This is the second installment in my series on how I am working on Harboring a Warm & Peaceful Home as part of my goals for 2019. And how you can, too! You can read about My Goals for 2019 here. (They also happen to be the new mission statement for Huntress At Home.)
Today, I’m sharing with you how I get my chores done strategically in the morning and evening hours. Why? So that I can spend more time focusing on my children and my husband during the day!
One of the reasons I wanted to be a SAHM was to have extra time to care for my family. However, I quickly discovered that chores and menial tasks can overwhelm other things you want to do. And not only that, but trying to juggle my to do list AND play with my kids left everyone shortchanged. My chores would only get halfway done and my kids would never get my full attention. Have you been there? Sticky floors and whiny kids. Yeesh. NOT fun and SO discouraging. Being able to get work out of the way so you can focus on family will definitely up the peaceful factor in your home.
So here’s the scoop. You CAN do it all. There are just two things you need to do.
#1 – Let go of your perfectionism.
#2 – Make a plan ON PAPER.
That’s it sister!
Okay, I’ll show you what I did to get you started.
Create A Minimal Daily Task List
The first thing you need to do is get yourself a notebook to get organized. (I enjoy using a Minimalist Bullet Journal Setup to keep everything in my life organized and dump all my ideas). Or, at the very least, get a sheet of paper that you won’t lose and put it where you will see it EVERY DAY.
(Note that my “Daily Chores” are tucked into my habit tracker. That way I can check them off as I do them. But I also keep the list written on another page for future reference. See below.)
You need to make a list of the very minimum you will do each day to keep things running smoothly. If you can pick out 5 or 6 things to do consistently, you can stop getting so behind on laundry, dishes, clutter, etc. Here is the list of chores that I do every day as a bare minimum:
- Make the bed(s)
- Wash one load of laundry
- Unload/load the dishwasher
- Take 5 minutes to tidy up a few things
- Wipe the counters
- Run over the floor with the Dust Buster
Now, I split these up between the mornings and evenings in a logical manner.
My Morning Chore Sequence
This is what my morning chore sequence looks like:
- After the kids have had their breakfast, I turn cartoons on for 30 minutes to an hour. During that time, I unload the dishwasher.
- If they are still occupied by their show by the time I’ve finished cleaning up from breakfast and putting away the clean dishes, I get dressed (which had been made super quick and easy with My January Capsule Wardrobe). While I’m getting dressed, I make up the beds really fast. (If they are not occupied by their show anymore, I just make them part of what I’m doing!)
- Finally, I throw in a load of laundry because it only takes 2 minutes!
And that’s pretty much my morning every day! It’s all about making good use of the time the kids are occupied. ESPECIALLY TV time.
By this time it is only 8:30 or 9:00 and I have cleaned up the kitchen and emptied the dishwasher. (This is great because now there will be space the rest of the day for me to quickly throw dirty dishes in it instead of having them pile up in the sink.) I’m dressed from head to toe, the beds are made (which instantly makes everything seem cleaner), and I have a load of laundry started.
My Evening Chore Sequence
During the day, I’ll whip out the Dust Buster if there’s a crumb explosion, wipe things up as they spill, and move that load of laundry I started over to the dryer or to the drying rack (I usually do this during nap time). (And, of course, I’ll have to make lunch.) But aside from those things, I am pretty much free during the day to play with and teach my kids, take them on playdates, or whatever else we feel like doing!
Around 4:00 o’clock, I’ll put a movie on for Jonas while I start dinner. (Other than his 1-2 TV shows in the morning and his afternoon movie, we don’t turn the TV on.) Once dinner is served and my husband is wrestling with the kids, I start on my evening chore sequence:
- First, I load the dishwasher, which, is a snap because it is mostly empty from unloading it earlier in the day. (I am one of those people who crams everything I can fit in the dishwasher, so I’m only left with a handful of pots or utensils to wash by hand.) It’s usually full after dinner, so I go ahead and turn it on so it will be ready to unload the next morning!
- While I’m cleaning up the kitchen, I wipe all the counters and run the Dust Buster over the floors, table, and kids’ chairs.
- Finally, once the kids are in bed, I try to do a 5-minute tidy up. Sometimes I’m better about putting things in their actual places, and other days I just pile everything under the coffee table to get it out of the floor. And, honestly, some days I’m so tired I just skip this step because MAH! They are just going to drag it all back out tomorrow. Hey, gotta let go of that perfectionism!
And that’s it! That is the very easy handful of things I do in a very strategic order to keep the house from descending into chaos AND to give my kids my full attention during the day.
The Next Step
Once you’ve made a habit of doing these things (which really, really helps if you put it on paper), your next step will be to add in a weekly cleaning checklist and some zone cleaning. Basically, your weekly cleaning is the list of chores you do every [insert day of the week] (vacuuming, ironing, changing bed sheets, etc.), and your zone cleaning is more of a deep cleaning routine that keeps you from having to do a major cleaning on things that don’t routinely get attention.
But I will talk more about my weekly cleaning list and zone cleaning later in the month. Today’s focus was on starting a minimal list of chores and completing them strategically so your kids and husband can be the main focus of your daytime hours—which means more peace for everybody!
Already have a list of chores you do every day? Share them with me! I’d love to know if there is something I can add to my list that I haven’t thought of!
Follow me on Instagram @huntressathome and join me on my journey towards a more simple, minimal, intentional life.