• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Bainbridge Island
  • DIY & Crafts
  • Food
  • Life
  • The Wedding Cookbook Project
  • Writing
  • Nav Widget Area

A Mom's Year

Creating a comfortable life one moment at a time

August 25, 2011

Organizing: Daily Routines

One of the most valuable tools I use to maintain my life and sanity is a Daily Routine. I learned about Daily Routines from FlyLady years ago. FlyLady is the nickname of Marla Cilley, a southern lady who struggled with her own housekeeping issues and then created a website to provide help to others after she got her act together. Two friends recommended her to me; we all had new babies and were trying to figure out how to do things like shower and find our keys. FlyLady was a godsend because, while I craved order, I could never keep it together for long.

At one point, before FlyLady, I hired a clutter coach out of desperation. She helped me put stuff in bins and made the closets look neat and tidy. And for a while it all seemed pretty organized. But I soon fell off the wagon and back into the old messes. What I finally learned from FlyLady is that you can’t organize clutter. And you have to deal with things right away. (“Procrastination is failure to make a decision.” Kinda harsh, but true.) So laundry is washed, folded, and put away all in one day. Mostly. Junk mail and envelopes are chucked into recycling the minute they enter the door. When I buy a new pair of shoes, I get rid of an old pair.

[In fairness to the clutter coach, she set me with up with a folder system that I use to this day. I have a basket on the counter that holds folders for each child, and others for bills and taxes and the like, so I can easily slip paperwork into each one.]

I also learned that I’m one of those people for whom “if it isn’t fun it won’t get done”. Which is why whenever possible we make cleaning and organizing into a game. So we set the timer for 5 minutes and have Room Rescues and race around and pick up as much as we can. Or I do a 27-Fling Boogie and go around the house looking for 27 things to throw away or give away. I also stay on top of Hot Spots, which are places where clutter tends to accumulate, before they start to spread everywhere.

Putting Your Routines Together
So back to Daily Routines. Daily Routines are the basic things you do every day to keep life running smoothly. Everyone’s routines are going to be different, but most include making beds, doing laundry, washing dishes, and sweeping the floor. Yours might include dropping your kids at school, feeding pets, exercising, checking e-mail, picking up/sorting mail, emptying the garbage, checking the next day’s calendar (that’s a huge one for me!), and taking food out of the freezer for dinner the next day.

To get started, I typed up a sheet in Word that included three sections: Morning Routine, Afternoon Routine, and Evening Routine. I filled in all the jobs we need to do every day in each category and then slipped the sheet in a plastic sleeve. For weeks, I checked off the box beside each item with a dry-erase marker. After a while the routines became automatic and I didn’t use the sheet again until our schedule changed significantly with the start of school.

Like I said before, everyone’s Daily Routines will be different, but you can go here to see what FlyLady’s look like. I really can’t say enough about FlyLady. She does what she does for free—I think she sees it as a personal mission to help free people from CHAOS (Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome). And while I don’t follow her program to the letter, the strategies I have adopted have made life around here much more orderly and peaceful.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: Life, Organizing Shannon 1 Comment

Reader Interactions

Free Printable Thank-You Notes
End of Summer

Comments

  1. Karen says

    August 25, 2011 at 5:47 pm

    Thanks Shannon 😀
    I will give this a go as I have severe CHAOS going on over here and I keep waiting till I get a few days of nothing on in a row so I an tackle it, but it never happens! Hope things are great with you!(Scottish Karen from FYM)

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Welcome

Hello! My name is Shannon Taylor. I'm a long-time writer and editor from Minnesota surprised to find myself on an island in the Pacific Northwest. I'm sharing this adventure with my husband, four kids, and two dogs. I “published” my first newsletter when I was nine, and I’ve loved sharing ideas, stories, and information ever since. I hope you find something here to inspire you and help you create a comfortable, cozy life.
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Email

Instagram

I generally get along well with myself, but someti I generally get along well with myself, but sometimes I make me crazy. Case in point: some BHS staff want to order some more of the Sparty Snowman cards we gave them for Christmas. Great! It occurs to me that I should add Happy Crow Press and our website info to the back of the cards. And here’s where I drive myself crazy: I think, “Can publishing companies make books AND cards? Do any other companies do that?” Am I serious?! Who cares what other companies do? Maybe we’ll be the first one to do it! Like Muriel Strode said, “Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
.
.
.
#thinkoutsidethebox #publishing #publishinglife #cards

Featured Posts

  • Snowball Soap (with a Hidden Surprise)
  • Kids’ Craft: Smelly Christmas Ornaments
  • Homemade Gingerbread Playdoh
  • Snowman Gum
  • Breathing Room
  • The Boredom Is Not Allowed List
  • The Only Parenting Advice We Need
  • Country of the Week: Japan / Roasted Seaweed and Mochi
  • A Father’s Day Story / When Tim Became Lily’s Dad
  • Lexie’s Homemade Granola

Fiction

Fiction

Comforting as a big mug of cocoa in front of a warm fire, this cozy family novel is about the connections we make and the traditions that keep us together.

Archives

© 2021 Happy Crow Enterprises, LLC
About    Privacy Policy    Copyright
Pretty Happy WordPress Theme · By: Pretty Darn Cute Design