Does your home look like mine did over a decade ago?
Laundry piles everywhere?
Is everyone complaining they have nothing to wear because they can't find it?
Have your kids been digging into the baskets throwing everything out, in their search for something to wear?
A sink full of dirty dishes from last night?
Do you feel defeated before the day even starts?
Does your bathroom have a peculiar odor?
Does it feel like a monumental task you dread doing, because it's so awful?
Do you feel overwhelmed when you walk into your bedroom?
Do you desire a sense of calm?
Top 4 chores to accomplish each day for a calming home.
These were the top 4 chores I couldn't keep up on as a young wife and mom learning how to manage a home. The unkept chores could raise my blood pressure and did not bring a sense of joy, peace, and accomplishment. I'll share how my husband and I transformed our home from chaos to calm by tackling these four tasks.
Daily Chore #1: Go to bed with a clean kitchen
Start with the night before. I got so sick and tired of waking up to a dirty kitchen daily. The first step I took to reclaim my home was never to go to bed with dirty dishes in the sink. My husband and I worked as a team to ensure this task was completed by one of us daily.
Daily Chore #2: Do at least one load of laundry a day
Wash and put away one to two loads of laundry each day. Each morning while I make my breakfast, I start the laundry. By mid-morning, I'm ready to switch it over to the dryer and start my second load. We aim to have the laundry folded and put away before dinner each evening.
Daily Chore #3: Swish & swipe your bathroom
Years ago, I heard about the 5-minute daily swish and wipe from Fly Lady. It changed my life. I no longer had to clean a filthy bathroom because I waited too long. Instead, I took 2 minutes per bathroom, wiped down the countertop, and swished the toilet. Now my bathroom smells fresh every day. It only takes 2 minutes a day. So simple and effective.
Daily Chore #4: Make your bed
Lastly, I make sure to take 2 minutes each day to make my bed. Our bed makes up 80% of our bedroom, and this simple task completely transforms the room. Don't believe it? Try it! I guarantee you'll feel calm even if the rest of the room looks messy.
Next, you may wonder how these tasks fit into a busy mom's schedule. Let's discuss how we can make these habits our daily homemaking routines.
Do them as early in the day as possible.
With children, we never know how our day will go. Most of the time, we have to deviate from our plans. If you tackle these tasks as soon as possible, you will feel successful very early in the day.
Do them at the same time and in the same order each day.
Decision fatigue for a busy mom is real. We have many decisions we need to make each day with our children. The fewer decisions, the clearer or brain can work. Decide the order you'll perform these tasks.
Don't reward yourself with a social media break until you have completed these top chores.
It's incredible how much you can get done if you choose to delay engaging on social media, online or texting.
Example of how I work out my chore routines.
Below I'll show you what a day in the life looks like for our home. Our aim is to get simple chores and routines into habits. Not every day is perfect but we can always pick right back up when interruptions happen.
Our family has a dinner clean-up routine we do every night. You can access what this look like this with my 28-Day challenge you can find here. We do this almost every night. We rarely miss it because of how life-changing this habit has become. The sense of calm I wake up to each day makes it worth fighting through the fatigue at the end of the day.
After my morning quiet time, I head to the kitchen to make myself a quick breakfast before the kids wake up. While waiting for my frying pan to heat up, I'll throw in a load of laundry. We have a simple system to keep our laundry sorted and ready to wash daily. This task takes me less than a minute. If you have a timer on your washer, you can also start this chore the night before as part of your evening routine. I have done this occasionally, also. Throughout the day, I will rotate any loads I want to do but always try to do two minimum per day based on our family size.
After breakfast, I make my way upstairs to get dressed and ready for the day. I will quickly make my bed and tidy my bedroom during this time.
When my kids were younger, I would also quickly go to the bathrooms and clean them while doing the other morning chores. However, with more children using the bathrooms in the morning, I wait until everyone has showered, brushed their teeth, and gotten dressed for the day before I do this. I will sprinkle this chore in as I have time throughout the day.
At the end of the day, we have an afternoon clean-up routine that happens before my husband arrives home. The kids each have chores that help this process go a bit smoother such as sweeping floors, loading the dishwasher, and picking up after themselves. I will fold laundry and have the kids put away their piles during this time.
You may find that you can delegate some of these tasks to your children. These are chores that I desire to do for our family and ones that help keep our home running smoothly with minimal effort. Our children are responsible for helping maintain the house throughout the day. These chores include.
- Picking up their toys before moving on to the next task
- Sweeping the floor before and after dinner
- Putting their clean laundry away
- Loading and unloading the dishwasher
- Helping with our 15 minute dinner clean-up routine
Would you like some accountability in building chores and systems to create a calming home for your family? Grab my free download now and consider joining our 28-Day Calming the Chaos Challenge.
Thanks for dropping by today! I hope you found encouragement for building a peaceful home. If you know another mom who might benefit from what you've learned here today, be sure to share this post with her!
Before you go --- I have laid out all my tips to creating calm in your home, and you can get it below:
 | Learn my 4 Daily Habits to Calming the Chaos at HomeLooking for more calm in your day to day life? A calm home is possible--with the right habits. Learn my 4 daily habits here, it's free: |
1. I always "put the kitchen to bed" while my husband puts the kids to bed. Or vise versa. That includes washing all dishes, running the dishwasher, and wiping the countertops.
2. One load of laundry per day is perfect for our size family. I start it as soon as I get home from work, switch it before I sit down to eat supper, then fold while kids are brushing teeth, and put away while they are getting PJs on.
3. Each family member has an area they tidy before bedtime.
4. I follow the Passionate Penny Pincher for my daily cleaning task.