Keeping the Household Organized
Handy Low-Tech Tools for Busy Stay-at-Home Moms
Stay-at-home moms can use all the help they can get to keep things running smoothly on the home front. Try these five simple ideas for keeping family life organized.
The role of a mother is so varied and intertwined with the lives of other people that it can be an overwhelming responsibility at times. To help handle the details of household management, stay-at-home moms can use the organizational tools they used when they worked outside the home. Here are some ideas to help keep the whole family organized from day-to-day.
Large Wall Calendar
Purchase a calendar that has boxes big enough for writing notes on each date. Some calendars have pockets for storing important papers and stickers for indicating key dates. Busy moms can also make their own calendar pages on-line or by using a word processing program to help make planning even easier. Consider implementing a colour code system to keep track of which family members have activities scheduled on certain days. The family calendar is also a good place to list chores that need to be done and any goals that have been set by family members.
Keep Organized Binder
Many households have a surface in the home that is filled with papers that cannot be put away yet because the information is still needed in the near future. To help clear the clutter, fill a binder with clear page protector pockets and put the loose papers in the pockets. School calendars, birthday party invitations, estimates from contractors, lists for gift ideas and tickets to a well-deserved night out can even be stored in the binder. To further organize the information, have sections in the binder for each person of the household.
Personalized Note Paper
Consider buying some personalized note paper for jotting down notes to the teacher or including a message with the batch of muffins made for a neighbour. Both stay-at-home and work-outside-the home moms would find this a very useful tool on the mornings that everyone is running late and there is not a scrap of clean paper to be found in the house!
Daily Planner
Many moms who work outside the home use a daily planner, so why not use one at home to keep track of daily tasks? Write down to-do lists, notes from important phone calls and ideas that are worth remembering all in one book, rather than having odd bits of paper being misplaced. Use the daily planner to also keep details of future plans organized. Jot down the things that need to be packed for a weekend away on the day the family is scheduled to leave as they come to mind, rather than brainstorming all at one time.
Grocery List and Meal Planner
Take half an hour once a week to work out the weekly meals and make a grocery list, and keep the menus from week to week to save time. For easy planning, fold an 8 ½ by 11 sheet of scrap paper into thirds, representing three columns. On the left hand column, plan out the menu for the week. On the middle section create a running grocery list. The third section is for re-writing the grocery list in order of where the items can be found at the store. Betterbudgeting.com has free templates for menu planning and grocery lists, including a basic pantry list.
Keeping a household organized is not an easy task and anything that can help make a stay-at-home mom’s job easier is worth giving a try. The key is to keep things simple so that everything is more efficient and to remember that staying at home with the kids is a full-time career.
