I rarely feel rushed, I usually have time for myself everyday, and I always get my personal to do list accomplished. Here are few tips I've learned to enable this for myself:
- I pick out and iron my clothes for the week on Sunday. This way every night when I get home, I just set out what I'm going to wear the next day and choose my accessories. I waste no time in the morning dealing with this. It's awesome.
- I get out my workout clothes for the week on Sunday. This week I have a run on Sunday, training sessions at 5:30am on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, and hip hop on Saturday. I know what I have to wear to each of those and if I had to rummage around getting it together the morning of, then that is one more excuse not to get up. I can be ready in 7 minutes for the gym.
- We plan our meals for the week and do grocery shopping on Saturday morning. There is no wasted thought or time throughout the week in deciding what to do for dinner and we eat healthy because that is what we planned. It is also financially efficient to plan this way.
- If you've seen my house you know that it's always clean. I don't have someone clean it, I actually find it therapeutic to do this myself. It helps that we are both neat and like to keep things in their place. But there are other things I do that keep this up as well. Here are my 6 main categories for every week: dust, vacuum, clean hardwoods, clean bathrooms, bedding, laundry. I add in an extra category or 2 every week as well, these include: windows, blinds, baseboards, appliances, cabinets, magic eraser (if you don't know what this is, you are missing out), rugs. These each happen about once a month. My words of advice: spread the individual tasks out over a 2-3 day period (Friday, Saturday, Sunday), focus on one task a time vs. one room at a time, and find tools that simplify each task (pledge wipes vs. spray and paper towels, swiffer sprayer vs. mop and bucket, etc.).
- Before I go to bed I always set the alarm clock, pre-make the coffee, set out our coffee cups, put the electronic gadgets (phones, iPods) on their chargers, and make sure the kitchen is clean. This takes 5-10 minutes total, but makes for such a smooth and efficient morning.
...QueenB Says
I have excel maps of the grocery stores i frequented in Houston. I planned out the week and made the grocery list according to the map of aisles in the grocery store. If an item is not on the list it did not go in the basket. Period. We did not have junk food around and we always ate healthy. My kitchen was an organizer's dream.
ReplyDeleteThen, i had a kid. I swore that having a child would not wreck havoc on our organized world. Boy was I wrong.
I hope that you, my dear, will be able to keep up with your efficient living once the efficiency leaches, also known as children, enter your world. :)
I will be trying your clothes tactic.
I've had a housekeeper since graduating law school and everything is turned upside down when my nanny is out of town. She is going out of town next week in fact. I pledge to follow your steps while she is gone!
I also plan a menu before going to the grocery store, but I do it for two week periods (because I despise going to the grocery store). I also iron in bulk but I don't plan my outfits for the week...I like to leave room to pick and choose depending on my mood. I'll just wait until I have 5-6 pieces that need to be ironed and iron them all at once. My hubby does all his own ironing so I don't have to worry about that. I spend about 1-2 hrs every Sunday cleaning. I make sure to do it every week so that nothing ever gets too gross. I think I'll rotate some of your "extra categories" each week as you suggest. I also try to make sure the house is "picked up" before I go to bed. And last but not least....I do pack my gym bag each night so that it's ready for the next day...the hard part is using it. My gym bag has been packed with the same clothes in it for a week now, lol.
ReplyDeleteLove this post - Thanks for the tips!
Funny Leah - I have become more organized since having a baby. I feel like it is easier to find (and put up) when everything has a place! Every evening we do a quick run through of the house - toys are put up (I hate having a living room look like a daycare belongs in there), no dishes are in the sink, the faucet is shined (I did the fly lady approach a few years ago, and this stuck), 98% of everything is put up. We have bags with our initials on them that stuff goes in throughout the day that will need to be put up in the evening, or stuff that we will need in the morning.
ReplyDeleteHOWEVER, I have to ask - what do you do with the stack of "stuff" that you need to go through?
I'm glad to know I am not the only one who lives this way. My routine is almost exactly the same. Except I get up at 4:30 to workout, have a 4yo to get up and out the door and said 4yo and a baby to take care of when I get home at night.
ReplyDeleteI am lucky that my hubby works at home so he makes dinner and does most of the laundry. I am however responsible for my own ironing.
I also make sure my purse and work bag are by the door, my lunch is packed and breakfast necessities are set out.
I find living this way makes life so much easier!
Betsy, you are amazing. You and your Mom need to come organize me. What happens to this plan when you are gone for the whole week-end? OK, I've got all that, but when do you wash horses, dogs, clean the litter box? I'll just have to be amazed. No way can I be this organized. Get a Keurig individual coffee brewer (the one with the 60 oz capacity and choices including iced tea). LOVE IT. No pre-prep, no waste. See, I can do SOMETHING right!
ReplyDelete