How to be an organized stay at home mom in 2020? If you have been wanting to step into the new decade by being super-efficient & organized SAHM, then you have landed at the right place. We are talking about some time tested strategies for stay at home moms in this post that find their applicability right in to our lives in 2020 too.
Being organized means having a structured, clutter-free & methodical way of living. For a SAHM like any other mom, this is a sure-shot way to a sane & satisfying life.
The job of a SAHM is no less than an entrepreneur trying to make sense of the chaos around her& aligning others to the common goal of winning the game. And the game here is of course the smooth functioning of the household in order to enable all members of the family to achieve their goals.
How to be an Organized Stay at Home Mom?
Since a stay at home moms’ life revolves around numerous teams, being organized for her would also involve being organized on all these themes of her life. So it seems logical for us to visit all these various themes one by one while talking about how to be an organized stay at home mom.
Some of the major themes of a Stay at Home Mom’s life to work on being more planned and organised are :
| 1. Home (Space) |
| 2. Home (Chores) |
| 3. Schedules & Routines |
| 4. Meals |
| 5. Money & Finances |
| 6. Style & Fashion |
| 7. Health & Fitness |
| 8. Work & Life |
| 9. Thoughts |
| 10. Things & Stuff |
Organize Your Home, Dear SAHM
This is the very first & most fundamental step to having an organized life as a SAHM. So let us start with this one. Organising your home has 2 very significant elements to it. Being organized in terms of the space & being organized at the processes & chores.
Having the home organized in terms of space and chores leads to a systematic life which is as frictionless & devoid of hurdles as it can be. This can help you manage situations which are chaotic like kids not finding their things in place right in the morning, or a finished essential grocery items at home, or your partner not finding his favourite shirt on the day off his important meeting at work.
While these are just few examples, no one knows it better than stay at home moms like us, the effects of being unorganized. The hell can break loose & the storm can cook up any moment of the day. So doing things consistently and timely to keep the home organized is something that can ease up the life of a SAHM to a large extent. An added bonus is not getting stuck in any of the above-mentioned situations unexpectedly.
Organizing the Space Is Critical for Every Stay at Home Mom
Having an organized home starts with tidying and organizing the stuff at home using wardrobes, drawers, storage baskets, bins & racks and other furniture & fittings. There is a lot of scopes to be creative and use off-track things for storing your stuff at home.
A house with kids need a lot of different kinds of storage solutions. Toys, stationery, school kits, books, games, & their endless novelty stuffs & gifts. I am a SAHM and I have 2 kids at home. And these baskets are my saviours to have all similar stuff being stored together for access when needed.
I use these to store colour pens, My decorative tea light holders, my son’s cars, my daughter’s jewellery, My adapters & chargers neatly stacked in one basket on my work desk. And the best part is they come in different sizes & shapes in order to fit all your storage requirements & they look decent.
In fact, I also use them to keep my inside of drawers clean & organized too. They fit in easily and are really helpful especially for storing kids medicines & other OTC. I highly recommend investing in these and making your life simpler.
Another rock solid advice I can give you on getting your home organized is to go ahead and read this life changing book called “Unf*ck Your Habitat: You’re Better Than Your Mess” by Rachel Hoffman. This book is really going to change your entire outlook towards organizing & tidying your house.
How I Get My Kids to Be Organized?
My said & unsaid rules of having an organized home:
- What gets picked up from the place gets back into the place before picking up the next thing.
- The books, school supplies & stationery need to be stacked & stored for the Easiest access. They need a monthly review to see if some items are missing or are to be replenished. Infact I store these at 2 places. One for the access to the kids and the other one is my bank of all extra essentials for those last-minute needs.
- Toys & games are to be stacked in the garage in their designated areas.
- Books to be stacked in the bookshelf in your respective shelves. Common books to be put-on designated shelves
- Decluttering of toys & kids clothes happen once every 3 months in my house. Stuff to be segregated into 4 bins marked as To keep, To share, To trash, To transfer.
- “To Keep” bin gets things that the kids want to keep, all the things that are to be donated and shared go into “To Share” bin. The things that are to be trashed will go to the “To Trash” Bin and all the things that are to be transferred into their right places are filled in the “To Transfer” Bin. Since we do it every 3 months, it hardly takes a total of 2-3 hours to sort everything and get organized.
- Our Declutter day is usually followed by the Replenish Day. This is the time we have figured out and made a list of what we actually need to buy. And then we take kids out to their favourite store to pick up their things.
So ladies of the house, just think out of the box and get organising one shelf at a time and be a happy SAHM
Organizing the Chores Into Processes as a SAHM
This one basically implies to make your chores into processes that you do timely & consistently. It involves a person who is accountable for the task to delegate parts, sequence the activities, and then execute it.
Converting your household chores into processes enables you to give them a structure and consistency to perform them. And this structure and consistency makes it easier to finish them and tick them off the To do list quickly.
Another benefit of having a process around these household chores is that you end up doing them everyday as a routine and this results in not piling up of daily tasks to become huge projects later in the week.
And trust me I would never want to pile up my laundry to do it at the weekend together. Because air drying, folding & organising a week’s laundry for my family is a daunting task and I want to do it while its in small packages.
Here is how my Organized Chores List looks like
Schedules & Routines Help You in Being an Organized SAHM
Once the chores are structured into processes, now they need to be scheduled as a part of your monthly weekly or daily schedule. I take it far to the extent of adding it into my morning routine or evening schedule too. One SAHM enter the chores as processes into their routines, it is more likely to get completed.
Organize Meals & Stay on Track as a SAHM
Being an organized Stay at home mom encompasses being organized with respect to the food. Now since you are the primary care giver to your kids being a stay at home mom, it also means planning the kind of food your kids require, sourcing groceries accordingly, preparing the food at the right times so the kids can have it.
However, another very critical aspect of planning for meals at home is to take care of individual requirements of your own self as well as your spouse. I usually have a proper meal plan in place for my family that I make every Sunday.
My kids & husband know that if they want to eat anything special & home cooked, they need to put it on my Meal Planning List on the refrigerator by Sunday Evening. So I can order groceries & special ingredients online or by going to the supermarket for my weekly grocery run on Wednesday.
Apart from their choice of meals that they have put in for the week, I try to cook a balanced 7 healthy meals.
Plan your Money & Finances as a Stay at Home Mom
Another important area to focus on as a SAHM is to be planned and organized towards your money. For SAHM it is an area that is often & simply overlooked. The fact that the SAHM is not adding up to the family income in anyways is often difficult to deal with for the mom as well as the spouse at times.
However, adding up to the inflow is not the only way you can prove your financial contribution to the family. Working smartly and saving through the monthly home expenses, planning the investments based on those home expenses, and trying out work from home options are few good ways to fill the void of financial relevance for Stay at Home Moms.
Organize Your Style & Fashion
Being organized with the fashion quotient of your own self and other family members presents a great scope to stay at home moms to use their organization planning skills. Right from picking the right styles to wearing the right brands from shopping within the budget to organizing the wardrobes effectively, we all can do with a little bit of more planning on all of these.
As a SAHM, It’s Important to Be Organized on Health
Being organized at maintaining the health & fitness of your own self as well as others in the family is a critical need of the hour. Especially so, when the supermarket shelves are overflowing with health-destroying & false promising products. What to eat, and when to exercise is something a SAHM must look into for herself & her kids and spouse in order to maintain health & fitness in the family.
Additionally maintaining the annual check-ups, vaccination records, and dentist appointments are few other things that need to be planned and well organized for the entire family.
For me to be organized would also mean to have the best quality multivitamin supplements & vitamin D supplements to our weekly schedules. Of course, I do it under the advice of our medical practitioner.
Get Organized Towards Work
Being organized also involves being organized so as to take out time for some kind of work that you can get into & add value to. Planning & working out a schedule so you can take out a few hours in the day to work from home or work on projects that mean worthy to you is a great skill for a SAHM to have. Also creating a good work-life balance is something that needs organizing & planning skills.
Last, but Not the Least, Organize Your Thoughts
Lastly, being organized in her head, having clarity in thoughts and coherence in actions is hugely beneficial for the wellbeing & living up to the true potential of the entire family.
De-Cluttering Helps You Be an Organized SAHM
The above graphic to pics my rules of decluttering in a nutshell. I am a stay at home mom involve myself and my family into this very healthy habit of decluttering the stuff every once in awhile.
The rule is simple when we are organising a wardrobe or work drawer we have four bins to put the stuff in. These bins are marked as to keep, to share, to trash, to transfer. Taking out stuff and segregating it all in these four bins help start the decluttering process at my home.
Using this exercise often helps me and my home feel light, organized & friction free.
The Secret of Being An Organized Stay at Home Mom
Today I am going to reveal my 2 big secrets of being an Organized SAHM. Here they are
- I give my kids plenty of attention & love.
- I work on being Organized.
My kids get a lot of love & attention from me & that is why they are always more than happy to help me achieve my priorities & goals. It is the most fundamental thing done right. Addressing the basic needs of kids which are love attention and sense of significance in the family by spending quality time with them, & giving them their due attention goes a long way in simplifying my own life.
This Is How I Ensure I Am an Organized SAHM
I am a Doer. And that is the biggest thing that helps in being organized. No amounts of talk, words, complaints or orders work in making you an organized SAHM. Only your actions can help.
I Delegate tasks to others. I know that I can’t do everything on my own. So I involve others respectfully in my endeavours. I delegate, follow up & close loop. I also appreciate the efforts of my family.
I De-clutter often and therefore I am organized.
I am Disciplined & I consistently tick off things from my schedules. I dont procrastinate & hence I am an organized stay at home mom.
I am a SAHM & I Prioritise Fun Over Cleanliness
My last thought on “How to be an organized stay at home mom in 2020?” is that as a stay at home mom I prioritise having fun with my kids over cleanliness any day. My whole of life is simple. Feeling your kids’ buckets with attention and love, and they will collaborate with you to work on things that are important to you.
On the other hand, if you are being a mom who is a cleanliness freak, and never wants to participate in the mess and hence fun, you would most often see your own children trying to make it difficult for your to achieve your cleanliness goals.
So take a breath and think about what you are missing being a no fun cleanliness freak mom. And whether it is really worth the cause. I am sure you would come up with voice telling you to rethink & reflect on your ways.