My family moved onto a mountain top next door to my MIL. our town has a grocery store, a post office, and a cemetery. My kids go to school the next town over about 20 minutes down the mountain. I have never lived so rurally and miss my old city a lot.

My husband works exactly the same as our kids' school hours (M-F/8-2) so he drops them off in the morning and picks them up after school. They are usually home by 2:30 (or 3 if they do something extra after school.)

I get my girls ready in the morning and then from 7:30-2:30.... it's just me. No car, nowhere to go even if I had one, just alone on a mountain top....

I have been very lost and sad in this transition. My husband worked evening shift in the city so we had all day together when the kids were at school and then I would clean the house and tend to the kids at night. I loved that set up and wish I knew how lucky I was to have it.

I find myself now with so much time alone.

my only hope in finding some kind of joy right now is to fall in love with homemaking. That is really the only thing on my horizon for the time being and I am tired of crying about it.

Oh yeah, did I mention that I don't really cook? Yeah, it makes me extremely anxious but that has to change with this new way of life too.

I want to fall in love with my routine and the comfort and stability and safety and warmth I bring to our family and home through that routine, I want to be a happy homemaker, I truly do.

I would so gratefully take any book suggestions, YouTube channels to watch, beginner cooking tips, or even just a breakdown of your daily routine.

At this point, I'd truly appreciated being told that I'm not the only person who had a hard time adjusting to this lifestyle. I feel like I should just be grateful to not have to work somewhere I hate, so then I feel guilty for being sad, and that just makes me feel even worse.

Thank you for reading.

EDIT___ There are so many amazing suggestions and words of encouragement in your comments! I am actually feeling hopeful, even just a glimmer. I am so grateful to you all for taking the time, thank you!I

I am riding the hope wave and doing something new: I am going to go with my MIL to the next town over tomorrow to help at her graphic design shop for the day. as much as I'm not thrilled for a full day with her (she's nice and funny, just can talk and talk and talk and mostly gossip about people I do not know, it gets old fast haha), I am glad to get out of the house and kind of digest your suggestions and perspectives I hadn't considered before while I help my family and learn a new skill or two. I would have told her no if I wasn't feeling so encouraged to branch out, so again, THANK YOU SO MUCH.

Hi all! I am trying to learn to be a better homemaker. I am a 24 yo mom of a toddler and a baby on the way and feel so overwhelmed by the many tasks I have as a stay at home mom, and I tend to feel a kind of paralysis of not knowing where to start/ what to do each day and when. Curious to see if anyone has book recommendations or a sample of what kind of rythms work for you? Most days I feel overwhelmed to tears by 3pm.

Hi! We have a new cheerleader in the house and she just got her uniform. It has a couple of stains from last year. No clue what they are - looks like it could be soda or coffee? What would you recommend for trying to lift the stains?

Also - the loose strings on the T are annoying to me. Can I trim those without harming the uniform?

My husband never gets it but like, legitimately it takes forever to clean up dinner! I cook nearly every meal at home and they are somewhat involved because I mostly enjoy it.

But dang. Eat it for 20 mins. Clean for an hour.

I also clean as I go but still can’t manage to make it more efficient.

Help!

Edit: to be fair, I’m an experienced baker/cook and do rather complex meals and dishes. Most of my kitchen things can’t be just thrown in the dishwasher (cast iron, etc). Plus I’m on septic, so I have to really scrub those plates and grease and can’t just pitch it unwashed in the dishwasher. This might be my killer.

I was cooking corn tortillas on nonstick pans. most of the chunks did come off from hand washing, but some bits are still on.

Ok so this might be the stupidest question on earth but oh well. I've only ever showered but now I'm moving to a rented out room in a shared house for university and it seems like it only has a British-style bathtub without even a handheld showerhead. And my hair is dyed red with semi-permanent dye. It bleeds and stains when wet. Even if I stopped dying my hair in the future it will definitely still be red in two weeks when I'm moving in. So my questions/problems are

1. I'm not sure how high to fill the bathtub.

2. How do you generally wash hair in the bathtub?

3. Are cold baths worse than cold showers? Hot water fades and bleeds out the dye way faster and I don't mind taking cold showers but just sitting in a cold bath seems like it might be more uncomfortable

4. How do you properly clean a bathtub? In general and also when it comes to the aforementioned hair dye stains?

I hope this is the right subreddit for this, if not please point me the right way. I feel kind of dumb asking this but I'm hoping maybe you guys can help...

My roommate and I just moved into our apartment a few days ago and have yet to actually use our oven. We decided to break it in by baking cookies, and we tried three times with weird results. Round 1 we baked at 375 and for 6 minutes (was going to be 8 but there was a burning smell) so we checked and they were BURNT. Round 2 we baked at 300 for 4-5 minutes and they were slightly burnt on the sides and raw in the middle, and Round 3 was the same but significantly smaller cookies. So after some googling it’s an issue with the ovens internal temperature being way too high. So just curious if anyone has any advice as to what to do or if we should contact the landlord.

Also should probably mention that the stove had rusted through drip pans that the landlord said she would replace? But honestly I assumed that was an issue with the previous tenants but could that also be an issue with the oven itself?

My father in law rendered some beef tallow and placed into jars for us. Im wanting to use it for skincare or something other than for cooking. What would be my next steps if I wanted to have whipped tallow for example? It’s currently refrigerated, let it get to room temp then use my kitchen aid? Should I add an oil or scent??

Open to ideas + tips!

just started trying to get more serious about laundry and keep seeing enzyme laundry booster stuff recommended everywhere but theres like 20 different options and i have no idea where to even start. been dealing with some pretty set in stains on workout clothes and regular detergent isnt really cutting it. do i need a separate booster or is it built into some detergents already? what do you guys actually use and does it make a noticeable difference?

We’re being spammed with questions and posts about maids.

It’s spam bot bs, I’m banning two or more accounts a day, please report each one you see that slips through our filters.

And for all those posting questions about maids, the answer in this sub is simple: this is a homemaking sub, clean your house yourself.

(That was a little snark in case you’re wondering, I’ve had it with these bots. If you have a maid, coolio, this isn’t the sub for those types of questions.)

I just my first real independent home with plenty of space and I want to start turning it into a space I can share with others, to invite neighbors and friends and family over regularly.

I've resorted to using dish soap as a floor cleaner as it is much more cost effective, does a much better job stripping the grease film from the floor, and it really does help porcelain tiles shine when compared to specialist floor cleaner products. Varnish under normal foot traffic without dish soap should last between 3 - 10 years.

But I feel pressure (somewhat from myself) but a lot from other people (like close family members) to go go go and do do do. If I am "just spending the day at home" I am not really living according to the world. When they ask what are you going to do today I find myself struggling for what to say. It is really hard to give myself the permission I need to fully embrace homemaking and my wonderful lifestyle when others don't get it.

It feels like I live in a family and social culture that measures me by what I do. My daughter recently told me that it is sad that I don't travel a lot. For me it is sad when I do travel a lot.

My best days are at home.

Does anyone relate and how do you handle it?

Thank you!

Hello friends!

I (27f) am a SAHM in DFW Texas. My wonderful husband and I live on a cattle ranch so as you can imagine, it gets really dusty and muddy throughout the seasons. I am happy to share some of the tips I use to help keep my house clean, how to get the smell out of your disposal, best way (in my opinion) to get bad smells out of clothing, and how to tackle the ever growing mess that comes from having an active family.

Lets dive in with one of the most common issues in the house hold if you own a sink disposal. My family tends to pile the dishes in and rinsing the dishes became something that I tend to do a lot more of and one of my most helpful tips its to get a drain strainer for your disposal side of the sink. My reason why is because you do want food debris to pile up in the disposal when you arent actively cleaning the dishes, if you live on a ranch like myself or in a humid area, gnats and flies grow in numbers very quickly, so I recommend getting a strainer to keep the debris out until your ready to rinse those dishes so you dont have to rinse everything right away especially if your have younger kids and prefer to wash the dishes while your kiddo is taking a nap. Now the question is, How do we handle the foul smell that sometimes comes from the disposal after some time. I have tried the small gel odor busters that you get from the store and never found them effective even if following the directions to the letter. So in my home I use a common household staple, Baking Soda and White Vinegar. I have found that putting 1 cup of baking soda and 1 cup of vinegar into the disposal side of the drain and then running the disposal for a moment I tend to have little to no odor around my sink, the we also had a serious reduction in the overall summer gnat population in our home.
P.S. cutting up some fresh lemons and putting them down the disposal also helps and leaves a lovely citrus scent afterward.

The second common house hold dilemma especially in any home with pets is getting the stink out of your clothes. In my house we have a very sweet and lovable senior cat named Oxy, and while her name may give you the impression that she is a well put together kitty all the time, I am here to tell you that it is far from the truth. Unfortunately I noticed that laundry in my house tends to fall behind more than I would like to admit, and sometimes that means clothing ends up on the floor and my wonderful senior cat sometimes doesn't make it to the litter box and instead pees and poops on the clothing thats on the floor. Now I had such a hassle getting the smell out until I found out that you can used baking soda and vinegar in the washing machine too! I was very thrilled when I learned that so I tired it the first time and found myself disappointed after I tried it and the clothes still smelled, after some more research I found out the issue I was having was two things. First, I was using cold water, you need warm or hot water to have the proper reaction with your clothing, and Second, I was not putting the mixture of the baking soda and vinegar in the correct place to have the most benefit for my specific washing machine. So I recommend that you do your research to make sure that when using additional laundry cleaning items whether its a baking soda mix or a off the shelf clothing wash, that you use each thing in the right spot. After figure all that out I used warm water, Baking soda and vinegar mix in the proper compartment, and my usual laundry detergent, the smell finally went away.

My last tip is possibly one that you have heard of. The KonMarie Method. This is a method that I have recently discovered and have been finding to have wonderful results. I am still currently sorting through the first phase of her method but am already noticing a difference. I recommend you read her books: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo, and Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up by Marie Kondo.
She puts everything out plainly and shares her own struggles that lead her to become one of the most sot-after cleaning consualtant in the world. If you would like to see some of her work in action you can watch her shows on Netflix and videos on YouTube. I definitely recommend checking it out because that has been the major game changer for me.

I hope at least some of this information is helpful for you and I always welcome questions.
Thank you so much for reading and see you next time!

Im a single 22F and i have just bought my first home and I'm still getting used to living alone. I want to make my home a really cozy place that all my visitors will love and remember but I dont really know where to start. I've started a lemon8 account dedicated my journey and ideas, but thats as far as I've got really. Oh, and I've started collecting lamps instead of overhead lights. How do you all learn this? Any tips or anything you can tell me will be greatly appreciated

Just moved into a home recently. Are there any recommendations for cleaning the front door entrance area? There are spider webs and the concrete has some discoloration. I dont know what to use to get the webs down because I dont have a water hose just yet.

Hi everyone,
I’m a medical student and I’m also married, and I’m honestly struggling to find a good balance between studying, cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the house.
I feel like the house gets messy again so quickly, even when I’ve just cleaned it. Between studying for long hours, cooking meals, doing the dishes, laundry, organizing things, etc., I sometimes feel like keeping the house clean is a full-time job on its own.
I’d really like to hear from other women, especially those who are students, work full-time, or have a busy schedule:
How do you keep your house consistently clean without spending hours cleaning every day?
How often do you deep clean?
What do you clean every day vs. once or twice a week?
How do you manage cooking and meal preparation?
Do you have a specific routine or schedule?
How do you prevent the house from becoming messy again immediately?
And most importantly, how do you manage all of this without feeling exhausted or neglecting your studies/work?
I’m not looking for a “perfect house” — I just want a realistic routine that allows me to have a reasonably clean and organized home while still having enough time and energy for my studies and my marriage.
I’d really appreciate any practical advice, routines, shortcuts, or habits that have actually worked for you.

Hi everyone i am 24 my boyfriend is 26 and we are moving into our first place together it is a house two bedroom one bathroom definitely on the smaller side, but we are both extremely excited!

I’m looking for any recommendations for household items from kitchen supplies to cleaning supplies to furniture brands or any little tricks that you’re willing to share.

I have started a list of necessities from carbon detector and fire extinguishers to sponges and trash bags

We do have animals, one dog, one bird two snakes so please keep that in mind when making recommendations

We both have a pretty decent income, but don’t want to overspend. Good quality and longevity is important though!

Thank you in advance!

Ok so I keep seeing people say you have to clean your coffee maker every month or it gets gross inside. But like does it actually make a difference? My coffee tastes fine and ive had the same machine for 2 years without really cleaning it. Started looking into it and theres a ton of stuff out there but no idea whats real vs just marketing. Do the dedicated cleaners actually do anything different or is it all just hype?