That’s what I used to feel around this time of year when my house would take the brunt of kids being home all day during the summer months.
But now, that’s changed.
All because I changed my summer routine and incorporated a few key elements to keep my family and home on track during those crazy summer days.
Some Summer Tips for an Organized Home
1. Stick with the Same Morning Routine Keep the routine simple. Make bed, get ready for the day, complete your morning chore. By keeping your morning routine consistent, you’ll not only keep your family in line, but get a great jumpstart on each summer day.
2. Designate a Morning/Evening Weekly Chore for each Family Member Have a simple task list of one chore per family member that they do every morning and evening. Don’t add too many tasks to the list. 1-2 simple tasks like, unloading the dishwasher, or taking out the trash is perfect to help keep daily maintenance in the home. Rotate these daily tasks each week between family members.
3. “Closed Kitchen” Times This is a lifesaver for your kitchen and overall sanity. Your kitchen is NOT a 24-hour buffet line, so when meals/snack times are over and the kitchen is cleaned up, make sure you announce to the fam that the kitchen is CLOSED!!! For kicks, you can even have a sign displayed to enforce the idea. This prevents the constant pantry raids and kitchen disasters and puts you, as the parent, in the driver’s seat.
4. Daily Morning and Evening Home Reset In order to keep a tidy home throughout the summer, we need to give our homes a daily morning and evening reset. Resets are putting items back where they belong, pillows back on sofas, toys put away, clothes back in drawers and counters cleared off. If your family resets your home every morning and night, you will keep a tidy home and easily maintain the daily messes that come and go.And PS-Yes, when needing some extra boosts of motivation, I bribe with fun rewards like dessert, staying up late and pizza night to get my kids excited to keep up with our daily resets.
5. Toss. Donate. Repeat. This daily habit is so important, especially when items are constantly coming into your home. Each day, when doing your home resets, keep a trash bag handy to toss mail, papers, junk toys, expired food, and so on, in order to control the clutter. Additionally, store a bin or laundry basket conveniently in your home for any donation-worthy items. When you’re out to run an errand, simply grab your donation bin and get those items out of your home. Repeat this habit daily. Clutter won’t stand a chance at your place.
6. Embrace the Mess If you’re a mom with all your kids at home, or just a human being in general, you know that messes are just a part of life…so embrace them, my friend! I’ve learned that the more stressed and frustrated I become when those messes are made, the more miserable I make myself as a mom. It doesn’t make for a fun summer. So, let the messes come. Appreciate the creativity of the crafts, fort building and nerf gun battles. Make space for the craziness each day in your home. Remind yourself that you’re still in the driver’s seat and when it’s time, you and your family will do a daily reset of your home.
All is good.
Keep consistent with these few daily hacks and you’ll create a summer you’ll never want to end!