Becoming a parent changes your household dynamic so much so fast that it may start to feel chaotic. I felt like I was running on E and had no idea how I was ever going to keep up. Everyones household is set up differently but in my situation, my husband works a lot of hours and I’m a stay at home mom so most daily responsibilities are for me to take care of. I had to come up with my way to do things and I think the systems I now have may help some of you as well.
Fill Your Cup Everyday ALWAYS
If you aren’t taking care of yourself you will never be able to take care of everyone else. Even if you have to literally make the time, make it happen. You will truly feel so much more happy when you make sure you are always cared for too. In my house that looks like long self care showers when my kids are in bed and early morning workouts until they wake up. Working on my writing before my kids wake up and reading my book while I drink my coffee. Find what is important to you and make it happen, I promise you won’t regret it.
One Cleaning Task a Day
I used to try and spend my whole Sunday cleaning and then would miss out on doing fun things with my family. I then quickly realized that wasn’t going to work out for us and moved to one task a day. For example, I clean the bathrooms on Monday, Dust on Tuesday, and the list goes on from there. Things like loading and unloading the dish washer I still do daily but that doesn’t feel like that big of a task. This has really saved me stress because I know what needs to be done each day and I can do it in a free minute.
One Load of Laundry a Day
This might be my best tip. A lot of people really dread laundry, I personally used to feel the need to have it all day everyday. I now keep everything separated out and choose one pile to work on a day. I start it first thing in the morning and its put away by lunch time. If you find yourself either putting it off until you have nothing to wear or trying to do every little pile of laundry everytime you see it, try this out. Its definitely a stress saver.
Focused One on One Time with each child
When I had my second child I got very stressed very fast about getting enough time with each of them. Making sure I set individual time up for each of them was hugely important. My boys are pretty close in age with a two year age gap so both of them still nap which is a live saver. I set up a lot of activities each day for my oldest so I can join in when I have put my youngest down for a nap or while my youngest is getting some time on the floor. Then while my oldest naps I have time to work on new skills with my youngest. Figure out your home’s balance and make sure you are getting some quality time with each on their own.
Routine Routine Routine
I quickly realized for my day to day life things were going to have to look very similar for my young children to be well balanced. So while I feel like I’m living the same day on repeat most days, they benefit from it so much. With them happy and well balanced, I feel like I am as well. I always know what’s next, what they need from me and what I need to do to maintain our home. When I was first starting to get serious with our routine I wrote it all out and figured out how to fit it all in. I used that list for a while and made tweaks to it as I figured out each day until it became second nature. Now my daily routine is just a part of me and a part of my kids. Our weeks are very structured and that leaves the weekends to be a little chaotic but that’s okay because we are out doing things as a family.
Those are my five daily habits to keep my household maintained, what are some of your daily rhythms to keep up with your kids and home?