Confession time. I’m a busy mom and as much as I like schedules, routines, and systems, there are only 24 hours in a day. If I were to accomplish everything on my to-do list most days, I would need another 6-12 hours!
I need systems that are short, to the point, and can be accomplished in 20 minute segments between building Lego castles and changing dirty diapers.
Are you like me? Is it a struggle to find 15-20 minutes to stay on top of your house? Forget about deep cleaning and long to-do lists! We need simplicity! Can I get an amen?!
Keeping a tidy home starts with an effective evening routine. It doesn’t have to be long and tedious. Mine takes me 20 minutes tops (okay maybe 30 minutes if my kitchen is really messy!). It’s a simple system that keeps my house from really getting away from me. I created my routine by using the following principles.
4 Tips to an Effective Evening Routine
1. Prioritize
Only do what is most important to you and your family. For me this means that my floors don’t get swept every night. But the laundry and the dishes must get done. Getting these two things done keeps me sane. My house starts to fall apart when I fall behind on these two things.
2. Turn on some music
I always seem to be more productive and get more done when I’m listening to music. The first thing I do before I even wash a single dish is turn on some music. It gets me motivated and ready to work!
3. Move Quickly
Choose your tasks and then get them done as quickly as possible. I can think of about 100 things off the top of my head that I would rather do than clean my house. But if I just get it done quickly, then it’s not looming over my head. Plus, when I move quickly I can get to more important things…like Fixer Upper! 🙂
4. Set a Timer
You guys will soon see how much I love my timer! It’s seriously my secret mama weapon! I love it best for cleaning. I will usually set my timer when I do my evening routine to see if I can get everything done in 20 minutes. It then becomes a race against the clock! I don’t stop until the timer goes off! When it does, I will usually give myself grace, finish up whatever I’m doing, and head to bed. As long as my dishwasher is running, I’m a happy girl! But when I wake up to a pile of dirty dishes….watch out!
So what’s my evening routine look like?
In this season of my life, it’s about as simple as they come.
- I make sure my kitchen is tidy and my dishwasher is set to run overnight.
- I put away any clean laundry and sometimes start a load of cloth diapers or towels to wash overnight.
- I pick up any toys that are out on the floor in the living room.
That’s it. Are there a bunch of other things I could be doing? Absolutely! My floors could be swept and vacuumed. My bathrooms could be spot cleaned. These things aren’t priorities right now. They don’t make the list so they don’t get done! From time to time I get them done. When they are dirty, I clean them. But not every night. It’s not worth my time right now.
Do you have an evening routine? What does yours look like in your current season of life?
Establishing a great evening routine is one of the first steps to creating more productive days! TODAY Crystal Paine launched her Make Over Your Evenings course! Click the link below to get it at the special launch day price!
FREE Evening Routine printable!
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I like your methods which happen to be much like my cleaning routines. If I don’t get the dishes at night, I quickly get them first thing in the morning. I do my laundry much like you. Towels, sheets and underwear in one load. Jeans will sometimes go with towels. I put lighter fabrics together to wash. I try to always wash jeans and towels together because they are heavy fabrics that will wear thin lighter fabrics faster. I wash most everything on cold. Cold water preserves the color longer. I try not to buy anything that has to be ironed. I hate ironing, and I don’t have a room where I can leave ian iron standing, and I do not want to have to set up an ironing board on a daily basis. I dry clean all of my husbands work clothes. I will occasionally send something of mine to the cleaners, but most of my clothes, even dress clothes, do not have to be dry cleaned or ironed. When my youngest daughter was a baby, I discovered a cleaners that would pick our dry cleaning up from our house for a small fee. This enabled me to get my dry cleaning done wothout my having to get outside with my baby.