3.10.2009

a day in a life of an etsy shop owner (work-at-home-mom)

9:00 Wake up, hit snooze button within two rings to avoid waking up the kids. (yes I own an alarm clock and use it from Monday thru Thurdays, which are kids school days)

9:01 Lay in bed, think of what to feed the kids for breakfast.

9:02 Go back to sleep, kids will wake me up eventually.

9:30 Wake up suddenly to realize I didn’t hit the snooze button, I turned it off. Kids are still sleeping.

9:32 Go to the kitchen and make a pot of coffee.

9:40 Go downstairs to the basement office, check Etsy shop, read emails while having coffee, hoping kids will sleep for another half hour.

9:45 Kids are awake, can hear their little footsteps walking downstairs to look for me.


9: 46 Go upstairs to the kitchen, put PBS cartoon on so I can get some breakfast ready.

Realized were out of bread or tortilla, but there’s still half gallon of milk.

Tell kids we’re having coco puffs for breakfast. Kids jumps in excitement.

9:49 – 10:20 Breakfast. Chaos in the kitchen.

Meals usually consist of crying over spilt juice/milk/water.


Screaming for MORE CEREAL/JUICE/MILK/BREAD/ETC!!!!


Questions (more like demands) such as WHERE’S MY DORA CUP???!!! WHERE’S MY DIEGO PLATE?????!!!!! WHERE'S MY RED CUP, BLUE CUP????!!!!

10:20 Finish breakfast. Will do the dishes later.

10:30 Get kids ready for school.


Endless pleas to put their shirt, pants, socks, shoes, jackets on already.

11:30 Get the kids to the car. Endless pleas to get them to sit on their car seat already and quit trying to get in front of the steering wheel.

11:45 Drop kids to school. Sudden sense of freedom and bliss.

11:50 Stop by favorite thrift store.

12:15 Run series of errands, ie. grocery shopping, bank deposits, return books at the library, Fedex, post office.

1:30 Rush home to photograph some items.

2:30 Upload photos, while checking and answering emails, filling orders, finding just the right boxes in the garage and packaging items to ship.

3:10 Pick up kids from school.

3:30 Go home for snack, check Etsy and emails.

Plan something for dinner.

4:45 Take kids to swimming lesson.

5:40 Go home and prepare dinner.

7:04 Dinner time, as usual chaos in the kitchen table. Wondering when will we ever experience another quiet, enjoyable, peaceful dinner.

7:47 Finished dinner, will do dishes later.

8:00 Do some arts and crafts/practice writing/colouring/ painting/reading books.

Will intermittently open laptop to check etsy and email.

9:10 – 9:45 Kids bath time.

10:00 Get kids ready for bed. Read books.

10:30 They’re finally asleep. Freedom!

10:38 Do dishes, clean up kitchen.


11:10 Take a quick shower. Mental note to buy a new shower liner on my next Target run.

11:40 Edit photos taken earlier today, research items, list, relist, answer emails/convos, package sold items.

Read blogs.


Open mails.

Pay some bills.

Write something on my blog.

Read Etsy forum; window shop on favorite etsy shops.

Read some more blogs.

Suddenly realizing a good two and a half hours was spent just reading blogs.

4:01 A.M. Vow to do the taxes tomorrow night.

4:06 A.M. Turn the ringer off, go to bed.

5 comments:

  1. Oh, Lord. This makes me happy I work outside the home so that I can't even think about having that little sleep. How do you do it?

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  2. wowzers that's some schedule. o_o kudos to you!

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  3. great post...that's one problem with working from home..it's always there!
    Did you write this with your eyes open?
    from another sleepy work from home woman :)

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  4. Julie,
    sometimes I missed having a nine to five 9-5 job, but certainly there's pros and cons to everything. Before the kids came I'll sleep 10 hours if I can, but I got used to sleeping less since they were born 3.5 years ago.

    Meekiyu,
    Thanks, I really try to get as much done when they're at school or asleep but there's just too much distractions on the internet once I sat down and work on my shop.

    Solticehome,
    Thanks, it seems like it's never ending. I do feel exhausted sometimes.

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  5. That's a hefty schedule. We don't have kids yet, but geezopeas... I guess that's a sample of what's to come? . . . (I'm empathize with your 10 hours comment, I'm ok with less too once I have a good, persistent reason to keep moving for longer.)

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