Are you feeling overwhelmed by your life and the endless list of to-dos? Welcome to our Organization Tips for Moms Mini-Series!
Part of our larger focus on reclaiming motherhood – finding routine ways to create wellness and routines with all of the responsibilities we’re juggling as homeschool moms.
Could you benefit from a less overwhelming routine that includes a clean house, bills paid on time, and time to care for your well-being?
It’s easier than you think.
Tackling a few essential areas can streamline your life and increase your patience. You’ll discover stress relief, better interactions with your kids, and a focus on self-care.
If that sounds dreamy, but you need help figuring out where to start, we have ten organization tips for moms, small steps you can take one at a time.
10 Organization Tips for Moms
People often overlook the importance of organization, but it has many advantages.
Obviously, organizing your home and workspace can positively affect those two physical areas.
But you might discover a ripple effect as organization impacts other aspects of your life—from improved physical health to stress relief and self-care!
Check out this list to see where you can make a change today!
1. Keep Your Mail Sorted
An excellent place to start with your organization is to figure out a system for sorting your mail.
Mail tends to be one of the home’s most cluttered and chaotic areas.
If you have stacks of unopened mail, junk mail, and magazines littered on your table, countertops, and entryway, they beg for your attention!
Waving to your subconscious like an excited toddler every time you’re trying to focus.
The good news is, creating a system and organizing your daily mail is a quick win.
Actionable Tips:
- Create categories for all of the mail that comes into your home. That may be magazines, bills, personal mail, and junk mail.
- Designate an action or place for each category of paperwork.
- Commit to sorting mail to its designated location before it touches any surface in your home.
- Create a system for each piece of mail after it’s opened.
2. Use a Meal Plan Every Week
Creating a meal plan each week can be an incredibly helpful tool for homeschool moms looking to save time and money and eat healthier.
In fact, this is one of our favorite organization tips for moms. It can impact so much of your life! With meal planning, you can:
- Cut down on the number of trips to the grocery store
- Buy only what you need
- Create meals that are customized to your taste preferences
- Cut down on food waste
- Save money on your grocery bills
Admittedly, meal planning can be daunting when you’re a mom with a hectic schedule.
But it doesn’t have to be!
Rather than trying to take on a month at a time, start with a week. You just need to take little steps to see massive returns in your routines.
Actionable Tips:
- Start by taking inventory of food and ingredients in your fridge and pantry.
- Create a list of the following week’s meals using some ingredients as a base.
- Select three meals each day, then compose a grocery list
- Once you have your grocery list, go shopping or order delivery and stick to the list.
- Create repeatable lunch ideas for the kids to avoid spending time and money on takeout.
- Finally, take a few minutes each day to prepare your meals in the most efficient way possible.
By creating a meal plan every week, you’ll be able to wrangle some money and time, feeling more organized in an essential area of your life.
It’s a win-win!
Tips:
- Take advantage of meal-prepping or batch-cooking for the week
- Put leftovers to use by making creative dishes with ingredients
3. Create a Master To-Do List
As a homeschooling mom, the to-do lists never end!
Do you have a cleaning schedule, meal planning app, homeschool planner, home management area, etc.?
It’s easy to get overwhelmed trying to keep track of the different areas you need to focus on.
Creating a master to-do list is a great way to organize and ensure that nothing falls through the cracks.
A master to-do list keeps all your lists in one place, from daily tasks to weekly goals and errands. You can also organize your list into categories or turn it into its own binder.
Actionable Tips:
- Choose one place to keep all of your lists.
- Write everything from daily tasks to weekly goals and errands there.
- Consider using a binder to organize your home routines all in one place.
- Before committing to any new field trips or activities, check your list.
4. Build a Decluttering Routine
You likely have a cleaning routine already. But what about a decluttering routine for daily maintenance of…stuff?
As a homeschool family, you’re in your home more than the average family. Meaning there’s more opportunity to create clutter.
Granted, at first glance, it can be challenging to see where you’ll have time for decluttering and organizing your home.
Break the task into chunks to make life easier and incorporate it into your routine. In fact, to ensure it gets done, schedule short sessions of organizing and maintenance.
Once you create organizational systems in your home, keeping it tidy will become easier and more manageable.
Actionable Tips:
- Schedule 15 minutes a day to declutter and put things away.
- Create designated spaces for items that often get misplaced, such as keys and bags.
- Tackle one room or area at a time to focus your efforts on specific areas of the home.
- Include 5-to-10 minutes of tidy-up time for your students at the end of the day.
5. Try Using a Block Schedule
A list of homeschool organization tips for moms wouldn’t be complete without tackling scheduling.
We’ve found that one of the best ways to get organized and stay on top of all your tasks is to start using a block schedule.
You can break down your day into manageable chunks dedicated to specific tasks with a block schedule. For example, you might have a 30-minute block for daily meal prep, a 2-hour block for teaching, and a 30-minute block for decluttering and cleaning.
This way, you can prioritize specific tasks and ignore others until their designated time slot.
Not only will this help you stay organized, but it will also make sure you use your time wisely rather than jumping from task to task.
Block scheduling can also help you to stay focused, as it limits distractions and keeps you on track.
If you haven’t before, give block scheduling a try! You might be surprised at how much more productive and organized you become when your time is compartmentalized.
Actionable Tips:
- Brain dump all of your routine daily tasks
- Categorize them with an estimate of the time needed for each task.
- Look for functions that share categories
- Create a daily block schedule specifying when you’ll complete each task.
- Ignore the urge to complete a job outside of its block whenever possible.
6. Try a 15 Minute Daily Speed Cleaning
If you’re overwhelmed trying to find chunks of time for cleaning and decluttering, start with shorter bursts.
Those piles of crafts, laundry (so much laundry), and toys can easily cause you to hyperventilate and head out the door to Target.
Ironically, you’ll likely buy more stuff to add to the clutter.
Try this instead. Set a timer for 10-15 minutes. Challenge yourself to stay focused and see how much you can accomplish in that time.
It’s likely more than you think if you’re focusing on nothing but decluttering for that time.
You can even break it up into several smaller sessions throughout the day if needed.
Actionable Tips:
- Write one or two decluttering periods into each day.
- Specify which section of the house you’re going to focus on.
- Choose high-impact areas such as the dining room or living room first.
- Snag a laundry basket to gather all the items that don’t belong and move them to their homes.
- Delegate decluttering of toys to kids. Make it a game with music and a timer.
7. Write Everything Down
It’s easy for life to get overwhelming, especially when you are juggling multiple roles. If you’re working full-time and homeschooling, that’s a recipe for mental fatigue.
One habit that could help is writing everything down.
Taking the time to jot things down can be incredibly helpful in staying organized and keeping track of all the roles you’re managing.
Whether it’s a reminder of something on your master to-do list or a new routine or meal, you want to try.
You’re saving it for later and staying focused on the task before you.
For example, if you remember you need to order some curriculum or make a doctor’s appointment, write it down so you don’t forget.
Keeping a notepad handy helps ensure you remember it for later. And you won’t risk getting sucked into the news or social media as you do with notes on your phone.
Writing things down may seem simple, but it can make all the difference when trying to manage life as a busy homeschooling parent.
Actionable Tips:
- Invest in a notepad that you can move with you from room to room
- Schedule time at the beginning and end of the day to handle your notes
- Prioritize the tasks on your notes. If they’re not urgent, get in the habit of adding them to the proper block on your schedule.
8. Include Digital Organizing
When you contemplate how to organize your life, you’re likely focusing on the tangible aspects of your home.
But it is not just your physical space needing organization.
You should also be decluttering and organizing your digital files. Think email accounts, photos, curriculum files, and anything else on your computer or digital devices.
Organizing your digital files can be daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. The key is breaking it down into manageable parts.
Create folders on your computer and group items logically, like schoolwork, photos, music, etc. As you go through them, decide which ones to keep and which to delete or archive.
Consider organizing your photos into albums by year or child and deleting any that are not necessary. You can also store them in the cloud for access on multiple devices.
Email organization should also be a priority. Create folders to organize emails by type or person and delete unnecessary emails from your inbox.
You’ll reduce clutter and save time when you can quickly find important emails.
Keep in mind that organizing your digital space is an ongoing process. Regularly review your folders, delete unnecessary files, and save backups of important documents.
Doing this will help reduce digital clutter over time and make finding what you are looking for easier when needed.
Actionable Tips:
- Create a list of the main categories of your digital files.
- Make a folder for each category
- Do the same for your emails
9. Create a Place for Everything
This is one of the most important things you can do to organize your life.
You need to have a designated place for everything. If you don’t, you will never be organized entirely and will have a lot of junk drawers, and baskets meant for random items.
Finding a place for everything you own means discovering items you no longer need.
If they don’t have a place and are always hidden in some random drawer or box, you probably don’t use them—or even remember you own them for that matter.
That’s how you know it’s time to eliminate them and minimize your things a bit.
Actionable Tips:
- Create a list of cabinets or storage space in each room.
- Schedule in one area each day or week, depending on your available time.
- Go through all of the items in the assigned area.
- Don’t allow yourself to put anything back that doesn’t have a defined place.
- If you can’t find room for it, set it aside.
- After completing the areas, consider if you can relocate the items that don’t fit or need to go to donation.
10. Always Put Items Away When You’re Done
Start a new habit of putting items away after using them, whether it is a pen and notepad you were writing something down on, dumbbells during a workout, or going through your skincare routine in your bathroom.
Everything has a place it belongs, so when you’re done with it, put it back.
It takes only a few extra seconds and lets your home stay clean and orderly. Admittedly, this habit might not come naturally at first.
Actionable Tips:
- Set reminders on your phone several times daily to manage any new clutter.
- Use short bursts and quickly deal with only the items you’ve taken out that day.
Creating a Calm Routine
There you have it, ten organization tips for moms. Did you find any that are waving at you to pick them first?
Just know that you don’t need to try and apply all of the “organization tips for moms” at the same time.
Because that just screams overwhelm! Instead, find one that seems necessary and doable.
Start that. Then add another. Before you know it, you’ll have an organized home and a calm routine.
