Home Routines blog

Decluttering in February

ByRosie

I think the universe is sending me a message: three of my favourite sites are focussing on Decluttering this month.  And I’ll keep telling myself that I’m not behind – I’ll just jump in where I am! FlyLady The FlyLady‘s monthly habit is decluttering for 15 minutes a day.  She has some good instructions on how to declutter and some different fun ways to get motivated. I’m feeling a bit guilty now because she keeps talking about how you should put boxes of decluttered stuff…

Extra credit routines help you do the hard jobs

ByRosie

I was thinking about how easy it is for me to make my routines too long, with too many tasks in them. There are things that absolutely have to be done in my morning routine – like changing nappies, breakfast dishes and so on. But then there are things that can slide more easily, like sweeping the floor post-breakfast etc, especially when I get tied up chasing toddlers around the house, and you just know they’re going to run through the swept  up piles of…

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Routines vs Calendars

ByRosie

I’ve tried out many systems over the years. There’s always something “new,” from bullet journals, Getting Thing Done, time blocking and so forth. I would often find it very tempting to write the things that I should do, or intend to do, on my calendar. My thought process was that if I put it on the calendar it’s official! With a time and date next to it, it definitely will get done! Life doesn’t often work like that, though, so I’d end up with a…

Focus on core tasks with your Daily 7

ByRosie

You can make lists and lists and lists, and have the best of intentions, but some days you can only manage the basics. Having a pre-prepared list of the absolute priorities can help out on difficult days. If you look around at what other people consider to be “basic lists” it can be helpful or sometimes overwhelming at times. But after all, your absolute priorities are up to you.  Stephanie O’Dea from Totally Together Journal wrote a great article called The Daily 7 for a…

Great post on SimpleMom about establishing routines with kids

ByRosie

Tsh at The Art of Simple has an excellent article today with twenty ideas to help develop a routine at home when you have little kids around There’s nothing magical about any one particular routine — it’ll probably change in a month anyway, as routines often do with little ones in the house. But simply having some sort of written-out plan helps me know what’s next, how to stay focused, and not feel like I’m running in a hamster wheel. I love this thought.  I…

15 Minutes* in the Dining Room Hotspot of DOOM

ByRosie

I’ve got this pair of little black shelves in my dining room, and I had not been keeping up with it.  Oh, no,  I had not.  But last week was dining room week in my focus zones, and something had to be done.  So I set my HomeRoutines timer for 15 minutes and got on with it. To be honest, I had to set my timer twice, because I got kind of distracted by the kids and a text from my sister reminding me I…

Routines: Good and bad examples

ByRosie

Creating your own routines is a great way to get in the habit of completing the regular tasks you do throughout the day. Everybody has some sort of routine, but it is not always a good one.  A few years ago I had a really crappy morning routine. It involved waking up late, rummaging through a pile of washing, ironing something from the pile, brushing my teeth and running to the bus-stop without any breakfast.  Then there was that one bus driver who would flash…

Keep your HomeRoutines on your iPhone or iPod Touch

ByRosie

Home Routines is a happy place for all those repetitive (and often thankless) jobs that come with running a household.  Each time you complete a job or routine, you give yourself a star.  At the end of the day, you can look at the Accomplishments screen and see how much you got done – even on the days that it feels like you didn’t do anything. Home Routines is ideal to store your own personalised routines and detailed cleaning tasks,  whether they are your very…