Tips for Running Your Household
Tips for Running Your Household
Being a parent can feel like you’re the backbone of the house, steadily keeping everything in order and afloat. And, it usually isn’t easy!! I try to always stay 10 steps ahead, planning out my and my kids’ days in advance. But, as we all know, sometimes the best laid plans still go awry, and that’s okay! Having systems in your house is a great way to maintain some form of consistency amidst the chaos and ensures that no matter what happens, you’re prepared to handle it.
Meal Plan + Prep
Use your Sunday morning to get your whooooole upcoming week sorted. If you sit down for 30 minutes to plan and get your thoughts straight before the week begins, you’ll be glad you did, rather than frantically trying to pull everything together at the last minute. If you plan in the morning instead of at night, you’ll have time to go grocery shopping for anything you might need for school lunches and family dinners. Especially if you know the week is going to get busy, try meal prepping some items. For breakfast, I like prepping overnight oats or breakfast burritos that you can pop in the freezer. For lunch and dinner, I like making soups, chilis, and chicken dishes!
Day Prep
In addition to meal prepping, do what I call ‘day prepping’ each night - get everything set for the next morning to make your morning run smoothly. Have your kids pick out their clothes for the next day and lay them out, place empty lunch boxes near the fridge, and pack backpacks and leave them by the door.
Lunch and Snack Zones
Make your life easier and have a section in your kitchen or pantry that is dedicated to the items you will add to a lunch box. I love using a divided turntable to house all kinds of granola bars, fruit snacks, and other small grab and go items. Keep any lunch accessories outside of your refrigerated items in this zone including chips, bread for sandwich making, and drinks. When you do this, you won’t have to think twice about what to pack in your kids’ lunches!
Drop Station for Kids
Have a designated area in your home for your kids to drop their items after school - backpacks, lunch boxes, shoes, jackets, sports bags, etc. For kids to use this system, it usually works best when its near the door so they can dump their belongings right when they come inside. This zone could include bag hooks on the wall, or simply baskets - whatever works best for your home and family.
Make a Clean Routine
In addition to your chore checklist, make sure the chores and cleaning are happening frequently in small increments so that the task never becomes too large. Outside of standard chores, ensure that surfaces are kept clean - items are always being put away, mail is being opened as its received, etc. If your home is organized and you have a designated spot for all of your different types of items, this is totally doable!
Calendars
I have two types of calendars to keep us in check! 1) I always have a wall calendar mounted on the wall in a convenient location where every family member can see it. I make sure it is constantly updated with any big events or reminders we all need. 2) I have a shared google calendar with my husband. We share our schedules with each other, so we always know what the other has going on, which makes it easier to plan out things such as school pick ups and drop offs.
Chore Checklists
Chores and cleaning are certainly not only up to you. Assign chores to everyone in the house and post the schedule next to your wall calendar! Maybe you assign a specific task to each person, or maybe you assign a different room for each person to keep in order, then have it rotate on a weekly basis.
Label Your Storage Spaces
Label, label, label!!! It will change your life!! Do you feel like everyone is always putting things away in the wrong place?? I sure do!! Labeling ensures this doesn’t happen (most of the time). I label in every room of my house. How specific I am depends on the room I’m in. For instance, if you have young kids, keep your categories general in their playrooms because they typically won’t care if different types of their toys are mixed. I am obsessed with my label maker.
