Organising tips for busy mums
It can be near impossible to stay organised as a mum.
As well as trying to organise yourself, you’ve also got to entertain and feed your children, drive them around, and fit in all other motherhood duties.
On top of all of this, you may also be working inside or outside the home, and your list of household chores is never ending.
So, any tips that help busy mums stay organised is something that I love to learn about, and I hope that by writing this other busy mums can learn some great tips to help them as well.
Here are some organising tips for busy mums.
PLAN YOUR MEALS FOR THE WEEK
Planning meals for the week ahead is a great way to minimise the amount of time you think about meal prep on a daily basis.
Investing a chunk of time to plan you meals for the week ahead may feel hard at first, but the amount of time you’ll save each day thinking about what to eat will be worth it.
Here are some tips on how to make meal planning easier, as well as some recipes if you’re stuck for meal planning ideas:
A great way to minimise the amount of meals you have to cook during the week, is to use leftovers for the days you don’t have much time to cook, or you don’t feel like cooking.
When it comes to buying the groceries you need for your weekly meal plan, if you don’t have time to grocery shop, or you don’t like to, then consider getting your groceries delivered.
Depending upon the day of the week, you can get groceries delivered for less that it would cost to drive to the store yourself.
SCHEDULE HOUSEHOLD CHORES
Pick one or two days a week to do particular household chores, and only do them on those days so you don’t spend time doing them, or thinking about them, more often than you need to.
For example, I do laundry on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and change my bed on Sundays.
Try to keep chores as simple as possible. Some examples on how to do this include not changing your entire bed every week if you don’t feel the need to. Instead, just change the sheets and pillowcases one week, and the entire bed the next.
Or you can keep a spare towel in your bathroom so you can regularly wipe down the sink to prevent it from getting too dirty, thereby minimising the amount of time you spend doing a full clean.
DECLUTTER REGULARLY
Instead of making decluttering a mammoth task, I recommend decluttering a different area of your home every week, or whatever frequency suits you.
For example, one week you may decide to declutter and organise your fridge, the next week you may decide to declutter and organise your toy room, and the next week you may decide to declutter your wardrobe.
Decluttering areas often decreases the overall amount of time you spend decluttering your home, as each time you have less things to go through.
Another way to declutter regularly is to set a timer and declutter an area of your house for 10 or 20 minutes a day, so you chip away at it bit by bit.
If you’d like more tips on how to declutter, please visit 11 ways to declutter your home.
UTILISE SMALL POCKETS OF TIME
If you find yourself with a small pocket of time, look around the house to see what you can get done.
Some things that you can get done in small pockets of time include:
- Taking things out of a room that don’t belong there
- Emptying the dishwasher
- Cleaning dishes whilst dinner cooks
- Dusting
- Planning your next day
- Answering emails
- Making an appointment
PLAN YOUR WEEK
Every Sunday I plan my week in my planner or bullet journal so I know what lies ahead, and so I can find pockets of time to do anything extra that may arise.
If planning out your week by pen and paper isn’t your thing, you may decide to combine a bullet journal and Google calendar when planning your week.
A great way to plan your week, and something I try to do, is have a maximum of three to dos a day so I can get my daily to dos achieved, and I don’t have too many days in a row where I wasn’t able to get things done.
REMOVE DISTRACTIONS
Distractions are one of the biggest reasons why I’m not as organised as I’d like to be.
If my phone is near me I end up scrolling social media or answering phone calls when I should be getting things done.
So to avoid distractions and be more organised, I leave my phone in another room, or turn my notifications off until I finish what I’m meant to be doing.
WAKE UP EARLY TO GET THINGS DONE
Waking up early to get things done isn’t the easiest thing to do, especially if you have kids that still wake during the night, but if you can get up even just 30 minutes before your kids it’s amazing what you can get done.
I always feel more motivated to get things done later on in the day if I’ve done something first thing in the morning.
I’m also a big believer in the effect getting yourself ready in the morning has on your productivity and motivation levels. Since having Ryan, I’ve lived by the “put your own oxygen mask on before you put your kids on” saying.
I make a shower my morning priority, getting myself organised in the morning before I meet everyone else’s needs allows me to feel more motivated to get organised for the rest of the day.
Here are 5 things to do in the morning before your kids wake up.
BE STRICT WITH YOUR KID’S BEDTIME
This is a hard one, and something I struggle with.
As a toddler Ryan had a late bedtime, and now as a pre-schooler his bedtime is still late, with the addition that he draws it out by stalling, requesting more books, wanting snacks, and needing water.
When your kids go to bed late, it means that you can’t have anytime to yourself or with your partner, and you can’t get any last to dos done.
The best way to be strict about your kid’s bedtime and work out what time they should go to be is to work backwards.
I’m currently trying to get Ryan to sleep by 730pm. This means dinner at 6pm, bath 6.30pm, and books and songs at 7.00pm.
In order to get things done at the end of the night I need to be strict with these times, even though it’s so hard to begin with. It’s tempting to drag these times out, but whenever you or I want to, just think about the effects a later bedtime has on the time you have for yourself, and the time you have to get some extra things done
SCHEDULE TIME FOR YOURSELF
Make sure you always find a way to schedule some time for yourself, as not having any time for yourself at some point during the week will leave you feeling burnt out, or in my case frustrated with everyone.
Not having any time to yourself will ultimately effect how organised you’ll be over the long term, as it has a big impact on your mental state.
The amount of time you schedule for yourself can be as little as 30 minutes a week, to as much as a day if you’re lucky.
No matter what time you have, make sure you take time to relax and recharge, you deserve it.
DON’T BE SO HARD ON YOURSELF
This isn’t a tip but just a reminder not to be so hard on yourself, this is a reminder for me as well!
It’s impossible to get everything done. Sometimes we need to drop the to do list and just take time out.
I hope there’s some tips here to help you become more organised as a busy mum.
What tips do you have for staying organised?
