Ideas for a Homemaker Routine

I have been asked by a few people if we can have a thread on how to get into a good homeworking routine. Please post tips and advice here and say whether you keep a diary and/or whether you have specific jobs that you do at certain times of the day?

I hve a written schedule for cleaning, do one room a day although I confess that working full time over the holidays I've not been able to stick to it

My best tip is to not switch the computer on I am far more productive when I don't have it on.

I loosely base mine on the flylady thread but work a week behind them. I print off their list the week after they do it so I can get a full list at once, then cross off what I can't be bothered with or stuff that doesn't need doing or irrelevant etc. I add any in other bits that are personal to just me and work from that

When I decluttered our house I followed flylady, but the flylady thread on MSE looks scary! It's taken the most simple plan in the world and added all these levels and other stuff to it - that would overwhelm me to a standstill :affraid:

My tips would be that if you have a plan that only works if things go according to plan A then it's a rubbish plan and it'll never work. Life happens and if the weekly routine is such that one thing can throw everything out then it's bound to fail. Building in lots of flexibility can really help, especially when you're just getting started. So if you try one routine or one way to organise things and it doesn't work then it doesn't matter, something else will. What works for one person won't work for another.

I work on a "minimums and other" basis. There are things that I want to do every day - making the bed (my bedroom was always my big problem so I "need" it to be tidy all the time). Swish and swiping the bathroom, getting the washing up done, wiping worksurfaces, clearing the coffee table and sorting out the rabbits. When those things are done the house will run pretty smoothly. Anything else that gets done is a bonus. If I feel ill, or we're really busy or whatever then only those minimums are done and the house is manageable. Laundry, cooking, detailed cleaning can all wait but the basics are covered.

My other tip would be that it's a process not an action a lot of the time. Laundry isn't done until it's all put away, washing up is pretty much never done, tidying is ongoin etc. So they're the ongoing things, that need to be done lots. Other stuff are actions - do them once then forget about them for a bit - cleaning windows, decorating, cleaning woodwork etc. Once the ongoing stuff is well established into the daily routine then the action stuff can be brought in more easily.

How things are organised is important too for me. I'm a swine for putting things down instead of putting them away. So my systems are all about making it easier to put things away than to get them out. For example, my bookshelves are sorted vaguely by type - fiction, science, fitness, sport, art, craft but it's no more specific than that. That way I have to hunt for a book to find it but when it comes time to put it away I can just shove it anywhere on the shelf as it only has a general not a specific spot. I also try to keep things near where I use them, so I have a drawer for my hairdryer and all that stuff near my underwear drawer - I dry my hair when I've had a shower, I put fresh underwear on when I've had a shower so it makes sense for me to keep those things near each other. For my craft stuff (which has a tendency to run away with me) instead of keeping it in a cupboard as I used to I have a rolling trolley (it's actually a toolbox on wheels) for my current project, so I can keep it next to me wherever I'm working then stick everything back in there at the end of the day - I know I won't tidy everything back into the cupboard so there's no point pretending I will

I find that in school holidays the cleaning seems to go to pot as we have other more exciting things to do.

In term time I have abit of a rota going

6.30 get up, shower and dressed (swish n swipe the bathroom) cuppa
7.00 wake kids, unload dishwasher, reload dishwasher, wipe down kitchen sides
8.00 breakfast for us all, clear away breakfast dishes, load WM
8.30 walk kids to school with dog
9.00 cuppa
9.30 lounge
10.00 put washing on line, reload washer
10.30 empty dishwasher
11.00 bedrooms/hall/stairs/landing/ or anything else that needs doing
12.00 lunch

This is going to be a great thread - I'm just starting to experiment with a routine so it will be useful to see what everyone else does.

My big problem is getting going in the morning - I tend to slump on the sofa for hours and get nothing done, then get depressed, then get even less done.

Tomorrow I've got a private student coming at ten, so it's a great opportunity to try my shiny new morning routine:

7.20 Alarm goes off.
8.00 Bath, wash hair, get dressed, dry hair
8.30 Breakfast
9.00 Tidy bathroom, bedroom and main room (combined sitting/dining/kitchen)
9.30 Sit down gathering strength ready for nice-but-dim student
10.00 Student arrives
12.00 One-off job - tidy and declutter under sink cupboard
13.00 Lunch

That's as far as I've got but it's a start.

juliapenguin wrote:This is going to be a great thread - I'm just starting to experiment with a routine so it will be useful to see what everyone else does.

My big problem is getting going in the morning - I tend to slump on the sofa for hours and get nothing done, then get depressed, then get even less done.

Tomorrow I've got a private student coming at ten, so it's a great opportunity to try my shiny new morning routine:

7.20 Alarm goes off.
8.00 Bath, wash hair, get dressed, dry hair
8.30 Breakfast
9.00 Tidy bathroom, bedroom and main room (combined sitting/dining/kitchen)
9.30 Sit down gathering strength ready for nice-but-dim student
10.00 Student arrives
12.00 One-off job - tidy and declutter under sink cupboard
13.00 Lunch

That's as far as I've got but it's a start.

That's exactly why I make sure I do a few things before I sit down. If I get comfy on the sofa I won't want to get up so I make sure I do a few things before I even go downstairs to have my breakfast and why I make sure I take the breakfast dishes straight to the sink when we're done. That way I'm up and as I'm up I might as well do a couple of my minimums. For example I have to wash my face and brush my teeth so that's a sensible time to swish and swipe - I'm already standing right there! Same with the breakfast pots, if I take the stuff to the sink I'm standing at the sink so I might as well wash up - this is made really easy by the fact that I put some hot water into the washing up bowl when breakfast is being made so it's ready to go. Just little things like that make cleaning up the easy option iyswim.

A couple of things i do that help me get going in the morning are the TV is not on during the day unless i am ironing and I sit in the kitchen on hard kitchen chairs instead of in the livingroom. I dont sit down in the living room until night time this stops me from sitting for hours. I guess this wont work for people in all in one rooms but it helps me, i just need to restrict my net addiction now that is interfering with my housework

I sometimes put my laptop on the end of the kitchen worktop, as I don't get comfy there and stay with the laptop all morning.

PurpleIvy wrote:I sometimes put my laptop on the end of the kitchen worktop, as I don't get comfy there and stay with the laptop all morning.

Thats a great idea, will have to try that x

Yer, but I didn't do it today LOL!

i have a list of my daily jobs (the most boring) beds,dishes, hoovering, loo cleaning etc.
i have a daily job of weekly tasks like Monday is kitchen day where everything gets cleaned etc, Tue is lounge, wed is hallways and bathroom, thur is bedroom 1, fri is bedroom 2, sat is for anything else i didnt get done and garden tidying etc. Sun is day off lol
really helps me and i love crossing stuff off when its done

Very much like Alec Eiffel I have jobs that are done daily - bathroom, kitchen worktops, windowsills and cupboard fronts wiped, dishwasher loaded and unloaded, bin emptied and washed, cat litter changed, any mail dealt with and filed in the relevant place, washing and putting clothes to dry and sweeping downstairs. On a Monday morning I dust and vac through the house, empty all upstairs bins, clean mirrors and doors and wipe over dusty ornaments. I usually clean the windows too.

I then follow the flylady lists on flylady.net as it's a section of your house a week meaning that over the course of the month every room is done properly. It didn't take long for it all to become routine and the house is much better for it. Tidying up and putting away is an ongoing process but I have tried to make sure that everything has a 'home' so there isn't much left hanging about. I can be a bit OCD about it all so I only do house stuff in the mornings leaving the afternoons free for everything else

This is a great thread!

This is a brilliant thread!

I have to be honest, at the moment I keep trying out different ideas for a routine.. but thats about as far as it gets.

I know I function best with routine, but find it easier if one is imposed on me, such as on those days when I go into the office.

So my confession is that I am mainly posting on this thread to be able to look at everyone elses ideas for inspiration!
I did try flylady a few years ago, but found it 'too much of a good thing' - perhaps a little too rigid for me, (on the other hand that may be what I need!) ... not convinced of that, though!

I don't have a set routine. perhaps I should!

I am a compulsive list maker. I have a spreadsheet. When I was working it used to be broken down into 5 minute blocks.

Now a lot more flexible - half hour blocks. And it changes every week. A bit like my menu plan I have a timetable for the week otherwise things get away from me. I limit my time on the internet or I'd be reading MSE all day.

This week I have made sure that I do all my paid work in the study. I had slipped badly and was doing on the sofa in front of the telly for a while. VERY bad. I timetable in 'flying' and then do whatever is on the MSE list for the day. It really helps to be able to say - what should I be doing now - and look and it. Saves sitting on the sofa thinking CBA.

I can't work if I don't have a list to work from! I get distracted and then lose what I'm doing altogether and end up sat on the sofa or at the dining table with my laptop! LOL

Everyday routines
Get up, washed and dressed (7am)
Make the bed on your way out the room
Pick up any dirty laundry and either take it down for washing or put it in the laundry basket
Get kids up (if they aren't already), get them washed and dressed.
Make their beds and pick up any laundry as per before
Unload dish washer and put in first load of laundry
Make breakfast (7:30am)
Walk (or drive if it's REALLY bad) kids to school (8:25am)
Fold dried laundry and put away, load dishwasher, pick up toys and hoover (10:30am)
Put on another load of laundry and pick #4 up from nursery (11am)
Make lunch and play with the kids (12pm)
Fold and put laundry away (and if needed put on another load) (1:30pm)
Play with kids or if asleep, relax a bit!
Leave to collect kids from school (2:45pm)
Make kids dinner and sit down with them whilst they eat (5pm)
If it's bath night then bathe them (5:30pm)
Kids to bed (glass of wine time!) and plan what I need to achieve the next day (spending no more than 15 minutes on this) (6:30 - 7pm)
Either my lovely Husband or I make our dinner and we can finally sit down and relax together (8pm)
Load the dishwasher and put the last load of laundry on (if I haven't already in which case, fold it and put it away!) (10pm)
Pick up the toys and make the school aged kids lunches for the next day
Put out the clothes for tomorrow
Wash and get to bed - I need my beauty sleep more than anyone! (10:30pm)

I try to do something more, outside of this routine, every day (even if it's just 30 minutes) to bring the house up to scratch. In my household the children are in charge of their own rooms and have to tidy it once a day. I oversee this but generally I don't interfere.

I also have basic lists that I work from for extra weekly and monthly items...


Weekly routines

Mondays
Dust
Vacuum house from top to bottom
Clean out cars

Tuesdays
Clean all bedding
Clear hallways and landings

Wednesdays
Clean bathrooms
Wash kitchen floor

Thursdays
Clean out fridge

Fridays
Put the rubbish and recycling out (early AM)
Dusting

Monthly routines
Wash windows
Sort out the gardens (whatever needs doing)
Deep dust (as in wipe down ceilings, skirtings, switches and handles)
Clean carpets
Clean walls

These are the basics that I work from, but I adjust it to suit our needs as and when I need too! And of course now my kids are all getting older, they do a fair amount of this as well - such as making beds, collecting laundry, bins, dusting, vacuuming etc.

Used to have a routine - where did it go? We're saving energy at the moment so the washing machine and dishwasher only go on during economy 7. The washing machine has a delay timer so it sees to itself - but if hubby wants his gym clothes tumbled he transfers them when he gets up during the night to go to the bathroom . This creates a backlog of washing - mostly mine! Working on plan to get to bed for 9pm and up at 5am - haven't achieved this yet!