What do you do in a typical day? From making breakfast to fixing your hair to getting the mail from the mailbox, everything you do takes time and effort.
Now what if there was a way to streamline all of the things that you do?
What would your day look like if you could make time for the things you really wanted to do?
Here’s what a typical day for me used to look like: I wake up and start making breakfast. While I’m in the kitchen, I notice the stack of papers, receipts, and random stuff (rubber band? bracelet? pile of lint?) on the counter near my planner. I should really deal with that. I turn back to my eggs, which are starting to stick to the pan.
As I’m dishing up food, I realize I forgot to pull out the frozen chicken fajita mixture for dinner. When I go out to the chest freezer to get it, I see that we’re almost out of beef, and the nearby garbage needs to go out. I change the bag and see that something spilled on the side and it needs to be cleaned. When I go grab the paper towels from the bathroom, I see toothpaste spots on the mirror. As I pass the calendar, I see that this week we have a doctor appointment one day, a library activity another day, and I still have to make my meal plan and go grocery shopping on Monday.
It’s only breakfast time and my whole day so far has been spent reacting to problems and seeing all of the things that I have to do, with no real plan for dealing with them. I feel busy and overwhelmed and I haven’t even gotten dressed yet.
Does that sound familiar?
Now here’s how that day could look. I’m making breakfast and notice the pile of papers. I move them to my folder to take care of on office day. I throw the lint pile in the garbage (how does this stuff even end up on the counter? Thank you children!) and take the trash out. Something spilled on the side? Good thing it’s cleaning day! I’ll make sure to spray down the garbage can later.
I pull dinner out of the freezer to thaw and make a note to add beef to my shopping list when I make my meal plan on kitchen day. I finish making breakfast and have the kids help me wipe down the bathroom mirror and counter. They each have a different color cleaning cloth and they think it’s fun to see who can get the most spots clean. Later this week, we’ll go to a doctor appointment, stop by the grocery store, and reward the kids for being patient with an activity at the library, all on the same day.
Instead of reacting to all of the different things that arise, I have a plan. I know that everything will be dealt with, although maybe not today.
photo from Humorous Homemaking, used with permission
If that sounds too good to be true, I can assure you it’s not. It just takes some thought, some planning, and creating some routines that work for your family. And you can do it too!
Home Management How-To is a great place to start. Inside this course, you’ll learn how to:
- Create a realistic routine for your family – based on your needs.
- Overcome laundry overwhelm with a simple plan of attack.
- Tackle your paperwork clutter and get rid of the piles.
- Make the best and most efficient use of your time each time you leave your home.
- Enjoy a clean, organized kitchen and employ an arsenal of tips to feed your family well.
- Develop a cleaning routine that will help you maintain a neat and tidy space.
- Build in purposeful time to get ahead and prepare for busier seasons.
- Rest!
This isn’t someone else’s cleaning schedule. It’s not a list of times and tasks that you need to complete or else! It’s a way to look at all of the things you’re already doing, and the things you’d like to do, and fit them into your week in a way that becomes routine. Habit. Any time I can put my brain on autopilot so that I just do what needs to be done without having to make another decision or answer another question is wonderful.
Get things done while making time for what’s important to you. That sounds like the perfect way to manage your home.
Sign up for Home Management How-To here. Don’t wait long though – enrollment is only open through March 15, 2017!
Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. If you make a purchase through these links, I receive a bit of a commission at no additional charge to you. As usual, I only promote products and services I truly use and enjoy. Thank you for your support!
Katy, this is a great post and I am super honored. 🙂
Thank you! Your course and your advice have been so helpful for how I manage my household.