162 | The Truth About Systems & Routines to Simplify Everything in Your Home

Routines and systems are said to be exactly what we need to keep up with that good organization and the simplicity and our homes. When we really want to simplify everything, we have to have those routines in a place at home. We can get more done in less time when the routines are efficient and working for our homes and our families.

But our systems and routines are really the secret to simplify everything.

 Hello and happy Friday. It’s hard to believe we’re wrapping up another week in summer. He’s a Yeah, or rabidly, I can. I believe it’s almost time for summer vacation. I’m super excited. For all the things that we have planned. And I hope that you are looking forward to your summer as well. Today, we are talking all about systems and rootsy and it’s one of my top three thing is.

That I [00:02:00] tell you is important to an organized, orderly and simplified home. If you are really wanting to make your life easier, then you have to have good thoroughly thought out intentional routines that simplify everything. But I’m going to tell you something. That you may not be expecting right now, the truth is even doing this with the routines, having this great plan, setting up these intentional routines, then executing them all of the time.

when we execute our routines over and over and over and over again, that means that they become a habit. And that’s what we want. We want the routines to become a habit. Because that means they’re not taking any mental energy anymore and they have become the way that you do things. So you’re not thinking about it. You’re just getting these things done. You’re checking them off the to-do list.

You have accomplished what needs to be accomplished and you can move on with your life. It’s just how your day functions and flows. That is when we know the routine is working because it is a habit when it finally becomes a habit, it is a solid routine that is working for your family, that you don’t have to think about.

We want the routines to become a habit. That is the goal. That means they are happening with minimal effort. We’re conquering what needs to be done without thinking about it. It’s just the way we do things at this point. So, let me go back to the part where I said, but the truth about the systems and routines is.

Even when you establish the routines and have them working in your home. This doesn’t mean perfection. It doesn’t mean everything is perfect. A hundred percent of the time. And I think, you know, now that’s not what we’re going for. That’s not really attainable. Perfection is kind of an impossible thing.

It, isn’t going to make every single minute of every [00:04:00] day, rainbows and butterflies all the time, because we are human. And sometimes things go out of whacked and unplanned events happen. Our schedules and commitments get crazy. That means that sometimes things are hard. it could be a different times of the year or a different season in life because different seasons and stages and phases in life are busier. Some are more chaotic and some are more calm.

When we have good systems and routine set up for everything that we have to do, that means we have the upper hand, what those systems and routines do for you is allow you to have little slip ups here and there or irregularities, and they make it possible to easily get back to the baseline that you want your home to be that baseline.

That feels good to you. I have a child that does a competitive sport. And if you have kids in competitives words, you know, the demand of that schedule and the time commitment that that requires. Is a little bit crazy. It’s a big commitment for a long stretch of time. Often time the entire year. And when it is busy.

the competition season is really busy, busy, busy. That means we are gone for an entire weekend. These events are happening from 6:00 AM on Friday morning until 6:00 PM on Sunday. It is a long stretch with a lot happening. It’s very busy that means. I can’t do my weekly refresh and restock and reset everything and get it back how I want it.

I normally do that on the weekends. It takes a little chunk of time here and there. I don’t usually do all of those tasks at one time, but I like to get those things done because it prepares me for the week ahead and it keeps my house at that baseline. honor these busy weekends, or if it’s a weekend where I just happen to get to travel or go out of town or do something [00:06:00] fun.

It means I don’t get to do the weekly refresh and restock. And if you don’t know what I’m talking about, you can get that link for free. It is a list. It’s a checklist of the tasks that I do on a weekly basis. And I also have a short little monthly refresh and restock that I also do. But this is a list and there is a blank template that you can use so that you can fill out your weekly refresh and restock. This is just one of the routines that I have implemented in my home because it keeps everything functioning and it prepares us for the week ahead. So when we have these incredibly busy weekends or I’m gone for three days straight and I don’t get to do those things, sometimes I try to get some of those tasks done before I leave.

But the ones that I don’t get to it’s okay. Because of the other systems and routines that are already functioning in my home. Those are routines are working. At all of the other times, and it takes a little bit of effort and a little bit of modifying the times when we complete these tasks. Some of them might even get skipped that week or they might get skipped every so often, but it’s okay because that routine is there. We have that routine in place. It is the way we do things is our habit. And when it’s established and it’s working for us, that means it’s already successful. It’s already in the works.

And in just a minutes at a time, we can get back to the baseline of a clean and orderly home.

that is prepared for the week. That is about to happen. When you have good routines for everything that you do. You’re not thinking about the routines all the time, because they do become habits. They become the way that you do things. They become the way that you go about the day.

And it’s also the way that the people in your family do things. One good example of this is the dishes. I always like to talk [00:08:00] about the dishes. Taking your dish to the sink or loading it in the dishwasher instead of leaving it on the table, counter coffee table in the bedroom, wherever that might be.

When that becomes a habit. All of the sudden you remove the need to do that kind of pickup run around the house, find the dirty dishes. you are saving time. When you add up one new habit after another, after another, after another, after another. And all of these things that you at first were intentional about doing.

Because you were solving a problem. There’s always toys all over the floor. You feel like the house is a mess. There’s always stuff stocked all over the kitchen. Eyelids. Whatever the issues are, you see these problems and you create routines around the problems. Oftentimes decluttering and organizing has to happen.

With the creation of the routine and the new system. And then you keep doing this thing over and over and over and over again. And when you do that, it becomes a habit. And all of the sudden. You are. Getting these. Things done with minimal minimal effort. They happen as part of your day. They replaced the bad habits and the bad routines that you have right now with these intentional ones that are actually serving your family and making life significantly easier. So that’s why I love a good routine or a good system so much.

You can interrupt the routine temporarily. That’s why I shared with you. What happens when we go away and we’re. Out of town because of competitive sports for three days, we don’t get to complete all of the things in our weekly refresh and restock. We don’t get to reset everything the way that I, like, I do try to do some of it ahead of time, but some of the things have to get skipped and that’s okay. That routine and that rhythm that we have in our home gets interrupted on a temporary basis.

What it’s a solid plan that was set with intention for [00:10:00] your family or my family. With the needs of your home and your family and mind you are thinking, how do I. No the best way to keep my home running the way that I like how your home functions to make the daily life easier and get back to the baseline.

Is what is going to feel the best to you. You want it to feel good when the intentional routines are working for your family. That’s when it allows you to move through every single day with ease. It makes things easier. I say that all the time, because it’s true. And if you get sick or you have an emergency, or you have a really, really tough day where a thing is, are all out of sorts or you have an occasional mishap, the good routines allow you to have that little bit of flexibility for the slip ups for the thing is they are not the regular, they’re not the norm.

Or maybe you just have a super busy over-scheduled weekend. Getting back on track. Is simplified because of the systems and routines that you already have in place when you created those routines, those intentional routines. Now you want to have good systems and routines for all the big parts of your day, and even the micro routines to get things done, routines, a comment, all different shapes and sizes. Sometimes they are big. They seem like daunting tasks. And other times it’s just little things here and there that take a few seconds, but the whole point is to get the jobs done and the chores done from start to finish.

Routines give you your time back and they give you flexibility and different parts of your day and make it possible for you to get more done without thinking about what you are actually getting done. When you need a little margin, the routines make it possible for everything to not [00:12:00]completely blow up and make it significantly easier to pick a back up.

A day or two later, if you happen to not be able to do something. If you miss it once or twice, you have this good routine in place. So you just continue on the next day. If you’re sick and. You just can’t do it. You’re not feeling well. When you’re doing these things on a regular basis, missing a little bit of a routine here, or there is not the end of the world and you won’t feel like everything is all of a sudden chaos and crazy. Again, things will not completely fall apart.

The truth about creating and implementing systems and routines that function for your family is that they really do simplify daily tasks and chores and make almost every single thing easier. That’s because the same task over and over again, when you first are implementing that routine, that means that you’re doing this thing over and over and over again. And I already mentioned it, but it eventually becomes a habit. That’s when you notice the big difference in the way that your home is functioning.

If you need help coming up with routines that simplify your life and you want to see how easy it is to add small routines to different parts of the day. Real routines that simplify each day and reduce the stress in your home. I want you to join me for something called the simple home habits. Five week challenge.

There is a link in the podcast descriptions. This is a new streamlined program that I designed to help you with two things. The first one is to help you declutter one area or one specific type of item. Then you spend the following week doing one thing, one a new task. And you repeat that same task every single day. That’s the routine portion. So you declutter first.

And [00:14:00] then you do this new task that keeps up with the decluttering project that you already did. So this is a new portion of a routine that’s going to help you simplify your home and keep up with that mess that used to be there. It’s going to help you make it so that mess never gets a chance to fully come back.

In the simple home habits, five week challenge each week, you will declutter a different area. And then we add that super easy routine to your day to keep up with the newly clean space. Some of these routines, take a couple minutes. And some. Or just a few seconds. There are so, so quick after you have removed the clutter and kind of gotten that area under control, then it will only take you a few minutes or a few seconds to implement that new routine. I created this five week challenge to help you so that you can see the benefits of the routines, because I know that it seems daunting to think about, I need to get the clutter out of my house.

I needed to organize, and I really needed to learn how to organize because I’ve. I failed at it in the past. And then I needed to set up these systems and routines, but I don’t even really know what that means or where to start. So in this five week challenge, you get to see the benefits of removing the clutter and then the benefits of having a routine. Because if you remove the clutter and you don’t set up a routine, the clutter simply comes back.

the routine happens, you get the results and you experience the benefits of what happens when you make these small changes that are really just taking seconds or minutes from your day. The link again to sign up is for the simple home habits challenge. It’s in the podcast description. click on it and sign up so you can get all the information sent to you. You will get everything that you need, the weekly de-cluttering projects and instructions on how to do everything. Challenges, checklists, videos, every single thing to make [00:16:00] sure that you have success with this.

And all you have to do is put in the effort each week to do the decluttering, get the clutter out of the house and then follow what it says for your new routine. That is going to take you just a couple of minutes. You can use the checklist to make sure that you keep going and then the following week.

So you add in a new portion of a routine, and these can be at different points throughout your day or different areas in your home. But you will start to feel what it feels like. To have routines that make life easier. Go ahead, click on that link. Now, sign up, use the simple home habits. Five week challenge to declutter with the small projects and get started on the routines that will help you get more done with less time and effort. Thank you for listening. I will meet you back here next week for another episode of the intentional edit podcast.