Transcript Podcast Episode 17: 5 Routines to Simplify Your Everyday Mom Life
Routines for a Simpler Mom Life
Wannabe Minimalist Show Transcript Episode 17
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Welcome to the Wannabe Minimalist Show Episode number 17. Today we are going to be discussing 5 routines that will simplify your everyday mom life. Now these are game changers, especially if you feel overwhelmed on a regular basis. So stick with me.
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Welcome to the Wannabe Minimalist Show. I’m your host, Deanna Yates and each week on this podcast we will talk about what it really takes to be a minimalist with a family. I believe minimalism is a mindset for how we see stuff, but more importantly, being mindful of the items we let into our lives, homes and relationships. Let's do this.
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Hey Wannabe Minimalist Friends. I’m your host, Deanna Yates from LittleGreenBow.com and I am so happy you are here with me today on our latest episode of the Wannabe Minimalist Show. Today's topic is a good one. I know I say that a lot, but I really like today. We're discussing five routines that will simplify your everyday mom life so that you can take back control of your life and stop feeling overwhelmed. But before we dive in and I talk about these amazing routines that will make your life easier. I want to tell you about my upcoming beta launch of my newest workshop. I just pulled my readers and the number one thing that you all said you needed help with was keeping up with the basics. Things like laundry, dishes and cleaning routines. We will be discussing how to tackle some of these routines today, but if you have trouble keeping up with the basics around your home, I invite you to join me in Automate: Put Your Routines on Autopilot.
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If you are overwhelmed with your everyday tasks and tired of constantly feeling behind, then this is for you. In the workshop, I will teach you how to put some of your biggest tasks on autopilot, so not only will you no longer fall behind, but things will get done without disrupting your day.
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This is like a superpower, honestly. Imagine getting to the end of your day and still having energy. Think about how amazing it would be to get to play with your kids in the afternoon instead of dragging them all over town, kicking and screaming while you run errands or worse, having them zone out while playing a game on your phone so that you can make one more quick stop to get that thing you forgot at the store the other day. Automate: Put Your Routines on Autopilot is a game changer for those of us who feel overwhelmed, constantly behind and exhausted by the end of the day. I don't want that to be you anymore.
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Come on over to littlegreenbow.com/automate and get on the waitlist. By joining the waitlist, not only will you get special early bird pricing, but you will be part of my select Automate group and as an additional thank you for joining early, you will get my personal attention and exclusive access to me. This will probably not be available when I launch the workshop again in the future, but the only way to be part of this deep is by joining the waitlist. So hop on over to littlegreenbow.com/automate and be the first to know when the workshop is released.
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It's going to be amazing and I can't wait to see you on the other side. Feeling refreshed in control, happy and ready to tackle anything life sends your way. All right, so let's get back to today's episode and look at five routines that will simplify your everyday mom life.
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Let me start by saying that I have a love hate relationship with routines. Now, before I had my daughter, I would have told you that I hated routines and that they were ridiculous, but that was before I found myself responsible for raising another human being. Once I became a mother, I discovered that routines and automating those routines really did make life so much easier. Not only were they great for my daughter, but they left me happier, calmer, and more energetic than I was when I was just flying by the seat of my pants. Not to mention how much more productive I was every single day. All right, so let's start talking about these five miracle routines and how you can fit them into your life. So routine number one is your morning routine now. Okay, okay. If you are not a morning person, this one is going to be tough, but I promise that those rewards are worth it.
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And if you're a parent, guess what? You kind of have to be a morning person, right? Now I'm not talking about getting up at the crack of dawn, I'm just talking about at least five to 10 minutes before your kids get up. This lets you wake up on your terms and not someone else's. Honestly, my days are so, so, so much better when I wake up first. It took me way too long to realize this, but it really is a game changer. Now I get it. If your kiddos are still too little to be super predictable in on a schedule every day, the same schedule, I get that. So you will have to adjust this to work for your individual situation, but don't automatically put up a roadblock on this. Okay? Can you listen with an open mind and just think about how you might be able to incorporate this now and know that it will change and get better as your kids get older and become more predictable.
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Now just remember that this is a season in your life. It will get easier. Okay. But something that worked for us when our daughter was younger and not able to tell time was an okay to wake clock. Have you ever heard of these? There's a few different versions and I'll link to two of our favorites in the show notes, but the functionality between them is pretty much the same. You set the time when it's okay for your kids to get out of bed or come out of their room because some kids will wake up early, but that doesn't mean that their day has to start right then with you and then the clock will change colors or something, you know, to let them know that they can get out of bed and it's time for them to wake up. Now it's not disruptive because it's just a color change. So they really have to be awake and look at it, pay attention, and sometimes our daughter would sleep past the wake up time and then when she woke up it was the right color and she would come on in. And it's really funny because it sounds like it won't work, but I suggest that you just give it a try because sometimes the easiest things are the ones that work the best.
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Okay? So once you have that okay to wake clock in place and you have a more predictable time for getting up, let's talk about your actual routine. Now, one of the things that changed my perspective about getting up early is the book called The Miracle Morning. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. And in fact, there are several different versions. I actually prefer The Miracle Morning for Parents or The Miracle Morning for Millionaires. I just liked the way those two were written. And the co-authors on those, I just really enjoyed their perspective and their voice.
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Now the book claims that there are six habits that you should do before 8:00 AM that will transform your life. They are to start your day with meditation, prayer, or breathing to quiet your mind, to write down your affirmations, to encourage yourself to live out your purpose, to visualize yourself reaching your goals and visualize what it will feel like when you actually succeed. Do a little exercise to get the blood flowing for a few minutes. Read something to expand your mind, and then write in a journal as a way to process your thoughts and reflect on your life.
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Now I will admit that this is a lot to squeeze into a busy parent's morning, but the step don't need to be long or complicated. I can do this whole routine in about 30 minutes. So I combine the meditation, breathing, and visualization, and I can do that for five to 10 minutes. Then I stretch for five minutes and that's my exercise to get my blood flowing. I usually exercise in the afternoon when we go to the gym. There's a kids club and all of that. So this is just me getting kind of moving. Then I write down my affirmations and journal at the same time for another five to 10 minutes and then finally I read something while enjoying the first few sips of my coffee when it's quiet and peaceful still.
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I look at it more as a way to start your day on your terms and with you in the driver's seat instead of reacting to people, putting things on you or asking for something from you. So I highly encourage you instead of starting your day by looking at your phone, checking your email, looking at your messages, checking Facebook, to start on your terms. If you can work in these six steps, absolutely fantastic. If it seems like too much to take on at once, then just experiment with adding one thing at a time. If you don't like any of these morning ideas. How about just starting with writing out your to do list for the day or putting in a load of laundry before any everyone else wakes up. It's really, like I said, just about making sure that you are not taking on other people's things first.
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You are in control of your mind and your day and when you start off on your terms, the whole rest of your day will be much better. Now, I also want to point out that I don't always stick to this routine every day. That's a goal of mine with taking Sundays off, but there are some days that I don't get to everything in my routine and that's totally okay. Depending on how the night before went, I may only take five or 10 minutes to meditate or stretch before Eleanor wakes up, or maybe I need to hammer out a blog post or podcast notes because I'm behind. That's life and I make sure not to beat myself up about it. But, on the flip side, when I do spend some intentional time in the morning, I've noticed that more often than not, I feel like I can tackle anything that day. It's harder for me to get in a bad mood. It's harder for somebody to throw me off and I usually am more resilient on those days. So each person's morning routine will look different. So start experimenting to see what works best for you. I recommend starting with one or two things and then do them consistently for at least a week before you add in anything else. Little changes over time really add up to make a big impact. Okay, so that is routine number one, your morning routine.
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The second routine I want to discuss that will simplify your everyday mom life is your afternoon routine. If you are a stay at home or work from home mom, you are most likely in charge of picking your kids up from school. And even if your kids are not in school just yet, getting them in the habit of a good afternoon routine is really a great foundation because these first years go by really quickly, okay? It makes your days go smoother and it just helps get everybody into a rhythm so that we know what to expect every day. All right.
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Now that I've said that though, for babies younger than one, your afternoon routine will probably include lunch and a nap. And other than those two non-negotiables you can fill your day with playing, reading, cuddle time and art time, it's a little bit easier when your kiddos are really little, it depends on what they need at any given time. There's lots of diaper changes, lots of feeding and lots of sleeping, right?
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It changes, you know, as your kids grow up and they become toddlers and you know, after a year, probably between a year and three years, they've most likely transitioned to only one nap per day. Now, when our daughter was this age and she needed one nap a day, we were very strict with nap time in our home. And in fact we had friends make fun of us for it because we would be quiet. But I use that time to work or read and and do my quiet time stuff. And it just really helped me feel refreshed and energized. And my friends, they had more than one kid. They just thought we were crazy because their home was always a lot noisier than ours was. So I get that if you have more than one child, this may not be you.
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But we were very strict with nap time because gosh, she really needed her sleep and I think most kids need their sleep and if she didn't get her sleep, whew. I learned the hard way more than one time that our daughter and sleep deprivation did not go together very well. But this meant when she was that age that we would play harder in the morning and then we'd have a nice long rest after lunch. And like I said, that gave me time to catch up on my more quiet tasks. I would do chores, laundry, I would work, I would read. Um, you know, that's when I would do some of those things that I wanted to do for myself before we started playing again in the late afternoon.
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And now that she's in school, our afternoons are totally different now. I pick her up from school and we spend time having snack right when we get home. Then we do some homework. We might do art or craft time if possible. Uh, she's practicing the piano a couple times a week. She has a dance class once a week and then she has a little downtime as I get dinner ready and honestly when she's been so active at school and we've had a nice afternoon. I don't feel guilty or bad about letting her have downtime. That's either watching a show on Disney plus or playing a tablet game. Some people feel differently than that, but that's just me.
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There are people that will say that the morning routine is the one that changes the most. But for us, I found that this afternoon routine is really the one that needs to be the most flexible. As your kids grow into different stages of development, your morning routine should be one that you control and it takes place before your children wake up. And then this afternoon routine really is more around the time you spend with your children if you are able to be a stay at home or work from home mom. So that is routine number two that will simplify your everyday mom life and that is your afternoon routine.
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The third routine to discuss is your evening routine. Now I think this is the routine that makes or breaks your everyday mom life. You know, here's the thing, I love my child. I mean I really love her and I think that if you ever saw us together that love would be abundantly clear but at the same time I need my own time and time to hang out with my husband. There are shows I want to watch that are not appropriate for my daughter. There are topics to discuss with my husband that she does not need to hear about and sometimes I just need quiet not to when I want to as they say on the bachelor, spend time together as a couple with my husband and having an evening routine that we can all rely on. Not only makes that possible, but it makes me a better mom.
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Our evening routine includes eating dinner together as a family at the dining table and cleaning up after the meal and then after dinner we will sometimes watch TV show. Currently we are loving the girl scout cookie championship and Lego masters and other times we will play a game no matter what. We try to spend this time together. Then between about 6:45 and 7:00 PM during the week, we do a 15 minute cleanup as a family where we tidy up the house before starting the bedtime routine. Now we'll also check our family calendar at this time just to make sure there isn't something we've missed for the next day.
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Our daughter's bedtime routine is going to the bathroom, getting dressed, flossing, brushing and using mouthwash, braiding her hair and then reading a story. And she's still young enough that we do not need to do bath time every day. It just kinda depends on what we did that day. And usually it's an every other day thing for us. Now this puts her bedtime at 7:30 on school nights and she is six years old. On the weekends, we're more relaxed when we're out and about, but if we're home, bedtime is usually between 8:00 and 8:30. Now just because she goes to bed later, that doesn't mean she will sleep in and I learned the hard way. Like I said before, that she and sleep deprivation just spells disaster in our home. So we try to be pretty strict about our bedtime and we hit those times about 85 to 90%. It makes those times when we are out and about and we can stay up a little later, really extra special for her. And so I don't feel bad about putting our daughter to bed on time.
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Like I said, 85 to 90% now, it might seem crazy to some of you listening to this because your kids are wired at night or they never want to go to bed. And I found that this is usually the case when bedtime hasn't been a priority. And I can't take all the credit here because my husband really is the one that has been a stickler about this bedtime and has really made it a precious, you know, time for us.
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So when I was a kid, I knew I never wanted to go to bed and you know, that was just the thing. But we all need sleep. We all do better when we are role well rested. Okay, remember that your kids do better and they're happier when they are well rested. So if your kids resist in early bedtime, try to transition maybe to a quiet time first when they're expected to be in their room, you know, they can read or do quiet activities and then you can turn the lights off maybe 30 minutes or an hour later. It's really important that with all of our electronic devices this day, these days, that we have to be much more diligent about setting those boundaries and teaching our kids how to use these electronics responsibly.
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So then once my daughter's in bed and we've had our evening, um, to ourselves, the final touch on my evening routine before I head to bed is to run the dishwasher. This is already prepped and ready to go from dinner, but I physically have to start it before I go to bed. And then I also get the coffee ready for the morning. Now I love coming downstairs to a fresh pot of coffee and it makes it so much easier for me to get out of bed knowing that this is done. I can usually smell the coffee already brewing and it just makes it that much easier to kick off the blankets, put my feet on the floor and get out of bed early.
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And then I also pack our lunches, in the morning and my daughter packs her backpack. I know a lot of people prefer to do that at night too. So if that's you just add this into your evening routine before you all go to bed. And so that is routine number three. That's your evening routine.
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The fourth routine, you need to make a habit. If you want your life to be easier is a simple cleaning routine. Now, unfortunately this is just part of being an adult. It's not awesome, but dwelling and complaining about cleaning does not make it better, so just be thankful that you have a home to clean and get down to business. However, there is one thing I have discovered that does make cleaning better and that is to have less stuff to clean, so that's why I talk so much about decluttering and if you need tips on that, my whole blog@littlegreenbow.com is all about decluttering tips for you and your family.
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So head on over there. But a simple routine where you clean regularly is so important because it helps you never get to the place or your house is so bad you have to spend, you know, to really end up days cleaning it or heaven forbid, calling the hazmat crew. Now if you're looking for a weekly cleaning routine, I've written a whole blog post outlining how I clean our homes, so I'll link to it in the show notes. It includes tasks for six days a week as well as a schedule for doing laundry. That way you are never behind. Now, if you keep focused and concentrate on one area per day, I have found that you can clean your whole home in less than 30 minutes per day every day. It just makes it easier. So remember this is cleaning, this is not decluttering. Decluttering needs to happen first so that your home is more manageable.
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But the cleaning routine I like to stick to is Monday for the bedrooms. You start the week off with something that's important but not super tasking. Tuesday you do the bathrooms. This is probably the heaviest load day because you've kinda got a day under your belt so you can be a little bit more productive and you're not really recovering from the weekend still by Tuesday. So you do your bathrooms. Wednesday is the living room. This is mostly a tidying up. Wiping the windows down. Um, you know, cleaning stuff in your living room. Maybe if you have a living room and a family room, you do both of these rooms on that day. Thursday is all about your dining room. Do a little bit of a deeper clean on that day versus just your everyday wiping down the table after meals. And then Friday is dusting and vacuuming. So this is all of your surfaces and all of your floors.
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I love to do these on Friday because if we have people come over on the weekends, if I have a clean floor and things are not dusty, everything just feels a little fresher. And then Saturday is for your outdoors or garage or yard or car. This part can be tricky depending on where you live. So this one's kind of a free for all day. If you do have yard work, if you live in a home with a yard, this is the day you would do that. Um, otherwise you can deep dive into another place you've already done or you know, work on your car or something like that. And then Sunday I take the day off. That's just my fun day with my family and I don't worry about cleaning. Now you probably noticed there's a big piece missing here and that is the kitchen.
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But the reason I don't put my kitchen on a daily or a weekly cleaning routine is because I cook in my kitchen every single day. And that means I clean it every single day. I'm constantly wiping down the counters, the stove, the microwave, doing the dishes in the dishwasher every day. So my kitchen is constantly seeing attention. These other rooms are rooms that I wouldn't go to, um, to clean on a regular basis. And so that's why I have them on this routine.
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Now again, I want to point out that I am not perfect. So there are days that I totally missed the schedule and if that's the case or we have a really busy week, I will either catch up the next week or catch up on the weekend. So if we have a whole week where I've kind of skipped it, either we went out of town for part of it or it's just been a really hectic week. We have those. Sometimes I'll just either do double duty in the next week. So I know that it's going to take me maybe 45 minutes to clean somewhere where it would take me 30 minutes if I had done it the week before or I'll spend a whole day and I'll catch up on the weekend and we'll do that as a family, especially if we've done something together during the week that made it really busy. And so speaking of my family, I really recommend that you get your family on board to help with the cleaning you share your home. So you should share in its upkeep. And this is one of the things that I do want to pass on to my daughter and I think it's great to pass onto your children, teach them how to maintain a home so that when they become adults they are prepared. All right, sounds good. So that's routine number four and that is your cleaning routine.
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The fifth and final routine I want to discuss today is a laundry routine. Now, laundry like dishes is one the fundamental routines in your home. So if you Slack off and do not wash your clothes for a week, he will either run out of clothes or you'll have to buy new items or you'll have to wear dirty ones gross. That's why establishing a good laundry routine is super important and there are two ways you can set up your routine. The first will probably work best for most families, but it might feel the most difficult to start. This is where you complete one load of laundry each and every day. So if you need help deciding what load to run, check out my weekly cleaning schedule post, which is listed in the show notes as it will list the laundry to do each day that corresponds to your cleaning routine.
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Now the trick with this laundry method is to complete the load every day. So that means wash, dry, fold and put away. It can be so easy to leave things in the dryer or shaken out on the back of the couch. Resist the urge and finish the load. So if you go this approach and you work out of the home, this one's actually pretty easy to keep up with because perhaps you can put a load in the washing machine on your way out the door. Then when you get home, you put it in a dryer. After dinner, you can shake out the clothes and then finally you can fold and put them away while you're watching a show. We'll fold them all put while watching the show and then putting, put them away as you go to bed. So we live in a townhome and so I use these white square plastic laundry baskets to transport our dirty clothes.
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Now our bedrooms are up on the third floor and I have to take them all the way down to the washing machine on the first floor in the garage. And these plastic white plastic square bins are great because they're, they have handles on them. They're easy to transport, they're very sturdy. They're not the real thin plasticky ones that you hold on your hip. I'll link to them in the show notes if you're interested. Um, but I transport one load down. I leave it down there while I'm transferring everything. And then as I pull the clothes out of the dry, they go right back in the bin, take them up to our second floor, which is where our living room is. Shake, fold, and then put the clothes back in that bin. And I take them right up the stairs when I go to bed to put the clothes away.
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So that keeps it easy for me. Now if this method feels like too much work, you can batch your laundry and do it all on one day. Now the problem here is that depending on how many people you have in your home, it can take a full day to finish it all. You'll want to make sure you set a timer on your phone so that you remember to change and you know, change each load as soon as it has done so you can get it done as quickly as possible. And then you want to make sure that you do see that laundry all the way through. Again, those wash dry fold and put away. Now, I don't know about you, but by the time Saturday rolls around, I really just want to get outside and have some fun with my family. Being chained to I'm my washing machine is really not how I want to spend my free time.
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Plus once you have a few weeks of the daily laundry under your belt, it gets so much easier to remember and it really only takes a few minutes of hands on time each day. So why don't you try it, see how it goes. Um, and then when you have the daily laundry routine, if you have a week where you were out of town or you've got a lot of laundry piled up, uh, you can just catch up slowly. You do a little bit bigger load every day and um, it doesn't feel so overwhelming to get caught back up, make sense? All right.
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There you have it! By implementing these 5 routines you will not only simplify your everyday mom life, but you’ll start to enjoy more it as well. And now I have a question for you. Which one of these routines are you going to implement first? Is there one routine that really resonated with you that you can’t wait to try? I’d love to hear about it. Come on over to the free Wannabe Minimalist Facebook Group and share your thoughts from today’s episode. I’m so excited to hear from you and help encourage you on your journey toward less stuff, more happiness, and an awesome life. Routines are such an important part of that awesome life, so jump on over to the Facebook group and let us know more about you.
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The group is totally free and you can find us by clicking on the link in the show notes or by searching for Wannabe Minimalist on Facebook. I want to meet you there and hear about your journey. Learning from all of you is one of my favorite things, so I hope to see you there.
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Automate: Put Your Routines on Autopilot. In the workshop we will be discussing how to automate the 5 routines we discussed in this episode along with my 4 other top routines I think every mom needs in their life. It’s going to be a life-changer and I can’t wait to see you there. Join the waitlist at LittleGreenBow.com/automate/.
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Finally, if you liked this episode, I would love it if you would subscribe and leave a comment or rating so others can find this show too. That makes my day so thank you to those who have already subscribed and to those who have left me comments. They fill my heart with joy. You guys are the best. And that wraps up today’s episode. Next week we will be discussing how to add simplicity to your life in just minutes per day. Simple joys make my heart sing so I hope you can join me here same time next week. Cheers!
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So this episode might be over but we don't have to say goodbye just yet. Head over to my website at littlegreenbow.com for tons of great resources, freebies, courses and a link to join my free Wannabe Minimalist group on Facebook. Let's tackle this thing together. And if you love this episode, it would be really helpful if you left a rating and a review so more families can find the show too. You're awesome! Thanks and see you next week.
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