These four simple routines will help to make mum life less overwhelming and help you feel calmer and more in control of your life.
There are so many things that we need to keep up with and juggle as mums.
The laundry, appointments, cleaning, meal planning, picking up toys, and therapies (just to name a few)…
It can seem never-ending and it quite often feels like we can never get on top of any of them.
Then we wonder why we are stressed out and overwhelmed!
The best way to feel calm and more in control of everything is with routines.
Routines don’t need to be rigid and strict, routines can be more flexible and adaptable.
They can serve as a prompt and a guideline to help keep you from feeling quite so frazzled by motherhood.
Think of it more as a gentle rhythm that is going to help you feel calm.
Here are three routines that will help you to get started in making your days feel easier, calmer and more predictable in a way that doesn’t make you feel like you have even more you need to do.
Evening routine
You may have heard this before but your morning routine starts the night before.
The most important step in having a good morning routine, is to have a good evening routine.
There are so many things to think about and need to be done in the morning, thinking ahead and getting some things done the night before is going to make your morning so much less stressful.
One of the worst feelings is waking up and feeling like you are already behind.
Think about what needs to be done in the morning and then make a list of those things that don’t have to be done in the morning.
Things like:
- getting clothes ready the night before
- packing bags or school bags
- making packed lunches (just add fresh bits in the morning)
- making a todo list for the next day
It doesn’t take that long once you get into the routine of it, and it will reduce your stress levels so much.
Which is also helpful for a better nights sleep! Which is something that also helps keep our stress levels in check.
Morning routines
How your morning goes will set the tone for the rest of your day.
If you have a really stressful, chaotic morning where everything goes wrong it tends to leave us feeling a bit ‘meh’ for the rest of the day.
So to counteract that, having a morning rhythm or routine will help things go a bit more smoothly and help you to go into the rest of your day on a more positive note!
Here are some things you can add into your morning routine to get things off to a smoother start:
- Wake before your kids
- Have a cup of tea and drink it warm and in silence
- Do something that makes you feel good e.g. exercise, work on a project you love, read your book in peace
- Do some journalling
- Stay off your phone if you can
Some tasks that take care of your home are also good to add into your morning routine.
Things like:
- Opening curtains
- Making beds
- Emptying the dishwasher
- Putting some laundry on
They might not sound like the most fun things to add to your morning routine, but those kind of tasks are really important, they are the base layer of tasks.
When they get done, if something unexpected does crop up in your day then you have got the basics done to keep your home and life running just a bit smoother.
These are just a few examples, if you want some more help on creating a morning routine that works for you, give one of these blog posts a read:
The secret to a stress-free school run
The secret to calmer mornings in general, especially if you are a caregiving mum is so add in buffer time.
Most mornings something unexpected crops up and just having that 5/10 minutes of extra buffer time really makes a huge difference to how calm our morning routine is.
Nothing makes you stressed for the rest of the day like a stressful morning where you are running late and putting out fires left, right and centre.
Make your life a little less stressful by making a morning routine that works for you.
Cleaning Routines
Keeping on top of your home can seem like an impossible task if you don’t have a routine.
Not only does having a cleaning routine actually help you to keep on top of your home, it actually seriously helps with the mental load we carry as mums.
Your cleaning routine can be a form of self-care.
Thinking about the things that need to be cleaned or all the things that need to be taken care of in your home can take up a huge chunk of our brains.
Having a cleaning routine or a homemaking routine helps with that because it helps you create a designated day/time where you are going to deal with that task.
So instead of spending time stressing about how much your floor needs a mop and not knowing when the last time you even did it, you can just know that on a Thursday you mop the floors and it will get done then and you don’t have to think about it until then.
Unless it needs an emergency clean because…kids.
Or the dog usually in our home!
The beauty of it is, if you miss a Thursday – there is always going to be a next Thursday.
A cleaning routine doesn’t need to be this rigid, inflexible thing because being a mum, especially if you are a caregiving mum, it just won’t work.
It’s meant to be a guide, just a gentle way to get you back on track when life gets a bit crazy and a gentle way to help you keep on top of everything when things are not quite so crazy.
As they say, calm home = calm mind.
Which is definitely true in my case.
When our home feels chaotic, I feel chaotic.
Having a cleaning routine will allow you to break the cleaning down into manageable chunks, which actually work for your life and it is going to make it less overwhelming and actually doable.
Remember, you are not aiming for a magazine perfect home – you are aiming for a calm home.
A home that is somewhere you can escape to, and not somewhere that you want to escape from.
If you are ready to make a cleaning routine, some of these other blog posts will help!
How to make a daily cleaning routine
How to keep your home clean in the school holidays
The simple way I keep on top of cleaning and decluttering our home
How to re-frame cleaning your home as self-care
Weekly planning routine
A weekly routine might not be the first thing you think of, but it helps bring everything together.
A weekly routine is going to be the thing that helps you feel like you are in control and on top of everything and less like you are drowning in it all.
For your weekly routine, the best way I have found to do it is to sit down with a cuppa when you have a little bit of free time – you need 15-30 minutes, and if you don’t have that, you can just do sections when you have a minute.
Things to plan into your weekly routine:
- What appointments do you have this week?
- What is going on in school etc
- Do you need to arrange child care/someone to do school run for you etc
- When are you going to do your cleaning?
- When will you fit some movement in?
- When will you fit in physio/therapy time etc
- Make your meal plan for the week
- Make your todo list for the week – does anything need to be done on certain days?
Having a weekly planning session is going to be so helpful in stopping you feeling overwhelmed.
Knowing that you are going in to your week with the child-care sorted, you have meals planned out, there won’t be (as many) surprises (such as everyone needing to wear red on Friday and you only realise Thursday evening) – will make you feel so much more in control of your life.
There are so many things that we can’t control, but focusing on the things that we do have control over does really help our stress levels.
Remember your routines don’t need to be perfect or to suit everyone – they just need to suit you and your family.
The point of them is to make life easier, not harder and just a little less stressful.
Which routine do you need most in your life?
Let know know in the comments, and if you need any help making your own routine, let me know and I will be happy to help!
Beth x
