The Modern but Old Style Homemakers Club

cat_smith

Hello all. Can I join you?

I left work for mental health reasons a few years ago and have been working VERY part time from home ever since. I find it quite hard being at home alone a lot as DH works very long hours and is often away. I live in a small village where I know no-one of my own age/situation (primarily everyone has young children or is older) I recently had a relapse of depression which leads to me binge drinking and this time I've really scared myself. I'm hoping that you friendly people can give me someone to talk to when I'm feeling a bit low.

I am a regular flylady when things are good but things often get left when I'm down.

I cook everything from scratch and even at my lowest I get a meal on the table for DH. He's very supportive, but finds it hard to understand.

Anyway, enough of depressing. I look forward to talking to you all.

juliapenguin

cat_smith wrote: »

Hello all. Can I join you?

I left work for mental health reasons a few years ago and have been working VERY part time from home ever since. I find it quite hard being at home alone a lot as DH works very long hours and is often away. I live in a small village where I know no-one of my own age/situation (primarily everyone has young children or is older) I recently had a relapse of depression which leads to me binge drinking and this time I've really scared myself. I'm hoping that you friendly people can give me someone to talk to when I'm feeling a bit low.

I am a regular flylady when things are good but things often get left when I'm down.

I cook everything from scratch and even at my lowest I get a meal on the table for DH. He's very supportive, but finds it hard to understand.

Anyway, enough of depressing. I look forward to talking to you all.

Absolutely definitely welcome! I think a lot of us round here are at home because of mental health problems. I'm not into drinking (terrible hangovers and it doesn't do it for me) but I'm so into carbohydrate bingeing which makes everything ten times worse. I really hope we can all support each other, but you may also want to join us on our chatty forum, as we have to keep on-topic here and get told of if we're naughty :rotfl:

The chatty forum is at http://homemakers.forumotion.co.uk/t2-introduce-yourself#5 - lots of us who post on this thread are already over there so come and say hello xxxx

hermum

I'm single, so not sure if classed as a homemaker. Was let go from work a few years ago due to ill-health. The stress of the job made my already fragile mental health worse & not been able to pick myself back up since.
Anyway, I've read the first 125 posts, so more than a third of the way through.
I definitely suffer from the clutterbug that I've already seen several people admit to.
I need to ebay, as I've never ebayed before.
I would love to become organised instead of overwhelmed. I blame the internet & these forums, it's too easy to lose a few weeks without realising it.
Anyway, I'm off to continue reading the other posts.
Thanks for starting this thread & I hope that as a singleton I can stay & play, I promise to play nicely.

juliapenguin

Singletons are MORE than welcome! That's the whole point of this thread - we are all in different situations but have in common that we spend more time at home than the average modern woman (or maybe we don't but are interested in the thread for whatever reason).

However, it's right that you should play nicely. Any nonsense and you'll be sent home with a flea in your ear :rotfl:

Careful_with_that_Axe

Can I slump in a corner? I have house-sparkled to the limits today and not yet finished. Guests arriving tomorrow evening and ran out of time to spread the load due to things cropping up. Kitchen and wet room have been scrubbed from top to bottom, living room is de-cluttered, still upstairs to do.
Painkillers and steroids maxed out and I'm still like a limp dishrag.

I am struggling to stay awake til it is officially bedtime. Don't want to go to bed and be woken by the kids playing outside.

gien

Can I join please - I did post earlier but I think it was the last one on the page so I 'fell off' if you see what I mean. I've been a SAHM for about 15 years now and I'm still rubbish at doing all the domestic stuff. I struggled for a long time to accept being at home and i still feel very ambivalent about my role. I have worked part time in the past but we live abroad and we have moved a couple of times so the opportunities are less and you need someone at home to support the family through the changes.

I shall be doing a lot of home making as we are having renovations done and I'll be painting and decorating and cleaning a lot.

frugaliciousness

gien wrote: »

Can I join please - I did post earlier but I think it was the last one on the page so I 'fell off' if you see what I mean. I've been a SAHM for about 15 years now and I'm still rubbish at doing all the domestic stuff. I struggled for a long time to accept being at home and i still feel very ambivalent about my role. I have worked part time in the past but we live abroad and we have moved a couple of times so the opportunities are less and you need someone at home to support the family through the changes.

I shall be doing a lot of home making as we are having renovations done and I'll be painting and decorating and cleaning a lot.

Welcome We had our house re-wired, didn't pay for it thankfully as we rent but we have agreed to redecorate. If we move (which we might if plans play out) i'll feel awful not getting the jobs done so I must crack on with it, finished upstairs. As cheaply as I can anyway. So i'll be joining you with the homemaking, literally! (I must stop gossiping on our chat threads I must!:rotfl: )

life_in_termoil

Wow it has been busy on here. Ive been at mums since yesterday but back home now.

Mums house is lovely sparkly clean and when I open my front door to come home its like a black cloud comes over my head!! So therefore I am going to make a pledge

MY PLEDGE IS I PROMISE TO DO AT LEAST 3 X 20 MINUTES HOME STYLING EVERY DAY UNTIL THE CLUTTER IS CLEAR AND MY HOUSE IS A HOME!!

Please feel free to kick me up the back side!

ETA Hellooooooooooooooooo Newbies

hermum

Yeah, hooray, I've read the whole thread.
I'd like to say thanks to everyone who's posted, I forgot as I went along, sorry.
I've scrawled out a couple pages of lists, things to do daily & a bit of a schedule. Hopefully that will focus me a little.
Several others have said that when you have all day, things get put off until you run out of time. That is a huge problem of mine.
The only person who ever comes to my house is my Mum once a week, so the other 6 1/2 days I just slump & thread hop.
Motivation that is what is so difficult.
First thing tomorrow is getting dressed, into dog walking gear, get out with the dog early, without opening the laptop.
Maybe, just maybe I'll be able to get some things done.
Night all & I hope everyone has a fruitful day tomorrow.

squeaky

Different approaches work in different ways for different people....

Ones I use to different degrees and with varying effect are...

Treat it like a job and have "working hours per day" and you can use any flexi-time type approach that suits you.

For jobs that you are definitely putting off:- Make an appointment with yourself. (if you make an appointment for the doctors, or dentist/solicitor/friends) you will be there. So make an appointment with your "self"... on Thursday morning at 10am I am going to clean the oven / tidy that cupboard / do that "thing!

Some jobs get put off because they are TOO BIG. You take one look at it and somewhere inside yourself decide that you can't cope/deal with it right now; so you put it off. The way to deal with that one is to break it down into smaller chunks. So "De-cluuter the whole house" is a HUGE task. So break it down and pick a single room. If THAT still feels too big... break down the room to - I'll start with "that" cupboard". If THAT feels too big - break it down to one shelf or drawer. (I've been known after really bad times to start in on my kitchen worktop one square foot at a time!)

The "busy-bitty" approach... if you've got the box on and are loafing in front of it.... deliberately switch to a commercial channel. Every time the adverts come on, get up and do something... such as start putting things in the dishwasher or washing machine or tidied away into their proper homes. Don't worry if you don't finish before the adverts ends - by all means go back and loaf. Next adverts... carry on from where you left off... It's truly amazing how much you can get done in three minutes stints every quarter hour or so.

... Anything else that works for you