Guest Author - Paula Petrie

A life that involves raising a family is heavily invested in routine. In fact sometimes life can feel like endless revolving circles of routines. Most moms are busy accomplishing more than one chore at any one time and overlap routines regularly in the name of productivity. Feeding the baby while helping a child with homework or cleaning the bathroom while getting ready for work.

Because routine chores frequently overlap, tidying the kitchen cupboards while making dinner, for example, it will truly help your cause if you put some thought into making these routines as simplified as possible.

A good routine involves developing a system to accomplish your goal. Put thought into planning and creating your work or play space, and storage areas, with “living” in mind. Think about what you want to accomplish and organize your time efficiently. List daily and weekly goals. Have a convenient “place” for whatever you use, this gives a clean look to your home and demystifies clutter.

Putting dreams and possibilities aside, for a moment, consider what you “need” in each room to have it work for you. What do you need to buy, or get rid of, to make it so? How can you experiment to see if this is a good solution before making another purchase? The point is to create a home where you can run routines efficiently without buying more items to add to the problem.

We all know the next step. Get a box or a garbage bag and prune or clear-cut your belongings. Granted this is a confusing and complicated process. But while you are working on what should stay for posterity and what you will be able to live without, consider what is important to enrich your family life and what will eventually become clutter. What are you keeping for the sake of “possibilities” and what is actually beneficial to the managing of your life? We all tend to buy and keep too many “things,” and we all eventually need to prioritize which is of more value, our stuff or our lives.

Strike 3, or a home run. Make shorter paths when possible. Running to a central location for cleaners, pencils, or to return items to children’s rooms can add far too many miles onto a busy day. When it comes to dust cloths and pencils, every room should have some. Quick jobs and notes are left untended to when a “trip” is necessary for supplies. An attractive catch-all works great for stray toys. What do you need to make a space "easy living?"

Central listing. School activities, after-school activities, shopping, car or dental appointments should all be posted in a stationary, central location that is easy to see. This works to help co-ordinate, as a reminder, and is easy to update. Home bill management can be handled in the same way. Possibly use a file box which is in sight, and then also, in mind.

Does it pass the lazy test? For the day or week that you’ve run out of steam, will everything go quickly and easily back in place? Do things have a place? Can you maintain some semblance of order without a great effort? If so, you may be organized!