No matter how old your children are and what your specific situation is, family life is busy. There’s just always something that needs doing and someone who needs something.
And I’m not claiming to be an expert here, I mean, I often feel like I’m drowning if I’m honest, but I do have some suggestions that can help simplify things a bit (I just have to remember to do them!).
So if you’re struggling a bit with the non-stop nature of life with kids, here are 5 ways you can try to simplify your family life:
1. Create routines and automations
One of the most effective ways to simplify things when family life starts to feel really chaotic is to create routines and automations.
Start with setting up morning and evening routines that the whole family can follow.
When everyone knows what they need to do each morning and you all follow the same routine each day it makes everything more predictable and calm.
And if you include things in your evening routine that will help your sleepy morning self out then things will run even more smoothly. Things like making packed lunches, making sure bags are packed and anything that’s needed for school or work is sorted and ready to go will really take the stress out of the mornings.
Once you have a few routines in place, see what things you can automate to simplify family life. Here are some ideas:
- Set up subscriptions with Amazon for things you buy regularly, like cleaning products, laundry products, and things like shampoo and conditioner. This way you’ll never run out and won’t have to think about these things when you do the food shopping.
- Pay your household bills by direct debit or standing order, so you know they’ll always be paid on time.
- Set up a family calendar with Google that you can all access and update, so everyone knows what’s happening and who needs to be where, when.
2. Start meal planning
Taking a bit of time once a week to plan out your meals is another great way to make family life that little bit easier.
Before you do the food shopping look through your cupboards, fridge, and freezer to see what you have at home and what meals you can make.
Then look at what you have coming up over the next week that might mean you’ll have more or less time available for cooking in the evenings.
With that information decide what meals you’ll eat that week and build your shopping list around that.
Meal planning like this means you’ll save money, reduce food waste, and simplify family life by taking away the ‘what on earth are we going to have for dinner tonight’ stress.
3. Enforce the 2 minute rule
The 2-minute rule is simple. If something will take 2 minutes or less to do, then do it NOW.
Get your whole family on board with following this rule as much as possible and it can make a big difference.
Other rules that can help you keep on top of things and simplify family life are:
- The one-touch rule. Make it a rule to only touch things once, so you deal with them straight away rather than picking them up multiple times.
- Don’t put it down, put it away. If you’ve spent any time on TikTok you’ll have heard this one, and it is so effective for keeping on top of mess and clutter.
4. Fix a niggle a week
Something that you might not really realise is adding to the stress of family life is the list of things that niggle and frustrate you, but that you never get round to sorting or finding a solution for.
So start paying a bit more attention to the things that wind you up. If you notice something bothering you more than 3 times in a week, then take a bit of time to fix it.
5. Leave some breathing room in your schedule
If every afternoon and weekend is booked up with clubs and classes and activities then it’s no wonder that your family life will feel busy and chaotic.
So do whatever you can to leave some breathing room in your schedule.
You could do this by:
- Doing your food shopping online and having it delivered or book a click and collect slot, instead of driving to the supermarket and doing the shopping in person.
- Re-evaluating the activities your children do – are they all things that they love and get a lot out of, or could you stop one for a while?
- Seeing where you can co-ordinate activities – could you rearrange things so your children are in clubs at the same time? Or could you get things like the shopping sorted while they’re at their activities?
- Learning to say ‘no’. You don’t have to say yes to every request that takes up your time, especially if it leaves you with even less time to enjoy being together as a family.
- Actually using any spare time you do have to just relax and enjoy doing nothing.
Do you already do any of these things, and do you find they make a difference in how busy life feels at times? And do you have any other tips because if you do I’d love to hear them!
Like this? Pin it for later!
