The One Mom Hack that Revolutionized my Routine
(and gave me my life back)
When I first got married, I did not have a routine – mainly because house work was not something that came easy, or joyfully to me. I would put it off until the last possible disgusting minute and then be so overwhelmed it would take the entire weekend to catch up on dishes, dusting, laundry, and vacuuming.
When I became a mother I was working as a nurse, and my husband was a full time student. I wanted to spend every possible minute with my daughter and NOT doing house work, so again, trying to schedule house hold tasks would be procrastinated until the last minute. It was exhausting and I had extreme guilt and anxiety. I felt like being a wife and Mother also meant I needed to keep a clean house- and not being able to do that made me feel like a failure.
Time for Self Analysis
After some extreme self-analysis I realized that my main reasons for not wanting to do house work were these:
- It took too long
- It always built up
- I couldn’t focus so I would never finish a task
- It always got out of hand
- I hated losing my Saturday’s to house work.
(Does this sound familiar to you?)
And so I started this system…
- One or two “daily” tasks done every day for no longer than 45 Minutes
- The daily tasks made it so that nothing ever took an overwhelming amount of time
- The 45 Minute timer made it so that I HAD to focus and then I could be done
- Getting things done throughout the week made it so that we could play on Saturdays and I wouldn’t feel behind on house work.
- At the end of each day I do a 30 minute “clean sweep” so that I can start the day with a clean and fresh house. It only takes 30 minutes because the deep clean has already been done.
Did it work?
I have stuck to this system now for 6 years and I can say now that this rhythm has become so routine I don’t even have to think about it anymore. I know what’s coming up, so I don’t stress. Everything gets a good deep clean once a week so I am not worried about it building up. It doesn’t take more than 45 minutes to complete a task, therefore our Saturday’s are reserved for family time!
Build your own weekly Schedule
Here is MY weekly schedule. (What works for me may not work for you and your families/household needs).
Monday: Sweep and Mop all floors, help kids dust and mop their rooms.
We have hard wood floors but you could switch this out for vacuuming, sweeping, swiffering etc.
Tuesday: Laundry Day (and while you’re there clean the laundry room).
I have gone back and forth on this but It really just works for me to focus on folding the laundry all on Tuesday. So I may start some loads Monday afternoon, and then start folding Tuesday. I have a smaller family so one main laundry day works for us.
Wednesday: Bathrooms and Patio
No explanation really needed.
Thursday: Swiffer floors, dust living room and clean windows
The windows could really be done multiple times a week because of tiny baby finger prints but then it drives me crazy even more so I just embrace the finger prints until Thursday knowing I will be able to get to them eventually.
Friday: Wash bedding, Master bedroom, Kitchen (clean out fridge, microwave etc.)
I also always grocery shop on Friday mornings so that we are prepped and ready to go for a fun weekend. I also have begun to incorporate daily tasks to my kids as they get older.
Having a weekly rhythm has simplified housekeeping for me and made it not such a mundane task, I hope it helps you too!
[pinterest count=”horizontal”]
