Fourth Floor Homestead

Hello Beautiful Visitor!

Thank you for visiting Fourth Floor Homestead.  

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My Story

My first official date with the man that would eventually become my husband was at his house. He was making steak and I was making a stir fry to go with it. We were both clueless but trying to seem like we know what we were doing. At that point I barely know how to cook. I was only 19. I knew a few basics. I could boil and fry perogies and bacon, prepare mac n' cheese from a box, cook minute rice which I ate with ketchup (I would not eat any of these things anymore) and warm up some soup. None of these options were terribly healthy so I ate horrible food for the first year and a bit after leaving home. 

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But there I was in someone else's kitchen trying to impress him with a dish I had never tried to make before. All I had to go on was some advice from my roommate: fry some frozen veggies, add teriyaki sauce right at the end of cooking so the vegetables did not get soggy. They did anyway, it was not the best stir fry. 

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My future husband was sort of in the same boat. He knew how to BBQ but he was going off a recipe provided by his aunt to make something that he thought would impress me. We both didn't really know what we were doing but we worked together, faked some confidence and gave it our best shot. We would apply the same process many more times in our lives as we tackled many tasks cluelessly. It was not just cooking. We did not really know how to clean, run a house, maintain cars, etc. etc. etc. 

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The purpose of this website is to provide some guidance into how to do all the home stuff as easily as possible or as creatively as possible depending on my mood :). I have tried a lot of things, made a lot of mistakes and learned what does work. I figured out what chores I should put time into and what I could let slide. I learned to accept imperfection, the most important lesson of all! I learned to supercharge my health, to coupon, to live environmentally friendlyish, to save money anywhere I could. Then I had a baby and had to reorganize my life completely. Then I enrolled in a full time post-graduate program and everything of course fell to complete shambles. 

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From the shambles, I learned to be efficient. So efficient. I figured out what I had to do and dropped the rest. I spun myself into insanity and some how straightened myself out on the other side.

 

I have noticed that a lot of people are like me in that they start with limited home type skills.  Instead, higher education and ambitious career goals are put on pedestals. You've got to make a living after all and that takes a lot more than it once did. And thus we put our attention to work, but the other stuff was still important, especially when their is a kid in your house. Knowing how to handle your home life efficiently will result in a less stressed, better rested, functional human after all. We all deserve less stress and better functioning. 

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Thanks for stoping by my site and reading my super long story. 

I hope you have a beautiful day!

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Ali

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