More Hours in My Day by Emilie Barnes – a Homemaking Book Review

How Being Organized Can Give You More Time

I was pretty organized as a young married woman. I had discovered the beauty of using a planner in college and continued to use one at work and at home to keep things together.

At that time I was only using one to keep up with appointments and various activities. Keeping a small apartment was pretty easy with just the two of us.


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Several years passed and we moved to a larger place. We became foster parents and then adopted and now being more organized about home life became a priority.

http://www.morguefile.com
http://www.morguefile.com

One of the things that helped tremendously was a book by Emilie Barnes. I had actually purchased More Hours in My Day, at a garage sale.

Emilie Barnes was a 21st Century Homemaking Expert that wrote books and held seminars for the overworked homemaker well before blogging was in vogue.

I fell in love with not only style of keeping home but also her own story. Emilie Barnes came from humble beginnings. She shares how God prepared her to help countless women be better managers of their homes.

Emilie Barne’s organizing systems came from necessity. She first learned her homemaking skills while caring for her mother’s household and her brother while her mother ran a home business. Then later, after marrying, she at one point found herself parenting 5 children under 5!!! Her brother was going through some difficulty and she agreed to raise his children along with her own children.

If you don’t become organized about home life from anything else you will from that! Emilie Barnes fine tuned a system for organizing her own busy life and home that has also helped thousands of women world wide.

She wrote of a system that included organizing checklists, menu plans, a workable cleaning schedule, and even tips for how to work from home.

More Hours in Your Day!

More Hours in My Day is one of Emilie Barnes’ first books. A complete home and family organizing solutions book. From managing your personal self to reigning in and organizing your children you will find steps and tools to keeping an organized home life.

Besides organizing yourself the main base of Mrs. Barnes home organizing plan is the From Mess to Total Rest Solution. A method for dealing with each item in your home you will declutter, clean and organize your home into a welcoming oasis.

In my 1994 edition of this book there are 5 sections, and 41 chapters of organizing information.

The 5 Sections of organizing are…

  • You which includes scheduling, and goals
  • Your Home which includes cleaning and room organization
  • Finances
  • Family and Friends (such as celebrations)
  • Children chores and the such

The most important chapter (in my opinion) is Total Mess to Total Rest.

In this little 7 Page chapter Mrs. Barnes lays the groundwork to creating a routine for a clean and organized home.

Total Mess to Total Rest

The Total Mess to Total Rest System is Emilie Barnes plan for organizing your whole house.

Emilie lays it all out and wraps it up in both of her books More Hours in My Day, and Survival for Busy Women. Her chapters on the system in both books is rather short but you’ll get a teensy bit more information in More Hours in My Day.

Total Mess to Total Rest is a solution for dealing with your clutter and also for keeping on top of household chores.

After collection some supplies you will create a card file and pull together a few storage boxes for items that don’t make it to the trash or giveaway pile. The card file is for keeping on top of housekeeping chores. Then using 15 minute slots per day you will slowly get a handle on the clutter and mess in your home.

This system DOES WORK! It takes time and commitment but you will be very happy with the results if you stick it out.

The Total Mess to Total Rest system works for me.  The only thing was I wanted this card box Emilie kept talking about. I finally figured out I needed to make it so I created the Housekeeping Chore Box. This is basically Emilie’s system in printable form and available for purchase here on Homemaking Organized.

I also made the printables cards editable in case you wanted to customize things for you. Read more about the Housekeeping Chore Box

Related Articles:

Christian homemakers of a certain generation still reminisce to this day about
how Emilie Barnes helped them get their acts together.

 Learn the 5 steps to organizing your day so you have more time. Christian homemaking author, Emilie Barnes, book More Hours in My Day walks you through from Total Mess to Total Rest!

Cleaning – it only takes a minute.   ~Emily Barnes

Some tips to help you navigate the book.

  1. Many times we like to open a book and jump right to the middle. Especially if it’s not a novel. Don’t do that with More Hours in My Day.
  2. Start at the beginning. The beginning is all about organizing your personal self so you CAN find the time in your day to tackle your home.
  3. If you’re completely disorganized don’t be intimidated by Emilie Barnes. She has helped thousands and thousands of women get it together.
  4. Emilie Barnes is a Christian and so the book is from a Christian standpoint with scripture and personal devotion tips. I like that and I hope you will too.
  5. Don’t try and apply all of the tips in one weekend. Mess didn’t happen in a day and mess will take a lot longer to get rid of.
  6. This is a lifestyle change. Not just rearranging your belongings. Keep that in mind.

I do highly recommend this book.  I too have my moments where I need some motivation to get it together. That’s when I pick up More Hours in My Day. It never fails to get me back on track.

About Emilie Barnes

While many organizing book authors will tell you how they came up with their system after falling deeply into a chaotic lifestyle and home Emilie’s story is a bit different. Already of an organized mindset she set up her systems to help her mother keep house while she ran the family home business. She impressed her husband with her skills and used them to help keep her brother’s broken family together.

Since then she went on to hold homemaking seminars and write countless books.

Emilie Barnes passed away in 2016. Her encouraging spirit and inspiring words live on.

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5 Comments

  1. I’ve hosted several More Hours in my Day Seminars at my church years ago and enjoyed so much of Emily’s helps.
    I’m looking for the recipe/saying regarding the jar with 25 walnuts representing our time with God and the rice (how much) representing all our other time. After 15-20 years I finally have the time to make this excellent craft. Can you please help me with the exact saying that you print on the tag, please, ASAP.
    I’m so grateful that the Lord brought Emily through the cancer to continue to be a blessing to so many. I have a lot of your books.
    Gratefully yours;
    Wendy

    1. Emilie and I were friends 25 years ago for many years and we’ve lost touch ????. I am in Southern California visiting for three months and wish to call her or see her while I’m here. Please ask em to call me??? I’m Ginny ( she uses me as s bad example in one of her organizing books on page 252″… I have a friend Ginny who buys belated birthday cards in advance cuz she KNOWs she’s going to be late …” Please let Em know Ginny Pasqualucci Andre is trying to find her.:-)
      Bless you and Thank You!!!!

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