I don’t have enough time to get it all done!

How many times have you said this or thought this? How stressful does it feel when you feel this way?

Maybe it’s not that you don’t have enough time but maybe you have too much to do, too much to take care of, too many unnecessary obligations. When you have young kids that time can slip by all too quickly and in the blink of an eye your toddler will be towering over you with keys in his hand.

I know that things can get really crazy, really quickly around here and I’m sure it’s the same in other homes as well. The past week was a train wreck with us being sick and not being able to do many of the things we had planned to get done so now we are almost a week behind already for the New Year!

How does this happen? Well, sometimes we plan too much and we try to do too much. Sometimes we procrastinate and then never tackle the things that we need to do until they become an actual emergency.

There will always be emergencies and things that pop up unexpectedly but we can do things now to help deal with those issues in the future. I truly believe that some of these tips are what keep our household up and running during the most stressful periods.

Schedules and routines:

Our schedules and routines are very important to our home and our family. Some members of our family actually depend on these to function… they also help everyone else.

Evaluate what you absolutely need to do every day to keep your life running smoothly. Make a basic routine from these items. You can go further and divide them by mornings, lunchtimes, evenings, and bedtimes… do what works for you.

Then evaluate your weekly and monthly tasks to add them to your routines. Don’t try to get fancy and type them up because your first couple of tries will not usually be quite the ‘perfect’ fit although you should see improvements. Make a rough draft so you can scratch off things or add things as you see they need to be changed. Just be careful not to add too many changes at once and don’t be afraid to reevaluate the routines and schedules regularly to see what things may need to be revised.

Here are links to some of our various resources:

Meal Plans

Meal plans are an essential item on my To-Do list! They help prevent the ‘What’s for Dinner?’ panic that can set in close to 5 pm. They also help me to prepare ahead and to get my grocery shopping done efficiently.

I’m actually working on a perpetual type of menu plan right now and I hope to be able to share it with you soon!

Here are links to some of our various resources:

Other Stuff & Things:

Think about going on vacation. You would only pack the essentials and if you forgot something small you could always pick up a replacement somewhere.

Maybe you aren’t ready to let go of some things. Maybe you should plan on an extended move or remodel where you’d have to put things in storage for a fee. Pack up everything except the essentials. Label and store the boxes in a shed, garage, spare room, behind the couch, under the bed… anywhere out of sight. Make sure to date and label the boxes and keep a list of where you stored them so that if you need to access something you can find it easily.

If you haven’t reached for the items after 6 months then you can sort through them again and decide what needs to go. If you still have a hard time letting go of some things then hold on to them for another 6 months. If you haven’t used them after a year then you may need to evaluate just how necessary these items are.

As I declutter I can feel my stress loads getting lighter and I just feel better overall… maybe there is some healing in a bit of Spring Cleaning!

I know these weren’t very detailed but my 15 minutes are up and at least these can give you some ideas of where to start. The links will also give you some more information if you want to check them out.

Have an amazing day and know that you are LOVED!