I like to think I’m organised but in reality, I can easily fall out of good habits and find myself thinking about planning but never really carrying through with my plans.
I’ve got myself into a bit of a mental block at the moment when it comes to organising our daily lives. A rut of buying things on the cuff and getting behind on chores. I have good intentions and maybe it’s just because of maternity leave, but I do need to get my butt into gear. Life is going to be busy when I’m back at work and handling two drop offs and picks ups every day. I need to be on the ball with Ethan and what he needs for school, and making sure we eat well and don’t make bad habits a, well, habit!
I know I can do it if I have a plan of action. I actually get a kick out of planning things out as it makes me feel good to map out what we need, what’s in the budget and how to help things run like clockwork.
I feel that having sorted out our house these past few months has made things a lot easier as everything has its place, so now it’s about getting a system and routine in place so that each morning can run a bit smoother and each evening is a little easier, so I make the most of my time and actually have some left over too each day.
I tell you now, our mornings are going to be like military precision! *crossed fingers*
The two main times where I need things to run smoothly are in the morning when we all head out, together, on time, and when we get home and everyone is hungry.
With this in mind, and with some advice shared by you guys, I’m going to introduce the following:
- Spend an hour or two on Sundays preparing for the week ahead.
- Organise Ethan’s clothes and school items into piles so he has everything all ready to pick up and put on or pack every morning. Sometimes he doesn’t want to dress himself or delays by saying he can’t find things. I’ve ordered some zipped laundry bags and will put in everything he needs for each day into a bag, including a small ziplock bag with coins in for when he goes to the canteen to buy his morning snack, then have these stocked in his cupboard. Then it’s just shoes by the door and a fresh bottle of water and he’s good to go!
- For Sullivan, I’m doing something similar. I don’t know why but it takes me ages to dress him every morning and it’s mainly because I’m trying to pick things to go together. I’ve ordered these ziplock clothes bags so I can put together 10 whole outfits from start to finish - one per day of the working week so I have something ready to wear plus one I can put into the bag for manny’s or nursery as a spare.
- I’ve created a list of meals I can prepare in one go to store for later on the week, and ones which use the same kind of mix of chopped vegetables so even this task is cut down on a Sunday. Meals like bolognese, chilli and Spanish chicken, which can be reheated and added to freshly prepared pasta, jacket potatoes or rice.
- Eating breakfast or lunch is an area I’m bad at when I’m working; I skip meals or end up spending a fortune picking up things on the go. I’m planning on either taking a pack of wraps, falafel, houmous and salad on a Monday so I can prep my lunch freshly each day, at work, or making a few salads or pasta dishes in Tupperware to grab out the fridge each morning.
- For snacks and to reduce my coffee to go habit, I’m going to put together ziplock bags with a yoghurt, piece of fruit, breakfast bar and any other snack we might have in, plus one of those instant flavoured coffee sachets. Again, prepare on a Sunday and ready to grab and go.
Hopefully these steps are easy enough to put in place but helpful in saving precious time each working day.
What are your top tips for helping the daily work / school routine go smoothly?
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