Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - The Lazy Housewife | Clutterbug Podcast # 9

Episode Date: April 21, 2016

Being a stay-at-home mom or housewife is hard sometimes.  One of the hardest parts is self motivating!  With no boss, no deadlines and no defined "to-dos", it can be easy to fall into bad habits that steal our time and energy! My goal as a housewife? To work 40 hours a week, just like my husband works outside of the home.  I'm not counting playing and hanging out with my little ones, he does that too when he is home from work, I mean the crappy stuff that I just don't want to do! How do you self motivate as a SAHM or housewife?  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey guys, welcome back to the Clutterbug podcast. Today I want to talk about maybe a little touchy subject. And again, this is just my opinions, no one else's, but I wanted to talk about being a housewife. And getting over the challenges that come with being a housewife, right now I'm actually a stay-at-home mom to a three-year-old, but I'm also technically a housewife as well. Because I stay home, I have the time to do things like clean the house and do the grocery shopping and make dinners, do the laundry. even doing the yard work, but I know that this is a really touchy subject for a lot of people. Sometimes there's even a debate between husband and wife over what rules should be whose, and when you're a stay-at-home mom, there's expectations, either from society or from yourself

or from your spouse on what you're doing. And I have my own expectations, and they might be different than yours. But I also want to talk about the other side of that and how easy it is to really you know, become lazy, being a stay-at-home mom or just a housewife as well. Because there's nobody to hold you accountable to. There's no boss. There's no list of things you need to accomplish in a day. It's totally and 100% up to you. So if you want to, you know, leisurely drink your coffee while watching Netflix, that's completely okay. If you want to have a nap after lunch, that's completely okay. There's nobody to tell you that that's not right. And after years of doing this, it can become, you know, hard to get motivated again. It can be hard to get out of

that cycle and get really busy again. And sometimes we even feel busy as stay-at-home moms when in reality compared to people who are, you know, really busting their butt working 40 hours and then coming home and making dinner and stopping at the grocery store first and then rushing their kids off to activities just to come home and clean the house and to fall into bed, our life really isn't. as busy as that, as busy as other people's lives could be. So not to tick off any stay-at-home parents out there, but I did want to talk about this just a little bit. And that is just, you know, you get into a slump, I think, as a stay-at-home parent or a housewife, you know, if your kids are in school full-time or you don't have kids at all and you stay home, it's really easy to fall

into certain routines that can be like you could yes you're cleaning the house but if it you know you're stretching it out over a four-hour stretch when really it's only a two-hour job that's us just really slowing down and being a little bit lazy and I fall into this trap all the time and I've had to work really hard to get myself out of that but that being said even though I'm a stay-at-home mom I have a three-year-old that's home and then two older kids who go to school. I also have always worked from home. So I'm a work from home, stay-at-home, housewife, mom. And even with all of that, I still feel really lazy a lot of the times.

There's a lot of times that I spend my morning watching Netflix while cuddling my son. Or, you know, I'm not really doing the things that I should be doing with my allowed time. and my general belief is whether I always act on it or not is my husband is out working eight hours a day. He's busting his butt for eight hours a day. Whether he has a cushy job or not, he's working outside of the home doing something that he'd rather not be doing. You know, he'd rather be at home, obviously. He's out there doing that to provide for our family. The least I can do is work eight hours as well. And my eight hours isn't going to look like his eight hours. It's not going to be. to be from 9 to 5. And I don't count the times that I'm cuddling my son or we're going to the park as working either because that's, I enjoy doing that. That's something that he also does. My husband also

does when he comes home, he'll, you know, take them out and play with them in the backyard. And, and I don't count that as part of his work time. So what I do count is, after the kids go to bed, I'm the one who cleans up the kitchen and cleans the house. I'm the one who does the laundry. I blog, I make YouTube videos and do those type of things. So I'm striving to get eight hours in a day. And I do count the time that I'm doing learning time with Milo, that I'm doing educational things with Milo, when I'm taking the kids to their extracurricular activities

so Joe can stay home and rest. I count that as work time. And so I'm striving to get my eight hours in a day as well. And I don't always get eight hours a day in like Joe. But that's, you know, what I tell myself when he, we're done eating dinner and he goes and watches hockey after dinner and I'm cleaning the kitchen alone, I tell myself, you know what? I spent two hours today watching Netflix while, you know, he was at work. So this is acceptable. And that's what works for our family.

And that's how I really push myself out of that lazy mode. Now, I do have friends and family who have a different approach. and they stay home, but they feel when their husbands come home that they need to, you know, share in the workload or that even though they're a stay-at-home parent, it's not their job to clean the house or take care of any of that household duties. And I understand where they're coming from. I do because I am not, no, I'm not some conservative housewife and I really don't believe a woman's job is to stay home with the kids. And I don't think it's a woman's job to do the cooking and the cleaning. but that being said because I chose to be home and I have the time to do those things,

I then feel that that's my job. I mean, that's my job. I have a job and that is to take care of the house and my son during the day to take care of running my household efficiently and blogging. And both of them probably work out to about 20 hours. So I probably spend 20 hours a week, you know, doing the household chores and doing the one-on-one time with Milo and, you know, all of that laundry and all that stuff. I'd probably spend 20 hours a week doing that, and then I spend about 20 hours

a week blogging so I can earn an income from home. So combined that's 40 hours a week, and my husband works 40 hours a week. So we're really, really equal that way. I can't count the time that I'm home watching and my kids are playing independently and I'm, you know, painting my fingernails as work time because even though I'm home watching them you know I'm not working it would be the same as if he was counting that as work time when Joe comes home from work and the kids are playing independently or watching a movie and he's in the same room with them we can't really count that as working and I know that's like oh shock and awe but it's just the way that I'm approaching this career as a stay-at-home parent as a homemaker and it's been really, really effective of motivating me to do more with my day.

And I feel better about myself. I feel like I'm contributing to this family because I am. And I'm working really hard to work my 40 hours a weekend. And because of that, you know, we're earning more money. I'm earning money from my YouTube and my blogging. And I feel like I'm contributing to society. You know, I'm hoping to inspire. other people and I'm hoping doing something good but that way but I'm also making my life easier my

kids life easier and my husband life easier by maintaining a clean and organized home so if I was just you know home hanging out and playing games or whatever I don't think I'd feel that same feeling of happiness I don't think I'd be happy with my life and that's the truth and you don't have to be the one to do the cooking and cleaning there's so many ways that you can contribute my best friend volunteers at her school crazy amounts of hours almost every day she's there volunteering she runs the snack program she's on the pta she's very very involved that counts as work as well if you're like a fitness buff trophy mom and you're busting your butt in the gym and you're doing all of that type of stuff that counts as work you're doing something you know productive with your time

and I guess that's what it really comes down to is matching productivity of productivity with your spouse. I think that's really key to not only a happier marriage, but also your own happiness as well, feeling good about yourself, having that self-confidence to know that you are, you know, doing the right thing, that you're doing the right thing and you're giving back to your family just as much as you would be if you were working 40 hours outside of the home. So that's, I get it. It's a little controversial. but I wanted to share that with you guys a little bit about, I guess, my philosophy on being a stay-home parent, why I make the choices that I do, and the benefits that I really get from making those decisions to put in my 40 hours.

So thanks so much for listening, and I will see you guys tomorrow for another Clutterbug podcast. Don't forget to check out my website at www.combeg.combeg.combe.m.m. and we'll see you next time. Thank you.