Back to the basics

As a generation of mothers, there is a trend calling us back to our roots. There’s something in many of us that longs for a more traditional sort of homemaking — from scratch, and back to the basics.

Historically, the women’s liberation movement in the latter half of the 20th century threw the baby out with the bath water, and left a wide number of us wishing we had learned more of the traditional methods of home management.

If I had a nickel for every email I get from readers that sheepishly asks for tips on handling some of the most basic home management tasks, then… well, I’d have a lot of nickels. I think there’s a lot of us out there that would appreciate a 101-type course on home management.

Even if you’re a seasoned pro, I think it would be encouraging — even fun — to chat through some of the basic steps behind home management, and then share our favorite ideas that make these tasks work for us.

Starting tomorrow, I’ll share one post per week dedicated to the simple steps behind a home management responsibility — this series will be called Back to the Basics. Each week’s post will be featured on Monday, except for this week’s post, which will show up in your reader or email inbox tomorrow.

Topics planned for Back to the Basics are:

• laundry
• cleaning
• menu planning
• meal preparation (cooking in bulk, preparing scratch ingredients in advance, canning, and the like)
• scheduling your days, weeks, and months
• managing the routine family finances
• nurturing your children in their different ages

There honestly won’t be anything new covered in this series. All the best methods and tricks have already been found — sometimes, though, they’re hidden beneath a guise of the latest gizmo marketed to help you do your chores.

Let’s uncover these methods, one by one, and pool our collective wisdom to create a place for both the newlywed and the new grandmother find what works for them.

But now I need input from you. What topic would you like to see covered in this Back to the Basics series?