The Winter Home Organization Challenge has begun! Typically, we jump right into organizing the rooms in our home during January! This year is going to be a little different, before we start organizing the house, we want to talk about how to organize your life to be happy and healthy!
We had a very busy holiday season and let some of our normal routines go by the wayside!
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Unfortunately, we found ourselves hitting fast food establishments, skipping our morning exercise routine, eating gluten and dairy (which we usually avoid), and staying up much later than normal.
But now it’s time to get back on track!
Being organized in your life, as well as in your house, helps keep anxiety under control!
Here are some of the things we do to promote good health and happiness and keep our home running smoothly!
use a calendar/planner
The easiest way to organize your life is with a calendar or planner.
If that has not worked for you in the past, then you haven’t found the right one for you!
These days you can use paper and pen or find an app for your phone if that’s how you roll!
Experiment until you find a calendar you will use.
- Hang a calendar on the refrigerator.
- Add a calendar to a whiteboard on the wall.
- Use a desk calendar.
- Carry a leather planner with you.
- Use an app like Evernote or ToDoist
Fill in important dates, family milestones, and events.
Color code your calendar for different members of the family.
Refer to your calendar daily!
Develop daily routines
If I did not have a daily routine, I would never get anything done!
Routines keep me on task otherwise, I would forget half of what needs to be done!
Morning, afternoon, and evening routines
Routines will be different for everyone.
You may need them in certain seasons of your life, but not others.
For example, when our boys were little, we had a routine for getting ready in the morning, one for after school, and another for bedtime!
The boys knew what to expect, as far as homework and video game time, so there was no arguing about what needed to get done or when it needed to happen.
These days, I follow a morning routine to help me start the day off right.
And end it with an evening routine!
These routines are so helpful and make me feel way more productive!
I highly encourage you to give it a try!
Cleaning routine
To help me keep my sanity, I started a cleaning routine!
I clean a certain area of our home each day, instead of trying to get it all done in one day!
This works so much better for me.
Experiment until you find out what works best for you and your household.
Laundry Routine
Having piles of laundry all over the house is very stressful for me!
So, we came up with a laundry routine that works well for everyone in our home!
If you need help with this, check out our post on how to simplify the chore of laundry!
Develop healthy habits
If you want to live a healthy and happy life, you need to take time to organize your meals and find time to exercise!
Commit to exercise
We feel so much better when we exercise consistently!
We’ve tried walking and going to a gym, but the thing that has worked best for us was joining BODi. They have so many types of workouts that you can do from the comfort of your own home!
First, talk to your doctor before starting any type of exercise program!
Then don’t give up until you find something that you enjoy enough to do consistently!
Meal plan to eat better
When we plan our meals, we eat healthier food.
When we don’t plan our meals, we always end up in the fast food drive-thru!
It’s that simple!
Do I do this perfectly every single week?
No, but most weeks I get it right!
Incorporate theme nights
I love having a theme for each day of the week!
The theme varies depending on who is living with us.
For example, our youngest son loves Asian food, but our other two won’t touch it! When Harrison is home from college we have “Wok Wednesday.”
Everyone in our house loves Mexican-inspired food so we always have “Tex Mex Tuesday.”
Here are some other ideas: Meatless Monday, Pasta Night, Slow-cooker Night, Family Favorites Friday, Left-over Night, etc.
Choose a day of the week that works best for you to sit down and plan your meals and add it to your calendar!
Use a meal-planning website or app
We use a menu planning website called “Plan to Eat.”
It’s so easy to plan a weekly menu, and the best part is it generates your grocery list for you!
Your budget and your waistline will both benefit!
Remove stress from your life
Live on a budget
There’s no doubt about it, being in debt causes stress!
Learn to make your money work for you, instead of always needing to work to make more money!
A budget allows you to tell your money where it needs to go!
We learned how to live on a budget from Dave Ramsey many years ago!
I used to keep track of our budget on paper, with a binder and a pencil (I made the binder in the picture for one of our boys).
Several years ago, Rich took over and he uses a spreadsheet instead!
It doesn’t matter if you create a budget on paper, on a spreadsheet on your computer, or with an app, what does matter is that you do it!!
Have a designated space for everything
When your home is cluttered and overflowing with stuff, it can cause chaos.
Organizing your home is simply finding a special place to put everything you own.
It can take a while to do this, but you’ll be so glad you did!
Every season of the year we have a Home Organization Challenge and we’d love to help you get organized!
Take a day of rest
Working too many hours will cause stress in your life.
Everyone needs time to relax and decompress.
Since we both work from home, it’s very easy to work through the weekend.
One of our main goals this year is to observe the Sabbath.
Do you take at least one day off a week??
Let us know in the comments below!
We hope you’ll implement some of these ideas to organize your life and the benefit will be a happy and healthy new year!
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Until next time, follow us on Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram!
Blessings, Donna and Rich
Pin It For Later
Pin this so you can refer back to it each year!!
More organization Inspiration
Are you excited about organizing your home? Here are some posts to help you get started!
- How to Organize Your Kitchen Using Zones
- Organize a Master Closet on a Budget
- Easy Tips to Organize a Kid’s Bedroom and Closet
- Master Bathroom Organization Made Easy
- Great Ideas to Organize a Desk
**Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, we will receive an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. We appreciate your support. (disclosure policy)
Hi Donna – these are so many good tips. I love that you have your routines printed up and framed. It seems like such a simple thing to do – and the more I think about it – it can really be powerful. My daily routines are in my head but I think I would be better doing what you did. Also over the last year, I have let many things slide – like exercise and taking care of myself. You asked if we regularly take a day off? Well, last year I did not but I am going to make it a priority this. I always appreciate your posts on organizing. You are such an inspiration.
Anna, you just made my day! So glad you found this post helpful! I think we all need to slow down and take better care of ourselves! Blessings, Donna
These tips are all so helpful, Donna! My morning routine definitely helps to set the tone for a positive day but it’s my nightly routine that makes the morning routine run so well. I think a lot of people dive right into organizing and decluttering at the beginning of January but you’re right without helpful routines it can fall by the wayside very quickly. Hugs for a happy and healthy new year, CoCo
PS: If you ever find out the secret to consistently working out let me know, I totally struggle in that area.
Last year was the first time Rich and I have both consistently worked out! Here are the three reasons it has worked.
1)We exercise first thing in the morning. At night we were too tired or something else took precedence.
2)We don’t have to leave the house. No excuses not to do it, like no gas in the car or the weather stinks!
3)We found Beachbody! It has different types of exercises for beginners to advanced. And tons of different exercise programs. You can do pilates and then switch to yoga if you don’t like pilates. We tried different programs until we figured out what worked best for us!