that all of you have these moments as we all interact, where one thought spurs another which spurs another which develops into better management of your home, calm in your heart, and the setting to rights all the little odds and ends that trail about
Thank you for reading today, ladies! If this article encouraged you, please share it with other homemakers. Here are all the ways you can join our knitting circle:
Email us at hearthkeepers@hotmail.com with any questions or subjects you’d like us to discuss. For now, ladies, tend your people, hang tough, and keep your powder dry.
