How to be a Working Mom and Run Your Household Smoothly

People have been asking me how I can possibly have time to work, workout, be a mother, wife, eat healthy, among other things.

Prior to having kids I was always a planner, organized and followed a routine.  This is something that I wanted to continue once I had kids.  For me, being organized and having a plan helps me get everything completed in a day, week or month that I would like to accomplish.

Once I had kids it was very important for me to not lose this part of myself.  I implemented a plan of attack to make sure I was able to do everything that I wanted to do in order to make our lives run smooth.

I have created a few weekly “non negotiable’s” that will help to make your household run smoothly also.

1. Implement a cleaning schedule

I implemented a cleaning schedule during the week because I did not want to spend my entire weekend cleaning.

This requires me to clean a little bit everyday, but my house stays clean and I do not spend hours at a time getting it clean.

Every Morning- empty the dishwasher

Every Night- Run the dishwasher, Do a Load of Laundry, Clean the Kitchen, Clean common areas

Monday- Bathrooms

Tuesday- Bedrooms, Refrigerator

Wednesday- Mop, Dust

Thursday- Vacuum,

Friday-  Monthly Cleaning Duty

Monthly Cleaning Duties

·      Walls and Doors

·      Baseboards

2. Have a schedule for the family

With various commitments that my husband and I have we had to figure out a way to schedule our daily lives so we would be on the same page.

For me, this was not a problem at all.  Prior to having children I would always let my husband know what I would be doing ahead of time.  However, my husband is a lot different.  He would always let me know what he would be doing about the day or even an hour prior.

Obviously, something had to change because this would not continue to work if we both had something planned on the same day with two infants at home. 

The biggest issue that my husband had with this was that he did not want to have to ask me for “permission” to go somewhere.  Keep in mind, that my husband and I have been together for twelve years, so him telling me an hour before he went somewhere was never a problem.  I was basically asking him to break a twelve year habit overnight.

After debating, we compromised on a family calendar that we can update from our cellphone.  It is basically first come first serve.  If you have plans on “x” date and it is open on the calendar, then the other person is responsible for the kiddos on that day. 

So far, this method has been working out for us.  We make exceptions to the rule as needed.

3. Routine

One of the best pieces of advice that I have received is that babies love routine.  I have been using this advice with the babies and also with our daily lives.

Having a routine has helped us because we are always on the same page as to what needs to be done on any day or night.  We make changes in the routine as we see fit.

Our babies have adapted to the routine very easily, even though they are only 7 months old.  The babies are used to having their sleep, eat, play and bath schedule a certain way.

The routine also makes it a lot easier to prepare any babysitter with what to expect while watching our kids.

4.  Meal Prepping

I struggled with eating as healthy as I would like after having the babies, because it was way easier to just grab food on the go instead of cooking at home.  In addition, a lot of times I would forget to eat and by the time I realized this, I was STARVING, so I made bad choices.

We have implemented meal prepping and it has seriously been the best thing that we could have done.

Now I do not have a chance to make bad choices because my food for the week is already planned and prepped.

We do our meal planning and prepping on Sundays and it has helped us stick to our goals and has also helped save time for us during the week.

5.  Organization

I cannot stress enough, how much being organized has helped me run my household smoothly.

Having everything organized saves us a lot of time in the mornings and at night when we are trying to get the babies ready for bed, feed them dinner and everything else.

Eventually everything begins to become just part of the daily schedule and it can all be completed with minimal effort.  The daily schedule allows me to spend more quality time with my family because everything is already planned out.

Please comment below about best practices you use to run your house smoothly

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XOXO

Katrina