Everyone have those days, when everything seems to go wrong, and the worst part of it is many times we are the creators of those kind of days. Sometimes, we can recover from crazy mornings, but other times we cannot! Although, there are so many things that cannot be controlled on a daily basis, a little planning goes a long way. A stress free morning gives us an upper hand on the rest of the day. So how about a morning where no family member forgets anything, and we all get ourselves together, eat breakfast and leave the house on time? Following are some tips to make that happen:
1) Anticipate your week. Take an hour or so to have a family meeting over the weekend and plan who is supposed to be where, at what time and how are they getting to and from there. Plan your meals, outfits and who is responsible for what?
2) On Sunday get ready a week's worth of outfits, everyone in the family should do this, so you do not have to worry about it every night; sometimes you can plan to wear an outfit and once you have it on, it just does not work. If you have planned outfits for the whole week, you can change at the last minute without delaying; just make sure you replace that outfit, so you still have enough outfits ready for the rest of the week. Plan what you will be wearing from shoes to the jewelry and of course, take in consideration your daily activities.
3) Before turning in for the night, make sure everything you need to take with you the following day is place by the door. Backpacks, shoes, scarves, jackets, laptops, mail, books, etc.
4) Leave lunch boxes ready the night before.
5) Try to leave the house as clean and organize as possible. I am not telling you to stay up until late at night making sure this is done. But if you enlist the whole family to help you, it will be done faster and you will feel better the next day when you get home from a long day at work.
6) Get up earlier than everyone else; you will enjoy getting ready without having to answer questions or multitasking.
7) While the kids get ready you can attend to pets, if this is your responsibility or attend to other family members, such as smaller children that might need your help. You can also take this time to get breakfast ready and get as much as done around the house, such as making beds or putting away dishes, so when you get home from work there would be less to do. Do not stress if things do not get done before leaving, just make sure everyone helps in the evening; you do not want leave for the weekend. Remember being organized is not about having a perfect house but about having easy systems set up that work with your family dynamics.
8) Sit down and have breakfast with your children, even if it is just a little bite. They will remember this as they get older.
9) Make sure everything is off and leave the house with a smile. You have left the house on time; now you are ready to take on the rest of the day.