No one wants a home and family life that is out of control. We don’t wake up in the morning and think “I hope I lose my mind and yell at my kids all day today. You know what would be great, an unexpected trip to the store and a big mess all over the whole house!” Chaos in your home is unnerving and sets you up for a day that ends in stress and discouragement. Life with kids can feel inherently chaotic but there are some tips and tricks you can apply to your life to calm the chaos and bring peace to your daily routine.
Start Your Day Peacefully and Present
Most people start their day the exact same way, by checking their smartphone for any and all updates, notifications, and texts. We check our social media and our preferred news source as soon as we open our eyes. This is not a healthy way to begin the day. Be honest with how social media and the news make you feel. It can be annoying or down right depressing and that is not a peaceful way to start any day. Be present in your home and in your family when you open your eyes. Start the day with a quick prayer or meditation. If you have a kid in your face or a baby at your breast right away, say a little prayer or happy thought together. Create a new thing to do right when you open your eyes. Pick a family motto and repeat it every morning. Whatever will start your day off in a hopeful way, do it!
Use a Family Calendar
With conflicting schedules and activities, big families can get all mixed up. Avoid chaos in your happenings day to day by using a family calendar. Every activity, every deadline, every event, everything needs to go on that calendar no matter what. Everyone in the family stays on notice that way. Parents can schedule things together if they both know everything that is happening. Don’t assume because you all live together that you will all keep up with everyone’s separate schedules. Mix ups happen and busy minds tend to forget. Pick a calendar system that works for you. Some ideas are a dry erase calendar that everyone can see and easily update. You may be more high tech than that and want to use a calendar app that syncs on all your devices. Find what works for your family and stick with it.
Stay Stocked Up on Essentials
Shopping for a family is a job all on its own. When you run out of a necessity it can send your whole day into a tailspin. Avoid unnecessary chaos by making sure to stock up on essential items that don’t go bad. For example, don’t waste your time buying one small box of baby wipes or diapers. Buying stuff like this in bulk saves you time and money. Running out of diapers and wipes unexpectedly results in an unplanned trip to the store, dragging your children along, wasting time you had planned for something else. You will probably end up in a small convenience store paying a premium for something you could have bought at Sam’s Club for a lot less money. There are lots of options at Sam’s Club including Pampers Swaddlers Diapers, Pampers Cruisers Diapers, and Pampers Sensitive Baby Wipes
Make a Cleaning Routine for the Whole Family
It only takes a week of falling behind on cleaning tasks for your home to get out of control. You don’t have to have a perfectly spotless and shiny house but if your home gets dirty and totally messy, you are living in chaos. Skip the mess and make an easy cleaning routine that your family can participate in. Give our jobs that are age appropriate. Even preschoolers can help clean if you choose to clean your home without chemicals. Just a couple tasks per person every week will keep the mess to a minimum. Add the routine to your family calendar to ensure you have time for your tasks.
Declutter
Clutter does nothing but create chaos. When you have too much stuff all over your home, you can’t find things when you need them. The kids are crying because they can’t find that one LEGO minifigure they have to have. The baby’s pacifier is always missing. It is even hard to find the clothing you want to wear because you are digging through too many pieces of clothes you don’t even wear. Declutter! We have some tips for this:
The Effects of Clutter and How To Manage It
Meal Plan and Prep
Don’t leave dinner up to chance. A good meal plan serves several purposes. You make healthier choices for your family. You save money by not eating out. You spend less time grocery shopping by shopping once a week based on your plan. You waste less food by planning meals around staples you already have in your kitchen. The list goes on and on. Dinnertime can be a hot mess, especially with little kids melting down, hungry and tired, so have a plan in place. We have all the info you need to get started with Meal Planning 101.
Think ahead, have a plan, and stick to you. That is the main way to calm the chaos in your house. Less chaos means more peace. And peace gives you more enjoyable time with the beautiful family that you have created. Calming the chaos lets you be more present. Try making a couple positive changes and as the chaos dissipates, you will be inspired to change even more.
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Pampers at Sam’s Club. The opinions and text are all mine.
