This post is Part 5 of the series How to Easily Manage Your Home (you can catch up on all the parts here!), and today we will be digging into how to create a simple, easy to follow weekly cleaning routine that you will be able to stick with forever.
Now, if you’ve been around the blog for a while, you may be thinking, “Kassy, don’t you already have a blog post about creating a cleaning routine?”
Yes, yes I do…
BUT it was one of the first 10 posts that I ever wrote, so I think it’s safe to say that it is time for an update!
As I was creating my course, I realized that there needed a couple of extra steps in order to organize all of your cleaning items, so this post will give you even more bang for your buck than the last one did!
(If you want to check out the original post… click here!)
I know you are as excited to get started as I am, so let’s dig in.
If you want to be sure you are keeping up with the series and are creating all of the routines you need to Easily Run Your Home, grab the Easy Home Management Checklist!
How to Create the Best Cleaning Routine Ever
1) Grab Your Gear
If you want to create your routine right alongside me, go ahead and grab everything you need.
To create this routine, you will need a pen, some scratch paper, and a notebook (or whatever you are creating your Home Management Binder in).
And if you’d like to use the same templates I am using, you can grab the Autopilot Workbook!
2) Make a List
So we are going to start by making a list on our scratch paper of all the cleaning tasks that we have.
As you are making this list don’t worry about if it is a weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly task.
Just write everything down that you can think of.
One suggestion I have is that you write each item down separately. So instead of writing “bathrooms” on your list, write down “master bathroom, kid’s bathroom, and downstairs bathroom”.
If you just write “bathrooms,” it won’t look like much on the paper and it might be hard to remember that each of those bathrooms can take a bit of time to complete.
You want to write each item individually because that will give you an accurate representation of how long the task will take you.
Writing the items down separately also gives you the freedom to decide if you want to do all of your bathrooms on the same day or if you want to split them up and do them on different days of the week.
And as you are making the list, add in anything that feels like a chore to you.
For me, this is grocery shopping. I just don’t like it. It takes a long time, and it just stresses me out.
Because of this, I add it to my chore list so that I will remember to space it out with my other cleaning tasks.
So if you have anything that feels like an extra chore to you, add it to this list as well!
3) Look at Your Weekly Routine
Now we are going to look at the Weekly Routine that we created in the last post and we are going to figure out which days make the most sense for us to clean on.
If you haven’t yet had a chance to create your weekly rhythm, check out this postbefore you go on. Determining your weekly rhythm first will make sure you put the correct cleaning tasks on the correct days.
This is because you don’t want to pile too much cleaning onto days that are already Busy, and you want to take advantage of the days that give you a little bit more downtime.
Now you want to be sure that you are basing your cleaning routine on a typical week. We all have weeks that are a little bit different than the norm: like holiday weeks, vacations, and of course birthday week (because life is too short not to have birthday week!).
So I wouldn’t base my cleaning schedule off of one of those weeks.
And since I base my cleaning schedule off of a typical week, when one of those weeks comes up and I may have to skip a day or two of cleaning, it isn’t a big deal because my house gets cleaned consistently.
4) Choose Your Cleaning Days
Based on the Weekly Routine that we looked at in the last step, decide which days make the most sense for you to add some cleaning in.
For some people, it may make sense to do a small amount of cleaning every single day. That is what I do for my cleaning routine. But for other people, it may make sense for them to do most cleaning on fewer days.
So it really depends on your weekly routine how many days a week you should be cleaning.
The only recommendation I have for you when you are making this decision is to do at least 2 days a week.
It is just too much to try to do all of your cleaning on one day. Doing it all on one day of the week will leave you feeling tired at the end of the day and dreading next week’s cleaning day.
Spreading the cleaning out over multiple days just lets you enjoy life a little bit more on the days that you are cleaning 🙂
The more days that you can spread the cleaning over, the better and more relaxing it will be because you won’t be spending your entire day cleaning.
5) Sort Your List
Now we are going to grab another piece of scratch paper and sort the original list that we made.
Across the top of the sheet write “Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Yearly” then put the cleaning tasks under the proper column.
6) Divide and Conquer
Next, we will take everything in the Weekly column, and we are going to divide it among our Cleaning Days.
Now be sure that everything on your weekly cleaning list is everything that YOU want to do in that week… not everything that your mother-in-law, or your sister, or your best friend or your cousin thinks you need to clean every week… only things that YOU think you should clean every week.
And that is really important because if you are trying to keep your house clean to someone else’s standard, you won’t be happy.
It will only make you happy if you keep your house as clean as you want to.
So if you want to just vacuum your floors and clean your toilets every week… just vacuum and clean your toilets every week.
No one will call the cleaning police on you (and even if they do, they really can’t do anything to you ;).
And I would say if you are going to err on one side or the other, I would err on the side of doing too little cleaning.
That might sound a little weird on a blog post about cleaning, but it is much more important to spend time with your family than it is to spend all of your time cleaning up after them.
So if you are using the Autopilot Workbook, grab out the Weekly Cleaning Routine and fill out the top lines under the days. (If you are wondering what the bottom 3 lines are for, check out How to Easily Manage Your Home Part 2).
Now, you’ll probably notice that on my template I only have 3 lines under each day designated for cleaning. And that is because I don’t think that we should be cleaning all the time.
If you are doing more than 3 cleaning tasks every day, you will pretty much be cleaning in all of your spare time and you won’t have any time to take a break.
And you all know how important I think it is for mom to have a break!
Why This Step Is So Important: Story Time
I used to clean one day per week and it was very overwhelming to try to do this.
Splitting it up to multiple days of the week really took the stress out of cleaning, and it also made my house feel cleaner longer.
Which is honestly kind of weird.
You would think that dedicating one day to completely cleaning the house would make the house feel really clean. But I found that it usually only last one day before it felt dirty again.
I’ve found that doing a little bit of cleaning every day just keeps the house in a state of perpetual cleanliness!
I don’t know why that it, or if it is just me, but it is definitely something I’ve noticed since I split up my cleaning among multiple days.
And remember as you are writing down your routine, take at least one day off where you don’t do any cleaning or laundry because everyone needs a day off!
7) The Cleaning Task Organizer
That last step used to be the end of the cleaning task creation… but as I was creating Put Your Home on Autopilot I realized that you also need a way to organize those long-term tasks. And that is why I created the Cleaning Task Organizer.
So if you have the Autopilot Workbook, grab the Cleaning Task Organizer and put your Monthly, Quarterly, and Annual tasks in the correct column.
Then as you go through the year and complete the tasks, just put a tick by one of the little circles next to each line so you can keep track of what you still have to do.
If you don’t have the Autopilot Workbook, you can easily make a template with three columns. At the top of the columns write “Monthly, Quarterly, and Annual”
In each column write several lines for you to write the tasks on. Then write the proper number of checkboxes next to the items. (12 boxes for monthly, 4 for quarterly, and 1 for annual.)
Now I’ll show you what I have on my Cleaning Task Organizer, but only if you promise not to judge me! Remember that everyone will put different things in each column based on the size of their house and their
Here are the Tasks that I have on my Cleaning Task Organizer:
Monthly:
Dust Downstairs
Dust Upstairs
Clean the Microwave
Declutter one area of the house
Quarterly:
Wash the Ionic
Wash the Highlander
Annual:
Clean the Baseboards
Vacuum the Couches
Clean the Stove
Clean and Organize the Garage
8) Test It Out
The last step to creating any cleaning routine is to test it out.
It can be really easy to write things down on paper and have it look really good, but in reality, it may not work as well as we had planned.
So test out your new routine for a week or two before you decide it is set in stone.
And if you find any glitches in your routine, go back to whichever step you need to and create a new routine!
If you find that no matter what you do you can’t seem to fit all of your cleaning in, try using a bi-weekly cleaning routine.
For that, you just split your cleaning up between two weeks and rotate between the cleaning tasks. If you are using the Autopilot Workbook, you can just print off an extra page of the Weekly Cleaning Routine and put Week One’s Items on one page and Week Two’s Items on the second page.
It is better to clean your bathrooms every other week if that is tripping you up than to never get around to cleaning them because you are too overwhelmed to get it done every single week!
I hope this helped you create your weekly cleaning routine! let me know in the comments how you set up your schedule!
In part three we talked about setting up morning and evening routines for moms and kids.
The reason we wanted to start with the daily routines is that the weekly routines tend to change from day to day. So we want to make sure that we have a solid foundation for the daily habits before we move onto the more flexible rhythms.
(Remember to grab that Easy Home Management Checklist if you want to follow along and make sure you are setting up every routine along with me!)
But now that we have those systems under our belt, we are ready to start talking about the week as a whole.
This post will be focusing on creating your weekly routine, or schedule, or rhythm, or any other name you want to give it!
No matter what you call it though, the basic goal of our weekly rhythm will be to provide some structure to our week and keep us from overwhelming our kids with busy schedules.
Let’s get started!
And if you prefer to watch instead of read, check out this video:
How to Create a Weekly Rhythm
1) Grab Your Tools
If you want to create your routine along with me, grab your pen and notebook so we can get started.
And if you are using the same templates that I am using, grab your Autopilot Workbook.
If you are creating your own template, you’ll want to turn your notebook or piece of paper horizontally. And your template should look something like this:
2) Write the Days of the Week
Just like the sample shows you above, go ahead and write the days of the week across the top of your template.
3) Write the Names of the Blocks
If you are using the Autopilot Workbook, fill in the names of the blocks in the coral ovals on the left-hand side of the template.
If you are creating your own, you can just write the block names to the left of your columns.
4) Decide on Simple Days and Busy Days
I originally got this idea of creating a weekly rhythm from Kim John Payne in his book Simplicity Parenting (which I highly recommend if you want to raise your children in a simple way).
In the book, he recommends not having too many “Busy” days in a row because it is hard on children if they are running from activity to activity all the time.
It is very overwhelming for children if they don’t have any downtime, much more overwhelming for them than it is for us.
So I decided that I wanted to build my week around this principle to ensure that I gave my children plenty of time to just be children.
5) Decide on Weekend Labels First
Since weekends tended to be our busiest days, I first chose one weekend day to be Busy and on to be Simple.
On the Busy weekend day we would be able to go do things, skip naps, see friends, have late nights, and just enjoy the day.
On the Simple one, we would stick closer to home and give the girls a chance to catch up on naps, get to bed on time, and just have a more relaxing day.
For us, this naturally made Saturday our Busy day because that is the day we go to church. After church, we often hang out with friends, go on hikes, and play board games in the evenings.
6) Decide on Weekday Labels
Now obviously there aren’t an even number of days in a week, so you will have to decide if you want to have more busy days or more simple days in your week.
I recommend, especially if your children are young, to have more simple days (4) in your week and less busy days (3).
So when I was deciding when of the Weekdays would be Simple or Busy, I first wanted to look at my absolute busiest day of the week and make sure it was surrounded by Simple days.
Like I already mentioned, our business day is Saturday so I wanted to make sure that Friday was a Simple day.
Then I just alternated Busy and Simple throughout the weekdays.
Now, this obviously leaves me with two Simple days in a Row on Sunday and Monday. But that actually works really well for us because it gives the girls two days to relax after the busy weekend.
Wednesday is a bit of a hybrid day right now because we do have music lessons on Wednesdays after naps, but I try to keep it simple in the mornings and make sure they still get good naps on this day.
So once you’ve decided on your labels, go ahead and write them down on your template.
7) Fill Out the Blocks
The last thing that you want to do is fill in the blocks on the template.
As you can see in the example, I am just writing about general types of activities and not specific times and appointments.
That is because this template is just to give the week a structure and let me know when I do need to set appointments which blocks will be best to put them in.
Here is the example again for reference:
And if you want to see the current weekly routine that we use, check out this video where I update my weekly rhythm.
8) Print Additional Pages for Your Planner
Once you have your overall routine for the week in place, print off several additional sheets of this template, three-hole punch them and put them in your binder (or make your own if you are doing that).
Then you can use these as your weekly planner and keep track of all of your appointments and your actual schedule from week to week.
That way you can easily see each week at a glance and can ensure that the proper activities are going into the proper blocks.
If you want any more information about weekly rhythms and why you want to do this when you have kids, check out this post.
Ready to Start Easily Managing Your Home?
If you are ready to get all of your routines in place so that your home practically runs itself, check out my coursePut Your Home on Autopilot!
In Put Your Home on Autopilot, you will learn how to set up
A Daily Block Schedule
A Laundry Routine
A Kitchen Cleaning Routine
A Morning Routine for Mom
A Morning Routine for Each Kid
An Evening Routine for Each Kid
An Evening Routine for Mom
A Weekly Cleaning Routine
A Chore Routine for Each Kid
And More!
In just 8 weeks or less you will go from feeling overwhelmed to in control. And if you have any questions along the way, I’m only an email away!
One of my fondest memories of my childhood is when we took a cross-country road trip when I was fourteen.
We took a whole month and explored Civil War Battlefields, Washington DC, New York, and everywhere in between.
We started our trip in Oregon and drove all the way across the country in a big motorhome.
Ross and I love to travel and go on adventures.
We have done a fair amount of road trips back in the day, but going on a road trip with young kids is quite different!
We just got back from visiting friends in Colorado, and since this was our second long-haul road trip (multiple days of travel and multiple hours each day), I thought I should write about what we have learned road-tripping with two little kids.
How To Go On a Road Trip With Two Little Kids
1) Do Practice Road Trips
When we went on our first big road trip, our girls were 18-months-old and 4-years-old. We were excited to go to our friend’s wedding in Montana which was 10 hours from our house.
But Ross was terrified of the drive.
Both of our girls hated their car seats until they were old enough to face forward. And our youngest had a tendency to scream from the moment we put her in her car seat until the moment we arrived at our destination.
So to help her get over this, we decided to do several practice road trips. I took the girls up to my grandma’s house (3 hours away), we went to visit my parents (2 hours away), and down to visit friends in my hometown (2 hours away).
And the more we drove, the more she got used to it.
By the time we were ready to go, they were both enjoying being in the car.
2) Practice Having The Kids Close Together
Another thing we were a little worried about was the girls being in close quarters for so long. We wanted this to be an enjoyable experience and not have them bickering in the backseat.
So I decided it would be good practice to put both of them in the jogging stroller/bike trailer and go on runs and rides with them.
I would load them in with their Doodle Pads, some books, and their water, and we’d be off!
Then when they did have a disagreement, I would try to stay out of it and let them figure it out themselves.
And when I did need to help them figure it out, it was a lot easier to “pull over” a jogging stroller/bike trailer and teach them how to work together and negotiate with each other than it is to pull over a car.
This may not seem like something that would make a big difference, but I definitely recommend that you take this step (or find something similar if your kids are too old to ride in a jogging stroller together).
Because we had a LOT of opportunities to practice working things out during the one-hour long rides and runs… but by the time we went on our road trip, their disagreements were few and far between.
Coincidence?? I don’t think so!
3) Practice Sleeping in the Same Room
This is something I haven’t done before, but we will be doing it in the future!
This was the first time we have stayed in a hotel together as a family with two kids and the first time we have tried to have the girls share a room for 2 weeks in a row at our friends’ house.
(We do most of our vacations to friend’s or family’s homes so we often end up with a little more space than a hotel room provides. So usually we try to put the girls in separate rooms, and Ross will sleep in the same room with one child and I will seep with the other so that the girls will get the maximum amount of sleep.)
But since we were going to be there for two weeks we decided that the girls would sleep in the same room… and it definitely could have gone better😂
One child tended to keep the other awake pretty late, and then one child would always end up waking the other one up in the morning.
So yeah… next time we will be doing some practice ahead of time so that they can learn how to be quiet while the other person is going to sleep, then be quiet if they wake up first in the morning.
4) Give Yourself Plenty of Time
Now back in the day… when Ross and I were cool and we slept until noon on the weekends… the 19-hour road trip that we just did to Colorado would have been done in less than 24 hours.
But now that we have kids… bahahahahahahaha!
We decided we were going to break it up into 2 days of 5 hours, and one day of 6 hours.
And it was PERFECT!
5 hours of driving took us about 6 or 7 depending on how many potty trips we needed to make (oh so many potty trips).
We also tried to let the girls run around for a couple of minutes when we did stop so that they could stretch their legs.
So my advice is this: Don’t Rush the Drive!
It will be much more relaxing if you just realize that your drive is going to take much longer than you think it should and you just embrace it.
Trust me!
5) Get Some Games
If your kids are a little older (3 and up) you may want to grab a couple of games that will help pass the time.
For my girls, the license plate game and car bingo were games that we played multiple days and everyone had a lot of fun with.
The water pads entertained them for a short amount of time but were not nearly as captivating for them.
6) Essential Road Trip Toys
Buckle Toy
When we went on our first road trip and our younger daughter was 18-months old, the biggest life-saver we had on our trip was a little Turtle Buckle Toy.
She would buckle all the buckles then say “hep! hep!” and I would reach back, un-buckle them, and then she would do it all again!
I highly recommend this toy if you have a one to two-year-old that you want to keep entertained.
They have a ton of different styles, animals, and colors to choose from depending on your child’s preferences.
Doodle Pads
Our second favorite road trip toy is their Doodle Pads. We got these for them when they were each two years old, and they have yet two outgrow them even at 6 and 3.
I definitely recommend getting a doodle pad for each child. I know it isn’t the most minimal thing to do to get duplicate toys, but the Doodle Pads is one of the few exceptions to my minimalist rule!
Craft Bag
Our last absolute must-have entertainment is the craft bag.
We love having this craft bag both at home and on the road.
Before we got the bag the markers and crayons ended up all over the floor… almost every day.
I originally got the craft bag to solve the solution at home, but then it turned out to be an amazing road trip hack too!
We put the bag between their car seats and everything gets put away in the proper compartments when they are done… for the most part.
Now I can’t imagine going on a road trip without the craft bag.
Do a Dollar Store Run
After we were armed with our tried and trues… I made a dollar store run.
I got 4 small new items for each of them that I knew wouldn’t last any longer than the trip.
They were only allowed to do one new thing each day, and it just basically gave us an extra 30-60 minutes when they were getting fidgeting at the end of the day.
Then at the end of the trip, all of those little trinkets went into the garbage because dollar store things are not meant to be used forever.
Yes, I know getting stuff at the dollar store isn’t the minimalist thing to do, but since those things don’t last forever, they didn’t even make it into the house at the end of the trip. They took a detour right into the garbage. 😂
7) Have Something Interesting to Listen To
The next thing you have to have on your road trip is some new stories to listen to.
Yes, music is great, but stories really help pass the time for everyone. Ross and I find the stories just as interesting as the girls do.
Just as no road trip would be complete without meals, no post by Kassy would be complete without a meal plan. (Just kidding… kind of, but not really 😉
Seriously though, if you want to keep everyone happy on your road trip, have an idea of what you are going to be eating when.
That way you won’t be frantically searching for a fast food restaurant once everyone is already hungry.
Have an idea of which meals you want to eat out and which meals you want to make yourself.
If the meal plan is already set, it will minimize negotiations when everyone has a different idea for what they want to eat.
On our last road trip, Ross and I actually decided which meals we would eat out on the trip and where we would eat those meals before we even left the house. This made it easy to know that there would in fact be a restaurant around when we wanted to eat from one.
(It is surprising how long you can go without seeing any restaurants when you are doing a long-haul road trip!)
Have Special Snacks
Normally our kids don’t eat between meals but on a road trip (just like on hikes) this rule kind of goes out the window.
Before our road trips, we load up with lots of fun snacks from Trader Joe’s and Costco.
Have Special Drinks
Typically we just have our kids drink water, but sometimes it is hard for them to get enough when all they are doing is sitting all day.
So to solve this problem, we grab several coconut waters for the girls before we hit the road.
The first day on the road we made the mistake of giving each of them their own. And we might have had to stop 5 times in an hour and a half for potty breaks.
The next day we decided we would split the containers and that made for a much better drive!
9) Have Fun and Stretch Your Legs Along the Way
Back when Ross and I were cool and slept until noon on the weekends, we were all about the destination.
But now that we have kids, it’s much more about the journey.
Stop and take some hikes, go to a park, or just find a grassy place to let your kids stretch their legs.
If we can, we like to take a break about halfway through our drive.
Ready to Start Easily Managing Your Home?
If you are ready to get all of your routines in place so that your home practically runs itself, check out my coursePut Your Home on Autopilot!
In Put Your Home on Autopilot, you will learn how to set up
A Daily Block Schedule
A Laundry Routine
A Kitchen Cleaning Routine
A Morning Routine for Mom
A Morning Routine for Each Kid
An Evening Routine for Each Kid
An Evening Routine for Mom
A Weekly Cleaning Routine
A Chore Routine for Each Kid
And More!
In just 8 weeks or less you will go from feeling overwhelmed to in control. And if you have any questions along the way, I’m only an email away!
Welcome to Part 2 of the series How to Easily Manage Your Home!
If you haven’t yet had a chance to read part one, you may want to check that out first.
Each post in this series will be building on what we did in the last, so I’ll be waiting right here while you catch up if you missed the last one!
Tackling the Two Biggest Time-Suckers
In this post, we will be tackling the two biggest time suckers for moms.
And I think it is pretty safe to say that these are the two biggest time suckers for every mom because they are never done.
Of course, I am talking about Dishes and Laundry.
These two chores keep coming up day after day, multiple times a day and seem to continually need our attention.
It can be really easy to get fed up and just think “Forget it! I’m not doing dishes or laundry today!”
But then of course the dishes and the laundry continue to pile up without our consent, and eventually, we have to take care of them again… only now it takes even longer than before.
So I wanted to share this post about how I went from being very overwhelmed by my kitchen and laundry to realizing they really aren’t that bad… as long as you do them correctly!
Before we get started, grab your Block Schedule that we created last time, your pen, and a notebook (or binder, or the Autopilot Workbook)!
And as always, if you prefer to watch, you can check out the YouTube video that goes along with this post:
And remember if you want to keep track of which routines you have set up and which ones you still need to do, grab the Easy Home Management Checklist!
Step 1: Doing the Laundry
So let’s go ahead and tackle the laundry routine first.
This post will just be an overview of getting your laundry under control.
When it comes to laundry, there is one major rule you have to follow if you want to simplify your routine:
Do ONE load of laundry EVERY DAY, from START to FINISH.
And by finished I mean folded and completely put away in your drawers, or your closet, or wherever you put your clean clothes.
Having piles of folded clothes on the floor isn’t that much better than having piles of dirty clothes on the floor.
So be sure to finish your task every single day.
2) Put It In Your Block Schedule
Now that we know we need to do laundry every day we are going to build our laundry routine into our daily schedule.
(That is we are going to do laundry every day except for our Mom’s Day Off of course… more on that later.)
So grab that Daily Block Schedule that we created together in the last post.
Now we are going to decide which blocks of the day we are going to be doing our washing, drying, and folding, and putting it away.
Keep in mind that these can all be in different blocks or all in the same block depending on what your day is like.
Options for Work Outside the Home Moms
If you work outside the home all day, here are a couple of options that may work well for you:
Option 1: When you get home from work, start the washer. After you cook dinner and before you eat, switch the laundry to the dryer. And as you watch your favorite show in the evening, fold the laundry.
Option 2: Another option would be to start the washer when you get home. Then switch the laundry to the dryer before you go to bed. Then in the morning before you go to work, fold the laundry.
With the second option, you will still be doing one complete load every day, the order will just be reversed.
Options for Work at Home Moms
If you are home during the day, I recommend that you get your laundry done during the day.
In my Daily Block Schedule, I start my washing machine before I even go down to breakfast.
I switch it into the dryer near the end of my Morning Block.
Then at the beginning of my Evening Block, I fold and put away the clothes.
But like I said before, you can do all three in the same block if that works best for you.
I just like to put the different steps in my laundry routine where it naturally flows in my day.
So write down “wash laundry, switch laundry, and fold and put away laundry” in whichever blocks work best for your daily routine.
If you aren’t sure what I mean by this, check out the post I did on How to Create the Perfect Daily Block Schedule!
3) Put it on Your Cleaning Routine Sheet
Now that you know which blocks of the day you are going to do your laundry in, I want you to put it onto your Cleaning Routine sheet as well.
If you are creating your own template, just write down every day of the week with 6 lines underneath it.
In this next step, I’m going to be showing you the most efficient way to clean your kitchen. But obviously, if you don’t like my way, you can clean your kitchen however you’d like!
There is one rule though, that you have to follow if you want to have a clean kitchen all the time: You need to clean your kitchen immediately after every meal.
I can attest to this rule from experience.
I used to think that it was way more efficient to save the dishes until the end of the day and do the dishes just once.
But the problem with this is that dishes get harder to do the longer they sit there… and the more dishes there are, the harder it is to motivate yourself to actually do them.
I would always tell myself that I would do the dishes after supper.
But what would usually end up happening is after supper I would tell myself that I was too tired and I would do them in the morning.
Well, let me tell you, it’s really a bummer to wake up to dirty dishes every. single. day.
So do your dishes right away, and don’t delay!
2) Put it In Your Block Schedule
Now that we know we need to do our dishes after every meal, I want you to grab your Daily Block Schedule again and write down “Clean up Breakfast” in the correct block, “Clean up Lunch” in the correct block, and “Clean up Dinner” in the correct block.
This will serve as a reminder that this needs to happen before you can do anything else after the meal.
3) Write Down The New System
If you are creating your own templates, I want you to write down how you are going to clean your kitchen in a new, more efficient way on a piece of paper.
If you are using the Autopilot Workbook, you can just grab the sheet called “The Easy Way to Clean Your Kitchen” because I already did this step for you (just because I like you! 😉
Here is the easiest way to clean your kitchen:
Clean as you Cook
Clean Right After the Meal is Over
Put the Leftovers and Condiments Away First
Tackle the Table
Clean the Counters, Working Toward the Sink
Do the Dishes
Sweep the Flool
Get Everyone Involved
If you struggle to get your family involved, don’t worry about that step for now, we will be covering how to get your family involved in a later post in this series!
4) Put it Where You Can See It
As you (and your family) learns this new system, it’s important to have everyone on the same page.
I suggest placing the sheet of paper that you just wrote the list on (or The Easy Way to Clean Your Kitchen sheet from your workbook) on your refrigerator for easy reference.
Once you have your kitchen and your laundry systems in place, your house will immediately feel and look cleaner all the time!
Leave me a comment down below to let me know how it goes!
Welcome to Part 1 of my How to Easily Manage Your Home series, where I will be walking you through how to set up simple systems and routines that will basically Put Your Home on Autopilot.
This will essentially be a Home Management 101 Minicourse. So if that sounds like something you would be into, be sure you are subscribed so you don’t miss any content!
If you want to be sure you stay up to date on all the routines we will be creating along the way, you can grab my Easy Home Management Checklist and check each routine off as you create it.
So let’s go ahead and get started with the First Step to easily managing our homes, and that is to create a Daily Block Schedule.
And if you prefer to watch your content instead of reading, feel free to follow along on YouTube:
Why Should Every Mom Have a Daily Block Schedule
I know that’s a pretty bad statement… but yes, I think EVERY mom should have a Daily Block Schedule!
Why?
Because Block Schedules will give you the structure that you and your kids crave while giving you the flexibility that will work for real life!
How to Create a Daily Block Schedule:
Ok, let’s get started!
1) Choose Your Weapon
To create your block schedule, you will need a piece of paper, or a notebook to write everything down on.
I would just recommend that you have a notebook or a binder that us a dedicated Home Management Binder.
Then you will know exactly where all of your routines are located and you will be able to easily find them when you need them.
Or if you’d like, you can grab the printable Home Management Binder that I created for you called the Autopilot Workbook. That has everything you need to set up routines and systems that will have your home running smoothly.
But for everyone else, you will want to turn your paper so that it is horizontal instead of vertical.
Then grab a ruler and a pencil or pen and draw the outline of your template.
You will want your template to have 4-6 long columns with 2 small horizontal boxes at the top of each column. It should look something like this:
3) Decide How Many Blocks Your Day Will Have
I recommend using between 4 and 6 blocks in your day.
If you have any fewer than 4 blocks, your day will feel too flexible because your blocks are too long. But if you have more than 6 it will be too rigid.
Anything between 4 and 6 blocks is just a personal preference though so choose what you think will work best for you.
My template has 6 blocks, but if you are creating your own you can draw in as many as you’d like.
If you aren’t sure how many blocks you should have in your day, just keep reading and it should be more clear. 🙂
4) Choose the length of your blocks
Some people like to have blocks that are exactly the same size (like having 4 blocks that are all 3 hours long if you are basing your schedule off of 12 waking hours, or 6 blocks that are all 4 hours long if basing your schedule off 24 hours).
But my day just isn’t quite that neat. Almost all of my blocks are different lengths based on what I am doing in each block.
So choose whichever will work best for you!
Once you decide how long each of your blocks will be, write down the start and end time of each block on the second line of your block schedule (see the example above if you need a visual :).
5) Name Your Blocks
Once you have the time for each block figured out, decide what you would like each block to be called.
Don’t worry about being too creative here, my first Block of the day is just called Morning Block.
But naming the blocks will help you decide which items should go into each block.
Your block name will go on the first line of your Block Schedule Template.
6) Divide Your Daily Responsibilities
Now take all the things that you might do in a day and organize them in the proper blocks.
As you do this, keep in mind that you won’t do all of these things in the same day.
For example, in my Out and About Block, I have going to the dentist, going to the doctor, going grocery shopping, going to the park, going on a hike… you get the idea.
But I definitely won’t be doing all of that in one day!
Dividing our duties on our block schedule helps us put some organization and structure to our day.
And anytime you need to make an appointment or schedule a playdate, or anything like that, you will know exactly what time you should schedule it.
And since a lot has happened in the last year, was time for me to update my block schedule too! So I did it right alongside you when I created the video that goes with this post.
I think it is a good idea to revisit your Block Schedule every year or so because it is natural for your life to change and shift especially as your children get older.
But if you’ve already Put Your Home on Autopilot and have the Autopilot Workbook, all you should need to do when you update is re-print the template, make minor updates, and then get on with your life 🙂
So here is my updated Block Schedule if you’re curious to see it!
Block 1: Morning Block 6:00 am- 10 am
Mom’s Morning Checklist (I’ll be showing you how to create one of these in a later post)
Kid’s Morning Checklist (I’ll be showing you how to create one of these in a later post)
Mom’s Workout Time (checkout this post to see how I find time to workout.)
Start the Laundry
Make Breakfast
Unload the Dishwasher
Eat Breakfast (check out this post for easy, healthy breakfast ideas!)
Family Worship
Cleanup Breakfast
Cleaning Chores of the day (check out this post for my weekly cleaning routine)
Switch the Laundry
Practice Violin
Block 2: Out and About Block 10:00 am- 1:30 pm
Play in the backyard
Go on a hike
Doctor appointments
Dentist appointments
Play dates
Grocery Shopping
Eat Lunch
Clean Up Lunch
Block 3: Naptime Block 1:30 pm- 4:00 pm
Get Ready for Nap/Quiet Time
Nap/Quiet Time
Phone Calls
Mom’s Work Time
Mom’s Personal Time
Block 4: Evening Block 4:00 pm-8:00 pm
Fold Laundry
Prepare Dinner
Play in the Backyard
Outside Time
Music Lessons
Swimming Lessons
Eat Dinner
Clean up Dinner
Family Worship
Kid’s Evening Checklist (I’ll be showing you how to create one of these in a later post)
Block 5: Mom’s Work Block 8:00 pm- 10:30 pm
Mom’s work time
Block 6: Sleep 10:30 pm- 6:00 am
Mom’s Evening Checklist (I’ll be showing you how to create one of these in a later post)
Sleep
Ready to Start Easily Managing Your Home?
If you are ready to get all of your routines in place so that your home practically runs itself, check out my course Put Your Home on Autopilot!
In Put Your Home on Autopilot, you will learn how to set up
A Daily Block Schedule
A Laundry Routine
A Kitchen Cleaning Routine
A Morning Routine for Mom
A Morning Routine for Each Kid
An Evening Routine for Each Kid
An Evening Routine for Mom
A Weekly Cleaning Routine
A Chore Routine for Each Kid
And More!
In just 8 weeks or less you will go from feeling overwhelmed to in control. And if you have any questions along the way, I’m only an email away!
