Me and My House
by Kim Brenneman
 This column is written to inspire readers onto handling the details of managing a large family.
Why is Kim Brenneman qualified to dispense advice? She loves her home and family--she loves her life. From the first days of her marriage she has studied to be a better wife, a better homemaker, a better cook, a better gardener, and a better mother.
Kim loves to read and study everything she can access from her church library, her mom’s personal book collection, and the public libraries. She has also purchased many home management books, but has never found a book that addressed the needs of handling the nitty gritty details of managing large families. Many times as a young wife and mother Kim called her grandmother for advice.
With the advent of the Internet her horizons broadened. Kim learned many things about large family management from her years in the MOMYS digest group.
Is she more qualified than many other mothers are? She is the first to say, "No, and I have much to learn. However, I do like to teach others about what I have learned and I like to write."
Kim is wife to Matt and mother to Brandt, Brock, Bridgette, BriAnne, Brooke, Brian, Bronwyn, and Brielle
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Kim
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How to
Have Your
Own Personal Spa
Kim Brenneman,
 March 2006
Do you have a dirty bathroom lurking in your house? Do you keep the main bathroom clean but let the master bathroom go? Ha! Caught you! Let me help you with this mess. Ahem, while I clean my own messy mess. But hey, I just had a baby, what’s your excuse? Well, let’s get started. Smile, this won’t hurt too badly.
First, take a big drink of water and maybe even a snack for energy--something healthy like a banana or apple. This is also an exercise workout, by the way.
Next, grab your kitchen timer.
We’re going to do a series of 5-minute jobs.
While you’re getting the timer, grab the dish soap and a rag. Next, get your window cleaner and a couple of paper towels, the toilet bowl cleaner, and the broom and dust pan. Grab one of your children to help carry the load. Ready, set, go! Fast as you can we’re going to get this ugly task over with and never let it get this bad again!
Set the timer for 5 minutes for the first set of work.
- First, fill the bathroom sink with hot water and squirt in your soap.
- Squirt the toilet bowl with the cleaner but don’t swish it yet, let it soak.
- Toss the dry rag up into corners of the bathroom to catch any cobwebs.
- Pick up all the dirty laundry, the bath rugs, pull off the curtains if they’re dirty and take it all to your laundry room. While you’re there, throw the curtains in the washing machine.
- Collect the trash, including any empty shampoo containers in your shower.
- Sweep the floor and empty that into the trash and then haul it out.
- The five minutes should be up and you might be panting with exertion. Open the window and take a big breath of fresh air.
Set the timer again for 5 minutes. This is the second set.
- Put away all the things that you have sitting around. And say to yourself 5 times, “I will put things where they belong not leave them out to make a mess.” (Next time you catch your children leaving something lay, say it to them too)
- Take your wet rag and wipe the counters and any other level surfaces that have been collecting that sticky bathroom dust.
The third 5-minute set will help the light shine in and around your bathroom.
- Wet the rag and wipe around the windowsill, the casing, and the window if it’s really dirty.
- Grab your window cleaner and wipe the window and mirrors.
That was easy wasn’t it? And doesn’t it look brighter?
Set the timer again for 5 minutes.
- Does your sink water need changing? If so, do it.
- Rinse out your rag well and give it a good wringing. You’re going to spend this set dusting. Yes, you are going to use a wet rag to dust. That bathroom grime can be sticky and it needs some help to get it off sometimes.
- Wipe off all of your nick-knacks and anything hanging on the walls. Then move down and wipe the cabinets and the floorboards.
This is the 5th 5-minute set. Can you believe you let the bathroom get this bad? Yuck! Never again!
This 5-minute workout is for the shower and tub. You do not need a special cleaner.
- What’s on your walls? Soap. Get it wet and give it some elbow grease.
- If your water softener is out of salt then, yes, you will need something strong. It might take you an extra 5 minutes and some deep breathing with your head out the window when you’re done.
5 minutes for the sink, toilet, and floor and then you’re done!
- The sink should be pretty clean by now, just wipe the faucets and the bowl so that no toothpaste is left glued on.
- Next is the toilet. Swish it and flush. Then wipe it starting at the top and go to the bottom. When you get to the bottom, keep on wiping moving to the floor.
- Wipe the floor all around the toilet working your way backwards out towards the door.
You have just had a 30-minute workout. There is no need to go to the gym today! Do some stretching and thinking now. How could this job be easier?
For starters, when things are not very dirty they are easy to clean. It takes more time to clean up an ugly job than it does to maintain. Now I know your time is valuable to you. You would probably rather get your exercise some other way than cleaning the bathroom wouldn’t you? And walking into your master bath all clean and pretty would be like having your own personal spa wouldn’t it? Start thinking of the master bath as if it were a spa made just for you.
To maintain it, do one of those cleaning jobs every time you go into your bathroom. Make it a life habit. Here’s a couple more. Every time you wash your hands, wipe down the sink and counter. Keep a towel for this purpose under the sink. When you take a shower, do a quick wipe of the shower walls. It’s an easy thing; the hard part is starting the habit. To help you with the thinking process of starting the new habit of keeping your bathroom clean, write down every task that we just did. Post this list on your mirror and every time you are in the bathroom, do one task. Pretty soon, you won’t have to look at the list on the mirror; you’ll just automatically be doing the work.
All of those things I had you grab and carry to your bathroom? Put those in a bucket under the sink. Put a broom and dustpan in your closet. One set of cleaning tools for each bathroom.
Now, you will never be embarrassed about your master bathroom again. It is a spa that you will want to go spend time in. During the day when you get tired or frustrated, you will think about retreating to your spa in the evening and enjoying a long soak in your tub surrounded by candles. A fresh and fluffy towel is waiting for you as well as some lotion to rub into your tired feet. You no longer have a grungy mess--you have a spa. Enjoy.
"Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his own works; for that is his portion..." Ecclesiastes 3:22
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How to
Build a
Home Management Book
 Kim Brenneman,
March 2006
The purpose of this Home Management Book is to help you manage your new life of habits. When you don’t know what to do next, check your Home Management Book.
First
Find a three-ring-binder, paper, and page protectors, sticky notes, and a pencil. If you want to build this with a planner you are already using or with an unused planner sitting on your shelf, that’s great!
Do not worry about working on this book except on your Office Day. (We’ll talk about Office Day later) You will put this together slowly. Of course you can start using it right away but put it together slowly.
You can print your papers out on the computer or just do some writing on the paper at first and then organize it better at a later time. You need page protectors because you need to protect the pages from your children. Sticky notes stick nicely to page protectors for adjustments on the fly.
Take 7 sheets of paper and at the top of each put the name of the days of the week. We are going to set up our household management like our grandmother’s and their grandmother’s did. There is beauty in order and rhythm. If we know what to do when, and our families know what to do when, it brings security, peace, and comfort. This is true beauty. For the sake of simplicity this is the order we will set it up in but if it doesn’t suit your family’s life, then arrange your days accordingly.
Monday - Laundry Day
 Commit this day to your laundry equipment. Start as soon as you can and set the timer for switching your loads. Fold as soon as it you pull it out of the dryer. Allot some time to mending and ironing between loads. This doesn’t mean do the whole stack in one day. It means on Monday, iron for a certain amount of time, then mend for a certain amount of time. After a few weeks of this, you will be caught up on your ironing and mending. If you stay disciplined to committing Monday as Laundry Day, you will stay caught up.
Tuesday - Kitchen Day
 Commit this day to your kitchen. Use this day for extra baking, making yogurt, starting sprouts, freezer meals, etc. Also spend some time cleaning in the kitchen. Remove the clutter and wipe the counters. Clean out the refrigerator--if you do it every week, it never gets terribly gross. Clean and organize one drawer, one cupboard, and one pantry shelf. This might sound like a lot but in actual time spent it isn’t so bad. Use your timer and see how long it really takes! If you have big kids, give each one a task and have them race.
Wednesday - Office Day
Work on your Home Management Book, plan menus and grocery lists, balance the check book, pay bills, file papers, etc. If you need to make phone calls do it on Office Day. If you homeschool, schedule an appointment with each child to review schoolwork. Clean and organize one drawer or cupboard.
Thursday - Town Day
 Schedule appointments and music lessons for this day as much as possible. Do your shopping on this day. Plan your driving route and the route in each store ahead of time. Work on speed and efficiency. If you have little children try to do all of your errands right after breakfast when they are freshest and get home before lunch and naptime.
Friday - Cleaning Day
During Afternoon Chore Time add vacuuming and dusting.
Saturday - Garden Day
 Use this day for working in your flower and vegetable beds, mowing, picking up the yard, etc. In the winter, clean the walks and plan your garden plots. Also clean your vehicles. Once again, if these jobs are done weekly, they never become huge and ugly monsters.
You should also dedicate time to prepare for the Lord’s Day. Lay out clothes, shoes, and tights. Pack the diaper bag. Put food in crock pots and make the salad.
Sunday - The Lord’s Day
Rest in the Lord.
Second
Write at the top of each page your Morning Routine, every little bit of it. If you are using your computer, copy and paste it on the top of each page. You will do this routine every morning for the rest of your life, it will become an ingrained habit, much like brushing your teeth. Of course, at some point, you might decide you need to drop one of these habits, or add a new one, but for the most part, you need to focus on the same routine every day no matter what.
Work on putting your routine in the most efficient order. A portion of mine looks like this: wash face, put in contacts, put on deodorant, brush teeth, moisturize, and put on glamour. At times, I have woke up late, gone straight to the kitchen in my robe, drank coffee, fed the troops breakfast, started supper and in the process cut up an onion, then back to my bathroom to do the bathroom routine. Have you ever tried to put in contacts after cutting up an onion? It will ruin your day. My thought was, “I’ll get back to my bathroom when these hungry kids are fed first.” Discipline yourself to get up before you are rushed and do your Morning Routine in the most efficient order, contacts before onions.
Third
At the bottom of each page put your Evening Routine, every little thing that you need to do before going to sleep. Some important things to include on this list are:
- Prep the kitchen for breakfast. Who wants to wake up to a dirty kitchen? It is so much more pleasant for you and your family to walk into a clean and pleasant kitchen, coffee brewing, breakfast ready to cook.
- Check your calendar. Do not be surprised in the morning. Know when you go to sleep what the agenda is for tomorrow.
- Lay out your clothes every evening for the appropriate activity scheduled tomorrow. If it is Cleaning Day, put on clothes comfortable for cleaning. If it is Kitchen Day pick out something with short or 3/4 sleeves.
- Personal Care.
- Read Bible and pray. Keep a Bible beside your bed and go to sleep with scripture in your mind.
Fourth
Add the Noon Routine and The Dinner Hour which include the Table Chores.
You need to establish habits that go with meals for your family to learn. Meal routines and Table Chores will probably need to be posted big and bold somewhere in your kitchen to help teach your family. If they don’t remember what a chore involves you can direct them to the chart.
Fifth
If you have a MOTH (Managers of their homes) schedule this will fill out the rest of your day. Think of the routines that you are putting in your Home Management Book as the details of the little squares of your MOTH schedule.
If you do not have a MOTH schedule for your clan, then you will need to write down the order of activities you want your family to do during the day.
A few things you will want to include are:
- Table Time This is best done after the breakfast table chores are done and before everyone starts going their own direction. Include Bible Study, reciting memory work, practicing reading, learning manners and other group activities that need done at the table.
- Work on Phonics with your Non-reader Large families usually have at least one child in the process of learning to read. Spending 15 minutes a day with these children goes a long way towards the goal. It does not need to be drudgery. Make it fun and break it up with you reading a story or a playing a game.
- 1 hour of Quiet Time You need a break to nap, read, write, think and the children need to learn to be quiet and do something alone for awhile. The older children will learn self-discipline and respect for others during Quiet Time. The little children will get their well-earned nap.
- Read Aloud Time Everyone’s favorite part of the day. I find it best to do after Quiet Time so that I don’t fall asleep reading!
- Afternoon Chore Time Your family may choose to have it at a different time of day or break it into two separate times. Our family needs to do a serious house pick up time before Dad comes home from work. He likes to come home to a haven of peace and harmony, the smell of supper in the air, a happy wife and content children. Because you are the mother/teacher you might not notice the chaos and clutter that accumulate during the day’s activities but walking into it is not a pretty picture. Create a haven of respite from the world for your husband.
Check your attitude
Your days will not go according to your schedule. God has given you interruptions as a blessing to you and those who interrupt your plan. What your Home Management book does is give you a reference point in managing your home. When you are done with the interruption, go back to your reference point and do the next thing. With a plan in hand, you are working with direction and managing your home in an orderly manner.
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