A Day in the Life of The Happy Housewife ~ More Questions

Here are answers to a few more of your questions.

Is there a separate room for school?

Our house has a living room, dining room, and family room. Our living room has become our school room. We have a school table in the room, the computer, and all the school books. The school table is short so it isn’t comfortable for me to sit there for long periods of time. I usually sit at the dining room table because it is huge and we have comfy chairs. The kids who are working with me sit at the table, as well as the kids who need a little extra supervision.

When do you clean, sort through papers, file papers?

As I mentioned before we try to keep the house clean on a daily basis. I realize I sound like a broken record but  has been the best tool for staying on top of household chores. We do our big cleaning on Saturday morning. I hate to file papers. I have a small desk in the kitchen and I keep all non school paperwork on the desk. Above the desk are cabinets that store my binders, which are my filing system. I usually wait until I cannot see the top of the desk and then file. It really doesn’t take me that long, and I am not sure why I procrastinate in this area of my life. The good thing is that since I try to do everything online (regarding bills) I don’t have a ton of papers to file. It usually takes about two months for my desk to get to critical condition.

From Courtney, Would you mind sharing more about the projects that you have scheduled everyday? What kinds of things do you do? Do you quit when your allotted time is up, or keep working? Do you break things up to finish over several days?

The projects I work on during the day are basically everything you see on my Tackle it Tuesday posts. They can be anything from cleaning out the fridge or pantry to making a purse. I have found that with a lot of people living in a small space the clutter builds up quickly. If the project is something that the kids are helping with I try to make it a 30 minute project. Usually, with so many helping hands, most projects can be tackled in that time. For projects that I am doing myself I usually set a time limit. If I don’t finish the entire project I will stop when my time is up and continue working on it the next day. Years ago I would plow through projects regardless of time. This usually meant that dinner would be late, or we would end up ordering pizza because I was consumed with my project. I found that most of my projects can be spread out over a few days and I am still able to get my regular “jobs” done.

From Rachel, Have you considered cleaning with vinegar and water instead of chemical-based cleaners?

Absolutely, this is something I hope to do once the baby is born. For those of you who are interested in making your own cleaners Rachel has some resources on her site.

From Sarah: What are your little girls wearing at the table to do their crafts?

My girls are wearing large plastic smocks. I purchased them at a yard sale years ago. They are great for keeping their clothes clean. Before I had those I used my husband’s old t-shirts, they worked well too.

From Larry, I maybe asking a question that is answered therein but I missed it. I read your “story” and it ends with you discovering you were pregnant. Are you or have you written the rest? I’d love to hear the rest of the story.

I have not written the rest of the story. This story is actually very hard for me to write because I am not proud of my behavior and have a hard time letting people see the yucky side of me. At the same time, I feel there are reasons for this story to be written. I try to write a “chapter” every two weeks.

I think I have answered all the questions. If I missed one please remind me, feel free to leave any other questions in the comment section.