{"id":18241,"date":"2011-07-10T22:01:45","date_gmt":"2011-07-11T02:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/home-management\/?p=18241"},"modified":"2014-01-27T21:23:08","modified_gmt":"2014-01-28T02:23:08","slug":"housekeeping-when-your-heart-isnt-in-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/home-management\/housekeeping-when-your-heart-isnt-in-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Housekeeping When Your Heart Isn’t In It"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many of us have experienced periods of stress, depression, or tragedy in our lives. As moms (and wives) even though our hearts might be strained or breaking the basics still need to get done. Clothes need washed, meals need to be cooked. My friend Dana<\/a> has experienced this first-hand over the past several months. In December her precious son Tiggy passed away after a tragic accident. In this guest post she shares how to get the basics done even when your heart isn’t in it.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Housekeeping When Your Heart Isn’t In It<\/strong><\/h3>\n

After my son died, my world was thrown into chaos. I felt as if I had been cast overboard in storm tossed seas and it was all I could do to keep my head above water. For the first week, the children only ate because someone was there to feed them. The meals our community filled our freezer with lasted a little over a month, my husband went back to work and suddenly I found myself alone, wading through unimaginable grief and trying to manage a household with five surviving children.<\/p>\n

But there were still days when it felt like no small victory to just get out of bed and face the day. Wading through the toys and clothing strewn through the house and pushing last night’s dinner dishes to the side so I could feed children in Tupperware containers since all the bowls were dirty added to the stress.<\/p>\n

The biggest obstacle I faced was that I really didn’t care. <\/strong><\/em>I was too consumed by grief to worry over laundry and dishes and clutter taking over the house. Nevermind the dusting and the windows and all that stuff under the couch.<\/p>\n

Still, if you don’t do laundry, there will be nothing to wear. And if you don’t do the dishes, there will be nothing to eat on.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

When I looked at the mess, I felt helpless before it because I was completely overwhelmed. I didn’t know where to even begin. I would shuffle things about, snap at the children and move around a lot without getting much done. Something had to change. That’s when I decided to put our entire household chore list on index cards.<\/p>\n

On good days, it helped me stay on top of our household chores. On bad days, it helped keep the clutter from ruling our house. It restored order to our home and the best part was that the children enthusiastically embraced the new system so I got more help and less whining about daily chores.<\/p>\n

Materials needed:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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