Keeping in theme with heading into a busy time of year for most moms, I wanted to talk about 5 easy systems that help to keep me sane. These are simple things to do but can make a big impact. 

1- I go through the mail immediately and take care of it. I trash the stuff I don’t need, put the papers that need to be shredded in the appropriate pile and any bills get put on my calendar and then placed into my budget binder. This keeps the mail clutter off my kitchen counters.

2- I meal plan every week and write the meal on my calendar in my kitchen (go back and check out my blog post about my kitchen calendar here: https://www.justvickyg.com/post/unveiling-the-mvp-inside-one-of-the-most-essential-tools-in-my-home)

Every morning, I give that calendar a glance and I see if there is anything that needs to be started early, thawed or can be prepped if I have time during the day. This system helps mealtimes go more smoothly by having everything that I need ready to make dinner.

3- I place my clothes that I will be wearing for the day out the night before. This one little action has been such a game changer for me through the years of me doing it. By putting my clothes out the night before, I don’t start the day with a decision. And I know that may sound silly but us moms make 1,000,000,005 decisions a day so one already done the night before sets me up for starting the day on the right foot. And lots of people probably want to know if I change my mind in the morning and that rarely ever happens. I typically stick to what I placed there the night before.

4- Having a big 3 tasks for the day with home and work. This keeps me focused on the tasks at hand. If it's on the big three list, then I don’t have to wonder if I can skip it or not, I know it needs to get done. Now, this is not so rigid that if it doesn’t get done, I need to get down on myself; life happens in the middle of even the best laid out plans. Like I said above, this is to help keep me on task and it also eliminates my brain giving me the chance to stale and not do anything.

5- Running the dishwasher every night and emptying it every morning. This is actually my husband's “job”, but I can talk to you about the system because I created it and then delegated it 😉 This system keeps our kitchen looking mostly clean and gives us clean dishes to start the day with. And by taking care of them every morning, the dishwasher is ready to be filled throughout the day as someone comes to the sink with a dirty dish. A trick that I learned to help put silverware away faster- put all the liked silverware together in one section of the basket- example- small spoons in one basket, large spoons in another etc. When it’s time to take care of them, you can just grab the whole amount (PLEASE don’t do this with sharp knives!) and put them away. 

By implementing these easy systems, it has allowed my days to be smoother and it has eliminated so much decision fatigue for myself. Like I said above, us moms make so many decisions in a day so it's nice to have some of them just be on autopilot.

Setting up some systems for yourself can also help your day too 🙂