The Relaxed Housekeeping Challenge
A step-wise guide to organizing housework and cooking
Welcome to The Relaxed Housekeeping Challenge!
It consists of free downloadable PDF’s. Each challenge has a goal, as well as a note on some ideas that work for me. These are not instructions for you to follow. What they are is an idea, to give you somewhere to start.
I recommend that you use Challenge Zero as a base and journal your way through the rest in any order you wish. Or only choosing topics that you struggle with.
The idea is to help you work systematically and find your own way. Feel free to modify the goals and set ones that suit you. Each one of is different, and one size doesn’t fit all.
I’m publishing this challenge as I work on it, in trial mode and am interested in feedback. I will try to incorporate changes based on feedback I receive, as much as is possible for me to do. Please scroll down to the bottom of this page to comment. You can comment anonymously using a pen name for privacy.
My goals in publishing this are:
One. To help young adults or home makers of any age group looking for a way or a method, to organize and minimize house work. I’ve written it based on my journey to minimal chores. Knowing how this works for you will help me modify challenges so they help and appeal to more people.
Two. To help women struggling within the barriers of patriarchy, without maids. Cooking and cleaning routines in some Indian homes are subject to customs, traditions, and fixed ways that often cannot be changed. And the rules of patriarchy, or the way they are interpreted by families, often leaves home makers with no space for ease. I write this in hope that it will help women create space for themselves within the barriers of their family, by expanding and working on their own barriers.
This is something I did for myself, and that makes me think that it is possible for others.
Good luck!
A SINGLE PDF with all challenges will be uploaded when I complete all individual uploads.
Challenge Zero – List & Journal
Recommended reading: A post on journaling
Recommended Reading: 100% – The Work Of A Home Manager examines some barriers to making housework easy. It’s followed by an explanation of the cultural context of these barriers, and then a note on how I dealt with barriers that made my house work time consuming.
Challenge 3 – Examining barriers
Recommended Reading: Tales Our Housework Tell and understand the long-term gains from our short-term TINY. This post catalogues changes in our housework over the 22 years of our marriage. The events which drastically increased home chores. And those which brought tremendous ease.
Recommended Reading: 8 Tips To Help You Live Comfortably Without A Maid
Recommended Reading: The taste of freedom with our Milagrow floor cleaning robot
Recommended Reading: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying by Marie Kondo. Netflix had a series of videos on her KonMari method. Here’s a link to her website.
Challenge 7 – When All Efforts Fail
Challenge 8 – The Folding Fairy
Challenge 9 – Fostering Independence
Challenge 10 – Support Systems
Challenge 11 – Organizing Chores
New challenges follow. . .
Hi Anita, housekeeping is an area of a person’s life that is brought up in conversations here and there but not in an organized manner taking a look at each aspect in detail. This challenge fills that gap. I’ve found it to be helpful in understanding what works for me and what doesn’t, ideas on how to navigate through the challenges of house chores, and best of all – developing a sense of humour about it : )
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Thanks Deepa! It’s so nice to know. And yes, the sense of humour is important 🙂
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