Yep, that's right. Stop doing shit you don't need to do. Like clearing out lunch boxes. The Monkey is old enough now that she can clean out her own lunch box after school and if she forgets...well, there's school lunch tomorrow! A few other things you can delegate: scraping plates into the organic waste and putting them into the dishwasher; throwing dirty clothes down the laundry chute; asking kids to return random crap to their rooms; put trash in your husband's hands as he's walking out the door for work; and much to the unthinkable...if you can let go of perfection...ask your kids to wash the windows and mirrors!
Consign kids clothes and stuff - but find a way to do it so that the stuff that doesn't sell gets donated so you don't have to pick it up afterwards. Bimmer Man is into selling stuff on Craigslist whereas I just want to be done with it - I do porch pick ups and if shit isn't picked up, I move onto the next person and if there's no interest it gets put into a box and dropped off at our local emergency program or Arc or Goodwill or whatever place is close.
USE YOUR SPOUSE. They are your partner, use them for what they're good at! Bimmer Man is fantastic with cars, building things, research, finding stuff to do for family time, and countless other things that drive me insane if I were to do them myself - we work together so much better when I ask him to find us something to do as a family on the weekend or have him schedule swim/mountain bike/soccer lessons. He enjoys going/doing that stuff as much as I do and he will find times that work in his schedule to go to them with the kids too! Delegating to your spouse the things that they like that need to be done helps you work together better as a couple AND as a family! Don't be afraid to ask.
2. Calendar
If something isn't on the family calendar, then it doesn't get done. I have too much to do to even think about something that isn't on the calendar. Every single time you have a new appointment, party, practice, class, volunteer thingy, travel, book club, etc...otherwise shit gets forgotten and family members get irritated and angry and feelings get hurt. PUT IT ON THE CALENDAR.
3. Make a list of things you like clean. And keep them clean. Lower your expectations for the rest of the house.
I like my sinks nice and white and shiny and clean. I take two minutes each week to scrub the shit out of them all with Barkeeper's Friend. It's lovely and I feel like I accomplished something. I'm lucky if I can find the time to pick up the hand vacuum to get the crumbs/dustballs from the corners of the rooms every few days. Life happens. I hired a cleaning person over the past few months and I've learned that with little ones and all their toys, it's too fucking hard for me to clean for the cleaning lady unless I sacrifice time with my kids to clear out the clutter and pick up after everyone every fucking day. I can't do that anymore. She'll come back after summer when we're stuck in the house and I can order everyone to clean up their shit because we're in the house for months on end. Minnesota winters can get rough! We're not in the house so I don't have to look at the sand piles on the floor anyway. Meh, whatever.
Also, take 15 minutes whenever you can (morning, afternoon, evening) to get basic shit done - throw a load of laundry in with the reminder sound ON so you hear it to swap your laundry; put dishes in the dishwasher, gather up dirty dishes; wipe the counters down, etc... or better yet...delegate this shit so you can spend 15 minutes in the bathroom pooping alone.
4. Meal plan. And then lower your expectations. Again.
If you ask your partner, and your child(ren) what they want to eat for one day per week then you've completed half your meal plan. Make pizza night one night. Do take out another night. Repeat until you've figured out which days you CAN make homemade meals and which days you absolutely have no time. Figuring those days out will drastically improve your chances of having a homemade meal. ALSO: shop at Costco, buy the portioned chicken breasts, ground beef, ground turkey, etc...until you have time to find a day where you have at least two hours to be able to open packages of meat and dump them into containers with meat marinades (this is advanced parenting shit, take your time to learn this but when you do get dump marinades down...your summer grilling will be AMAZEBALLS).
Buy all the fruit, veggies, and individual guacamoles/hummus/ranch dips. Put the fruit and veggies into individual containers so your children AND you will have healthy snacks that are ready to eat - no rinsing fruit when you have to run out the door. The earth will hate you until you can find time to be sane again but you know what...you'll be healthy, your children will like fruits and veggies and everyone will be jealous that you brought fruits and veggies for a snack to Tot Time instead of gummy fruit snacks. One day you will not need the individual containers and one day you will have your sanity back to be able to eat fruits and veggies a normal way, until then...MAKE IT EASY ON YOURSELF.
My meal plan example: we do a big meal on Sunday, leftovers on Monday (swim night), Taco Tuesday, a home cooked whatever meal on Wednesday, Leftover/Crockpot/Hot dog Thursday, Pizza Friday Night Movie Night, grill or go out on Saturday.
5. Do you have time for yourself? 5 minutes? No?
Change that shit. I made my workout time after lunch. We clean up from lunch, I set up Baby Chewie with toys, games, sand, books, whatever it is and I WORK OUT. I take 30-40 minutes, sometimes interrupted, for myself. This means I put Beachbody OnDemand on the Firestick and workout in the living room where the neighbors can watch me lose my balance when doing lunges and IDGAF. But I'm stronger, happier, healthier, and much more motivated to get shit done when I need to. Strong moms have strong kids. You don't need to take 3 hours to drive to the gym, drop the kid off to just scream for 30 minutes while you put your stuff in the locker to eventually not even workout for whatever time you want to. Then drive home.
Set your kids up on the couch with their books. You get out your book. You read for 10 minutes. Or use TV babysitter for a 30 minute show and lay down on the bathroom floor. WHATEVER YOU DO, GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER FOR TIME FOR YOURSELF. It helps. A lot.
This is everything that I do that makes life easier for us. I don't think Bimmer Man even realizes how hard staying at home is or everything that needs to be done in a day. At all. I should probably leave for a week just so he understands that if you let one thing slide, then everything else goes downhill the rest of the day and all you want to do is lay on the floor and let it eat you alive. So I get it. Life is stressful and you need to make it easier on yourself so you can enjoy life more. That includes telling other people what to do to get shit done so you don't lose your shit on your family or start to resent anyone for being able to leave the house and actually get away from the family.
Happy Thursday!!! Get your shit done today!
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