Creating Homemaking Routines

The one thing I seem to have the most trouble with is housekeeping.  There are just too many things I'd rather be doing than cleaning sinks and bathrooms.  And let's face it, they will just need to be cleaned again tomorrow.  It is never ending!  

I used to keep a spotlessly clean house. Yes. I did. Believe it!  But life happened.  A series of life happenings started in 2010 that kind of shut me down for a while.  It became a success for me to just get through the day with the kids fed and some school done.  The apartment we lived in got more and more cluttered.  The carpet more worn. The sinks and bathrooms more overwhelming.  Life can do that to you.  

But God restores all things and 2013 was my year for restoration.  God mended my heart with the birth of our sweet Simon.  And He opened a path for us to buy a home.  A home that I am determined to keep clean and clutter free.  A place for refreshment.

How am I going to do this?  I looked back to the time when I was able to stay on top of the chores.  I had a routine then.  But it wasn't one of my own making really.  At that time I was purchasing an e-book annually that had a cleaning schedule already laid out for me.  I used it for several years until I thought I had a good routine down and then I quit buying it, thinking I could keep it up in my own.  I didn't though. 

In the interim I tried a couple of other resources.  One in which I used color coded (I love color coding) post-it's to arrange tasks for specific times of the day.  This was visually appealing to me, but too detailed as I was never on schedule and so I constantly felt behind. The other I tried used e-mail reminders as motivation to complete tasks.  I quickly learned to ignore those e-mails.  Yeah, that didn't work so well.

So with the new year coming up quickly, I decided to go back to my favorite chore schedule! MOTIVATED MOMS. I love it because it not only schedules the little day to day things (so I get to satisfy my "box checker" tendencies and look like I'm actually getting  something done, but it also includes the annual home maintenance things that we tend to neglect or forget (such as changing the furnace filters).

This is from the printable e-book version, posted on my fridge.

I was truly excited about ordering the e-book for 2014 when I got a big surprise.  They now have an APP!  Yay!

AND, I CAN COLOR CODE IT!!  Yes, little things make me happy! Perhaps the most exciting thing about the app for me is that I can assign tasks to different family members so it's not all on me :)

More Great News!  Motivated Moms is on SALE thru 1/2/14!

• Get $2 off all e-books using code MM2014.(regularly $8)
• Android apps are $5.99 at Google Play and Amazon (regularly $7.99)
• iOS app is 99¢ (regularly $1.99) and a year subscription, an extra 12 months, can be added for $5.99 (regularly $7.99). That's a total of 14 months!  Can you say "BARGAIN"!!

  
New year, new home, new baby, and a new app for a new start on my housekeeping routine!  I can't wait to get started!

Creating Personal Care Routines

I love routines.  I think they are an easy way to reduce the stress of daily tasks. If tasks are done in a certain order each day they become automatic and we can use that mental energy to stress over other more important things ;) 

I used to be really on top of our daily routines, but over the past year or two I've increasingly let them go. It's gotten to the level that even the most basic things aren't getting done.  In my defense, I have been pretty busy this year.  First with a new baby, then overcoming breastfeeding challenges; add to that house hunting (stress), and finally moving (STRESS).  I was doing good just to get food in the big kids' bellies and many days my husband did that for me. 

Now that all of our big transitions are over for a while I've been thinking of four main areas that I find routines beneficial in our home. Personal Care, Homemaking (cooking and cleaning), Home Management (budgeting and administration), and Homeschooling. This week I've decided we're going to tackle Personal Care since that is the area that seems the most foundational to me and in which everyone needs to take some responsibility for themselves. 

Personal Care is the way we keep our bodies healthy. Yesterday I asked the kids to list all the ways they could think of to keep our bodies healthy.  

We are starting with this list and I plan on expanding on the topics throughout the year; perhaps doing a unit on nutrition and learning to make healthier foods and snacks. Have we missed anything?  What ways do you keep your body healthy?

The Importance of Routine

I think routines are something most people use, whether aware of it or not, in daily life.  From your morning routine of get up, make the bed, brush your teeth, get dressed...etc.; to your nightly ritual of a bowl of ice cream during TV time.  Routine is what carries us through our days.

I know some moms who prefer schedules.  They plan each task to a certain time of the day, and that's fine.  I'm sure that works well for some moms.  I tried that when my twins were babies.  It made me feel constricted and I focused too much on the when and not enough on the what.

3 of my whats.

I then realized that I might not get everything done in a day, and that's OK.  As long as I was able to get a few main things done I still felt like I accomplished something for the day.


I then sat down and made a list of the tasks I felt absolutely needed to get done every day (or every other day) just to keep my sanity the house in order.  For me, these were meals, dishes, laundry and budget.  Everything else could be forgotten for even a few days.  These things are my base routine.  I gave myself a break and decided that if I maintain these four tasks, everything else is cake.

As a homeschool mom, I know first hand how important routines can be to getting anything done at all.  My routines keep me on track with meals, chores, school, budgeting...  the list goes on and on.   And I don't have just one all-purpose routine.  No way!  I have several to mix-and-match depending on the day.

My fancy handwritten routine that hangs on the front of my fridge.

Now don't you already feel better about yourself when you look at the fancy routine I have hanging for all to see on my fridge!  The way it works is simple.  I do a task in each box and then start over, picking a different task the next time round.  This way I don't get burned out by doing one thing for an hour.  And if I find myself walking in circles, because I can't decide what to do next, it's right there on the fridge.  There are permanent tasks written in sharpie on the paper, and temporary tasks, written in dry-erase on the sheet protector.  I can easily slip a new task into my routine at any time.

Not written out is my School routine which goes like this:

• Bible
• History
• Geography
• Science
• Math 
• Spelling
• Seat Work

I keep the books we are working from in a crate near our table.  They are kept in order of our routine.  I work from right to left (I've always been a little backwards!)  And when our new Latin book comes this week, I'll add it to our routine by sliding it in with the other books.  That way it won't be forgotten because I didn't get to that shelf which is what happens to our art curriculum on most days.

Believe it or not, there are some days that I wake up and just cannot get into my routine.   But that's the beauty of having a routine.  It doesn't matter what time we get up.  It doesn't matter if we have a play date at 1pm or a doctor's appointment at 10am.  We can just pick up right where we left off in the routine.


Do you prefer schedules or routines?  Do you display your routines; what visual cues do you use?  What have you found that works best for you?