Patient Homemaking | Learning Patience When Everything Isn't Just Right

August 11, 2025

Authentic homemaking takes time. It takes patience to create a home environment that’s “uniquely you” and efficiently meets the demands and needs of your family. Patient homemaking means constantly evaluating what works well and adapting to new needs all while making the home pretty and pleasant.

In our “instant” world, it’s so easy to become dissatisfied with our homes and wish that we could, with the snap of the fingers, change it into a dreamy makeover. Yet creating an authentic, comfortable home takes effort, and more often than not, it takes a lot of time over many years, actually.

We’ve all seen it: the fantastic descriptions of an instant home makeover, content creators spending much of their time on perfect homes, or gorgeous magazines with perfectly styled homes. While we can gain ideas from others and learn from their expertise, my favorite people to be inspired by are other normal, everyday homemakers like myself.

Sometimes it’s hard to find these faithful homemakers because they are not generally the ones with a YouTube channel or a blog showcasing perfectly styled homes complete with expensive upgrades. I love learning from normal, average people that aren’t being paid to upgrade their homes and are using the time, money, and resources available to them.

So how can we as normal, everyday homemakers with limited budgets make our homes beautiful? How can we stay patient in the midst of the incomplete? How can we be happy when our hearts may yearn for something more? Here are a few ways that have helped me to have patience in my homemaking when I felt like charging ahead or flat-out whining like a discontented child.

Take Inventory of your blessings.

Before even starting another project or attempting to make my home more beautiful or efficient, I often just need to take a step back and do nothing except observe. Sometimes I fall into the deceitful mental trap that “I haven’t accomplished anything in my home. Look what so and so has done in her home!”

When these thoughts come, I need to stop and take mental inventory of what God has allowed me to accomplish. When I stop and gaze around my home, I see years-worth of painting, and sewing, and projects. I have worked hard on my home even if it might not look like much to others, and I need to be thankful for what I have been able to do!

In the past year, I have accomplished these small changes around my home.

Paint pots by my main entrance

Wallpaper my foyer

Refinish my homeschool dresser

Paint 3 kitchen chairs

Sew a piano cushion cover

Don’t live by social media. Live your own life!

I try to always remember that what is presented on social media as “reality” may or may not be really real. My husband often reminds me, “Don’t believe everything you see, Ashley.”

Remember that many successful content creators (bloggers, YouTubers, Instagram-folks, etc.) have someone helping them behind the scenes. Maybe a family member is actually caring for the children and possibly homeschooling them. Perhaps an entire team came in a helped with a room or even whole-house makeover.

I’m not criticizing these creative folks but am merely trying to help us “normal” people remember that we probably don’t have extra outside help available to us while we do the daily work of life and home. So it’s okay if it takes you a while to complete a home project in the midst of life. Give yourself grace. I’ve finally realized that I cannot compare what I can accomplish with folks who have hired (or kindly donated) help available to them.

Everything doesn’t have to be perfect.

Recently, on a project, I was not completely happy with the results, but I made a decision. My decision was to just go with the results because they are good and my family is worth more of my time than me sanding and painting…again.

What is the cost of ignoring my family to create and maintain a perfect home? It’s a steep cost that I’m not willing to pay. My years with my children are fleeting, and they are more important than a perfectly styled Victorian farmhouse.

Take Your Time

In a way, I’ve saved the best advice for last though it’s certainly short and sweet. To make a beautiful home, just take your time. Don’t feel rushed or stressed—neither of those feelings will help you create a sense of calm in your home.

Visit thrift stores. Only take home things that really catch your eye.

Display those special antiques from family members.

Make your own unique decorations.

Collect treasures over time and display them in interesting ways. This is a life well-lived.

Clip flowers or greenery from your yard and display them in an unlikely container, even something simple like a mason jar.

Purge that closet that’s been bugging you for months.

Clean out your children’s room with them and ask them to kindly let go of a set number of items.

The work of homemaking is never done, and in a way, that’s very encouraging. I just keep puttering and playing, every day trying to make it a better place, or at the very least, keep the chaos at bay (which is more often than not).

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Well, friends, I hope this post encouraged you. Please know my heart in that I’m always trying to encourage. It’s so easy to look in everyone else’s pasture and think that it’s greener over there, when in reality it’s actually pretty nice right where I’m at. Happy homemaking!

-Ashley

Personal Disclosure

As the author of Ashley Qurollo Blog, all opinions are my own. Any possible applications are universal in nature, not directed at any one individual or people group. My sincere desire is to help others by sharing what I am learning. Nothing stated on this blog is ever intended to hurt others. Ashley Qurollo, owner of Ashley Qurollo Blog and Website, is not held liable in any way for any application of the ideas and thoughts stated here.

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