Creating a schedule that you can stick to can seem impossible. In this post, I’m going to walk you through the entire process. You’ll learn what to include in your schedule, how to set it up, and I’ve also created a free Modern Homemaking Schedule Starter Kit to download and use to help organize your life.
Your modern homemaker schedule will help you know what needs to be done when. It’s more than a cleaning guide or a family calendar. This homemaker schedule is your schedule, cleaning guide, and more all in one place for you to easily keep your life organized.
I’m so excited about Modern Homemaking week. This is the second post about being a modern homemaking. If you’ve missed the first one, then you’ll want to read: What Skills You Need To Become A Modern Homemaker.
Now, the reason why I’m calling this modern homemaking is that I believe that times have changed and regardless of moms working inside or outside the home, we are still a “homemaker”. I wish I could come up with a better term than homemaker but this was the best I could come up with.
Earlier this week I shared the skills we need to be or become a modern homemaker and today I want to dive really deep into the scheduling part of homemaking.
In this post, I am going to walk you through step by step through the schedule making process. I’ll be sharing everything that you should include in your schedule and how to best organize yourself so you get the most out of your homemaker schedule.
I’ve also put together an amazing bonus for you to help you create an epic schedule for yourself without feeling lost or overwhelmed.
Let’s start off by talking a little bit about why having a schedule is so important.
Why you need to create a homemaking schedule.
If you find yourself becoming overwhelmed really quickly then my friend you probably don’t have a solid schedule for yourself.
You might have a family calendar where you write everyone’s appointments/commitments down on. You also may have a Google calendar where you keep track of your appointments.
But do you find yourself double booked?
Do you find yourself overwhelmed with way too much to do on a daily basis?
If you answered yes to either or both, then you need to pay attention because you need to create a solid schedule for yourself.
Your homemaking schedule is going to keep you organized so you know what needs to be done when. This will help eliminate the double bookings and the overwhelmed feeling you wake up to.
The reality is you need to keep track of more than just the children’s sports schedule. We need to keep track of our kids’ daily schedules, our daily schedules, the house schedule, our husband’s schedule, and the pet’s schedule.
Gosh! No wonder we are so overwhelmed!
What you need to include in your homemaking schedule
Let’s be clear, your homemaking schedule isn’t just when you’re going to bake cookies or when you need to vacuum the floors. Your homemaking schedule is going to be your blueprint for an organized life.
So let’s talk about exactly what you need to include in your homemaking schedule. Below I’m going to share the 11 things you need to include in your homemaking schedule.
These 11 things to include will make this an epic schedule to keep you organized in all areas of your life!
1) Your appointments and commitments
First things first, let’s keep track of your appointments and commitments.
So often as women we put ourselves last on the scale of importance.
By doing this we miss out on things that make us healthy and happy so I believe that you should add all of your appointments and commitments down before anything else.
Things to include would be doctor appointments, hair appointments, volunteering commitments, work commitments, and so on. What are things that you’ve signed up for or made appointments for? Those are the things that need to be added to your schedule.
By doing this, you are less likely to be double booked and having to cancel things that you need to take care of or want to do.
2) Your kids’ appointments, commitments, and schedules
The second thing you should add to your homemaking schedule is your kids’ appointments, commitments, and schedules.
These are things like doctor appointments, play dates, school commitments, school schedules, days off, sports schedules, and any other commitments, appointments, and or schedules that you need to keep track of.
I like to add these second because I’m usually the one taxi-ing the kids around all over town and I’m the one that makes the appointments and commitments.
It is impossible to think that you can keep their schedules in your head without writing it down somewhere.
So make sure you are keeping track of your children’s schedules.
3) Your spouses’ appointments and commitments
This might be something that people leave off their schedules and it’s really important to keep track of your spouses’ appointments, schedules, and commitments.
The worst thing is to be double booked and not able to rely on your hubby for help because he’s got something scheduled at the same time too.
Now you might not need to keep track of his complete work schedule but if there are important meetings that he has or out of town meetings that he’s attending it really is important to know these things.
Things I like to keep track of are:
- Days he’s taking off
- Important meetings that he HAS to attend
- Meetings that he travels for (overnight and day trips)
- Business trips
- Doctor appointments
- Other appointments
- Commitments he’s made
- Anything else that he’s scheduled
These are important because you’ll know if you can count on him when you’re in a bind. Kids sick and you have an appointment. You’re running late and you need help carpooling. You are sick and you need help with your schedule.
You’d be surprised by how important having this info is for keeping a schedule that works.
4) Your routines
Yes, you need to keep track of your routines. This is time that you are spending on something and that time needs to be accounted for.
I’m not going to go into great detail about how to put routines together, that is for a different post and I’ve created some in-depth posts about them that you can read all about.
It is nice to set aside the time that you’ve decided on for your routines. This way your routines will not be canceled on because you’ve overscheduled yourself.
5) Your cleaning schedule
In order to stay organized and on top of everything that you need to accomplish it is important to come up with a solid cleaning schedule.
What I like to do is theme out my cleaning. To do this create a list of things that need to be cleaned every day and then create a list of things that need to be cleaned once a week.
The daily cleaning will be part of your daily cleaning schedule and then the weekly cleaning you can divvy up into themed categories.
For instance, maybe Monday will be floor cleaning day. That will be the day that you clean the floors. Then maybe Tuesday will be toilet scrubbing day and so on.
This will help break up the cleaning so it’s in manageable chunks that won’t overwhelm you with too much to do.
6) Your weekly/monthly menu
This is a must!
I keep my weekly menu in my schedule so I know how much time I need to leave myself for meal prepping.
What I like to do is create a monthly “game plan” of the meals that I want to make for the month. Then I make a weekly menu.
Before I complete my weekly menu I check which nights are going to be super crazy busy and which nights that we can chill out.
By doing this you are saving yourself a headache and setting yourself up to succeed instead of failing.
7) Your shopping lists
Do you have a running tally of items you need to pick up at the store? This is a perfect place to keep that. When you notice the empty cereal container or that you are down to 3 zip baggies adding these things to your list at that time will help you in the long run.
No one likes going to the store for that 1 item you forgot to grab.
This will also save you time during the meal prep and list making session because you are creating a list of things that you need to get.
8) Your pets’ appointments and schedule
Yes, your pets do need a spot in your schedule too.
Vet appointments, grooming appointments, and schedules that they need to keep should be added to your schedule.
If you have a dog or two, walking and exercise schedules should be accounted for. If you are adding this to your schedule then you’re not canceling or becoming double booked.
So keep your pet’s appointments and schedules on your homemaking schedule too!
9) Birthday’s, anniversaries, and other important dates
Have you forgotten birthdays, anniversaries, or any other important dates? I know I have and that is why I keep them on my schedule so I know any important dates.
This helps me prepare for anything that I might need like birthday cards, presents, phone calls, etc.
Because we just can’t be expected to remember everything!
People that you’ll want to add to this list are family members and good friends. I typically don’t keep track of dates and anniversaries to acquaintances just people that I and my family are close to.
10) Important tasks to complete
Do you think of things at the weirdest time? Well, this is a perfect place to keep things like this.
I like to keep a running to-do list of tasks that are important to complete or tasks that I want to complete.
Instead of adding tasks to your daily schedule add tasks to this list. This will help you not feel so overwhelmed when you look at your daily schedule and you’ll be able to add these tasks later when they are relevant and you have time for it.
11) Your delegate list
Do you have a delegate list?
If you have too much on your plate then you need one!
This is something that I just started to do and I couldn’t be happier that I did! This is a list of tasks that need to be done but someone else can do them.
These are things like chores, errands that maybe the hubby could do, or projects that the kids could help with.
If you have tons of things that can be done by others then try creating a delegate list!
Okay so now that you know the 11 things that I think should be added to your homemaking schedule you are probably a little overwhelmed right now.
Don’t you worry because I’d like to walk you through the process of how to put this thing together!
Putting your homemaking schedule together and setting up your homemaking schedule
Now you know you need to keep everyone’s schedule in one place, add your routines to your schedule, keep your menu, shopping lists, and so much more.
You might be feeling a little overwhelmed right now and that’s okay because now I want to share with you some tips that help me put my schedule together.
First thing is, schedule out some time to put this together.
Your schedule will not fill itself in. It does take a little time. Try spending about 20 minutes putting your schedule together and then you’ll need to schedule out some time to maintain your schedule (which I’ll show you how soon).
The time that you’ll need is quite small. I spend about 5 minutes a day on maintaining my schedule and then another 10-15 minutes once a week creating my weekly game plan.
Once a week it’s a good idea to sit down and create a weekly game plan. Taking a look at the next week and knowing what you have in store for the week. This will help with nailing down your weekly menu, finalizing any last minute plans, etc.
Depending on you and your family’s needs this could be done on Sunday or Monday. I like to do all of my planning on Sunday because I’ll have a fresh schedule Monday morning.
Then each evening spend about 5 minutes going over your schedule. You can make any tweaks to your schedule and have a clear understanding of what is expected of you the next day.
When you wake up the next day you know (almost) exactly what your day has in store for you.
Now that you know your schedule takes a little bit of your time how do you not make it look like an overwhelming mess?
Next, make your schedule work for you not against you
I know what you’re thinking, “how the heck is that supposed to happen?”
By now you have a schedule with everything in it except the kitchen sink (and some of you may have added that too). I want to share a few tips with you to help your schedule not look so overwhelming the moment you look at it.
Assign colors to your family members and categories
This is a simple and quick way to separate everything out. Giving each person in your family a color and then the different categories you keep track of a color you are able to quickly glance down at the tasks and know what and what without spending too much time on it.
Use monthly/weekly/daily calendars
I like to utilize monthly, weekly, and daily calendars/schedules. The monthly calendar has appointments set with day and times, commitments, and different important dates that we need to know about. (don’t forget to use different colors depending on who the appointment belongs to.)
Things like days off of school, sports practices, etc. Basically, anything that has a set day and time this will be added to the monthly calendar.
The weekly calendar is where you can go into more detail. Things I like to add are routines, schedules, appointments, menu, etc.
This will give you a rough outline of what your week is going to look like.
Then your daily schedule will have your need to do tasks for the day, your want to do tasks, and all of the appointments.
I like the daily schedule to be a detailed plan of what my day should look like.
Before I started doing this, I was lucky to get 6 things done for the day.
My days would not be as organized or productive without a daily plan. So when I sit down each evening to set up my day I’m able to know exactly what is expected of me.
Set up a family command center
This a perfect opportunity to organize your entire family in the process. Setting up a family command center where everyone’s everything is in one place will help you stay on top of everything.
Okay yes, I know that sound a little vague, let me explain.
So your family command center can hold a monthly family calendar. This family calendar will show who is doing what on what day.
You can have an area for school papers, important papers, bills, and so on.
All of the important stuff in one place.
If you’d like more information about how to put this beautiful Family Command Center together, then you’ll want to read: 5 Ways To Benefit From Having A Family Command Center (it does open in a new window/tab).
Okay now, what? The next step for success!
So now what? In this post, I’ve shared why I think that you need to create a homemaker schedule, what all you should include in your schedule, how to set up your schedule, and some tips to make you successful.
So now what? What are the next steps you can take to make your homemaking schedule a success?
As I mentioned before setting aside time to maintain your schedule is key. But what if you don’t have a schedule and you don’t know where to look?
At the beginning of this post, I told you that I put together an amazing bonus for you well, this is it.
I’ve created a Modern Homemaker Schedule Starter kit. Inside this starter kit, you’ll find everything you need to start creating a homemaker schedule.
Included is:
- Blank monthly and weekly calendar
- Daily schedule
- Monthly and weekly meal planner
- Shopping lists
- Important tasks list
- Delegate list
What this starter kit is, is a sneak peek into my main Ultimate Busy Mom Planner. So, if this is your first time visiting or you’ve been on the fence about investing in the Ultimate Busy Mom Planner now’s your chance to take a look!
If you loved this blog post and you know of someone that would love to read this, you can share it with them by clicking on the share button on the left.
Again, thank you so much for stopping by I hope you have a great rest of your day!
Jenn
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