Review of The Hidden Art of Homemaking

Don’t let the title fool you! Edith Schaeffer’s The Hidden Art of Homemaking is an excellent resource for anyone wanting to add beauty to his or her life. Here are some important take-aways.

There are homemaking books about “making a home” and there are homemaking books about cleaning and organizing. This is the former.

I’ve read The Hidden Art of Homemaking by Edith Schaeffer several times over the last 20+ years, and I still can’t get over the fact that the current publishers titled it this way. (Some editions are titled, Hidden Art.)

As my copy is named, the title is very much a misnomer, at least in the colloquial sense of the word. It is about making a home, but it’s not about homemaking in terms of housekeeping and cleaning. There are no lists of chores to do or tips on scrubbing grout.

Instead, the book is “about ‘Hidden Art’, and the need of people who are in communication with the Creator to recognize their creative abilities and fulfill some of their talents in day-by-day life.” Schaeffer’s general point is not to wait for “someday” to get into music or theater, but to add these creative pursuits into the fabric of your everyday life.

If you are familiar with the Edith and Francis Schaeffer, you will know that they founded a Christian study center called L’Abri, in Switzerland. A part of life at L’Abri was community living, making a home for those around you.

That is what I see exemplified in the book and probably why I believe everyone is a homemaker to some degree.

You don’t have to have a large home, be married, and/or have children to apply the great ideas in this book. Mrs. Schaeffer has specifically written to include everyone, male or female, no matter his or her season of life.

(Another reason it’s so odd that the publishers limit it to a female audience.)

There are chapters addressing many areas of life that welcome creative expression, including:

• The First Artist (God)
• What is Hidden Art?
• Music
• Painting, Sketching, Sculpturing
• Interior Decoration
• Gardens and Gardening
• Flower Arrangements
• Food
• Writing – Prose and Poetry
• Drama
• Creative Recreation
• Clothing
• Integration
• Environment

Don’t judge a book by its chapter titles, mind you! Since she uses words that have multiple meanings and applications, I was originally tempted to skip several chapters.

For example, the book was written in 1971, and so when I saw the chapter entitled, “Integration,” I assumed she meant racial integration and I figured what she was going to say was outdated. However, the integration she addresses spans age, class, race, gender, and economic lines. It was very refreshing and encouraging! She goes deeper than you would expect — on many levels.

The last chapter, “Environment,” was another that I almost skipped. Again, I thought it would be outdated information, since environmental awareness has evolved so much in 50+ years.

I am so glad I didn’t bypass that chapter! While the global environment of nature is certainly important, this is not her focus.

Here is a passage that both encouraged and convicted me:

It makes an enormous difference if someone creates an environment for you to live in. One person sleeps half the day, gets up looking like a half-dead duck, drags around with eyelids scarcely open, slurping coffee and leaving a mess all over the newly polished sink, leaves the bed unmade and a week of clothing in a heap or the bed, heaves a sigh and moans about what a drag life is, then prepares to sit and philosophize while you work. What is the effect of this on you? Surely, you begin to feel tired, discouraged, irritated, frustrated and hopeless. Your own energy begins to ebb away….And so one wasted, ugly life infects another.

A second person gets up when the alarm goes off, or soon after, puts water on for the tea or coffee and helps to get breakfast, takes a bath and dresses so cheerily that you feel the sun must be shining and have to look again to realize the sky is till grey, makes his bed and clears things up so that you feel the urge to get to work soon, tidies the living room so that it looks better than it had been left the night before, and talks with an awareness and enthusiasm that gives you inspiration…. Both have pitched into work before the hoped-for starting time, feeling a surge of accomplishment and energy that seems to multiply the time instead of wasting it.

This all resonated with me because I can be both of these people. It feels SO MUCH better to be the latter.

The reality is that you and I have a great effect on the lives of those around us. We can be an instrument of encouraging either creative accomplishments or dismal drudgery.

As a mom, you are making a home, you are affecting your environment, you are responsible for integrating differing ages, personalities.

This book will inspire and encourage you. First chance you get, read this book! It’s well worth the effort it takes to summon up your 21st century attention span. I promise!

This post was originally published on July 3, 2008. It has been updated for content and clarity.

More Thoughts on Homemaking

This post was originally published on July 5, 2008. It has been updated for content and clarity.