Keep your home running smoothly with this guide

Mums Tips

Parenting Skills

Published on Tuesday, 19 October 2021 13:07

Last Updated on 19 October 2021

Monica Costa

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A smoothly run home is easier to prevent from descending into chaos. When you’re able to stay on top of everything that needs to happen in your home, you can ensure essential tasks are completed and that everyone in the family gets things done. Life is busy and you have plenty of commitments, including lots of them outside of your home, so keeping things running smoothly is a must. No matter how old your children are, it can be difficult to keep your home in order. But with the right methods, you can avoid there being too much mess and disorganisation. 

 

Communicate with Your Partner

The first thing that’s essential if you want your home to run smoothly is to communicate with your partner if you have one. It’s not just on you to keep your home in order, especially if you both work full-time and have similar commitments. It’s important for both of you to be involved in the running of the home. Dividing up responsibilities is important, and it shouldn’t be left to you to do all of the organising and mental effort to get things in order. You both need to be on the same page about what’s necessary around the house and for the family.

 

Manage the Family’s Time

Time management is essential if you want to keep your home running smoothly. From the chores that need to be done around your home to making sure everyone is up and out of the door on time each morning, there’s a lot to get done. Having a family routine and schedule can be key to managing this. Just knowing what time everyone has to go to bed, what time you all need to be up in the morning, and when you need to leave the house can be very useful. For younger children, a visual representation of what they need to do and when can help them stay on track.

As well as a daily routine, it helps to have a family calendar that allows you to keep track of various tasks both in and out of the house. Knowing which day your children have swimming lessons and when you need to arrange for a window cleaner makes it easier to stay on top of everything that’s happening. A calendar can allow you to track everything each week, month, or even across the year. It could be a paper calendar or a digital one, depending on what you feel works best for you and your family.

 

Keep Track of Essential Tasks

It’s always important to know what needs to be done around the house. Whether you have big tasks or small ones to complete, they can pile up if you don’t keep track. A simple to-do list can help you to stay on top of everything, whether you make a list to complete every day or you have a weekly list of tasks to tackle. You could even have a blackboard or whiteboard somewhere prominent so you can simply write something down when you think of it, and it’s there as a clear reminder. Some things you know you need to do in advance, whereas others can crop up at any time.

 

Make Sure Everyone Does Their Part

It’s not the responsibility of mum alone to keep the home running smoothly. Everyone can pitch in and do their part to make sure everything is tidy and everyone fulfils their responsibilities. It’s important to think about the ages of your children and the appropriate responsibilities that you can give them, but even toddlers are capable of doing simple things to help out. Of course, there is such a thing as expecting too much from your children. Asking older siblings to occasionally babysit their younger siblings is fine, but it’s important not to expect them to do more than their fair share of childcare.

You can start by ensuring everyone has the responsibility to clean up after themselves. Then you might expect that they start doing some things for the benefit of the whole family, such as doing the laundry or making dinner.

 

Use Technology to Your Advantage

If you want to manage your household more easily, technology can really help you out. If you use it in the right way, you can save time or make various things more convenient. There are plenty of simple ways to use technology to keep things running smoothly, like making sure everyone has an alarm clock to get them up in the morning. You can also start to make use of smart technology, which connects your home in various ways and can make some tasks at home more convenient to complete. Some examples include smart thermostats, smart washing machines, smart ovens, and even smart rubbish bins. All of these things can make it easier to get things done and keep everything running smoothly.

 

Stay on Top of Things

When there’s a lot to do around the house, it can make more sense to clear up as you go. Instead of having to spend hours cleaning at the end of the week, doing little tasks each day can help you to avoid the need to clean for long periods later. It’s often tempting to put things off until later but doing this can mean that you have more to do when you finally get around to it, and it can be more time-consuming too. Keeping on top of everything can require you to keep the whole family in line too. But you can also take the opportunity to teach your children a lesson about delaying things and creating more work for themselves.

 

Be Prepared for Breakdowns and Repairs

There will always be things that go wrong around your home. When something breaks and needs to be repaired, it can put a big dent in your usual routine. For example, if you have no hot water or your washing machine isn’t working, it can really disrupt everything in your home. You might not be able to predict exactly when these kinds of things happen, but you can take steps to be prepared for them. Taking out a home warranty is one way to prepare for this type of event. It protects your home’s various systems, such as the plumbing, heating, and electricity, as well as your home appliances, from your refrigerator to your washing machine. It will help you to save money by covering the costs of repairs and replacements when they’re needed, and make sure you can get everything fixed on time.

It’s also smart to have an emergency fund. Saving some of your money into an emergency fund means that you have cash put away for a rainy day. You could also keep your fund in a savings account so that you earn interest on it when you’re not using it. An emergency fund can help to cover all kinds of costs, whether it’s repairs around your home, vet bills, or an unexpected trip to the dentist.

 

Take Care of Routine Maintenance

Another way to be prepared for any problems around the house is to stay on top of routine maintenance. Small maintenance tasks can turn into bigger problems if you don’t address them as soon as you can. It’s better to have your boiler serviced each year than to wait until your boiler breaks and you have to fix it. There are all kinds of tasks around your home that need to be completed across the year, ranging from mowing the lawn to inspecting the roof. It can seem like there’s a lot to do, but scheduling things to do at different times can help to make it a lot more manageable.

 

Organise Mealtimes

One of the most fraught times in any family’s household can be mealtimes. It can be difficult to meet everyone’s needs, and just planning all of the meals for a week can be time-consuming. Being organised about mealtimes can help to make things go a little smoother. The first thing you need to do is get good at planning meals. Taking some time at the beginning and end of the week to plan what you’re going to have each day makes it easier to do your food shopping and sets you up for the week. You can even do some meal prep before the week begins to cut down on what you need to do during the week.

You can also consider how you can be flexible with meals to cater to everyone. You don’t want to be making a different meal for each family member, but sometimes you need to allow them to make choices about what they don’t want to eat. Sometimes the best solution is to plan a meal that can easily be tweaked for each portion, with things that can be added or not, depending on what everyone likes.

 

Use these tips to keep your home running smoothly. When you’re more organised, you can prevent a range of problems that disrupt your home life.