Managing a household takes a lot of work. I seriously don’t know how you people out there work a full time job, and then come home to all the household chores. Actually, I do know a little bit of what that is like..because I did work part-time while also taking care of the home.
But it’s completely different now. Before, work would happen and chores would just fall into place…either before work, after work or on the weekends. Now, it’s different. It’s not better or worse…just different. I am now home all day, every day. Back when I worked and took care of the household, I was tempted to think, “what in the world do people who stay home DO all day?”
Well, sometimes it feels like I don’t do much. Sometimes it feels like I’m totally wasting my time staying at home. Life moves at a much slower pace. My priority is not getting a paycheck or even having an immaculate, organized home. Instead, my priority is Tera Evelynne. Not that I run to her every cry, or bow to her every want; but that I raise her with love, nurture, and even discipline!
I have found that I am tempted to do one of two things in my new role as stay-at-home Mom/household manager:
1). Over-plan, over-schedule, implement overly-high expectations. A day of over planning looks something like this: wake up, make super long to-do list. Have breakdown #1 when we have made it 32 minutes into the day and Tera has already thrown off my schedule and I haven’t finished one thing on my to-do list. I’m sure you can imagine how the rest of the day goes from there. I fulfill 0 of my expectations and therefore feel like a huge failure.
2). Do nothing. This kind of day looks like this: wake up, feed Tera, don’t get out of bed. Eventually, when I do get out of bed, I don’t shower or get dressed. Eat Ramen and cookies all day. Feed the baby and watch Netflix. Feed the dogs and the cats and browse Instagram. Ignore the laundry, the dishes and anything that might require getting out of bed/off the couch.
Obviously, neither of those options are ideal. Both leave me feeling like I have not done a good job as a wife, mother and household manager. I have found that the key to avoid days like that is organization. Organization, flexibility and grace. Because days like that will happen. But they shouldn’t happen every day…and in order to avoid that I need to stay organized.
The first way I stay organized is to plan ahead. For me, if I fail to plan, I plan to fail. I have to be organized and one step ahead of the chaos. One way that I plan ahead is by meal planning. At the end of the month, I sit down and plan all the meals for the upcoming month. I write them all down in my planner. While picking out the meals, I make a grocery list of everything I need to make those meals. Then I do one BIG grocery trip at the beginning of the month.
My meal planning board…(and, yes, that is my oven in the wall)
Another way I plan ahead is by giving myself two chores to do a day. If I give myself more than this, I usually find that I have over-planned and get dissapointed in my lack of success. Two chores is just enough to keep me motivated. This is what the lineup looks like:
- Monday: Vacuum all carpets // Make all of Theo’s lunches for work (3 days, 2 meals on each day)
- Tuesday: Clean the bathroom // Grocery shop (weekly needs like eggs, milk, veggies)
- Wednesday: Laundry // Dust
- Thursday: Write a letter // Go to the library
- Friday: Bake (if needed) // Vacuum // Mop the floors
- Saturday: Bake bread // Laundry
- Sunday: Write emails to overseas friends/family
I was really specific about laying out this schedule. Theo works Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, so I made sure to plan the out of the house chores for those days (some days we just have to get out!). I vacuum twice a week because we have 3 lovely pets. If I don’t get to one of the chores, that is ok…I just do it on the next day that works. My house actually isn’t overly clean, as you might suspect from seeing that list. This is what I do to get by!
The third way that I manage our household is the daily chores. These are things that I *try* to do every single day.
- Make our bed
- Do the dishes
- Sweep the floors (remember we have 3 furry friends…)
- Cook dinner
Then there are chores that happen when they need to happen.
- Cloth diapers (usually every 3 days)
- Mopping the floor (I always mop on Fridays, but there are some weeks that it needs more than a weekly mop!)
- Whatever I can do to take any household chores off Theo’s list. Things like running to the bank, running to the post office, or even mowing the lawn. I know that if I do those things, Theo won’t have to…and that means more time with him when he is home! I don’t do these things often, but if I can do them, I try to!
Then, there are of course all those things that I do on a daily basis that I don’t get to write on a to-do list! Things like:
- Keeping this cutie alive
- Keeping these guys alive (we have two cats and a dog!)
- Keeping myself and my husband alive (and happy!)
- Doing whatever I can to save money (building this blog, hanging the laundry out to dry, packing lunches instead of buying, having dinners prepared instead of eating out, etc).
Like I said, if I don’t plan my days out like this, it will be a disaster. Different things work for different people, though!
What do you do? Do you save all your cleaning/household chores for one day of the week? Or do you split them up? Do you keep a schedule, or just do chores as they come up? Do you meal plan, or go with the flow? Do you have any tips for me?