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When I first moved out on my own, I had a decent grasp on basic cleaning, really basic cooking, and school-based time management of getting projects done.
But over the years, I’ve learned so much from other women who are a few steps ahead of me, who have figured out how to be really good at specific things, and have been gracious enough to share that with the world.
So today, I want to introduce you to a few of my home management mentors.
Crystal from Money Saving Mom (find her here)
Money
Crystal was one of the first bloggers I started following online, around the time Jonah was born (almost 11 years ago!). I initially started paying attention to her for her coupon posts, where she would write out exactly which coupons to use to get things for cheap or even free at various stores, and I had fun playing the game to get a whole bunch of stuff for not much money.
But over the years, Crystal has also taught me about money, about mindset, and about embracing your strengths. She’s taught me a lot about budgeting, about making money from home, and about saving money (besides couponing).
Food is a big part of family life, so most of my home management mentors at least partially talk about food, although through different lenses.
Amiyrah Martin of 4 Hats and Frugal (find her here)
Meal Planning
I found Amiyrah a few years ago when Periscope was a big thing. She has a vibrant personality, and a spirit for helping other people learn. One of her big topics is meal planning, and she even has a course dedicated to it, which I purchased and went through when it first came out.
Amiyrah is all about efficiency in the kitchen. She can get you to the point where you can make a 5 minute meal plan. You end up with a list of the things that you always use in the kitchen so that it’s easy to make a grocery list. And my favorite thing she taught me is to have a master list of your family’s favorite meals, which you can return to again and again. Because if everybody likes it, why not have those things for dinner a lot?
Jessica Fisher of Good Cheap Eats (find her here)
Pantry Challenges
One of the best things you can do for your grocery budget and to not waste food is to do a pantry challenge. And Jessica is the queen of pantry challenges – for the last several years, she’s hosted one at least once a year, sharing what her family is eating and what she is purchasing to supplement her pantry while still staying well below budget. It’s inspiring and helpful to see examples so I can do my own pantry challenges, and it’s taught me to be more mindful about what I’m purchasing and cooking.
Allie Casazza (find her here)
Minimalism
If there’s one home management mentor who’s taught me something that applied to my whole life, it’s Allie. Because while on the surface minimalism helps clear out your house of stuff, it also helps you with clearing your schedule of extra things, and clearing your mental space so you have room to think.
We aren’t fully decluttered, and we’re definitely not minimalists from the look of our stuff. But we have gotten rid of quite a few unnecessary physical things, and that’s in large part due to what Allie teaches. And her information about having room in your schedule has taught me to really think about whether something fits before letting it take up some of my time.
Stacy Myers of Humorous Homemaking (find her here)
Daily and Weekly Rhythms/Routines
Stacy is probably the one that has helped me the most. She did a free blog series, and later a course (more about that in a minute) teaching about having days of the week assigned for specific categories of tasks.
Laundry gets a day, office work gets a day, cleaning gets a day, and so on. Except she teaches you how to figure out what days you need for your family, so you can set up a weekly rhythm that covers everything you want to cover without stressing out about it.
It means that you don’t have to be constantly making a decision about whether the toilet needs to be cleaned or the carpet needs to be vacuumed or the bills need to be paid, because there’s a time for that.
Taking decisions off of your plate and putting things on autopilot is pretty much the best thing ever.
photo from Home Management How-To, used with permission
And right now, Stacy is offering a discount on her course Home Management How-To for my readers!
In this course, you’ll learn to:
- Create a realistic routine for your family – based on your needs.
- Overcome laundry overwhelm with a simple plan of attack.
- Tackle your paperwork clutter and get rid of the piles.
- Make the best and most efficient use of your time each time you leave your home.
- Enjoy a clean, organized kitchen and employ an arsenal of tips to feed your family well.
- Develop a cleaning routine that will help you maintain a neat and tidy space.
- Build in purposeful time to get ahead and prepare for busier seasons.
- Rest!
You can learn how to put the weekly and daily rhythms into place for your family, so that your life flows along nicely.
Home Management How-To has 2 levels as purchasing options. The base level gets you the course, which is awesome! Level 2 gets you the course PLUS Stacy’s 2 crockpot cookbooks (which I love), 3 months free to Plan to Eat meal planning website, and a couple more bonuses worth over $60!
Through May 9, 2020, you can use the code findinghome5 to save $5 off of Level 2. Which means you get the course PLUS all the goodies.
I’m pretty good at home management these days. Food gets made, things get cleaned, and life stays relatively organized. But I didn’t learn how to do that all at once. I had some help. Let these home management mentors help you too.
Who is one of your home management mentors?
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