May 3, 2021
I am very excited to share a new series with you – – Clean up mom’s simple shortcuts. For the next six weeks, I’ll share my simple favorite shortcuts every Monday and collect yours on Instagram. I will be sharing them on Instagram as you share them, but I will also be collecting them over the next six weeks and sharing them as a free printable version at the end of the series. I felt like I really need simple and easy now – you too? Can’t wait for us to collect all of the tips that will help us over the next six weeks. It will be really fun and helpful to feel in the community. Make sure you get involved on Instagram too!
Today we are going to talk about our favorite Simple shortcuts for morning routines! I’ll list some of me below, add yours to the comments here, or head over to Instagram to include yours in the Stories question box.
My favorite simple shortcuts for the morning routine? These are the things I do to start the day a little easier and they help me start my day in the right direction. I’m sharing an example of my current morning routine on a perfect day when everything is falling into place. It is important to note that, as much as I love and stand up for structure and routine, I understand that I can never get too confident in my routines because they need a little flexibility and grace to get on with life and schedules to change. My morning routine has changed quite a bit over the past year – this is where it ended up for now. As soon as summer begins, it will change again – that’s life! If you want to change your morning routine or not, add one thing at a time, don’t try to adjust things too quickly or make a lot of changes. Little by little, your morning routine can be the best part of your day!
- Start the day early and have a little alone time before someone else gets up. I wake up between 4:30 and 5:00 am – I’m a morning person and I enjoy getting up early because the house is dark and quiet. If the idea of getting up in front of the sun makes you want to dive back under your covers, get up later! The point here is to find out what works for you.
- Unload dishwasher + make coffee – I race with the coffee machine while I unload the dishwasher. – I love this routine. This connects a pain point (unloading the dishwasher) to a happy task (coffee) – this is the concept I talk about quite a bit in my latest book. Clean Mama’s Guide to Peaceful Home.
- Start with no screens. Read and spend time in devotion with my coffee. I enjoy this quiet time with no screens and find it helps me start the day off right. This time can also be spent on journaling – do what works for you.
- Fast check-in in e-mails and planning my work day – max. 10 minutes. I work from home and I don’t like answering emails in the morning because emails can affect the direction of the day.
- Water and exercise. I start my training before the children get up. If they get up while I’m still working out, they fix breakfast or hang out until I’m done.
- Breakfast and lunch. Help your children with breakfast and lunch and put the breakfast dishes in the dishwasher. If you cook breakfast and lunch at the same time, you save on tidying up.
- Review the children’s morning routines – Make sure the rooms are a bit tidy and teeth are brushed, etc.
- Take a shower and get ready for the day when the time is right. I like to shower before I take the kids to school so I can get started right away when I get home.
- Get to the car by 7:15 am to drop off school. Listen to a podcast on the way home.
- Home at 8:00 a.m. to make a smoothie – Put it in the refrigerator for later or drink it immediately.
- Quick cleaning of the bathroom – This consists of putting away toiletries, making sure the towels are hung up to dry, the sinks are wiped down when necessary, and the toilets are flushed – because kids 😉
- Start a daily load or two wash. This is a game changer for your everyday life – do a load of laundry from the start to put them away. Sometimes I start a load before I take the kids to school and put them in the dryer when I get home. You can see from the picture below that every typical day there is something hanging to dry and clothes in the washer and / or dryer. I love doing the laundry every day – it makes things so much easier. See here the Clean Mama laundry products that I use every day.
- Perform a daily or weekly cleaning task. Just a thing or two before starting is very helpful to me. Make the bed, clean up a room, it all adds up and makes a world of difference. You can see the Clean Mama routine here.
- Go to my home office and start work around 8:30 or 9:00 a.m.
I’m able to get some things done early in the morning before the rest of the family is up, and I love this time to myself. It also means that I can hang out with my kids and husband after school and in the evenings.
Some people just aren’t morning people, or maybe they go to work and don’t feel like they have a minute to spare. Or maybe you’d prefer to get tasks done later in the day or at night. But I keep hearing from people who wish they could be morning people! If it’s you and you want to get up earlier but aren’t sure how, here are a few ideas to get you started:
Start the evening before.The key to success in the morning is to prepare for success the night before. I recommend a clean kitchen at night as one of the things that makes getting up early a little easier. Why? You don’t have to wake up with a mess from the day before – you’ve already reset your kitchen. This is an important component of keeping up with this habit since you don’t wake up to work – who wants to do that? You wake up to do something that will make your day smoother.
Turn off the screens.Turning off phones, computers, and televisions early is the best way to prepare for bed. Stop sleeping on your phone – the EMFs (electric and magnetic fields) interfere with your natural body rhythm. We keep our phones and devices downstairs in a charging station. I find it very helpful to put them away early in the evening (optimally / in a perfect world, before dinner and for the night). Get yourself a cute, old-fashioned alarm clock and use it in place of your phone.
Go to bed when you are tired.Stop struggling through fatigue and just go to bed. If you’re used to staying up late, go to bed earlier and see how you feel. See if it makes a difference in your day. Everyone needs to sleep, but everyone has the perfect amount of sleep. Make your goal 6-8 hours and experiment to find out what amount will make you feel most rested and alert during the day.
Get your morning drink going. Coffee, lemon water, a smoothie, tea – whatever you drink first thing in the morning will get it going. It gives you something to look forward to when you get out of bed. I like starting my coffee while unloading the dishwasher and making it a race to see who wins – me or the coffee maker. You may find that this is exactly what you need to get a pitcher of lemon water ready the night before, or maybe your coffee maker has a timer so you can set it up the night before and roll it into the kitchen when that the last drop hits the jug.
Start small.If you want to get up at 5 a.m. but want to get up at 7 a.m., don’t just jump into the two-hour time difference. Set your alarm to 6 or 6:30 a.m. for about a week and go to bed earlier. When you’re ready to adjust by 5 a.m., work in 15 to 30 minute increments over a week or even up to a month. If you like the results, go to bed a little earlier and wake up earlier until you develop this habit. You may find that getting up at 6 a.m. is a lot of time for you and you are not interested in getting up earlier.
It’s your turn! What are your best simple shortcuts for your morning routine? Share in the question box on Instagram Monday and Tuesday of this week or in the comments here on the blog.
My newest book, Clean Mama’s Guide to Peaceful Home, goes into detail about setting up systems and rituals in your home and is a great addition to your housekeeping trip.
