When I first got married at 20 years old and had an entire house to manage…I was VERY overwhelmed because I love an orderly home, but simply didn’t know how to obtain that without spending hours upon hours doing house chores. My problem wasn’t the amount of work I had to it, it was how I went about doing it.

Fast forward several years, and I created a system for myself that allows me an orderly home without the huge time commitments all at once.

The solution? The house is on schedule.

It’s not overwhelming when it’s spaced out and tasks are designated for a specific day. There is so much freedom & flexibility in the schedule that I truly thrive and rarely feel overwhelmed with my home. Want to hear the house schedule? Here it is…

Note that normal daily tasks include- laundry, dishes, and random pick-ups throughout the house.

Sunday:

• Clean out the fridge:
  This is when I take the time to evaluate the portions and quantity of food I’m buying. If the fridge is still full, I bought way too much. If it’s empty- I’m right where I need to be. I see what we need to eat up, see what went bad, etc. 
• Order groceries:
  Because I would’ve just taken a deep look into what we have/don’t have this saves me so much money because I’m not wasting and buying doubles of anything. I prep, plan & write out everything using my calm n cookin PDF template. Then I head over to the Instacart app and order everything for the week. If you wanna see what a typical grocery haul looks like, lmk- I can do another post!
• Put away groceries:
  An obvious but I still wanted to list it out because it takes time but not nearly as much time as it would have had I not cleaned out the fridge 🤓 
• Go over schedules:
  This is that one load of motherhood that’s often so overlooked but can be so burdensome if you let it. Taking time to look at the week at a glance and writing everything down is the only way I make sure I plan the kid’s homeschool outings, doctor’s appointments, any activities, date night, church activities, etc., and don’t forget about them!

Monday: 

• Manage Monday: 
  That closet that’s been driving you crazy? Today’s the day to tackle it. That junk drawer? She’s getting some love today. You don’t need to finish it all in one setting- set a 15-minute timer and see what you can get done. Does it need organizing or does it need a good declutter? Mondays are for those projects. 

Tuesday: 

• Deep Clean:
  Tuesdays are another big day. Tuesdays are cleaning days 👏🏻 All the bed’s sheets get stripped, and washed and the beds get new sheets. Bathrooms get scrubbed, stovetop is scrubbed, and floors get mopped. Surfaces get dusted, carpet gets vacuumed, and trash gets collected. The reason I picked this day for cleaning is because trash gets collected the following day so this makes the most sense for our household! 

Wednesday: 

• Towel Day
  Strip, wash, and fold the towels. I collect towels from the whole house- hand towels, body towels, kitchen towels- all of it 👏🏻

Thursday: 

• Toy Day
   Rotation day, homeschool activity planning today, and anything involving the kid’s playroom gets done on Thursdays. I used to do this on Sundays but as you saw, my Sundays were pretty fully as it is 🥲  Toy rotations have drastically evolved as the kids have gotten older so sometimes it’s a soft rotation.

Friday: 

• Sabbath Prep:
  On Friday throughout the whole day, I make an effort to do a slightly less dramatic version of Tuesday- dusting, vacuuming, picking up, etc. to prepare and get the house physically ready for a sabbath. I spiritually get the house ready too, but that’s a different post. Since laundry gets done daily, I make an effort to finish it earlier in the day. I also run and unload the dishwasher before sundown so I have an empty dishwasher on our sabbath! I also set out things that bring the kids and Jordan & I joy- games, puzzles, books, painting, etc. 

Saturday:

• Rest.

Do I follow this perfectly every single week? No. Life happens and that’s okay. Having this as a foundation is very helpful when I don’t know where to start. If you’re feeling overwhelmed with the house, try creating your own schedule and sticking with it for a month! After a month, you’ll slowly start to notice that there aren’t years of cleaning to pick up after. It gets less and less overwhelming and you feel more and more on top of it! Creating a more peaceful home 🕊️