Happy Monday babes! Back with Round 2 of MONDAY MOOD. If you missed it last week, this is a new series that will be live first thing every Monday as a bit of inspo or motivation for your week! This week is for all you mamas out there since Mother’s Day is coming up and it felt fitting! While I’m definitely not the most organized person in the world, I do keep things somewhat organized when it comes to the kids. I learned from when Ava was just a baby that staying organized and on a routine really helps not only you and your sanity but kiddos as well. Some sense of organization just helps for a happier home and keeping everyone on the same page, too!
Here are a few quick tips that help us stay organized as a family:
Share one calendar with your whole fam
The hubby and I have a shared Google calendar where we keep all personal things like meetings, work stuff, happy hours with our friends , etc. We also put in all things kids – doctor’s appt’s, baseball games, who is picking who up, and all that. It’s just an easy way for us both to stay on top of the week and know what we have coming up. Once the kids are older like ours are now, it’s nice to have something visual in the house too! Ava loves seeing her name on the calendar and even writing in when she has plans. You can even color code each person if that’s your thing 😉 Here are some calendars that don’t totally ruin your decor vibes:
Rotate recipes and meal prep
Every couple months I’ll go through my fave cookbooks (always love her stuff) and this Pinterest board of mine to choose new meals for the month. We have our standard quick and easy meals in rotation (like This Easy Healthy One I shared a couple weeks ago) but it’s nice adding in some new ones a few times a week too. Meal prepping is another thing I LOVE to do. I know that sounds weird but I feel like it sets the tone for the week and try to prep items every Sunday to have on hand. It just helps me to make healthier meal choices when it’s all prepped and ready to go which I appreciate more than ever before with all the extra wine consumption. I will try to share some of what I prep soon if you girls are into it.
Delivery services
ALLLL about the delivery services as a mama, am I right?? I wrote about our favorites in a post recently. Let’s just say thank the lawwwrd for food delivery subscriptions…and wine ones too! I’m also all about using Amazon for auto-delivery when it comes to things like toilet paper, our protein powders, snacks for the kids, and tons of household basics that need the same time every month (or few months..whatever). One less thing to remember YEAA! A few of you have been asking about if i’ve created an Amazon page so i’m going to look into that but you can always search Amazon Finds in my search tab at the top of my site and a million of my favorite Amazon recs will come up 😉
Technology is your BFF
I’ve written about our love for the Amazon Home and Echo products before and they literally rule our lives LOL. From looking up recipes, weather and other daily info to helping the kiddos with homework… we use them all the time. I know some of you girls like to sync your Google cal with your Google Home too. I’m sure there are a ton of helpful apps that I should be using too so if you mamas know of any for organization, please feel free to share! Also on the technology topic This Sonos Speaker is legit! I have been using it in my garage for workouts and can also be used in the backyard and throughout the house too. The sound quality is amazing.
Give us all the charts
We’re just kinda getting into this so I’d love all your opinions as well but letting the kids know what they are responsible for is really helpful. You can keep a chore chart of sorts by your family calendar and where they hang their backpacks so they can see each day what they need to do. I thought this one and this one was a good one for the littles and how chic is this one?! Like I said we’re just getting into this stage but I really love having them be accountable and earning a little allowance they get to spend at the end of each week if they kept up with their tasks (and were drama free for homeschooling that week 😉 Another one that has been super helpful now that we’re homeschool is this editable/ printable home school chart. I think we can all agree homeschooling has its challenges, especially if you’re juggling multiple kids. I felt like Ava was coming and asking me every two seconds what she needed to be doing so I ordered a home school chart that she could refer to and it’s been amazing!
Organized Chaos
Let’s not pretend that my kids actually put their stuff in these spots ALL the time but sometimes we get a win! This will kind of depend on your family dynamics and house but we try to organize the chaos as best we can over here. Every section isn’t always perfectly organized but baskets, trays and bins help to keep things somewhat tidy in a hurry. I have a couple trays where they can keep papers they bring home from school and we have hooks for their backpacks and jackets. They also know where all their food is in the pantry which we keep pretty organized to try to limit the chaos (tips for an organized pantry this way). Here are some of the organization items we have:
Routines are a MUST (at least over here)
This is mainly for my sanity (right now) but like I mentioned at the start of this article, I do think routines play a MAJOR role in the overall happiness of the family. With a routine, the kids know what’s coming and so do you. Let’s be honest – things can def get chaotic but doing the same routine in the mornings and evenings helps. The hubby and I switch off bed/bath nights so that one of us has a free night every other night to clean up the house or have some solo time and that works well for us too. If you girls are signed up for my Honeybee Highlights email I just broke down our full daily schedule! So be sure to sign up for those exclusive emails if you’re not already on my #HoneybeeFam newsletter list!
Do seasonal closet clean outs
Last but not least, something that always make feel good is the seasonal closet clean out for the whole house! I actually don’t mind this part because let’s be honest, it feel good to clear out and donate the items they’ve outgrown or no longer use . Every season though, I like to clear out their closets and add in a few new staples to transition into the next season. We just did a major Spring Refresh with them here with a few warm weather staples for the kids if you want to check it out!
K mama’s- you’re up! What’s your number one tip for family organization?