Whether you’re a stay-at-home mom, work-at-home mom, or work outside of the home mom, being a home manager is hard. We all struggle to keep it together. Our living rooms can go from calm to chaos in the matter of seconds and don’t even get me started on the dishes and laundry! Managing a home is tough work and definitely not for the faint at heart.
I have a 16 month old and 5 year old running around my house pulling out every possible toy, pot, pan, wooden spoon, cloth diaper, bag of goldfish, and pillow I have in my house on a daily basis. For some reason it is fun to carry these things around the house and drop them in random places.
In the past this has caused me a lot of stress and frustration because half of what they’ve pulled out didn’t really have a home to begin with or was junk that I didn’t want in the first place. Cleaning up unwanted items was draining. I’ve gone through phases throughout my life of becoming overwhelmed by the chaos in my home and decided in was time to get rid of the junk. My mom and I joke that when either one of us gets on a mission, “Watch Out!”
Well, a few months ago I began a mission to completely rid my home of absolutely everything that I or my family did not use or love. It hasn’t been easy, but it’s been life changing. All of a sudden, my home management duties have become easier.
I mentioned to my husband a few days ago that we are both doing a lot better about keeping the kitchen clean, particularly at night after dinner. Getting the laundry done is easier because I don’t have to dread going into a cluttered laundry room. Keeping my closet tidy and picking out clothes each morning has become easier because I only have clothes that I truly love.
Managing my home has become easier because I simply have less stuff to manage.
You see, managing our homes isn’t easy. But there are things we can do to set ourselves up for success. We don’t always need elaborate checklists, rigid schedules, or perfect routines. You may be setting yourself up for failure if you haven’t taken the proper steps first.
If you constantly feel like your failing at home management, these 6 steps will help you clear the chaos and bring some calm into your home once and for all.
1. Clear Out the Clutter
Please do yourself a favor and rid your home from the clutter that you are under.
Is it going to be a big job? Yes.
Will it take you weeks or even months to finish? Probably.
Is it easy to do with kids? Nope, it sure isn’t.
But is it worth it? YES! YES! YES!
Clearing out the clutter from our home has lowered my stress levels. My anxiety and frustration are down. I’m a happier wife and mom and I don’t yell as often.
There is empty space in my home and my closets aren’t bursting with stuff I don’t use. I’m not constantly looking at piles of things thinking about how I need to get this done or that done. It’s just all gone and it’s freeing.
Clearing out the clutter is the very first step you should take if you are struggling to be a successful home manager.
2. Only Keep What You Use or Love
When you are clearing out the clutter, be ruthless. Don’t keep things out of obligation because they were a gift or because they belonged to you great aunt Martha’s cousin. If you don’t love that item or use it regularly, then out it goes!
By contrast, if it’s something you truly love, then by all means keep it. Display it prominently and use it frequently so that you can enjoy it. Do you have a set of beautiful dishes packed away for when special guests come over, but they never seem to come? Get rid of your everyday dishes you don’t like and display those special ones prominently in your cabinet so you can use them every single day.
Keep what you love, store what you use, and get rid of the rest.
3. Create a Designated Place for Everything
Once your home is free from clutter and you only have what you use and love it’s time to find a home for everything. Don’t leave anything out. Extra pens, hair ties, chapstick, everything. Try to make one single home for every object that lives in your home so that at the end of a busy day it has a place to go back to.
If you can accomplish this step, you won’t be constantly left with piles at the end of the night that you don’t know what to do with. I’ve been there, done that. It’s not fun!
Side note: When you are out shopping, try to ask yourself if you have a home for it. If you do, you will use it and love it, then by all means purchase it if the funds are available. However, if you don’t have a place to store it, then you may need to rethink your purchase. Decluttering your home can really save you money in the future! 😉
4. Streamline As Much As Possible
Once you have accomplished the first three steps, you need to start streamlining your day to day tasks as much as possible. Think about the tasks that take you a lot of time each day. This might be putting on your makeup or picking out your clothes. It could be doing the dishes or cleaning up the toys. Whatever tasks are sucking up your time need to be streamlined and simplified.
If picking out your clothes for the day takes you tons of time in the morning, then try picking them out the night before. If putting on your makeup seems to take you forever, then organize your makeup into a caddy or drawer unit where everything is sorted by type. If you are always behind on the dishes, try setting your dishwasher to run overnight and making it a priority to have the dishwasher emptied by 9am each day. Find simple ways to simplify your day so that you can spend less time on the mundane tasks.
5. Set Priorities
By this point, your days should seem smoother, lighter, and easier. However, you still may need to set priorities for yourself and your home so that you can get the most important things done first. Let’s face it, as moms we rarely get to the bottom of our to do list each day!
Currently, my daily home management priorities are:
- Daily 3: Dishes, Laundry, Clean Bathrooms
- Food Prep
- Weekly Cleaning
- Quick Pick up at Night
These are the things I absolutely must accomplish in a day or throughout the week. Even if I have a crazy busy day, if I can just dedicate 20-30 minutes to get to my home management priorities, then I will feel better and more accomplished at the end of the day. I also know that my house isn’t going to fall apart and I’m setting myself up for success the next day.
6. Work at It Every Single Day
If you are living in the rat race of home management, then you are probably setting yourself up for failure. The rat race looks something like this:
The house is in shambles and has been for days. It’s eating away at your motivation and draining your energy. You finally come to a point where you snap and spend an entire day getting the house back in order. By that night, you are done and exhausted and don’t want to think about cleaning, tidying, decluttering, organizing, or simply managing a home for several days. The days pass by and the piles creep back in and you are right back where you started.
Does this should familiar?
This is how I lived my life for so many years. I felt like I was constantly behind and spinning my wheels, but never really getting anywhere. It finally hit me that if I didn’t keep up with daily maintenance I would be stuck in this vicious cycle forever.
This is why working on managing your home has to be a daily task. If you are going to be successful, you will need to do a little bit every day. Does this mean you have to clean your house every day? No! Absolutely not! If that was the case, no one would want to do it! However, these tasks may need to be done daily:
- Put your dirty clothes in the laundry hamper instead of on the floor
- Fold and put away clean laundry at the end of the day instead of leaving it in the laundry basket
- Empty your dishwasher each morning and run it each night
- Clean up the dinner dishes before going to bed
- Take 5 minutes each night to put away anything that was left out
- Wipe down the bathroom counters to remove spilt water, toothpaste, and hair (Is it just me or do your children make the biggest messes at the bathroom counter too?!)
- Sweep up crumbs from under the table after each meal or at the end of the day
- Run a load of laundry each morning
Do you necessarily need to do all of these? No, probably not. It will depend on the season of life you are in. If you live alone, then you may only need to wash laundry once or twice a week. If you have kids, particularly young boys, you may need to thoroughly clean your bathroom each day. Do what works for you. Just do something every day.