There is almost nothing in this world keeps a woman as busy as being a mom and because of this many parents are looking to simplify family life to enjoy it more.
Whether you are a stay at home mom, a working mom, or a work at home mom I think there is one thing we can all agree on…life as a parent can be difficult at times. There isn’t one parent I know that doesn’t wish that their lives were a little bit simpler.
Many of us have a hard time keeping our family’s happy and taking care of ourselves so that we can enjoy family life too. We have 5 things that you can do as a mom (or dad) to simplify family life to enjoy it more.
Declutter your home.
There is nothing worse than allowing “stuff” to occupy your extra time and keep you away from doing the things you love to do. There is no need to spend hours of your week cleaning and organizing stuff that you really don’t even need in your life. Do a room by room purge of everything you don’t use/need and get rid of the stuff that is weighing you down.
Take several different boxes into each room of your house and label them “trash” and “donate”. Anything that you haven’t used in the past year probably won’t get used that much in the future.
If you are having trouble decluttering on your own try Becky’s declutter course. It will walk you through room by room to declutter your home. There is also a Facebook support group to go along with the course so that you can ask questions to other people who are currently decluttering their homes.
Budget your spending.
How much of your week do you spend stressing about money? My guess is that most parents spend entirely too much time worried about where their money went or where it is going. Sit down with your spouse and come up with an exact plan to budget where your money goes each week.
A budget doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t have fun or that you can’t have spending money. It just means that you will limit yourself on the amount you spend per week on frivolous items. Trust me, it is such a relief to sit down to pay bills and know for a fact that you have enough money to pay them all and still have extra until your next paycheck.
Our friend Ruth has an amazing book called Living Well Spending Less: 12 Secrets of the Good Life. I just got done reading this and it completely changed my outlook on money and the way I spend it.
Develop a cleaning routine.
I used to let my laundry pile up all week and then save it until the last possible minute to do which always resulted in me dedicating an entire day to my family’s laundry. I’ve done the same thing with kid’s toys which tend to just multiply on the floors until no one can walk through the hallway leading to my daughter’s bedroom.
Now I have a cleaning routine that keeps my house clean 95% of the time and gives me way less stress than a dirty house and 12 hours worth of laundry did. My routine looks a little like this:
15 minute pick ups (kids can help do this!) in the morning and evening
Sweeping and mopping certain rooms on specific days
1 load of laundry per day
There is more, but the general idea is that if you keep on top of everything regularly you won’t be stressing and scrambling to get the house clean all of the time.
Create a meal plan.
Having a meal plan helps me in several different ways. For one, it helps me at the grocery store for my budget. I have a list of exactly everything I need for every meal I cook in a week. I only buy what is on the list so that I can stay under my budget for groceries every week.
The second way it helps me is that it takes the guesswork out of dinner. I know exactly what we are eating that day so in the mornings I take the meat out of the freezer and in the evenings I cook the meal that is written down for that night.
I am almost never running around trying to figure out what to cook for dinner which saves a lot of my sanity as a mom.
Learn how to say no.
This tip is probably one of the most important out of all of these. You don’t have to be super mom. No one is expecting you to be the soccer coach for you kid’s teams, bake cookies for the bake sale, be on the PTA, and run your household.
Even though it is tempting to say yes to everything because it seems like it will help your family & friends sometimes it is even more helpful for you to say no.
Saying no frees up your time for the things you are really passionate about. Whether that is just spending more time with your family, getting a hobby outside of motherhood, or coaching your kid’s soccer team. Whatever it is you will have more time to dedicate yourself fully to it.
These 5 tips will help you save time and energy for the things that really matter to you in life and therefore help you simplify family life to enjoy it more.
We have many more tips that will help you simplify family life on our Facebook page! Like it here!
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