If you’re looking for tips on how to manage a home, simplify your home management routine and find a system that works for you, you’re in the right place!
I just want to start off with… I see you, friend.
I see how you try to get everything done in a day. How you try to find the balance between quality time with your kids and spouse and keep on top of housework as well do awesome at eating healthy, working out, and keeping up with friends. I KNOW, because I’m the same way.
While I can’t cover ALL of that in one post, today I’ll touch on prioritizing home management and how I see it fitting into the big picture.
I will give you actionable tips on how to manage a household and simplify your life below, so keep reading!
For me, finding the RIGHT (read: important to me) habits and routines and actually learning how to manage a home has been super helpful on my journey to do more than just get through each day.
I want to thrive not just survive and I want the same for you.
And I only want to do what is MOST important. Not all the extra time-sucking stuff that brings my energy down.
In this post, I’m going to dive into what falls under “home management” along with some tips on how to manage your home without being completely overwhelmed and burned out day after day after day.
Should we begin? Grab your coffee and let’s chat, friend!
Originally posted June 9, 2021. Updated.
How to manage a home without being overwhelmed
Further Reading on Simplified Motherhood:
- Awesome Family Routines Examples to Simplify Your Day
- How to clean your house fast and efficiently
- 24 Trello Board Examples to Organize Your life [family style]
- 110 Habits to Track in 2021
- The Ultimate Home Management Binder Guide
What is home management?
First things first. What is home management anyway?
Home management is the set of routines and habits put into place to manage a family’s living space and schedule SO THAT you can have the space and energy for each person to find their authentic selves and live out their purpose.
I mean, doesn’t that so much nicer than how to keep your house clean? It’s all about changing your mindset!
These routines and habits cover areas like scheduling, cleaning, eating healthy food, living within a budget, creating family memories, etc.
Why is home management so important?
For me, I love optimizing and finding the most efficient way to manage my home because I want to create a fun, loving, clean home to make my family feel loved, rested, and like they belong just as themselves. I want to inspire creativity and help everyone feel loved and safe.
I want my home to be a place my kids are excited to come home to everyday after school and that my husband looks forward to when he’s off on his work trips. But I want to do it without getting burnt out. We’ll get more into those tips shortly.
To make home management effective, you need to define your WHY. Do you know your own why?
What’s the difference between a house and home?
The logistics of taking care of the place you live (house/apartment/condo/trailer) etc. is only part of creating a home. A home is the feeling created for the occupants of the house. It is a safe landing place when you are stressed. It is a safe, loving place for each individual in a family.
So, while I challenge you to “manage” your home well, don’t forget you need to identify your WHY.
10 Easy Tips for a Well Managed Home
If you follow each of these steps, you’ll find the right mindset to help you manage a home while still having fun. It doesn’t have to be all work and no play. In fact, that’s not the point!
The point of living in a home is enjoying it. So let’s figure out how to take care of the mundane stuff and find some margin to enjoy life again!
1. Prioritize relationships
First things first.
It can be so easy to get caught up in your to do list that you forget about the REAL reason you are doing what you’re doing. Your mindset plays a huge role in this. When I’m doing dishes, I see it as an opportunity to love and serve those around me because I love them, and that helps me get through it.
That being said, I make sure to set aside time during the evening to play games, read books, or hang out with my kids so that it is not all about chores when they are home from school.
One of the best tips I ever received on relationships, was to set aside 15 minutes an evening to SIT with my husband on the couch. It was protected time even from the kids. It prioritizes my spouse, and show my kids that relationships are important.
2. Plan daily
If I could guess, you do NOT have a bunch of time that you’re trying to fill because you’re bored and just want more housework to do. Haha. That being said, to manage your home effectively it’s important to plan daily. Look at your master to do list and decide what you can ACTUALLY get done today on your to do list based on your schedule.
Be realistic as you plan daily so you don’t feel overwhelmed.
Personally, I love to brain dump and then pick out THREE items that are most important on my to do list. This is an effective to do list to grab.
3. Create a list of home responsibilities
While each of our homes have different responsibilities based on size, age, amount of land, number of kids, etc. ther eare some basic areas of the home that need to be managed. Making a list will help you clearly see what work has to be done.
I recommend dividing home responsibilities into daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly tasks.
Here are the general home responsibilities that most families have:
- Cleaning
- Managing the calendar
- Yardwork
- Taking out the trash
- Tidying
- Managing money
- Laundry
- Maintenance and Repair
- Vehicle maintenance
- Cooking/grocery shopping
Obviously, there are sub categories under each of those, but the key is to decide what is important to YOU and your family.
Here are a few of our habits and routines that work for us to manage our home better:
Do laundry every day.
We have a pretty big family so we can get away with this. But honestly, once I started this, I have had VERY few days per year where we have multiple piles of laundry around the house. I load up the laundry at night, set the timer, and then switch it to the dryer in the morning. The kids put away their laundry after school and my husband and I put away our before bed.
Make your bed everyday.
It starts your day off right and is so nice to come home to later.
Clean off the kitchen table completely.
After each meal, even if I don’t completely clean the kitchen, I always clear off the table and wipe it down. This sets us up for success for the next meal.
15 minute tidy before dinner.
Right before dinner when the family is getting antsy, I call them in for a quick clean up. It’s all hands on deck to tidy the kitchen counter, put away papers, hang up jackets, and throw shoes in the mudroom. This really helps include all the family members and gets a lot done fast because everyone is motivated to eat after!
Weekly meeting with myself.
I’m the main scheduler in the family which means that I have to stay on top of the schedule. Every week I sit down for about 30 minutes to review the calendar, schedule out my days, and make sure I’ve coordinated all the carpools, ordered the uniforms, etc.
Weekly family meeting.
Now that my kids are older, we sit down after lunch on Sunday afternoon to talk schedule and maybe even some values for the family. I try to keep it short and sweet and maybe include a fun snack!
Use a budgeting app.
I use YNAB which is hands down the best budgeting app in my opinion. But find something that works for you.
Grocery shop once per week.
This forces you to meal plan. It also forces you to be creative in the pantry. Overall, it helps me save money and also time because I’m not making multiple trips to the store. Most of the time I order my groceries online and just pick it up. We spend about $900 per month on groceries for a family of 6. This really works for us!
If you’d like a free habit tracker printable to get started grab one here!
4. Create a list of 15 min tasks
I’ve got 4 kids, y’all. As of 2024, they are 11 and under with the youngest being 4 years. I am constantly interrupted or distracted or moving on to the next thing as I try to entertain the 2 year old and feed the baby while the other two are at school.
That being said, I keep a list of 15 minute activities handy for the spare few minutes of quiet. These could include cleaning tasks or scheduling but they also include fun things on my personal hobbies list and my goals list like practicing piano or reading a book.
5. Make time for personal hobbies
This might also be called “self-care” but I think this word is overused. You CANNOT pour from an empty cup. Women (and moms) are notorious for giving, giving, giving without taking the time to fill themselves back-up.
If you take a weekly approach to a do list, you can schedule in work-out time, going for a walk, or taking a bath (whatever floats your boat) to fill up your personal tank. Here are 14 Ways to Bring Mom Life to the Next Level!
6. Create a home management binder
Getting organized with all your important information in one place will help decrease the brain clutter and help you think clearer!
You might like this post if you’re interested in a binder: The Ultimate Home Management Binder Guide.
7. Create more margin in your life
There is one resource that most of us are short of in this age and it is time. I encourage you to look at your schedule to see where you could create more margin in your life to have a little bit more breathing space.
Here are some time management tips for stay at home moms you might love!
8. Organize and Declutter
Whether you need to invest in storage solutions or simply work on decluttering items that you no longer use, this is one of the most important things you can do to manage your home!
It’s so easy for STUFF to accumulate in your home. Whenever I declutter I feel like I’m actually moving the needle when it comes to setting my house up for future success! I don’t feel like I’m just maintaining and barely keeping up day to day. But rather I’m cutting through the EXTRA so that I have less to manage later.
Setting aside time to declutter – even if it’s just 30 minutes a week can make a huge difference in your home.
10 Simple Tips to Organize and Declutter Toys
15 Ways to Declutter Your Finances
9. Start a budget
Money management is a big part of managing your home. For better or worse, money pays the bills, funds kids’ activities, and allows you to plan that fun family vacation.
Creating a family 5 year plan, creating a budget, and tracking expenses (at least for a few months) can give you a lot of peace of mind when it comes to making decisions for every part of your home.
Knowing if you have enough money to go on a nice date night to the steak restaurant, if you can remodel the kitchen, or if you can afford a new lawn mower to cut the grass easier, is all related to budgeting.
Here’s a free simple budget template printable you might like if you’re new to budgeting for your family.
10. Meet monthly
I encourage you to put a time on your calendar to meet monthly to talk about home management. It doesn’t have to be a long meeting, but you can cover your schedule for the month, things you’re looking forward to, and things you’re worried about over the next month.
Having a monthly check-in can help hold you accountable to your goals to better manage your home and reconnect you with your WHY.
Who is responsible for home management?
Any adult in the house is responsible for creating the culture of the home, and each member of the family plays a vital role in helping manage the home! There should be a balance based on each member’s strengths and abilities.
My motto is: many hands make light work!
In our family, we often ask ourselves – who is lead parent during this season? As well as, what’s our rhythm like?
I am currently a stay at home mom so I primarily manage our home routines and schedules for the kids and bear the majority of the responsibility of being a parent and managing the home.
But, when we both worked full time, my husband did most of the grocery shopping and cooking and helped with more yardwork because that’s what worked for our family at the time. He was home sooner from the office AND enjoyed those things more.
As with many things in life, home management can look different in different seasons and it definitely varies between families. Having continuous check-ins to see what’s working and what’s not is important to manage expectations.
How to involve your spouse in home management
Oh, this is the big question isn’t it? I don’t have a perfect answer, but I do have a suggestion on managing expectations.
If you’re feeling overburdened with the responsibilities you’re carrying, try writing down all the things you do for your family as well as the things you’re struggling with finding time for.
Prioritize the list by looking at what really supports WHO you want to be.
Then be willing to ask for help from your partner in areas that you’re struggling to keep up. They might not even realize how much you have on your plate and how much mental load you’re carrying.
Work on prioritzing together and assigning tasks to help balance. Managing expectations works wonders for navigating home management and relationships.
Don’t think of yourself as being the mean one that is telling your spouse and kids all the chores they have to do. Instead, think of it as an invitation for everyone to collaborate and work together as a team so that you can have more fun together later on when the work is done!
Share your best tips on how to manage a home when you share this on your favorite social media! 🙂 I’d love to see them!
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