7 Tips For An Organised Family and Home

Running a household and keeping track of everything that is going on in your family life is not an easy task. It is important to be organized and to find a way to run everything that works for you and your family. You may have already found things that work for you through trial and error, here are some tried and tested tips for an organized household that you can adopt as your own.

Have A Morning Routine

Starting the day off on the wrong foot can impact your entire day and that of your husband and kids too. Having a good morning routine ensure that the day starts off right and very often when the day starts right it has a better chance of staying on track throughout the day.

You can make your mornings easier with kids by following a few simple principles.

• Make sure to get up earlier than your kids to get a head start.
• Wake your kids up at the same time every day – with plenty of time to get ready so you don’t have to rush.
• Make sure your kids know the routine and what is expected of them.
• Stay calm – things will never turn out better if you lose your temper.

Have A Weekly Schedule

Create a weekly schedule and include all your kids school sports and activities, as well as any other regular errands that need to be done each week. Make sure that the schedule is visible for everyone. Putting your weekly schedule on the fridge is a great idea – it’s usually the most visited place in the house for all family members.

For younger children let them know every evening what is happening the next day and in the morning remind them again so that there are no surprises.

Have A Cleaning Routine and Chores/ Errands Roster

Make a complete list of everything that needs to be done in the home and how often. Include chores and errands that need to be done such as shopping. Then divide everything up between all family members accommodating for things like age and how much time each person has available at the home.

If one family member works or studies full time make sure to give that family member less duties. Give young children a few chores that will teach him about responsibility such as making his own bed and tidying his toys. As your child grows up he can start taking on more responsibility in the home.

Make sure that your cleaning and errands roster is also clearly visible for everyone to see and ensure that everyone knows and understands what is expected of them.

Make Use Of Technology

Technology is making life a lot easier and more hassle free.

Instead of having someone responsible for vacuuming the home make them responsible for turning on the robotic vacuum cleaner, its a lot more fun and less work – so it is more likely they will do it.

When you need to replace any appliances look at getting smart appliances. If you get a smart washing machine you won’t need to remember to put it on first thing in the morning. You can set it to turn on early in the morning while you are sleeping so by the time you get up your washing is ready to hang up.

You can also set your coffee machine to have a fresh pot of coffee ready as soon as you open your eyes.

In this day and age there is an app for everything and keeping organized in the home is no different.

We recommend that you try the S’moresUp family app. It is free and it will help you manage your family calendar and household chores.  It is brilliant for parenting in that you can also include teaching kids values as well as set up a rewards system that will help your children work towards goals and be more responsible. It is a dream for co-parenting and for connecting families.

You can download it here at iTunes and it will soon be available on Android too.

Preparation Is Key

Set aside some time each day for preparation tasks such as setting out clothes for the next day, preparing school and work lunches, getting sports and activity clothing and equipment ready.

If you are ready for the day before you get up everything will run a lot more smoothly than if you are running around in the morning wondering where your kid’s hockey socks are.

Get your children involved in preparation too so that it becomes a good habit for them. Go over the next day’s schedule with them and make sure that they have all their things packed and ready to go.

Plan Your Meals and Shopping

Planning your meals and your shopping will save you so much time and effort, as well as money too.

Wondering what to cook every day for every meal is tiring. Planning your meals takes the effort out of the daily thought process, it also means that you will be cooking healthier meals for your family, as well as preparing better school and work lunches.

Make A To Do List

Keeping an up to date to do list is essential for keeping yourself organized and completing everything you need to do on time.

Don’t make notes all over the place – decide on one place to keep your to do list and keep it up to date and cross off everything that you have completed.

Using an app is great for this, but many moms like to have a bullet journal instead – the choice is yours so choose whatever works best for you.

Make sure to prioritize your list so that you get the most important things done first.