Household logistics are intended to assist a group of people who share a common environment experience - the home. Household logistics are required whether you are a multiple income, double income, or single income household.
The unexpected can demand attention, and take over as an alternative priority. The result will inevitably be that focus is suddenly taken off, on a different tangent and on an alternative course. Household logistics need to be flexible and adaptable, to actual real life and it's unique course.
Purposefully allocating time, to objectively dialogue with other household members, can be very enlightening. Open objective dialogue will keep decisions, and expectations, reality based. It will keep the home, the routine, the required unique organization, functional.
Priorities can and do regularly change, that is the nature of living in the small community that is called Home.
It is important to be realistic, in order to keep the home functional. Often in the home situation, there is a requirement to be both people focused and task-focused AT THE SAME TIME. This is a hugely demanding requirement, yet it happens.
It is wisest to explore finding out what would actually serve the household members best. This can be done through actual trial and error. Things can be worked out from there. This will no doubt prove to be the better means of determining and developing the unique systems, for routine and organization, that are required.
It also helps to determine how best to meet both the individual, and collective needs, of the very real people who live within the walls of a particular home. Looking from the outside in and trying to apply an idealized logistical plan, system or routine is risky.
It is risky, in that it may not meet the specific needs requiring addressing, in what is a unique set up. No two households are the same. What will be a perfect fit for one household, in terms of routine, will not work in entirety for another.
The best intentions in the world can be: to have every meal prepared on time... the washing washed ready to be hung out and then folded away....
You can set out to have the counter tops all cleaned and polished up, the vaccum and mopping done....
You can aim to have the dishwasher loaded and unloaded.....
Plus, all this and more. All miraculously completed within some pre-determined time restraint you applied - yet it is quite likely that life itself, will occasionally way lay the best of plans.
It can suddenly be that something unanticipated occurs. Something which is unique to the household's dynamics. This unanticipated occurrence, can demand and lay claim to requiring immediate attention instead!
A small child's teething discomfort...... the toddler setting out to enjoy exploring drawing unwittingly on the furniture with a crayon.......
The gleeful marching through the house in muddy gumboots after time out in the sandpit and garden...
A wet nappy..... the end of the vaccum cleaner breaking off..... a mug shattering on a tiled floor...... a light bulb blowing......
The washing machine having a blockage..... the toaster jamming...... the electricity going off due to an outage.....
An unpredicted change in the actual weather which saturates the just hung out washing for several days on end.......
All can turn the best of intentions, the most ideal of plans, systems and routines, completely upside down.
Keeping it functional, requires keeping it real.
The desire to have things orderly is based on genuine good intention. Yet spotless perfection is unobtainable.
Realism is needed!
Realism about facing up to what IS actually occurring, on any given day, particularly within the hours of daylight. Realism is paramount. Realism about the personal energy on hand and available to carry out tasks, routines and requirements set out, is paramount. Realism about the allocated budget, and the actual real associated costs involved with resourcing and running a household, is paramount.
It is work. Hard work. It is time consuming. Energy sapping. Sometimes it is even exhausting, to administer a household.
Expectations need to be grounded in realism. Sudden, unpredicted change in priorities can be discouraging, if expectations are in fact too high. The lack of ability, to seemingly get on top of things in the home setting, can become disheartening. It can be disheartening, if the ideal is always being chased after.
Self-worth - particularly for those that tend to be goal orientated and result motivated, can start to feel very fractured, due to inflated expectations.
If the desire is to consistently be able to only achieve see-able, substantial, fairly instantaneous results, then irritation will set in!
For those who work full-time at home, on household focused tasks, there is a unique set of circumstances to work in. There is a unique mindset required, in order to be able to meet the needs of all parties who make up that particular household.
Every domestic household and it's home environment houses, nurtures, recuperates a unique community of people. It requires a lot of work to enable that to happen. The domestic environment is a work environment.
Society and media project the message repeatedly, that success is dependent on results. More often than not, the results are determined as being of value only if they have monetary worth. Yet, how can you apply a monetary value driven standard of assessment, to a unique work environment? How can you apply it to a unique work situation like the domestic environment? How can you apply it where suddenly things can turn completely upside down in a second?
Get real. You can't.
Be flexible. Be willing to make adjustments and compromises. Be realistic.
For those who that are cast in the role of a full-time home-based worker, they are required to be multi-tasker, a juggler, a Jill or Jack of all trades.
A full-time home-based worker is just that, a worker. A worker working full-time. Respect the commitment this worker is engaged in offering 24/7, that is day after day after day after day.
Acknowledge the outpouring of energy, and sacrifice of time, this work demands.
Those who have spouses or partners in this role definitely need to provide any necessary practical assistance and support, without strings attached, to simply allow time for the full-time home-based worker to have time-out and time-away.
No strings attached help.
Just time out and away because it is due and warranted. Because good health demands it.
The domestic situation is a work environment without a doubt. It is in many instances not only restaurant, coffee bar, bakery and cookery, but also office, workshop, schoolroom and place of business. It is a place of fellowship, a storage facility, a place of rest and recuperation and a place of worship. It is a medical centre and personal spa. And more.
Sound judgement, the willingness to extend knowledge, intelligence and independence are required to engage in managing the domestic work environment and deliver resulting outcomes. The resources, the energy and time required, for unique household logistics to be realistically developed and applied to function well for a household, is much.
Be realistic about implementing specific logistics in the home setting. Realise and be rational about the fact results are not going to be instantaneous. Outcomes will eventuate.
In time.
As stated previously, household logistics are most often carried out and orchestrated by an administrator who may also, AT THE SAME TIME, be required to be sole charge care-giver for dependants. Allow room for variation.
Copious amounts of energy is used up, and intelligent, independent decision-making is required and applied in the domestic environment, for both long term and immediate short term objectives to be carried out, simultaneously.
Therefore all those who co-habit, in any given specific household, need to keep expectations about time-frames and standards realistic. Keeping it real, keeping it functional, requires a unique set of household logistics to be applied.
Keeping it real, whilst keeping it functional, will help aid the experience of home so that it can be deemed to be one that is a haven; for all it's inhabitants.
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