What is HomeFlow?
And how does it work?
This website was written by a human. If you would like to use an AI to chat about the HomeFlow method, feel free to use this copy-paste prompt.
It took me 5 years to figure out how to keep my home consistently clean without burning out.
Hi, I'm Sarah.
I've always wanted to take care of my home, but there have been times when it didn't feel possible.
I was being pulled in too many directions, and cleaning was just one more glass ball I had to juggle.
Between chronic illness, parenting, and the general craziness of life, the mental load of managing a household was crushing, and difficult to share (it all lived in my head).
Before I discovered HomeFlow, I tried cleaning calendars. No luck. Whenever a baby was teething or I was on my period, I fell behind, and then had to invent a way to get caught up (and also keep up).
A control journal wasn't much better. Not only were tasks assigned to days, but my poor sleep-deprived brain couldn't remember to open it to check what I needed to do. (I was usually already busy enough with the housework that felt obvious in the moment, anyway.)
S.H.E. style index cards looked really tempting, but when I got to the end of a full day of chaos, I had to admit failure and move unfinished cards to another day's file.
I was always optimizing my strategies, and redesigning my systems. Nothing seemed to fit.
The sad part was that I sometimes spent more time creating a new strategy for myself than actually doing any housework.
I needed a permanent structure that also offered me the freedom to make decisions on the fly.
So rather than continuing to try to make tasks fit into a planner, I dedicated myself to developing a system that felt compassionate, that could help keep my mental load out of my brain, without adding arbitrary expectations (like mopping happens on Tuesdays).
The result is HomeFlow.
The HomeFlow method keeps tasks organized in a way that lets me pick up house tasks and do them whenever it makes sense in my schedule.
I can adjust whenever I need to - doing more or less in a day, postponing tasks, or moving them up - without having to manage those changes in my head.
And I get to retain autonomy to opt in any time, or opt out and follow where the dopamine leads, without being afraid of "falling off track" and having to reshuffle all the tasks on my calendar.
The only calendar items are the things that actually need to be tied to a calendar day (like taking the garbage bins out to the street).
It has changed my life, and I'm excited to share it with you.
Here's how it works.
Your day has a natural rhythm, even if it's as simple as "I sleep around this time and wake up around that time."
And within that natural rhythm, there are things you do to take care of yourself and your home.
If you don't offload those things you do daily - write them down somehow - then you manage them by thinking about them.
Sometimes your brain has enough bandwidth to remember those things without a hitch. Other days, you have enough going on that you forget to do things until you land in a crisis moment ("I forgot my keys!")
It only takes about 5 thoughts to put your prefrontal cortex at maximum capacity.
So if you can offload the parts that are the same every day, you are freeing up mental capacity for the things that you actually want to pay attention to.
Having systems like this opens up your personal bandwidth to live your life.
HomeFlow isn't something that controls what you do.
It is designed to be a helpful reference, that mimics the way housework actually flows.
It's also designed to survive even if you ignore it and do your own thing for a couple of days.
You are the one who retains autonomy and decision-making authority about how, when, and what you want to do with your time.
If you have a chronic illness flare, or a teething baby, or a big work project that needs your focus, there's no past-due to-do list building up in your wake.
It waits for as long as you want it to, and is ready to go when you want to start on housework again.
Here's what it looks like:
The entire method is analog.
Anything that is on your mind daily - from brushing your teeth to making sure that the dishes are washed - is on a daily reference list that you create for yourself.
When you wake up in the morning, you can pull out your morning reference list and get ready for the day without having to start from square one, trying to remember (or re-invent) what you need to do.
When you'd like to work on housework, there are index cards already prepared, with the highest-priority work at the very front.
You don't have to juggle all the possible chores and projects in your head anymore, or weigh how badly things need to be done.
You just reference your HomeFlow system, and get started.
