On Routine

After Molly was born, I worked myself into a frenzy trying to keep up on the laundry, grocery shopping and housework along with all the new duties that having a baby entails. After a few months of this never ending cycle of not getting anything done, I decided that I HAD to create a routine. I kept it simple and it has been working so well for us in the past few months. The holidays got us off track but now that the new year is here, we're working to get right back into our routine.

Our routine is simple as I said above and I also try to keep my expectations low.

My routine is as follows:

Monday - Errands: All errands are run on Monday and include grocery shopping, Costco (bi-monthly), drugstore visits, clothing shopping, etc. This has not only simplified my time and kept me from visiting the grocery store three times a week, it is also saving us money.

Tuesday - Laundry: I pick up my Mom on Tuesdays and bring her to my house so it is the perfect day to get the laundry done. I also wash all of our dirty clothing, strip the beds and wash the sheets and gather every towel in the house for washing. Additionally I wash all the pet beds and blankets. This has really cut down on the cat fur floating through the house.

Wednesday - House Cleaning: House Cleaning Day! Both the best and the worst day of the week. I love having a clean house but I'm not too enamored with some of the chores that come with keeping the house clean. I do a 20 minute pick up every night before bed and try to do the dishes every day so Wednesday is actually just for cleaning, not picking up.

Thursday - Free Day: Thursday is my free day. It's the day that I either do nothing house related or I catch up on things I didn't do earlier in the week. Thursday is also the day we tend to have a lot of play dates and now when we have swim class.

Friday - Big Projects: This is the day reserved for big projects like reorganizing my pantry or scanning in all the articles I wrote when I was writing for the newspaper. I use this day to chip away at projects around the house, the ones that never, ever seem to get done because you get caught up in the everyday of life.

Now this routine would be completely different if I was currently working outside the home. For one thing, I would completely and totally have a cleaning service. The only reason I don't have one now is that it seems silly to pay someone to clean my house when I'm home all day. Also my husband would have to do more household chores if I was working. Again, it seems silly to make him do more the house when I'm home all day and he's off at working, making money for the family. 

What kind of routines keep you sane? How do you juggle kids and life?