Winter homemaking is a beautiful time to practice those home skills. More time spent inside gives us valuable moments to improve on what is important in homemaking. Working on home improvement, from scratch cooking and beautifying our spaces are just a few areas of winter homemaking that can be accomplished.
Winter can be a hard time for those of us who live in the colder climates. The daylight is much shorter and the outside temperatures can sometimes be intolerable. This can tend to affect our moods and emotions in a negative light. So, making the most of the winter months inside is a lovely way to try and enjoy these days.
Where to begin in winter homemaking
It can sometimes be overwhelming to know where to begin when it comes to homemaking and especially homemaking during the winter. We can see all that we want to try and accomplish that our motivation can start to waver. Since we do not want to lose our ability to improve on our homemaking, a good place to start is a list.
- Home improvement projects
- From scratch cooking & baking
- Home caregiving (maintaining and cleaning the home)
- Handiwork – (sewing, knitting or even DIY crafting)
- Beautify the home
The list does not have to be extensive, but let’s get into the details of each area of winter homemaking.
Home improvement projects
Since we are inside an excessive amount of time, home projects are always on my list for winter. Now, I do not mean an entire renovation of a room (which has happened for us though with help of my husband), but more of those minor home updates. Tasks such as painting a room or accent wall, hanging new curtains, updating light fixtures, changing out cabinet pulls, wallpapering a closet (as pictured) and redecorating are ideas that I’ve had for home improvement winter homemaking projects.
Last year we did a winter refresh of our living space. This included rearranging furniture and getting rid of our television, repainting the built-ins and trim and adding wall paper and shampooing our carpets. It took some time, but was easier than an entire room reno. The Youtube video of our winter living room refresh can be found here.
From scratch cooking
Winter homemaking definitely includes practicing my from scratch cooking and baking skills. Our family eats three meals a day plus snacks at home. My goal in feeding our family is to make nourishing foods that are well sourced and are from mostly whole foods. Over the past ten years of being a wife and mother, I have had some time to work on those skills, but I believe there is always room for improvement. The season to be in the kitchen is now, and this will always be an area that homemakers can grow in.
Some of my winter homemaking kitchen skills include impoving my bread and sourdough bread making, canning (yes I do preserve and can even in the winter). We order organic whole foods that we did not grow ourselves from Azure Standard. I purchase the in season produce for the winter months and practice my preserving skills during the winter. Finally I want to practice more fermenting. We make our own sauerkraut, greek yogurt and kombucha, but there is so much more that can be done with fermenting.
Home caregiving
When families are in a home more during the winter, the home does seem to require more maintenace and care. I tend to find that there are more toys and overall messes that occur, but even more dust and grime happen when kids are inside more hours during a day. Keeping up on cleaning and caring for the home is a must during winter homemaking.
This is not necessarily a task I alway want to improve upon, but is one that helps my mood during the winter months. When my home is in disarray and dirty, I tend to get more negative and down about other parts of life. Spending so much time indoors just means a little extra time for cleaning and care giving in the home. Keeping a cleaning routine and schedule can be extremely beneficial. My cleaning routine is now years established and I find it comes naturally. I’ve shared a few other posts related to routines that you may find helpful. Having a weekly/daily cleaning routine and What Makes a Good Homemaker are a couple posts to find inspiration in.
Handiwork
When I picture a homemaker doing handiwork, I often think of Ma from Laura Ingalls sitting by the fire mending and sewing while Pa played his instrument and sang. With our advancements in technology and modern equipment, we are not required to sew our own clothes. With that said, however, practicing simple handiwork skills in the winter is not a poor idea. I am not an avid sewer. Sewing is not something I have ever really desired to master, so this would be a time to do such things. Mending those fallen off buttons and patching ripped holes in jeans are what I mainly can do. In the winter when the nights are dark early, sitting by a lamp and listening to my husband read to the kids or watching a show while I mend seems to be the best time.
Handiwork can also be crafting or creating. Take time to paint or draw artwork for the home, make DIY beeswax candles or DIY soaps. The list of possibilities is endless. It truly just takes time. I tend to find these projects relaxing, but I just have to start. So why not do one of those now and maybe even include the family.
Beautifying the home
One of my favorite parts in winter homemaking is adding beauty to the home. Once the home maintaining and upkeap is complete, the fun begins. Adding beauty in a home does not mean that we are being frivolous or spending over budget on home decor. Creating a home that is beautiful is simply a way of adding lovely and charming things that bring about joy. Much of my home and the pieces in it are second hand. You can see in Creating a Cozy and Inviting Winter Kitchen or my Spring Home Decor that I enjoy changing out little things to create beauty in my home. Best of all, it does not have to be done with major expense.
One of my favorite ways to add beauty to our home is with fresh flowers. In the Spring and Summer months, that is easy to do as I use my cut flowers from my flower garden. In the Winter I buy the Walmart little bouquet of flowers and add that to my table. Simple and affordable, yet it adds beauty and brings life and joy to the home.
Is there more to Winter homemaking
Winter homemaking can be what we make it. We decide what we want to do with the extra time indoors and if we want to improve on our skills or not. As a reminder to myself and to you, we are only given so much time in a day and how I use that time is up to me. I learn more practical, life skills now from being a homemaker, homeschool mother and wife than I did in my school age years. So homemakers, let’s do this winter homemaking right and grow in who we are!
LOVE,
Davee
Hi Davee,
I came to visit your blog after watching your video. Great post with ideas for wintering.
Thank you! Hope you can enjoy the winter season.