Family life is busy and at times this means it can also be a messy and unorganized mess. However, if you want your family life to run smoothly and be as simple as possible, you need to make sure you find ways to stay organized that work for your family.
Let’s have a look at some of the ways you can do this below:
Establish A Morning Routine
Mornings will likely never be perfect for any family, but there are things you can do to make your day get off to a good start. If you find that you are constantly shouting to ‘hurry up, are hunting for items last minute, or feel stressed getting everyone out the door try:
- Morning routine cards – these are particularly great for younger children
- Design your own custom photo calendar– you can refer to this and see what is needed for the day and who needs to be where.
- Set your children challenges to be ready by a certain time.
- Pack your bags the night before.
- Be ready to change the routine if it’s not working for your family.
Plan Your Menu For The Week
If you aren’t already, it’s a good idea to start planning your meals for the week in advance. It takes away the stress of having to think about what to cook for dinner each day and it also helps you to stay within a budget. Start by organizing all the dinners and then once yo have this sorted you can start to plan your breakfasts and lunches too. You can :
- Print a meal plan for the week and hang it on the wall.
- Preorder the ingredients you need to collect or have them delivered.
- You can plan your food budget for the week and stop overspending.
- Minimize the risk that you will order a takeaway that isn’t needed.
- Get your children involved in choosing the meals, increasing the chance they’ll eat them.
Have A Family Central Point
Using a visible area in your home where everyone in the house can see what’s going on is a fantastic way to get your family more organized. You can include a family planner, a place for bills and letters, and some storage for daily items such as book bags. It’s also a great place to have your children drop off any letter from school so you know where they are and when they need to be dealt with. If your family has a schedule that they need to follow, you can have that here too. This central point in the house is for all the family to use and be aware of. If you are using the tip above and are packing bags the night before, you can refer to this central point and see what is needed for the day ahead and then store the bags ready for the morning.
Create A Cleaning Routine
When it comes to cleaning your house, you need to find a routine that works for you. Something that works for one family isn’t necessarily going to work for yours. How often you need to clean something will vary and the time you have to clean will also be different. However, that doesn’t mean that a routine won’t help. In fact, having a routine in place means that you can remove the stress from cleaning and get into the swing of doing it at the same time each day or week.
You should also think about getting your children involved in the cleaning process. Although the results probably won’t be as good as if you did it yourself, cleaning is a life lesson that they need to learn in order to take care of themselves in the future. One really good way of clearing clutter and starting to keep your house clean is to have a box or basket that can be used to pick up any toys or clutter around the house. You can then get everyone in the house to remove what is theirs from the box/basket and put it away.
A great way to help with this is to create a shore chart, especially for older children. You will have your tasks to complete and they will have theirs. It will give them a sense of responsibility and also teach them about scheduling their time. You could also offer them an incentive and teach them to save by offering an allowance for the chores they complete.
These tips should help you to become more organized as a family, Are there any other tips that you use? It’d be great to hear them in the comments below.
