As a busy Mom and Grandma who works full time from home I have developed a simple strategy to organize my home and family with less stress.

A Planning Nugget

Maybe you have heard this before, If you fail to plan then your plan will fail. It is worth repeating. This nugget applies to life in general. These are the tips I have been using for years and they will help you to organize your busy week also.

Using the right tools and rules will keep you and your family organized especially when school starts back and summer break is over. This means a busier schedule for Mom and probably grandparents too.

Organize Home & Family Schedules

Begin organizing your week on Sunday.

Have a family meeting.

Give everyone the opportunity to submit their plans for your review and see how you can fit those into the schedule. Your spouse and teenage children will likely have something to add which you need to know.

You should be receiving emails from Coaches and Teachers in addition to having printed the Academic Calendar from your child or children’s school district. It’s a must to include other people’s appointments and activities in your plan if at all possible.

Make a list of all the things on this weeks agenda to include:

Appointments; medical, dental, home repair, home maintenance, hair-cuts, pet care
Business meetings
Sports events the children are involved in
Practice commitments for the children
Play dates
Gym time
Social commitments
House guests
Meal Planning (maybe repeat a meal plan you already have)
Laundry
Household Chores

Add It All To A Calendar

My personal favorite virtual calendar is the Google calendar because my husband and I can sync our appointments and events and help each other not forget important dates and times.

If you like to write things down this one on Amazon is popular and I like the big spaces for making notes on it.

The Happy Planner is my all time favorite for writing things down. It proves that we all love stickers. I can spend way too much time enjoying my Happy Planner.

Priortize

Prioritize your list day by day. Hopefully everyone will be going to work and school for sure. Then what?

Use a calendar to keep track of those things which must happen each day. Leave that calendar in a public place like a kitchen counter or your family command center so everyone can keep up with where they are supposed to be.

Color Coded Calendar

If you love creating lists like I do then you also know the joy of a well organized list. That is where color coding comes in. Use colored pens to write things in categories.

Take it a step further by using colored highlighters and assign a color to each person in the house so they will know which appointments are theirs with a quick glance at the calendar.

Red = Must happen

Green= Should happen

Blue= The world won’t end if it doesn’t happen. Does the gym go here?

NOW YOU HAVE A PLAN!

Now that you have created the list and written important events on the calendar and added them to your virtual calendar, you have a plan in place. So Yay!

Make The Plan Public

Do not keep your plan a secret if there are little people and other adults in your home. Why not? Because they also have a plan and it will disrupt your plan so tell them! Does this sound like the voice of experience speaking? This is why the family meeting is important.

Unless you want everyone coming to you constantly asking what is next, write the plan on paper and post it in a well traveled space. The refrigerator is the most viewed thing in the whole house. Do you have any idea how many times your refrigerator door is opened and closed in one day? Post the plan on the front of the refrigerator and make that fact known.

So, if you are keeping track, the plan is now in two places.

The calendar on the counter and
Also on the front of the refrigerator. It shouldn’t get lost.

Meal Plan

If you want to organize your home and family so there is less stress on your, the home manger, meal planning is a must. Those pesky folks that live at your house keep showing up for dinner, don’t they! Let’s keep them fed without breaking the budget by Meal Planning.

Not only does meal planning save you time of figuring out what’s for supper but it’s a great way to stay within budget as well. If you have never tried meal planning, please gift yourself that opportunity at least one month.

See our Meal Plan page and Follow our Meal Planning Board on Pinterest.

Delegate

If the house is to run smoothly or as smooth as possible given the busy schedules therein, everyone must share in household chores. So delegate. Hang a chore chart for the kiddos and share household duties with your spouse.

Here’s How to Set Up A Speed Cleaning Kit for your home like we used in our cleaning business for many years. Once you create the kit you’ll want to know How To Speed Clean Your Home Like A Pro. If you can hire someone to clean your home, that is great. Read How To Prepare For The Cleaning Lady, Tips from the Cleaning Lady.

7 Tips To Organize Home and Family

Plan

It all begins with your plan.

Organize & Make A List

Then you rallied the troops and made a list of what’s going on in everyone’s schedule for the week and month if you have information that far in advance.

Prioritize

Then you added all of the important appointments, sports practices and events to not one but two calendars.

Publicize

Leave a calendar on the kitchen counter or in your family command center or on the front of the refrigerator.

Meal Plan

You created a meal plan for the week or better yet for the whole month.

Delegate

Everyone has been assigned their household chores and you now have yourself a Speed Cleaning Kit which you created.

Let’s do this! You have not failed to plan.