5 Foundational Habits of a Homemaker

These 5 habits of a homemaker provide the foundation from which you and your family can thrive. Learn how to use the power of habits to design a fulfilling life.
Do you want to increase your efficiency and effectiveness in homemaking? Are you tired of feeling like you’re spinning your wheels and getting nowhere each day?
You may have already read a bunch of homemaking blogs or watched a ton of homemaking youtube videos. I find these homemaking blogs and videos very inspiring and motivating. They are often the thing that keeps me chipping away at my list of tasks and chores.
But it can be easy to look at someone else who is curating their videos or pictures to show you the “best” of their days and find yourself lacking. Us moms are amazing at falling into the comparison trap. The problem is that we rarely see the behind-the-scenes planning, trial-and-error, and real life that goes into making homemaking look so seamless and straightforward.
If you have tried to copy all of the things you see and hear in the homemaking blogs and youtube videos, but still feel like you are falling short, then it’s time you learned the 5 foundational habits of a homemaker.
In this post I will share 5 habits of a homemaker that most homemakers are either skipping over or undervaluing.
Why are habits important in homemaking?

The word ‘habit’ is one of those buzzwords that is constantly thrown around in the fields of productivity, health and wellness and psychology. It can be a polarizing word, either making you feel excited to try building a new one, or overwhelmed by the thought of adding yet another one to your daily responsibilities.
Which kind of person are you? Do you love habits or loathe them?
If you are in the latter camp I hope that I can help you to see them in a way that doesn’t increase your stress. If you are the former person who is a habits enthusiast, I hope I can help you broaden your view of habits into something a little less rigid.
Let’s first examine what a habit is and why you may want to use habits in homemaking.
What is a habit?
The name that is often synonymous with the word habit is James Clear. In his book, Atomic Habits, he illustrates the power of habits to change your life.
Here is the definition of a habit according to James Clear:
“Habits are the small decisions you make and actions you perform every day.”
James clear- atomic habits
I would argue that behaviors don’t need to be performed daily to remain in the category of habits, but I guess you could say I’m just mincing words. The important thing here is that you are CHOOSING to take a certain action consistently and regularly, if not every day.
Why do habits have a bad rap?
Most people think about habits in the negative sense. We think of smoking as a dirty habit and chewing your nails as a bad habit. In this context, we view habits as things that are mostly out of our control. I’m sure anyone who has tried to stop a habit would greatly support this notion.
It is uncomfortable to think about these “bad habits” as things that we are choosing to do, because then it means that we are a person without gumption or tenacity. So often our habits don’t align with the person we want to be or who we know ourselves to be deep down. It is hard to truly come to terms with the disparity between the things we spend our time on regularly and the things we believe to be truly connected to our real self.
But, if we were to truly subscribe to the notion that we have no control over our habits, then that would mean we believe ourselves to be passive experiencers of life. If you believe that life happens to you and you don’t make life happen for you, you have given up all of your control. A person without control and determination feels depressed, helpless and hopeless.
I don’t know about you, but I can’t stand feeling hopeless. I like to feel powerful in my own life. When you are confident in your own power, then you become the creator of your own life. Who doesn’t want to have the power to design a life of joy, peace and fulfillment?
Why are habits important?
Hopefully you are starting to come over from the dark side and believe that you have authority over the habits you do and do not engage in! Here are the ways that you can utilize habits in your life for good:
Habits are small, simple things. Because they are small and simple they are “easy” to implement. They may not be easy to implement consistently, but the action itself is easy.
The law of compounding interest can be applied to habits. This means that if you are able to perform a lot of little actions consistently over time, you will be able to create big change.
“Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement.”
James Clear-Atomic Habits
When you choose habits that align with what you believe and who you truly are, the inevitable consequence is increased well-being and satisfaction with life.
Why use habits in homemaking?
Homemaking is one of the most important roles there is in this world. A homemaker nurtures and creates the environment and atmosphere for the souls of her family to develop and thrive. Homemaking provides the foundation from which to create more positive and happy energy in the world, or more depressed and negative energy. Learn more about the importance of homemaking in my blog post here.
If habits are the small choices and actions that we engage in regularly that can bring about great satisfaction and purpose in life, then why would we not utilize their power to make homemaking more effective, efficient and fulfilling?
Utilizing habits helps us direct our efforts in the direction of a desired outcome. Small habits can help us reach goals. The positive results of reaching multiple goals helps us create the type of life we want. Aligning small actions, habits, and goals creates the magic of dreams fulfilled. This intentional use of each of these components in homemaking is what I call Intentional Homemaking. If you want to learn more about Intentional Homemaking, you can read my post What is Intentional Homemaking?: A Guide to Happiness at Home.
5 Foundational Habits of a Homemaker
I call these habits of a homemaker foundational because I believe that they provide the foundation from which you can develop any other habits. If you utilize these 5 habits of a homemaker, you will have the tools and capacity to design your home, and life within that home, to be anything you want it to be.
Habits of a Homemaker # 1: Prioritize Self Care

I can see you rolling your eyes at me! I used to think the same things you did:
“I don’t have time for self care! I don’t even have enough time to get all of my chores and tasks done each day. How can I waste time on self care when my children and husband need me to take care of them? Even if I were to make time for self care I would just feel anxious while I was doing it because I would be thinking about all the stuff I have to do!”
Did I get it right?! Well I’ve been there and I’ve said and thought all of those things. But guess what? Those were all excuses. They were all lies I told myself so that I didn’t have to feel guilty about not being able to change a habit that I was used to doing.
The bad habit that way too many moms have that is draining you more than you think: putting the needs of your family before your own.
Noone is asking you to be selfish and say “screw you” to your kids and husband. I’m simply trying to help you see that as a member of the home that you are caring for and curating, you too need to reap all the same benefits.
If you don’t take care of yourself, then you are pulling from an empty tank. Parenting and caring from a home on an empty tank isn’t effective or efficient. You actually waste more time by not taking care of yourself.
If none of those reasons convince you then this one will: when you constantly ignore your own needs, you are modeling for your kids that they too should ignore their own needs in order to please others. I don’t now about you, but I’m sure as heck trying to end that kind of generational trauma with me.I don’t want to put all this effort into nurturing my children just for them to reverse all of that hard work by ignoring their own needs and making themselves unwell!
Okay, I’ll get off my soapbox here. If you’re convinced about this habits of a homemaker, then here are some practical ways to implement this habit.
How to prioritize self care
Do activities or hobbies that you love each day.
If time is an issue this can be a dual-purpose activity: it can serve as something you enjoy and something that takes care of the house or your family. Some hobbies I enjoy that are dual-purpose are baking and gardening.
Nourish your physical body
This can be through exercise or food. Choose a type of exercise that isn’t about losing weight or having a perfect body, but something that just makes your body feel good. Examples are walking, stretching and dancing. Make food that is both tasty and comforting. You can even share it with your family to reduce your mom guilt!
Regularly consume encouragement or inspiration
Read a book, watch a youtube video or listen to a podcast. You can even choose a topic that helps you learn a skill that will benefit your home. Podcasts are great because you listen to them while you are doing the more mundane tasks of homemaking.
Give yourself “Time off”
If you find yourself unwell in any way: you have a headache, a cold or are not handling stress well, it’s okay to take time to care for yourself as you would if it was your child. Remember, we are modeling the behavior we want our children to learn!
Habits of a Homemaker # 2: Do Daily Resets

I got this idea from Katy Joy Wells. She has an amazing podcast called The Maximilized Minimalist Podcast that would be great to listen to for encouragement and inspiration in your homemaking.
The idea behind a daily reset is that you quickly reset the rooms you use the most in your home so that clutter and dirtiness don’t build up over time and create overwhelm. You want to spend 30 min or less putting a room back to normal. Most rooms take 5 minutes or less once you start to regularly implement this habit, but a kitchen can sometimes take a little longer.
Habits of a Homemaker # 3: Create flexible routines.

The key word here is flexible. Structure is important because it takes the guess-work and constant planning out of the equation. But if we create rigid structure it can become tedious and boring. In order to create flexible daily routines, you need to take some time and plan those routines.
You may choose to do all of your laundry on Monday and vacuuming on Tuesdays. Or maybe you do meal prep on Sundays and clean your bathrooms every Monday and Friday. These routines really depend on what works for you, but once you set up a basic structure, you can reduce the mental fatigue of deciding what to do each day. You can simply look at the list you created each day and just get started.
When you are flexible about when and how these things happen throughout your week, this becomes a much easier habits of a homemaker to maintain. When appointments or events come up you can always switch these things around to different days. Or if you simply are not feeling a certain chore on a certain day, then complete a routine from another day instead.
By having flexible routines you ensure that all the things that need to get done are being accomplished in a time frame that feels good to you.
Habits of a Homemaker # 4: Set Daily Intentions

I go more into depth on the importance of setting a daily intention in my blog post here. In this post I explain the importance of creating a vision and values that will guide your homemaking efforts. This vision and values are the things that help you align your daily actions, habits and goals towards a greater purpose. Just as James Clear explains, when all of those things align, you get the effect of compounding interest for creating great change and momentum.
The purpose of setting a daily intention is to remind yourself why you are choosing the tasks and habits of a homemaker. They help you stay focused on moving towards the vision you created for the type of life you want to create within your home.
The simpler the intentions the better. And there is no need to create new ones each day. Create a set of intentions that helps you align your habits of a homemaker and read, write or say them each day. Here are my daily intentions:
I know that if I’ve done at least one thing to fulfill these intentions each day then I’m on the right track!
Habits of a Homemaker # 5: Focus on atmosphere over presentation

In my post What is homemaking and why is it so undervalued? I explain why homemaking is one of the most important roles we have in our society. A homemaker is the person who is in charge of turning a house into a home. The difference between a house that merely provides shelter and a home that provides sanctuary is in its ability to nurture the well-being of its residents.
“Let us be careful that our homes are furnished with pleasant and happy thoughts and we are that the rugs are the right color and texture and the furniture comfortable and beautiful.”
Laura Ingalls Wilder
We feel ‘at home’ when we feel like we can be ourselves without judgment or criticism. Home is more of a feeling than a place. For this reason, the art of making a home requires a homemaker to carefully curate the emotional environment of the house.
As the keepers of the home, we set the tone with the energy that we give off. If we move through our homemaking role with an attitude of joy, peace and fulfillment, we are offering that attitude and energy to our family. If we are constantly feeling stressed, overwhelmed and unhappy, then we are modeling how to move through life with these emotions.
One of the easiest ways to avoid feeling frustrated and resentful in our homemaking role is to engage in all of the habits of a homemaker I’ve already suggested. When we focus on the habits of a homemaker that nourish our body, mind and soul we create a full cup from which to pour into our families.
Habits of a Homemaker: The Big Idea

The 5 foundational habits of a homemaker are:
- Prioritize self care
- Do daily resets
- Create flexible routines
- Do daily intentions
- Focus on atmosphere over presentation
The main focus of these habits of a homemaker is to support you, the homemaker. In order to be efficient and effective at homemaking you must first take care of yourself.
Habits are all about claiming the power you hold to make your life whatever you want it to be. When you purposefully choose habits that set you, the homemaker, up for success, then you ensure that you are able to support your family in finding their own success and fulfillment.
There is no need to create pressure to begin each of these habits of a homemaker all at once. Choose one and get comfortable with it. Once you are regularly reaping the benefits of that habit, then try another. When you do begin any of these habits of a homemaker, make sure you do them with the intention to support yourself rather than as another responsibility to add to your overwhelm.
You deserve to take advantage of these 5 foundational habits of a homemaker to create a fulfilling and purposeful life.
Make sure you pin the image below so you can revisit this post each time you are ready to implement the next habits of a homemaker.
