Be aware that housekeeping is not as simple as it sounds. Men without military training may not have the basic skills to accomplish all the cleaning tasks or even know what they are. If you’ve never organized a house, shopped for food and household essentials, cooked or cleaned up because your mother did all these things, your results will not be as effective as any adult woman taking on these tasks. You’ll take longer doing it and with less effective results. If possible, get your experienced spouse to walk you through how she does all these things.
Crock pots and other slow cooked meals may give you the chance to get other chores done while the food cooks. They tend to be very tasty. If you want them eating healthier, treats should be something of a special occasion. Everyday snacks could be fruit, vegetables or healthy grains while a big production dessert could take place sometime on the weekend for everyone to enjoy it together. Budgeting for food is another big part of the job. Prepackaged anything costs more, the more home cooking you do, the better the family will eat both in health and in terms of luxury. Buying non-perishables in bulk is often cheaper than small boxes or quantities.
Remember the personal treats that cheer up your loved ones individually. If you remember the kids’ favorite foods and fix them regularly or surprise your spouse with flowers from the garden or a candlelit bath - these things create memories. If you do these small affectionate things more often than calendar holidays and birthdays, they create very powerful memories. They don’t have to be big, just personal. Keep track of the things that cheer up your spouse and your kids individually, write them down sometimes when they’re not home. When they have a really bad day, that’s when to trot out the comfort food or the surprise foot rub.
If you don’t like shopping that often, you can reduce the number of errands by planning ahead and doing them in groups. If you want to get in shape, bicycle for perishable shopping and only use the car when you’re stocking up non-perishables or big stuff.
Budget a small personal treat for the tasks you don’t enjoy. It can be small like a pack of gum or non-monetary like taking the time to play a game. Or just put a dollar into a jar till it adds up for something big that you want. Small personal rewards make it easier to motivate yourself to do things that you’re reluctant to that need to be done. Change is good for this if you need to break it down to different specific chores and a lot of them need doing. Or when you finish a chore faster than you planned and still did a good job, put a note in the “time bank” and build up to where you can spend most of a day playing a video game or whatever.
