You've given me so many great ideas for organising family and home life that I'm going to post your suggestions over several weeks - starting with ideas for organising your week.When you plan your week, make sure you have enough free days to get things done. I keep 2-3 days a week free from extra commitments to care for home and family. At the start of the year, set aside these days before making any regular commitments; at any stage, if you're getting too busy, stop and rethink. You might have to cancel something.Allocate particular tasks to particular days. I love Bec's example (the fact that it includes the word 'ironing' shows it's not mine :) ):- Monday: check over diary for week's tasks, plan menu for week, do shopping list, catch up with washing from weekend.
- Tuesday: fruit and veg and grocery shopping, ironing.
- Wednesday: busy day for us, so low tasks.
- Thursday: second catch up on washing (and housework) day.
- Friday: gift/miscellaneous shopping, errands.
Get the week off to a good start. First thing Monday, I clean the house; my friend does a market shop and cooks meals and snacks to stock the freezer and cupboards. In our different ways, this makes both of us feel ready for the week.Create a 'control centre': a space for family organisation in the kitchen or living area. Include a family organiser calendar, phone, note paper, notice board, shopping lists, menu planners, drawers for bills and notices and stamps, and whatever else you need to keep life organised. If you've got any other ideas, share them
here.
You can follow this series here.image is by Aunty Cookie (very appropriate!) from flickr
You've given me so many great ideas for organising family and home life that I'm going to post your suggestions over several weeks - starting with ideas for organising your week.
2 comments:
Ironing...yes. That's really only a feature of my list now that my husband is a lecturer. It wasn't before. In fact, it was a family joke for the 3 years we were in the UK that our visitors had used our ironing board more than I had. Funny because it was true! And now I only iron while I'm watching something on TV so I don't go crazy.
I should say that the plan is really only about weekly housework (ie not the daily things and it doesn't include "people time", kids activities etc in the weekly list. We usually see each set of grandparents on particular days and I tend to see friends on Thursdays or Fridays. By allocating specific times I find that when people say 'when can we catch up?', I can give some concrete idea even if my diary isn't with me and it means people get to know which days are good options.
Bec
Yes, I too have "people days" scheduled in. My weekly plan goes something like this:
Monday - tidying, cleaning, washing clothes
Tuesday - shopping
Wednesday - people Thursday - helping out at school / Bible study
Friday - grandparents, morning off for me
Saturday - bulk cooking, gardening, washing clothes
Sunday - church, family day
But that's just at the moment, it varies from year to year! And I'd like 1 more day during the week (for cooking) - the weekends are pretty frantic. Recently, work has squeezed out a lot of days too - it's hard to keep up with it all and people miss out when you're working part-time - but that's temporary.
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