The Daily Grind: Routines That Keep Life Moving

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It’s 7:00 a.m.. The children are crawling into the cereal boxes, the dog piddled on the floor and your husband is yelling at you from the shower to get him a towel. You just rolled out of bed and slammed your foot down on a Lego fort, there is someone yelling up the stairs about missing homework, and a little one is crying at your feet about a purple shirt that disappeared from the laundry pile.

Sound familiar?

For many Moms’ this is just the start of another day, but I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t have to be that way.

What?

Mornings, and days for that matter, don’t have to be a mad dash to get the next thing done. With the proper preparation, and (shh!) organization, everyday can be seamless.

This can all be accomplished through daily routines.

Imagine this:

It’s 7:00 a.m.. The children are dressed because they laid out their clothes the night before, and they are eating a yummy breakfast of pancakes and eggs. The dog is laying by his food bowl with a full tummy, and your husband is pulling on a shirt that has been ironed. You are completely dressed and ready (no more walking to the bus stop with kiddos in a robe and slippers and feeling ashamed because the other moms’ have lipstick on). Backpacks and lunches are packed and ready to go by the door, and you are sitting at the kitchen table, with a cup of coffee, and laughing with your children.

 

Let’s start with my Morning Routine:

• Wake-up (Sometime between 5:00 and 6:00 a.m.)
• Get coffee and get ready for the day (shower, dress)
• Read or write until 7:00 a.m.
• Wake up boys and make breakfast while the oldest is getting ready and making his bed
• Make bed after husband rolls out
• Wipe down bathrooms after everyone is out of them
• Load dishwasher and wipe down kitchen
• Throw in a load of laundry (If I don’t have to be anywhere). I try to do a load a day, more about that later.
• Spend an hour or two on chores or Zone Cleaning (Adapted from Flylady)
• What day is it? (See below…I’ll do this in the morning if I won’t have time in the afternoon)
• Play with the kids

Afternoon/Afterwork Routine:

• Start dinner and unload dishwasher
• Help the oldest with his homework
• Throw in a load of laundry if I couldn’t earlier
• Finish up any chores that need to get done -or- work on any organization projects -or- quickly pick up the house
• Open and put away mail
• What day is it? This is straight from Flylady. I assign certain tasks for each day of the week:

                                                     Sunday: R &R 

                                                     Monday: Clean out purse

                                                     Tuesday: Clean out car

                                                     Wednesday: Bills, Budget, Organizing paperwork

                                                         and taking out the trash

                                                     Thursday: Quick clean the house (Again, like the

                                                         Weekly Home Blessing Hour for Flylady. More

                                                         on that later)

                                                    Friday: Clean out pantry and refrigerator, Meal

                                                         Planning (If I haven’t already done it), and

                                                         Grocery list

                                                     Saturday: Grocery Shopping and other errands

Evening Routine:

• Clean up the dinner disaster: load dishwasher, hit counters and table, spot clean floors
• Lay out fresh kitchen towels, get tomorrow’s coffee ready to go
• Get boys ready for bed: Bath, lay out their clothes, story
• Pack lunch and backpack, and put my the door. Make sure I have everything I need, and that the diaper bag is packed.
• Start tomorrow’s To-Do list (I use Simple Mom’s Daily Docket) and look at calendar. Pull anything out of freezer I need for the next day’s dinner
• Pick up living spaces
• Write or read or hang out with the Hubby
• Lay out tomorrow’s clothes and go to bed at a decent time

The key to doing your routines is to make sure that you do them in order so that they become a habit, and that they happen at the same time everyday. Here’s a quick disclaimer: I do work outside of the home full-time, so there are some days that the afternoon routine changes, or I only make dinner. BUT, the morning and evening routines never change because I think they are so important for keeping everything in balance and under control (Oh, I might not do a load of laundry in the morning- like I said before- but it will get done at some point during the day).  

What are your daily routines like? Anything that I don’t do that you couldn’t do without?

Next up: Weekly Routines (Including Zone Cleaning)

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