Routines - how did you develop them?

carolt

Since I've started on here I've been very impressed with what organised lives many of you lead - routines for cleaning, meal-planning etc and it's rubbed off on me in that I've now taken up regular meal-planning, and associated food-shopping planning, and have (well, have had to, owing to birth of 3rd child and there not being enough hours in the day otherwise) introduced a very strict dinner and bedtime routine for my 3.

But prior to 'discovering' routine here, we lived in chaos! I worked part time with a lot of it at home, which could be fitted around whatever and kids went to be whenever I could finally persuade them to (which we didn't mind that much as OH working late, so at least they got to see him a bit). But looking back, I wonder how we survived with that complete lack of routine and order? Now the kids are in bed by 7.30 at the latest and I actually have some time to myself in the evenings, and a lot of money is saved by planning and shopping wisely.

But how did you all do it? Organisation and routine don't seem to come naturally to me - is it just an instinct? Do you do things the way you were brought up? What's the secret?! Surely everyone else can't have just picked it up off here......

Gers

Mmmmmm - the only organisation I remember to do is to hang the house and car keys on the hook by the door AS SOON as I get home - if they go anywhere else then I can spend hours looking for them. I'm getting a routine for my glasses too, my habit until recently has been to leave them in random places in the morning when I put my contacts in, take my contacts out just as soon I arrive home for the final time in the evening and then do the looking for the glasses - rather handicapped as then I can't see properly!

Others here are much more organised than me but then they had different lifestyles. No children at home here so the stuff which affects them the most isn't necessary.

I can leave unwashed dishes in the kitchen sink and pieces of paper on the living room floor overnight but my keys need to be in the correct place or I can't rest at night!

lil_me

Learning by mistakes, was a total disorganised person before who just plodded on with the chaos, help from others on Flylady thread when it came to household stuff, charts and lists I find https://www.chartjungle.com helpful but other people use different ones. Meal plans now done which I never dreamed of before but with this and being more careful have spent less than half on groceries compared to last year.

Part of the routine thing I had to do, especially with the children, I have a son with Autism and another who they think may have Autism, they both are much easier to deal with when a routine is in place. In all honesty I think most kids are. When I get requests for help with families (happens a lot) most have no routine or very little and when it's put in place things are so much better.

I find life easier now but still have areas I need to make more organised, like studying!

chunky79

I got into a routine wheni had my 2nd baby, they wree 15 months aprt and without routine my life was chaos. Once i got into the routine life was so much easier and i find now 7 years on if it slips it take 2 days to catch up.

On a daily basis i get up at 7am load the washer make the breakfats make packed lunches, do the kids hair by 9 oclock all the beds are made, vacuuming downsatirs and kitchen floor mopped, 2 oldest off to school and 2 wash loads done and are going out on the line by 9:30am. Then i do all the other jobs that need doing. If i don't do it this way i never seem to catch up!

without routine i would not survive:o

exlibris

When I first started my household routine was based on my work routine. Certain tasks had to be completed by 10.00am at work. When the family came along I continued to have daily jobs to be done before 10.00am eg Breakfast and washing up, that day's main meal in oven (OH came home for lunch which was the main meal then), washing done and on line, bathroom, tidying round main rooms.

After 10 weekly jobs were done eg. bedrooms, deep clean of main rooms, shopping, baking etc

All this to be done before OH came home for lunch. When washing up from lunch done it was play time. In the park if it was fine, if wet, children played at home and I read, ironed or sewed, visits to family (on the bus).

Tea was always a light meal the bed time for children about 7.30. Evening with OH and TV!

I still managed this routine when children went to school until I went back to work. Then it was nearly all done on Sat. and everything only got cleaned once a week.

Noe there are only 2 of us I have become a slob. Housework gets done Mon and Fri unless we fancy doing something else. Meals are mainly cooked double and one frozen, I don't sew or bake as much as I did. Washing is done when needed, either every 10 days or so or if it is good drying weather, when I have a load. As long as the house looks reasonable and I can put something on the table within about an hour I don't fret.

HTH

Three_Dancing_Dragons

I am trying to establish routines on a daily basis. All my ideas have come from books I'm afraid. With a physical disability I don't have a lot of energy to waste so routine means I can get things done without having to worry about them. Eventually I aspire to Flylady but I'm using the 'bare bones' system developed by Sandra Felton which is more basic. Yes, there are books to teach you how to establish a routine. More and more these days.

rosieben

I was always very organised at work but not at home and since I am not working now and dealing with illness and depression, things were totally out of control.

I joined flylady.net and have some basic routines in place (the MSE flylady thread doesnt work for me, I like the flylady original) and built up from there. Flylady's 15 mins and baby steps have really got me into some sort of routine and now working on the zones. I find the email reminders from Flylady really help me to keep focused but I dont stress if I miss now and again and it works fine for me.

Since I found MSE and the Old Style threads, I now do a weekly meal plan and shopping list and keep a budget so I have much more control over money etc. and that gives me such peace of mind. :j

I think Flylady is the best, but there are lots of other websites and books to help set up your own routines etc. I'm definitely not a BO (born-organised) person and for people like me I think its a case of finding what suits you and letting the rest go.

Topher

My routines are based around identifying what functions the "House" (i.e. me) has to perform and when, then working out how that needs organising and fitting in. e.g. (when my kids were home) How often bedding needed washing, how that would all fit around & about the house (on days it couldn't go out) the best way to split it (Kids beds one day, our King sized another) and the best days to get that done. Those two became the days the beds got stripped and washed. I could then expect the kids to strip their own beds. I washed and made up new bedding until they were old enough to have their own bedding pile in the linen cupboard, from when I only did the washing, drying, (ironing if I fancied it)

I applied that kind of attention to all of the routine tasks, until the house kind of started to run itself. (with a little help from guess who)

Tasks include - washing up, shopping, ( I even knew which month/week the shopping list included toilet rolls or soap powder or coffee & tea) packing lunches, each room or job having a day. e.g. bathrooms cleaned Thursdays ready for weekend, upstairs hoovering Monday (ater weekend trashing) downstairs hoovering Friday ready for weekend.
So its a combination of working out what functions your house performs for you, when you want things done by, and routines for each task.
T

belfastgirl23

My starting point was night time routines since I would have sort of done some of that anyway. It is so nice coming down to an organised kitchen. And then the before work morning routine is so much easier. Washing day (for household stuff) was an easy one to add since I'm only really in the house on Sundays. I also do a good clean up on a sunday and a cook up. I think the biggest difference for me is that I now know that I'm going to do a night time routine etc and allow time before bed rather than getting up when I'm tired enough for bed and then doing it

Not a big fan of those routines for other housework tho since if I get to it first DH won't do it - I've adapted myself to his view is that you clean bathrooms, floors etc when they're dirty

newster

I try to be organised. I have loads of books on how to be organised, but I tend to feel rather deflated and useless after reading them. I do have the Fly ladies book as well, but have never read properly. Maybe I should. I've had it ages. My lot tell me not to worry about being organised, because they say, if I was, I'd be dangerous????!!!!!!

I suppose homeschooling doesn't help. Well not with me anyway. I do know some homeschoolers who are very organised!!

My mum tells me I'm "organised within my disorganisation" and that really is a very good discription.

carolt

It's interesting hearing about other's starting points. What got me thinking about this oddly, was an advertising leaflet trying to sell a new weekly teeth cleaning product that it suggested you do as part of your weekly routine along with say a weekly facial or conditioning treatment. Until I read that it had honestly not occurred to me that people might have weekly routines for that sort of thing - I'd just do them (which I don't really) if thought my hair was v dry or my face looked tired or something. And then I started thinking of all the many, many things I don't have routines for (yet) but have a nagging feeling I should - things that tend to happen when I remember or notice them eg cutting kids' nails, changing bedlinen :eek: (I'm ashamed to say), changing towels :eek: (ditto, esp given current thread on this), dusting, cleaning inside microwave/fridge etc, ironing.....

How much of your lives do you organise by routine? - until I had kids I think I secretly despised routine as anal (will it let me say that?), but now can really see its value. I've recently built 'reading time' into our evening routine as though I always read story to dd2, we never seemed to find time for her to read her school or other reading books to me (she's 4), and dd1 (aged 7) was always sneaking off to loo etc to read her books after lights out. That's worked really well for us - dd2's reading improved massively within about a week. But how many other areas do you/should one bring into a routine? For example, I recently decided I ought to schedule a regular 'date' with OH as hardly see him otherwise - though it seems rather unromantic, to say the last to have it on a weekly routine along with say, ironing or dusting...

All help appreciated - really struggling with this routine thing, as it just doesn't come naturally - afraid I may be too free-spirited (lazy?) to get the hang of it.....:o