“Back in the day,”  most people grew up with moms who taught them homemaking skills.  Those who didn’t had Home Ec classes to fill in the gaps.  Nowadays, households with skilled homemakers to pass down what they know are rare — and Home Ec classes have largely fallen by the wayside, as well.  The resources below are some of my top picks for various areas of homemaking, together forming a sort of Homemaking 101.

Household Management

Household management may be one of the most neglected skills.  Even those who know how to do individual tasks, like cooking and Cleaning, may still not know how to create a plan to ensure that everything gets done.  I’m not aware of a Book that focuses specifically on this (although there probably is one), but the following trio of blog posts from right here at Titus 2 Homemaker should fill that gap.  (They go together.)

• Household Task List
• Routines, part 1  (Daily & Weekly)
• Routines, part 2 (Monthly & Yearly)

FlyLady’s Sink Reflections and the Sidetracked Home Executives’ From Pigpen to Paradise both do cover this topic, and cover it well.  However, they each do it within the context of other things and within very particular systems that may or may not be what you’re looking for.  That makes them both good resources; just be aware that, although the foundations they use are fairly universal, their exact systems are not necessary.

Cleaning

Speed Cleaning, by Jeff Campbell, shows readers how to use the methods employed by professional house-cleaners to clean our homes both thoroughly and quickly. After describing the basic “rules” and tools, Campbell takes us through the house room-by-room. Please note that the information in this book is for normal weekly cleaning, not “spring cleaning.” (The author does have a book called Spring Cleaning. Personally, I was far less impressed with it than with this first book.)

I would recommend swapping out the cleaning supplies in the book, though, with something non-toxic.  The majority of the cleaning supplies we use in our home are from Norwex, which allows you to use just microfiber and water (no other cleansers) for all of the routine cleaning in “dry” rooms and some of it in “wet” rooms (kitchen & bathroom).

If you’re looking for how to clean specific things — especially non-routine things — you might want an all-purpose reference like Consumer Reports: How to Clean Practically Anything (which I have not personally read), or you can do an internet search for each individual task as you need it.  (I generally search, myself, because most reference guides use a lot of toxic cleaning products.)

Organization

Organizing from the Inside Out, by Julie Morgenstern, discusses the “technical” and psychological “errors” that keep us from being organized. She then describes a step-by-step process for organizing anything.  I’ve found this process to be pretty universally-applicable.

(If you also need help with decluttering, I like Decluttering at the Speed of Life.)

Cooking

If your cooking skills are nonexistent, I recommend the e-course Kids Cook Real Food.  Yes, it’s for kids.  Yes, the lessons use cute memory devices aimed at kids.  But it’s an excellent resource for learning foundational cooking skills that aren’t taught in many other places.

For expanding your skills to a wide variety of foods, you’ll probably also appreciate a good all-purpose cookbook like How to Cook Everything.  (There’s also a “just the basics” edition.”

If you just want to expand on your knowledge of vegetables, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone is good.

Baby Care

The Nourishing Traditions Book of Baby & Child Care is a favorite.  I don’t agree with everything in it — especially where philosophies are concerned — but it takes a traditional approach to matters of health (like nutrition).  More importantly, it does a good job explaining the “why” behind the recommendations, so you can accept or reject them in an informed manner.

It doesn’t include super-basics, like how to diaper, lift, or swaddle a baby.  Most people don’t need this information in written form anymore, because virtually everyone gives birth in the context of birth workers (midwives, obstetricians, nurses…) who are able to pass on this information if they don’t already know it.  But if, for some reason, you need this information, the Mayo Clinic Complete Book of Pregnancy & Baby’s First Year contains it.

Decorating/Interior Design

Use What You Have Decorating, by Lauri Ward, describes the underlying principles of interior design so that, whether you have nice leather home theater seating in your living room, or whether your style is “early marriage,” or something in between, you can arrange your belongings in an eye-pleasing manner.

Extras: Handcrafts

Teach Yourself Visually: Crochet & Teach Yourself Visually: Knitting, are both excellent hands-on instruction manuals.  (They account for lefties, too.)

Crochet Your Way, by Gloria Tracy and Susan Levin, teaches you how to build a crocheted piece, so that you can crochet without the need for a specific pattern.

The Complete Book of Knitting, by Barbara Abbey, and Knitting Made Easy, by Barbara Aytes both teach the basics of knitting. The Complete Book of Knitting is, indeed, more complete. It includes several different methods of casting on, instructions for left-handed knitters, foreign abbreviations, etc. This may be helpful for some students; others may find the extra information distracting. Both have black-and-white illustrations. (Some illustrations may be a bit dated, but the majority of the patterns themselves are classic.)

If you have mastered the basics of knitting, you may also enjoy The Sweater Workshop, by Jacqueline Fee. Building on the basics, it teaches you how to create a sweater from scratch, without a pattern.