Housekeeping routine

Getting into a housekeeping routine with a baby can be quite difficult, I've found. I suppose that with your second child it gets easier, and even more with your third... though then there's less time and more people, and it can be tricky. I'll know it if (when, hopefully) I get there.

For me, finding a routine that works has been a bit difficult, but I think I'm on the right track. Since having a list of things to do every day was not working, I decided to make a couple of lists (one for mornings, another for evenings and a third for night) with chores I should do then, ordered by priority. Only a few of them are set in specific times of the day, and those (coupled with cooking and such) are non-negotiable: they have to get done! The others, on the other hand, we can live without doing them if need be. This way, if in the morning I only have time to do one thing, it will be the most important of the morning chores, and the rest of them won't get dragged along all day.

So, in the end, this is my daily schedule:

10am. Get up!
Morning tasks:

• Grocery shopping
• Make bed
• Laundry

Cook lunch
2pm. Lunch
Evening tasks:

• Weekly cleaning
• Water plants

Walk with Oath
9pm. Bathtime
Cook dinner
10:30pm. Dinner
Night tasks:

• Trash and recycling
• Dishwasher

Shower
Midnight. Sleep

This way I can also put in non-daily chores without having a very different schedule for each day. For example, I do laundry only when it's needed (generally it amounts to two loads every three days, some weeks more, some weeks less); and we do not fill the dishwasher every day, so there is no need to run it every night, just every other day.

There are still some things I have to adjust but I think it might work long term.


What about you? What kind of routine works best for your family?