Six Tips for Your Home Toolbox

Last post, we went over the need to set reasonable expectations of ourselves. We also looked at what are must haves for our particular time of life. Today, we are going to go over six tips for your home toolbox to get through those must haves. There will also be a bonus hack for beating overwhelm at the end!

Make a List

I’m sure you’ve seen this first one a million times but it really can be a life saver. We have a lot of things to juggle – it is inevitable that some things will get forgotten. Instead of trying to remember it all or resigning yourself to forgetting to do something, write it down. It frees up some brain space for other things. A list saves on the anxiety that you’ll forget something. You have a much higher chance of completing that task as well. I write my to do list in my phone’s note app. If you find you never remember to look at it, maybe a physical list on the fridge would be more useful.

Break Your List into Time Blocks

This second tip relates to the first one. Instead of writing your list and then madly trying to accomplish most of it once the kids are in bed, break up your list into time blocks. For example, put down all the things that need to be done before breakfast. Next will be all the things that need to be done between breakfast and lunch, then between lunch and dinner. Try to space your tasks. Aim to achieve most tasks during the day instead of leaving the bulk until evening when you are tired. Don’t forget to include the things for yourself, like Bible reading or journaling, exercise and personal grooming (shower, hair etc).

Don’t Leave Everything Until Nap and Bed Time

I saw this third tip on social media when I had a fussy, clingy baby and I initially laughed. I gave it some more thought though and while sometimes it didn’t work, it really changed how I set out my daily tasks. Instead of madly trying to fit in dishes, laundry, meal prep, exercise and work only during nap time (which usually resulted in a lot of jobs left until after dinner), I started doing more and more while they were awake.

Kids need to learn that it takes a lot of work to keep a house running well and how will they appreciate that work if they never see you do it? I learnt to be quicker at some jobs and to include my little ones in others. Some tasks will work better for this than others, depending on your children, so take a look at what jobs you can gradually move out of nap time.

Utilize Your Spare Minutes

Whether we realize it or not, we all have spare minutes through the day, even if it is just four or five minutes here and there. Especially when you have really small ones, those minutes can be like gold to get things done. Fold a dozen clean clothes from the laundry basket, wash the vegetables for tonight’s meal, apply some make up, clean the toilet, empty the dish rack, read a few pages of a book, do some exercise – it all adds up throughout the day.

Where do I find these magical minutes? Waiting for the jug to boil for coffee, while the baby is doing tummy time with a few toys, while your toddler is happy with an activity for a few minutes or while they are eating, when your partner is playing with the kids – if you start looking for them, you’ll be amazed at home many tiny pockets of time you can utilize.

Set a Timer

We’ve all heard this fifth tip, especially if you have kids and need them to get a job done. But a timer can work wonders for us too. It helps keep us focused (no time to peek at social media) and spurs us on to get a little bit quicker at the job at hand. It can also encourage us that we only have 10 minutes and then we can relax. We can also use it to better manage our time if we are someone that loses track when reading a good book, working on a puzzle or craft or scrolling through Facebook.

Break Up Larger Jobs

We don’t have to complete jobs all in one hit. I know, I am a person who likes to see a job through to the end and not leave things half done as well, but often we are going to need to alter our mindset. We know that with little kids, waiting for a larger chunk of time to accomplish some jobs would simply mean not much gets done! Use some of those spare minutes we spoke about earlier, whether that is meal planning while waiting for the jug to boil for coffee, washing some dishes while the baby spends five minutes of tummy time on the floor or folding laundry with your toddler while they spend 20 minutes eating their finger food.

That is our six tips for your home toolbox for today! But I do have one more hack for you that relates to tip number one:

Time Blocking Tasks

It can be overwhelming to look down at your freshly made list and see the two dozen jobs you just wrote on it. Write your list and then only look at each time block at a time. Focus on the jobs that need doing before lunch for example and those half a dozen tasks will seem much more manageable than the entire two dozen. Pick out the tasks that must be done today and move the rest to tomorrow. Congratulate yourself on what you achieved, not what you didn’t get done. Make your list work FOR you by helping you not forget what needs to be done, Don’t let it accuse you about the things you didn’t get to. Remember – more organization for less stress!