Chapter

6

Routines of an Organized Home

In This Chapter

•  Creating routines for a clean house

•  Managing meals and menus efficiently

•  Streamlining clothing care and maintenance

If you need proof of the organizing power of routines, look no further than day-to-day life at home. Domestic activities like cleaning, cooking, and washing clothes are made up of repetitive actions that lend themselves well to automation.

Housework is one arena where delay has a definite penalty. For instance, a drop of grape jelly spilled while making a sandwich can be wiped away quickly at the time but requires an all-out assault with a scrubbing pad if it’s allowed to sit and harden. Also, setting aside 20 minutes a week to plan menus and make a shopping list heads off last-minute trips to the supermarket all week to find something for dinner. Well-crafted routines shorten the amount of time it takes to run a household, which means more playtime for everyone.

To get organized fast, get a realistic idea about what a clean and well-run house means to you, and then set up simple systems to keep it that way. In the kitchen, routines for meal planning, grocery shopping, and pantry management cut the time it takes to keep the family fed. Finally, establish a simple laundry routine to keep the clean clothes flowing.