Routines & Time Archives | A Personal Organizer

How To Stick To A Routine During The Holidays

By Helena Alkhas
Filed Under: Christmas & New Year, Living, Organizing For The Holidays & Gift Guides, Routines & Time

Use These Strategies To Create A Routine You Can Stick To During The Holidays

The busyness of the holidays makes it seem like there is no place for any kind of routine. But oh the irony in that thinking! There is no more important time to stick to a routine than during the holidays. While the chaos circles around us, our routines are like anchors that keep our minds peaceful and focused, or bodies rested, and our family and home life running smoothly.

While the chaos circles around us, our routines are like anchors that keep our minds peaceful and focused, or bodies rested, and our family and home life running smoothly.

Keep Your Routine Simple

A routine is not the same thing as a schedule. A schedule is a list of items organized by date and time that can change daily, weekly, or monthly.

On the other hand, a routine is more like a rhythm that you and your family follow. Routines usually switch up seasonally to accommodate for things like Summer break, holidays, etc.

My household routines, for example, change significantly around the boys’ school and sports’ schedules as well as seasonally.

The biggest advantage of a routine is that it creates touchpoints throughout your busy days that let your brain know when familiar things are going to happen.

Things like breakfast, lunches, and dinner, family time, quiet time, nap times (for younger children…or moms!), errand days, specific cleaning routines, and bedtimes. Having a routine reduces stress for the whole family.

Adjust Your Routine At The Beginning Of The Season

It’s safe to say that most of us start to feel the holiday buzz as back to school is well underway. It’s a good idea to check in with your routine at the end of September and see how it is working for you and your family.

With cooler days starting to pop up, our rhythms also change. You might want to stay longer in bed or skip the evening walks you loved during the summer. Think about how you can include exercising in your schedule to stay healthy and active.

Your meal planning will most likely change as well. Not only we’re looking for slow-cooked, comfort foods but the available vegetables are changing forcing us to update the menu.

Finally, your closet will ask for a change and now it’s a great time to declutter your closet and the kids’ closets too! Small items can be sent to donation and you can make a list of what the kiddos will need for the colder months ahead.

If you have a hard time letting go of the kids’ clothing (I know, they grow so fast!), you may find it easier if you find a family in need to give their clothes to. It’s very comforting to know people who need will make great use of things you loved and cared.

Make any adjustments you need to before the holidays get underway.

3 Holiday Routine Must-Haves

Every person and every family is different. Creating a successful routine that you will stick to requires taking everyone’s needs into consideration. Here are a few things that should be a part of everyone’s holiday routine.

1. Maintain your bedtime

The always crucial and sometimes elusive, sleep. However difficult it may seem to squeak in those 7-8 hours a night, especially during the busy holiday times. In order to keep things running smoothly, you need to make good, consistent sleep a priority for you and your family. Sleep is the cornerstone of good health, both mental and physical.

2. Maintain your morning routine

This one is also very important. It’s always a good idea to try to catch the whole family together for even 10 minutes in the morning over the breakfast table to check-in on what everyone has going on during the day. Making this a priority of your routine will bring confidence in hectic times that no one is missing anything or important things are being forgotten.

3. Maintain mealtimes

Meal plan ahead for the whole month if you can and stick to it. Preparing ahead by menu planning, food prepping, and cooking at regular times will save you and your family from endless fast food and take out runs. Eating out all the time is not only unhealthy, but it’s also expensive!

Conclusion

These tips will help you adjust your routine and create one that you can stick to during the busy holiday season. Hectic times are when we need our routines the most. Give yourself the git of a stress-free holiday season with a great family routine that will keep your whole family happy and healthy during the holidays!

Do you have a routine that works for you? Need some help with creating one? Ask me your questions in the comments and check out this post!

How to Plan Your Monthly Family Calendar For The New School Year

By Helena Alkhas
Filed Under: Organizing, Paper, Routines & Time

Use these tips to plan your monthly family calendar of routines and activities to reduce stress and keep the whole family running smoothly as you transition from Summer to back to school.

Your “month planning day” should ideally happen on the first day of the month, simply because it will be an easy reminder for you. This will give you a long-term idea of what is to come, how far you need to plan ahead, what resources and materials you need to buy or schedule and best of all when you will have free time for yourself and for your loved ones.

As we move towards the end of Summer and get ready to transition into another school year, these monthly planning days are an indispensable part of keeping your family routines and schedules on point.

1. Gather Your Supplies & Information

For this planning I suggest you have with you:
–          Your personal calendar
–          Your spouse’s calendar
–          Your family calendar, if you use one. You can download a family to-do calendar right here.

I use a calendar that has a 2-page “month view” space where I write down all the appointments, events, and deadlines I need to fulfill in the following month. It also has enough space to write my
1. Appointments,
2. A Task List and
3. Daily Notes.

Find one that fits you the best. There’s really no ideal calendar, one-size-fits-all. Electronic or paper, make sure you stick to one that fit your needs and how you like to use it.

2. Review Your Information & Schedules

Now that you are ready, go through your notes, all those pieces of paper you have scattered around the house, close to the phone, or in your purse and go through them, one by one, putting down on your calendar the appointment that was made, the phone call you’ll have to return or that deadline you have coming up.

Using the information of your spouse’s calendar, fill in – I use a different color for my husband’s schedule – any information that is relevant for your family schedule, like “dinner on 05/18”. Knowing when you can count on your spouse for dinner, kids pick up or drop off has a direct impact on your planning – and your sanity.

Next, enter all the kids’ classes, practice time, appointments, school exams, play dates, and parties. If it’s easier for you, use different colors here too.

Now that you have everybody listed on your calendar, you can already see which days are going to be tight in time – and therefore require a more flexible dinner, homework, house chores schedule and the days you will actually have time to do the laundry, enjoy your family sitting around the table or even your favorite TV show.

I also like to include my household chores in my planning. I like to know that the kids won’t be living out of laundry baskets or that there won’t be dinner because I didn’t shop for the week. So, checking on your already planned calendar, look in what day of the week you could include your laundry and your grocery shopping.

Many moms like to cook some of the week dinners on Sunday and freeze them or that prepare double batches and freeze one (my personal favorite). This is a great solution if you work out of the house or if you spend your afternoons driving the kids to their practices – or in my case, both. Nothing better than getting home knowing you are ready for dinner!

3. Plan Your Menu For The Month

Plan your meals ahead, make a list of what you need and while you are at it, check your pantry. You will have accomplished 2 great things:
–          A month’s worth of peace of mind, because you know what’s coming.
–          A list of dinners for the following weeks and
–          The grocery list of all you need to feed your kids hungry tummies!

4. “Sync” Your Calendars

Finally, if you use a family calendar (like the kitchen one), put down all the main events you marked in yours. This will give you a source of information when you are answering the phone while cooking and need to give an answer there and now.

5. Celebrate & Stay On Top Of It

Now go ahead and give yourself a round of applause. You are on your way to enjoying a smooth month and a smooth transition into the new school year!

This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it. — Ralph Waldo Emerson — This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Get organized and start saving time, for the rest of your life!

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Everyday Organizing Solutions For Busy Moms

By Helena Alkhas
Filed Under: Laundry & Linens, Organizing, Routines & Time

Use these everyday organizing solutions to make your daily life as a busy mom simpler.

For most families, weeknights are busy and hectic. Between homework, getting dinner on the table and making sure everyone’s in bed on time, there’s not much time for anything else.

Then Saturday rolls around, and you have an entire week’s worth of cleaning and organizing to do in one day. But isn’t Saturday supposed to be a day when you can put your feet up, read a good book, go to a sports game or spend time with family and friends? You deserve to enjoy a day without the demands of housework!

Use these daily organizing tips to keep your home organized and clutter-free throughout the week. They’re simple, fast and will prevent huge pile-ups of to-dos come the weekend. Here is a weekly planner that can help you map out what you need to get done during the week. You can also access the entire organizing vault for free by subscribing here.

1. Cook multiple meals at a time

Set aside 1-2 hours immediately after grocery shopping to cook meals and prepare ingredients.

When you plan meals for the week, choose recipes that use similar ingredients. Cook a large batch of food at one time and store it in the refrigerator until later in the week.

For meals that need to be prepared just before serving, prep as many ingredients as you can. Chop veggies, cook meat and shred cheese.

Organizing tips for busy moms. Williams Sonoma Cuisinart-multi-cooker — {I call this the “Mercedes Benz” of crockpots. And I love mine!}

2. Designate space for “unloading.”

Keep a small bin or basket near your front door to place your phone, wallet, keys, and loose change in. As soon as you come home, empty your wallet or purse of receipts and other items. You’ll never lose your keys again.

Everyday organizing solutions - Pottery Barn Entrance Organizing Solutions — {Pottery Barn Entrance Organizing Solutions}

3. Do laundry during the week

You could choose one night of the week to do the majority of your family’s laundry and make folding part of the evening’s activities. Or, toss a load into the wash just before you head to work in the morning. As soon as you get home, move it to the dryer. Your clothes will be ready to be folded and put away after dinner. I fold my mid-week laundry load while watching the news or something yummy on FoodNetwork.

Everyday organizing solutions - Gabrielle Laundry System — {Image Pottery Barn – Gabrielle Laundry System}

4. Sort mail as soon as you check it

If you don’t have 10 minutes to review your mail, don’t check the mailbox.

As soon as you pick up your mail, sort the important letter from the junk.

Immediately toss or recycle sales flyers and other junk mail you don’t want. Then read your other mail and, if required, take action immediately. If a bill is due, pay it right away. If something needs to be filed, walk it over to your filing cabinet immediately.

5. Wash the dishes every evening

After dinner, ask everyone in your household to place excess food in your trash or compost pile and load their dishes into the dishwasher.

Before you go to bed, run the dishwasher. With breakfast and dinner behind you, it should be full and ready to roll.

Running the washer at night guarantees, you’ll never have any dishes laying in the sink overnight and sets you up to stay on top of the dishes throughout the week. Plus, it feels fantastic to grab your coffee in the morning on a clean sink!

Traditional Kitchen by Pasadena Interior Designers & Decorators A. Peltier Interiors

6. Keep a family or household calendar

Put a large calendar in a place everyone can access, like on the refrigerator. Have everyone in your household put important events, obligations, and reminders on the calendar.

Every night before bed, review the next day to ensure you haven’t forgotten about anything. A shared calendar makes it easy for everyone to see what’s coming up and avoid scheduling conflicts.

organizing printables — Home Management Binder – Editable PDF files for you to download and use for years to come!

Resources for busy moms that I’m totally in love with:

100 Days of Real Food

Once a Month Meals

Simply Living Mama

Want a resource that will help you organize your home, routines, meals, and kids’ schedules all in one package? Grab the Purposeful Life Binder and organize every part of your home and life.

Grammarly proofread this post.

Summer Routine For Kids At Home

By Helena Alkhas
Filed Under: Kids, Organizing, Routines & Time, Summer

How To Organize And Create A Summer Routine For Kids At Home

Summer break is almost here, and we are all preparing for longer days, more outside time and having our kiddos home. Even though we all love the ease of Summer, it can quickly turn into a household of chaos. From disorganized mealtimes to scheduling conflicts, a lack of a Summer routine can throw the best of us off balance in a cinch if we don’t prepare. Here are some great tips on how to create a Summer routine for kids at home.

When you start to think about preparing for Summer with kids at home, you’ll want to take a look at how certain areas of your home are organized and then rearrange some things to fit the function they will have in your Summer routine. You’ll also want to check in on your daily routine and see how this will change, make a note of changes, and adjust.

Let’s start with organizing your homes hot zones for a Summer routine with kids at home.

1. Entryways and Mudrooms

In the colder months, our entryway closets and mudrooms are stacked with winter coats, scarves, hats, gloves, and heavy boots. Now that it’s warming up, you’ll want to switch out what you keep in these high-traffic areas.

Put away everything you don’t need and store it for next Winter. A few good ideas for what to keep in your Summer entryway and mudrooms for Summer are: flip flops, light jackets, hats, sunblock, bug spray, outdoor toys, tote bags.

2. The Kitchen

Start by clearing out your pantry, fridge, and freezer. Make room in your refrigerator or more fresh veggies and fruits from those farmer’s market trips. Create a space or a bin where you can keep some pre-cut fruits and veggies for grab and go snacks.

Making your kitchen kid-friendly during the Summer months will save you hours in a hot kitchen. To continue your kitchen refresh, check out my top 10 kitchen organizing tips.

3. Your Car

As the weather warms up, everyone gears up for day trips, weekend getaways, and Summer vacation. Your car collects Winter items as well, so take this time to remove snow scrapers, hats, and gloves, etc. If you don’t have one, pick up a trunk organizer.

Keep items like sunblock, bug spray, a first aid kit, sun hats, towels, bottles of water, a blanket for those impromptu picnics, and a change of clothes for each child. Here are my tips for getting your car ready for the Summer.

4. Your Garage

In your garage, you will want to move large Winter items, like snow blowers and winter sports gear to the back and move Summer items, like lawnmowers, weed whackers, and other yard care items, as well as outdoor sports and play equipment to a more easily accessible area.

Complete your garage refresh with my 5 best garage organizing tips.

Now let’s look at your routine for your Summer with kids at home. Here is a step-by-step method for re-assessing your calendar for the Summer months.

Look at what holidays, birthdays, events, camps, trips you have planned and mark these onto your schedule for June, July, and August.
Assess how much time you have left each week after these commitments are all planned out.
Remember not to overschedule! Always leave more time than you think you will need to guarantee free days to relax and enjoy being home with your family. You will also want to leave space for impromptu items.
Look at your daily routine. Here, you’ll want to make any adjustments to mealtimes, bedtimes, and downtime during the day.
Summer days are longer, which means if you have little ones at home, you will need to have a plan for an extra activity or two throughout the days.

Summer daily routines can be looser in structure, but a few “touch points” during the day will keep everyone feeling better.

Mealtimes are a great thing to keep on a schedule to create a nice rhythm to your days and avoid meltdowns.

Keeping a chore chart is also an excellent way to keep your home humming along in the Summer.

As we welcome the carefree days that the Summer brings, having a routine in place will help us avoid a slow slide into disorder and stress. All humans, especially children, need a little bit of structure or rhythm to our days to keep us balanced, healthy, and happy.

What are your Summer plans? Share them in the comments with me!

Grammarly proofread this post.

Hiring Help In A DIY Culture

By Helena Alkhas
Filed Under: Organizing, Routines & Time

Getting Help When Needed Is A Good Thing

DIY has been the craze for a while now and there is no sign of it slowing down any time soon. There are entire TV channels dedicated to “how to” shows. Craftiness and homemade products have come into vogue. A quick search on Pinterest can teach you how to make homemade laundry detergent, design your own jewelry, and cook delicious meals.

The increased awareness and knowledge of how to do it yourself benefits everyone. However, the downside of our DIY culture is that it can make it harder to ask for help. If you’re a busy professional, you may not have the time or desire to clean your home. Most parents, swamped with so many responsibilities, would love to have someone else cook their family’s meals.

If you have the financial means to do so, outsourcing housekeeping, laundry, and other errands can free up more of your time for the things you enjoy doing — even if that happens to be making homemade laundry detergent.

1. Getting Help: Cleaning

Housekeeping is laborious, physically exhausting, and time-consuming. It’s the type of work that never ends. If you don’t enjoy it, you’ll likely procrastinate to avoid cleaning. Over time, your home will become more and more cluttered. If you regularly see dust bunnies roll across your floor, it is time to hire help.

If you feel that hiring a housekeeper is a poor use of money, consider it thoughtfully. Say it takes you 6 to 8 hours — almost a full day — to thoroughly clean your home. Is it really worth it? A small team of cleaners can easily run through a large house in about two. Having the time to focus on activities that are important to you, be it your work or your family, and still be able to enjoy having a clean home, is worth the small investment.

Transitional Bathroom by Toronto Interior Designers & Decorators barlow reid design

2. Getting Help: Laundry

Between the sorting, washing, drying, folding, and placing it back in their respective closets, laundry can become a real hassle. Many dry cleaners also offer “wash and fold” services. Call around to see who in your area provides laundry services.

If you live in a large metropolitan area, some launderers will pick up your dirty clothes from your home and deliver them back to you the next day. What’s easier than that?

Transitional Laundry Room by Toronto Interior Designers & Decorators barlow reid design

3. Getting Help: Childcare

Daycare isn’t just for working professionals. Caring for children is a full-time job. If you need time to work, go to the gym, or practice some self-care, consider hiring part-time childcare.

Care.com lists babysitters, nannies and au pairs. These childcare providers have background checks and are reviewed by others in your area. You can find part-time childcare within your budget.

Contemporary Kids by London Architects & Building Designers MATT architecture LLP

4. Getting Help: Cooking

Cooking involves recipe planning, grocery shopping and hours of standing over the stove. Blue Apron takes the work out of home-cooked meals. They’ll send you delicious recipes along with the ingredients in the mail. All you have to do to whip up a quick dinner is assemble the ingredients included.

Or, if grocery shopping is the real time-waster, choose a service like Instacart. Order groceries online and have them delivered to your home whenever it’s most convenient.

Transitional Kitchen by Toronto Interior Designers & Decorators barlow reid design

5. Getting Help: Errands

Weekly errands like grocery shopping, picking up the dry cleaning and filling up the car with a tank of gas can consume an entire weekend. Services like Task Rabbit give you the opportunity to outsource your most dreaded errands. These “Taskers” will help with anything from shopping to handyman services.

If Task Rabbit, or a similar service, doesn’t operate in your area, place an ad on Craigslist. Many people make extra money by doing side projects in the evenings and on weekends.

Spaces by Ellijay Interior Designers & Decorators decordemon

6. Getting Help: Moving

Though many people hire movers to transport their belongings from one home to the next, you can also hire help for the other aspects of your move.

A professional organizer can help you sort through your belongings and decide which items should be donated or thrown away. An organizer or move manager will also be able to “organize” your move by ordering packing supplies, helping you pack and coordinating which boxes belong in which rooms. That way, when you arrive at your new home, everything will be where it belongs.

What are your most dreaded household chores? For me, it is cleaning. What would you gladly outsource? How do you think getting help could improve your life?

Before you go, don’t forget to subscribe to the newsletter and get access to my entire vault of organizing printables and tools.

Creating A Cleaning Routine You Use And Keep

By Helena Alkhas
Filed Under: Living, Routines & Time

Organizing Your Cleaning Routine

We love keeping our homes tidy at all times. A clean, beautiful home is always a joy to come home to, but perhaps one of the biggest challenges of every parent is how to create a cleaning routine and make it happen!

Cleaning the house is part of our daily lives and the time to take care of it should be considered in your calendar, but when you’re a parent juggling work and taking care of a family, where do you even begin?

Do you start in the kitchen, the bedrooms or the living rooms? Do you clean daily or weekly? If you have a big family, how do you even know which chores to do first when so many things demand your attention?

Creating a house cleaning routine can help you keep peace and order in your home.

Depending on your personal circumstances, establishing a simple cleaning routine is key. I suggest creating and getting in the habit of doing both a daily and weekly cleaning schedule, involving everyone in the family to get things done faster and easier.

Getting your family involved is essential. Our kids gain life skills and we regain our time (and may I say sanity?)

When creating a cleaning routine, consider the following:

What chores and cleaning tasks need to be done daily?
What chores and cleaning tasks need to be done weekly?
How much time can you (realistically) allot on a daily basis for chores?
What are the minor and major chores?

It’s important to list down your answers to these questions first. Each home may be different, but obviously, there are chores we all cannot do without.

To help you get things done, delegate tasks to each member of the family. My boys, for example, help out in getting the trash out weekly and keeping their bathrooms tidy by wiping down the countertops and toilet rim every night while my husband will take care of cleaning up the kitchen after dinner.

Breaking down tasks is something I find very helpful in establishing routines so I suggest tackling 5 major cleaning tasks per day, and one or two major tasks on weekends.

Here’s a simple outline of cleaning tasks you can do on a daily and weekly basis. Of course, you should tailor this list according to your particular needs:

Daily Cleaning Routine

I suggest using a timer for tasks. For daily tasks, for example, set your timer for 15-30 minutes a day and do what you can for each task. With just a few minutes of work, you’ll easily be able to keep chaos at bay!

For weekends, the time you’ll spend on each task will vary, so just set a specific time, like from 9 to 12. Knowing when you will be done with these tasks will help you be motivated to get things done and you can reward yourself with a nice lunch afterward for example.

A few core tasks you can do on a daily basis are the following:

Clean the kitchen after preparing meals or after everyone is done eating.
Empty the dishwasher.
Wipe down the kitchen counter and the stove.
Make the beds. As the kids grow up, get them to clean their rooms weekly using the list below.
Give the bathroom sink and/or walls a quick wipe-down. My favorite products for these tasks are wipes and Mr. Cleaner white sponge.
Check common pockets of disorder. My daily routine includes a walk around the common areas of the house with a basket where I collect everything that’s out of place. As I walk through the rooms, I put things in their place. If I don’t have the time or energy, at least things are contained and I can take care of it during the weekend.
If you have some extra time, use this to put away things like magazines in the living room or tidy up stuff left by the kids in the hall.

Stock And Organize Your Cleaning Products

Before you get down to cleaning, organize your cleaning supplies. This will make the entire process run smoothly. If you have to run somewhere to grab a product, after 4-5 interruptions you’ll want to throw your hands in the air and quit.

Check if you are low on stock, or if you just simply need to rearrange the shelf or cabinet where you keep your supplies.

In the past, when we didn’t have a weekly cleaning service, I would keep a small caddy in every bathroom with the cleaning supplies. It made all the difference on a task that is a drag for me. If your house has two or more stories, consider creating a cleaning kit for every floor so you don’t have to carry everything up and down the stairs.

Here is how I organized each cleaning caddy:

Lysol wipes – for daily cleaning (see above)
1 roll of paper towels
1 toilet bowl cleaning product
1 shower cleaning product
1 glass cleaner
1 sponge for clean areas
garbage bags
small brush for clean areas

PS: Clean areas –> countertop, bathtub, and shower

Weekly Laundry And Cleaning Routine

Change and wash bed sheets. If you have a big family, this can be quite a chore so it makes sense to do this on weekends, especially when the kids are home and they can help you out. Check my laundry schedule below.
Do the laundry. I have tried to do this weekly but it became so overwhelming that I started to organize it this way:
- Mondays: Bedding
- Tuesdays: Towels
- Wednesdays: Boys’ batch 1
- Fridays: Helena and Addie
- Saturdays: Boys’ batch 2 –> on this day they take care of it, not me.

Clean the fridge. A clean refrigerator promises to keep food fresher, so give it a weekly clean up.
1. Here is my routine. Before I do our groceries, I open the fridge and check everything that is in there and remove what’s old or that I know that won’t be consumed anymore. It’s much easier to clean the fridge when it’s already almost empty.
Dust surfaces, vacuum, and mop floors. Depending on the size of your home and how much stuff you have on your shelves, coffee and side tables, this can become a daunting task on itself. In that case, I recommend you split these two tasks in two days. For example, you could dust everything on the morning of day 1 and then vacuum and mop on the morning for day 2.

When organizing your cleaning routine, you will need some products to keep everything spic and span. Below are some product suggestions to include on your cleaning caddy and cabinet.

Vacuum cleaner
Microfiber towels
Duster
Mop
Cleaning wipes
Sponges
Glass Cleaner
Multi-surface cleaner
Garbage bags
Small brushes
Toilet bowl cleaner
Shower & Tub cleaner

What is your cleaning routine and how do you like to organize your schedule to make it work for you? I’ll love to learn your tips and tricks!

These are affiliate links and I’ll receive a commission at no cost to you if you decide to use them.

Vacuum Cleaners

Consider having a large and a quick pick-up vacuum cleaner, and if you can afford it, having a large one on each floor of your home will spare you from carrying things up and down.

The quick pick-up can stay in the kitchen area where crumbs are a daily given. 😉

Routines & Time