I hear from many women each week who feel totally stressed out and overwhelmed with managing their home. I thought I had a hold on this whole homemaking thing – until we had our twin boys and they started getting into everything. Suddenly, I couldn’t cook or clean like I used to. There were (and are) days that I felt like all I could do was keep up with my babies and couldn’t make any headway with my house or cooking.

Welcome to the next part of our online book study of Say Goodbye to Survival Mode. It’s not too late to jump in and join the fun! You can read the introduction and see the full schedule of topics for the next 10 weeks. Or jump in with today’s discussion! This week we are diving into Chapter 6.

That’s when I knew I needed to figure out how to better manage it all. Now, I think there is certainly a time and a place for letting things go. I don’t fret if I go to bed and the sink is full of dishes if I had a full day taking care of my boys. When I do get around to vacuuming, there are crumbs all over the floor within 30 minutes anyway. It’s not all about having a perfectly clean house with everything in it’s place.

But I knew I needed to change things and set up some simple home management systems because I wasn’t using my time very efficiently or effectively. Some days are so full of taking care of my little ones, that things simply go left un-done and I’m perfectly happy with that priority list. Other days, my house is a mess simply because I couldn’t get my act or schedule together.

Here are some things I’ve learned over the years that have drastically increased my productivity within my home and allows me to use my time as best as possible. I have a long way to go towards perfecting these systems, but daily working at these has helped me immensely!

Developing Simple & Effective Home Management Systems

In the Kitchen

I love to cook and I’m the type that loves to experiment and make things from scratch. For the first several years of our marriage, I let hubby pick out a new recipe each week and I would make it Friday night. I love making homemade ice cream, bread, pasta, muffins, crepes…you name it.

But in this busy season of my life – with twin toddlers and twin babies due any day – I have to keep it simple. I know that one day I will be able to make homemade bread again and have more time to experiment in the kitchen. But right now, today, my priority is to get something yummy and nutritious on the table and I can achieve that by keeping things simple.

Freezer Cooking

Freezer cooking has been a life saver in my kitchen!! I used to freezer cook when I worked full time outside the house and now that I stay home with my kids, I find it even more helpful! Now that I’m preparing to have my second set of twins, I’ve put over 50 meals in the freezer and it’s been so nice. You can see my full postpartum freezer cooking plan HERE.

Homemade Mixes

I haven’t done a ton of this yet – but I plan to in the future! You can put all the dry ingredients together and they are ready to pull out and use – from spice mixes to oatmeal packets to brownie mixes and soups! Doing a bunch of these would save so much time in preparing the meals and also planning out what to make.

Here’s a fabulous list from Intentional By Grace: 22+ Homemade Mixes (Healthy and Convenient)

Cleaning & Organizing

Without a plan for cleaning and organizing, it’s so easy for my house to get out of whack. Hours bleed together into days and days bleed into weeks. If you don’t have a plan of action (especially when you are exhausted from being up late into the night nursing babies) it’s really easy to forget to clean your toilet – for a few weeks.

Developing cleaning systems has allowed me to free up valuable brain space so I don’t have to think about it as much and helps me to stay more organized even when my house is in chaos. Here are some resources to help you develop some systems and routines for cleaning and organizing:

• 4 Weeks to a More Organized Home Printable Checklist
• Creating a Manageable Routine & Schedule as a Homemaker
• Creating a Personal Priorities List for Your Life & Homemaking
• Setting Goals in your Home so you can Stay on Task & Focused!
• How to Turn Your Homemaking Goals into a Reality
• Learning Self-Discipline Must First Start with Christ

Get Rid of All the Junk

While we are so thankful to finally live in our first house (instead of bouncing around from small apartments to small apartments), our house also doesn’t have very much storage space. So while cleaning things out and rearranging for having 4 kids in the house, we’ve learned that sometimes the best thing you can do: is throw things out!! 

“You know one surefire way to add more time and order to your life? Get rid of excess stuff. I talked about this before, but I’ll say it again. I truly believe that the less you have, the less time you spend on upkeep, maintenance, and leaning. Either you control the clutter or the clutter will control you.” – Say Goodbye To Survival Mode, page 143

[Tweet “You know one surefire way to add more time and order to your life? Get rid of excess stuff. – @moneysavingmom”]

I’m certainly not an expert on living simply and cleaning out the clutter (I’m a total pack rat by nature) but here are some fabulous resources to help out:

• One Revolutionary Trick to Make Your Home Far More Manageable – Embracing a Simpler Life
• Simplify Your Medicine Cabinet – Embracing a Simpler Life
• Decluttering (and throwing out!!) toys – Embracing a Simpler Life
• 8 Weeks to a Less Cluttered Home (FREE PDF Guide) – Keeper of the Home
• Make Your Home a Sanctuary – The Humbled Homemaker

One of my latest podcast episodes is an interview with Katie Bennett and we discuss this very thing. Listen to it here (it’s really encouraging and motivating): Episode #2 – Creating Simple Homemaking Routines That Work

Say Goodbye to Survival Mode – Chapter 6

If you really feel like you are drowning and need a manual on how to say goodbye to survival mode…you need to go pick up a copy of this book TODAY! Order the book, get it on Kindle, or get it as an audiobook for FREE with a 30 day free trial membership to audible.

Chapter 6 alone (Manage the Home Front) is worth getting the book for me as it goes through so many tips for effective home management systems.

Daily Disciplines Worksheets

You can also download my FREE daily disciplines worksheets to help you get organized and started today. I originally made these for myself because I needed some sort of weekly check list to help me keep track of it all – and now you can download it too! You will get a filled out version of the worksheet which is what I use and also a blank one so you can customize it and fill it in with all your info!

To download it for free (and instantly) all you have to do is sign up for my email newsletter and you will get an instant email with the download link! Then print it off (I laminated mine to make it easy) and you are all set. Click on the image below to download:

5 Keys to Planning a Successful Day 

Free PDF Guide & Training Video! 

If you want to take this concept further and jump into how you can plan for a successful day (and what that even means), then I want to invite you to sign up for my FREE video and PDF guide 5 Keys to Planning a Successful Day. 

Sign up and you can start going through it right away! Join me to chat about how, with a few simple tips, we can start living with more intention. It might seem overwhelming to work on being more intentional and purposeful in your schedules and to-do list. But in reality, it takes just a few minutes to begin transforming your routines with 5 simple steps…

5 Keys to Planning a Successful Day Sign Up >>