Let’s face it: moms are busy people. Many of us simultaneously juggle full-time jobs and full-time parenting responsibilities, which is no small feat. This can make it difficult to keep track of chores and other chores, especially if you have two or more children and an unhelpful spouse.
But don’t worry, you don’t have to tear your hair out and scream at the thought of your endless to-do list (at least not yet). Instead, you can try any number of these 10 hacks that will help you organize your household (and your sanity) better.
ten Plan ahead with your partner
As you probably already know, it’s much easier to stay in the loop if you have a game plan. The same can be said for organizing the household – getting everyone to where they need to be and maintaining your sanity as a mother is much easier if you are aware of the events and needs at hand. advance. For this reason, Michael Perry, co-founder and CEO of home management app Maple recommends all parents sit down with their partner and plan ahead.
According to Perry, parents should schedule a stand-up meeting every two weeks. He recommends that you sit down over a glass of wine or a cup of coffee and list upcoming events, schedules, tasks, projects you need to start, and projects you need to finish. You need to prioritize tasks, listen to everyone’s concerns, and find ways to be more effective as individuals and as a team. Perry promises it’s worth it and says, “You’ll be amazed at how stress-relieving listing ‘chaos’ is.” »
9 Put the systems in place, then adjust
While planning ahead will definitely help you organize things better, you won’t feel the full effects of that planning if you don’t have systems in place to keep things running smoothly. Therefore, you also need to assess how you go about your day-to-day life and look for ways to streamline the process, then make any necessary adjustments.
For example, it’s hard to get everyone out on time with everything they need for school or work if you don’t have a well-established morning routine. So you can sit down and write down everything that needs to happen each morning, from waking everyone up, to cooking meals, to styling and dressing. Then, once you’ve identified everything that needs to happen, you can create processes that will help you do everything consistently.
Each family has their own individual needs, so these systems may look different for everyone. However, the goal is to do day-to-day events like getting ready for school and working a well-oiled machine, so you don’t waste time, energy, and precious brainpower on something simple like trying to get the kids to put on the shoes.
8 Find ways to build habits
If you already have great systems in place but still feel like you can’t get everything organized, don’t worry. You may be able to take what is currently working for your family and build on it through something called habit stacking.
As the name suggests, habit stacking is a concept where you take a task or habit that you already do on a regular basis, like bathing the kids, and add something new to it, like cleaning the bathroom. while the kids are in the tub, so it becomes just as habitual as the first task. This both ensures that these new habits “stick” and ensures that you organize your time wisely.
7 Enjoy your magic time
In her Unbusy Your Life coaching course, entrepreneur and mother Neill Williams recommends busy people take advantage of their “magic time” if they want to be productive. This term, “magic time,” basically refers to the time of day when you feel you have the most energy and generally accomplish the most. In fact, many people find that scheduling the right tasks in their magic time actually helps them be three times more productive.
In other words, you can take advantage of this magic moment to help you be more productive and stay more organized at home (or anywhere really).
6 Try meal planning
Figuring out what’s for dinner is an issue that plagues many moms. However, you can plan your meals like anything else with meal planning.
Meal planning basically means that you decide on the menu for the whole week in advance. This saves you trips to the grocery store, cuts down on the time it takes to prep dinner, and plan for scheduling issues that may interfere with cooking (i.e. you don’t plan a dinner party that requires two hours of prep on the same night as your son’s baseball game). It’s a great organization hack that moms all over the world are adopting.
5 Breaking out of gender norms
Sometimes we fall into traps at home where we feel like we have to take care of all the household organizing tasks because we are the mother or the wife, so we have to get things done. However, Michael Perry says breaking out of gender norms can really help everyone in the house. It can help you not only get more done, but also find new ways to organize tasks.
As a side benefit, Perry says stepping out of these gender-specific roles will help build empathy and understanding for the unpaid work that is required to run a home.
4 Delegate tasks to children
While giving your partner some tasks can certainly help, they’re not the only person at home to whom you should delegate tasks. In fact, you may find that you can run the house even easier if you delegate certain tasks or chores to the kids.
Even children as young as three or four can help out with some chores around the house, and there are a multitude of ways assigned chores benefit children. Beyond that, delegating tasks to kids puts less work on your plate, which can help you stay on top of things and manage more of the overall household organization instead of running around trying to get everything done.
3 Take advantage of technology
While delegating tasks can certainly help, you may find it difficult to keep up with what everyone has to do. Well, that’s where technology can help, especially if you use home management apps like Maple.
Maple can be a lifesaver for busy parents, as it makes the chaotic act of running a household much smoother and easier. In fact, the app can help you with shared to-do lists, task assignments, and a shared calendar all in one place. It helps everyone know who’s doing what in the house and lets everyone see what each person in the house has on their plate. And, if someone has questions or needs clarification, you can use family chat to communicate, so everyone can follow the conversation.
While you absolutely can find separate apps to offer each of these things (chat, calendar, to-do lists) separately, the benefit of an actual household management app is that it puts everything in one easy-to-use place. locate.
2 Find tips to help you spark joy
Sometimes the problem isn’t that you don’t have time to complete tasks, but rather that you’re avoiding them to do something more enjoyable. While this can be very tempting, especially after a long day, it’s not what will ultimately help you keep your fireplace running at its best. However, you can look for simple ways to make mundane or frustrating tasks more enjoyable.
For example, maybe you hate doing the dishes, but you really like the smell of lavender. So, you can buy lavender-scented dish soap (yes, it exists!) to make this task more pleasant. Likewise, you can use music or anything else that motivates you. Whatever you choose, the key is to find a way to make a task you particularly dislike less tolerable.
1 Use services that make household management easier
Even if you exhaust all the options on this list, you may find that there are times when you still can’t keep up with everything, and that’s okay! Instead of feeling ashamed and blaming yourself, you can just look for ways to get things off your plate. In fact, that’s exactly why services like Instacart and Molly Maid exist — to make life easier for busy moms.
Sources: Michael Perry, Esquire, Neill Williams, Maple
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