This is not me.
If you read my interview with The Inspired Room’s Melissa Michaels yesterday, you’ll know that I was inspired by her quote about focusing on the things you love and enjoy while letting go of the idea of perfection. It got me thinking about which home things I really want to learn to do better-and which ones I don’t care if I ever master. Here are my three lists:
What “home” stuff am I good at?
- Baking
- Picking out furniture/decor that I love, and arranging it so it looks pretty
- Making guests feel welcome
- Keeping things (relatively) neat
- Setting a mood with candles and other good-smelling things, the right music, etc
What “home stuff” am I not so good at but want to do better?
- Choosing artwork (I have a serious mental block there)
- Photography-I’d love to be able to fill the walls with nice pictures of my kids without always having to get somebody else to take them.
- Embroidery. I’ve wanted to learn to embroider since I was like 10…and still have never produced a single completed item.
- Conserving resources. We recycle, but I’d like to be a lot better about mending, repairing, re-using, and reducing energy use.
- Gardening. I would love to be a real green thumb, but besides my broccoli garden of 2008, haven’t really gotten a garden off the ground. Definitely on my goal list for summer ’11.
What “home stuff” am I not good at, and don’t care if I ever get better?
- Folding fitted sheets
- Sewing. I’d like to be better at mending things, but don’t enjoy cutting enough to work with patterns (seriously, I’ve said it before, but I’ll repeat it: I am scissors-challenged)
- Ironing. I have not ironed since probably 2005. I don’t even think we own an ironing board at this point.
- Planning fancy birthday parties (with five birthdays between September and December, I’m happy just to remember treats for school!)
- Packing elaborate lunches. I totally respect the mad skillz of people like Wendolonia and her fantastically creative Bento creations, but I’m sticking with what works: PBJ on whole-wheat (HFCS free) bread, fruit on the side, done and done.
What would you put on your three lists?
Oh, I’m definitely the party planner. For my second son’s first birthday, we hired our favorite 2-piece Beatles cover band and rented out the park. I made a cake that was a replica of the Yellow Submarine cover (I’m real good at that, did that as a job at one point.) I also single-handedly planned my entire wedding in just a few weeks (while pregnant!) and pulled off a beautiful white light and candle lit ceremony, which everyone else thought was gorgeous, but I hated it in the end because I spent my whole wedding working instead of feeling like a bride. If I have a girl, oh… she better watch out, because I’ve got some serious making up to do.
But I dunno, looking at your list I can’t think of anything else. It would never occur to me to iron something unless I absolutely had to – like if I was going to a wedding or something. We tried a garden this summer, got some zucchini, then had to rip the whole thing out and have the ground resodded when we moved.
Things I’m good at: baking, embroidery (try a counted cross-stitch Christmas ornament to start-they’re small=easier to finish and cross-stitch means you just make x’s w/your thread on grid-like fabric!), matching outfits for pics etc,
things I’d like to get better at: savory cooking, reducing clutter
Things I don’t give a hoot about: “real” art like drawing/painting-I’ve accepted that I have no talent for this, white glove test worthy dusting-I dust occasionally, but if you care if the back of my tv has dust on it, I figure that’s your problem, not mine
Things I’m good at:
-Photography
-Cooking
-Grocery shopping
-Keeping 3 kids 4 and under from killing themselves
-making people feel welcome
-brewing beer (though since having kids that has become more my husband’s job as I don’t have 6 hrs to concentrate on one thing)
-Enjoying the kids instead of freaking out about the mess (I wish it were not an either/or, but it is for me. If I try to be neat I turn into a jerk to the kids)
Stuff I want to get better at:
-Neatness without being a jerk to my family
-Gardening (I try but I end up with an out of control patch of squirrrel food)
-Putting my photos on the wall
-Organizing important papers
-folding/putting away laundry (I get it clean but beyond that….)
-Decorating for holidays
Stuff I don’t care about:
-Ironing (I pay the dry cleaner happily!)
-white glove cleaning
-Parties – we invite over family/friends and get chinese takeout and a cake.
–
What “home” stuff am I good at?
cooking meals, trying new flavours together
multitasking (cleaning three rooms at the same time by focusing on similar tasks – making the beds, putting clothes away)
making a nice evening with family by setting a mood for fun even if we just stay in
gardening
What “home stuff” am I not so good at but want to do better?
laundry – the whole process…whiter whites, getting caught up, putting clothes away, ironing my husband’s shirts
getting the grout between the tiles clean
organizing bills so that I’m only keeping the most current ones and shredding the rest
printing pictures from my digital camera
putting up pictures so they look nice, evenly spaced, right size for the wall etc.
What “home stuff” am I not good at, and don’t care if I ever get better?
sewing/mending/replacing buttons/hemming – I just never get around to it.
cleaning out the microwave
cleaning out the oven
putting up picture
Good at –
– gardening
– decorating
– “memory keeping” – hanging photos, keeping journal/family website
– throwing a party (themed kids party are especially fun for me to create)
– doing projects / art / cooking / outings with my kids
Want to get better at –
– cooking / baking / meal planning – I enjoy these and have some skills, but don’t plan my time & resources well since becoming a busy mom, so we end up with too much take out & last minute frozen meals
– keeping our day-to-day organized / taking care of all the little nagging tasks – bill paying, filing, calling service people, etc. I hate doing this stuff, so it tends to falls to my already overworked husband, since I’m the full time “homemaker” I wish I could take it off his shoulders.
– shopping – I’m trying to become more efficient as I can’t believe the mental effort & time it takes cloth the kids, keep house stocked with food, toiletries, etc. for the whole family
– financial planning – high interest but little time for further research & execution
– cleaning & laundry – need a better system to keep things from piling up
Don’t care about
– sewing & mending
– ironing – must be a wedding or funeral if you see me wielding this
– cleaning showers, grout, or ovens
– perfection – be it meals, cleaning, etc
I like thinking about these. I think I’m good at planning and cooking meals, making sure the kids have clean clothes, and cleaning up clutter.
Things I wish I did better: organize paperwork, decorate and paint the house, keep the bathrooms clean.
Not good at but don’t really care: organized cabinets, ironing, or sewing.
Home things I’m good at: cooking, baking, making things, memory-keeping
Home things I wish I did better: paperwork, front entranceway inside and out more presentable, weekly cleaning
Home things that aren’t important enough to me to want to do better: ironing (I’m sensing a trend with that one), home decorating, manicured lawn/yard
What “home” stuff am I good at?
– baking
– sewing
– gardening
– decorating
What “home stuff” am I not so good at but want to do better?
– meal planning
– tidying / organizing
– de-cluttering
What “home stuff” am I not good at, and don’t care if I ever get better?
– ironing, and really laundry in general
– dusting
– floors
– home repair
Oh I love this! Let’s see…in the “Things I am good at” department:
– organizing
– meal planning
– gardening
– bill paying
– ironing
Need some improvement:
– decorating
– entertaining
– maintaining my photos and memories
Not good at and really don’t care:
– sewing!
– scrubbing toilets and showers. (I do it regularly but hate it and will speed thru it!)
– large dinner parties
I count six of us who hate ironing, or at least don’t care if we’re any good at it. Do you know there are actually people who love ironing and find it relaxing? When I iron, I introduce more wrinkles into the clothing than they had to begin with.
@FeministBreeder-I wish you lived close by. I’d hire you to plan my kids’ birthday parties! We have a birthday in Sept, one in Oct, one in Nov and two in Dec. I can barely keep up with the classroom cupcakes let alone plan a cool party!
You know, I actually don’t mind ironing if it’s a part of a crafty sewing project. Now that I think about it. Prewashing fabric and ironing it nice and flat IS kind of relaxing. But that kind of ironing is NOTHING like ironing a dress. Or god forbid, a man’s dress shirt. Or pleats! *shudders*
Oh yes, the party planning is one of about 1000 careers I’d love to have. Perhaps when I retire.
There was a time when I used to iron *everything*. A nice pair of freshly washed, ironed jeans? Awesome. Crisp, ironed pillowcases? Heaven.
*sigh*
I don’t iron much anymore but could *never* be without an iron and ironing board completely!
Amanda
I have to admit; I am an iron-aholic! I love to have a big stack of clothes, turn on HGTV and iron my head off. One little tip: if you use a steam iron, put aluminum foil under the ironing board cover and it speeds up the job!