I have a passion for homemaking and love encouraging women in their roles as homemakers. Earlier in the week, I shared a post and podcast episode on what it mean to be a modern homemaker. 

Once you understand the theory behind your homemaking and how it affects our lives on a day to day basis through the Gospel, then things really start falling into place in your home. We have to first understand the spiritual side to our homemaking in order to really start thriving. 

So that’s where it starts, but at the end of the day, the practical aspects of running our home are still really important. But it can be hard to know where to begin or where to turn in better managing your home. 

And that’s what we are talking about today. 

Listen to the Podcast:

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There are so many moving pieces of running a home. So many things (and people) to juggle. We have to figure out good routines, how to manage the growing laundry piles, how to stay on top of the never ending dishes, how to meal plan and stick to a budget, the best cleaners to use, fitting in time with the Lord…and knowing how to do this all for God’s Glory! 

It can be tough to know where to even start. Or who to turn to for advice. 

Today, I want to make your life just a little bit easier by giving you some places to begin! I’ve got advice and wisdom from Leigh Ann, Hilary, and Marci (as well as myself) in better homemaking routines and getting things back under control. 

Please note: The following video clips are all pulled from different courses within our comprehensive online training academy – My Homemaking Mentor. The academy contains 15 FULL courses taught by 12 amazing mentors on various aspects of homemaking. It’s the only tool you will ever need in learning how to be a more efficient and effective homemaker…and you get lifetime access to all future updates and courses. But enrollment for the Spring shuts down April 3rd and won’t open up again until the Fall of 2017 (and the price will be going up then). So if you are interested in the academy, come on over and jump in today to access the full verses of each of these courses and 10 others! 

Watch the video! 

You can scroll up and listen to this podcast episode on the go. Or watch the video clips below. This is a fun option because you get to see a peek inside the academy and the mentors homes! Watch here and don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for future videos.

Biblical Foundations in our Homemaking

Running a Gospel-Centered home means purposefully and intentionally creating the goals, activities, and atmosphere within your home to be firmly centered on the Gospel. But this doesn’t simply mean you are running a “Christian” home, because in and of itself, that’s not very descriptive. 

A Gospel-Centered home means intentionally focusing on the Gospel of Jesus Christ in all aspects of our lives. From parenting our children, to our relationship with our husbands, to the cooking and the cleaning, how we spend our time, and the priorities we choose to focus on throughout the week. 

The Gospel should impact and inform all of that. But if we are honest with ourselves, how often does the Gospel actually impact these small details of our day? 

RELATED: Hf #12: What does it really mean to manage a Gospel-Centered home?

The Purpose in Our Routines

Building routines into our day doesn’t have to be boring! In fact, establishing good routines can be one of the most helpful things you can do in trying to find more joy in your day to day. 

Routines can be one of the most mis-understood parts of living intentionally. Routines are not stiff schedules. They are not even necessarily done at the same time every day. 

Routines are small habits that fit into your life. Your life does not fit into your routines. 

So how do you establish routines that work for your family? Look at the people. Focus on those people within your home and how you can best serve and love them. Once you focus on the people first, it’s easier to establish routines that work for everyone. 

Meal Planning Routines 

One of the very best things I’ve ever done in my homemaking, is establish consistent habits of meal planning. And in fact, those times that I feel most overwhelmed in my kitchen is when I get out of the habit of meal planning. 

The benefits of meal planning:

• Helps you stick to your grocery budget
• Eliminates that fatigue of trying to figure out whats for dinner every day
• Gives you more variety in your meals 
• Helps you eat healthier meals 
• and more! 

There is a lot we can cover when it comes to meal planning. So if you want to dive in deeper, here are some great resources: (And don’t forget to head up and watch the video above for even more meal planning tips and tricks.)

• Hf #21: When your kitchen feels out of control (meal planning 101)
• My favorite meal planning walkthrough

 A Simple Guide to Housekeeping

Once you’ve started setting up routines into your day, it’s so much easier to form simple habits to housekeeping. This is what really allows you to stay on top of things in your home. This does not come very naturally to me, so I’ve definitely had to work at it over the years. 

Thinking through those different areas in your home and then establishing simple routines from there make a huge difference! You want to think through all the different aspects including: establishing morning and evening routines, laundry care, keeping up in the kitchen, bathroom cleaning, and so on. 

Make sure to watch the video clips above or dive into these resources for more information on housekeeping and routines:

• Getting on Track with Daily Disciplines
• What do you do when your routines vary from day to day?
• Creating realistic routines for the busy homemaker

Meal Planning Help: 

I am really excited to share with you the sponsor of today’s podcast episode: PrepDish! If you ever feel like you wish you had a little help in your meal planning, then I highly encourage you to check out PrepDish. They offer gluten free meal plans and paleo meal plans. 

But you don’t have to eat a gluten-free or paleo diet in order to take advantage of all that PrepDish has to offer! In fact, almost half of their customers don’t eat those diets. The meals are healthy and non-processed and work well for anyone who is trying to eat a healthy diet. And PrepDish is offering a super special TWO week free trail when you sign up through this link (how awesome!!)

When you sign up, you’ll receive an email every week with a grocery list and instructions for prepping your meals ahead of time. After only 1-3 hours of prepping on the weekend, you’ll have all of your meals ready for the entire week. I absolutely love how easy they make it. 

Free TWO week trial of PrepDish